Broker, Build, Use: How Cigna Is Positioning the Enterprise to Win in the AI Era
Cigna has made an all-in commitment to AI — a company-wide bet in which infrastructure and cloud are one component of a far broader strategy. Michael Wheeler, who leads the infrastructure organization behind it, takes the mainstage to walk through how that commitment was framed, how it’s being executed, and what it demands of the people responsible for delivering it.
Mike begins where the decision actually begins: with the company’s overall strategy, and how enabling AI follows from it rather than the other way around. From there he takes the audience inside the choices his teams are making in real time — the economics of leasing versus buying capacity, how value is being assessed when the ground shifts every quarter, and where the honest trade-offs sit.
He closes on the question every infrastructure leader in the room is living with: how do you prepare an infrastructure organization for what’s coming? Mike’s answer is a three-part operating model — brokering capability, building capability, and using AI capability — and what each requires of a team’s skills, structure, and posture.
This is a practitioner talk for practitioners: how one Global 2000 enterprise is putting itself in the best possible position to win in the AI era, told by the executive accountable for making it work.
Mike is a seasoned leader approaching 20 years with the Cigna Group. In his
tenure, he has served in a variety of roles across infrastructure, application
delivery, security, and technology strategy. He is currently the Vice President – Global Infrastructure Services – Platforms, Data, and Intelligence.
Prior to his current role, Mike Managing was the Director of Cigna’s US Commercial Business where he was responsible for all strategy, delivery, and operations across Sales, Underwriting, Pricing, Plan
Implementation, and the Cigna Pharmacy. He also led Cigna’s Center of Cloud Enablement
including the Public Cloud CoE, the Enterprise DevOps CoE, PaaS platform
engineering, and data center strategy & operations. In this role he:
established Cigna’s Public Cloud Center of Enablement which enabled wide
use of public cloud services across all business lines; consolidated Cigna’s
enterprise data center footprint; and led the consolidation of PaaS platforms.
Mike holds a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems and
an MBA from the University of Connecticut. He lives in Connecticut with his
wife and two children.
