Do You Really Need a Chief AI Officer?
The right answer depends on the strategic importance and maturity of AI in your company.
Matt Chinworth/theispot.com
In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, organizations are grappling with how best to harness its transformative power. Some are choosing to create a new senior management position with enterprisewide oversight of AI activities. In March 2024, for example, the Biden administration mandated that all U.S. federal agencies appoint a chief AI officer (CAIO) to oversee AI activities and minimize related risks. An August 2023 survey of 965 global IT decision makers at midsize to large companies found that 11% had already hired a CAIO and a further 21% were actively seeking to fill the position.
This role, meant to drive a cohesive approach to implementing AI across an organization, comes with compelling arguments both for and against its creation. As a group, we have an informed point of view on the potential value of CAIOs; four of us have been chief digital officers (CDOs) across a variety of sectors, including pharmaceuticals, technology, consumer goods, and industrial products and services. As CDOs, we experienced many of the same challenges and opportunities that CAIOs are now facing.
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The Case for Appointing a Chief AI Officer
AI, with its potential to transform business operations, customer experiences, and market offerings, is key to meeting the management mandate to be nimble and innovative in seeking competitive advantage. Arguments that organizations should have an executive role dedicated to AI point to the following benefits.
Reduced AI fragmentation. Like digital projects before it, AI often suffers from a lack of executive-level oversight, resulting in solution fragmentation, underinvestment in strategic initiatives, and missed opportunities for scaling. A dedicated CAIO with a mandate to explore and exploit AI across the organization can help to steer focus and prioritization from the highest level. Left unchecked, most organizations will expand AI projects and offerings in an uncoordinated manner, leading to a mishmash of fragmented and overlapping projects that fail to realize their full potential. The appointment of a cross-functional CAIO can bring these initiatives under a single strategic umbrella, leading to streamlined operations, enhanced innovation, and significant cost savings.
Many of these same anticipated benefits led organizations to appoint CDOs, like us. For example, a global fast-moving consumer goods company had big ambitions to expand e-commerce as part of its board-mandated growth strategy.