Does your business need a chief AI officer?
The field of artificial intelligence (AI) is booming. It’s expected to create 2.3 million jobs by 2020, and around three-fourths of tech leaders plan on hiring more AI talent, according to a July report.
An October 2017 survey of 260 organizations found 80% of companies are investing in AI, with one third believing they need to invest more over the next three years.
But is the standard C-suite able to handle the enlarged focus on the emerging technology? Do businesses need a chief AI officer to fully and properly handle AI in the enterprise?
AI projects and strategy currently fall under the CTO or top tech leader at many businesses, our sister site ZDNet reported. But a dedicated role—the CAIO—may become necessary as more companies consider AI deployment. Around two-thirds of organizations expect to hire a CAIO in the future, according to Forbes.
“It’s easy to see a scenario, over the next decade, where every enterprise-class business would have an AIO,” said Elliot Yama, chief data analyst at Apttus Max. “The importance of AI for new revenue models and its impact on existing revenue models dictates that AI is an essential component of strategy, requiring visionary, executive leadership.”
But analysts seem to agree that CAIOs remain uncommon and probably unnecessary for most businesses at this point in time. Michele Goetz, principal analyst at Gartner, said there are currently very few CAIOs and that most companies don’t need one.
“To designate this as another chief will cause conflicts with too many cooks in the kitchen,” Goetz said. “Ideally, a Chief Digital Officer or Chief Technology Officer who is already looking at how analytics, data, and technology to drive the business competitively has the leadership skills and experience to lead.”
New Chief X Officer roles come up quite often, and are usually over-hyped, according to Gartner analyst Andrew Horne, adding he hadn’t heard of a CAIO before. “They are rarely as senior as the title suggests and are often a way for a company to signal that it’s paying attention to a trend without actually doing very much,” Horne said.
Even some in the field say the position may be unneeded. Gurjeet Singh, the executive chairman at financial services AI firm Ayasdi, is one of them.
“Organizationally, where would (the CAIO) sit in the business? If there is not a clear path to driving the business forward, this role will become as much of an impediment as a facilitator,” Singh said.
But some businesses do need a CAIO. If a business is working on both using AI and advancing AI, or is creating a permanent AI lab, it probably needs a dedicated CAIO, Goetz said.
In other businesses that are simply using AI, the position may be a data or analytics-focused executive with AI added to the end of their existing job title, Goetz said.
“Usually, it’s better for a company’s senior executives in the areas that are affected by a new trend or technology to take the lead in figuring out how to take advantage,” Horne said.
