Remember the days when there used to be significant justification before the appointment of a CIO? Yeah, you probably don’t, neither do I - but it really wasn’t that long ago. Let me put it in context, the movies Pretty Woman and Home Alone both came out in 1990 and it was around this time that the first CIO roles started to exist across Australia (and likewise across most of the western world). With the rollout of large, computerised ERPs a significant backbone of the company was now outside the scope of a traditional COO and needed someone savvy in the exploding world of computers and technology to sit alongside the C-Suite and guide the organisation.
Since those days 30-odd years ago a CIO is as close to a certainty in any executive team as possible. There is a very high chance that a CTO will also exist allowing the CIO to focus on internal IT, efficiencies and effectiveness of the platforms that run the organisation whilst the CTO guides how technology can shape the organisational value proposition by enhancing the customer experience, products and services.
Across the last 10 years as data technologies have exploded along with the size, speed and variations in the data itself a Chief Data Officer has become a very common sight across larger companies, especially those with regulatory bodies monitoring aspects of their information. The CDO role initially focused on the policies and regulations needed to keep data safe, from data governance to data management practices and policies however in more recent times the CDO role has grown to encompass the value proposition of data and how it can be successfully commercialised (whether that is by embedding insights into existing products and services or by better utilising data internally to drive value and operational efficiencies).
We’re going to need a bigger boardroom.
CIO, CTO, CDataO, CDigitalO…it’s getting crowded in the executive technology sphere however it speaks to a world where technology change has been rapid and relentless over the past generation and skills like data and digital are still considered niche at an executive level.
A change has been afoot of late. As technologists we are well accustomed to the hype cycle and the fact that “the next big thing” is often not the next big thing and, whilst many may end up being “one of the many things that are useful”, the hype often dissipates without significant disruption as is often foretold in the first throws of industry excitement. But there are, have been and will continue to be times when technology advances in such a way and at such a rate that it truly does offer the capability to disrupt (and enhance) many of the processes and “ways we do business” today.
The Internet was one such revolution, the uptake of smart phones has been another - both of those technologies have dramatically changed how businesses operate and how consumers behave in fundamental ways that quickly reshaped our world.
The dramatic advances in AI are pushing us very quickly towards that next revolution, displayed extremely effectively by the Our World in Data chart below:
Sourced from OurWorldInData.org
With this rapid advancement comes high levels of adoption and generally low levels of preparedness for that adoption - mistakes will be made (mistakes have been made) and the thirst for the technology will continue to outstrip the expertise available to safely implement it. In short, organisations will rush ahead and continue to adopt AI before they fully understand the risks and returns, and the nuances of these decisions.
Similar to the wave of ERP systems that brought about the CIO, or the wave of the Internet that pushed the CTO to the forefront, or the exponential explosion of data that catapulted the CDO into existence, we are witnessing the birth of the CAIO (Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer).
What is a CAIO and what do they do?
Like all other technology C-level roles the CAIO has been implemented to address the rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence techniques, tools and products and as such the first focus of the role will be around Governance, Controls and Ethics. The initial aim of the CAIO is to help the organisation and the other executives understand the risks and opportunities that AI can pose and offer and how to navigate that equation in step with the organisational risk profile.
Once these initial controls are in place the CAIO will develop an Enterprise AI Strategy, most likely in tight collaboration with the Enterprise Data Strategy and the Enterprise Technology Strategy/Architecture. This strategy will articulate the scenarios and use cases that will be prioritised for AI adoption and will provide a vision of “what tomorrow looks like” in an AI enabled company - again, given the enormity of the changes that AI can bring when opportunities are seized this strategy can be aggressively transformative if the organisational appetite is there for it.
The strategy will set the guidelines and the blueprint for AI success and the CAIO will then look to push that strategy through to execution so the organisation (and the customers) can start to realise value from the (to this point) promises.
What does this mean for the CDO?
Data and Artificial Intelligence are deeply connected in an almost symbiotic (or co-dependent if you want to get psychological) relationship. Data must feed Artificial Intelligence high quality, controlled and governed data and equally Artificial Intelligence is increasingly surfacing the true value of data by generating insights at levels of grain and complexity that were not possible with traditional data engineering techniques.
You would be safe to assume that most experienced CDOs will have a broad (albeit technically high level) understanding of AI and Machine Learning and likewise most CAIOs who will often come from a Data Science background will have a broad understanding of data (platforms, engineering and governance). In certain organisations (and with the right individual) it is definitely possible for the CDO and CAIO roles to be shared by a single position and given the level of intertwinedness (sure, it’s a word now…) of Data and AI which translates all the way through to academia and the professionals of tomorrow, the combining of these functions will become more prevalent in small/medium sized organisations.
My advice - if you’re a current CDO, embrace the AI/ML world and the education that goes along with learning how to govern it and take advantage of it. As data continues to be simpler to commodify with frameworks, patterns and platforms offering COTS cloud services that do a lot of the heavy lifting there will be increased CDO headspace that can be put into how we successfully and safely leverage the world of AI.
For those who are Chief Data Scientists, speak to your CDOs and learn from the trials and tribulations that the data world have gone through when it comes to governance, controls, ethics, regulations and legislation as these are the skills that the CAIOs of tomorrow will need to develop.