Do You Need A Chief AI Officer?

As Artificial Intelligence technologies become more widespread in business, is now the time to hire a CAIO?

- Finbarr Toesland

Artificial intelligence has quickly gone from a buzzword to a revolutionary force in businesses across virtually all sectors, but major challenges are set to hamper the full innovative potential of advanced AI solutions. A recent report from analytics firm Teradata saw 91 per cent of respondents say there are still barriers to full AI realisation, with 40 per cent of respondents believing a lack of IT infrastructure will slow adoption and a further 34 per cent saying lack of access to talent will also be an issue.

Chief Technology Officers are leading the implementation of AI solutions at most large enterprises but as the transformative power of AI becomes better known, major companies, including tech giant Google, and Citadel, the multi billion-dollar hedge fund, are hiring Chief AI Officers (CAIOs) to exploit the transformative benefits of AI technologies. CAIOs will be able to introduce cutting-edge tools across the entire business, as AI is on course to fundamentally alter all manner of critical business processes.

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But what does a CAIO offer to businesses that a CTO or CIO doesn’t and do all companies need one?