What's in a name?

Who will lead the AI parade

At the end of March, the US Whitehouse’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued its first government-wide policy to mitigate risks of artificial intelligence and harness its benefits. The order included an instruction that - to ensure accountability, leadership, and oversight for the use of AI - federal agencies must designate a Chief AI Officer to coordinate the use of AI across their agencies, and that these Chief AI Officers meet regularly in a new Council to coordinate their efforts across the Federal Government.

Conventional wisdom states that the most successful careers culminate in the c-suite, which traditionally meant working toward one of half a dozen jobs … CEO, CFO, COO, CHRO, CTO and CMO. However, C-suite acronyms seem to be breeding … new titles have emerged as tech companies and countless startups defined new priorities and hence the arrival of the CIO, CCO, CRO, CDO x 3, CPO, CAO, and CXO! To this list we must now add the CAIO. The title has grown in popularity – not just in the US government but across all sectors.

Recent LinkedIn analysis reports that globally, the number of companies with a “Head of AI” position has more than tripled in the past 5 years and has grown by 13% since December 2022.[1] Meanwhile, more than a quarter of leaders say the CAIO is the most urgent hiring priority when preparing for the future, lagging only behind a range of engineers and AI research scientists, according to Alteryx’s Enterprise of the Future report[2].

This put us in mind of another role, designed to mitigate the risks and capture the opportunities presented by a new technology, in a different age.

“We are completely convinced the consequences [of AI] will be extraordinary … think the printing press, the steam engine, electricity, computing and the internet” Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan Chase

At the beginning of the twentieth century, factory owners in England’s north-east were considering whether to ditch steam engines and instead plug into Charles Merz’s new Neptune Bank Power Station, the UK’s first electrical power distribution system, based on Nikola Tesla’s discoveries at Westinghouse[3]. This new energy source was not well understood, it carried risks but was critical to a business’ competitive advantage. Who in the company should know about this new energy source? Who should understand how to buy it, how to ensure consistent supply, and also how to explore its potential? Cue the arrival of the Chief Electricity Officer.  At this time every large corporation needed a Chief Electricity Officer but just a handful of years later when electricity literally became as mundane as turning on a light switch - ‘inconsequential to competitive differentiation’ - the role was redundant.

“As electricity became a utility, a shared resource essential to business operations but inconsequential to competitive differentiation, it no longer required a separate staff to watch over it. It became a routine and largely invisible element of operations, marketing, product development, purchasing, and other traditional functions. Chief electricity officers disappeared, their work complete.” Nicholas Carr, ‘The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google’

What does the story of the short-lived Chief Electricity Officer tell us about the longevity of the CAIO?

A recent FT article suggests that CAIOs lead on transformation, governance and outreach – socializing the technology. As companies evolve toward data-driven, AI-driven organizations (so the argument goes) they will increasingly need someone who advocates for the right AI practices at the top. Lan Guan, CAIO at Accenture describes the role as ‘evangelizing for the technology, dispelling some of the fear and anxiety about AI’. The CAIO will be identifying influencers in the organization who are talking about benefits and sharing the lessons learnt. They are focused on bringing the technology to life but to foster cultural change not just to enable a tech conversation … “it’s a people conversation”.

There were no doubt people in factories in the North-East of England at the turn of the last century who needed to be convinced about the value of electricity, and some no doubt fearful and anxious about the impact on their job. But as electricity became ubiquitous, embedded in every function, it no longer needed an advocate, or a specialist to manage it. It was just part and parcel of everyday life.

And so will it be with AI … it is moving out of the tech space and into diverse functions, departments and capabilities. As it becomes better understood, more avenues open up for deployment, it becomes more ‘mundane’, taken forward, applied and developed across the organization.  It becomes a capability not a function.

“It isn’t about having one person and one role. Every function, whether sales, marketing or software engineering is getting redefined leveraging AI, [its] driving continuous transformation […] AI is everyone’s business. One person can’t be THE expert”. Harrick Vin, Chief Technology Officer, TATA Consultancy Services

While it may be important to have an individual to kick-start the transformation, this role will be transitory. The impact and long-term success of AI in an organization may be far more dependent upon the types of human skills we develop to better participate in the human-AI symbiosis that will be the future workplace.

“Historically, jobs were defined by titles. But the smart companies are realizing they need to start defining jobs as a collection of skills and tasks, not simply titles. Then start thinking about how those tasks are going to change as AI continues to advance, and then what new skills we require to succeed.” Ryan Roslansky, CEO, LinkedIn ” Talent Connect, October 3, 2023

In advancing the idea of using job titles that convey the essence of the desired outcome of the role there are examples of where this clearly works, but there’s often a nervousness about job titles that focus on the core capability and end outcome the job holder is trying to achieve because they can come across as rather pretentious.

Apparently Fay Weldon - distinguished best-selling author - in her days at the advertising agency, Benson and Mather (where she is forever associated with the iconic slogan ‘ go to work on an egg’) was always apprehensive about sitting at her desk in an office at the advertising agency with a sign on the door that read Head of Creativity!

This leads us to the challenge of how to sum up in a word or two the power of having a rounded ‘polymath thinker’ at the helm of an organization - someone who can work alongside AI in a symbiotic way. Maybe Chief Thought Officer? Is that too Orwellian?

So, our readers … what title best sums up the polymath mind?

To help we’ve taken each of the seven power skills that make up the polymath mind concept that we are developing in our work and provided a summary of the ‘fundamental concept’ underpinning this power skill. So here is your starter for ten…. each power skill with its underpinning ‘core concept’ :

1 : The AI human interface: ‘Symbiotic ‘ ( thinking )

2 : The sense maker : (seeing the ) ‘ Context ‘

3 : The critical thinker : ( navigating ) ‘Uncertainty’

4 : Audacious creator: ( linking together ) ‘Connections ‘

5 : The forward thinker : ‘Imaginative’ ( mental time traveler )

6 : Inspiring communicator : ( telling the story with) ‘Emotion’

7 : Galvanizing leader: ( taking action with ) ‘ Compassion ‘

So what do you think? What word does it for you? What captures the essence of the polymath thinker? What word should be used in the job title of the polymath leader who will navigate our relationship with AI? What word  conveys the higher order noble purpose of the job ?

On reflection maybe the irony of this challenge is that the very essence of the Polymath thinker is that by definition they simultaneously bring more than one capability to the table! They are the ‘anti-specialist’

So maybe rather than picking one word maybe we have to go for a ‘summarization ‘ of the concepts underpinning  (without using the polymath word )!

What about Chief Understanding (i.e. how it all fits together) Officer ?

We would welcome your views! 

Glossary of Acronyms

CIO: Chief Information Officer

CCO: Chief Compliance Officer

CRO: Chief Risk Officer

CDO#1: Chief Data Officer

CDO#2: Chief Design Officer

CDO#3: Chief Diversity Officer

CPO: Chief Product Officer

CAO: Chief Analytics Officer

CXO: Chief Experience Officer

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[1] https://economicgraph.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/economicgraph/en-us/PDF/future-of-work-report-ai-november-2023.pdf

[2] https://www.alteryx.com/blog/the-future-of-ai-and-humans-in-the-enterprise-new-research

[3] https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/digital/cdos-the-new-chief-electrical-officers