May 26, 2025 • 15 mins
As AI moves from tool to transformation, a new executive role is emerging: the Chief AI Officer. In this episode, Benjamen Walsh breaks down why the CAIO matters, what they actually do, and how this shift is reshaping the work of business analysts.
From strategy and ethics to governance and vendor selection, this BA Bites episode explores 10 essential insights into the rise of the CAIO—plus what it means for your role as a business analyst.
Topics covered:
The CAIO vs. CIO vs. CTO
Ethical AI and regulatory leadership
AI-first thinking in business strategy
Reskilling the workforce for AI
Aligning AI investments with real outcomes
What BAs must do to stay relevant
Follow The Better Business Analyst Podcast for weekly insights on how BAs and strategic leaders can thrive in today’s fast-moving digital world.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Today, we're talking about something that's moving fast and
shaking up the executive suite. This is the rise of the chief AI
officer, or CAIO. This isn't a rebranded tech
role. It's a strategic function that's
(00:23):
reshaping how organizations think about value, governance,
and capability. So in this episode, we'll
explore the top 10 things you need to know about this emerging
role and what it means for business analysis, The Better
(00:43):
Business Analysis Institute presence, the Better Business
Analysis podcast with Kingsman Walsh.
Welcome back, everyone. We're going to be counting down
the 10 things you need to know about the chief AI role, which
is becoming standard across techindustry, starting in Silicon
(01:08):
Valley, but going across the world now.
And I'm going to explain what this means to BA so #1 is what
is the rise of the CAIO role. AI is no longer just R&D or IT
concern. And we've talked about the rise
of AI generally on this podcast before, but AI is now impacting
(01:30):
every function from HR to management to marketing to OPS.
That's why the CAIO role is now emerging as a key player
actually with a seat at the table at the C-Suite.
Gartner predicts that by 2025. So that's now half of CIOs who
(01:55):
haven't adopted AI will be seen as risks to the business.
Think about that. The CIO may become a risk
because they don't have an AI strategy.
AI adoption is now a leadership issue and this role provides
(02:18):
vision, accountability, alignment and helps organization
avoid fragmentation and ungoverned AI sprawl which will
happen, which is the whole concept of CIO for information.
But now with AI and speeding it up, it's actually becoming a
risk. Here's an example here.
(02:40):
If you take Mufasa, who was the Co founder of DeepMind, now at
Microsoft, he is the enterprise Vice President of AI.
That's the kind of appointment that sends a message.
AI leadership is board level. OK, So now I'm going to talk
(03:02):
about the Chief information officer role versus the Chief
information officer role versus this Chief technology officer
role. OK.
So the CAIO role, the CIO role and the CTO role, bit of a
mouthful and you can ask the question, isn't AI something
(03:25):
that the CIO and the CTO should be doing?
Well, not quite, because CIOs typically manage infrastructure
as a whole and service delivery and CTOS or most IT managers
manage often focused on the technical architecture and
innovation. So the delivery teams or the
development team and maybe the technical architecture.
(03:49):
Now the chief AI officer, on theother hand, lives in the middle
of strategy, ethics, 100% product and data science.
OK, so that when we talked aboutthe fact you could have a Chief
Data Stewart in the organization, they're not
C-Suite, but this person could well be who the chief data
(04:14):
officer reports to, OK? So think about it in terms of
structure all the way down. And this role would connect what
can we do with AI with what should we do with AI and ensures
that AI adds value across the enterprise, not just silos.
So it's got to be again, exec, they're not technical experts.
(04:37):
They are cross functional leaders with influence over data
policy, privacy and even customer experience.
So, so my view here and this just to take is it would give
life to the data role, which is starting to develop more and
there aren't really chief data stewards, not really maybe head
(04:59):
of data. And this would give them AC
suite level. So separate to the digital area,
'cause it's data is across the organization.
And what you could also do is potentially having all the data
people report up there is maybe BAS would report in there too,
(05:19):
or help get more uplifted and report to this AI value officer,
kind of automation AI value officer and, and, and that
person there is separate to the kind of nuts and bolts of IT in
current state. And what, what would this chief
(05:42):
AI officer actually do? That's number three.
Well, they would define the organization's AI strategy,
which as we talk about changes every single day at the moment.
They would set policies for responsible use.
They would lead vendor selectionand partnerships.
(06:04):
They would guide internal capability building and I would
oversee data governance as well as maybe the data insights.
So maybe a chief AI officer at alarge bank might implement a
policy requiring audit trail forevery AI generated
recommendation and lending decisions.
(06:26):
So that would ensure traceability compliance.
It's not just something that thelending team has put in.
It's actually making sure we've got accountability.
So the role is visionary, it's practical, and it balances
strategy and daily operations. And the reason I like talking
about that is that kind of relates to what we do here, sbis
(06:47):
#4 is that there is a strategic shift to AI first thinking like
there was with products. But AI is much more than just
product. So what I mean by this is it's
more than just layering AI on top of old processes.
The real shift is going to be from we use AI to we are AI
(07:08):
enabled. So let's talk about our friends,
the CEO of Microsoft here, Satna, and he would say that
every business process will be reinvented with AI.
That means rethinking the outcome you want first, then
(07:29):
designing the process backwards with AI in mind.
Again, BAS can fit into that. It's going to be a cultural
incapability shift. A good chief AI officer brings
the mindset, not just the models.
And then let's drop into one of the problems we're experiencing
across the word right now with AI and DeepMind.
(07:50):
And some of the stuff that Google's just put out is ethics.
So ethics and the stewardship and risk I've seen it in the
data space and and my consultancy roles of light and
with great power comes well, youknow the rest and the chief AI
officer will be the ethical anchor in the room.
(08:12):
It's not doesn't really fit anywhere at the moment, right
kind of HR people capability, maybe on behalf of the
employees, maybe IT, but this chief AI officer has to has to
think about ethics. They ask, should we automate
this? What happens if we get it wrong?
Should we get rid of all these people and replace them by
(08:35):
robots? A is what's the unintended
consequence of this decision? I mean, Italy has banned Chet
GPT. It's a wake up call because I've
said without clear oversight, AImay breach policy, fairness and
trust. And the chief AI officer would
bring internal frameworks to ensure that AI doesn't cross
(08:58):
those ethical boundaries or regulatory lines.
And then whole countries won't regulate against it.
It requires leadership. And again, C-Suite board, board
level #6 is that AI governance is not optional at all.
So as opposed to data governance, which is done not
very well, but it's a prerequisite almost for AI
(09:20):
governance. But this leads it from top down.
Regulators are watching the EUAIAct and the USAI Bill of Rights
are coming into force soon, and companies need someone who can
translate that into internal policy.
Who will that be? The chief information officer?
(09:41):
Maybe. But AI isn't just information,
it's making recommendations. So involves a little bit of HR,
involves a little bit of technology, so it could involve
marketing research, and I can doall those things.
So This is why this role, the chief AI officer, may be best
(10:02):
placed a new role. They can help define standards
like model interruptibility, testing protocols, audit
procedures. It's not just about building
great models for your organization.
And everyone will need their ownAI model, their own IP.
They will. It's about ensuring that those
models are fair, safe, and fit for purpose and standardized to
(10:25):
your organization #7 is that training and reskilling is going
to be a mandate of this role. There's a quote here that says
we are all AI workers now. And, and that's true.
The role that we're talking of about can lead internal AI
(10:47):
upskilling programs. They can help everyone from
customer service reps to senior management understand how to use
it. Question, collaborate again, BAS
will be at the front face of that.
I actually got a message from myex boss from Hamilton Damon who
was asking me what what I thought about BAS leading the
(11:09):
charge and product managers leading the charge in the space.
And I have to agree with them, think they are the right roles.
But be aware this isn't technical training, it's about
AI literacy across the organization.
You would maybe imagine onboarding new hires and
teaching them prompt engineeringalongside how to use e-mail and
(11:33):
your e-mail signature. Maybe it's just like, these are
the prompts we use and this is our AI model and we use Copilot
and it's all safe and this is how we use it.
This is what we don't do. And we don't, you know, paste it
here just like data privacy and security.
And this is how we use it. And it makes you do your job
better and adds more value without you spending time doing
(11:55):
manual tasks. Now #8 is that data models and
business value? So a big part of what I see as
the chief AI officer's role willbe making sure that AI
investments actually create value.
Now it's easy to fall into modelobsession, but the this role can
(12:18):
keep the eye on outcomes, right?So in Netflix, if you take that
example, they use AI for recommendations.
But they also optimize it acrossfilming locations.
They use it to optimize that, they use it to do production
schedules. They do use it for quite a lot
(12:40):
of things. So it's not just the external
facing recommendations, but theyuse it internally.
The question they keep asking ishow does this model change our
behaviour or improve decision making?
And that's really good question to ask yourself #9 is that this
Chief AI officer role will needsto wrap around AI vendor
(13:03):
strategy. This is really important.
It's not the procurement team. It's not really a typical AI
role, sorry, IT role. Every organization is facing a
bold versus buy dilemma right now.
And I feel like you're pushed down the buy because of the
compute power. You have to use base system from
Microsoft, you know, open AI, whatever, whatever it is, you
(13:25):
have to make that decision. And then you have to build a
model on top of those or have multi AI strategies.
You know, should we use open AI,the API?
Should we build our own LLM, which is the large language
model? Yes, you probably do.
If you've got IP. Do we go open source or
proprietary or are we going to be locked in?
They going to have all our information.
(13:46):
They're going to be able to makeinsights about it, which vendors
are secure, which are ethical, which are aligned with that
business model. There's a whole adage in here in
New Zealand and Wellington, we have the top four that you have
all around the world. The KPMG is Deloitte and so
forth, and they own your business now.
Can you imagine if you got them in and they were using AI and
(14:08):
feeding in your business information that would note
everything about your business and that would have a
competitive advantage to pitch for everything.
So you've got to be careful about who you share that with.
And that's all part of this commercial case.
I guess you need to choose the vendor like you're choosing a
surgeon, not a barrister. There's a quote out there.
(14:32):
This isn't casual procurement. It's critical infrastructure.
And let's finish up with what this means for business
analysts. Well, everything.
AI is becoming embedded in everybusiness operation, personal
operations, I use it 3 or 4 times a day.
(14:53):
We can become the translators between business need and AI
capability. We're not going to be expected
to trade models, but we need to understand the logic, the
inputs, the risks, the outcomes.You know, our job.
BIS will likely be allies to this role, and I would think
direct reports would be even better.
And if you're thinking long term, maybe one day you could
(15:18):
become a chief AI officer yourself.
That's a wrap. I hope you enjoyed this episode
and I'll see you next week.
Today, we're talking about something that's moving fast and
shaking up the executive suite. This is the rise of the chief AI
officer, or CAIO. This isn't a rebranded tech
role. It's a strategic function that's
(00:23):
reshaping how organizations think about value, governance,
and capability. So in this episode, we'll
explore the top 10 things you need to know about this emerging
role and what it means for business analysis, The Better
(00:43):
Business Analysis Institute presence, the Better Business
Analysis podcast with Kingsman Walsh.
Welcome back, everyone. We're going to be counting down
the 10 things you need to know about the chief AI role, which
is becoming standard across techindustry, starting in Silicon
(01:08):
Valley, but going across the world now.
And I'm going to explain what this means to BA so #1 is what
is the rise of the CAIO role. AI is no longer just R&D or IT
concern. And we've talked about the rise
of AI generally on this podcast before, but AI is now impacting
(01:30):
every function from HR to management to marketing to OPS.
That's why the CAIO role is now emerging as a key player
actually with a seat at the table at the C-Suite.
Gartner predicts that by 2025. So that's now half of CIOs who
(01:55):
haven't adopted AI will be seen as risks to the business.
Think about that. The CIO may become a risk
because they don't have an AI strategy.
AI adoption is now a leadership issue and this role provides
(02:18):
vision, accountability, alignment and helps organization
avoid fragmentation and ungoverned AI sprawl which will
happen, which is the whole concept of CIO for information.
But now with AI and speeding it up, it's actually becoming a
risk. Here's an example here.
(02:40):
If you take Mufasa, who was the Co founder of DeepMind, now at
Microsoft, he is the enterprise Vice President of AI.
That's the kind of appointment that sends a message.
AI leadership is board level. OK, So now I'm going to talk
(03:02):
about the Chief information officer role versus the Chief
information officer role versus this Chief technology officer
role. OK.
So the CAIO role, the CIO role and the CTO role, bit of a
mouthful and you can ask the question, isn't AI something
(03:25):
that the CIO and the CTO should be doing?
Well, not quite, because CIOs typically manage infrastructure
as a whole and service delivery and CTOS or most IT managers
manage often focused on the technical architecture and
innovation. So the delivery teams or the
development team and maybe the technical architecture.
(03:49):
Now the chief AI officer, on theother hand, lives in the middle
of strategy, ethics, 100% product and data science.
OK, so that when we talked aboutthe fact you could have a Chief
Data Stewart in the organization, they're not
C-Suite, but this person could well be who the chief data
(04:14):
officer reports to, OK? So think about it in terms of
structure all the way down. And this role would connect what
can we do with AI with what should we do with AI and ensures
that AI adds value across the enterprise, not just silos.
So it's got to be again, exec, they're not technical experts.
(04:37):
They are cross functional leaders with influence over data
policy, privacy and even customer experience.
So, so my view here and this just to take is it would give
life to the data role, which is starting to develop more and
there aren't really chief data stewards, not really maybe head
(04:59):
of data. And this would give them AC
suite level. So separate to the digital area,
'cause it's data is across the organization.
And what you could also do is potentially having all the data
people report up there is maybe BAS would report in there too,
(05:19):
or help get more uplifted and report to this AI value officer,
kind of automation AI value officer and, and, and that
person there is separate to the kind of nuts and bolts of IT in
current state. And what, what would this chief
(05:42):
AI officer actually do? That's number three.
Well, they would define the organization's AI strategy,
which as we talk about changes every single day at the moment.
They would set policies for responsible use.
They would lead vendor selectionand partnerships.
(06:04):
They would guide internal capability building and I would
oversee data governance as well as maybe the data insights.
So maybe a chief AI officer at alarge bank might implement a
policy requiring audit trail forevery AI generated
recommendation and lending decisions.
(06:26):
So that would ensure traceability compliance.
It's not just something that thelending team has put in.
It's actually making sure we've got accountability.
So the role is visionary, it's practical, and it balances
strategy and daily operations. And the reason I like talking
about that is that kind of relates to what we do here, sbis
(06:47):
#4 is that there is a strategic shift to AI first thinking like
there was with products. But AI is much more than just
product. So what I mean by this is it's
more than just layering AI on top of old processes.
The real shift is going to be from we use AI to we are AI
(07:08):
enabled. So let's talk about our friends,
the CEO of Microsoft here, Satna, and he would say that
every business process will be reinvented with AI.
That means rethinking the outcome you want first, then
(07:29):
designing the process backwards with AI in mind.
Again, BAS can fit into that. It's going to be a cultural
incapability shift. A good chief AI officer brings
the mindset, not just the models.
And then let's drop into one of the problems we're experiencing
across the word right now with AI and DeepMind.
(07:50):
And some of the stuff that Google's just put out is ethics.
So ethics and the stewardship and risk I've seen it in the
data space and and my consultancy roles of light and
with great power comes well, youknow the rest and the chief AI
officer will be the ethical anchor in the room.
(08:12):
It's not doesn't really fit anywhere at the moment, right
kind of HR people capability, maybe on behalf of the
employees, maybe IT, but this chief AI officer has to has to
think about ethics. They ask, should we automate
this? What happens if we get it wrong?
Should we get rid of all these people and replace them by
(08:35):
robots? A is what's the unintended
consequence of this decision? I mean, Italy has banned Chet
GPT. It's a wake up call because I've
said without clear oversight, AImay breach policy, fairness and
trust. And the chief AI officer would
bring internal frameworks to ensure that AI doesn't cross
(08:58):
those ethical boundaries or regulatory lines.
And then whole countries won't regulate against it.
It requires leadership. And again, C-Suite board, board
level #6 is that AI governance is not optional at all.
So as opposed to data governance, which is done not
very well, but it's a prerequisite almost for AI
(09:20):
governance. But this leads it from top down.
Regulators are watching the EUAIAct and the USAI Bill of Rights
are coming into force soon, and companies need someone who can
translate that into internal policy.
Who will that be? The chief information officer?
(09:41):
Maybe. But AI isn't just information,
it's making recommendations. So involves a little bit of HR,
involves a little bit of technology, so it could involve
marketing research, and I can doall those things.
So This is why this role, the chief AI officer, may be best
(10:02):
placed a new role. They can help define standards
like model interruptibility, testing protocols, audit
procedures. It's not just about building
great models for your organization.
And everyone will need their ownAI model, their own IP.
They will. It's about ensuring that those
models are fair, safe, and fit for purpose and standardized to
(10:25):
your organization #7 is that training and reskilling is going
to be a mandate of this role. There's a quote here that says
we are all AI workers now. And, and that's true.
The role that we're talking of about can lead internal AI
(10:47):
upskilling programs. They can help everyone from
customer service reps to senior management understand how to use
it. Question, collaborate again, BAS
will be at the front face of that.
I actually got a message from myex boss from Hamilton Damon who
was asking me what what I thought about BAS leading the
(11:09):
charge and product managers leading the charge in the space.
And I have to agree with them, think they are the right roles.
But be aware this isn't technical training, it's about
AI literacy across the organization.
You would maybe imagine onboarding new hires and
teaching them prompt engineeringalongside how to use e-mail and
(11:33):
your e-mail signature. Maybe it's just like, these are
the prompts we use and this is our AI model and we use Copilot
and it's all safe and this is how we use it.
This is what we don't do. And we don't, you know, paste it
here just like data privacy and security.
And this is how we use it. And it makes you do your job
better and adds more value without you spending time doing
(11:55):
manual tasks. Now #8 is that data models and
business value? So a big part of what I see as
the chief AI officer's role willbe making sure that AI
investments actually create value.
Now it's easy to fall into modelobsession, but the this role can
(12:18):
keep the eye on outcomes, right?So in Netflix, if you take that
example, they use AI for recommendations.
But they also optimize it acrossfilming locations.
They use it to optimize that, they use it to do production
schedules. They do use it for quite a lot
(12:40):
of things. So it's not just the external
facing recommendations, but theyuse it internally.
The question they keep asking ishow does this model change our
behaviour or improve decision making?
And that's really good question to ask yourself #9 is that this
Chief AI officer role will needsto wrap around AI vendor
(13:03):
strategy. This is really important.
It's not the procurement team. It's not really a typical AI
role, sorry, IT role. Every organization is facing a
bold versus buy dilemma right now.
And I feel like you're pushed down the buy because of the
compute power. You have to use base system from
Microsoft, you know, open AI, whatever, whatever it is, you
(13:25):
have to make that decision. And then you have to build a
model on top of those or have multi AI strategies.
You know, should we use open AI,the API?
Should we build our own LLM, which is the large language
model? Yes, you probably do.
If you've got IP. Do we go open source or
proprietary or are we going to be locked in?
They going to have all our information.
(13:46):
They're going to be able to makeinsights about it, which vendors
are secure, which are ethical, which are aligned with that
business model. There's a whole adage in here in
New Zealand and Wellington, we have the top four that you have
all around the world. The KPMG is Deloitte and so
forth, and they own your business now.
Can you imagine if you got them in and they were using AI and
(14:08):
feeding in your business information that would note
everything about your business and that would have a
competitive advantage to pitch for everything.
So you've got to be careful about who you share that with.
And that's all part of this commercial case.
I guess you need to choose the vendor like you're choosing a
surgeon, not a barrister. There's a quote out there.
(14:32):
This isn't casual procurement. It's critical infrastructure.
And let's finish up with what this means for business
analysts. Well, everything.
AI is becoming embedded in everybusiness operation, personal
operations, I use it 3 or 4 times a day.
(14:53):
We can become the translators between business need and AI
capability. We're not going to be expected
to trade models, but we need to understand the logic, the
inputs, the risks, the outcomes.You know, our job.
BIS will likely be allies to this role, and I would think
direct reports would be even better.
And if you're thinking long term, maybe one day you could
(15:18):
become a chief AI officer yourself.
That's a wrap. I hope you enjoyed this episode
and I'll see you next week.
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