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It Takes a (C-Suite) Village to Implement AI
Exec teams often see a chief AI officer as the solution to their AI implementation challenges. Yet responsibly and reliably incorporating AI throughout a company requires collaboration from across the C-suite.
4 Min Read
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Many businesses are now at the stage of their artificial intelligence journey where they’re working toward implementing the technology at scale. The foremost step for these executive teams is to appoint a chief AI officer (CAIO), so it’s not surprising that the number of CAIOs has almost tripled in the past five years, according to LinkedIn.
Certainly, CAIOs bring superior domain expertise and a deep understanding of opportunities and risks, which is invaluable for the successful deployment of AI technologies. Yet, for the entire organization to truly realize its benefits, implementation should never be done in isolation, but rather in collaboration.
In fact, collaboration shouldn’t kick-start once you want to implement a project. A healthy open dialogue to understand the goals and aims of stakeholders is essential. The CAIO needs broader buy-in to be successful, and this isn’t just from a courtesy perspective. Involving colleagues at the board level will ensure that there is greater investment in a project’s success from those who feel equally responsible for it -- and excited by what it can achieve.
Implementation Starts With a Solid Foundation
The fact is, responsibly and reliably incorporating AI throughout a company is not a one-person job, or even a one-team job. Due to the complexities involved with AI adoption, success depends on the CAIO teaming up with almost everyone across the C-suite.
Starting at the foundational level, a project of this significance requires a concerted effort to address and assuage the key concerns and hopes of executives. Looking at the boardroom, this would include:
The chief information officer (CIO): Implementing AI at scale requires an in-depth knowledge of the infrastructure that will be required for a seamless integration. This means working together with the CIO to effectively integrate AI tools with existing systems and databases.
The chief data officer (CDO): Infrastructure needs extend to high-quality data, which is critical for training AI models. Aligning with the CDO will be essential, not only to ensure good data is available, but also to establish governance processes that protect the integrity and quality of the data.
The chief financial officer (CFO) and chief operating officer (COO): Any large-scale initiative requires considerable capital investment and operational discipline to track returns on a multimillion dollar spend. So, engaging with the CFO and COO is vital when assessing the business case for the technologies and evaluating whether the technologies are addressing the right problems given the organization’s overall strategy.
Humans at the Center
People are fundamental to every transformation, including AI-powered transformation. In fact, research by the EY organization and the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School highlights that by placing humans at the center of a transformation, the likelihood of success increases more than 2.5 times, from 28% to 73%.
This is where the chief people officer comes in, fostering excitement about change, engaging talent with the transformation strategy and organizing critical training that will equip people with the skills they’ll need. They can also give insights into how the new technologies will affect workplace culture.
Additionally, the CAIO should engage with the chief diversity officer to involve diverse talents with the deployment of new AI systems. It’s essential to minimize the risk of bias and discrimination being embedded within these systems and make sure that everyone in the organization has an opportunity to participate equitably in driving innovation.
Understanding the Impact on Your Clients
External audiences are equally important to consider as many organizations are investing in AI to improve their customer experience. So, the CAIO can team with the chief marketing officer to create more personalized and memorable brand experiences that enable the organization to build deeper and longer-lasting relationships with its customers.
If the organization has a chief ethics officer, the CAIO can work with them to draw up and apply ethical guidelines for AI development. This is critical since companies that demonstrate transparency, fairness, and good governance on AI will build confidence and resilience, positioning themselves favorably with consumers and regulators alike.
Tone at the Top
Perhaps the most consequential is the chief executive officer (CEO), who will have final say on the overall business strategy, investment decisions, and where AI will fit in. They set the tone at the top around AI deployment and can talk candidly about the challenges and opportunities that exist.
As EY research highlights, almost all (99%) of global CEOs said they planned to make significant investments in GenAI, with 69% reallocating capital from other investment projects to fund these investments. This level of commitment will help to instill confidence among employees and other stakeholders, encouraging them to buy into the role of AI in the future workplace.
At EY, AI is baked into all aspects of our new global strategy, All in, and this is intended to shape our client’s future with confidence. Businesses looking to follow a similar path need their CAIO to be the crucial enabler of AI-powered transformation across the organization. Translating the technical capabilities of AI into actionable business strategies for different functions is the table stakes. True success only happens if the rest of the executive team gets on board.
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