Which department or role owns the AI strategy & agenda in your company?

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI/ML)

9k views28 Upvotes23 Comments

Chief Executive Officer in Software, 51 - 200 employees

In many organizations, the ownership of the AI strategy and agenda can vary. It often falls under the purview of senior leadership, such as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Chief Data Officer (CDO), Chief Information Officer (CIO), or Chief AI Officer (CAIO).

The responsibility may also be shared across different departments, such as the IT department, the data science team, or a dedicated AI team

VP of IT in Media, 10,001+ employees

CTO

CTO in Software, 51 - 200 employees

CTO

Founder, 11 - 50 employees

CTO, CDO

VP Corporate IT, 1,001 - 5,000 employees

It's split, no single owner. Product for the product dev and roadmap, for IT, CIO owns it. Legal plays a role in all cases.

CIO in Government, 10,001+ employees

ITS owns the AI strategy, but we take alot of direction and requirements from business users

CIO in Education, 1,001 - 5,000 employees

Comes out of executive leadership in partnership with IT.

Information Security Director in Media, 10,001+ employees

This should be a shared responsibility with a taskforce/committee approach to ensure there is diversity of thought/usage that can help drive its usage for the broader organization

Chief Information Technology Officer in IT Services, 201 - 500 employees

Currently, it falls under the responsibility of the Legal Services department to define the various rules and code of ethics related to new projects that will involve artificial intelligence.

Director, Experience Design in Education, 1,001 - 5,000 employees

I'm going to stir the pot and ask why we would have an AI strategy and agenda. Why wouldn't we look at ways to leverage AI in things like customer service, employee experience, etc.?

With a standalone strategy/agenda, we have a solution hunting for a problem, and get little more than very superficial use cases (looking at you, AI chatbots...). But if IT wants a role to play, it can be in informing, advising, and proposing proofs of concept.

2 2 Replies

VP of Marketing & Solutions — Artificial Intelligence in Software, 10,001+ employees

I think that’s a great point. It must not be developed in isolation. I think the point would be to align with the business while looking at data, technology, skills, etc. needed to effectively tie into the business strategy.

Director of Other in Software, 501 - 1,000 employees

Good point. The way I look at it - The strategy provides the overarching direction of what the company wants to become or evolve to with AI. KPIs should be tied to this vision or strategy. This is the responsibility of the C-level. Underneath now, it is the responsibilty of each leader to align to this vision and develop a strategy or plan on what and how they are going to do to contribute to that vision. And this might be "implementing AI in helping our customer service agents become 20% more efficient by implementing X to reduce AHT from X to Y and ..."