The New Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer Role Balances AI Champion and Risk Manager

What To Know: The EO gives CAIOs broad responsibility over the coordination, innovation, and risk management for their agency's use of AI. This position is more than just influencing policy and managing data calls (internal questionnaires) — instead, it requires development of partnership, and strategy, as well as direct operational involvement to bring about change. In other words, this role isn't reactive. It's not about simply mitigating AI's downside risk (often a compliance initiative guised as "risk management"). Rather, it's about promoting use of AI, which implies that orgs need a strategy and mature understanding of AI use aligned with mission objectives.

What To Avoid: Transformational change happens neither overnight nor in a vacuum. Since the OMB requires this position to be an SES, it speaks to the caliber of results expected from agency performance. Agencies can better plan for success by taking advantage of the existing process maturity across their CIO, CISO, CDO, and CFO teams by partnering to build a cohesive strategy for AI inventorying, risk management, and innovation. Those same processes are often a barrier to change initiatives, however, so leverage internal partnerships and set clear internal roles and responsibilities to clear operational hurdles early on.

What To Know: When federal mandates require a new SES position, you know that the directive is more than just a compliance exercise. For example, in 2019, the OMB required agencies to appoint a chief data officer but without the SES seniority, which meant that the position would function inconsistently across agencies. This marks a shift in expectations by placing accountability and authority within the senior leadership team. It also means the position must be equally adept in technology, operations, and strategy.

What To Avoid: Don't rush to appoint someone with an existing SES title and take external hires off the table. Given the scope, complexity, and guaranteed changes that this position will have to navigate, treat this directive as an opportunity to look for unique skills and long-term leadership. AI skills and knowledge are new, and few will have direct experience today. But equally as important is the role's focus on risk management and innovation. Make these attributes key requirements for the position, then determine the best hiring strategy.

What To Know: AI inventories is a start. The CAIO, like a CRO, will need tools that help them identify AI risk, conduct risk assessments, and measure and monitor the agency's ongoing performance and effectiveness toward AI. To be successful, this role requires an equivalent governance, risk, and compliance technology stack, not a single tool.

What To Avoid: The gut reaction for most OMB mandates is a request for information, but as often with manual collection methods, by the time the data is aggregated into a pretty dashboard, it's already stale. Data calls alone will not make this role successful nor sustainable. CAIOs will also need to master the five competencies of the Forrester Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Success Cycle — identify, evaluate, respond, monitor, and communicate — to keep pace with innovation and potential pitfalls that they create.