Almost immediately upon ChatGPT and other foundation models swarming the business landscape, dire warnings appeared bemoaning how this would change everything (it has) not for the better (jury is still out, but things are looking pretty good) and broad ranges of jobs would be lost (hasn’t happened yet).
What has happened, however, is a swath of entirely new AI-specific roles—from entry level to the C-suite—have emerged in companies across the spectrum from Amazon to X. And it’s not just trending in the private sector: The U.S. Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum in March, 2024 requiring most federal agencies to designate a Chief AI Officer (CAIO) within 60 days. This increase in AI-specific executive roles reflects the growing importance of AI in modern organizational strategies.
An analysis by ZoomInfo tracked the rise in new AI-related job titles in senior leadership, noting that there were only 60 such roles mentioned in 2021, but that number shot up to 144 by 2023. Forbes notes some of the more popular roles emerging on leadership teams and C-suites include Head of AI or Machine Learning, CAIO, AI Strategy Director, and AI Transformation Lead, and notes that fractional roles are increasing, as well.
These roles are increasingly responsible for leveraging data-driven insights to gain a competitive advantage especially in the Tech and FinTech sector. But the tasks don’t stop there. These roles also frequently bear responsibility for driving AI innovation, managing ethical considerations, ensuring that AI initiatives align with the company’s broader business objectives, and planning AI integration. As such, they require, according to Forbes, a combination of technical expertise and strategic vision. HRDive includes leadership, communication, and “influence” skills as important proficiencies, as well as the ability to “navigate an organization and all functions” in it.
This list of critical and diverse capabilities is not typical of many people at the top tiers of organizations today. In another unforeseen opportunity to create AI-related jobs, universities, professional and industry groups, and other specialized organizations have stepped in to develop programs and curricula to fill experience gaps and expand skill sets that will allow this new brand of leader to harness AI for innovation and operational efficiency across an enterprise.
Tools such as CalypsoAI’s model-agnostic Security Platform for GenAI can make these daunting new jobs quite a bit easier by streamlining the integration, implementation, and orchestration of multiple-model and multimodal generative AI systems, while providing robust security for people, processes, and property. Policy-based access controls, bespoke and fully customizable scanners, and comprehensive observability and auditability are just a few of the features that offer multiple functionalities without introducing latency to the user experience.
As businesses continue to embrace AI—as they must, if they want to compete—the roles of AI-specific executives will become more important and prominent, shaping the future of corporate leadership and innovation. CalypsoAI will be here to enable their success.
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