Dive Brief:
- Organizations with a chief AI officer report stronger ROI than those without someone dedicated to the technology’s oversight, a report by Wharton Human-AI Research and research and analytics firm GBK Collective, released Tuesday, found. The organizations surveyed more than 1,400 enterprise leaders and employees for the fourth annual report.
- Another marker of ROI success was the number of AI platforms being used, according to the report. Half of companies that used just one approved, dedicated AI platform reported ROI, while only 9% of those still experimenting with multiple platforms said they’d measured a return.
- But one platform or one role won’t be the key to an organization’s success on its own, Jeremy Korst, a Wharton lecturer and CEO of Mindspan Labs, told CIO Dive in an email. “The returns come from redesigning how the work actually happens, and driving growth and innovation, which doesn't sit primarily in IT,” he said.
Dive Insight:
A dedicated C-suite addition on its own won't suffice as businesses pursue AI gains — the operational change stemming from the company's adoption runs much deeper.
Many large corporations have added a dedicated chief AI role to the C-suite, as the technology’s use expands throughout the enterprise. Nearly 11% of Fortune 500 and S&P 500 corporations currently have someone serving as chief AI officer or an equivalent role, according to an August report, including Boeing, Eli Lilly and McDonald’s.
“The headline many people will take from this is 'hire a chief AI officer,’” Korst, a co-author of the report, said. “That isn't necessarily what the data or my experience says.”
It’s more important that the responsibility is truly dedicated, than if the title exists within the organizations, Korst said. Despite widespread AI use among enterprises, most companies don’t have a consensus around a model for clear ownership of the technology.
Companies that created a new position to oversee the technology reported better ROI than ones that added the job to an existing executive’s plate, where their attention is split, the report found.
A May survey of 2,000 CEOs by IBM suggested that this happens fairly often — many in the C-suite are taking hybrid titles to reflect the urgency around AI.
“The title is spreading faster than the dedicated role,” Korst told CIO Dive.
The decision to use a single AI platform follows a similar trend, he said. While organizations using one approved platform reported higher ROI than those experimenting with a few platforms under a formal policy, working with intentional use cases on one platform reportedly provided more to organizations.
“That’s not to say that ROI-leading organizations aren’t continuing to evaluate and experiment with other tools for particular use cases; rather, the data seem to indicate that leaders have chosen a primary partner,” Korst said.
AI requires more from the partnership between technology and business leaders than any other technology transition he has experienced, Korst said. He advises companies to make sure their AI leaders have the resources and authority to settle platform questions early, spend time on business relationships and anticipate upcoming technology needs.
“A chief AI officer without the business beside them — or a strong partnership with their CIO — has a title, not a success mandate,” Korst said.
