What's next for the C-suite? A Chief AI Officer

Dive Brief:

As artificial intelligence continues to develop, more business leaders expect companies to appoint chief artificial intelligence officers, according to a Teradata survey of 260 IT and business decision-makers conducted by Vanson Bourne. Business currently rely on CIOs and CTOs to dictate AI strategy, but many think that will change.
AI holds many promises, but most respondents expect their organization to struggle with adoption. Only 28% of respondents believe their organization has enough people trained in AI to buy, build and deploy the technology. Some of the leading barriers for implementatioin are a lack of IT infrastructure, budget constraints and limited talent and understanding.
Despite entry barriers, business leaders expect long term gains from implementation. For every invested dollar, companies expect a 99% ROI in five years after implementing AI. But true AI gains are long term, with companies expecting 187% ROI over the next 10 years, according to the report.

Dive Insight:

Hype about AI is extending up into the C-suite. The advanced technology has a long ways to go before it reaches maturity and earns a prominent place in the enterprise, but already IT decision makers are getting ready.

Though the industry is still a ways from sentient systems, vendors are injecting smarts into technology to create more user-friendly systems which can drive insight for a business. SAP is working to integrate machine learning into advanced analytics tools, which helps teams determine what questions to ask and what tools to employ.

AI has the potential to reshape the workplace for better and for worse. As AI has moved closer to the mainstream, experts have predicted job disruption. Most recently, Gartner predicted 1.8 million jobs will be lost to AI by 2020, though by 2021 the research firm expects AI to create 2.3 million new jobs.

The problem, however, is workforce capital. There are few experts emerging in the AI field, leaving organizations to vie for talent. To keep up with competition, companies will have to grow talent internally and use unique recruiting methods to draw it in.