In 2016, Andrew Ng, one of the best-known researchers in the field of AI, wrote about the benefits of establishing a chief AI officer role in companies, as well as the characteristics and responsibilities such a role should have.
At the time, the idea seemed somewhat far-fetched, that enterprises outside a few niche industries would require a CAIO. But the increase in use of intelligent tools in recent years since the arrival of generative AI has begun to cement the CAIO role as a key tech executive position across a wide range of sectors.
With generative AI on the rise and modalities such as machine learning being integrated at a rapid pace, it was only a matter of time before a position responsible for its deployment and governance became widespread. In a survey from September 2023, 53% of CIOs admitted that their organizations had plans to develop the position of head of AI. Of this percentage, almost half expected this position to be a member of the C-suite team.
Another study by Foundry from 2023 estimated that 11% of midsize to large companies already had professionals in this position and 21% were looking for someone to fill it. Then in 2024, the White House published a mandate for government agencies to appoint a CAIO.
According to Foundry’s 2025 State of the CIO survey, 14% of organizations now employ CAIOs, with 40% of those reporting directly to the CEO and 24% to the CIO. The role is increasing in prominence across the globe, with 17% of IT leaders in the APAC region indicating their organizations have a CAIO, 14% in EMEA, and 11% in North America.
Even in areas such as Spain where CAIO deployments are not yet widespread, IT leaders see it as an increasing likelihood.
“It is still very early days, at least in this country,” says Iñigo Fernández, senior executive director of technology at PageGroup Spain. “It is not a position that many companies have today.”
But Fernández projects an increase in the future, comparing it with what has happened with the chief data officer (CDO) role, which is currently a mandatory presence at many large companies despite being barely present just five years ago.
CAIO in first person
French multinational pharmaceutical company Sanofi is one organization that employs an AI chief, viewing AI as one of the company’s strategic pillars. Jordi Escayola, global head of advanced analytics, AI, and data science, believes the role is very important and will only gain in stature in the years to come.
“In a corporate environment, centralizing, organizing, and governing the needs of artificial intelligence, as well as the way to address them, is key,” he says. “In this way, the entire organization can take advantage of the optimal adoption of AI as well as enhance the scope of use cases.”
For Justo Hidalgo, director of AI at the industry association Adigital, one of the contributions of the CAIO role is that “it allows artificial intelligence to stop being perceived as a technological tool. It is not, and it must be considered as a strategic pillar aligned with business objectives.”
Jacobo Garnacho, IBM’s AI and data manager for Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Israel , adds: “It is no longer enough to define use cases or an AI strategy; now its success depends on effective implementation. That is why one of the main values that the CAIO brings is the supervision of the development, strategy, and implementation of AI technologies.”
To this end, the CAIO’s responsibilities range from governance and regulatory compliance to the integration of AI into the corporate culture, as well as external opportunities, say Garnacho and Hidalgo.
“The ultimate goal of a CAIO is for AI to permeate the most relevant areas of their organization and the industry in which it operates. And without creating organizational silos,” Hidalgo says. “To do this, the CAIO must foster a culture of collaboration between departments.”
Sonia Casado, chief transformation and AI officer at Dentsu, agrees with this distinction between technology and AI when addressing the definition of the position, which is in turn one of the keys to differentiating the role of CAIO from that of CIO or others that can be considered similar, such as CTO or CDO.
“One thing is to guarantee the quality and governance of data. Another is to apply algorithms to the data that the company has, or that it generates: that is the field of artificial intelligence, whenever we talk about intelligent algorithms. And then there is technology,” she says.
The CAIO position as such is still finding its prime location in the org chart, Fernández says, often assuming a position of medium-high responsibility in reporting to the CDO and thus, in turn, to the CIO.
“These positions that are being created are very ‘business partner’ style,” he says, “to make these types of products understood, what needs they have, and to carry them out.”
Casado adds: “For me, the CIO does not have such a ‘business case’ component — of impact on the profit and loss account. The role of artificial intelligence is very closely tied to generating efficiencies on an ongoing basis,” as well as implying “continuous adoption.”
“It is essential that there is this adoption and that implies being very close to the people,” he says.
The relationship between CIO and CAIO
In the ever-evolving world of new technologies, the redefinition of roles and the opening of new positions is a constant. In some companies, the use of AI has not developed to the point of needing someone specific to lead its strategy; in others, AI is a vital part of the business and should have a separate leader.
“Each organizational structure is different, and I do not dare to assess which is best, since it depends on the sector, the market, and the business complexity,” says Escayola, who recognizes despite these variables the need for specialized profiles at different levels in cases of deployment of advanced AI. “Including an AI director in the corporate structure is key and I believe that in the coming years these roles will climb in business organizational charts.”
“Although in smaller companies some of its functions can be assumed by the CIO, the scope of AI today goes beyond traditional technological management,” Hidalgo shares.
Garnacho agrees, stating that, in less mature AI development environments, the CIO can assume CAIO functions.
“But as the complexity and scope of AI grows, the specialization of the CAIO makes the difference,” he says. This is because “although the CIO plays a fundamental role in technological infrastructure and data management, AI and its challenges require specific leadership. In our view, the CIO lays the technological foundations, but it is the CAIO who drives the vision.”
In this emerging division of functions, other positions may be impacted by the emergence of the AI chief.
“Given that it is an emerging role, its responsibilities are not yet fully defined,” adds Garnacho. “In many companies, they overlap with the functions of the CIO, the CDO, the CTO, and even the CISO.”
“I am not a CTO,” Casado says. “I use technology to identify in which environments or architectures I need artificial intelligence to run so that it is efficient, scalable, etc.” But the position depends on the CAIO’s in-depth knowledge of the different types of algorithms, not on the technology in which they are used. “That is the core of an artificial intelligence manager.”
Hidalgo also establishes these differences: “The CAIO leads the strategic and ethical vision of AI; the CIO provides the infrastructure; the CDO the data; and the CTO the technological integration into products. This is something easy to summarize and very complex to align in each company,” he says.
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