The ‘Digital Revolution’ and the rise of the CAIO

It won’t come as a great surprise to learn that over the past few years, clients have asked us more and more frequently about talent within the digital and technology functions. We recently embarked on a research project surrounding recent advancements in digitalisation and how companies’ hiring practices may evolve in the years to come, particularly within the AI space. We’ve spoken to a broad range of top-tier technology leaders across the consumer world and are finalising a white paper detailing our findings, to be released within the next few weeks.

“Leaders don’t trust AI enough.”

We weren’t particularly shocked when those we spoke to highlighted artificial intelligence when discussing the future of digitalisation. We all know AI is powerful, but it is much more powerful than most realise. It has the potential to bring companies into a new era of efficiency but has yet to be properly employed by most consumer businesses. Many of our sources believe that “leaders don’t trust AI enough”. This makes sense – if a CEO has played around with ChatGPT, they might conclude that AI (especially chatbots) is not yet accurate or personable enough to be deployed in a commercial setting. In reality, GPT-3.5 (the model behind the free-to-use version of ChatGPT) is elementary compared to state-of-the-art large language models (LLMs) such as those built by Gemini, Llama and Mixtral. For example, Klarna outsourced much of its customer service work to an LLM. Its programme hasn’t been active for long but is already producing impressive results, doing the work of 700 employees in its first month, achieving equivalent customer satisfaction to human agents and leading to a 25% drop in repeat inquiries; it is estimated to improve profitability by $40m in its first year. Companies including Accenture, Boeing, Dell, Deloitte, eBay and WPP have already appointed CAIOs.

There’s also plenty to discuss on the talent side of AI and digitalisation. Our paper explores the benefit of hiring more junior technology employees and graduates, the importance of digital awareness throughout the business, the need to make consumer-focused industries more attractive to top technology talent and the rise of the Chief AI Officer. The CAIO in particular has been a popular point of discussion recently and there is sentiment (and supporting evidence) that this role will become mainstream in the years to come. Companies including Accenture, Boeing, Dell, Deloitte, eBay and WPP have already appointed CAIOs and, in the US, a recent executive order requires all federal agencies to appoint a CAIO. We’ll explore what the remit of this new role should be and where he or she should fit within an organisation, as well as address the problems that might arise by giving an AI officer a seat at the top table. If you’re considering hiring a CAIO, this paper will give you food for thought.

We also consider the benefits of building an AI model in-house versus outsourcing it to a third-party provider – the solution varies from company to company and there’s not always one right answer, but we’ll share some interesting insights. Watch this space – we’ll be sending out the paper in May and hope it will be of interest.