The hottest job in corporate America? The executive branch responsible for AI

In September, the Mayo Clinic in Arizona created a first-of-its-kind job within the hospital system: Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer.

Doctors at the Arizona site, which has facilities in Phoenix and Scottsdale, had been experimenting with AI for years. But after the release of ChatGPT in 2022 and the subsequent frenzy over the technology, the hospital decided it needed to work more with AI and find someone to coordinate the efforts.

That's why executives appointed Dr. Bhavik Patel, a radiologist who specializes in AI, for the new job. Dr. Patel has since tested a new AI model that could help speed up the diagnosis of a rare heart disease by looking for hidden data in ultrasound scans.

“We're really trying to advance some of these data and AI capabilities in every department, every division, every work group,” says Dr. Richard Gray, the CEO of the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. The role of Chief AI Officer was created because “it helps to have a coordination function with deep expertise.”

Many people have long feared that AI would destroy jobs. But a technology boom has instead pushed law firms, hospitals, insurance companies, government agencies and universities to create what has become the hottest new role in corporate America and beyond: the senior executive in charge of AI.

Credit agency Equifax, manufacturer Ashley Furniture and law firms such as Eversheds Sutherland have appointed AI managers in the past year. In December, The New York Times named an editor-in-chief of AI initiatives. And more than 400 federal departments and agencies last year sought chief AI officials to comply with an executive order from President Biden that created safeguards for the technology.

A total of 122 people with the title of chief or vice president of AI participated in a forum on company review site Glassdoor last year, up from 19 in 2022, Glassdoor said.

The AI ​​manager jobs are emerging as organizations look to leverage the transformative technology, says Randy Bean, the founder of the consulting firm NewVantage Partners, which advises companies on data and AI leadership. At the same time, he added, “organizations want to say, 'Yes, we have a Chief AI Officer,' because it makes them look good.”

Other managerial positions have emerged in response to major technological and financial changes. In the 1980s, advances in computing power led to a boom in Chief Information Officers and Chief Technology Officers, who typically oversee the way technology is used or developed within a company. After the 2008 financial crisis, Chief Data Officers were appointed to comply with new regulations and manage how companies used data.

With leadership roles in AI, companies and organizations are looking for someone to help them navigate the risks and potential of the technology and how it can change the way people work.

To that end, health insurer Florida Blue promoted Svetlana Bender to the new position of vice president of AI and behavioral sciences in May. One of her first AI projects was testing an internal chatbot that can help write computer code and analyze customer data.

Dr. Bender, previously director of technology solutions for Florida Blue, said her team would train the chatbot on customer data and open it up for use by all employees. This month she hired a director of AI to help with the work

“We want to transition as quickly as possible” to using the technology while ensuring customers' insurance data remains secure, she said.

Accenture, a consulting firm, added a chief AI officer in September as clients became increasingly interested in the technology. The company promoted Lan Guan, who worked in global data and AI, to the role of advising clients on how to integrate AI into their businesses. Accenture also builds AI tools, including for the insurance sector.

The new job “underlines our ambition in the market and how optimistic we are about what we see as the enormous potential for our customers in AI,” Ms Guan said.

At Western University in Ontario, Mark Daley, professor of computer science and chief information officer, took on the new role of chief AI officer in October. While still teaching, he left the role of Chief Information Officer.

Dr. Daley has since focused on creating more than 30 AI pilot projects, including working with the research and finance team to automate audit processes and collaborating with faculty in the humanities to develop new courses.

“We are at a moment where the best approach to generative AI is actually research and experimentation,” he said.

Some experts said technology was changing so quickly that it could soon surpass rollers. a Harvard Business Review article Last year, co-written by Mr. Bean of NewVantage, it was posited that the Chief AI and Data Officers were set up to fail because the jobs were “a high-pressure balancing act with a technology that presents enormous risks and opportunities.”

Karin Kimbrough, chief economist at LinkedIn, said AI would also evolve from a newfangled technology to something that is embedded in everyone's work. “AI will appear in many roles, and it will be so ingrained that the specific AI job title will disappear,” she said.

Some Chief AI officers said their jobs had staying power. Dr. Patel of the Mayo Clinic in Arizona said a big part of his new job was communicating with other doctors and regulators, such as the Food and Drug Administration, and identifying how AI can make medical work more efficient.

“Today's healthcare still has many gaps,” he says. “This is where I think we can use artificial intelligence smartly to bridge, or at least reduce, that gap.”