Chief AI Officer (CAIO) positions triple in five years

The number of companies with a Chief AI Officer (CAIO) position has tripled in five years, according to LinkedIn. Although there’s still uncertainty over the long-term prospects of AI executives within business.

The growth in CAIO positions, as reported by the FT, has largely been triggered by the arrival of ChatGPT, which has opened companies’ eyes to the potential for AI within businesses.

The increased demand for AI executives has proved to be lucrative for those with the necessary skills, with the FT reporting that “relatively junior engineers at cutting-edge companies” are “commanding seven-figure salaries”.

AI skills in demand

So, is it a good time to retrain and exploit this demand for AI skills? There are certainly strong indications of widespread demand for AI know-how.

In February, LinkedIn put Artificial Intelligence Engineer in seventh position on its annual list of Jobs On The Rise, the highest-placed tech role in the 25-strong list.

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) also put AI at the top of its list of tech skills to learn in 2024. “All technology professionals will have to understand the way AI works, from the data used for input to the probability-based output,” the trade association claimed.

However, in terms of raw numbers of vacancies, there is evidence that demand for specific AI skills remains relatively modest.

ITJobsWatch tracks the keywords used in more than 47,000 IT job vacancies in the UK. Those keywords include skills (such as social skills), specific technologies (such as SQL) and companies (such as Microsoft).

AI is right down in 46th position on the list of most used keywords, although that is a year-on-year improvement of 75 positions. Generative AI is also among the fastest-growing keywords, having climbed 410 places in the past year, albeit only to a very lowly 576th on the overall list.

To put AI’s level of demand in context, there are 3,837 live vacancies for jobs mentioning Azure, according to ITJobsWatch, which is the fifth most used keyword on the overall list. There are 1,488 live vacancies mentioning AI.

Saying goodbye to the CAIO?

There is doubt over whether the CAIO position will be a long-term fixture within companies.

Some suggest that it’s a short-term fix required to fill a specific skills gap, but that the role will eventually be folded into the remit of the chief technology officer. Others believe the CAIO role will prove more durable, becoming a permanent fixture within large organisations, perhaps even filtering down into SMBs.

So, with companies currently paying a premium for AI skills and doubts over the long-term viability of the role, now might be the time to strike if you fancy cashing in on your AI skills before we wave goodbye to CAIOs.