The Rise of the Chief AI Officer

On 28 March 2024 the United States budget office issued a memorandum requiring every federal agency to designate a Chief AI Officer within 60 days, and setting out the seniority, positioning and responsibilities the role carries. It is the most detailed public specification of the job that exists, and it is worth reading closely by organisations to which it does not apply. One correction belongs at the front. The memorandum implements a requirement created five months earlier by executive order, and it says so in its own text. The temptation will be to present 28 March as the moment the role was invented, and that gets the chronology wrong. The chronology matters because the five months between the two documents contain the public consultation in which the design was contested. This paper distinguishes the role from the chief information, data, technology and risk officers, proposes a federated operating model with a small centre, sets out decision rights including the one that is usually unassigned, and gives a first 100 days. It also argues that most organisations should not create the post, which is an unfashionable position and the one the evidence supports.