A D V E RT I S E M E N T
Why AI Demands a New Bre
of Leaders
Many CIOs lack the bandwidth and authority to solve the to
cultural and organizational change challenges that can bloc
success. It’s time for an expanded leadership role.
Faisal Hoque, Thomas H. Davenport, and Erik Nelson • April 09, 2025
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SUMMARY: Artificial intelligence is changing how humans and machines
work together. But most organizations still focus on the technical aspect
of AI implementation because their leadership structure does too.
Companies need a new role, the chief innovation and transformation
officer, to manage the profound cultural and organizational changes AI
adoption brings. Here’s why forward-thinking organizations already have
or plan to hire such leaders.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE is fundamentally transforming
how organizations operate, but this transformation extends far
beyond technical implementation. Modern AI systems are
increasingly taking on roles that previously would have been
filled by human workers. People working alongside these AI
systems often need reskilling, upskilling, and training in
behavioral traits such as critical thinking. To successfully
manage this blend of AI tools and humans working together in
new ways, leaders need to understand complex human and
organizational factors, such as agility and cultural change,
personality dynamics, and emotional intelligence.
Yet most organizations continue to treat the implementation
of AI as a primarily technical challenge — and current
technology leadership roles reflect this mindset. According to
Foundry’s 2024 State of the CIO survey, 85% of IT leaders say
that CIOs are increasingly becoming changemakers in their
organizations, but only 28% call leading transformation their
top priority. In another recent survey, 91% of large-company
data leaders said “cultural challenges/change management” are
impeding organizational efforts to become data-driven. Only
9% pointed to technology challenges.
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But instead of focusing on the aspects of cultural and
organizational change that are relevant to AI, much of the time
and effort of IT and data leaders is spent on operational
functions, long seen as the bread and butter of these roles.
This operational focus seems to be increasing: Sixty-one
percent of CIOs in the Foundry survey reported having less
time available for strategic responsibilities over the past year
than in previous years.
Although AI-enabled transformation clearly has enormous
human and organizational implications, HR leaders have, for
the most part, not stepped up to deal with such changes
either.
When leaders fail to think through the strategic and
organizational consequences of their AI plans, the results can
be catastrophic. Zillow’s failed attempt to use AI-generated
property valuations as the basis for its own homebuying
division not only cost the company $300 million in losses but
also saw its stock price fall by more than 20% as investors lost
confidence in its ability to navigate the AI transformation. In
another example, California State University had a clear
strategic vision but failed to account for the human element. In
early February 2025, the university announced a plan for
integrating AI across all its systems and services, led by its
newly formed AI Workforce Acceleration Board comprising
representatives from 10 leading AI companies. Within a week,
the initiative faced fierce opposition from staff members and
students who objected to both the goal of the project and its
implementation.
The consequences
of an excessively
technical approach
to AI
implementation can
also be seen on a
more granular level.
When Air Canada deployed a generative AI-based chatbot to
assist travelers with booking flights, the goal was to create a
more efficient and streamlined customer service experience.
However, when the chatbot made mistakes about bereavement
fares, passengers dealing with the loss of a loved one were
faced with additional challenges to manage in an already
difficult situation. This case underscores the need for
organizations to address the human-facing personality of AI
models, their decision-making authority, and the kinds of
ethical boundaries and special circumstances in which it might
be essential to have a human in the loop.
All of those examples highlight a crucial gap in organizational
leadership. While CIOs and CTOs play critical roles in technical
implementations and system maintenance, they sometimes
lack both the bandwidth and the mandate to address the
broader human and organizational implications of AI
transformation. Organizations require a new kind of leader.
The new role we envision as being essential in the age of AI —
which might be called the chief innovation and transformation
officer (CITO) — combines technical expertise, behavioral
insights, and strategic vision with a deep understanding of
organizational psychology and culture change. This
combination of skills ensures that organizations are properly
equipped to manage the profound changes that the age of AI
will bring. Companies are still debating the job title, but
forward-thinking organizations are already employing, or hiring
for, such leaders. Let’s explore the reasons.
Why AI Requires a New
Leadership Model
The challenge of implementing AI effectively extends far
beyond technical prowess. Leaders responsible for AI
implementation must be able to do the following:
• Navigate complex ethical landscapes. AI deployment
requires careful consideration of ethical implications, bias
mitigation, and alignment with organizational values.
• Foster cultural transformation. Successfully integrating AI
— and, particularly, AI agents — means transforming an
organization’s culture to embrace new ways of working and
thinking.
• Manage human-AI collaboration. Leaders must
understand both AI capabilities and human skills and
psychology if they are to create effective partnerships between
human workers and AI systems.
• Drive cross-functional integration. AI implementation
touches every part of an organization, requiring leaders who
can work across traditional silos.
• Deal with citizen development. AI is enabling
businesspeople to develop systems and models that could
previously only be created by IT professionals — a work trend
requiring simultaneous encouragement and risk management.
• Ensure responsible innovation. Leaders must balance the
drive for business innovation with careful consideration of the
potential risks and societal impacts.
Some people serving in traditional IT and data leadership roles
that focus on technical implementation and system
maintenance may lack the skills and the bandwidth to address
these broader challenges. Even for CIOs who have succeeded
at driving revenue, the AI age raises the difficulty level. This
misalignment is one reason why so many AI initiatives fail to
achieve their goals.
New Hiring Patterns, Expanded
Leadership Roles
Recent data shows that businesses are responding to the
accelerating pace of technological change by broadening their
C-suites to include roles dedicated to innovation, AI, and
transformation. Increasing compensation levels and a surge in
hiring reflect the strategic importance of innovation
leadership, AI expertise, and transformation management.
Leaders with titles such as chief innovation officer, chief AI
officer, and chief transformation officer are becoming
increasingly common as companies wrestle with how best to
meet these strategic needs. A study by Boston Consulting
Group found that the number of companies hiring chief
transformation officers increased by more than 140% from
2019 to 2021, and that those companies experienced a
significant increase in total shareholder return in the year after
the new appointment. This hiring trend has continued over the
past three years.
Some companies are
expanding the scope
of existing
technology
leadership roles to
emphasize strategic
delivery and value creation versus operational and engineering
tasks. Others are consolidating a variety of tech roles into a
single “supertech” leadership position that focuses on business
strategy and vision. Sastry Durvasula, for example, is the chief
operating, information, and digital officer at investment
company TIAA, where he oversees organizational, technical,
and operational change — and 60% of TIAA employees — in all
of those domains. He views workforce transformation as a key
part of his role and told us that, “since change from AI is
imminent at this point, it’s important to manage the
upskilling/reskilling and transition of our people into their next
job post revolution.”
Regardless of the specific title, the most effective leadership
roles for managing AI and related new technologies will
combine both technical and organizational change
responsibilities. While the latter capability is often overlooked
in technology initiatives, our discussions with successful
leaders suggest that it must be elevated in importance. AI will
touch all parts of an enterprise, including human employees
and clients. Harnessing its potential and managing its risks
requires the authority to take a view across the whole
organization, steering macro-level innovation and managing
change that touches on all parts of the business’s identity and
culture. The AI evangelist, the strategic innovation lead, and
the hands-on transformation expert are at their most
effective when brought together in a single office.
Early Examples of CITO-Type
Roles
Two major corporations that have appointed individuals to
these kinds of expansive roles are PepsiCo and Standard
Chartered Bank. In 2020, PepsiCo appointed Athina Kanioura
chief strategy and transformation officer, a role that oversees
the digitization of the entire business, including the
implementation of AI. In 2021, Roel Louwhoff became chief
transformation, technology, and operations officer at Standard
Chartered Bank. Before taking on that role, Louwhoff was ING
Bank’s chief operations and transformation officer, a position
that included IT and change management responsibilities.
For people in such positions, there is currently little
consistency in title. In some cases, individuals with traditional
tech-leader titles have taken on an expanded role that cuts
across all of the domains relevant to AI implementation.
JPMorgan Chase’s implementation of its IndexGPT and AI-
driven investment analysis systems provides an example of this
kind of expanded leadership mandate. Under the direction of
global head of data and analytics Teresa Heitsenrether, the
bank established a comprehensive AI governance structure that
explicitly connects AI implementation to the organization’s
purpose and values. It includes both an explicit focus on the
ethics of AI interactions and specific protocols for AI decision-
making in investment scenarios.
A recent advertisement for a position at State Street Bank
exemplifies the breadth of competencies required in these new
leadership positions. The responsibilities of the role of chief
transformation officer within the bank’s central Global
Technology Services unit include “enterprise transformation
leadership,” with specific accountabilities for driving
“innovation and modernization initiatives, including
automation, AI, blockchain, and cloud adoption,” as well as
leading “cultural and organizational change efforts to embed
agility, efficiency, and a customer-first mindset.” Other
responsibilities involve business process optimization,
customer experience and digital innovation, and change
management. As of mid-March, the job had not yet been filled,
and it may be difficult to find such a combination of skills. But
the job description perfectly illustrates the responsibilities we
envision as coming together in an office of innovation and
transformation that is led by the equivalent of a CITO.
The CITO (or equivalent) role encompasses several critical
functions. At the strategic level, these leaders align AI initiatives
with organizational purpose while developing long-term
transformation road maps. They ensure ethical alignment
across implementations while creating frameworks for
sustainable innovation that balance technical advances with
human values.
In terms of cultural leadership, CITOs guide their organization’s
evolution through its AI transition while proactively managing
resistance to change. They drive innovation across all levels of
their organization while maintaining meaningful human
connections in automated processes and building
psychological safety for both staff members and clients into AI
implementations. Technical oversight involves ensuring robust
implementation standards, managing risk and security across
AI systems, driving integration across platforms and
departments, and maintaining data quality and ethical use.
An Emerging Requirement: AI
Persona Management
AI persona management is an example of a new responsibility
that requires new leadership from a CITO. Generative AI tools
already can be asked to take on specific personalities — a
teacher, a scientist, a lawyer, and so on. As agentic AI use
grows, companies will need to manage AI agents with
increased levels of autonomy and specific attributes and
identities.
You may think of AI
personas as digital
characters or
workers with specific
traits, priorities, and
capabilities that are
designed to interact
with users and
process information in customized ways. They perform defined
tasks or serve as interfaces between humans and AI systems.
This allows organizations to create distinct roles — such as
strategic adviser and customer service agent — tailored to
specific use cases. AI personas can be autonomous or
collaborate with human workers, requiring leaders to
understand and manage the delicate interplay between human
psychology and intelligent machines.
Leaders will also need to ensure consistent behaviors from the
AI personas and keep outputs aligned with defined business
goals. Salesforce, for example, is not only selling agentic AI
tools but also using AI personas to guide its own decisions on
product updates, training programs, and feature prioritization.
To be strategic, AI persona management will require a
collaborative leadership approach that involves a cross-
functional team with a combination of technical, ethical, and
strategic expertise. Led by a CITO, the ideal leadership team
for AI persona management would include senior AI, ethics,
technology, and HR executives.
Thinking Differently About Tech
Change
As AI continues to reshape our organizations and society,
leaders face a clear but complex challenge: determining how to
harness the power of these new technologies while preserving
and promoting human values. Success will require practical
frameworks for responsible innovation, careful balancing of
efficiency with human needs, and thoughtful approaches to
measuring success that go beyond technical metrics.
The evolution of technology leadership is not merely a matter
of adding new roles to the C-suite. Rather, it reflects a growing
recognition that implementing AI successfully requires us to
think differently about how we manage technological change.
Organizations that adapt their leadership structures to meet
the cultural and change management challenges of this new
era will be better equipped to make sound decisions about
how and when to implement AI. The CITO or equivalent role
embodies this shift, providing a structured approach to
bridging technical expertise with human insight.
Topics
Data, AI, & Machine Learning Leading Change
Organizational Structure AI & Machine Learning
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Faisal Hoque is the founder of Shadoka, NextChapter, and other companies.
His latest book is Transcend: Unlocking Humanity in the Age of AI (Post Hill
Press, 2025). Thomas H. Davenport is the President’s Distinguished
Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College,
the Bodily Bicentennial Professor of Analytics at the University of Virginia
Darden School of Business, a fellow of the MIT Initiative on the Digital
Economy, and senior adviser to the Deloitte Chief Data and Analytics
Officer Program. His latest book is All Hands on Tech: The AI-Powered
Citizen Revolution (Wiley, 2024). Erik Nelson is a senior vice president at
CACI International, responsible for strategic vision and growth in the
company’s Enterprise IT division.
TAGS:
Artificial Intelligence Chief Information Officer
Human Psychology Human-Machine Collaboration
Leadership Development Organizational Culture
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