When you appoint an AI Officer, you want them to know your organisation well. You want to be sure that they can help you with AI governance. If they have no previous experience, you want comfort that they have the ability to quickly and efficiently learn on the job. To make a long story short, then, we wish to discuss some of the skills that your AI Officer (or Chief AI Officer) should have.

Naturally, the skills we discuss here may differ from any specific skills that your AI Officer needs to have to succeed in your organisation’s specific context. To identify and appoint the right candidate, you will need to be open to asking for help. For now, though, hold that thought, and read what we say below.

If you want to work out whether you even need someone in this role, or what the difference is between an AI Officer and a Chief AI Officer, read our other article.

What skills must your AI Officer have?

When you hire a carpenter, you want someone who will work well with wood and tools, especially for the job you want done. Similarly, you want your chosen person, regardless of whether you call them an AI Officer or Chief AI Officer, to have certain skills or abilities. They must be able to drive innovation, establish and lead an AI-ready culture, help you manage commercial and legal risks, and position your organisation to leverage AI well. It would be great if the person is an IT lawyer or IT expert with relevant experience, but you should not be too quick to eliminate other candidates, especially if they have other useful skills. If your candidate’s skills are lacking in any way, you need to help them receive proper training, or look for someone else.

You need a person who can stand in front of a room full of your employees and teach them. It is important that your chosen candidate have an ability to train employees and other stakeholders on AI, to establish and lead a good culture using good teaching methods.

Establishing and leading an AI governance project needs strong and effective leadership and project management skills. Someone needs to manage the people, tasks, tools, and dates that are involved.

You need someone with an understanding of (or ability to quickly learn about):

  • your organisation’s business and operations;
  • AI tools and how they impact an organisation;
  • the risks, benefits, and opportunities of developing or using AI within your organisation; and
  • how AI governance connects with other aspects of IT governance, such as data protection and IT contracts.

What if you also appoint a Chief AI Officer?

In the other article about this, I said that it is possible to also have a Chief AI Officer, provided that you clearly distinguish between the two. If you appoint two people, with the one being an AI Officer who reports to the Chief AI Officer, you need to make sure that the supervising officer has enough superior skills, knowledge, and experience to justify appointing them in a supervisory role. You also need to have good appointment letters that clearly set out the responsibilities of each individual.

Can experience as an IO or DPO help?

Yes, it can. There are two reasons for this:

  1. There is an overlap between data protection and AI, so your IO or DPO will have insights that are relevant to good AI governance; and
  2. To succeed in their roles, an IO and DPO need to have most of the skills that your chosen candidate needs to help you with AI governance.

Regardless of any overlap between AI and data protection, or similarities between roles, there are important differences that you will always need to be mindful of. You cannot just appoint your IO or DPO in an additional role without carefully considering the implications.

Actions you can take

  • Successfully identify a good candidate by asking us to advise you;
  • Formalise the appointment of your chosen candidate by using our AI Officer Appointment Letter;
  • Receive empowering training by attending our private or public Training for AI Officers workshop;
  • Lessen your workload by outsourcing your AI Officer role and responsibilities to us;
  • Overcome any other challenge with your AI governance by asking for our advice; or
  • Leverage AI lawfully and ethically by joining our Trustworthy AI programme.