At the same time, CDAOs and CDOs have enormous opportunities to influence and help their organizations’ AI initiatives, but they must avoid getting tangled up in turf battles with CIOs, AI directors and other IT leaders, says Alan Duncan, an analyst covering data and analytics strategy for Gartner.
“Generative AI has reinforced the need for CDAOs to reinvent themselves—and their role—or risk becoming obsolete,” the Gartner report said. “To remain relevant, CDAOs must understand the organization’s value drivers and pain points to gain power, increase influence, and build trusted relationships with their C-suite peers.”
Outside the back office
The first wave of CDOs and CDAOs focused on back-office tasks such as data governance, data quality and data management, but people in these roles now need to become more visible in showing how they deliver value to the business, Duncan says.
