Companies are scrambling to appoint artificial intelligence leaders to keep up with a mobile and uncertain future, but their ultimate success or failure will depend on productivity.
More than two in five Australian firms have already appointed chief AI officers (CAIOs), and that number is expected to swell to almost two-in-three by 2027, according to Datacom research.
But as August earnings season looms, investors will be looking to financial reports for signs that the technology is delivering returns.
“The difference with whether it is going to impact earnings or not is going to be about whether they take a strategic approach,” Datacom AI director Lou Compagnone told AAP.
Improving productivity is the largest driver of AI adoption, with 38 per cent of respondents identifying it as their biggest motivation in utilising the technology.
“Rather than having that whole ‘we’re just going to sprinkle AI on top of what we already do’, there needs to be analysis of what it means for your company, the way you operate and how you need to do things potentially completely differently now as a result of AI,” Ms Compagnone said.
More than 500 medium-to-large enterprises and IT leaders were surveyed by technology services and solutions company Datacom.
While three in five of companies said AI was a top strategic priority, only two in five actually had an AI strategy.
Chief AI officers need to connect strategy, governance, technology, and people to transform companies for the road ahead, according to Ms Compagnone.
“Unless an organisation has an AI strategy which really defines what they’re shifting from and to as a result of AI, it really doesn’t set the leadership team or the whole organisation up for success,” she said.
“The whole point of a chief AI officer role should be moving from sort of scattered AI activity to deliberate transformation.”
More than seven in 10 businesses said they were considering installing chief AI officers after being influenced by the Albanese government’s requirement for all Commonwealth agencies to have appointed CAIOs by June 30.
Australia’s trend lags the globe. A 2026 study of 2000 CEOs across 33 nations found 76 per cent of organisations had chief AI officers, up from just over one in four the year before.
Prior to 2022, responsibility for AI was spread across chief data officers, chief digital officers, chief technology officers and chief information officers.
“Chief AI officers need to be technically literate, and they need to understand what AI is and does and how it works,” Ms Compagnone said.
“But really, it’s a transformation role, and the difference between that chief AI officer and a CTO is they really need to be connecting strategy, governance, technology, and people, not just having that technology lens.”
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