With the rise of the chief AI officer, it’s time to examine ‘czar’ culture

The rise of the chief AI officer should be no surprise. The position is simply the latest in a long line of roles that businesses have added to the C-Suite over the years to signal to the market that they’re on top of the newest shiny object. And AI, of course, is the shiniest new object.

It’s a familiar pattern — a hot new thing is introduced to the industry, as is a new C-Suite exec to tackle it, only for a few years to go by and that role to no longer exist as either everyone is now implementing the hot new thing into their work or that hot new thing turned out to be to just be a fad. Does it make sense for businesses to continue to appoint new czars with every new trend?

“It’s human nature to want to keep up with the Joneses, to be a little lemming-like,” said Stacie Boney, president of Milwaukee-based ad agency Hanson Dodge. “In a business where trends are critical and following trends is critical, we’re probably even more prone to it in marketing and advertising.”

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