Dubai’s hottest new job title: chief AI officer

• Google and Dubai partner in training
• 94% of CAIOs work in private sector
• Role unlikely to replace CTO

Three years ago, finding a single person in the Middle East and the Gulf with the job title “chief AI officer” was rare, if not unheard of.

Today, however, with the help of the world’s biggest technology companies and their complicated artificial intelligence tools, chief AI officers – or CAIOs as they are also known – are proliferating.

Google Cloud announced last month that it has partnered with the government agency Dubai Future Foundation to train a cohort of 22 CAIOs in Dubai appointed in 2024.

That collaboration is focused on CAIOs in the public sector, but it is in the private sector that CAIOs are making a bigger splash.

Just 4 percent of CAIO roles in the US are in the public sector – the rest are in the private sector, according to a report by wealth intelligence company Altrata.

Major companies in the Middle East are part of that trend.

Dubai-based Al Futtaim Group, for example, says its new CAIO is to focus on identifying investment opportunities and adopting AI solutions.

Most C-suites already have a chief technology officer. The freshly fashionable role of CAIO is not meant to replace those jobs, Dubai-based Nasir Rahman Shaikh, chief AI officer at UK power solutions company Satron Power tells AGBI.

“If the chief technology officer ensures operational functionality, the CAIO provides directional clarity, ethical guidance and strategic purpose,” says Shaikh.

While CTOs may excel at implementation of technology, they may not be able to answer more specialised questions about AI, says Shaikh.

“A CAIO addresses more fundamental questions: Is this model appropriate for our needs? Can we explain how it works?” he asks.

A search on LinkedIn finds that there are many in Dubai with the title CAIO, with most in the tech sector. But established regional companies are acting too.

As well as Al Futtaim, for example, a senior technology leader at Dubai-based air service company Dnata lists himself on LinkedIn as both a CTO and a CAIO.

• Abu Dhabi AI chief bullish over future investment
• Focus on investment in AI as Mena lags in research
• No matter where you are, it pays to be nice to AI

Having a CAIO on the team has concrete advantages, according to Jan C Cron, a tech-focused executive search consultant specialising in the Middle East and North Africa at Russell Reynolds Associates.

“It helps attract proven AI talent to the company and show you’re serious about advanced technology,” he says.

For Cron, the role of CAIO is one of transformational change. That means the purpose of the chief AI officer may change and become redundant and AI responsibilities may migrate to the CIO or CTO, he explains.

“This integration into pre-existing roles in the C-suite could be seen as a true sign of success for organisations in the future,” he says.