“Despite modest improvements in overall role clarity, the expanding and overlapping nature of data and technology leadership roles create ongoing confusion.”
Sometimes a job grows too large for any one leader to effectively manage. Managing technology is a prime example.
Where technology was once the sole purview of the CIO, the integration of technology into daily work has made it too big a job for any one leader. There have been a number of new technology-related leadership titles cropping up in the last decade or so:
- chief technology officer (CTO)
- chief information security officer (CISO)
- chief privacy officer (CPO) or the senior agency official for privacy (SAOP); and
- chief data officer (CDO).
The role of the CDO was fueled by the Evidence Act, which was signed into law in early January 2019. It required government agencies to create a CDO position, whose goal was to ensure government data was accessible – a task that’s proving crucial for AI implementations.
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The job of the CDO continues to evolve, according to a survey of 189 CDOs by Deloitte and the Data Foundation:
“43% of CDOs reporting changes to their role over the past year. When asked to describe these changes, CDOs frequently pointed to organizational restructuring and shifting organizational priorities.”
However, 61% of them hold additional positions. For example, 30% of CDOs are also their agency’s Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (CAIO) or deputy CAIO. That number grew 13% compared to the same survey last year. Technical roles are naturally prone to overlap, which can cause internal confusion, or worse, friction, and additional duties can compound the challenges.
While the survey found 39% of CDOs “report their responsibilities are ‘very’ or ‘completely’ clear, many don’t have the same clarity, as the graphic nearby suggests. This is an improvement over the same survey in previous years. Deloitte and the Data Foundation credit OMB guidance (M-25-05) as helping to eliminate the ambiguity.
Even so, there’s still to be done:
“Despite modest improvements in overall role clarity, the expanding and overlapping nature of data and technology leadership roles create ongoing confusion.”
The survey asked respondents what, specifically, they needed help with and “39% of CDOs called for more guidance from OMB on responsibilities and authorities, particularly regarding the delineation of roles between CDOs, CIOs, and CAIOs.”
Clear delineation, “about responsibilities and authorities becomes increasingly important as organizations adopt more sophisticated AI capabilities” according to the report. It also notes that the burden of clarifying roles doesn’t fall entirely on OMB:
“Department and agency leaders should provide comprehensive guidance delineating the distinct yet complementary responsibilities of CDOs, CIOs, and CAIOs.”
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