The curious case of hiring a Chief AI Officer

Throughout history, every disruption — technological or otherwise — has created new job roles, which have forced organisations to redefine work, too.

The printing press created typesetters and editors; the Industrial Revolution built factory operators and locomotive engineers; and the digital age spawned software developers, gig-economy managers, and social media strategists.

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more than just a buzzword in the boardroom, a new breed of C-suite executives is being coveted by startups, large enterprises, and headhunters in India.


These executives are called chief AI officers, or CAIOs. And if early adoption is any indication, the role is emerging as one of the fastest-adopted additions to the C-suite.

According to True Search, a global recruitment firm for board, C-suite executives, and other strategic talent, 83% of firms in India said they have already appointed a CAIO, with a further 15% planning to do so by year-end. Globally, the share of executives surveyed whose organisations have a CAIO nearly tripled from 26% in 2025 to 76% in 2026, according to an IBM survey of 2,000 executives.

Rituparna Chakraborty, partner & India lead, True Search, told The Economic Times Digital that the demand for a CAIO is “real” as companies move away from AI pilots and look at scaling AI to improve revenue, customer experience, productivity, decision-making, and risk management across businesses.

However, she said that this demand also comes with its own set of difficulties, and the absence of clear mandates can “inflate such titles”.

“A CAIO without control over priorities, investment, data, talent, all the needs and options, can quickly become a fancy label without much impact. So, honestly, the real test is quite simple. Number one, does this person have a business mandate; number two, access to the CEO and board; number three, the ability to drive change across the company?” she added.

Neeti Sharma, chief executive officer (CEO) of technology staffing and specialised talent solutions provider Teamlease Digital, believes there is a certain degree of FOMO (fear of missing out) coupled with pressure from company boards that is driving the hiring of CAIOs.

“I think most of us, as user companies, AI user companies, are clueless. There is FOMO everywhere. And there’s also board pressure. The reality is that only the board people are saying AI kar lo, sab theek ho jayega (use AI and everything will be fine),” she said.

What does a CAIO actually do?

One might assume it to be a core technologist role, but headhunters like Chakraborty believe the role has more to do with enterprise-wide transformation and measurable business outcomes; integrating AI into the ecosystem is just a part of their role.

“A dedicated CAIO comes into play when AI is no longer just a tech product…It is a business role and a company-wide transformation agenda. The CAIO should essentially focus on where AI creates tangible value, how to scale adoption and how to manage risk responsibly,” she said.

In the long run, Chakraborty suggests, chief information officers (CIOs), chief technology officers (CTOs), and chief digital officers (CDOs) “become co-partners with CAIOs.

“In many companies, CIO and CDO can absolutely own AI, especially if the organisation is still early in its AI journey. So, the CIO is for platform, architecture, security, and integration. The CDO or the CTO sometimes is the one that handles the policy, governance, and analytics,” she added.

However, accountability with AI is what differentiates a CAIO from the rest. Explaining this, she said: “You are basically crafting accountability, which earlier was hard to spot… Other CXOs do not give the necessary attention because their multiple roles have multiple priorities. So, the need is to have attention to one priority,” she said.

Teamlease’s Sharma points out that the need for a CAIO has also increased because they can help put together a framework for the organisation as it integrates AI across functions.

“At an organisational level, one needs to have a proper AI framework, a governance framework around it, a data framework around it. All these loose ends have to be tied, and the CAIO brings everything together and ensures AI is implemented successfully, which is why the need is also increased,” Sharma explained.

Fat pay amid talent crunch

True Search data reveals that the average pay package for a CAIO ranges from Rs 1 crore to Rs 4.5 crore per annum in India. But it rises significantly when companies hire talent from abroad.

“If you are getting talent in an Indian company from San Francisco or the Bay Area, the number will change dramatically… nothing less than a million dollars a year,” told Chakraborty.

Chakraborty and Sharma said the high compensation is essentially a result of demand and supply. India has a thin bench of executives with the experience needed for the role, and the pay reflects that scarcity.

Explaining the prevailing situation, Chakraborty said: “When we look for such people, we cannot limit ourselves to India. There are a lot of folks in the Bay Area and maybe a little bit on the East Coast where you will find this talent today. So, scarcity always has a role to play in price. And also, what is the kind of impact that you're expecting from this person?”

Companies are also ready to pay a premium for executives who have domain experience and are willing to train them in their technology.

“When you talk to leaders, they ask us to get us people with domain experience. Today it is tech, tomorrow it will be something else. Technology is a skill and a muscle that you can build, but domain experience takes a long time to understand,” Sharma said.

Do we even need a CAIO?

In a long list of existing C-suite executives, the addition of a CAIO must add tangible value and monetary business outcomes; else it is another lofty title, Chakraborty and Sharma said. In addition, companies must be sure of such a hiring, bearing in mind the cost attached to it.

“CAIO is so costly… you shouldn’t do it until and unless there is full conviction amongst the board, promoters, and management to invest in this. This is not something where you should, or can afford testing. If you have such doubts and frictions and lack of conviction, you shouldn’t,” explained Chakraborty.

Dr. Chandrasekhar Sripada, clinical professor (OB), Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, believes companies do need a CAIO to lead them to the next stage of transformation.

“We need one because, when a new change has to happen, somebody has to lead that process in an accountable and pointed manner. We have an AI problem. So, there has to be an AI officer who alone cannot change the whole organisation, but will be the lead person to think on behalf of everybody. They will coordinate with everybody, collaborate with others, and create frameworks, systems, methods, and governance to advance the company's adoption of AI,” said Sripada, who has held several senior human resources roles at Indian conglomerates.

However, the future of such a role is still uncertain as the field of AI is evolving in itself. “AI is going to be the mainstream and I think the CTO and the CAIO roles in large organizations may still remain independent in enterprise companies, but in most of the other companies they will probably dovetail into each other,” noted Sharma.