Guide
Hiring your first Chief AI Officer: a UK guide
A short guide for a chief executive or a board hiring a first Chief AI Officer, or deciding that a Head of AI is the better fit.
What the role does
A Chief AI Officer is the executive who decides how the company uses AI. They usually report to the chief executive. The work is choosing which projects continue, explaining the cost and the risk to the board, and setting the rules for tools and data. It is not a coding job. If the brief asks for company-wide strategy and hands-on building, it is two roles.
When to hire
The hire is worth considering when AI is already in use in several teams and nobody senior owns it, or when the board wants one person accountable. It is the wrong first hire when the data is not fit to use and the brief pretends otherwise, or when the CTO already makes those decisions and a second chief officer would only confuse the team. A Head of AI under the CTO is often the better seat. That choice is on the Head of AI recruitment page.
Scoping the role
Before anyone is approached, write down the decisions the person will own in the first year, the reporting line, the team, the salary range and where they need to be. You should review that brief. A senior title on a narrow remit puts off the people you want. Published pay, with sources and dates, is on the Chief AI Officer salary page.
The first 90 days
The useful first months are spent finding out what is already in use, stopping what should not continue, and agreeing one plan with the chief executive, the finance director and the CTO. A 90-day plan that promises a new platform before that picture exists is a plan for a different company.
Start with an inventory: which tools staff already use, which pilots have an owner, and which data those systems depend on. Then agree what will stop. Only after that is it worth naming the first system that should reach everyday use. The person you hire should be able to hold that sequence, and to tell the board when a project is not ready.
The download below is the longer version of this note. The form sends the 76-page Clario guide and the Excel hiring toolkit. It does not change the short account on this page.
The PDF covers:
- What the role is, day to day
- When a company needs one
- Chief AI Officer, Head of AI, and Head of Data
- How to scope the role
- What to look for, and questions worth asking
- Common mistakes
- A 90-day plan
It is written to be used alongside the Chief AI Officer recruitment page and the published salary figures.
Request the 76-page Clario guide and the Excel hiring toolkit.