What to put in a Chief AI Officer brief

A clear brief makes a Chief AI Officer search quicker and attracts stronger candidates. This note covers what to include, and what to leave out.

Start with the decisions the role will own

Many briefs open with a list of tools and technologies, which tells candidates very little about the job. Start with the decisions the new hire will be responsible for: the choices in their first year that nobody in the business is making at the moment. For example, which AI projects to fund, which to stop, and what rules staff should follow when using AI tools.

If you cannot write that paragraph yet, it is worth pausing until you can. Experienced candidates will ask about it in the first conversation.

Reporting line and who decides what

Name the person the new hire will report to, and anyone else who can overrule them. If the CTO and the new Chief AI Officer both believe they own the technology plan, there will be conflict within a few months.

Write down which decisions belong to the CTO, which belong to the new hire, and which go to the chief executive because they involve significant money or risk. Our Chief AI Officer and CTO pages cover this split in more detail, and are worth reading if you are unsure which role you need.

The team they will inherit

Describe the current team: how many people, what they are good at, which of them are contractors and whether anyone is likely to leave. If you tell candidates they can build their own team, make sure the budget is there, because strong candidates will ask about headcount early.

If the data the AI work depends on has no clear owner, say so. A Chief AI Officer who discovers this after joining may spend a year on groundwork the board expected to be a finished product. In some cases a Head of Data or CIO should be hired first.

What success looks like after eighteen months

A few concrete outcomes are enough. For example, the main AI pilot is either in everyday use or has been closed down, the board receives a clear one-page summary of where AI is used and where it is not allowed, and the work no longer depends on a single contractor. Specific outcomes like these tell candidates far more than broad ambitions.

Salary and location

Put the salary range in the brief from the start. These roles usually pay £100,000 or more, and more for a full executive remit. Say whether the role is hybrid, which office the person will be expected to attend and how often.

If the salary is set at London levels for a team based in Birmingham, or the other way round, explain why. Candidates will notice, and an unexplained mismatch suggests the role has not been fully thought through.

What to leave out

Leave out long lists of competencies copied from a larger company, a PhD requirement used as a stand-in for sound judgement, and general statements about passion for AI. A list of tools can go in an appendix for candidates who want to check it. It should not be the first thing they read.

Next steps

Once you have a draft, the Clario team can review it with you and tell you whether it is ready to take to the market, or whether it describes a different role from the one in the title. Send us the reporting line and a draft salary range to start.