The Albanese government’s order for all commonwealth agencies to appoint a chief artificial intelligence officer risks failing in a similar way to “organ rejection” because many organisations are making a critical mistake.
Companies and government departments alike are creating “AI confetti” – scattering the technology everywhere without achieving anything, according to Lou Compagnone, director of artificial intelligence at technology services firm Datacom.
Since July, the government has mandated that every federal department and agency appoint a chief AI officer, or CAIO, and the private sector has been doing the same as “AI transformation” dominates the C-suite.
But Compagnone said most organisations had rushed to install the executive without working out what the job was.
“Appointing a CAIO can’t just be a title change,” she said. “Agencies stand up an AI council, tick the box, then flounder because they never defined what AI was supposed to change.
“Really good energy about AI, but not actually heading an organisation in any direction.”
Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher mandated CAIOs late last year, giving organisations and departments just over seven months to make their hires. The new officers are meant to spearhead tasks such as running generative AI on every public servant’s laptop, training and secure in-house tools. The role has been pitched in some quarters as a natural successor to the chief executive. But Compagnone rejects this, instead seeing the role as an orchestrator – a leader who forces the finance chief to ask whether the AI spend is returning anything, and the people chief to ask whether staff can use the tools at all.
“You can put a new technology into an organisation, but if you haven’t thought about people and process, they’re not going to use it,” Compagnone said. “I call it organ rejection.
“AI success depends on more than technical delivery. The CAIO needs to help set strategic direction, bring leaders with them and make sure the organisation understands where AI can create value, how risk will be managed and what needs to change to get there.”
She said the cost nobody budgets for is the hidden labour – the hours workers spend checking and correcting machines.
“The public sector mandate is an important signal that AI governance needs clear ownership,” she said.
“How agencies define and empower the CAIO role will help set the standard for responsible AI leadership, and those expectations are likely to influence organisations well beyond government.”
This article first appeared in The Australian as New government AI chiefs are doomed to fail without clear purpose, expert says.
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