The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced last month that it was seeking to hire a chief artificial intelligence officer (CAIO) – which would be split off from the responsibilities of the agency’s current Chief Information Officer (CIO) Guy Cavallo, who has been serving as the acting CAIO.
“The chief artificial intelligence officer (CAIO) will be a key leader in the development of the enterprise vision for the use, adoption, and safeguarding of artificial intelligence (AI) for both customer-facing, government-wide usage and within the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). They will also have an enterprise coordination and alignment role to ensure the safe, secure, trustworthy development and use of AI across the OPM and in externally facing applications,” a listing on USAjobs.com noted.
The role of AI continues to evolve, and the CAIO will be crucial in leading OPM’s adoption of the technology as well as offering advice on its secure development and use to the OPM director, deputy director, and other senior agency officials. The individual in the new position will further be tasked with implementing any necessary governance and oversight processes to comply with relevant regulations and guidance, while furthering the responsible use of AI in the agency.
According to the posting, this will include developing “AI-enabling enterprise infrastructure, workforce development measures, policy, and other resources to promote AI innovation, in a safe, effective, and responsible manner.”
The pay range for the CAIO position was listed to be $147,649 to $204,000 per year and is telework-eligible.
Addition to the C-Suite
OPM is not the first, and certainly won’t be the last government agency to add a position that oversees AI. And given the potential changes that AI presents, it isn’t coming a moment too soon.
“All federal agencies are required to name a CAIO following an executive order published by the White House in October of last year. Many responded by giving that title to an existing C-level officer, which is why the OPM’s CIO is currently serving both roles,” explained Chris Olson, founder and CEO at digital risk management provider The Media Trust.
“The question is whether more agencies should find specialized AI talent to fill this role – and the answer is ‘yes,'” Olson told ClearanceJobs. “AI is a rapidly evolving field outside the scope of expertise that most existing officers possess. But it also has broad, strategic importance for federal agencies ranging from national security to intelligence, law enforcement, and infrastructure.”
A concern is that it just adds another layer of bureaucracy, but AI isn’t something that should be managed part-time or as part of other tasks.
“Much like the CISO evolved naturally from a growth in demand for infosec, a CAIO makes sense as AI utilization has exploded across the industry,” added MJ Kaufmann, O’Reilly cybersecurity author and instructor, and founder and principal consultant at Write Alchemist.
It is true that in the past the role could have been rolled into the duties of a CIO, but AI is rapidly integrating itself into business processes, and there is now a need for a separate individual to oversee the efforts to manage it and determine how it should be used by OPM and other agencies.
“While this role is not necessary for every organization, it is an absolute must for those who are using or developing AI heavily, no matter if they are private enterprises or government agencies,” Kaufmann told ClearanceJobs. “A CAIO role would cover a business’s most pressing AI needs, including security, ethics, operational efficiency from AI, and costs of AI operations.”
More Agencies Will Need the AI Chief
OPM is rightfully one of the first agencies that is seeking to fill the role, but as noted, it will soon become the norm across the government sector.
“As AI becomes a must-have for enterprises and federal agencies alike, there will only be a greater need for it to have a dedicated team, similar to the way you would manage other tools in your docket,” said Chad McDonald, CISO and COO at data management and analytics provider Radiant Logic.
“By employing a CAIO, the consistency and clarity of your AI outputs will rise, and your organization can move further towards AI being a cost-saver and a business enabler,” McDonald told ClearanceJobs. “With AI requiring a near-constant stream of up-to-date data, it is realistic to expect several positions to be devoted to ensuring that data is following stringent data cleansing protocols. As organizations’ use of AI expands there is a mandate to ensure that efficiency and cost savings are eroded by cavalier use that results in a data exposure or damage to the organization.”
The CAIO position will be the one to ensure the safe and appropriate use of AI within an organization. New tools like AI will bring new opportunities but also new challenges.
“In short, AI can potentially transform every agency from the ground up and help them to achieve their mission more successfully,” added Olson. “As other nations increase AI spending, we don’t want to get left behind. On the other hand, AI comes with a lot of risks too – known and unknown. A designated CAIO can help agencies to do the crucial risk analysis they need to innovate and realize the benefits of AI with appropriate caution.”
