You are currently viewing Chief AI Officer Becomes a Boardroom Essential Across the Middle East, IBM Research Finds

Chief AI Officer Becomes a Boardroom Essential Across the Middle East, IBM Research Finds

Prime Highlights

  • Two-thirds of surveyed Middle East firms now have a Chief AI Officer, reflecting AI’s growing role in business strategy.
  • CEOs expect the influence of Chief AI Officers to increase significantly by 2030 as AI adoption accelerates.

Key Facts

  • Nearly 90% of surveyed CEOs are integrating AI across multiple business functions.
  • Most organisations expect major workforce upskilling and reskilling needs as AI adoption expands.

Background

The Chief AI Officer is no longer a niche hire. Across the Middle East, it is fast becoming one of the most consequential seats in the boardroom. New research from IBM puts that shift in sharp relief.

Two-thirds of surveyed organisations in the region now have a dedicated Chief AI Officer in place, a sign that artificial intelligence has moved well past the pilot stage and into the core of how businesses operate.

Lula Mohanty, Managing Partner for Middle East and Africa at IBM Consulting, said the rise of the role reflects a broader change in how companies think about AI accountability.

Businesses that succeed, she argued, will be those that scale AI into measurable capabilities built on trust and governance rather than running isolated projects. The pressure is spreading across the entire leadership team.

IBM’s research found that 86 per cent of chief executives believe every functional leader must develop technology expertise within their own domain. Meanwhile, 68 per cent said they are pushing decision-making further down the organisation to stay agile.

Workforce readiness sits at the heart of the challenge. Eighty-five per cent of Middle East chief executives said AI success depends more on whether employees actually adopt the technology than on the technology itself.

Over the next two years, companies expect nearly a third of their workforce to need reskilling and more than half to require upskilling. The trend is especially sharp in the Gulf, where governments have made artificial intelligence central to national digital transformation and economic diversification plans.