‘There’s a powerful shift on the horizon’: Nearly half of chief data officers believe they'll be a 'pivotal' force in in the C-suite within five years

C-suite strategy concept image showing female chief data officer (CDO) standing while talking to colleagues during a boardroom meeting. — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Chief data officers (CDOs) might not be the most important executives in the C-suite right now, but they’ll rank among the most influential figures in no time.

That’s according to Deloitte's Chief Data Office (CDO) report, which found 54% of CDOs believe they have less influence on the business than their C-suite colleagues, but 44% believe that CDOs will become of equal influence by the turn of the decade.

"While over half of CDOs currently feel less influential than other C-suite leaders, there's a powerful shift on the horizon," said Andy Whitton, data, privacy and analytics partner at Deloitte.

The survey found that 57% of CDOs now report to a CIO or COO, up from 39% last year. Beyond the C-suite, nearly two-thirds of CDOs predict their teams will add employees over the next year, growing by an average 27%.

Chief data officers are riding the AI wave

The rise in influence for CDOs is perhaps no surprise given the sharp enterprise focus on AI and the key role they play in driving adoption of the technology.

Half of CDOs polled said they were accountable or responsible for AI or generative AI in their organizations, for example. Indeed, three-quarters of those surveyed revealed they have AI deployments or experiments operational right now.

Data governance and AI were by far the top priorities for CDOs, though their importance differed by sector. AI was deemed the top priority for CDOs in financial services, highlighted by two-thirds of respondents in that industry.

Meanwhile, 50% of corporate CDOs and 70% of public sector CDOs said data governance was their key focus.

Whitton said this highlights a “nuanced approach” taken by CDOs, with those operating across different sectors tailoring their priorities based on individual needs.

"For example, AI and GenAI are top of the agenda for 66% of financial services CDOs, whereas corporates are homing in on data products, and the public sector is rightly prioritizing data governance,” he said.

Those CDOs who named AI as their core priority also tended to predict their organization will realize benefits more quickly than those who aren't prioritizing the technology – though perhaps the eye on AI payoffs like productivity gains are why they're choosing to focus on the technology in the first place.

It’s not all plain sailing for CDOs, however. Long-running finance-related issues were identified as key barriers to progress.

Nearly half of the CDOs said budget and resource limitations were the biggest hurdle to AI adoption, for example, followed by skills gap and ethical and regulatory concerns.

A separate report from earlier this year found that two-thirds of CDOs believed data quality was the biggest challenge to AI adoption, hampering them from maximizing the use of the technology.

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