​AI Is Growing Fast. The Chief AI Officer Role Is Not. Yet

Rob Sloan is VP of Cybersecurity Advocacy at Zscaler, where he helps organizations navigate cybersecurity risk and business resilience.

​AI now touches every part of the business. Far from simply being a technology initiative, AI is now a governance issue, an operating issue, a board-level priority and, increasingly, a security issue.

Given its importance, you would be forgiven for expecting most companies to have clearly assigned executive accountability for AI. Many probably do. But that accountability is not yet visible publicly in many cases.​

To find evidence that a company had publicly named a C-level executive with “AI” in the title, I reviewed press releases, SEC filings, company websites and public appointment announcements for every S&P 500 constituent. Only 75 organizations, or 15% of the index, publicly have one.​

That may be about to change. Regulation is taking shape, the threat landscape is shifting quickly, and boards and executive teams have a clearer view of both the opportunities and the risks AI creates across the business.

The White House has added to that momentum by requiring federal agencies to designate chief AI officers, signaling that AI governance is moving toward more visible executive accountability.​

A Lack Of Visible AI Accountability​

Of the 75 companies in the dataset, 36 use the stand-alone chief AI officer title. Another 18 use chief AI and data officer.​

My findings contrast sharply with those reported in IBM’s 2026 CEO Study earlier this year. That research drew on an international sample of responses from 2,000 chief executives, 76% of whom said their organization had a chief AI officer. The reason for the gap is not obvious from the published findings alone. However, the IBM research starts with a different dataset than mine and may include companies that haven’t publicly announced the role.​

However, when AI sits inside a broader data, technology or operations brief, accountability can blur just as the stakes are rising.​