Evolving Tech C-Suite Titles Highlight Priorities And Purpose

Forbes

18 hours ago

As AI technology improves, more developers are creating AI agents to automate repetitive tasks that take up time. The latest EY US AI Pulse Survey finds that about a third of senior company leaders say they're starting to adopt agentic technology at their enterprises, with 86% of those putting it toward some of these less interesting tasks. More than half of those using AI agents have them enhancing customer support and improving either IT efficiency or cybersecurity.
But while agentic AI has great potential—namely freeing up employees' time to do things that require more creativity, thought and innovation—it faces a PR problem. Close to two-thirds of senior leaders say that fear among employees that AI agents will replace them will stifle adoption. At least as far as EY's surveys go, the vast majority of executives aren't trying to replace people with AI. Nearly nine in 10 say they're optimistic about agentic AI's benefits to their workplaces, but that human intervention in decisions will always be crucial.
Then there's this challenge: More than half of the leaders EY surveyed said they don't think that people in both their business and industry at large really understand what agentic AI is. This is a problem on many levels. First, leaders need to have a grasp of what it can do if it can help business at all levels. But secondly, they need to know what's needed to make it work. As everyone in the tech area knows, AI is only as good as the data that it can pull from. Seven in 10 senior leaders say that their organization's failure to understand the need to prepare and ready data will stifle its adoption.
As the study shows, the time seems right to have some frank conversations, both with leaders at your company and with employees. The possibilities and needs of agentic AI systems need to be laid out and clearly explained. Top executives and board members may be easily swayed by estimates of ROI—how much the company spends on employees doing more mundane tasks per year, and how much revenues could improve with more people doing things to grow business. That could also clear the path for a heavy investment in data readiness. Employees need to have a clear picture of the tasks agentic AI would be picking up, as well as assurances that their human input and creativity are still highly valued. Not only would this kind of explanation help with morale, but leveling with employees could help pave the way for them to dream up new uses that bring growth and advancement.
While AI is still new, it's getting integrated into every part of the company. Several companies that named chief AI officers in years past are backtracking on that title, and making responsibility adjustments throughout the tech area based on what these executives should be doing in today's world. I talked to Kunal Anand, chief innovation officer of cybersecurity company F5, about how titles are changing. An excerpt from our interview is later in this newsletter.
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AI company Perplexity made a $34.5 billion offer to buy Google's Chrome browser this week, timed as a federal judge considers forcing Google to sell it. In April, a U.S. district judge ruled that Google engaged in 'anticompetitive acts' to maintain its search monopoly. Prosecutors have pushed for the court to order Chrome's sale, and a decision is apparently expected this month.
The browser's sale is not a sure thing, and Perplexity's bid may not be accepted. After all, the AI company's current valuation is only $18 billion, and Chrome's enterprise value has been estimated at $20 billion to $50 billion. However, if Perplexity is successful, it will own what has been called the front door to the internet. According to DemandSage, Chrome controls 63.5% of the global browser market. It's a quick gateway to Google search, instantly routing many users there.
For its part, Perplexity said in a statement to Forbes senior contributor Tor Constantino that they have no plans to change user defaults and want to retain many of the employees who work on the browser. But the statement doesn't address the wider implications: An AI company owning the world's most popular web browser could seamlessly integrate AI into everything its users do online. Perplexity could take a simple search for a product and comparison shop in the background. It could make a restaurant reservation based on a quick search for Japanese cuisine nearby. It could bring a whole new level of convenience to the online experience—much like Chrome did when it launched through its seamless connection to Google. POLICY + REGULATIONS
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks alongside President Donald Trump at the White House in April. JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
U.S. chipmakers—and their investors—rejoiced when the announcement came that the Trump Administration decided to grant them licenses to sell specialized AI chips to China. But then came the other part of the story: The Trump Administration demanded that the government get a 15% cut of Nvidia and AMD's profits from those sales.
In a Monday press conference, Trump said that the 15% take of revenues was actually the product of negotiations—he wanted 20%, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang countered 15%, Politico reported. The legality of the unconventional deal is still being worked out at the White House, CNBC reported, but it's being warily eyed around the world. The Washington Post writes that by inserting himself and U.S. policy in the middle of industry decisions, Trump is positioning himself as the would-be 'CEO of America.' And while GPU processors are vital to advancing AI, China experts told the Washington Post this could have much wider implications, potentially laying the groundwork for any high-tech exports to pay for a license to sell internationally.
Regardless of whether this deal can go forward, the federal government will only get those revenues if chips actually sell. Bloomberg reported that the Chinese government is urging companies not to use Nvidia's processors, purchasing those made domestically instead. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
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Last week, OpenAI launched its newest chatbot version, GPT-5. The company said it is its 'smartest, fastest, most useful model yet,' and highlighted improvements in coding, math, writing and health-related questions. It has what OpenAI calls a deeper reasoning model that can solve harder problems, using a real-time router that can be directed to think harder about answers. It also can generate more highly targeted content for a specific audience, doing a better job of matching the tone of Instagram or TikTok audiences, writes Forbes senior contributor John Brandon.
While some welcomed the update with open arms, other users revolted. When OpenAI added the new version, the company discontinued its immediate predecessor, GPT-4o. Many users liked GPT-4o's writing style and the funny and playful 'personality' OpenAI had given it, writes Forbes' Richard Nieva. In response to the outcry, OpenAI brought GPT-4o back, allowing users to choose which version they want to interact with. BITS + BYTES What's In A Name? Talking Tech Executive Titles With F5's Chief Innovation Officer
F5 Chief Innovation Officer Kunal Anand. F5
Kunal Anand knows firsthand about the shifting titles and responsibilities for a company's technology. He's worked at cybersecurity company F5 for about a year and a half, but he's already had two big positions. He was hired as the chief technology and AI officer, but last November, his title transitioned to chief innovation officer as he started running the product innovation, vision and strategy organization. He'd created an AI center of excellence at the company soon after he was hired, but as that area became more well established—and run by someone else—the AI portion of his title was dropped, and there is no more CAIO.
I talked to Anand about how titles are evolving in the tech space, and how companies and executives should define these roles. This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity.
A couple of years ago, many companies started creating chief AI officer positions. Is that still a trend, and do you think companies need a person in that kind of role?
Anand: I'm not seeing that trend as much anymore, especially in general technology enterprises and our industry. I'm actually seeing almost the opposite. I'm seeing that combination of CPO— the chief product officer and chief technology officer—come together now more than ever before. I'm seeing that happen across enterprise security, cybersecurity.
It's going to be decentralized the same way that technology has been decentralized inside of an organization. The CTO role, it's clear that over the last couple of decades, has evolved, too. That's why you sometimes see a split in organizations of a CTO versus an executive vice president or an SVP of engineering. Two different things, where one may set strategy and vision, versus one may be focused on execution.
I think we are seeing with AI, every function embracing the technology. If it gives you leverage, a better way to think, a better way to build a better product or operate your business, of course you're going to use it. CIOs or CEOs are telling me that they're really pushing their own teams, their C levels, their directs, to embrace the technology. It's not really culminating to a focal chief AI officer. I'm finding that it's more diffused now, and we'll see how it evolves over time.
What's in a title? Are titles like chief AI officer created to actually handle everything related to that area, or is it more for the company to show its priorities?
We also saw this in the cloud era, where there were chief cloud officers. With new and breakthrough technology, there's always been a moment where a company has to decide if they're going to be on the early side of it, or if they're going to wait until it matures a little bit more.
When a company decides that they're going to embrace something, there's three ways you go about that. One is you signal it top down. I think that's something that you get from a role like this, which is, 'We're taking this seriously, everybody. We're going to go and either hire a bunch of resources or we're going to collect resources within the organization across multiple departments and bring it in.'
I think both cloud and AI require a generalist, because if you're a chief AI officer of the entire organization, even to a technology company, it's not limited to product. It's not limited to the technology you build. It's also how is your Salesforce using these tools? How are your G&A functions in finance? The level of depth there is unique.
The second way that they can drive that change, whether it's with cloud, AI or other breakthrough technology, is they get that embedded into their teams. Which is, 'In your roadmaps, you're going to be required to have X percent of your deliverables contain AI or be powered by AI in some way, shape or form.' That's a common thing that I see in tech companies. That is a very dangerous thing to do, to just say that everything must be AI-powered. You're just hopping from trend to trend, and you're not really thinking about the customer problem. I think we're starting to see a little bit of this now. Everyone is doing an AI-powered thing.
The third way is more of a financial incentive, which is inside of your objectives. You're going to be evaluated based on your ability to embrace this technology—which is why you see people now talk more about the number of developers that are using AI in their organization, how productive they are. It's hard to know if it's a flex when a company says those stats publicly. Who cares if you've got X percent of your developers using AI? Ultimately, it's all got to be in service of pulling together and putting a great product out there for your customers to use.
I think we'll see more of these as breakthroughs come. It's AI today. I know we're calling it 'super intelligence' now. I think that's the framing that we should be using. I don't know if we'll see a chief super intelligence officer or something like that at some point, but I think you always have to just be cautious about jumping on these trends.
If someone who works in the technology area is asked their opinion about what kind of role and title they should have, what should they look at to determine what would be best for their company?
For us, we felt that it's really important as a technology company to always be innovative. It's what we have to do. Innovation doesn't mean you're only doing new and shiny things, like you're playing only with AI. Innovation is comprehensive.
That's the one thing to break apart. For every company, you always have to think about: How do I improve my current products? How do I continue solving these customer problems? How do I draw the map of where we are today, versus where we want to go? And then how do I design that path on that map to get there? I think you can frame it.
You can either build the company around a specific technology, which is what some do, or you can build it around a customer. And if you build it around a customer, that's going to force you to innovate. If I look at the largest companies out there, if you look at the Magnificent Sevens today, you look at them as continuing to listen to the customer solving a problem or a pain point. They solve the next one. Nvidia is a great example of this, where they went from solving critical issues on GPUs, to solving data center problems, to evolving to solve AI problems, and then solving networking problems. They're solving problems and they're innovating their business: their core go-to-market, their core product and technology.
For us, that is a very important thing that we must do, and it's something that we're paying a lot of attention to. I think a lot of companies should take a step back and evaluate: Are we just going to be focused on a very narrow set of technologies or a narrow set of products, or are we going to be really focused on solving customer problems? That will take us to different places, and it's likely going to be the most durable thing.
As technology comes, technology goes, but solving those customer problems and iterating with them is important. For that very reason, you have to combine the product and the vision. COMINGS + GOINGS Shipping giant FedEx tapped Vishal Talwar as its new executive vice president, chief digital and information officer, and president of FedEx Dataworks, effective August 15. Talwar was formerly senior managing director and chief growth officer at Accenture Technology, and has also worked in leadership at IBM and Dell Services.
tapped as its new executive vice president, chief digital and information officer, and president of FedEx Dataworks, effective August 15. Talwar was formerly senior managing director and chief growth officer at Accenture Technology, and has also worked in leadership at IBM and Dell Services. Digital financial services platform Nubank named Eric Young as its new chief technology officer. Young most recently worked at Snap Inc. as the senior vice president of engineering, and he will succeed Vitor Olivier, who is departing in September after more than 10 years with the firm.
named as its new chief technology officer. Young most recently worked at Snap Inc. as the senior vice president of engineering, and he will succeed Vitor Olivier, who is departing in September after more than 10 years with the firm. Food distributor and retailer SpartanNash appointed Ed Rybicki as SVP and chief information officer, as well as Brett Hoffman as VP and chief information security officer. Rybicki most recently worked as chief information and technology officer at Mastronardi Produce, while Hoffman joins from Inspire Security Solutions. STRATEGIES + ADVICE
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Last week, former online behemoth AOL said it is discontinuing which service?
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D. AOL Desktop Gold, its browser experience
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