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As companies continue to gain further experience in using generative AI throughout their organizations, in some cases, CIOs are responsible for driving these efforts. But a growing number of organizations are appointing Chief AI Officers to orchestrate these strategies.

In September 2023, Florin Rotar was named Chief AI Officer at Avanade where he had previously been the company’s CTO. HMG Strategy Founder and CEO Hunter Muller recently interviewed Florin for an HMG Spotlight video interview to learn more about his responsibilities and vision for the role. The following is an excerpt from that discussion:

Hunter Muller: Hello, and welcome to the HMG Spotlight. I’m Hunter Muller, Founder and CEO of HMG Strategy. I’m here with Florin Rotar, Chief AI Officer for Avanade, an amazing organization. Florin: Congratulations on being named as the HMG Global Leadership Institute Chief AI Officer of the Year Award recipient!

Florin Rotar: Thanks so much, Hunter. I’m flattered and honored.

HM: Florin, we’re in arguably the most intense innovation cycle of our generation. What’s different about this cycle along with the role that AI is playing in it?

FR: I think it’s the sheer size and scale of it. This is something which has captured the imagination of hundreds of millions of people. It has certainly captured the imagination of every CEO and CIO that we work with.

I think the second part of this is that it fundamentally has the opportunity and the potential to change industries, to change companies, to change functions. That’s what we’re doing ourselves.

HM: When you think about it, the Chief AI Officer is an amazing title. What an amazing opportunity, what an amazing role. What’s the message that you deliver to the CEO and to the business?

FR: This is actually more about people than it is about technology. Right now, I’m actually spending 80% of my time on the people aspect rather than on the technology. And that’s because what we’ve seen is that when organizations think about AI and generative AI as a way of empowering people to become the best versions of themselves, when you’re really thinking about enabling them to reach new heights in their career and professional and personal development, you get so much better outcomes than when you’re just focusing on topics like productivity and on automation and cost reduction.

All of that comes, but focus on the people first. Then you get the acceptance and the adoption which really drives business success.

HM: At HMG Strategy, we’re studying global visionary leadership. Why is it so difficult to reimagine or reinvent new Go-to-Market models or business processes?

FR: Generative AI is one of those topics where everybody has an opinion and it actually
impacts every single fiber of the organization. We used to have very heated debates between myself, our chief legal officer, our chief people officer, the CFO, the COO and the CIO around how to move at speed, but with the right balance of risk and reward. That required us to take a different approach around the governance track. That required a different way for us to think around not putting just speed bumps in the way but to put guardrails in place with responsible AI and digital ethics so we could move faster, in a responsible and trustworthy way. That’s not easy to do in a lot of organizations.

HM: That sounds like some heavy lifting. How do you do that?

FR: You really need to have the board and the CEO buying around this being
fundamentally important to the business and more than just hype. It does require a responsible AI framework in place to have that level of speed with the right level of controls. And to really focus on this as fundamentally important to the
business as the number one growth objective for us as a company.

HM: Avanade has conducted a global AI study. What are some of the lessons learned and best practices from other mid and large cap organizations that are well down the road regarding implementing generative AI strategy?

FR: One of the really interesting findings we’ve had is that CEOs in general
tend to have a lot higher confidence level than mid-level management in AI initiatives. Maybe that’s unsurprising. But there is also a bit of a discrepancy between how people
think about it, with the C-suite generally being quite enthusiastic about this and thinking
about this as a competitive advantage and actually planning on creating new jobs with generative AI rather than cutting jobs, which I know is sort of the common fear mongering in media right now.

We have established a company-wide school of AI which we’re rolling out to every single employee of the company, as a way for them to get their head around the fact that this is not a threat, it’s an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for them to soar in their career, but also to help them understand some of the practices, some of the techniques of how to use AI.

The industry has a digital divide. In Avanade, we’re working hard to avoid this divide. Because value depends on scale; scale depends on adoption; adoption depends on

thinking people first.

To access Avanade’s AI Readiness Report, click here.