Chief knowledge officers rent for tech innovation

Whereas the function of chief digital officer (CDO) is considered fairly numerous, a examine from Deloitte suggests CDO’s recognise the necessity for a powerful knowledge technique, no matter whether or not their organisation’s operational mannequin is centralised or decentralised.

Deloitte famous that it’s vital for CDOs to stipulate a transparent course of journey for knowledge of their organisation, to allow a cohesive strategy to knowledge and keep away from frequent challenges that come up from siloed operations and duplicated effort.

Based on Deloitte, a transparent, documented and shared imaginative and prescient is subsequently a key instrument, enabling CDOs to articulate how knowledge needs to be used of their organisation to drive efficiency and obtain the organisation’s strategic goals.

The corporate’s Chief knowledge officer survey 2025, based mostly on a ballot of 81 CDOs, reported that 70% of respondents are both implementing synthetic intelligence (AI) methods or conducting experimental proof-of-concept initiatives to grasp its potential.

Deloitte famous that whereas few CDOs point out that AI is remodeling their organisations at the moment – the info reveals a optimistic indication that CDOs wish to transfer in direction of utilising AI, and additional growth of AI capabilities are subsequently required to drive this.

The analysis discovered that CDOs in organisations with increased perceived knowledge administration maturity exhibit a strategic shift in direction of leveraging knowledge for enterprise worth. Over two-thirds (67%) of respondents mentioned their main precedence is AI or generative AI (GenAI), reflecting a drive to take advantage of cutting-edge applied sciences. That is intently adopted by the event of knowledge merchandise (56%), underscoring an emphasis on creating tangible, value-driven choices from their knowledge belongings. 

For CDOs working in organisations with decrease perceived knowledge administration maturity, 63% of CDOs put knowledge governance as the highest precedence, adopted by knowledge technique (41%) and knowledge high quality (33%). Deloitte famous that these outcomes illustrate the foundational effort wanted to construct dependable, well-managed knowledge belongings.

Deloitte reported that these organisations with excessive knowledge maturity are likely to concentrate on hiring extra AI, GenAI and machine studying abilities to determine technical capabilities, in addition to communication to have the ability to promote to the broader organisation.

In these organisations with low knowledge maturity, there’s a concentrate on hiring change administration, knowledge engineering and knowledge tradition abilities, offering a sign of the additional transformation that could be underway on the journey in direction of attaining increased knowledge maturity.

“Organisations are clearly doubling down on knowledge, quickly growing their knowledge maturity and literacy to realize essential aggressive benefit,” mentioned Andy Whitton, knowledge, privateness and analytics accomplice at Deloitte. “That is positioning the CDO function as a pivotal and more and more influential pressure throughout the C-suite, serving to to drive sustained progress.” 

Deloitte reported that when evaluating priorities to final yr, round one-third of CDOs listed knowledge technique as a prime precedence, with an identical proportion acknowledging it as one in all their three key priorities in 2025. It famous that this consistency displays the continued significance of knowledge as a strategic asset for an organisation to realize aggressive benefit and stay on the forefront of digital transformation.

“These CDOs championing AI and GenAI are anticipating considerably sooner advantages, significantly in productiveness, highlighting the speedy affect these applied sciences can ship,” mentioned Whitton.