When I became a Chief AI Officer, I thought I had finally arrived.
C-suite title. Large budget. Strategic mandate. Direct line to the CEO.
But here’s what took me time to understand: leading enterprise AI isn’t about using authority the way traditional C-suite roles do.
I wasn’t responsible for delivering AI outcomes.
I didn’t own the data infrastructure.
I certainly didn’t control the budget allocations that mattered.
What I actually was? A herder.
The reality hit me hard.
Because data, analytics, and AI are capabilities that no one person owns. Everyone owns them.
So was it possible that I was brought in to own anything???
What the role is really responsible for is to create alignment among leaders who had been there for 5, 10, 15, even 20 years. Leaders with real credibility across large parts of the organization and to:
Get them to think differently.
Have painful conversations when needed.
Help them stretch their boundaries and see what’s possible while staying grounded in what’s practical.
Once I accepted that, everything changed.
Once I stopped thinking I owned everything and started acting like a mediator rather than a land owner, three things happened:
1. I became more effective
Instead of issuing directives that would be quietly ignored, I started facilitating conversations between data engineering, IT, business units, and finance. My role was helping them see possibilities they hadn’t considered and navigate the uncomfortable discussions they had been avoiding.
2. I earned a different kind of influence
Leaders who initially viewed me skeptically started seeking my input. Not because I threatened their territory or claimed to know their business better than they did, but because I helped stretch their thinking while keeping it grounded in reality.
3. I stopped taking things personally
When initiatives stalled, I didn’t see it as failure. I saw it as a signal that I hadn’t created enough alignment yet, or that the organization wasn’t ready for that particular change.
Here’s why this matters to you.
You might be a CFO wondering why your finance team isn’t adopting the AI tools you invested in.
You might be a VP of Operations frustrated that automation initiatives keep stalling despite executive approval.
You might be a Marketing Director struggling to align IT and creative teams on AI implementation.
The challenge is the same.
AI doesn’t respect org charts or departmental boundaries. It requires alignment across teams with different priorities, timelines, and ways of working. Teams that have been operating their way for years and aren’t particularly interested in being disrupted.
Your title might get you into the room. But creating actual change requires something different.It requires thinking less about commanding and more about connecting.
Less about ownership and more about alignment. Less about authority and more about influence.
Whether you’re implementing AI in your department, seeking stakeholder buy-in, or navigating enterprise transformation, the principle holds:
Stop trying to control the outcome and start facilitating the conversations that make the outcome possible. It’s about bringing the right people together and helping them see what’s possible.
What’s been your experience? Are you facing challenges aligning teams around AI initiatives?
Until next time,
Sol