Abstract

The widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) across industries has led to an increasing number of public companies to appoint Chief AI Officers (CAIOs) to their top management teams (TMTs) in recent years. Despite the rise in CAIO appointments, there remains a limited understanding of the tangible business value these executives provide. Our study plan to address this gap by developing a three-layered conceptual framework grounded in Upper Echelons theory. The main hypothesis posits that the presence of a CAIO on the TMT is positively associated with firm innovation performance. Second, we introduce a mediating mechanism: strategic AI attention (SAIA), defined as the degree to which the firm's strategic discourse shifts toward AI priorities following CAIO appointment. We theorize that a CAIO elevates AI onto the TMT's strategic agenda and redirects resource allocation toward AI-driven innovation. Third, we post that CAIO background (business acumen versus technical expertise) moderates their influence on firms' AI strategies and innovation. We argue that CAIOs with a stronger technical background exert a greater effect on SAIA because their deep technical knowledge supposedly elevates AI discourse in firms’ strategy. In contrast, CAIOs with a stronger business background have a greater impact in translating SAIA into innovation outcomes. To empirically validate our conceptual model, we will undertake a longitudinal panel analysis of US public companies spanning from 2015 to 2024. Overall, our study has the potential to make several contributions: it enhances the IS literature by introducing a C-suite role focused on AI, shows how executive specialization and TMT positioning influence strategic orientation and implementation, and offers practical insight for boards on aligning CAIO profiles with their business goals.

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