Margherita Spangaro, Author at nCore HR

Chief AI Officer: the role entering boardrooms that HR can't ignore

Posted on 25 July 2026 by Margherita Spangaro

The Chief AI Officer (CAIO) is the executive responsible for AI strategy, its implementation and corporate governance, and typically reports to the CEO or directly to the board. Up until two years ago it was a niche title, present almost exclusively in tech startups and research labs. Today it has become one of the most sought-after executive roles in large organizations worldwide.

As the IBM Institute for Business Value reports in its CEO Study 2026 (conducted on 2,000 CEOs across 33 countries in partnership with Oxford Economics), 76% of organizations now have a Chief AI Officer, up from 26% a year earlier. A rate of growth without precedent in the landscape of C-suite roles.

For those working in HR, this evolution isn't just business news. It's a direct question: who governs AI within corporate processes?

In this article you'll discover:

what the CAIO is and why it's growing so quickly
where it overlaps with the HR role
what concretely changes for those managing selection and talent

A new role growing at an unusual pace

The growth of the CAIO doesn't only concern tech companies. As IBM documents directly, among organizations with an AI-first approach to the C-suite structure, the number of AI initiatives scaled at enterprise level is 10% higher than their peers, and those with a CAIO achieve a higher return on AI investment compared to organizations without one.

According to the report All In: The Corporate AI Leadership Race, 48% of FTSE 100 companies already have a CAIO or an equivalent role, with 65% of these appointments made in the last two years.

The driver isn't only strategic. As Digital Chiefs notes, in Europe the EU AI Act in 2026 is pushing even mid-sized enterprises to appoint an internal lead for AI risk assessment, incident management and regulatory compliance, and in many cases the organizational response is precisely the CAIO. If you want to understand why the real challenge isn't adopting technology but governing it, also read The problem isn't adopting AI, it's using it badly.

The CAIO and HR: where one begins and the other ends

The most delicate, and least discussed, point concerns the overlap with the HR function.

The same IBM CEO Study 2026 offers a precise figure: 59% of CEOs expect the CHRO's influence to increase in the coming years and 77% believe that talent-related and technology-related roles are converging. It isn't a replacement, it's a redefinition of boundaries.

The challenge isn't hierarchical, but cultural. As emerges from Randy Bean's AI & Data Leadership Survey 2026 (cited by CNBC), 93.2% of organizations point to cultural challenges, not technological ones, as the main obstacle to AI adoption. This means the most urgent problem to solve isn't who holds the title, but who manages to build a culture in which AI is used in a conscious and structured way.

For HR, this is familiar territory. And it's exactly the type of transformation the function is equipped to lead, as we describe in Reinventing roles and leadership in the AI era.

CAIO and CHRO compared

	Chief AI Officer (CAIO)	Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO)
Focus	Enterprise-level AI strategy, implementation and governance	People, culture, talent and development
Governance scope	AI risk, compliance, output of automated systems	AI's impact on selection, training, skills
Reports to	CEO or board	CEO or board
Relationship	Complementary and increasingly converging with the CHRO	Complementary and increasingly converging with the CAIO

AI governance in recruiting: appointing someone isn't enough

Having a CAIO doesn't automatically solve the problem of AI governance in HR processes. The concrete risk is that AI gets adopted in selection processes without anyone, neither the CAIO nor HR, actually governing its output.

As Gartner analysts cited by CNBC remind us, the automation brought by AI is an opportunity to push HR toward more strategic roles: but this requires tools that produce transparent, explainable and verifiable output. A concrete example is nCore HR's AI Ranking: instead of merely speeding up CV reading, it gives recruiters an objective assessment of each candidate, based on the requirements of the position and accompanied by readable justifications, making AI a governable element of the process, not a black box. This is what allowed structured organizations such as Sicuritalia to accelerate recruiting with nCore HR's AI while managing high volumes of applications.

This is the kind of AI that a CAIO and a CHRO can actually defend before the board.

Conclusion: the advantage doesn't lie in the title

The Chief AI Officer isn't a passing trend. It's the organizational answer to a real question: who is responsible for AI within the company?

For HR, the question isn't whether the CAIO will replace the CHRO. IBM's data confirms it: the CHRO's influence is set to grow, precisely because AI governance over people, in selection, training and development, is a territory in which HR has expertise no other C-suite role possesses.

The advantage doesn't lie in the title. It lies in knowing how to lead the transformation before someone else does it in your place.

FAQ - Chief AI Officer and HR

What is the Chief AI Officer?

It's the executive responsible for AI strategy, its implementation and corporate governance. It typically reports to the CEO or directly to the board.

How many companies already have a CAIO?

According to the IBM CEO Study 2026, 76% of organizations have one, up from 26% the previous year.

Does the CAIO replace the CHRO?

No. The same IBM study indicates that 59% of CEOs expect an increase in the CHRO's influence in the coming years. The two roles are complementary and increasingly converging.

What changes for those working in selection?

The need grows for transparent and explainable AI tools that produce verifiable output, a key requirement both for internal governance and from an EU AI Act perspective. It's the same principle that guides recruiting based on objective criteria, as explained in Assessing potential beyond the CV: what's changing.

Do you need to defend AI governance before your board? Discover how nCore HR's AI Ranking makes recruiting AI explainable and governable: request a demo and see how to turn automation into a transparent, objective and board-proof process.

Sources

The problem isn’t adopting AI, it’s using it poorly

Posted on 5 June 2026 by Margherita Spangaro

Artificial intelligence has already entered everyday work. According to data from the HR Innovation Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano, 44% of workers use it today, a significant increase over the previous year. This trend is confirmed globally: as reported by the Microsoft Work Trend Index 2025 (a survey of 31,000 professionals across 31 countries), AI adoption in companies is accelerating rapidly.

And yet, this spread does not automatically translate into transformation. The point is not adoption. The point is use.

AI applies on your behalf: what no one is saying

Posted on 6 May 20267 May 2026 by Margherita Spangaro

In recent months, more and more tools have emerged that allow candidates to apply automatically to job openings. The way they work is simple: you upload your CV, set a few criteria, and the AI finds the positions, fills in the applications and sends them, often to dozens of job ads per day.

At first glance, it looks like a natural evolution.

In reality, it introduces a deeper change: applying stops being an intentional action and becomes an automated process. It is no longer just people who apply, but systems.

Data-Driven Job Posting: Publishing Is No Longer Enough

Posted on 14 April 202614 April 2026 by Margherita Spangaro

Writing a job ad is no longer the problem today. The tools have improved, content is produced quickly and the average quality of job descriptions has grown.

The real question is a different one: how many of the right people actually see that ad?

In the traditional model, most postings still rely on organic reach. But organic visibility has become structurally limited. The number of job ads published every day has increased significantly, platform algorithms favor sponsored content, and non-promoted ads are quickly overtaken by new content.

This means that publishing no longer guarantees reach.
And, in most cases, it does not even come close to generating it.

This is where the topic stops being “job posting” and becomes distribution.

Employer branding: what drives talent choices

Posted on 9 April 20269 April 2026 by Margherita Spangaro

Employer branding is not just what a company communicates; above all, it is what is perceived by candidates and employees. It represents the organization’s reputation as an employer and is built through elements such as people’s real experiences, company culture, values, and the work environment.

But today this is no longer enough. Employer branding has become a strategic lever throughout the entire talent acquisition process, as it directly impacts the ability to attract candidates, their level of engagement and the likelihood of retention.

Recruiting Becomes Agentic: What Really Changes

Posted on 13 March 202618 March 2026 by Margherita Spangaro

In recent years, artificial intelligence has entered recruiting processes mainly as a conversational tool. It has improved job ad writing, application summaries and the quality of communications.

Today the context has changed. Hiring processes are more complex, more exposed and more interdependent. Producing better content is not enough: the operational flow needs to be governed better. It is in this shift that the concept of agentic recruiting emerges — the integration of systems capable not only of generating output, but of intervening directly in the management of activities.

The difference lies not in the amount of technology adopted, but in the quality of the process architecture.

Assessing Potential Beyond the CV: What’s Changing

Posted on 26 February 202626 February 2026 by Margherita Spangaro

On February 18, at the Pandora headquarters in Milan, during the HRC Trends “Employer Branding & Talent Acquisition” event, the discussion among HR leaders highlighted a profound transformation: recruiting is not just adopting new tools, it is redefining its own decision-making criteria.

The question that emerged was not about which technology to use, but which logic to apply. In a market where roles and skills evolve rapidly, is it still enough to assess people solely on what they have done?

The CV remains a central tool, but its predictive power is increasingly being called into question.

Speed, Trust, and Quality in HR Processes

Posted on 18 February 2026 by Margherita Spangaro

In recent months, a clear awareness has emerged: recruiting has not just become more technological, it has become more exposed. Decisions are more visible, processes more measurable, and candidates have more alternatives. In this context, the real issue is not introducing new tools, but ensuring consistency and solidity throughout the entire hiring journey.

What makes the difference today is not the amount of technology adopted, but the quality of the process architecture.

Where hiring processes lose candidates

Posted on 5 February 202618 March 2026 by Margherita Spangaro

In recent years, recruiting has been facing an increasingly evident paradox: candidate interest is there, but it often does not make it to the end of the process.

More and more professionals start hiring processes, but in many cases the experience breaks off before a clear decision. Not because the opportunity lacks appeal, but because something in the process gets lost along the way.

The point today is not attracting more applications. It is not losing the ones that are already interested.

AI and Salary Transparency: How Recruitment Processes Are Changing

Posted on 15 January 202616 January 2026 by Margherita Spangaro

What the intersection between AI and the new European regulation means for the future of HR in Italy

In recent months, two topics have sparked public debate around work: the introduction of AI into recruitment processes and the new European directive on salary transparency.
Two phenomena often discussed separately, but which in reality converge on a single point: the profound transformation of HR teams’ work.

When major media outlets began talking about AI agents supporting recruitment decisions and, at the same time, about salaries becoming explicit in job postings, it became clear that these are not just passing trends.
They are signals of a structural shift: today, HR is expected to be faster, more transparent, and more consistent within an increasingly complex environment.