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A new report warns against limiting the role of HR teams in AI decision-making, as more organisations place AI adoption exclusively in the hands of chief AI officers.

According to Datacom's report on the emerging role of chief AI officer in Australia, based on a survey of more than 500 business and IT leaders, about two in three Australian organisations will have a dedicated AI officer at exec-level by the start of next year.

"However, organisations remain divided over where the role should sit, what it should prioritise, and how its accountabilities should sit alongside those of the CIO, CTO, CISO and other functional leaders," the report says. This could jeopardise the AI officer's ability to change how the organisation works, it notes, which should be the main point of their role.

The report says that while AI decision-making is currently dominated by the technology (77%) and data (65%) functions, it's not confined to them. Operations (42%), policy/legal/compliance (26%), business units (24%), HR/people (21%), and finance (21%) also play a part in decision-making, as do external partners (7%)...