Is the Chief Privacy Officer Role Dead?

In the AI era, will data privacy leaders meet the moment or lose their spot at the top?

Ron De Jesus, Field chief privacy officer at Transcend

October 25, 2024

4 Min Read
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Since IBM introduced the chief privacy officer (CPO) role in 2000, we have evolved to meet the data protection needs of the current moment. And thanks to the introduction of privacy-focused regulations like the GDPR in 2018 and the CCPA in 2020, our importance within organizations is rarely called into question. 

But over the past year, a new frontier hit executive teams: AI governance. By default, this responsibility has often landed on the shoulders of CPOs, whether they like it or not. We rushed to upskill so we could understand the unique risks and potential value of AI and determine how to integrate AI governance into our existing workflows. 

But AI’s adoption has also called our role on the executive team into question. Some companies are creating dedicated “Chief AI Officers,” or other AI-exclusive roles that manage both the technology itself and its governance. Others are turning to CISOs, CSOs and other IT leaders to manage AI governance. Some major tech enterprises are reducing their privacy functions entirely as they shift from a software focus to an AI focus. 

AI governance has created an identity crisis for CPOs. We can either rise to meet this moment, or our function risks a move to the back burner. With good data governance serving as the safety net beneath all enterprise technology — including AI — safeguarding our position has never been more critical.  

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Luckily, there are many reasons why we’re the best suited for this job. 

Why CPOs Are the AI Governance Leaders We Need

As challenging as it is to have a new responsibility added to privacy officers’ already overflowing plates, we are the professionals best suited to toe the line between innovation-hungry product teams and conservative legal departments. Managing AI governance is simple because we’re already: 

Navigating complex regulations: We’ve steered enterprises through the patchwork of data privacy regulations since they first emerged in 2018. AI regulation will likely progress in much the same way. We can expect many more intersecting––and conflicting––regulations to pass over the next decade. CPOs will draw from our years of experience in future-proofing enterprise technologies to meet this coming wave. 

Working cross-functionally: The CPO bridges the gap between nearly every business department — bringing together people from legal, product, IT, customer support and the executive suite. We’ve already built the relationships that make up the foundation of a collaborative AI governance structure.

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Holding our organizations accountable: Beyond handling the legalese, CPOs serve as the ethical compass and mediator in the boardroom. Rather than asking if we can do something, we prompt our teams to question if we should. We're not afraid to dissect ethical dilemmas, argue against risky products and features, and push our product teams to place privacy, accountability and transparency at the forefront. CPOs will apply that same scrutiny to AI innovations.

Protecting data fidelity: AI is data-hungry. As data stewards, CPOs are constantly thinking about data minimization and accuracy. We make sure our organizational data is utilizable, fully consented, non-siloed and structured. This is an indispensable skill in AI governance, where quality data makes all the difference. 

Managing risk: Putting out organization-wide data fires is an average Monday afternoon for a CPO. We've battle-tested incident response protocols, evaluated every new product at our organization from top to bottom and can do privacy impact assessments in our sleep. More often than not, CPOs also have a background in law, or— like myself as a non-lawyer— have become well-versed in the legal practicalities of data. When push comes to shove, you want the calm, cool and collected CPO in the room.

The New Compliance Frontier 

Like the age of Big Data introduced new regulations and ethical conundrums, so too will AI. We’ve already seen an inkling of these regulations in Europe with the AI Act and with bills under consideration in states like California. AI systems consume massive amounts of human-created data, which makes them (and the companies building and working with them) prime targets for hackers. Luckily, CPOs know data governance better than most.

Public trust in AI systems is another challenge CPOs are primed to meet. Consumers have strong positive and negative reactions to companies adopting AI applications based on their function and corporate transparency: Meta faced intense backlash for its use of consumer data for model training, yet Apple users are bursting with excitement for generative AI emojis. Throw in AI systems' propensity for bias and limited transparency, and AI governance becomes a seemingly unmanageable behemoth. 

Companies’ knee-jerk reaction to creating an entirely new position just for AI governance is understandable. But like privacy compliance, AI governance is a team sport. It demands collaboration across IT, legal, data science, HR and product teams –– with a CPO at the helm to serve as the connective tissue between. Organizations with a CPO managing AI governance will gain the competitive advantage of future-proofed operations, public trust and regulatory security. 

As CPOs, we’re well-versed in reinvention. The age of AI is just another opportunity for us to evolve, step up and lead enterprises through the next decade. Here’s hoping the rest of the C-suite agrees.

About the Author

Ron De Jesus

Field chief privacy officer at Transcend, Transcend

Ron De Jesus is the privacy industry's first field chief privacy officer at data privacy platform Transcend. Formerly the CPO of Grindr, he holds 15+ years of experience helming privacy programs at companies like Match Group and Coach.

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