Chief Data Officer survey 2023

The role of the Chief Data Officer (CDO) is firmly on the agenda for most, perhaps all, organisations. Some may already have appointed a CDO, could be considering doing so, or may not have explored this option yet. Even so, the importance of the role continues to increase.

Over the last few years, there’s been rapid growth of new artificial intelligence, analytics, and data use cases across all industries globally. Digital transformation has accelerated, and the most truly data-enabled organisations continue to set new standards of performance. The future of data is all the more exciting and presents great opportunities, however, fresh risks come with this change, and are stretching traditional governance approaches. Nevertheless, there’s a need to understand how CDOs should contribute – by taking the lead, catalysing, or supporting across data initiatives.

Although an organisations’ success is not the sole responsibility of the Chief Data Officer, the CDO plays a key role, which is ever-increasing in scope and importance.

Key questions that the 2023 survey focuses on are:

• what does a successful CDO look like?
• what is a CDO responsible for, what is their role?
• where do CDOs spend their time and budget?
• what are their key priorities and challenges?
• how diverse is the role, and how diverse are their teams?