“Erh… so where’s the AI slide?” - CTOs/CPOs and the rise of the “Chief Education Officer”

At our most recent T&P Forum dinner - bringing together a single table of the most accomplished executive leaders within European Tech and Product - predictably, one theme dominated above all others.

Of course, it’s AI. But, more specifically, our conversation focused on the seemingly sizeable gap between the strong desire of CEOs and investors to incorporate AI into their businesses on one hand, and the almost total lack of knowledge around what AI is and how it can and should be implemented on the other:

“Our boards will just come to tech and product and go “AI right?” and expect us to have a slide on it. But they don’t have a clue on the exam question they’re trying to solve with it”

- T&P Forum Member

This sentiment was one shared by everyone around the table. As is so often the case, with the commercial side of the board table less well versed on the nuances of the bleeding edge of technology, it falls on the CTO, CPO or Engineering lead to explain, contextualise, advocate, excite or cool down their peers.

With AI dominating the narrative so completely, our dinner guests, several of whom are globally recognised AI leaders themselves, collectively shared a concern that, carried away by the perceived (and misinformed) perception that AI can solve all challenges - tomorrow - the pressure on them and their teams to deliver magical solutions can become overwhelming.

The panic of missing the boat on the coming tech revolution is clearly a theme:

"FOMO is the driver here. CEOs don’t understand AI but feel they need it. I pushed for an AI co-pilot for my engineering teams six months ago and was told no. Six months later, they’re asking me why we don’t have it!"

- T&P Forum Member


FOMO is hardly the foundation on which to pivot an entire company, but even from our sample group of 12, it was clear that companies are making massive bets on a technology they clearly (in the eyes of their own CTOs and CPOs) don’t yet fully understand.

"It used to be a case of “what’s the cost of your tech investment request and can you prove it’s needed?”. Now it’s “GET US AI!”. Executives don’t understand it and don’t know what to do with it. They have a massive hill to climb here."

- T&P Forum Member

"Investors really don’t get it either. Our investor just gave us £Xm “to invest in AI”!"

- T&P Forum Member

The AI hype cycle is clearly still in its early stages, but is reaching an inflection point where the base-level knowledge of generalists is starting to climb, albeit from a very low base. This, according to our Forum members, is why bigger, often less-than-fully thought-through strategies are starting to play out. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

This increased lay understanding has led to Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers and/or Engineering leaders having to play a new role of “Chief Education Officer” on top of their already full-on, full-time roles.

"We need to inject more scepticism. Investors are asking “Why won’t AI disrupt you?!” They don’t understand that AI isn’t close to that in most cases yet."

- T&P Forum Member

"The only company who has actually realised any gains from GPT yet is Open AI! Execs all over the world are just paying for tech they don’t understand."

- T&P Forum Member

This, understandably, does not sit comfortably. With AI technology so nascent and only a smattering of wildly successful applications, CTOs and CPOs fear being tarred with the “you’re the tech person - make it go faster” brush that has so often been wielded from the “business” side of the board room.

There was consensus around the dinner table that it was imperative to avoid becoming the Chief Education Officer, by creating a company-wide culture of experimentation in AI, starting from the top.

"The best way to change our execs and investors is to make them use AI!"

- T&P Forum Member

The T&P Forum exists to move the ball forward in European Tech and Product leadership, with our discussion shifting to proposed solutions to the Chief Education Officer conundrum and a broader approach to landing AI adoption in their companies safely.

Education will remain a top priority as we ride the hype cycle. Several T&P attendees shared how they had rolled out “AI Manifestos”, encouraging employees to become “AI literate” by the end of 2025 and setting a level of expectation across the entire organisation. Interestingly, others were still trying to convince their engineers that AI and GPTs were worthy of their investment, and not a threat to their futures.

This is clearly a rapidly evolving, widely unexplored frontier. Inevitably, Chief Technology, Product and Engineering Officers - so often expected to be the spearheads of transformational change - will find themselves under pressure to work out how to respond to the “AI right?” pleas of their CEO and investors.

Those who succeed will be the ones able to disperse the Chief Education Officer responsibilities beyond themselves and into their entire organisation, starting with the C-suite and investors.

Authors

Stephen Rosenthal and Hannah French are Partners at Founders Keepers and the facilitators of the FK Tech & Product Forum.

If you would like to join this Forum or learn more, please don’t hesitate to contact stephen@founderskeepers.co or hannah@founderskeepers.co