Every organization is familiar with CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CTOs and CISOs — the first three positions, at least, have been around for as long as modern business itself.

But business continues to evolve, and organizations need leaders specialized in increasingly complex areas. This means that the C-suite is getting ever more robust: A growing number of execs are getting “C’s” in front of their titles, including those specialized in artificial intelligence (AI), data, customer experience and environmental, social and governance (ESG).

“The traditional C-suite covered the core functions of leadership, finance, technology and information security,” Henry Criss, CEO at Fraum Center for Restorative Health, said. “However, the demands of modern business have led to the creation of new executive positions to address specialized areas critical to organizational success.”

Data, data and more data  Organizations today collect more data than they even know what to do with. And that accumulation of data will only continue to accelerate: Gartner estimates that between 2023 and 2028, large enterprises will triple their unstructured data capacity across their on-premises, edge and public cloud locations.

However, many organizations struggle to understand the significance of data as a strategic asset and how to effectively manage and use it, said Brian Stafford, CEO of GRC company Diligent. He described a “dire need” for C-Suite executives to present data in a way that delivers clear, concise insights. Increasingly, these are chief data officers (CDOs), or chief data analytics officers (CDAOs) and chief data scientists.

These roles differ from the CIO, which oversees organizations from an IT standpoint, and the CTO, which focuses on technological development; instead, the CDO is responsible for setting up and maintaining an organization’s data framework, Stafford explained.

CDOs are responsible for establishing clear and effective data governance and initiatives around analytics, business intelligence (BI) and AI. They help their teams source usable, clean, accurate data and advise fellow leaders on products, customers, operations and markets. This all helps to drive transformation, reduce costs and generate revenue, according to experts.

“This takes pressure off the rest of the C-suite to deliver results in areas of an organization that they may not be as knowledgeable in, or had the bandwidth to give their full attention to,” said Stafford.

AI will be (nearly) everywhere but someone needs to manage it Dovetailing with data management is the rapid proliferation of AI — data serves as the groundbreaking technology’s core. As AI is set to transform business, organizations are exploring the role of the chief AI officers(CAIO). In fact, 13% more companies have been creating 'head of AI' roles (or equivalent) since December 2022, according to LinkedIn. This is driven in part by a directive from the White House to federal agencies to establish chief AI officers.

CAIOs need to have a strong understanding of the technology underpinning AI and proven experience driving projects to business value generation, said Kjell Carlsson, head of AI strategy at Domino Data Lab. They also have to be able to manage and support a variety of specialists including data scientists and data and AI/ML engineers.

To effectively leverage AI, organizations need “leaders who can focus on transformation, without being distracted by ongoing operational responsibilities and without being locked into the existing business and IT siloes and politics,” said Carlsson.

CAIOs need to collaborate with other leaders to understand departmental needs and work with product teams on go-to-market opportunities. They also need to help teams deliver new AI capabilities — including in IT, back office, finance and legal and compliance. Ensuring that their business develops and upskills AI talent is also critical.

CAIOs are “essential to developing the strategy, applying the change management, unifying teams and harmonizing processes to drive meaningful AI/ML transformation,” said Carlsson.

AI also introduces many new risks: For instance, unmonitored AI use could cause ethical issues around data privacy, and shadow AI can proliferate in internal workflows and undermine governance and visibility efforts, said Arti Raman, CEO and founder and genAI visibility and data security company Portal26.

“Operating with genAI can soon prove unsustainable without someone to guide initiatives appropriately,” she said. “This person will be the final piece of the genAI puzzle and allow AI in the enterprise to thrive.”

Customer and employee experience are everything Organizations are nothing without their customers and employees — for different reasons, they are what keep them in business.

For this reason, more organizations are introducing chief experience officers (CXOs) and chief customer officers (CCOs). These often work with chief marketing officers (CMOs). In fact, Gartner reported back in 2020 that nearly 90% of organizations had a CXO, CCO or equivalent.

They perform a multitude of functions, including researching customers and mapping customer journeys, creating marketing policies and initiatives, collecting data and feedback, guiding teams on marketing campaigns and establishing metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). They can help improve customer satisfaction, reduce churn and increase referral volume.

Meanwhile, as organizations seek to foster inclusive and diverse workplaces, they are taking on chief diversity officers (CDO), which help uphold employment laws and prevent workplace discrimination.

Some of their duties include building diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) plans around recruitment and community relations and design metrics and reporting systems to assess the impact of those initiatives. They may also provide DEI training and provide support programs and groups for employees with diverse backgrounds.

“Organizations with an expanded C-suite are often better positioned to adapt to changing market conditions and emerging trends, ensuring long-term competitiveness and resilience.

Sustainability and ESG All organizations are concerned about their carbon footprints. ESG programs not only help economically — they are good PR.

But incorporating them, particularly at a large company, is daunting due to the sheer scope of operations. This has increasingly given rise to chief sustainability officer (CSO) and chief impact officer roles.

CSOs help ensure regulatory compliance, assess risk management, enact internal policies, perform ESG monitoring and reporting, oversee sustainability projects and explore emerging sustainability technologies and practices.

”Effective CSOs possess a powerful combination of influence leadership skills, sustainability values and business acumen,“ said Dawn Dzurilla, founder and managing partner of executive search firm Gaia Human Capital Consultants.

Their influence should permeate the entire organization — from the boardroom to frontline employees, she said. Successful CSOs also should build strong relationships with external stakeholders, including the investment community, industry groups and partners, policymakers and non-government organizations (NGOs).

”They set the tone that we as an organization will do well, while doing much good by people and planet,“ said Dzurilla.

Expanded C-suite is most effective when done with purpose That’s not to say that the continued expansion of the C-suite doesn’t present new challenges — and it’s certainly not for all enterprises. Also, just appointing a senior leader does nothing on its own.

Some companies may create new roles without taking into account what would work best for their specific challenges and unique needs, noted Jon Brown, founder and CEO of South Meadows Recovery.

”In an attempt to seem innovative or sensitive to shifting stakeholder and customer expectations, some businesses could create and hire for needless executive roles,“ he said. ”This can result in an “excessively large leadership team that contributes little to no strategic value, which will cause internal instability and inefficiencies.”

Criss agreed, saying an expanded C-suite can lead to increased complexity in structure and decision-making, creating challenges when it comes to communication and coordination among larger groups of execs. Responsibilities may also overlap, and there can be confusion around accountability. Finally, new executive roles could create silos “with different functions operating in isolation rather than collaboratively.”

Criss emphasized that “fostering a culture of cross-functional collaboration is crucial to mitigating this risk.”