Glossary

Plain-language definitions of the terms this bundle uses. It grows as the bundle does.

Chief AI Officer (CAIO). The executive accountable for enterprise AI strategy end to end — direction, operating model, risk appetite, and build/buy/partner decisions. The bet-owner, not the builder.

Federated operating model. Central standards and reviews, with delivery distributed to business and product teams. The pattern most CAIO guidance converges on, as opposed to a fully centralized or fully decentralized model.

Portfolio council. A recurring forum — the CAIO plus finance, technology, data, risk, and business leadership — where AI initiatives get funded and re-prioritized. Funding decisions live here, not risk sign-off.

Responsible-AI review. A forum separate from the portfolio council that sets risk gates proportional to what's at stake, and approves what's safe to ship.

Lifecycle gates. The minimum bar a project must clear before shipping: a named business owner, a performance baseline, approved data access, a completed risk review, a monitoring plan, and an adoption approach.

AI-first C-suite design. Structuring executive roles and mandates around AI accountability from the outset, rather than adding an AI mandate onto an existing title after the fact.