Best books for Chief AI Officers (CAIO)

Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence

by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, Avi Goldfarb · 2018

~250 pages~6 hrs to read

Frames AI as cheaper prediction and works through what that changes for decisions, jobs and strategy. A clear base for deciding where AI belongs in a business.

Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI

by Paul R. Daugherty, H. James Wilson · 2018

~250 pages~6 hrs to read

Draws on company examples to show how processes are redesigned around people and AI working together. Useful early for thinking about AI in terms of operations, not just models.

Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World

by Marco Iansiti, Karim R. Lakhani · 2020

~290 pages~7 hrs to read

Explains how firms built around data, software and analytics operate, and what that means for the rest. Read it when you are shaping an AI operating model.

Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence

by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, Avi Goldfarb · 2022

Argues that the large gains come when whole systems are redesigned around AI, not when it is dropped into existing workflows. Helps when you need to scope transformation beyond pilots.

The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation

by Gerald C. Kane, Anh Nguyen Phillips, Jonathan R. Copulsky, Garth R. Andrus · 2019

~280 pages~7 hrs to read

Research-based look at why digital transformation depends on culture, talent and leadership more than on tools. A reminder that an AI programme succeeds or fails on people.

Leading Change

by John P. Kotter · 1996

~210 pages~5 hrs to read

The classic eight-stage account of leading organisational change, from urgency to anchoring new habits. Read it before you launch a company-wide AI initiative.

Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters

by Richard P. Rumelt · 2011

~320 pages~8 hrs to read

Shows how to tell a real strategy, with a diagnosis, guiding policy and coherent actions, from a list of goals. Useful when you write an AI strategy that has to survive scrutiny.

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

by Clayton M. Christensen · 1997

~340 pages~9 hrs to read

Explains why well-run incumbents miss disruptive technology shifts. A useful lens for deciding when to invest ahead of demand and how to protect new work from the core business.

The Age of AI: And Our Human Future

by Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, Daniel Huttenlocher · 2021

~270 pages~7 hrs to read

A high-level look at how AI affects security, economies and human decision-making. Good preparation for board and government conversations about where AI is heading.

The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma

by Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar · 2023

Written by a co-founder of DeepMind, it covers AI and synthetic biology and the question of containing them. Read it to sharpen your view of risk, regulation and long-term obligations.

Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control

by Stuart Russell · 2019

~340 pages~9 hrs to read

An AI researcher on why systems must remain under human control and how to design for that. Gives an executive grounding for AI safety and governance decisions.

Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building

by Claire Hughes Johnson · 2023

~480 pages~12 hrs to read

A practical operating guide from a former Stripe COO covering hiring, management systems and building organisations that scale. Relevant once your AI function has to grow beyond a small team.