Some executives are considering a new addition to the team, according to a recent poll from Deloitte.
The advisory company polled more than 1,890 C-suite and other executives during a May webcast titled "Assurance by Design: Finance transformation controls readiness." More than 100 healthcare executives were included in the respondent pool, Deloitte confirmed to Becker's.
More than 44 percent of respondents said they see AI as the top risk for their organizations' internal controls environment, and nearly 36 percent consider it the top opportunity.
Despite the growing influence of AI, only about 40 percent of C-suites include a chief controls officer, according to the poll; 7.5 percent plan to hire one in the next year.
"As AI use advances and regulations for its use proliferate, there's a pressing need for many organizations to appoint a leader who can apply an internal controls lens to help ensure that risk management approaches can scale over time as well as during strategic initiatives like M&A activity, new IT system implementations and other business-transforming efforts," Casey Kacirek, a Deloitte risk and financial advisory managing director, said in a Sept. 27 news release.
"Appointing a leader to oversee internal controls for emerging tech use can help streamline taxonomies for technology management, minimize duplicate spending, allocate resources properly, maximize tech investment returns and ultimately demonstrate longer-term organizational commitment to areas including trustworthy use of AI."
Some health systems are hiring chief AI advisors to hone their strategy. Read more here.