The Chief AI Officer: Scientist, Architect, Coach — Rania Khalaf, WSO2

This talk by Rania Khalaf, Chief AI Officer at WSO2, frames the role of a CAIO through three lenses: Scientist, Architect, and Coach. It emphasizes practical metrics beyond token count, such as AI fluency, adoption depth, agent-consumable products (MCP servers, skills, CLIs), agent-proof pricing, earned thought leadership, and AI ARR. The talk highlights the importance of CEO backing and adapting the role to company maturity and individual skills, drawing examples from ag-biotech and WSO2's agentic enterprise strategy. It also touches on the practical application of AI in reshaping product strategy and the potential for simpler computer vision to outperform complex ML in certain scenarios.