As the demands and dynamics of Chief Data Officers evolve, understanding the shifting priorities and challenges they face is crucial. This is the driving force behind the CDO Council’s annual survey. Thanks to the work done by our NIH partners, we explored the 2024 CDO Council results, offering a comprehensive overview of trends, obstacles, and opportunities shaping CDOs today. By comparing these findings with those in 2023, we gained valuable insights into how our members are adapting to emerging priorities and allocating resources more effectively. This year’s survey highlighted several pivotal trends that reflect the changing role of CDOs and the agencies they serve, including a special topic on Data Strategies Support of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategies. See below for the other decisive trends that emerged from this survey:
Demographics and Experience:
- CDOs across all agency sizes exhibit high levels of education and extensive public sector experience. Small agencies show an increasing trend in advanced qualifications, reflecting their commitment to professional growth.
Responsibilities and Role Change Overtime:
- CDOs’ primary responsibilities include governance, strategy, and data architecture. Small agencies are taking on a broader range of tasks, particularly in emerging areas like AI and privacy management.
Obstacles Identified by Survey Responders:
- Funding and workforce gaps remain the most significant challenges across all agencies, with smaller agencies disproportionately affected.
Resources and Technical Capacity:
- Agencies are increasingly leveraging external resources for technical expertise to address skill gaps. Participation in training programs has grown, underscoring a focus on upskilling teams, particularly in data governance and analytics.
Future Outlook:
- Cross-agency collaborations are becoming more common, enabling CDOs to share tools, strategies, and best practices.
This year’s survey also provided a detailed breakdown of CDO demographics, including education, experience, and diversity trends. It also revealed insights into key roles and responsibilities of CDOs, segmented by agency size. The analysis also highlighted persistent obstacles, such as funding and staffing gaps and their impact on CDOs’ operations. Also analyzed in this survey were the projections for the evolving role of CDOs, including a focus on strategic priorities, like AI, privacy, and sustainability. Lastly, the NIH team conducted a comparative analysis of trends and changes between the 2023 and 2024 survey results. As we share these results, we would like to thank Keya Gemechu, Data Scientist at National Institute of Health, for his time and effort to analyze the survey responses and developing the summary slides.
For a holistic review of the survey finding, please see the 2024 slides analyzing the data, 2024 responses (anonymized) , 2024 survey instrument, as well as the 2023 slides analyzing the data and 2023 survey instrument.