Chief Data and AI Officer Program
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Advance your C-suite leadership with data-driven insights
In the digital age, artificial intelligence (AI) has the power to transform organizations and drive significant impact. For leaders, emerging technologies offer the chance to enhance decision-making, uncover new opportunities, and lead with greater precision and foresight. Embracing AI empowers you to amplify your leadership influence and stay ahead in a competitive, AI-powered business landscape. The three-month Chief Data and AI Officer (CDAIO) Program, offered by the Ross School of Business and Michigan Engineering Professional Education, equips senior executives like you to lead AI-driven initiatives and digital transformations, deliver data-driven strategies to elevate your leadership in AI, and craft impactful growth strategies. The program focuses on data governance, AI strategy, data security, and analytics, helping you navigate the complexities of AI integration within the digital business landscape.
This program combines live online sessions with a five-day on-campus module, business case simulations, access to innovation labs, case studies, and networking opportunities. It provides both strategic insights and hands-on experience, allowing you to learn from esteemed faculty and industry experts.
Designed to elevate your AI leadership
Gain the strategic insights, practical tools, and hands-on experience to lead AI-driven transformation at scale. Tailored for senior executives in data and technology, this program provides direct access to University of Michigan faculty through live online sessions and an exclusive on-campus networking opportunity. It blends cutting-edge academic frameworks with real-world application to drive innovation and impact across your organization.
Live online sessions
Engage in interactive, faculty-led sessions that bring the University of Michigan classroom to you in real time. These live modules connect you directly with top faculty, industry experts, and a global peer group, enabling rich discussions on current AI applications, strategy, and leadership.
5-day on-campus immersion
Join a five-day in-person experience at the Ann Arbor, MI, campus. Participate in hands-on workshops, business simulations, and site visits to tech organizations at the forefront of AI. Deepen your executive presence, connect with alumni and faculty, and engage with the broader Michigan innovation ecosystem.
Applied learning
Translate insights into impact through a final capstone project focused on a real AI leadership challenge in your organization. With faculty guidance, you will develop a strategic roadmap through learnings from business case simulations and practical frameworks to drive measurable value.
About Ross School of Business and Michigan Engineering
At Michigan Ross, leadership development meets real-world impact. With a legacy of top-ranked programs and an action-based learning model, Michigan Ross empowers professionals to drive meaningful change.
Michigan Engineering is a global leader in interdisciplinary research and innovation, equipping leaders in engineering with the technical expertise and forward-thinking mindset to solve the world’s most pressing challenges.
This program brings together the academic strengths of Michigan Ross and Michigan Engineering, offering a unique opportunity to learn at the intersection of business leadership and technological innovation. Participants benefit from the combined expertise of two top-ranked schools within a globally respected university.
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What you will learn
The program will empower you to:
Develop and implement data strategies aligned with your business objectives and ensure governance compliance and consistent data management across all functions
Integrate AI solutions within strategic decision-making processes to fuel innovation, accelerate growth, and create a competitive advantage
Make data-driven strategic decisions by analyzing customer demand, competition, and market trends to optimize business outcomes
Ensure data security and compliance while extracting actionable insights through advanced analytics to support business objectives and maintain regulatory standards
Lead AI-driven initiatives and manage digital transformation, equipping your organization to thrive in a dynamic and rapidly evolving business environment
Leverage emerging technologies such as generative AI (genAI) to enhance operational efficiency, streamline business processes, and guide strategic decision making
Program highlights
Engage in hands-on learning and interactive sessions and benefit from direct access to faculty, industry experts, and peers in a focused environment.
Experience live online sessions with the faculty as well as periodic guest lectures from industry leaders.
Explore a comprehensive approach to elevate your AI leadership, preparing yourself to confront potential strategic challenges of the industry.
Gain insights from top faculty, thought leaders, and industry experts in data, AI, and business strategy who are actively shaping the future of emerging technologies.
Engage in company immersions with virtual visits from leading tech companies for experiential learning sessions, and gain firsthand insights into their business practices, innovations, and strategies.
Take part in hands-on simulation exercises to enhance your learning journey, and replicate real-world scenarios to put your learning into practice.
Engage with experts in emerging AI technologies, including researchers from Michigan AI, and gain valuable insights into cutting-edge tech developments.
Apply program insights to a capstone project to showcase your learning, deepen your expertise, and drive additional value for your organization.
Explore new perspectives and build lifelong connections by networking with high-achieving executives from different industries.
Curriculum
The multimodular CDAIO Program equips you to drive AI initiatives, including data strategy and governance, and align them with business goals to stay ahead of the curve. Through four strategic core pillars involving live-online sessions, opportunity to engage with Michigan AI researchers, and business case simulations, you will develop the leadership skills necessary to lead with a strategic vision.
Online access to Canvas and pre-program materials
Faculty-led program orientation
In this pillar, you will explore core machine learning (ML) concepts and the evolving role of foundation models in AI. You will also learn to craft data strategies and build architectures that drive meaningful business insights.
• Explore foundational concepts in ML, basic models, training processes, and learning representations
• Examine the critical role of pretraining, transfer learning, and foundation models
• Develop data strategies that align with business objectives and opportunities
• Build robust and accessible data architectures that enable business insights
This pillar explores core strategy principles and how AI is transforming them into drivers of competitive advantage. You will gain insights into using AI to elevate customer engagement, fuel innovation, and streamline organizational effectiveness.
• Explore foundational strategy concepts, and discover how organizations sustain competitive advantage
• Understand how AI enhances efficiency, quality, and speed to create a competitive advantage
• Discover how AI enhances customer engagement, product innovation, and revenue growth
• Gain insights into AI-driven organizational design, decision-making, and internal coordination
Through this pillar, you will learn to build trusted AI systems that comply with evolving regulations and protect sensitive data. You will also explore risk management frameworks and ethical practices to ensure secure, responsible AI at scale.
• Build compliant, high-integrity systems aligned with evolving regulations, including GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA
• Secure sensitive data with advanced tools, including encryption, anonymization, and emerging technologies
• Implement proactive risk management to prevent and respond to data breaches effectively
• Adopt responsible AI strategies that address bias, fairness, privacy, and transparency
This immersive experience focuses on shifting the narrative from viewing data as infrastructure to recognizing AI as essential for success. Designed to help you develop leadership, strategic, and influencing skills, the program enables you to drive meaningful impact within your organization.
• Learn to adapt to changing consumer needs and business shifts with future technologies, including generative AI and autonomous AI systems, and their potential business impact.
• Create your own strategy and strategic narrative for your team, explicitly linking and aligning the strategy to your organization’s long-term competitive advantages
• Develop a comprehensive strategy for internal influence and leadership to break silos, create alliances, and drive your strategy forward
• Strengthen your persuasive communication and influencing skills while gaining practical tools to lead and manage organizational change effectively- specifically while driving AI and technology change initiatives
• Develop a personal leadership development plan to enhance your success and the success of your team
Note: Topics and schedule are subject to change.
5-day On-Campus Immersion
The final learning pillar of the program is a highly immersive five-day on-campus experience at the Ross School of Business and the University of Michigan College of Engineering campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
This experience is designed to enhance your executive presence, decision-making capabilities, and ability to drive impact, empowering you to deliver greater value to your organization. In addition to live academic sessions, this immersion module includes ecosystem exposure and networking opportunities with faculty, alumni, industry leaders, and peers. You will have the opportunity to engage with experts in emerging AI technologies and participate in business simulations that mimic real-world scenarios. Through company immersions, you will engage in site visits to leading tech organizations and gain first-hand insights into their AI-driven strategies.
Company immersions
Live academic sessions
Peer networking
Program calendar
Date | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Orientation session |
| March 25, 2026 | |
Online Session | Past, Present, and Future of AI (Part 1) | Self-paced | Self-paced |
Live Online Session 1 | Past, Present, and Future of AI (Part 2) | April 9, 2026 | 11 a.m.-1:00 p.m. ET |
Live Online Session 2 | Data Strategy for Strategic Success | April 15, 2026 | 11 a.m.-1:00 p.m. ET |
Live Online Session 3 | Managing and Building a Robust Data Architecture | April 29, 2026 | 11 a.m.-1:00 p.m. ET |
Live Online Session 4 | Business Strategy and AI Advantage | May 6, 2026 | 11 a.m.-1:00 p.m. ET |
Live Online Session 5 | Leveraging AI for Business Success (Part 1) | May 20, 2026 | 11 a.m.-1:00 p.m. ET |
Online Session | Leveraging AI for Business Success (Part 2) | Self-paced | Self-paced |
Live Online Session 6 | Harnessing AI for Optimizing Decision Making | May 27, 2026 | 11 a.m.-1:00 p.m. ET |
Live Online Session 7 | Creating a Trusted and High-Integrity System | June 3, 2026 | 11 a.m.-1:00 p.m. ET |
Live Online Session 8 | Protecting Your Value Created | June 10, 2026 | 11 a.m.-1:00 p.m. ET |
Online Session | Ethical AI Development and Application | Self-paced | Self-paced |
On-campus sessions |
| June 15-19, 2026 |
|
Note: Session dates and timings are subject to change. Asynchronous sessions include curated readings, recorded lectures, and discussion board engagement.
Capstone Project
The capstone project will provide you with the opportunity to address a real-world business challenge by putting into practice your leadership skills and knowledge of data strategy and AI implementation. You can create actionable solutions for complex, industry-specific problems. This hands-on experience will allow you to turn theoretical concepts into practical applications, ensuring you are ready for immediate implementation in your organization.
Meet the faculty
Known for their transformative research disciplines, the esteemed faculty promotes advancements in data science and AI to achieve lasting scientific and societal impact. You will leverage their insights and technical expertise required to equip you with the skills needed to broaden your understanding of AI and address its unique challenges.
Faculty Director for the CDAIO Program; Clinical Associate Professor of Strategy, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
Brad’s research focuses on healthcare, studying how policies, labor turnover, and growth strategies affect hospice and long-term care providers. Previously, he held faculty ro...
Technical Faculty Advisor for the CDAIO Program; Associate Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Michigan
Recognized for her impactful contributions to science and technology, Professor Wiens was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Science and Healthcare in 2015 and MIT Technology Rev...
Professor of Technology and Operations; Ford Motor Company Business Co-Director of the Joel D. Tauber Institute for Global Operations, Michigan Ross, University of Michigan
Hyun-soo Ahn’s research focuses on supply chain management, service operations, pricing strategies, and value chain innovation. A recipient of the 2019 Ross Researcher of the ...
Chief Information Officer, Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan
Dr. Andrew Rosenberg leads IT strategy and operations for Michigan Medicine and oversees the University of Michigan Health and the University of Michigan Medical School. Previ...
Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering; Director of SymbioticLab, University of Michigan
Mosharaf Chowdhury specializes in large-scale systems for AI/ML and big data workloads, with a focus on cloud efficiency, federated learning, and energy optimization. His grou...
Associate Professor of Marketing, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
Professor Eric Schwartz's expertise focuses on predicting customer behavior, understanding its drivers, and examining how firms actively manage their customer relationships th...
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Torc Robotics
Summer Craze Fowler is a seasoned C-suite executive with over 20 years of experience in technology, cybersecurity, and risk management. She currently serves as chief informati...
Thomas C. Kinnear Professor and Associate Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
Faculty Director, Center for Positive Organizations; Lecturer of Management and Organizations, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
Chief Information Officer, Adjunct Lecturer in Information, Research Computer Specialist, School of Information and Application Programmer/Analyst, Family Medicine, Medical School
Lecturer of Business Communication, Michigan Ross, University of Michigan
Industry Expert; Intermittent Lecturer in Information, University of Michigan School of Information; UMSI Advisory Board Member
Jack D. Sparks Whirlpool Corporation Research Professor of Business Administration; Professor of Management and Organizations, Michigan Ross, University of Michigan
Who is this program for?
The CDAIO Program is designed for C-suite executives and leaders responsible for shaping AI and digital strategies, including chief data officers, chief technology officers, chief information officers, and AI leaders from diverse industries who use emerging technologies and drive AI-led initiatives to create a competitive advantage.
This program is particularly beneficial for:
AI transformation leaders looking to leverage AI technologies for business growth, enhance business operations, and drive innovation to maintain a competitive edge
Data science and analytics leaders aiming to integrate AI models and analytics to improve business efficiency by leveraging the latest technological advancements with an aim to apply data-driven insights for optimizing processes and gaining strategic business benefits
Digital leaders and entrepreneurs seeking to develop multifunctional AI skills to drive digital innovation and growth in their business operations
Certificate
Upon successful completion of the program, participants will be awarded a verified digital certificate by Michigan Ross Executive Education and Michigan Engineering Professional Education. The certificate will be a recognition of their achievement in the Chief Data and AI Officer Program.
To qualify for the certificate, participants must attend a minimum of 7 live sessions and fully participate in the on-campus week. These requirements are in place to ensure meaningful engagement and a comprehensive learning experience.
Note: After successful completion of the program, your verified digital certificate will be emailed to you in the name you used when registering for the program. All certificate images are for illustrative purposes only and may be subject to change at the discretion of Michigan Ross and Michigan Engineering Professional Education.
Earn credentials
Upon successfully completing the program:
Receive a digital badge to showcase on LinkedIn and other social media platforms
Earn 8 credits toward the Distinguished Leader Certificate (DLC) which requires a total of 14 credits from qualifying in-person or online programs
FAQs
Emeritus collects all program payments, provides learner enrollment and program support, and manages learning platform services.
For the program refund and deferral policy, please click the link here.
Program fees for Emeritus programs with Ross School of Business and Michigan Engineering Professional Education may not be paid for with (a) funds from the GI Bill, the Post-9/11 Educational Assistance Act of 2008, or similar types of military education funding benefits or (b) Title IV financial aid funds.
The CDAIO Program is ideal for C-suite and senior leaders driving AI and digital strategy such as CDOs, CTOs, CIOs, and AI-focused executives—who seek to harness emerging technologies for business growth.
It is especially relevant for:
AI leaders aiming to scale innovation and gain a competitive edge
Data and analytics heads looking to apply AI for strategic decision-making
Digital leaders and entrepreneurs focused on driving tech-enabled transformation
After reviewing the information on the program landing page, we encourage you to submit the short form above to access the program brochure, which offers detailed insights into how this program supports the evolving needs in AI for business leaders. If you’re still unsure whether this is the right fit for you, feel free to email learner.success@emeritus.org, and a dedicated program advisor will get in touch with you shortly.
Connect with a Program Advisor for a 1:1 Session
Our program advisors have helped senior executives around the world choose the right program for their career goals. Schedule a 1:1 to get a deeper understanding why the Chief Data and AI Officer Program is the right fit for you.
Email: umic_cdaio@emeritus.org
Phone: +1 315 669 8096 (U.S.) +44 1277 674106 (U.K.) +971 80 0088601086 (U.A.E.) +52 55965 43507 (LATAM)
We encourage early application due to limited cohort capacity.
Flexible payment options available.
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