The role of Chief Data Officer is the fastest-growing position among C-level executives, followed by Chief Legal Officer and Chief Human Resources Officer, according to the latest LinkedIn data. A trend that highlights the growing significance of AI, data, and human capital for businesses.
The list “paints a picture of companies prioritizing AI, data knowledge, and privacy in their leadership ranks, while also balancing that with a strong focus on executive positions focused on people and human capacity,” wrote the three authors, data scientists with LinkedIn’s Economic Graph Research Institute.
The report shows that the path to become part of the C-Suite is no longer linear. Those who climb the ladder have worked in more functions, industries and companies than their predecessors.
The authors said that one of the main findings is the shift in the skills needed, with technical skills becoming less prominent among C-Suites and executives.
“At the same time, soft skills are becoming more and more prominent among leaders’ profiles today,” they wrote. The research finds that 9.6% of skills listed by hired C-Suites and executives in 2023 were soft skills, an increase of 31% compared to 2018 when it was only 7.3%.
As the path to the C-Suite is now more varied, with executives coming from different job functions and industries, the report finds that women tend to have more diverse experiences. In 2023, 38.5% of executives were women, up from 34.8% in 2018. If current trends continue, gender parity is expected to be reached by 2036, the research finds.
Millennials are the fastest-growing group in leadership, and they could surpass Gen X as early as next year, while Gen Z representation is rising slightly, and Gen X and baby boomer shares are declining.
Moreover, the report finds that skills-based hiring has resulted in a 12.6% increase in executives without bachelor’s degrees and a 2% drop in those with graduate degrees.