Waning trust in tech companies has spawned a new C-level role: Chief Trust Officer (CTrO).
According to a recent trends report by Forrester Research, tech companies are struggling to garner the trust of businesses and the public due to missteps following many breakthrough technology advances. The report pointed out that stalkers have adopted Apple AirTags, machine learning teams have been trained on datasets that ignored ethnic differences, and Elon Musk’s xAI chatbot Grok posted a series of far-right and antisemitic comments on X.
“Tech vendors have become the first to adopt CTrOs out of necessity,” noted the report written by Vice President and Principal Analyst Jeff Pollard, with Oliwia Berdak, Stephanie Balaouras, Liam Holloway, and Michael Belden.
Although tech companies were early adopters of the CTrO concept, other businesses have followed suit. “Organizations that successfully earn and keep the trust of their customers, employees, and partners experience better business outcomes, more engagement, and competitive differentiation,” the report noted.
“For organizations that refuse to leave trust to chance, chief trust officers have emerged as the role responsible for shaping their firm’s destiny,” it continued. “Title inflation and performance theater drive the creation of some C-level roles, but the expansive responsibilities of chief trust officers prove the necessity and value of this role.”
