A New Leadership Mandate: The #2 Technical Skill Every C-Suite Leader Needs
In today’s AI-driven business landscape, C-suite leaders must master more than artificial intelligence to thrive.
While AI revolutionizes decision-making and operations, secondary technical skills like data engineering, digital marketing, and cloud infrastructure are crucial for supporting and maximizing AI’s potential.
This Techronicler article compiles insights from business leaders, thought leaders, and tech professionals, exploring these vital competencies.
From ensuring clean data pipelines to navigating cyber resilience and fostering adaptability, experts reveal how these skills complement AI, enabling executives to align technology with strategic goals, enhance innovation, and drive sustainable growth in a rapidly evolving market.
Discover why overlooking these abilities could hinder even the most AI-savvy organizations.
Read on!
Data Engineering Builds The Road For AI
As CEO of Kitt, a B2B business travel platform , I’d say data engineering comes a close second to AI as the most critical technical skill. AI gets the spotlight, but without strong data pipelines, clean inputs, and real-time access to fragmented sources, it’s just window dressing.
We’ve faced this firsthand—building Kitt meant integrating volatile travel APIs, mapping inconsistent supplier data, and ensuring every booking was tagged with the right cost center, department, and policy rule.
None of that would be possible without solid data infrastructure. In fact, our ability to offer live spend tracking and smart policy enforcement hinges more on how we structure and pipe data than the AI layer that interprets it.
AI might drive insights, but it’s data engineering that builds the road.
Digital Marketing is C-Suite’s Key Second Skill
I consider digital marketing skills as an essential second technical skill for C-suite leaders.
With the rise of digital platforms executives need to be knowledgeable in social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) and other digital tactics.
In the beauty industry leveraging platforms like Instagram and TikTok is key to driving brand awareness.
Understanding how these digital marketing strategies can complement AI tools helps align business objectives with customer engagement efforts.
Without digital marketing expertise even the most advanced AI solutions won’t reach their target audience effectively.
Infrastructure Expertise is A C-Suite Skill
Infrastructure development comes as a close second to AI as a C-suite complex skill.
Enterprises increasingly rely on scalable systems for AI deployments, and understanding how these systems work is essential for continued success.
AI can work on these systems and improve them, but not design them without human intervention.
Therefore, optimizing and securing cost-effective cloud solutions is a necessary skill that team members must possess.
Human expertise is required to make informed decisions regarding cloud architecture for compliance purposes. Again, understanding the intricacies of these systems is crucial.
C-suite execs who are infrastructure literate will drive their businesses forward with unending progress.
Daniel Keller
CEO & Co-founder, Runonflux
Cyber Resilience is A Top Priority
AI has undoubtedly become a key business priority for many C-suites, with investors and customers excited to see how the emerging technology will be innovated into current service and product offerings.
A close second to this for many executives is ensuring that their growing reliance on technology is supported by a sound cyber resilience plan to reduce business risk in the event of an unexpected incident.
Cyber resilience isn’t limited to cyberattacks by malicious actors—it can also include events like power outages that restrict access to critical systems.
The recent power outage at London Heathrow Airport, which shut down operations due to unavailable systems, is a clear example of why cyber resilience is a top priority for C-suites.
Tony Anscombe
Chief Security Evangelist, ESET
Cloud Fluency is A C-Suite Must-Have
As more businesses migrate their infrastructure and services to the cloud, understanding how cloud ecosystems operate is becoming non-negotiable for C-suite leaders. It’s not just an IT concern anymore.
Decisions about platforms like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud directly impact innovation speed, resilience, and profitability.
A CIO or CTO who understands cloud architecture can better align tech strategy with commercial goals, and even non-technical execs benefit from grasping the basics. With the cloud underpinning AI, automation, remote work, and global operations, this skill is increasingly part of the leadership toolkit.
Simon Fabb
CEO, Chief Jobs
Data Analysis: Key To Thriving in AI
As an innovative Business Growth Director in the forex and trading technology industry, I strongly believe that data analysis stands just behind AI as a vital hard skill for C-suite executives.
While AI is transforming decision-making and streamlining processes, data analysis enhances it by delivering the essential insights that drive these AI-powered systems.
Over the course of my career, honing data analysis skills has been pivotal for forecasting market movements, spotting lucrative prospects, and refining marketing strategies—key elements for thriving in forex technology and trading.
For example, evaluating trader patterns and historical statistics empowers businesses to devise smarter tactics, improving customer retention and boosting ROI.
This expertise allows leaders to not only grasp current trends but also foresee upcoming changes in a dynamic market like forex.
Just as I’ve effectively expanded businesses through SEO and online marketing, integrating data-based insights into strategic planning has played a crucial role in helping organizations achieve dominance amidst intense competition.
Ultimately, merging these technical abilities with a comprehensive understanding of market behavior enables C-suite executives to excel in the rapidly shifting trading environment.
Corina Tham
Finance & Sales Director, CheapForexVPS
Data Storytelling Gives AI Its Strategic Edge
While AI has certainly taken center stage in executive toolkits, I’ve found that data literacy—specifically, data storytelling—comes in a close second.
A few months ago, we faced a perplexing dip in engagement metrics. Raw numbers alone weren’t enough; it was our ability to interpret those trends, contextualize them with audience behavior, and clearly communicate that story across departments that enabled us to course-correct. That skill transformed confusion into clarity and reaction into strategy.
For today’s C-suite, being technically fluent in data storytelling means more than reading dashboards. It’s about distilling insights, drawing patterns from complex datasets, and shaping narratives that influence decision-making across marketing, product, and finance.
This skill empowers leaders to champion evidence-backed ideas, align stakeholders, and drive change with confidence.
As AI continues to automate tasks and surface insights, the ability to interpret and effectively communicate those insights becomes even more critical. It’s the human layer that gives AI its strategic edge.
Carla Niña Pornelos
General Manager, Wardnasse
AI Systems Thinking Elevates Your Workforce
AI Systems Thinking comes in a close second. Once leaders understand what AI can do, the next skill is knowing where to apply it. That means getting good at spotting repeatable, soul-sucking tasks across your org and asking, “Why are people still doing this manually?”
The goal isn’t to replace people. It’s to elevate them. But that shift also raises the bar.
If AI takes the grunt work, your team will be expected to step up in new ways. That only works if you evolve how you train, support, and measure performance at the same time.
And yeah, there’s a lot of noise. Most vendors slap “AI” on old tools. The hard part is finding a partner that’s not just easy to buy, but one who’s going to push you forward. That’s who you want in your corner.
AI Requires Leaders To Adapt Rapidly
While often overlooked, the second most valuable skill is the adaptability to change, and the ability to coordinate that change within a rapidly shifting technological environment.
While not traditionally considered a technical skill, if we all acknowledge that AI is going to be the primary driver of change within industry over the coming years and decades, then leaders who can navigate this landscape are going to be in high demand.
In years gone by when a competitor launched a new offering or implemented new features you could afford to wait 6 to 12 months to catch up. In the age of AI the timeframes are compressed. Already we have seen AI native companies such as Cursor grow from $100 million to $300 million in ARR in just four months, while Windsurf, which is barely a few years old, has already been acquired for $3 billion. That is the rate of change that technology leaders now need to become accustomed to if they want to remain competitive.
Paul Towers
Founder & CEO, Playwise HQ
On behalf of the Techronicler community of readers, we thank these leaders and experts for taking the time to share valuable insights that stem from years of experience and in-depth expertise in their respective niches.
If you wish to showcase your experience and expertise, participate in industry-leading discussions, and add visibility and impact to your personal brand and business, get in touch with the Techronicler team to feature in our fast-growing publication.
