After AI: The #2 Technical Skill Every C-Suite Leader Needs
AI dominates C-suite hard skills, but a close second fuels its power: data fluency.
This Techronicler article compiles insights from business leaders, thought leaders, and tech professionals on the runner-up technical competency.
Experts champion data literacy for interpreting trends, cloud architecture for scalable infrastructure, and financial acumen for resource alignment.
They stress strategy, cybersecurity, and project decomposition as enablers, with outcomes like 40% faster decisions and 340% revenue lifts.
In 2025’s AI era, mastering this skill turns data into strategy, ensuring executives lead transformation, not just adopt tools.
Read on!
Financial Fluency Fuels Every Decision
Leading a recruitment firm that conducts executive searches gives me a front-row seat to the skills most in demand at the C-suite level.
AI skills are unique in that they are nearly universal and desired.
Many of the other technical skills we see vary across industries, but there is another exception: financial acumen.
Financial literacy is no longer confined to the CFO.
Every executive is expected to allocate resources effectively and ensure spending aligns with strategic priorities.
This requires a solid grasp of P&L management, financial modeling, margin analysis, capital allocation, and budgeting.
These capabilities are especially critical in capital-intensive industries like manufacturing and construction, where margins can be tight and investment decisions carry significant weight.
But financial fluency matters even outside those sectors.
Executives who understand how to manage and deploy financial resources thoughtfully are better equipped to drive sustainable growth and deliver measurable returns, and those are goals for just about every senior leadership team.
David Case
President, Advastar Group
Data Storytelling Drives Brand Wins
After AI, I believe data fluency is the most critical hard skill for the C-suite.
In my role leading a digital agency, I’ve seen firsthand how the ability to interpret and act on performance data can make or break a brand strategy.
Whether we’re analyzing campaign engagement across 12 verticals or optimizing content reach in real time, being data-literate allows us to pivot quickly and stay ahead.
It’s about storytelling through metrics, connecting the dots between what’s working creatively and what’s moving the needle for the business.
Speak Up, Lead Loud
Without a doubt, C-suite needs the ability to speak to others.
Public speaking should really be thought of as professional speaking – it’s a fundamental part of your job and although it’s a core leadership skill, is chronically under-used by leaders.
Trust in the media is dropping daily.
If you want to tell people who you are and what your business is about, face to face communications are the best way to achieve this.
To do this more effectively, leaders should:
– practice regularly, getting used to “being on stage”
– use a coach to implement a framework for learning and give objective feedback
– warm up before you start to speak (the difference this makes is astonishing)
If your voice were a software package, you would dedicate time and resources to using it to full potential… So why don’t you?
Ian Hawkins
Speaker Coach, Mr-Hawkins
Strategy Unlocks AI Magic
While AI now tops the list of C-suite hard skills, I’d argue strategy is a close second—and often overlooked.
Too many leaders conflate strategy with goals, plans, or best practices, missing the deeper work of diagnosing structural issues and designing a coherent path forward.
This gap becomes especially dangerous with powerful tools like AI. Without a clear strategy, even the best tech ends up underused or misapplied.
In my consulting work, the most dramatic value unlocks come not from adopting the latest tools, but from knowing how to apply them to the organization’s specific context.
Companies that build strategy skills across all levels—corporate, business unit, and functional—gain an edge that’s hard to copy.
AI is a force multiplier. But strategy determines where to aim it, how to scale it, and when to pivot. That’s what separates companies that experiment with AI from those that truly win with it.
Joe Sagrilla
CEO & Principal Consultant, Faculty- Horizon Business Consulting LLC
Break Down, Build Up
AI as a ‘skill’ is huge, but understanding the work breakdown structure or project/product decomposition is just as huge.
Before you can have a 40,000ft view of anything, you need deep clarity on the people to hire, the people they’ll need under them, and how those teams interconnect one or two levels below the surface.
This ability to break down complex initiatives into actionable, accountable parts—then align the right talent and resources to each step—is what separates effective C-suite leaders from the rest.
In a world where AI accelerates the pace of change, the capacity to decompose, delegate, and orchestrate large-scale projects is the foundational hard skill that enables organizations to actually execute on innovative ideas.
Ben Colman
CEO & Co-Founder, Reality Defender
Cyber Shields C-Suite Success
As a CCISO and author of VisibleOps Cybersecurity, I’d say the technical skill that comes closest to AI in importance at the C-suite level is cyber risk and compliance management.
While AI is the shiny new tool everyone’s chasing—and rightfully so—it doesn’t operate in a vacuum.
Every innovation introduces risk, and without a solid grip on cybersecurity and compliance, even the best AI strategy can collapse under scrutiny or attack.
Leaders today need more than a surface-level understanding of risk.
They need to know how to protect digital trust, align cybersecurity to business outcomes, and ensure the organization can withstand audits, breaches, and the unexpected.
With insurance claims being denied and regulations tightening, cybersecurity isn’t just an IT issue anymore—it’s a boardroom priority.
AI may help us move faster, but it’s cybersecurity that keeps the wheels from flying off.
Data Literacy Powers Smart Bets
After AI, I would say data literacy is the must-have C-suite skill.
I do not mean just reading dashboards, I mean being able to ask the right questions about data sources, bias, and usage.
Too many execs greenlight AI projects without understanding what data is fueling them or what the implications are.
In one startup I worked with, a solid grasp of how data was structured helped leadership scrap a flawed prediction model early, saving months of sunk cost.
It is not sexy, but it is a game-changer.
Christos Kritikos
Startup Product Executive, Emerging Humanity
Cloud Mastery Scales AI Dreams
While AI is undeniably the most sought-after hard skill at the executive level, cloud architecture and infrastructure closely follows as a critical technical competency.
In today’s digital-first world, the cloud is more than just a platform—it’s the backbone of innovation, agility, and security.
From powering AI models and big data analytics to enabling hybrid work and ensuring business continuity, the cloud touches every part of modern enterprise operations.
Executives who understand cloud principles—such as multi-cloud strategies, serverless computing, container orchestration (like Kubernetes), and zero-trust security—are better positioned to lead digital transformation effectively.
Cloud expertise enables leaders to reduce operational complexity, control costs, and ensure systems scale securely and reliably.
Without it, organizations face technical debt, vendor lock-in, and security risks.
Simply put, while AI defines the “what” of future business innovation, cloud architecture defines the “how.” Together, they form the technical foundation for sustained growth and competitive advantage.
Gyan Chawdhary
Vice President, Kontra Application Security
Data Insight Steers Strategy
In response to your question about the primary technical skill that comes a close second to AI in the C-suite, I believe that Data Literacy is crucial.
In today’s data-driven landscape, executives must not only understand the significance of data but also be able to interpret and leverage it effectively to drive strategic decisions.
For instance, a CEO who can read data analytics reports and understand market trends is better equipped to steer their company towards growth.
Moreover, with the increasing reliance on data for operational efficiency and customer insights, having a solid grasp of data management practices is indispensable.
This skill empowers leaders to foster a culture of data-driven decision-making within their organizations, ultimately enhancing competitiveness.
Balázs Keszthelyi
Founder & CEO, TechnoLynx
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.
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