THE AI INTERVIEW
Once seldom seen, a new job title is fast becoming commonplace in boardrooms: the Chief AI Officer. What was once a niche appointment is now appearing across professional services, retail, manufacturing and beyond.
Grayling, one of the UK’ s largest strategic communications consultancies, recently joined the fold, naming Billy Partridge as its first-ever CAIO.
“ The role is a response to change and reflects the importance of AI to our clients and our operations,” explains Billy.“ We recognised early that we needed someone responsible for redesigning how the agency operates, and decided that role was best filled by someone with deep industry experience.”
From PR to AI leadership Having honed his craft at a corporate PR agency based in the City of London, Billy joined Grayling back in 2009. Today, he is based in Edinburgh, where he oversees both the firm’ s UK AI strategy and its Scottish operations.
Over the course of its history, Grayling has advised thousands of global brands, governments, investors, charities and businesses. Scotland is Grayling’ s largest profit centre outside London, running many of the agency’ s international accounts. Billy’ s interest in AI can be traced back a number of years – long before the tech really began turning heads.
“ I remember writing a white paper about its transformative potential and having early-stage discussions internally about how we’ ll need to change,” he reflects.“ Little did I know just how quickly that change would come.”
Serving humans and AI Billy’ s role can be broken down into three strands: helping staff use AI tools responsibly; automating workflows and developing AI agents; and identifying new commercial opportunities around trust and influence.
22 September 2026