Lakhani is a member of the class of “AI natives” comfortable playing and building with the AI tools that still seem foreign to those decades into their careers. That made him a prime candidate for a C-level role at the Raleigh, N.C., company, according to Olson.

Olson said Lakhani brings a unique take to everything from integrating AI more deeply into Pendo’s products to marketing to an increasingly younger sales demographic.

“His bias towards solving problems with technology leans on the usage of AI more,” said Olson.

In the past, Pendo’s analytics products would serve up deterministic answers to customers. Now Lakhani is pushing for more AI in the product experience itself, envisioning an experience where AI suggests analytics to explore and delivers insights based on a broad set of data.

“His strategy often is like, ‘Hey, give AI access to all this data and let it decide what is valuable or not,’” Olson said. “It’s just a completely new way of designing and building applications that honestly no one here would be building that way.”

Generation Z—those born between 1997 and 2012—aren’t exactly storming the C-suite, a move that typically takes years of corporate ladder-climbing. But some firms are putting more weight on youth and AI-native talent.

“As native technology leaders, [Gen Z] are now uniquely in a position to speak to this problem in ways that Millennials and Gen X cannot,” said Eli Mikel, CEO of Miami-based Clockwise Capital. Last year the asset manager hired Eric Harrison, then 26, as its chief AI officer.

A scarcity of AI-literate talent is proving to be one of the major hurdles to enterprise adoption of the technology, said Kory Kantenga, LinkedIn’s head of economics for the Americas. Members of Gen Z “are more likely to have AI skills and that’s probably assisting them in their move into the C-suite,” Kantenga said.

Olson said Lakhani keeps him up to date on the latest AI releases, advising him on which models are best for what tasks at the moment. But Lakhani is also playing a critical role preparing Pendo’s 780 employees for wider AI adoption, Olson said.

Lakhani has reshaped the way Pendo interviews software engineering candidates, suggesting live programming sessions to get a better sense of exactly how they use AI to work through problems.

He also takes a different approach to learning. To get up to speed on AI model evaluations, Lakhani used a Google AI tool called NotebookLM to generate a podcast about the topic that he listened to on a plane. Olson said it’s something he would never have thought to do—until now.

His unique perspective even extends to product marketing. “Things that I think would work, he thinks differently,” said Olson, recounting one episode where Lakhani suggested tapping a popular meme for a marketing campaign. “I would’ve never thought to do that,” Olson said.

At larger companies, there is a reluctance to give Gen Z the responsibility and accountability of a C-suite level role, said Martha Heller, CEO of technology executive recruiting firm Heller Search Associates.

“What big companies need in a head of AI is somebody who can move mountains in terms of change…There’s no 23-year-old in the world who can do that,” Heller said.

But as more large companies hire chief AI officers, the metrics for evaluating candidates are shifting, she said.

Heller recalled asking a chief information officer of a consumer packaged goods company about what she was looking for in an AI chief: “She said, ‘Out of the box thinker, someone who knows consumer packaged goods, who’s a good storyteller and people will listen to.’ And I said, ‘OK, years of experience?’ She said, ‘Irrelevant.’”