A programme of the Swissi Institute for AI

Chief AI Officer

Level I, II and III for specialists and managers

Learn to govern your organisation's AI and answer for it, fully online and alongside your job, taught by people who do the work.

Programme brochure (DE)

Organisationprofit and non-profit

CEO

CFO

COO

CTO

Chief AIOfficer

AI Integration

Compliantwith regulation

Certification

Become the Certified Chief AI Officer of your Organisation.

Build the qualification for a new executive AI mandate. Set direction for AI in your organisation, speak with confidence to boards and regulators, and demonstrate your competence with a Swissi Institute for AI certificate.

Programme brochure (DE)

The role

Why organisations appoint a Chief AI Officer.

The staff function that joins technology, strategy and responsibility.

AI reaches into culture, regulation, data protection and leadership at once, and it moves faster than most organisations can settle who answers for it. A Chief AI Officer is the person who does.

A Chief AI Officer steers how AI is designed, built and run, establishes compliance-first governance, and explains it clearly inside the organisation and outside it.

An organisation that adopts AI well can defend every decision it takes with it. So can the person who led that adoption.

The programme

Qualify for the role, from practice.

Every organisation using AI needs someone accountable for compliance and governance. This programme qualifies you to hold that role, and certifies that you can.

You work on your own organisation's situation with practitioners who do the job, and you defend it in an oral examination at each level.

Certified AI competence

Three levels, six pillars.

Level I qualifies you to hold the role. Levels II and III take you deeper into your own sector and into leading the function, with additional modules for further specialisation.

Level I

12 modules · 1 live AI project · Oral examination and certificate

You come out able to set an AI strategy, judge the technology under it and hold it to the law, with a live AI project already delivered inside your own organisation. For specialists and managers in business and the public sector.

Level II

6 modules · 1 live AI project · Oral examination and certificate

You take Level I into your own sector, with its case studies and its regulation, and put a governance structure in place that holds there.

Level III

4 additional modules · Oral examination and certificate

You set the direction: institutional responsibility for AI, regulation put into practice, and the standing to represent both to boards and regulators.

Six pillars of your AI education

Six pillars, one accountable role.

Every level works all six together, so you leave able to argue a case that holds up in business, in technology and in law at the same time.

AI business

Align AI with what your organisation is trying to achieve, and put a structured plan behind it.

AI technology

Judge how a system works, how good its data is, and where its risks sit.

AI law

Apply the regulation, see where liability sits, and keep the evidence an audit asks for.

Live AI project

With practitioners, you design a real AI project for your own organisation.

AI English

Handle AI terminology in English and hold your own in an international discussion.

Presentation

Present an AI case to a board, and take the critical questions that follow.

Curriculum

CAIO curriculum

Expect around three hours of live teaching a week and around fifteen hours of your own case work and assignments, across twelve modules and one live AI project. It runs fully online, alongside the job you already have.

It follows internationally established ISO frameworks, among them ISO/IEC 42001 for AI management systems, ISO/IEC 27001 for information security, ISO/IEC 27701 for privacy, ISO 37301 for compliance and ISO 26000 for social responsibility, so what you learn goes straight into your own organisation's certification and governance work.

The six pillars

Part	Pillar	Modules
Part I	AI for business · AI for administration and government	1–3
Part II	AI technology	4–6
Part III	AI law	7–9
Part IV	Live AI project	10
Part V	Technical English	11
Part VI	Presentation	12

The programme runs in two versions, one for profit-oriented companies and one for public authorities and institutions. They share nine modules and differ in the first three, which are written for the sector you work in.

See the full curriculum

Standards

Aligned with international standards.

The programme is built to the requirements of ISO/IEC 42001 for AI management systems, ISO/IEC 27001 for information security, ISO/IEC 27701 for privacy, ISO 37301 for compliance, and ISO 26000 for social responsibility.

That alignment is the practical point for your organisation: the governance work you do in the programme is the work its own certification and audits ask for, so the competence arrives ready to use.

Participation

How it runs.

Every session is taught by someone who does the work, so the answer you get is the one they would give in their own organisation.

Each level closes with an oral examination and a certificate from the Swissi Institute for AI, confirming that you can develop AI strategy, put governance structures in place, and carry organisational responsibility for AI systems.

Individual and very small groups

Teaching is 1:1 or in a very small group, so the sessions follow your own questions and your own organisation's situation.

Closed formats

From three registrations out of one organisation we set up a closed programme, shaped to that organisation's content and schedule.

A schedule agreed with you

Start dates are arranged with you rather than fixed in advance, so the programme fits around the work you already have.

And if you want more

Communication that carries the role.

Extend your communication with additional English and presentation training, for international board meetings, demanding AI discussions and public appearances.

The formats are individual, so you work on the vocabulary, the delivery and the handling of critical questions until you can present complex AI topics clearly and hold the room.

Talk to us

Tell us what you need.

Describe your organisation and what it is trying to do, and we will come back to you personally to discuss the next steps and what is required.

Programme brochure (DE)

Looking for something shorter?

Swissi's stackable micro AI certificates build the same competence lesson by lesson, each one certified on its own.

swissi-ai.institute

Who teaches it

Expert trainers who lead in practice.

Every one of them practises what they teach, in their own companies, boards and mandates across technology, law, compliance, governance and organisational development. Each signs a confidentiality undertaking covering your internal projects and information.

Dr.Walter KurzMBA, M.Sc.
Walter Kurz teaches how enterprise AI systems are designed to hold up under regulatory review, from multi-agent architecture to distributed ledgers. He is an AI researcher, recognised as an expert by Forbes in 2024, and speaks on AI innovation and AI business models. As a professor he supervises AI doctorates at EQF level 8, both PhD and DBA, and heads the Advanced AI Studies faculty. He holds a doctorate in business administration and management from the University of Graz and an MBA in change management from the University of Augsburg. His research covers company valuation under AI integration, AI in enterprise risk management and ESG with AI, and he reviews submissions for the American Journal of Artificial Intelligence in New York.
Prof. Dr.Stefan Marx
Stefan Marx teaches how an internal control system is built so it survives an audit, drawing on nineteen years of audit work at KPMG and a chair in auditing and accounting. He is a German Wirtschaftsprüfer and Steuerberater and a partner at Auren Deutschland in Nürnberg, auditing SMEs and groups across the DACH region under HGB and IFRS. He holds the chair at HfWU Nürtingen-Geislingen, where he leads the M.Sc. CGX in corporate governance and auditing, and he serves as an examiner in the German Wirtschaftsprüfer examination. His teaching covers tax compliance management systems, internal audit, sustainability and climate risk, DSGVO and anti-money-laundering controls.
Prof. Dr.Frank Reinhardt
Frank Reinhardt teaches tax law, banking regulation and corporate governance, as a practising Steuerberater and professor of tax law at HfWU Nürtingen-Geislingen. He has held the professorship since 2010 and was Studiendekan and Prodekan of the Faculty of Business and Law until 2023. He directs the LL.M. in Business Law and Corporate Governance and teaches in the M.Sc. in Corporate Governance and Auditing. His doctorate is in tax, and he writes books in the field. Before his academic career he spent years in the finance industry in executive management. His subject areas cover supervisory readiness under FINMA, BaFin and the FMA, internal control systems, risk management and compliance.
Prof. Dr.Jörg Westphal
Jörg Westphal teaches how sales organisations adopt AI: where trust in a system is earned, where it breaks, and how governance keeps the two aligned. He held the chair for market-oriented management at the FOM Hochschule and founded its competence centre for sales management; he now teaches at DHBW Stuttgart and zfuw Koblenz and supervises doctoral candidates. His research on trust in AI in sales organisations appeared in the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and he edits and writes on sales enablement for Springer Gabler. Since 2012 he has also advised companies on marketing, sales and strategy, so the material rests on research and practice together.
Prof. Dr.Velimir Dedić
Velimir Dedić teaches how AI systems are built to be secure, and how the data behind them holds up to analysis. He is a full professor and heads the IT and Computer Science department at FITI Belgrade, where he lectures in management information systems and computer security, and he holds a doctorate in management information systems. His research covers information systems, computer security, data analysis and medical statistics, and he reviews for the International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning. He has taught information systems, computer security and e-business at universities in Serbia and the United Kingdom since 2009, and works on European research consortia.
Dr.Florian Kollberg
Florian Kollberg teaches how AI is governed inside regulated finance: model risk, process risk, and the evidence a supervisor expects to see. He holds a doctorate and has taught at HfWU Nürtingen-Geislingen since 2023. His practice covers corporate finance, M&A and many years in banking, with the buy-side habit of testing a valuation before believing it, and it extends into financial regulation, including FINMA requirements, and corporate governance with an ESG focus. In a large international automotive group he runs sustainability supply chain work with governance, risk and regulatory scope, where enterprise risk and ESG reporting meet an operating process.
Dr.Ralf Kittelberger
He teaches employment law, compliance management systems and corporate governance, and holds specialist-lawyer status in both employment law and company law. He holds a doctorate in law, is a Certified Compliance Expert and a certified supervisory board member, and has sat on the specialist-lawyer examination board of the Tübingen bar chamber since 2014. He has lectured at HfWU Nürtingen-Geislingen since 2016 and teaches compliance management systems and personnel law in its corporate governance master's programmes. Day to day he leads governance and legal work for an international specialty chemicals group, so the systems he teaches are the ones he runs.
Wojtek StrickerM.Sc. (DBA in AI, Cand.)
Wojtek Stricker teaches how AI components are priced into company valuations, KPI systems and investment cases, on about 15 years of corporate finance practice. He works in group steering, corporate finance and strategic controlling at the utility Westfalen Weser, following roles as senior controller at FLACO, interim managing director of Stüwa's Polish operation and head of production controlling at Arvato Financial Solutions. He holds an M.Sc. in Economics from the FernUniversität in Hagen and is a doctoral candidate (DBA) in AI. He is lead author of a research paper on firm valuation and is a certified professional in renewable energy finance (Frankfurt School of Finance & Management).
Mag.Stephan NeisserMBA
Stephan Neisser teaches how a company gets financed: IPO preparation, equity story, venture funding and buy-and-build, from a practice he has run since 2007. He prepared listings for Frequentis and Remus and built equity stories including S-Immo, after investment banking years in England. As CFO of GRE International in Vienna he ran financial strategy, group accounting and corporate structuring, and as CEO of MIT AG in Switzerland and of Biomasse-Kraftwerk Güssing he carried those decisions inside medical technology and renewable energy. He holds a Magister in International Business Administration from WU Vienna and an MBA from California State University, Hayward.
Dipl.-Kfm.Stephan Mauer
Stephan Mauer teaches how internal control, risk and compliance systems are built so that they hold up when an auditor tests them. He is a Wirtschaftsprüfer and Steuerberater in practice, and has audited annual and consolidated accounts under HGB and IFRS, run internal audit and IT audit in mid-sized groups and hospitals, and carried out Sarbanes-Oxley 404 work with network partners in the UK and the US. He works on compliance and risk management systems, corporate governance assessments, CSRD and ESRS sustainability reporting, and special audits with a fraud focus. He is a Certified Compliance Manager, holds supervisory and advisory board seats, and has taught auditing, consolidated accounts analysis and tax law at DHBW since 2012.
Michel MalaraMBA (PhD in AI, Cand.)
Michel Malara teaches how an organisation governs AI in practice: who decides, who carries the accountability, and how that is written into leadership routines. His doctoral research at Signum Magnum College examines AI-supported decision and steering logic in DACH organisations, and produced the SFV model, linking algorithmic steering, ethical reflection and organisational accountability, validated with fsQCA and quantitative methods. He has run his own HR consultancy since 1996, covering HR strategy, executive search and AI-supported talent management. He lectures at Swiss professional schools in leadership and HR management, and holds an MBA and the SVEB-1 teaching qualification.
Elias Beer
Elias Beer builds the communication side of an AI education platform: its social media, its digital presence, and the onboarding a new learner first meets. He runs the platform's external communication and its day-to-day contact with partner organisations.

Chief AI Officer

Become the Certified Chief AI Officer of your Organisation.

Why organisations appoint a Chief AI Officer.

Qualify for the role, from practice.

Three levels, six pillars.

Level I

Level II

Level III

Six pillars, one accountable role.

AI business

AI technology

AI law

Live AI project

AI English

Presentation

CAIO curriculum

Aligned with international standards.

How it runs.

Individual and very small groups

Closed formats

A schedule agreed with you

Communication that carries the role.

Tell us what you need.

Looking for something shorter?

Expert trainers who lead in practice.

Dr.Walter KurzMBA, M.Sc.

Prof. Dr.Stefan Marx

Prof. Dr.Frank Reinhardt

Prof. Dr.Jörg Westphal

Prof. Dr.Velimir Dedić

Dr.Florian Kollberg

Dr.Ralf Kittelberger

Wojtek StrickerM.Sc. (DBA in AI, Cand.)

Mag.Stephan NeisserMBA

Dipl.-Kfm.Stephan Mauer

Michel MalaraMBA (PhD in AI, Cand.)

Elias Beer