Building an AI Team That Actually Works: Why Cross-Functional Beats “AI-Only”
- Alyssa Dunn
- Nov 24
- 2 min read
If you're considering building an AI team within your business, a recent CIO article highlights one point loud and clear: success doesn’t come from creating an isolated “AI department.” It comes from building cross-functional teams that blend strategy, domain expertise, and engineering.
You can read the full article here.
Below is a breakdown of the key insights and what they mean for organisations investing in AI.
1. AI Only Works When It’s Tied to Real Business Value
CIOs are moving away from vague “AI experimentation” and focusing on teams embedded within the business. These teams bring together product managers, domain specialists, and engineers to frame problems clearly — enabling technical teams to build solutions that matter.
2. Cross-Functional “Pods” Outperform Siloed AI Groups
The highest-performing companies combine expertise across the business, creating small, strategic teams that look more like pods than departments. These typically include:
AI/ML engineers
Data engineers and data scientists
Product owners
DevOps and cloud engineers
Change management leads and end-user representatives
This structure ensures solutions are technically strong, operationally viable, and — most importantly — actually adopted.
3. Leadership Still Matters
Even the best teams need direction. Executive sponsorship keeps AI initiatives aligned with business goals, measurable outcomes, and priority use cases. It prevents teams from building models for the sake of it.
4. Upskill Your Existing Teams
Modern AI capability requires new roles: model managers, validators, testers, and even ethicists. With external AI talent both scarce and expensive, CIOs are investing in upskilling internal teams to build long-term capability.
5. Hybrid Models Deliver the Best Results
The strongest AI functions blend internal knowledge with external expertise. In-house teams provide continuity and business understanding, while external partners bring specialised skills, accelerate progress, and help lay the foundations for future growth.
The Big Lesson
AI is no longer a “project.”It’s an organisational capability.
The organisations getting the most value from AI are treating it holistically — combining strategy, product thinking, engineering excellence, governance, and people development.
The message is simple: real AI value comes from building the right teams with the right people, bringing the business and technology together.
