Vice President Research, AI Planning and Operations

Overview

In this role you drive enterprise AI economics research, creating financial models and practical guidance for CIOs, CFOs, and business leaders. You will translate deployment experience into defensible research, advise on build-vs-buy decisions, and shape budgeting, forecasting, and value realization across functions. You work with cross-functional teams to develop benchmarks, case studies, and scalable economic methods that inform investment decisions and deployment strategies. This position offers a chance to influence how large organizations optimize AI investments and measure business impact.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the research agenda for enterprise AI economics, focusing on investment prioritization, budgeting, forecasting, cost management, and value realization
• Develop and validate IDC AI economic models covering cost structures, unit economics, payback, and scenario analysis
• Advise CIOs, CFOs, and business leaders on AI portfolio decisions including build vs. buy, deployment options, funding, scaling, and when to redesign or discontinue use cases
• Build benchmarks and case studies across functions and processes, analyzing impact of adoption, workflow changes, output quality, and risk on cost and value
• Collaborate with IDC sourcing advisory to incorporate price benchmarks and terms into economic models and scaled costs
• Produce syndicated and custom research, brief clients, and represent IDC in executive discussions and industry events
• Translate deployment evidence into clear, defensible research and practical guidance

Key requirements

• Senior practitioner with direct responsibility for AI budgets, forecasts, investment models, and post-deployment performance
• Hands-on delivery across multiple business functions or domains (e.g., finance, procurement, HR, customer service, supply chain)
• Experience tracking actual costs and benefits, revising assumptions as adoption and scale change
• Deep knowledge of lifecycle costs (data, integration, software licensing, compute, security, governance, adoption, ongoing support) and ability to model unit cost at different volumes
• Experience presenting to CIOs and CFOs on AI investments and realized value, with influence across finance, technology, and business leaders
• Bachelor’s degree; consulting or enterprise operating roles with measurable implementation economics experience
• Preferred: experience publishing research or advising multiple clients; familiarity with generative/agentic AI
• Location flexibility with travel ~25-30%

• strong written and verbal communication
• ability to explain complex financial trade-offs to executives
• cross-functional collaboration
• economic modeling for AI deployments
• cost structure and unit economics analysis
• scenario analysis and sensitivity testing

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