The number of digital heads at UKs large businesses has trebled since 2015, according to research from Strategy&.

‘Whilst there was some hype around this role as it emerged, many companies are beginning to realise the benefits of having a digital leader in place and it’s a position that is likely here to stay,’ according to Strategy& director Martin Roets.

The UK ranks third in Europe for the percentage of large companies with chief digital officers, behind France (62%) and Germany (39%). European business are still increasing the number of digital leaders in situ compared to other regions, such as North America and Asia-Pacific.

Bill Michael, UK chair-elect, KPMG has previously stressed that technology and digitisation will be key issues shaping the future development of the firm. Michael said: ‘The important differential for us is the digital transformation role – the elevation of technology to the top table. Disruptive technology is going to bring enormous changes to the profession. This role encompasses digitising KPMG and gives us the ability to develop digitised services for our clients.’

The influence of data analytics will change audit and there are concerns that over-automation could affect quality and application of judgment decisions. Michael said: ‘It is my hope and belief that technology will improve audit quality; it is more likely that you will get data that is more consistent and less objective so that it becomes more comparable. That removes the judgment over the quality of the data. We do a lot of stuff around sampling but the samples are small; using larger samples means you could change the approach.’

UK digital appointments from a technology background are low (29%) in comparison to the 41% average. Nearly half come from a sales, marketing or customer service background.

Roets said: ‘It’s notable that fewer digital leaders in the UK have technology backgrounds than in other geographies. It seems that the role here is increasingly expected to focus on shaping digital propositions for customers, rather than focusing primarily on the technical delivery challenges.’

The UK sits below the global average of 16% for female digital appointments (10%), and none sit on the executive board as a chief digital officer. Some 40% of digital leaders are sat at board level.

Two-thirds of top UK insurance firms have a digital leader, followed by: telecoms, media and entertainment (56%); food, beverages and agriculture (50%); and banking (47%).

The top 2,500 public companies around the world, including 120 in the UK, were studied by PwC’s strategy consulting business. View the study here. 

Report by Kevin Reed