What does it mean to be a responsible AI practitioner: An ontology of roles and skills

Responsible AI is becoming a distinct profession: The paper identifies that "responsible AI practitioners" or "AI ethicists" have emerged as a new occupational category in industry, tasked with interpreting and operationalizing ethical and safe AI design practices, indicating that responsible AI is no longer just an afterthought but a dedicated career path.

The field lacks clear role definitions: The research found significant uncertainty about "what specific function these roles serve and what skills are necessary," highlighting that even employers and aspiring professionals don't have clarity on what responsible AI practitioners actually do day-to-day—a gap that makes it difficult to hire, train, and develop talent in this emerging field.

Multiple distinct roles exist under the "responsible AI" umbrella: Rather than a single job description, the paper's ontology reveals that responsible AI encompasses multiple different roles, each requiring different skill sets and competencies, suggesting that organizations need to think carefully about which specific functions they need to fill.

Skills are both technical and non-technical: The research identifies that responsible AI practitioners need a diverse skill set combining technical competencies with soft skills like communication and stakeholder engagement, meaning the field requires people from varied educational backgrounds, not just computer scientists.

Education and hiring need concrete competency frameworks: By mapping specific skills to specific roles based on actual job postings and practitioner interviews, the paper provides employers and educators with actionable competency frameworks to guide hiring decisions and curriculum development in this nascent field.