Nollie Maoto is the Chief Data and Analytics Officer at FirstRand. Her career has been anything but linear – a challenging yet deeply fulfilling journey that has taken her from studying to become a Chartered Accountant to establishing herself as a leader in Business Intelligence, Data Science, and Analytics.
She has worked across a range of organisations, from small enterprises to multinational corporations, consistently guided by a passion for harnessing data to drive insight and impact. Throughout her career, Nollie’s enduring focus has been on using Business Intelligence and Analytics to create value, transform decision-making, and enable business growth.
DataIQ asked: “How do you see the role of the data leader evolving over the next 12-24 months?”
“Over the next 12–24 months, I see the data leader’s role shifting from enabler to strategic orchestrator. As AI becomes embedded in every business function, data leaders must ensure ethical, governed, and scalable deployment – not just build models. We’ll spend less time on data plumbing and more on driving AI literacy, aligning use cases with enterprise strategy, and managing risk in an increasingly regulated landscape (eg, AI Acts, data privacy laws).
“The role will demand stronger collaboration with legal, risk, and business units to embed responsible AI by design. Data leaders will also champion talent development, fostering hybrid teams fluent in both domain context and technical innovation. Ultimately, our success will be measured not by data maturity alone, but by how effectively data and AI create resilient, customer-centric, and compliant business outcomes. In regulated sectors like banking, this evolution is not just strategic, it’s essential.”