Post by AS Watson

At the Global Summit of The Consumer Goods Forum, Dr Malina NGAI, Group CEO of AS Watson, shared a powerful message to industry leaders: AI transformation is not an IT programme - it is a CEO mandate.   While many organisations have identified AI use cases, few have addressed the real barrier to scale: culture and system design.   “AI does not transform companies. Leaders do,” said Malina. “Culture moves when everyone moves. If AI sits in IT, it fails. If every function moves together, it scales.”   Malina highlighted a CEO-led synchronised approach, where all functions adopt AI together, supported by IT and HR. Because AI transformation must be horizontal, not vertical.   She also introduced a simple but powerful formula: 𝐀𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 = 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 – 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 Acceleration comes from investment and ambition, while friction stems from complexity, silos, and slow decision-making.   Looking ahead, she concluded with a compelling vision for the future of retail, “Retail will become more human, not less. Technology will be invisible. Customers will remember how we made them feel, not how advanced our systems were.”   To explore Malina's insights in full, visit: https://lnkd.in/gfkD_9Hb   #ASWatson #ASWatson185 #GrowAsOne #CGF #Leadership #AI #RetailInnovation