How P&Gβs AI Factory is Powering Scalable Digital Transformation - CIO Seth Cohen | Technovation 978
We start with capability, not technology.β Seth Cohen, Chief Information Officer of $84B consumer goods leader Procter & Gamble,Β ...
Senior Vice President & Global Chief Information Officer, Pepsico
Search every verified Seth Cohen interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote β each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Seth Cohen, Senior Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer at PepsiCo, discussed the company's digital and data strategy in a 2021 interview on the Technovation podcast. He described the difference between analog and digital companies, stating that digital companies think of their product in a broadened sense that includes digital solutions for selling, manufacturing, and product development. Cohen noted that PepsiCo had signed a strategic partnership with Microsoft on the Azure stack and focused on making data analyzable to leverage AI and machine learning. He also highlighted the company's ability to move to 100% remote work in about 72 hours during the pandemic, attributing this to prior cloud relationships. Cohen emphasized the importance of cultural dexterity in global roles and cited an example of reverse innovation, where a cost-effective e-commerce solution from Asia was used to launch the snacks.com website in the U.S. within 30 days. In a 2025 interview on Technovation, Cohen, now Chief Information Officer at Procter & Gamble, discussed the company's "AI factory" approach, which he described as a platform providing instant access to data and AI algorithms to help developers scale solutions. He stated that P&G had reversed the trend of outsourcing IT talent by insourcing capabilities like data science and data engineering. Cohen reported that AI had improved out-of-stock rates by 15 percentage points through supply chain planning and demand signals. He encouraged embracing AI tools responsibly and said he did not believe AI would replace humans but would make them more productive. Cohen also mentioned that P&G had a technology advisory board focused on far-looking technologies, including quantum computing.
“The nice part about an AI factory approach is it's a platform that we can allow people to have instant access to the data within the data repository but then also instant access to the AI algorithms and therefore the developer spends a lot less time having to worry about how do I scale it because that comes out of the...”
“What we're finding more and more is the use cases of the capabilities we're trying to drive don't just end where a function begins and ends; it actually ends across the entire value chain.”
“We start with what's the capability we're trying to drive and then peel that back into what is the needed technology to bring it to life. Data is hard not just technically but from a change management perspective.”
“We improved our out of stock by 15 percentage points through AI leveraging supply chain planning, network planning, weather patterns, and demand signals. This is huge in our fast-moving consumer goods industry.”
“I don't think AI replaces the human. What I think AI will do is help the human be much more productive and much more impactful into the organization.”
“We have reversed the trend of outsourcing IT talent by insourcing critical capabilities like data science, data engineering, and cloud engineering to control and own these internally.”
“The reasoning models and the new cool kid way to describe it is agentic AI or generative AI. We're starting to bring capabilities to life in this space but it often requires customization to understand our company's vocabulary and context.”
“Quantum computing is a big idea for us. It won't solve all problems but will significantly optimize supply chain, transportation, and financial operations beyond current time constraints.”
“We have a technology advisory board of about 20 to 25 people on a two-year rotation who focus on far-looking technology areas to help bring innovation to life.”
“My strong encouragement for everyone is to embrace AI tools responsibly within company policies and experiment with how AI can make you better and more impactful at your job.”
“An analog company thinks of their products in a single dimension β it's the finished goods β whereas digital companies tend to think about their product in a broadened sense: finished goods plus the digital solutioning that helps us sell, manufacture, and identify new products.”
“First and foremost it's critically important that IT systems are able to support our business and move and sell our product across the world; beyond that we must advance digital capabilities β data, platforms and digital products β and cyber security will be a focal point of my priorities.”
“We've recently signed a strategic partnership with Microsoft on the Azure stack and have focused on taking data out of transactional systems so data becomes analyzable β enriching it and then leveraging AI and machine learning to react and pump insights back into execution systems.”
“Ramon Laguarta not only understands the names of these digital terms but whatβs beneath them; he enlisted his direct reports to be part of the digitization journey, and with that executive commitment it created a perfect storm for success.”
“When the pandemic hit we moved to 100% remote working in about 72 hours β our prior cloud relationship and the plumbing between Azure and our on-prem estate let us scale VPN and splitβtunnel traffic almost overnight, which was incredibly helpful.”
We start with capability, not technology.β Seth Cohen, Chief Information Officer of $84B consumer goods leader Procter & Gamble,Β ...
Peter High speaks with Seth Cohen, the global CIO of PepsiCo, about data and digital. In this interview, we discuss the main difference between digital and analog companies along with PepsiCoβs digital agenda. We discuss how data strategy has evolved over the past 5-10 years, and a bit about PepsiCoβs own data journey. Lastly, we discuss cross-cultural communications lessons Seth has learned from living all over the world, the benefits of an East to West innovation path, PepsiCo's experience switching to an entirely remote workforce, among a variety of other topics. 0:00:00 Introduction 0:β¦
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