Katia Walsh, chief global strategy and AI officer, Levi Strauss & Co

At Vodafone, I built the big data and AI organization in its 25 operating countries and drove the digital transformation of one of the largest unified communications leaders, serving 500 million customers globally. And at Levi’s, I help drive the digital transformation of a brand that everyone in the world knows, wears and loves.

What are your key areas of focus for data and analytics in 2022?

I often say that the most important question for this capability is, what do you do with it? Overall, I’ve dedicated my career to driving transformational impact in three key areas:

1. Consumer and customer experience – it must always come first because customers are the reasons for businesses to exist and change.
2. Internal operations – we have so much opportunity to automate, optimize and completely overhaul how a business works today. Everything that can be automated should be automated; everything that can be optimized should be optimized; and every company today is a tech and data company, even if they don’t yet know that…
3. New business models and revenue opportunities – I’m passionate about technology’s impact on our lives, on business and on society.New business models and revenue opportunities are all around us. Rather than being disrupted, it’s up to us to discover and seize ways to disrupt with the goal to augment, boost and secure our growth for many years to come!