Katya Andresen is Chief Digital and Analytics Officer at The Cigna Group, where she leads efforts to harness data, advanced analytics, and digital innovation to improve health outcomes and expand access to care. Her career has spanned industries and continents, shaped by a consistent focus on how people and technology intersect, constructively and at times imperfectly, to drive meaningful change.
Prior to Cigna, Katya was a Senior Vice President at Capital One, where she advanced data-informed experience innovation in financial services. She previously held executive leadership roles in mission-driven technology organizations, serving as CEO of education technology company Cricket Media and as COO and Chief Strategy Officer at Network for Good, a SaaS and payments platform supporting digital giving and social impact initiatives.
In addition to her corporate leadership, Katya serves on the board of Wiley, a global leader in research and learning. She is also an educator, guest lecturing at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and previously serving as an adjunct professor in American University’s Key Executive Leadership Program.
Earlier in her career, Katya was a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Asia and for the Associated Press and major US newspapers in Africa. She remains an active writer and commentator on leadership, technology, and social impact.
As a data and AI leader, which traits and skills do you think matter most, and which of those have been most influential for you in your current position?
“The key skills are problem formulation and curiosity. Leaders need to understand their job is to define the most important problems to solve and then to think about how AI might play a role.
“Too often, people think adapting to change involves spinning up technology capabilities and thinking of all the things you could do with them. The framing should be ‘what is my business strategy in the age of AI?’ and not ‘what is my AI strategy?’ Second is to experiment and learn, leading with questions, not technology solutions. In health care, whoever learns fastest wins.”
Reflecting on your career, what is one non-traditional piece of advice (outside of technical skills) you would give to an aspiring data or AI leader aiming for the C-suite?
“In my curvy career path, there is a simple throughline in the lessons I’ve learned: everything starts and ends with understanding people and their needs – as a journalist, as a marketer, as a teacher, as a technology executive, and above all as a people leader.
“We can harness data and technology to deepen that understanding and act on that knowledge, but we must constantly ask ourselves if we’re solving the right problems in the right ways with the right outcomes.
“Something like agentic AI mostly likely will not kill us or save us, but how humans use it will determine how much help or harm we bring to the world. It is the people, not the technology, that proves to be the trickiest challenge wherever you are and whatever you do.