Dive Brief:
- Ikea Retail has appointed Burce Gultekin as chief data and analytics officer following the departure of Francesco Marzoni in August, the company confirmed in an email to CIO Dive Tuesday.
- Gultekin, who will join Ikea on Oct.1, most recently served as CIO at dairy giant FrieslandCampina. As part of her two-decade career, she also held data and analytics leadership roles at FrieslandCampina and financial services company NN.
- After five years at Ikea, Marzoni told CIO Dive he is joining travel retailer Avolta this month. The executive shared the highlights of his tenure in an August LinkedIn post, “from building the first company-wide data strategy to the deployment of mathematical optimisation and AI models at massive scale, to one of the biggest and most prolific insights [and] analytics global transformations and data literacy development programs.”
Dive Insight:
Retailer sector businesses — including Ikea — have turned to technology and prioritized AI investments in response to pressure from tariffs and changes in consumer spending.
Governance has become part of the secret sauce propelling businesses toward success while avoiding unnecessary risks.
Ikea had an early start on creating its AI governance playbook, which was first established in 2019 and continues to evolve. Even before deadlines tied to the European Union’s AI Act arrived, the company had prioritized responsible practices and literacy skills. The company is also a signatory to the EU’s AI Pact.
“We didn’t have to spend a lot of time trying to convince people why we should be a part of the AI Pact,” Marzoni told CIO Dive earlier this year.
Most retailers increased year-over-year spending on generative AI as valuable use cases crop up, but challenges remain. More than 3 in 5 retail leaders have concerns about the consistency and quality of generated outputs, according to a Monday.com survey published in August. Adoption roadblocks also abound, from integration complexities to employee pushback.
Like others in the industry, Ikea continues to hone its strategy, this time with Gultekin at the helm.
“AI isn’t a finished story,” the company said in a June blog post. “It’s a rapidly unfolding one, with plot twists no one saw coming.”
