Three CTOs Discuss Technology’s Impact on Their Companies

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Chief technology officers gathered for a panel at TIME’s Executives of the Year Impact Dinner: Tech & Data on Tuesday night in New York City and discussed the ways that technology has shifted how their companies operate.

Speaking on the panel at the TIME forum were Franziska Bell, CTO and executive vice president of The Home Depot; Fiona Tan, CTO of online marketplace giant Wayfair; and Sam Dozor, CTO of global e-commerce company Rokt, which sponsored Tuesday’s event.

Bell emphasized “always being grounded in the consumer experience” when thinking about how to adapt to new and emerging technologies, or what she described as “the art of the possible.”

One new AI tool that The Home Depot has deployed is Magic Apron, an “AI empowered home improvement expert,” Bell explained, that can help customers locate items in store, answer how-to questions about products, and respond to images uploaded by users.

Applications like Magic Apron, which Bell says has been rolled out in 2,000 U.S. stores, result from Bell assessing the “friction” involved in customer experiences and working to reduce it with technological tools.

She did not, however, discount the crucial roles that humans play alongside tech.

“I’m a huge believer in human-AI teams,” Bell said. “That’s really where the magic happens.”

Tan also spoke about the customer experience at Wayfair and how technology has been leveraged to help consumers figure out what they want from the company’s wide selection of products.

“A lot of times people don’t know what they’re looking for, they can’t describe it, and so perhaps we offer you a journey that will resonate,” she said. “We have to also innovate and provide them an experience that speaks more to them.”

When it comes to hiring new employees who can tackle consumer experience goals and integrate AI into their work, Tan stressed the importance of “adaptability” in young candidates who can seamlessly adjust to the quickly changing tech landscape.

Tan also said that it’s important to pair younger generations with older ones who have more experience at their companies.

Dozor said that the moment is prime for companies to invest in technology.

“The time is here,” he said. “The time is now, and all of us need to live it.”

One of the ways Rokt does this is by expanding the variety of work its employees can do using AI. “It’s amazing to see engineers lean into building product specs and designers writing code,” he said.

In that spirit, Rokt, he explained, takes a forward-looking approach to its work, always thinking about what’s next for its employees and what they can accomplish.

“Times are changing quickly,” Dozor said, and people can choose to live in the past, present, or future. “We’ve chosen to live six months from now.”

TIME Impact Dinner: Executives of the Year: Tech & Data was presented by Rokt.