The Business of Trust in the AI Era

Read notable 2026 CXO appointments in North America, and the Business of Trust in the AI Era

CXO Spotlight Team 2 min read
The Business of Trust in the AI Era

Notable C-Suite Moves (October)

  1. Valerie Capers Workman → Chief Human Resources Officer, C.H. Robinson. She will align talent, culture, and organizational capabilities with the company's long-term strategy. She most recently served as Chief Human Resources Officer at Empower Pharmacy.
  2. Sean Croston (CISO / CSO) → Chief Information Security Officer, Pegasystems (Pega). He will lead global information and physical security, overseeing cybersecurity strategy, risk management, business continuity, privacy, and compliance. He previously served as CISO at USAA.
  3. Kim Keever → Chief Security Officer, Lumen Technologies. She will lead Lumen's enterprise-wide security strategy and protect its physical, digital, and operational assets. She previously led cybersecurity at Spectrum and spent more than 12 years as SVP and CISO at Cox Communications.
  4. Ryan Swann → Chief Data Officer, Edward Jones. He will bring his expertise in enterprise data strategy, analytics, and AI to strengthen the firm's data leadership capabilities. He joins from Vanguard, where he served as Chief Data Analytics Officer and Principal for more than five years.
  5. Roberto Mercade → Chief Customer and Commercial Officer, The Coca-Cola Company. He will bring decades of commercial and market leadership experience to Coca-Cola's customer and commercial organization. He currently serves as President of the McDonald's Division at Coca-Cola.

What’s New in Tech

  • The AI race is expanding beyond models: Gartner's AI race framework highlights how competition now spans the entire technology stack, from infrastructure and data to platforms, engineering, security, AI agents, industry solutions, and physical AI. The opportunity is no longer limited to building better models but creating solutions that deliver business value.
  • Enterprise AI is moving from adoption to governance: Gartner's 2027 technology trends point to a new priority for CIOs: managing autonomous systems, machine behavior, and AI-driven decisions. As organizations deploy more AI agents, governance and accountability will become essential.
  • AI investments need clearer business outcomes: Gartner reports that CIOs currently realize 88% of AI value through time savings, while only 5% comes from cost savings and 6% from increased revenue. The challenge now is turning productivity gains into measurable business impact.
  1. Assess AI maturity across the business: Evaluate how AI is transforming customer engagement, products, operations, revenue models, and employee capabilities. AI progress should be measured beyond the number of tools deployed.
  2. Prepare for AI agent governance: As autonomous agents gain access to enterprise systems, establish clear identities, permissions, accountability, and oversight. Gartner forecasts that 25% of enterprise security breaches will be linked to AI agent abuse by 2028.
  3. Connect AI investments to business outcomes: Identify where AI can improve customer experiences, increase productivity, reduce costs, or create new revenue opportunities. Every major AI initiative should have a measurable business objective.
  4. Build foundations for long-term adaptability: Strengthen data architecture, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and employee capabilities. Address legacy systems and compute constraints before expanding AI initiatives.

From The Podcast

Marketing Trust in the Age of AI-Powered Threats

In this CXO Spotlight Podcast episode, host Chirag Khanijau speaks with Karen Kaukol, CMO at Entrust, about marketing identity and security solutions when both cyber threats and defenses are increasingly powered by AI.

Karen shares why enterprise buyers value candor over hype, how vendors can differentiate when competitors offer similar capabilities, and why connecting brand awareness to measurable revenue outcomes matters.

Why this matters: As AI reshapes cybersecurity and enterprise buying decisions, trust, transparency, and clear business value are becoming critical competitive advantages.

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InsightsAI

CXO Spotlight Team