The AI Headlines You Should Be Most Suspicious Of

**Julie Averill** (0:02)
There's a lot of change going on and a lot of motion, and I don't think anybody has it figured out. So any company that looks like they have it all figured out, I'd be suspicious of.

**Rachel Warren** (0:17)
This was Julie Averill, former global CIO of Lululemon and author of the new book, Chief Impact Officer. I'm Motley Fool analyst, Rachel Warren. Julie joined me to talk about spotting AI height before it costs you money, why the companies talking loudest about AI may actually be the ones to avoid, and how to tell whether a transformation is real or just a really good story. We hope you enjoy.
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Motley Fool Conversations. I'm Motley Fool analyst, Rachel Warren.
Today, our guest is Julie Avril, a powerhouse technology executive, author, and board director who has spent nearly three decades leading some of modern retail's biggest digital transformations. She formerly served as the global CIO and executive vice president at Lululemon where she speared a cultural and technological overhaul that helped scale the company's revenue from 2 billion to over 10 billion. Before rewriting the playbook at Lululemon, Julie pioneered major digital and omni-channel initiatives as the first ever CIO at REI and in tech leadership at Mordstrom. Today, she advises boards, CEOs and founders at the intersection of AI capability and organizational readiness, the place where most transformations stall. She speaks globally on leadership in the age of AI and helps organizations build what technology can't deliver. Teams that tell the truth, leaders who can turn pilots into real change, and cultures that sustain transformation instead of performing it. Julie has just released her highly anticipated new book, Chief Impact Officer, Real Transformation Comes From Human, Not Just Artificial Intelligence. Julie, welcome to the show.

**Julie Averill** (1:51)
Thank you so much, Rachel, and thanks for that kind introduction.

**Rachel Warren** (1:55)
As noted, you spent years leading technology transformations at Nordstrom REI, of course famously helped scale Lou Lemmon's revenue to over $10 billion. For individual investors managing their own portfolios looking at the public companies they own, what does real sustainable value creation look like on a balance sheet during that level of growth, during those types of transformations?

**Julie Averill** (2:21)
I think it's when you're building both the foundation and the growth, when you can enable both and there are tough choices you have to make along the way. But the important thing is to look not just where you're going tomorrow, but also in the future. So for it to be sustainable, you sometimes have to make the tough choices and invest in things that maybe are going to serve you a couple of years from now, and you have to make choices to maybe not turn on that revenue-facing feature today because you know that you need to create a future.

**Rachel Warren** (2:52)
Another thing that really stood out to me, I mean, just from the title, real transformation comes from human, not just artificial intelligence. Why is human intelligence a more reliable indicator of a company's performance than just artificial intelligence? What is the interplay between those two that you see right now and moving forward?

**Julie Averill** (3:12)
I see companies today making a lot of headlines around AI, right? It is powerful, it is new, and it has tremendous possibility to lead our companies in many different places. But it is still about the people, the technology is getting easier and easier.
And so we're focusing more on the technology than we are on the people. My experience is that if transformation doesn't start with, what's the business problem you're trying to solve, and you're focused more on the technology, you're going to end up buying really expensive technology and not moving your business forward. And so that's my focus areas. Like, what are we trying to solve? And the people who understand the business and are driving that business need to be part of defining that future and helping bring it into reality.

**Rachel Warren** (4:05)
Yeah, I want to dig into that concept a bit more. I mean, through your advisory practice, you work with company leaders and boards, often coming in where tech transitions stall. And something you've spoken about is this idea of companies performing transformation rather than sustaining it. I wonder if you could maybe tell our audience a bit more about what is performing transformation look like? What are the signs that a retail investor can look for, whether it pertains to AI or otherwise?

**Julie Averill** (4:35)
Yeah. I think look beyond the headlines. So for example, we have seen this concept of AI washing, where companies are proclaiming, I'm laying off thousands of people because of AI. And then you look a little deeper. And it's not because they've actually found the efficiencies to be able to lay these people off, but it's because they over hired maybe during the pandemic and now need to right size their team so that they can take that money invest in other things. So performing is declaring, right? Like what's my AI strategy and the board comes up and they bless it.