P&G's CIO Seth Cohen Shares A Blueprint For Leading With Technology

Forbes

27-05-2025

Procter & Gamble's Cincinnati headquarters
Procter & Gamble, the 188-year-old consumer goods powerhouse based in Cincinnati, boasts $84 billion in annual revenue with popular brands ranging from Pampers and Gillette to Tide and Bounty. Seth Cohen is the company's Chief Information Officer. He is a former global CIO roles at PepsiCo and Reckitt Benckiser, and, as such, brought decades of perspective on how to drive digital transformation at scale to P&G.
Cohen described his role as CIO as both strategic and deeply collaborative. He oversees infrastructure, security, data analytics and commercial capabilities, but emphasized that his real responsibility lies in aligning the entire matrixed organization around a coherent technology strategy. "P&G is a highly matrixed organization, and that complexity initially felt daunting," he said. "But it works! It enables us to drive coordinated strategies across categories, regions and functions."
Understanding P&G's Consumer-First Focus
While P&G is widely recognized for its consumer brands, Cohen emphasized that what sets the company apart is its obsession with understanding and anticipating consumer needs. "There's a maniacal focus on understanding the wants and needs of the consumer," he explained. This consumer orientation fuels what P&G calls its "vectors of superiority," ensuring that its products meet expectations at every turn.
Cohen and team work with the broader enterprise to translate these consumer insights into digital capabilities. He was candid about the hard work involved in building digital capabilities, however. "Unlike what we see in the press or YouTube videos, you don't just snap your fingers and digital capabilities appear," he noted. P&G starts with the business capability, not the technology, and then works backward to identify what tech is needed to enable it. Foundational systems like ERP and salesforce automation must be solid before layering on advanced tools.
The Power of a Unified Data Layer and AI Factory
A core enabler of P&G's digital transformation is what Cohen calls the company's "AI factory," a platform that democratizes access to data and AI capabilities. Freeing data out of systems of record into a common data repository is critical, he explained. This data lake fuels the AI factory, where algorithms and generative AI models can be scaled across use cases. "It's not a bunch of one-off answers,' Cohen underscored. 'It's a platform.' The result is a flywheel effect: new use cases build on past ones, rapidly accelerating capability development.
Upskilling for the AI Era
Cohen acknowledged that tools alone don't drive transformation; people do. After years of outsourcing, P&G is reinvesting in internal talent. "We want to own and control capabilities like data science and cloud engineering," he said. The company is upskilling both IT and business teams, partnering with institutions like Harvard Business School to raise digital fluency. "A digitally reluctant organization makes it hard to introduce new capabilities,' he added. 'We're changing that."
Despite concerns that AI may eliminate jobs, Cohen is optimistic. "I don't think AI replaces the human,' he noted. 'It helps the human be much more productive." Comparing it to the advent of spreadsheets, he predicted that embracing AI will become table stakes. "If you're not experimenting with AI, you're falling behind."
Building a Future-Ready Supply Chain
A company the size of P&G has a complex global supply chain, and recent years have wreaked havoc on many companies' supply chain efficiency. Cohen highlighted efforts to enhance P&G's supply chain resilience. One example in Brazil leveraged AI to fix out-of-stock issues by analyzing demand signals, weather and holidays. "We [decreased]
out-of-stock [items] by 15 percentage points," he said, calling it a massive win in an industry where one or two points is the norm.
Supply innovations that have been spurred include Pampers Club, a consumer loyalty app that enables P&G to trace individual diapers through the supply chain. By linking consumer scans to manufacturing and distribution data, P&G can diagnose product issues at the microsecond level. "We know what store it came from, how long it took to get there and even what time it hit the glue gun," Cohen said. Another example involves AI-powered insights for retail execution, helping store managers benchmark against peers and optimize shelf layouts in real time.
Foreseeing a Future with Agentic AI and Quantum Optimization
Given P&G's progress relative to AI, Cohen is excited about continued advancement toward reasoning models and agentic AI, systems that can interact conversationally and automate complex workflows. "Why should you need a dashboard when you can talk to your data?" he asked. But realizing that vision requires building corporate-specific vocabularies and managing identity for AI agents.
To remain abreast of innovations and their potential application to P&G, Cohen relies on a rotating technology advisory board of 20-25 experts who explore emerging tech and recommend strategic bets. "I walk into those meetings and feel humbled,' he said. 'They know more than I do.' This team educates Cohen and others on the art-of-the-possible.
As P&G continues to evolve, Cohen's blend of vision, execution and humility offers a blueprint for digital leadership in the AI age.
Peter High is President of Metis Strategy, a business and IT advisory firm. He has written three bestselling books, including his latest Getting to Nimble. He also moderates the Technovation podcast series and speaks at conferences around the world. Follow him on Twitter @PeterAHigh.