QXO, Inc. has announced that Ashwin Rao has been appointed Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer with immediate effect. He will serve as the company’s chief AI architect as QXO becomes a leader in the $800 billion building products distribution industry.
Brad Jacobs, chairman and CEO of QXO, said: “Artificial intelligence will permeate everything we do at QXO, including demand forecasting, inventory management and e-commerce. Ashwin is recognized as one of the brightest minds in business AI. He will play an important role in making QXO the most technologically advanced company in the industry.”
Rao’s career as an innovation leader spans more than 30 years and combines technological expertise and strong commercial instincts. From 2016 through 2022, he served as the first-ever head of AI for Target Corporation, where he led a team that developed mathematical models for pricing, merchandising, customer experience, supply chain logistics and other critical functions.
“The possibilities for using AI to transform the construction products distribution industry are endless,” says Rao. “I look forward to getting started with dozens of AI workstreams that, combined with economies of scale, will help QXO increase efficiency, optimize supply chains and add value for our customers.”
Rao began his career on Wall Street, as a quantitative derivatives trading strategist at Goldman Sachs and later as director of market modeling for Morgan Stanley. He received a PhD in theoretical computer science from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He is an adjunct professor of applied mathematics at Stanford University.
