Across industries, companies are racing to adopt AI in pursuit of greater business results amidst growing competition. Chatbots are being rolled out, prompts are being tested, and workflows are getting small efficiency boosts. But AI transformation doesn't start with LLMs and end with efficiency boosts. It starts with people reimagining work with AI that drives critical business outcomes.
That's why we've created a new role to guide that transformation at Zapier: Chief People & AI Transformation Officer. It's designed to reimagine how Zapier leads, learns, and operates in the age of AI.
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Why we created the AI Transformation Officer role
Embedding AI into a company's operating system isn't just a technology initiative—it's an organizational one. Clear missions, trusted leaders, measurable goals, and strong cultures give companies a decisive edge in turning AI potential into real outcomes.
Brandon Sammut, Chief People & AI Transformation Officer at Zapier
At Zapier, we've always believed that meaningful change starts with people. That's true whether we're helping customers orchestrate AI-powered workflows or rethinking how we work ourselves.
Over the past few years, AI adoption has taken off across every part of Zapier.
Nearly everyone—97% of our team—uses AI in their daily work.
We evaluate the AI fluency of 100% of job candidates across every department.
We've increased developer productivity by 11% in 2025 with tools and processes around Cursor, Claude Code, and GitHub Copilot.
But as our CEO, Wade Foster puts it: "AI adoption alone isn't transformation." Real transformation happens when AI reshapes how teams think, collaborate, and create value.
That's why we created the Chief People & AI Transformation Officer role: to connect the dots between people, systems, and strategy so we can keep evolving how Zapier shows up in an AI-first world. Rather than a fancy executive title, this is a reflection of how we're thinking about, using, and designing work with AI.
The four key pillars of true AI transformation
Zapier's approach to AI transformation centers on four key pillars: leadership, culture, tools, and governance. Together, they form the foundation for how we're becoming a people-first, AI-centric company.
1. Leadership
Zapier's leaders set the tone for how AI is used across the organization. Executives and managers don't just endorse AI adoption from the sidelines. They're active participants, writing their own prompts, orchestrating AI-powered workflows, and sharing what they learn.
This hands-on approach signals to every team that AI fluency is a core competency for everyone. It also helps leaders stay close to the challenges and opportunities that employees experience as they integrate AI into their work.
2. Culture
AI transformation starts—and sticks—when companies take a people-first approach.
That's why we've built a culture where learning and building are everyday habits, not occasional initiatives. From weaving AI fluency into our onboarding to running internal AI hackathons, we're integrating AI experimentation into the company's core operating rhythms.
Wins and setbacks are shared openly in company-wide forums. This transparency builds trust, boosts our rate of learning, and sets the foundation for lasting results.
3. Tools
As the leader in AI orchestration, Zapier's platform is the backbone of our transformation. All Zapier teams—from sales and marketing to recruiting and finance—use Zapier to connect thousands of apps and build sophisticated multi-step workflows with AI at the core. It's the same flexibility our customers rely on every day.
By using our own platform to reimagine how work gets done, we're proving what's possible when people have the right tools—and the freedom—to build with AI.
Check out our top AI workflows and agents across the following departments in our playbooks:
4. Governance
Governance isn't about slowing innovation. It's what allows us to scale safely and radically deliver value to our employees and customers.
Bryan Helmig, CTO and co-founder, Zapier
Governance at Zapier isn't a policy—it's a practice. We've built clear standards for data privacy, ethical use, and compliance to ensure every automation is auditable, secure, and trustworthy.
Our safeguards—like access controls, version tracking, and regular reviews—don't slow innovation; they make it sustainable. Because real transformation doesn't come from moving fast alone. It comes from moving fast and doing it right.
What if you don't have an AI Transformation leader?
Not every company has an AI Transformation Officer or a clear roadmap for what comes next. Maybe you're the one sparking curiosity about AI on your team, or the person quietly building momentum for change. Every transformation starts that way—with a few people willing to imagine something better and take the first step toward it.
That's why we created the AI Transformation Webinar Series.
This series brings together leaders from Zapier and other forward-thinking organizations—like Webflow, Demostack, PandaDoc, and Profound—who are redefining how their teams work with AI. You'll hear how they're scaling automation across HR, Operations, Marketing, and Revenue—and what it takes to turn early experiments into measurable, lasting impact.
If you're ready to start building the foundation for your company's AI-powered future, this is where to begin.
This article was originally published in July 2025. The most recent update was in October 2025.
