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Home Depot Names New CTO and CIO as It Adjusts AI Assistant After Mixed Reception
Franziska Bell became chief technology officer in April after serving at Ford. Angie Brown took the chief information officer role eleven months earlier.
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Home Depot appointed Franziska “Fran” Bell as chief technology officer in April. Bell previously served as chief data, AI, and analytics officer at Ford Motor. Eleven months before that appointment, 27-year company veteran Angie Brown became chief information officer.
Jordan Broggi took the role of executive vice president of customer experience and the online channel in June 2024. Bell now steers product management, data, and AI. Brown oversees technology strategy, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and software development.
Broggi manages the company’s $25 billion e-commerce business, merchandising, and digital customer experience. The retailer has deployed several AI systems. Magic Apron, a generative AI assistant trained on Home Depot product data, debuted in March 2025 and can answer shopper questions and summarize product reviews.
A customer service AI system built with Google Cloud was tested in 50 stores and understood the purpose of calls within 10 seconds during the pilot. Microsoft Copilot is available to office workers, Anthropic’s Claude coding system supports software development, and machine learning algorithms guide store associate workflows.
Brown said all AI investments must connect to one of three priorities: supporting merchandising in physical stores, building an interconnected retail ecosystem across digital channels, and growing business with contractors and professionals.
She added that she does not intend to limit the number of use cases that can use AI. Broggi said consumers liked Magic Apron at launch while professionals found the questions too basic. Home Depot removed the pro version and is fine-tuning the large language models.
The tool can also answer questions from employees. Brown is in the early stages of rolling it out to employee smartphones, with a future upgrade planned to add multilingual support. An internal “order intelligence” system uses millions of past delivery records to assess risk scores and recommend appropriate truck sizes based on factors such as gate codes and road width.
