.svg)
How ‘Forrest Gump’ Moments Prepared Experian’s CIO To Help Lead Its AI Transformation
After a career spent on the bleeding edge of IT, Kathleen Peters is now helping Experian build on the trust it has with consumers to capitalize on AI.
.webp)
"GenAI flips so many things. Just as the browsers opened up the capacity and capability of the Internet to all kinds of people and companies, GenAI is going to open up all that power even more.”
The debate over the impact of AI continues to loom large over the market boom. But Experian stands as evidence of its transformative potential. Long entrusted to protect some of the most sensitive and valuable personal and financial data, the company is now capitalizing on its technology roots and harnessing next-generation tools to fight back against AI-empowered fraudsters, as well as give consumers greater control over their financial identity.
“We’re not just a credit bureau anymore,” Chief Innovation Officer Kathleen Peters told CIO News.
Today, revenue from software is now 35% of Experian’s business, a drastic difference from five years ago. And the company is wasting no time in introducing GenAI into production. For example, EVA, its AI-powered digital assistant, is already used by millions. And Experian recently signed a 10-year agreement with AWS that will help the company scale AI use cases even faster.
One reason Experian can move so quickly is the trust it has built with consumers, regulators, and other enterprises. Many facets of its operations are already monitored for bias and other forms of credit risk. As a result, the company has the guardrails in place to scale safe and trustworthy AI use cases.
“We have been held accountable as trusted stewards of people’s most personal and private information and their financial identity since the company was founded,” Kathleen said. “That knowledge and that understanding … is going to be the differentiator as we think about the responsible and ethical use of AI.”
For Kathleen, leading this transformation represents the culmination of a career spent constantly on technology’s cutting-edge, from one of the first attempts at a global satellite telecommunications network to an application marketplace that pre-dated the Apple App Store.
“When I look back on my career, I start seeing common threads that I probably didn't recognize at the moment, like ‘Forrest Gump' moments,” Kathleen said. “This common thread of mobile phones, mobile devices, connected devices, and connected data weaved its way through my career choices.”
CIO News talked to Kathleen to learn how her career history prepared her for the AI era, the importance of the technology in fighting digital bad actors, and how Experian successfully moves AI investments from experiment to production.
A Career At Technology’s Frontier
Kathleen started her career at Motorola, working on a project codenamed Iridium. Clearly ahead of its time, Iridium was Motorola’s attempt at creating a global satellite phone network by blanketing the planet with low-orbit satellites. There were seven groups, each with 11 satellites, hence the name Iridium, an atom surrounded by 77 electrons.
This moonshot endeavor came at a time when people traveling overseas couldn’t simply extend their mobile service — they had to get a new phone altogether. Iridium aimed to make it possible for travelers to carry just one device. Of course, today that problem is largely non-existent. And while the market for satellite communications is now dominated by Starlink, the experience at Motorola introduced Kathleen to the fast-paced world of technology.
“It was very breakthrough at the time. Every day we were inventing. It was risky, it was high profile,” she recalled. “It set me on this career journey where I was just naturally attracted to bleeding edge, unproven areas of opportunity.”
