Qualtrics bolsters AI leadership team & pledges USD $500 million

Qualtrics has expanded its artificial intelligence leadership team with a new senior appointment and a key internal promotion to support its increasing investment in AI for experience management.

Mark Hammond has been named Senior Vice President, Core AI, bringing extensive experience from previous roles in AI, applied neuroscience, and autonomous systems, including a tenure at Microsoft after the acquisition of his AI company, Bonsai. Jeff Gelfuso has been promoted to Senior Vice President and Chief Product Experience Officer, now leading a unified product, research, and user experience design group.

Strategic focus

The appointments are part of the company's efforts to accelerate innovation cycles and improve returns for businesses investing in the firm's AI-driven solutions. These leadership changes follow an investment commitment of USD $500 million announced in 2023, aimed at advancing purpose-built AI capabilities within experience management.

Qualtrics reports that more than one-third of its customers-including organisations such as adidas, Stanford Health Care, Autodesk, Dollar Shave Club, and Stripe-have adopted its AI innovations. Key offerings like Qualtrics Conversational Feedback and Experience AgentsTM are among the solutions driving this uptake. According to the company, 90% of its top 50 customers now utilise at least one AI capability, and its synthetic model Qualtrics Edge AudiencesTM is producing outputs closely matching human responses, outperforming broader large language models in specific tasks.

Leadership perspectives

"Early AI innovations focused only on efficiency, but we're moving beyond that to AI that fundamentally transforms how organisations interact with customers and employees," said Brad Anderson, President of Product, Engineering, User Experience, and Security at Qualtrics.

He said, "In this new era, context matters more than personalisation, connection matters more than efficiency, and a deep understanding of the people you serve is a competitive advantage. Purpose-built AI for experience management is critical to delivering these outcomes, and Qualtrics' accelerating investments, enhanced expertise, and enterprise-grade security allow us to move faster and deliver greater value to customers."

Team and expertise

Mark Hammond's appointment is a significant addition to the leadership group. Hammond was previously the founder of Bonsai, an AI company that developed machine teaching and reinforcement learning technologies for industrial sectors. His time at Microsoft covered roles such as General Manager, Vice President, and Corporate Vice President, with responsibilities across AI for autonomous systems and development frameworks for new technologies.

"Technology's real value lies in how it enriches the human experience, and Qualtrics is uniquely positioned to deliver on that promise," said Mark Hammond, SVP, Core AI, Qualtrics. "AI is fundamentally reshaping every experience someone has with a company. Qualtrics' technology, deep understanding of customers and employees, and purpose-built AI capabilities give organisations the tools to meet those rising expectations and build meaningful connections at scale."

Jeff Gelfuso is now the company's first Chief Product Experience Officer. Gelfuso's background includes senior leadership in product, design, and development at companies such as Workday, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft.

"AI is reshaping every customer and employee interaction. We are accelerating our commitment to embed AI capabilities across our platform to deliver intelligent experiences at speed while keeping people at the centre, because that's where real value is created," said Jeff Gelfuso, SVP, Chief Product Experience Officer, Qualtrics.

Security standards

The company states that it places emphasis on maintaining security while pushing rapid AI adoption. Qualtrics has achieved both FedRAMP High Authorisation-the highest standard for US government cloud products and services-and ISO/IEC 42001:2023 certification, which is the international standard for responsible AI system management. These credentials are cited as enabling organisations to work on critical projects with assurance regarding data protection and ethical AI practices.

The leadership changes and increased AI investment reflect a strategic direction intended to support customers' needs for more responsive, secure, and human-centred AI experiences across a range of sectors.