Ex-Lululemon CIO warns investors: beware AI hype without real business change

Averill's perspective draws on nearly three decades of technology leadership at major retailers, including Nordstrom and REI before Lululemon. Her core argument is that companies today are confusing visibility with execution: a board blessing an AI strategy document is performance art unless the supply chain leader, operations chief, and other business heads have translated that strategy into concrete problems they are solving. This gap between declaration and delivery is what causes transformations to stall, she suggests.

The psychological contract with employees is central to her analysis. When leaders announced return-to-office mandates after COVID without acknowledging the disruption to employees' lives—picking up children, caring for parents—people heard half the truth. Similarly, when leaders declare that AI will augment rather than replace skills while four in five workers silently fear job loss, the trust erodes before the work even begins. Averill argues this is not a technology problem; it is a leadership and culture problem that no amount of AI investment can bypass.

For investors, the implication is that the noisiest AI announcements may actually be a warning sign. Companies that have done the quieter work—aligning functional leaders, building psychological safety, and solving real operational problems—will outperform those that chase headlines. The distinction between performing transformation (declaring it, getting board approval) and sustaining transformation (making it real in daily work) is, Averill suggests, where investment value either grows or evaporates.