PMI ties AI adoption to culture shift, rejects quick-win efficiency focus

Fredric Patitucci, a 35-year veteran of Philip Morris International, has been the company's group chief people and culture officer for about three years. He came into the role at a moment of transition: PMI had already spent years shifting its product portfolio toward smoke-free alternatives, with smoke-free products growing from zero net revenue to more than 40% today. The business transformation was well underway, but Patitucci recognized that the company's culture had not evolved at the same pace.

To close that gap, he brought together 350 people across PMI's global workforce to collectively define what the company's culture should stand for in the smoke-free era. That effort yielded the PMI DNA—three core values: "We're better together. We're game-changers. We care." The shift was deliberate: moving from a "very security driven" mentality to one suited for smoke-free product alternatives. Patitucci emphasizes that the emphasis on collaboration built into these values became essential as the company began preparing for AI integration. "AI is not really a tech play—it's a mindset play, a leadership play," he says.

Following the initial culture-setting workshop, Patitucci's team staged a global roadshow two years ago to introduce employees to the PMI DNA. Last year's roadshow focused on developing a growth mindset—another capability Patitucci sees as critical for AI adoption. This year's roadshow again centered on that growth mindset. Together, these cultural initiatives laid groundwork for what Patitucci calls the "sustainable way" AI adoption needs to land in an organization: a combination of culture, learning mindset, and workflow redefinition.

However, Patitucci observes that many leaders remain trapped in functional silos, still looking primarily at their own department's metrics and priorities. For AI to work across an enterprise—particularly one as complex as PMI, with 80,000+ employees spread across diverse geographies, job categories, and functions—organizations must adopt a broader lens. He argues that HR should take the lead in pushing leaders to "take the company perspective and try to disassociate yourself from your own stream." Only from that bird's-eye view can organizations identify where AI will have the most impact and redesign workflows responsibly.

Critically, PMI is not chasing immediate efficiency gains. Patitucci acknowledged that the company is not yet seeing measurable efficiency improvements from its AI work, and he openly questions whether organizations betting primarily on short-term speed will succeed. "I don't think that the companies that are betting on efficiency gains will go far. They may go faster, but not farther," he says. Instead, PMI is taking a longer strategic view, evaluating consequences five and ten years out. That deliberate restraint—remaining "calm but determined"—reflects a conviction that sustainable AI transformation requires cultural alignment first, and that the rush to efficiency can undermine the leadership, collaboration, and learning mindset on which lasting change depends.