Lowe’s promoted five internal leaders on Sept. 1 and reassigned responsibility for artificial intelligence to the chief information officer — a move that ties the retailer’s AI capability directly to Pro services, stores and marketing at a time when its digital channel is showing faster growth.

The appointments were disclosed in an Aug. 28 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The changes elevate executives into roles overseeing Pro and home services, in-store operations, technology (including AI), strategy and marketing.

Who moved and what they’ll lead

The SEC filing named five promotions, all internal:

  • Joseph M. McFarland III — executive vice president for Pro and home services.
  • Quonta D. Vance — executive vice president for stores.
  • Seemantini Godbole — executive vice president and chief information and AI officer.
  • Adam D. Filipponi — executive vice president for strategy and business development.
  • Jennifer E. Wilson — executive vice president and chief marketing officer.

McFarland, with Lowe’s since 2018 after senior roles at JCPenney and Home Depot, will oversee strategy and execution for Pro and home services, with objectives that include growing market share and improving service for contractor and trade customers. Godbole, who has held Lowe’s top information and digital roles since 2018, now adds AI to her title, consolidating technical and machine-learning responsibilities under the IT organization.

Why moving AI under the CIO matters

Placing AI inside the CIO’s remit signals a shift from isolated pilots toward operational ownership. That structure helps ensure machine learning and automation are integrated into core systems and customer touchpoints — from in-store operations to marketing personalization and Pro workflows — rather than remaining a standalone experiment.

The change follows a quarter of notable ecommerce momentum for Lowe’s: in the fiscal second quarter ended July 31, net sales rose 8.3% year over year to $25.96 billion and online sales increased 15.7%. CEO Marvin Ellison also said the company’s AI-powered digital agent, Mylow, produced roughly three times the conversion rate of Lowe’s non‑Mylow digital experience — a clear example management points to when linking AI work to commercial outcomes.

Practical implications for marketing and Pro teams

For marketers and merchandising leads, a CIO-led AI function can shorten the path from experimentation to production. With AI centralized, teams can prioritize use cases such as conversational agents, personalized recommendations and dynamic pricing, and coordinate deployment across digital and in‑store channels.

Pro customers — contractors and trade buyers who often make larger, repeat purchases — are an explicit focus of the leadership change. Elevating an EVP for Pro and home services reinforces Lowe’s strategic intent to convert digital engagement into higher-value, repeat business in that segment.

What to watch next

Investors, competitors and partners should look for evidence that the reorganization produces measurable improvements beyond isolated conversion gains. The signals to watch include expanded rollout of Mylow-style capabilities across channels, clear AI governance and measurement practices published by the company, and operational announcements that show AI features deployed in stores and Pro workflows.

The promotions do not alter Lowe’s reported Q2 results or its rankings: the company appears in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 and its AI rankings. The near-term test for this leadership shuffle will be how consistently Lowe’s converts the reported AI-driven conversion lift into broader revenue growth and operational efficiency.

Practical next steps for practitioners: monitor Lowe’s investor and operations updates for concrete deployment timelines, request case-level details where available (for example, metrics beyond conversion such as average order value and retention), and consider how a centralized IT/AI model might affect vendor selection, partner integrations and cross-functional governance at large retailers.