Orange Names Usman Javaid Chief AI Officer With a €600M Mandate

Orange has appointed Usman Javaid as Chief AI Officer, effective September 1, 2026. The role reports directly to Bruno Zerbib, Orange's Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, and comes with a target of generating more than €600 million in AI-driven value by 2028, tied to the company's Trust the Future strategic plan. Javaid joins from his role as Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Orange Business, where he led data and AI transformation, and previously held cloud leadership roles at Amazon Web Services and Vodafone. He replaces Steve Jarrett, who is leaving to join Anthropic.

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A Title Still Finding Its Job Description

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The Chief AI Officer title has spread rapidly across large enterprises, but the responsibilities attached to it still vary widely. Some organizations emphasize governance, while others expect the role to drive product strategy and hit specific revenue or efficiency targets.

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Javaid's reporting line into Technology and Innovation puts AI ownership inside the commercial organization, with a business target attached from day one. That structure will get tested quickly. Major provisions of the EU AI Act took effect in August 2026, adding another layer of compliance pressure as Orange expands AI across the business. The two demands do not always pull in the same direction.

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The Search Behind the Hire

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For companies making these hires, the harder search is for leaders who pair technical fluency with a record of deploying AI and owning commercial outcomes.

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Jarrett's departure for Anthropic shows how AI labs are competing directly with enterprises for experienced AI leaders. As more CAIOs get pulled toward the AI labs themselves, companies hiring for the role next will compete for a smaller group of people who can do both. For Javaid, the €600 million figure is the number his tenure gets measured against.

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