Dollar General Names SVP of AI Optimization to Drive Chainwide Efficiency
Dollar General (NYSE: DG) has appointed Travis Nixon as senior vice president of AI optimization, a new role focused on improving end-to-end operations across merchandising, supply chain, and store operations. The mandate is simple: use AI and business process management to remove friction, cut waste, and improve outcomes for customers and employees.
"At a time when our customers rely on us more than ever, we're excited to welcome Travis and his transformative AI leadership to streamline operations and enhance the experience for Dollar General employees and customers," said Steve Deckard, executive vice president of strategy and development. "This new role represents our commitment to driving innovation to unlock value in our operations, making us stronger now and in the future."
What this signals for operators
This is a signal to treat AI as an operating system decision, not an IT experiment. Expect tighter integration between data, process, and frontline execution with clear financial targets.
- Merchandising: demand forecasting, assortment optimization by store cluster, markdown and price planning.
- Supply chain: inventory positioning, replenishment cadence, DC throughput, transportation routing, on-time delivery.
- Store operations: task automation, labor scheduling, shrink prevention, checkout flow, shelf availability.
The mandate behind "AI optimization"
Nixon will lead business process management efforts with AI embedded at each step, not added after the fact. That means cross-functional roadmaps, measurable cost and service improvements, and a build-once, scale-many playbook.
- Standardize data and processes before scaling models.
- Pair product, operations, and data teams under one cadence.
- Prioritize use cases with clear P&L impact within two quarters.
KPIs executives should watch
- Inventory turns and out-of-stock rate
- Forecast accuracy and markdown rate
- Labor cost per sales dollar and task completion time
- Pick/pack/ship cost and on-time, in-full performance
- Shrink rate and unit economics per store
- Customer satisfaction (NPS/CSAT) tied to on-shelf availability
- Payback periods and percent of initiatives scaled chainwide
Why Travis Nixon
Nixon brings more than a decade in AI and machine learning leadership. Most recently, he served as Head of AI for Dropbox's Security Division, where he helped drive an AI-led operating model.
- Former Head of Measurement and Understanding at Meta
- Former Chief Data Scientist for Financial Services at Microsoft
- Board member at SynerAI since 2020, guiding AI strategy for stock market insights
- B.S. in Economics, Brigham Young University; MBA, University of Virginia
Strategic takeaways for retail leaders
- Give AI a P&L owner with authority across functions.
- Start with bottlenecks that touch both cost and customer experience.
- Build a governance layer: data quality, model monitoring, and change control.
- Run short, sequenced pilots with pre-set KPIs, then standardize and scale.
- Invest in frontline adoption: clear playbooks, training, and feedback loops.
For additional corporate context and updates, visit Dollar General's newsroom: news.dollargeneral.com.
If you're building similar capability in-house, a practical place to start is team upskilling around automation and AI-driven process improvement: AI Automation Certification.
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