Illumia appointed Eric Schuster as chief product officer on July 30, 2026, placing the former ADP and Ceridian executive in charge of product strategy and AI expansion across its platform for higher education, healthcare, senior living, and corporate campuses. The move signals the company's push to unify payments, identity, credentialing, commerce, and foodservice technologies into a single enterprise platform.
Schuster will lead product strategy and development, aligning innovation with customer needs while expanding the company's use of artificial intelligence to improve operational workflows and decision-making. Chief Executive Officer Greg Brown said Schuster's experience developing enterprise software products at scale will help accelerate platform integration and improve the customer experience across Illumia's technology portfolio. Brown added that the company aims to simplify how clients use its products while delivering a more connected and intuitive platform.
The role highlights the growing importance of AI in product development, as companies seek to integrate intelligence into mission-critical systems. Schuster described how Illumia's approach keeps early user input central. "Successful enterprise software is built through close collaboration with customers," Schuster said. He noted that Illumia's client-led design sprint process allows product teams to engage users early in development, helping ensure new capabilities address operational challenges while supporting a more unified and intelligent user experience.
Schuster's product leadership background
Schuster brings more than 20 years of enterprise software product leadership. Most recently, he served as chief product officer at ADP, where he led product strategy for ADP Workforce Now, a human capital management platform serving more than 90,000 organizations. His responsibilities included advancing ADP's artificial intelligence strategy and expanding ADP Assist, an AI-powered platform that helps employees and managers complete workplace tasks and access information.
Before ADP, Schuster spent nearly 15 years at Ceridian, now Dayforce, as vice president of product management. During his tenure, he helped guide the company's transformation from a traditional payroll provider into a cloud-based human capital management platform. Schuster's track record of advancing AI at ADP, including the AI-powered assistant ADP Assist, underscores the practical application of AI in enterprise products. For product professionals looking to build similar skills, an AI Learning Path for Product Managers provides structured guidance.
Platform integration and AI at Illumia
Illumia said Schuster will focus on strengthening collaboration across its product portfolio while expanding the use of AI to provide customers with more actionable insights and streamlined workflows. The company plans to continue emphasizing customer-driven product development as it builds new capabilities for institutions managing payments, campus access, commerce, and operational services. Formerly known as Transact + CBORD, Illumia operates as a business unit of Roper Technologies (Nasdaq: ROP) and provides technology to more than 10,000 organizations.
Why this matters for product development professionals
The appointment underscores the shift toward AI-integrated platforms in enterprise technology. For product development professionals, the emphasis on client-led design sprints and AI-driven operational workflows points to the skills now expected: direct customer collaboration, platform thinking, and the ability to apply AI to solve practical problems. The move also highlights the career path from product management to chief product officer, where deep expertise in scaling enterprise software and AI strategy becomes a differentiator.
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