Philips has appointed its first Chief AI Officer and a new Chief Innovation and Technology Officer, marking a structural shift that places artificial intelligence at the center of the health technology company's strategy. CEO Roy Jakobs confirmed Shez Partovi will take the new CAIO role while Laura Matz joins from Merck KGaA to lead innovation and technology.
Both executives join Philips' Executive Committee as the company works to expand its portfolio of connected care, diagnostic imaging, and patient monitoring systems. The dual appointments signal that AI is no longer a feature layer at Philips - it is becoming a foundational element of both product design and internal operations.
A first for Philips: Chief AI Officer
Shez Partovi, who joined Philips in 2021 and previously held senior roles at Amazon Web Services and Dignity Health, will continue to lead the company's Enterprise Informatics business alongside his new mandate. His scope covers two tracks: embedding AI into the products clinicians use and applying it to improve internal efficiency and performance.
On LinkedIn, Partovi wrote: "The mandate of this new position is enterprise-wide: how AI shows up in what we build for clinicians and patients, and how it reinvents the way we work inside Philips." He added, "AI is not the goal. Impact is. The opportunity is a people-led, AI-powered Philips - technology that gives clinicians back time, helps us move faster, and lets us focus on what matters most."
Philips has already integrated AI across diagnostic imaging, clinical workflow tools, and patient monitoring. The CAIO role formalizes oversight of those efforts and puts a single executive in charge of how AI shapes both the product roadmap and the company's own processes. For professionals tracking AI for Executives & Strategy, the appointment reflects a broader trend: large enterprises are creating dedicated AI leadership roles rather than treating the technology as a sub-function of IT or R&D.
New innovation leadership from Merck KGaA
Laura Matz arrives at Philips after 19 years at Merck KGaA, where she most recently served as Chief Science and Technology Officer. Her career at the German firm included leadership roles at affiliated companies Air Products, Versum Materials, and Athinia. Philipp Harbach will fill her former role at Merck KGaA on an interim basis.
Matz described the move on LinkedIn: "Philips' purpose - to improve people's health and well-being through meaningful innovation - has never felt more relevant. I look forward to working with new colleagues, customers and partners to connect science, technology, data and digital capabilities in ways that create real value for patients, healthcare professionals and consumers."
Her appointment consolidates innovation and technology under one leader at a time when Philips is pushing to connect its hardware expertise in MRI, CT, and ultrasound with software and data platforms. The company's healthcare portfolio increasingly depends on informatics to help hospitals streamline workflows and deliver personalized care, areas where AI for Healthcare is reshaping expectations around speed and precision.
Why this matters for executives and strategy
Philips is not adding a CAIO to experiment with AI - it is aligning its executive structure to match a strategy already in motion. For leaders in other organizations, the move offers a concrete example of how to operationalize AI at the enterprise level: create a role with authority over both customer-facing products and internal systems, and pair it with innovation leadership that understands the full R&D-to-commercial pipeline. The message from Philips is that AI strategy, when it matters, gets a seat at the executive table.
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