Sainsbury’s has made its second senior appointment in a week, drafting in the first head of its AI Centre of Excellence, a corporate initiative established to earlier this year to govern, and scale the safe and strategic use of the technology across the group.
James Anstruther has joined the retail giant from GSK, where he has been director of AI enterprise strategy and transformation since January 2024.
In this role, he was the “lead evangelist for AI” at the British multinational biopharmaceutical giant, partnering with tech, governance and business teams to roll out GenAI tools across the business.
He also built the enterprise AI operating model, bringing together tooling, governance, risk, value tracking and portfolio prioritisation into a single strategic function.
Prior to that, Anstruther had two spells at Deloitte, either side of a four-year stint at Arup, predominantly working in financial services.
His recruitment is part of a major drive to put the power of AI in the hands of staff, create more efficient and more engaging stores and online shopping experiences and help deliver leading customer satisfaction and returns for shareholders.
The Sainsbury’s AI Centre of Excellence builds on the company’s Microsoft partnership, first signed in 2024, and is designed to drive and oversee responsible and strategic use of AI across the organisation.
The programme has a number of aims, including to accelerate innovation for Sainsbury’s “Next Level Strategy”; to drive meaningful use of AI enabled platforms and tools; to embed AI into ways of working to maximise value; and to upskill staff to enable confident use of AI.
Earlier this week, Sainsbury’s appointed LKQ UK & Ireland digital chief Dave Cain as its new head of martech, while Ian Boden-Dowds joined from BP in May as the retailer’s first head of customer experience transformation.
In a LinkedIn post, Anstruther said: “Really excited to see how AI can continue to transform Sainsbury’s and evolve both customer experience and colleagues’ ways of working. Look forward to exploring all things AI strategy, governance, innovation, enablement and change.”
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