o9 Strengthens AI Leadership with Dr Ashwin Rao Appointment

 o9, a leading software company that is powering enterprise planning and decisioning models across 30-plus industry verticals with its groundbreaking, AI-powered Digital Brain platform, today announced that Dr. Ashwin Rao, a multi-faceted leader in applying technologies for elevating enterprise intelligence, has joined the Company’s leadership team as Executive Vice President, Next-Gen AI and Technology.

Dr. Ashwin Rao brings more than two decades of extensive experience across business, academia and Wall Street. As Chief AI Officer and Chief AI Scientist at distributor and retail enterprises, he led AI, data science and engineering teams that built leading-edge capabilities for merchandising, pricing, forecasting, supply chain and adjacent domains. Before that, he spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, leading teams that developed quantitative algorithmic models and solutions to power trading decisions. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University’s Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, where he researches and teaches graduate-level courses on the topic of AI/ML for sequential optimal decisioning under uncertainty. Additionally, Dr. Rao is a published author on several topics, including a textbook on Reinforcement Learning and Financial Trading. He holds a Ph.D. in Theoretical Computer Science from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and a B.Tech. in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Dr. Rao resides in Palo Alto, CA., where he’s an active member of the AI community.

At o9, Dr. Rao will build upon the company’s founding premise: Connecting the siloes of enterprise planning and execution to transform end-to-end decision-making is the top value-creation driver in a world of rising volatility and uncertainty. He will engage with o9’s premier customers and partners on the challenges of making enterprise AI deliver on its promise. He will work closely with o9’s world-class R&D team and direct the Company’s strategic, cutting-edge architecture initiatives.

“Upon delving into the o9 technology, I was immediately drawn to the power of its platform and Enterprise Knowledge Graph technology,” Dr. Rao said. “AI has been a fundamental component in o9’s platform, and I believe the combination of advancements in generative and agentic AI with the strength of the powerful Enterprise Knowledge Graph models it pioneered is the key that will shape the future of enterprise planning and decisioning. I am thrilled to join the team to make a significant contribution to value creation in enterprises across industries.”