CIOs Step Into The AI Spotlight
Foundry, Thursday, November 20th, 2025
AI has long been a central element for PPG Industries, a Fortune 500 company and global supplier of paints, coatings, and specialty materials. PPG's AI Center of Excellence (CoE) has been on the frontlines of a number of critical initiatives, including marshalling AI to spawn new product formulations and to accelerate the laborious color matching process at scale.
To date, AI projects were managed like most high-profile IT initiatives, with PPG's CIO balancing both business strategy and technology implementation responsibilities. But the frenzy over Generative AI's ability to democratize a powerful technology has raised the stakes, adding another dimension to the CIO's already expansive charter. Today, CIO Bhaskar Ramachandran devotes significant time to educating PPG business leaders on the basics of Large Language Models (LLMs) while managing expectations for exactly how and where GenAI technologies have potential to transform business.