Analog Devices’ office in Wilmington, Massachusetts

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When Nancy Avila retired from McKesson in early 2024, she envisioned a new rhythm for her life, splitting time between her board work and a new home in South Carolina. But the speed of change in technology, especially artificial intelligence, drew her back in. “As I started to talk to different companies, whether for board work or private equity, there was just so much excitement,” she noted with enthusiasm. “When this opportunity came up, it was about being in an industry that is core to enabling and driving AI.”

That “opportunity” was to join Analog Devices (ADI) as chief information officer, which she did in August of 2024. ADI is a $9.5 billion global semiconductor company headquartered in Massachusetts, and the company’s technology sits at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds, powering breakthroughs in industrial automation, automotive systems, communications infrastructure and consumer devices.

“I was amazed when I came here at how many things we were in and how many industries we were in,” Avila said. “We’re not just any chip company. We provide differentiation to a lot of our customers in every device.”

A three-pillar strategy for IT

In her first year at ADI, Avila implemented what she calls a three-pillar strategy designed to balance operational stability with innovation. The first pillar, “foundational back to basics,” focuses on running and securing the business. The second, process optimization, aims to streamline workflows and increase productivity through standard platforms and practices. The third, innovation, seeks to harness emerging technologies to reimagine how ADI works and serves its customers.

Avila applies this framework across three dimensions: transforming customer experience, strengthening manufacturing resiliency and improving productivity across general and administrative functions. “What makes it interesting today is how we solve problems knowing that AI changes everything,” she underscored. “How we approach those pillars now is very different than in the past.”

Bringing AI to the enterprise

Avila’s remit includes both enterprise data strategy and AI, areas she sees as inseparable. ADI has long used machine learning, but her current focus is on agentic AI, introducign systems that can reason, act and learn autonomously. “These new AI solutions orchestrate how we do work in a different way,” she emphasized. “They drive productivity without relying on human interaction.”

She described how engineers at ADI are using AI agents to streamline their design processes. “We have thousands of engineers who spend a lot of time looking for information,” she explained. “Now they can ask, ‘Where’s this design spec?’ or ‘What are the parameters for this component?’ and get instant answers.” In manufacturing, conversational AI tools help process engineers detect and analyze anomalies in real time, saving hours of manual work.

The effectiveness of these applications, Avila noted, depends on data readiness. “You can’t do AI without data,” she said. “Companies that have organized their data and made it accessible are going to move very fast.” ADI’s ability to integrate and clean its data directly influences the speed of AI development. “Where we have the data ready, we can move fast,” she said. “Where we don’t, we go back to focus on quality and integrity.”

Transparent decision-making in a fast-moving world

Avila is a strong advocate for transparent decision-making, a philosophy that helps build trust across complex organizations. “A lot of times it’s not easy to understand where money is being spent,” she said. “When you overlay that with IT, there are responsibilities the business doesn’t see every day.”

At ADI, she has implemented tools that give business leaders visibility into how their decisions affect IT costs, particularly around cloud compute, which is one of the company’s largest expenses. “We monitor that closely,” she noted. “We’ve built tools to help our engineers understand the cost of their design choices. You don’t want to find out a month later that you spent $100,000 training a model.”

Transparency also extends to measuring outcomes. “We have to understand if we’re getting the value for what we built,” she said. “It’s not just about technology. It’s about making sure the return makes sense.”

Partnering with a deeply technical organization

Unlike her prior roles at McKesson and Johnson Controls, Avila now leads technology in a company where nearly everyone is an engineer. “Our product is technology,” she said. “When you have that level of expertise across the company, IT’s role becomes more about governance and orchestration.”

Her approach is to enable rather than control. “It’s about freeing the people,” she said. “When someone comes to us with a tool or solution they want to test, we try to give them a safe space to innovate. Once they’re ready to scale, that’s where IT steps in. [We] make sure it’s sustainable and adds value across the enterprise.”

This philosophy extends to how she partners with business and engineering leaders. “If you know the business as well as the business, if you have curiosity, you end up helping solve their problems by default,” she noted. “It’s about understanding what they’re trying to solve and working as one team.”

Lessons from the boardroom

Avila’s leadership perspective is also shaped by her board experience. She currently serves on the board of Haleon, a global healthcare company, and previously served on the board of Comerica Bank. Her journey began when a former CEO encouraged her to join a nonprofit board to broaden her leadership perspective. That step led to a sequence of corporate board opportunities.

“What I love about board work is that while you’re brought in for your cyber or IT expertise, it quickly becomes collaborative,” she said. “You learn so much about other industries and bring those lessons back to your day job.”

Her advice to aspiring CIO board members is clear: get executive support, start with nonprofit boards and be intentional about networking. “Once you have that, it’s just a matter of demonstrating your experience,” she said.

Looking ahead: AI, quantum and beyond

Avila has a background in math and statistics, so the rise of AI resonates deeply with her. “AI has been around for a long time,” she said. “What’s transformational now is the pace.” She sees quantum computing as one of the next big frontiers. “Seven years ago, it felt far off. Now it’s real,” she underscored with evident excitement.

She is also intrigued by emerging humanoid robotics, not as science fiction but as practical tools for improving lives. “Think of a robot that assists someone in a wheelchair or with a walker,” she said. “That’s not 20 years away. Maybe not two, but it’s coming faster than we think.”

A year of momentum

As Avila reflects on her first year at Analog Devices, she feels energized by what lies ahead. “Analog has some great things in the future,” she said. “It’s playing a huge role in the mobilization of AI from the edge to the infrastructure. It’s fun to be part of it.”

Peter High is President of Metis Strategy, a business and IT advisory firm. He has written three bestselling books, including his latest Getting to Nimble. He also moderates the Technovation podcast series and speaks at conferences around the world. Follow him on Twitter @PeterAHigh.