Orange Appoints Usman Javaid as Chief AI Officer to Drive Artificial Intelligence Transformation

Orange announced the appointment of Usman Javaid as the Group's Chief AI Officer, effective from 1 September 2026.

This appointment comes at a key moment for Orange, as artificial intelligence (AI) enters a new phase of large-scale deployment and opens up major opportunities to transform the Group's businesses.

Reporting directly to Bruno Zerbib, the Group's Chief Technology & Innovation Officer, Usman Javaid will be responsible for accelerating and scaling up Orange's AI initiatives, building on the strong technological foundations already in place. He will help turn AI into a driver of transformation and value creation for the Group, its customers and its employees. In particular, he will aim to embed AI and agentic AI at the heart of Orange's operations, across networks, customer relations, operations and services for businesses.

With its Trust the future strategy, presented in February 2026, Orange has made artificial intelligence a major driver of value creation, serving quality of service, operational excellence, customer experience and the development of new growth opportunities. The Group has set itself the objective of harnessing AI to generate more than 600 million euros in value by 2028. This ambition is fully aligned with Orange's positioning, based on trust, responsibility and the development of AI solutions that are both useful and differentiating.

Usman Javaid succeeds Steve Jarrett, whose work helped structure the Group's AI approach, establish strong technological foundations, and position Orange among the most recognized players in the field of AI.

Usman Javaid has more than twenty years of international experience in technology, innovation and business transformation. Since April 2023, he has served as Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Orange Business, where he has led the strategy, development and marketing of products and services, as well as data and AI transformation.

From 2019, Usman held several leadership positions at Amazon Web Services, including responsibility for Cloud Services across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Before that, from 2008 to 2019, he held a number of international roles at Vodafone, first in the B2C field, where he notably led the launch of 4G in Europe, and then in B2B, covering IoT, cloud, operations, network strategy and innovation.

He began his career in 2005 at France Télécom (now Orange) in research and innovation, where he contributed to the development of new products, European research projects and international standardization work.

Usman Javaid holds a Master's degree in Networks and Telecommunications, awarded in 2005. He also holds a PhD from the University of Bordeaux, where he defended his dissertation in 2008 in the field of mobile technologies and the Internet of Things. He is also the holder of several patents.