In this episode of The Voice of Retail podcast, host Michael LeBlanc sits down with one of retail technology's most accomplished leaders: Julie Averill, former Chief Information Officer of Lululemon and REI, and author of the new book Chief Impact Officer: Real Transformation Comes from Human, Not Just Artificial Intelligence. Joining the conversation is Menachem Salinas, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Nimble, the expert AI web search platform making live web data enterprise-grade.
A self-described "serial retail technologist," Julie's career spans the defining chapters of modern retail technology. She spent a decade at Nordstrom leading pioneering omnichannel initiatives, drove a technology transformation as CIO of REI, and then took a leap to a then-$2 billion company called Lululemon — where, over eight years as CIO, she helped power the brand's growth to $10 billion. Today, she runs her own advisory business focused on enterprise AI adoption, and her new book makes the case that real transformation comes from people, not just technology.
Drawing on years of parsing signal from noise in the CIO chair, Julie delivers a masterclass in AI reality-checking. Her verdict on where retail stands in the AI journey? "Maybe the first inning." She argues the technology itself is now the easy part — the real reasons so many AI pilots fail are data quality, governance, workflow readiness and organizational capability. Julie shares the exact questions she asks to separate a slick demo from a solution built to survive contact with a real omnichannel operation: Whose data does this run on? What workflow actually changes, and for whom? Who owns the errors? What does this cost at scale? And she tells a cautionary tale of a board-driven AI pitch that promised everything — and why "yes, we can do everything" is the surest sign of an immature vendor.
Julie also maps the future of the CIO role itself: from technology gatekeeper to curious, strategic business enabler. With AI tools now arriving through the browser, control is gone — the new job is curation, education and helping executives tell what's real. The businesses that win, she argues, will be the ones that learn to evolve continuously and dream about what was previously impossible.
Menachem Salinas adds the vendor-side perspective, explaining how Nimble delivers real-time competitive pricing, digital shelf monitoring and out-of-stock intelligence across thousands of retail sites — and why he believes agentic commerce will transform e-commerce within twelve months. His candid ShopTalk Barcelona assessment: even the world's biggest brands rate no better than five out of ten on AI data readiness.
Julie's book Chief Impact Officer is available now everywhere books are sold. Learn more at julieaverill.com and nimbleway.com.
Presented by Kokek, Canada's Way to Pay. Visit Konek.ca to learn more.
Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.
Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.
Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025 and 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.
Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.
