Conagra Brands Promotes Azeem Kapadia as It Advances AI-Enabled 'Project Catalyst'
Conagra Brands has promoted Azeem Kapadia to the role of VP of enterprise AI transformation, according to a post on LinkedIn.
He's worked for the company for seven years, rising in rank from director of predictive sciences to senior director of AI strategy before taking on this new role.
During his tenure, he has spearheaded the company’s AI modernization by orchestrating high-impact generative AI strategies and deploying a machine learning-enabled forecasting system that managed $13 billion in annual sales, per LinkedIn.
Additionally, he scaled the digital organization to over 40 professionals, fostering a culture of innovation and ethical AI adoption while driving significant market growth through predictive modeling.
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"Over the course of my time at Conagra, I’ve had the opportunity to help shape our AI strategy and work alongside talented teams across the organization who are deeply committed to innovation, impact and growth," said Kapadia in a statement on the social channel. "In this new role, I’m looking forward to helping shape and accelerate enterprise-wide AI transformation, scale adoption responsibly and turn emerging capabilities into meaningful business value."
A Tech-Enabled Business Overhaul
The move aligns with Conagra's "Project Catalyst," which president and CEO Sean Connolly calls "an ambitious initiative to reengineer our core work processes by leveraging technology."
According to statements shared at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York 2026 conference, the multiyear initiative, which launched late last year, is expected to build on the company's ongoing technology and data foundation investments, which include a single ERP platform.
"We look at Catalyst as being able to leverage today's AI capabilities so that we can drive financial performance," Connolly stated. "The multiyear effort starts with senior leadership, who are looking at our work processes end-to-end to see how we can leverage AI to drive performance."
During December's earnings conversations, Connolly said accessibility to tech-enabled optimization has improved, helping to automate "big core business processes that for the better part of a century have been heavily manual in nature and, therefore, not perfect."
Now with technology being democratized even in industries with Conagra's margin structure, he said, "the access to technologies to automate a lot of these business processes is kind of in an unprecedented place. And that's a pathway to more effectiveness and more efficiency going forward."
