How Qualcomm’s CIO is placing big bets on AI to support the chip company’s diversification push

Qualcomm CIO Attila Tinic is betting on AI to support the chipmaker's diversification beyond smartphones, centralizing data and AI teams and deploying AI tools across the company. The strategy includes AI agents for purchase order validation and laptop refreshes, as Qualcomm targets $40 billion in non-handset revenue by fiscal 2029.

Attila Tinic spent three decades in the telecommunications sector, but it was his most-recent role in the field—serving as chief information officer at EchoStar—that inspired his next gig as CIO at semiconductor company Qualcomm https://fortune.com/company/qualcomm/ . During Tinic’s time at EchoStar, the satellite internet provider had grand ambitions to become the U.S.’s fourth major carrier under its Dish brand, a diversification plan that didn’t exactly pan out as envisioned. Last year, Dish ditched those aspirations, https://www.theverge.com/report/766038/dish-echostar-spectrum-att-sale-fourth-carrier and in June 2026, the subsidiary filed for bankruptcy after deals to sell spectrum licenses to AT&T and SpaceX hadn’t closed in time https://www.theverge.com/report/766038/dish-echostar-spectrum-att-sale-fourth-carrier . But at Qualcomm, efforts to diversify the business away from relying too much on the volatile smartphone market have been far more fruitful. Last year, Qualcomm unveiled https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/27/qualcomm-ai200-ai250-ai-chips-nvidia-amd.html new AI accelerator chips to better compete with Nvidia https://fortune.com/company/nvidia/ and AMD https://fortune.com/company/advanced-micro-devices/ . There have also been reports https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/27/qualcomm-qcom-openai-smartphone-chip-partnership-stock.html that Qualcomm is working with OpenAI on a new smartphone AI chip. And last month, Qualcomm’s shares jumped https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/24/qualcomm-data-center-cpu-meta.html when it unveiled new fiscal 2029 revenue targets during the company’s investor day, including projections that non-handset revenue would reach $40 billion and data center sales would total $15 billion. Qualcomm’s revenue and earnings results for the first two quarters of 2026 exceeded Wall Street’s expectations, even as the global smartphone market is expected to contract at the steepest rate on record https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/global-smartphone-market-faces-record-074428142.html . “I was intrigued by the diversification strategy,” says Tinic of joining Qualcomm in February 2025. He found it alluring to join the company as it aimed to remake its business with bigger bets on data centers, automotive, the internet of things, and other adjacent markets. One of Tinic’s earliest moves when stepping into the CIO role was the creation of centralized data and AI teams, rather than embedding those resources into various infrastructure and application teams. He has also supported the generous deployment of AI tools across the company, including AI coding assistants, Microsoft https://fortune.com/company/microsoft/ Copilot, and generative AI features from vendors including cloud-based software provider ServiceNow https://fortune.com/company/servicenow/ , Salesforce’s messaging platform Slack, and Atlassian’s project management software product, Jira. “Things are moving so quickly that I think if anyone thinks that they can completely go it alone, they’re going to be left behind,” says Tinic. Some internal AI use cases that are changing workflows include the use of AI agents to validate purchase orders autonomously, with the AI system even assigning an accuracy score to each document so that customer service team members can spend their time focused on hunting down the exact details that are wrong or unfilled. Another example came from Tinic’s IT team, which created an autonomous AI agent to handle almost the entire process for refreshing a worker’s laptop. Within Qualcomm, Tinic says AI tools are widely adopted to support the software testing life cycle, as well as for research and personal productivity. What’s more challenging is how to rethink end-to-end workflows in a manner that’s different from past technology waves, where automation was on the margins. Rethinking work is an even greater unknown as autonomous AI agents become more popular. “With AI agents and having a digital workforce, they can work differently; they can do a lot of reasoning,” says Tinic. “Your workflow itself really needs to be rethought.” Tinic says he assesses progress through three impact metrics: volume, velocity, and quality. So, for example, if a software developer is using AI, Tinic and Qualcomm will look at the volume of work delivered, whether the product is going to market faster, and if it has fewer defects. Within the help desk, Qualcomm will track the volume of tickets resolved through AI, but also the rate of re-opened tickets. Getting all three right is key to enabling Qualcomm to scale its internal AI capabilities, which ties back to the company’s goals to diversify its business. “I really want to repurpose people for those high-value tasks that are helping the business grow, as opposed to administration tasks,” says Tinic. One major AI initiative that predated Tinic’s time at Qualcomm, but that he continues to support, is an AI council made up of legal, security, and IT experts to ensure that any new large language models, AI tools, or data sets associated with any of these projects are secure. “In prior years of my career, I would have looked at governance as a slow-moving bureaucracy,” says Tinic. But he has evolved his thinking, believing that this structure gives employees confidence to use authorized AI tools. “It’s like the old adage, you can go faster when you know you have brakes.” The high rates of internal adoption of AI have led Qualcomm to closely monitor its AI token spend, a question that’s become more central across the technology sector. Tinic has established token limits, which he says are “generous,” but if an employee hits that limit, there will be a conversation about different decisions that can be made regarding their AI model selection. For some advanced cases, Anthropic’s Claude Opus model may be required, but for a lower-stakes use case like documentation creation, the lower-cost Claude Haiku is sufficient. “Everybody who’s talking about moving from experimentation to production is probably dealing with costs that have hit them that they weren’t maybe projecting,” says Tinic. John Kell CIO Intelligence is taking a three-week summer break. I’ll be back in your inboxes Aug. 5. In the meantime, send thoughts or suggestions to CIO Intelligence here . NEWS PACKETS Microsoft to cut 2% of jobs; Xbox unit to be overhauled. Microsoft on Monday announced it would cut 4,800 jobs, with the Xbox gaming division to be especially affected, where 20% of staff will be trimmed over the next year. As Fortune reports https://fortune.com/2026/07/06/exclusive-xbox-ceo-asha-sharma-job-cuts-studios-axed-layoffs/ , the cuts at xBox were anticipated due to the division losing market share to rivals and facing pressures that include higher component costs, underfunding its popular franchises, and relying too much on vendors instead of investing in its own engineering culture. The broader layoffs at Microsoft, meanwhile, come as the tech giant is projected to spend $190 billion on capital expenditures https://www.wsj.com/business/earnings/microsoft-msft-q3-earnings-report-2026-stock-75b9361b in 2026—a 61% increase over last year—but hasn’t yet seen enough of its software customers also buying its AI products. Microsoft’s early investment in OpenAI gave it a leading position when generative AI first boomed, but it has since fallen behind https://fortune.com/2026/05/21/microsoft-copilot-ai-openai-satya-nadella-gemini-claude/ rivals like Anthropic and Google. AI is increasingly becoming a geopolitical issue. With AI advancements continuing to develop at a quick pace and playing an increasingly important role in global economies, the public markets, and the future of work, governments are taking a more assertive position on the technology. The latest examples include China, where authorities are reportedly https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/exclusive-beijing-looking-curbing-overseas-101644780.html holding meetings with tech companies to potentially restrict overseas access to some of the nation’s most advanced AI models, while in Europe, there are fears that the bloc is badly lagging on the development of frontier models https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/04/ai-security-nato-access-00984758 , and the European Union has responded by setting up an “evaluation capacity” to assess new AI models. In the U.S., the Financial Times reported https://www.ft.com/content/7c803eab-8e80-4431-9a87-e943bf00e00b?syn-25a6b1a6=1 that OpenAI is mulling giving a 5% stake to the U.S. government, an arrangement that could potentially involve other AI companies. What job losses? AI leaders strike a new, more hopeful tone. While the tech sector accounts for a third of all layoffs https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-01/tech-and-finance-sectors-losing-28-000-jobs-monthly-show-ai-impact-on-labor announced thus far in 2026, and AI is often the looming boogeyman attributed to these workforce reductions, the industry’s top leaders are quickly learning that saying “AI is coming for your job” may not be a winning message with the public. As the Wall Street Journal and others have reported https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-workers-tech-ceos-job-losses-afc71e15 , OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy are among the industry’s top leaders who now laud the positive benefits of AI. Some of that newer messaging now centers on the technology’s ability to spur new job creation, enhance time for more creative work, and bolster positive workplace culture in the office. “They may have realized it was simply bad business to say that your great new product will destroy the economy,” David Autor, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the WSJ . The spat between Anthropic and Alibaba heats up. Just weeks after Anthropic accused https://www.reuters.com/world/china/anthropic-says-alibaba-illicitly-extracted-claude-ai-model-capabilities-2026-06-24/ Alibaba of illicitly extracting its Claude AI model capabilities, the Chinese e-commerce giant has banned employees from using Anthropic’s AI tools for work purposes, citing concerns that the American AI hyperscaler poses security risks. CNBC reports https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/06/alibaba-anthropic-ai-ban-claude-china.html that Alibaba employees will be required to uninstall Anthropic’s models and agent products and replace them with the company’s own AI assistant, Qoder. Separately, the FT reported https://www.ft.com/content/ad033063-60f9-4c0c-8d8a-9193a83e6f60?syn-25a6b1a6=1 on Friday that Anthropic is also aiming to close loopholes that have allowed Chinese companies to access Claude Code even though they weren’t authorized to do so. ADOPTION CURVE Human readiness for AI is backsliding, survey finds. Enterprises that are making steady progress on AI are also reporting a troubling counterfactual: workforce readiness is actually backsliding. While 57% of organizations say AI is embedded in core business processes or deployed broadly across their company, and 77% report that generative AI is now used by multiple departments, only 23% think their workforce is ready for AI, according to a new global study https://www.kyndryl.com/us/en/about-us/news/2026/06/ai-adoption-workforce-readiness of 1,100 senior business and technology leaders. The survey, conducted by IT services provider Kyndryl, included respondents from eight countries including the U.S., Brazil, Japan, and Germany. That workforce readiness metric is a six-point drop from the prior year’s survey, and Kyndryl reports that 79% of leaders say that the speed of AI will outpace their organizations’ workforce, governance, and operating models. Eight in ten also say that they expect AI agents to make “impactful decisions” within the next year, but just 25% completely trust these systems to operate without human oversight. “The gap between the technology and the people's readiness and their ability to use the technology is getting much bigger,” Kim Basile, CIO at Kyndryl, tells Fortune . Basile advises that organizations need to first get a true baseline understanding of how well their workforce understands and uses AI. Then, she says, companies should develop persona-based training programs that differ for a software developer versus non-technical employees. “The upskilling, the knowing where your skills are, the embedding it into your business process; all those things are going to be critical as part of your change management plan,” adds Basile. Courtesy of Kyndryl JOBS RADAR Hiring: - Post Consumer Brands is seeking a CIO https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4436420710/?alternateChannel=search&eBP=CwEAAAGfPEc8C1UVvwDX80lw6rIR4Ttah9wbvq0wqHCLkExamCT6rJekvafkisqXBJ0t M7P9m9MWYAFdaNCiEn6UCS9c4ex-4SogACTlmWFUlirIkFQGlGc8p9p SEmaF51ahP4rck-LtunDLxGQdit8Uw9zm2XEgzCoSGYg7V0vl2n7pGCNvbkcj3-K44mMeq0ivaZJU6UUWjy-atT mKDeVvxKKR1rL03EtlMFxbbbU77H8VpusHJSbuHGP9t6SqhEju-OfECExKgYV drra9 6yO8V1sAQjYD9xjd9Cc6RqfAcK30CUcaxFC1gIbpQxQqJVjuxkZNNzqBZjLLaB9qUuEZMc-TyjTALrf4VoSRzu7Jux5zm7kO773HudKFcXDfaVLTLDWfye8Avl96ck7HdOyK8uzGJNSHD0E5rtEUTn81wswgr2fZobBzeLlN1wHLPXEpj6AaRSd358PoyEhQDineCeQr-zTfSlQBb04W5KItg&refId=XFFeZYc2H10c4MWWHOVYTg%3D%3D&trackingId=GMj1yrJaFaq2NzThLNTRgQ%3D%3D , based in Lakeville, Minnesota. Posted salary range: $236.6K-$375K/year. - New York Life is seeking a VP, head of corporate functions technology https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4386783481/?alternateChannel=search&eBP=CwEAAAGfPE2AhUmnUs3O pB7MQRPs7Z7XCS TFVJd3Bw6DvpG9jEpUgjf-jxtapFJPsgc4P DcGmvxmshYBwh7PHp4r-vietvWPt01YQqk-YS VvDCHsOLQuBb7CHrJYfImVvxFCql12K7kgJ7agVjPI9nlPDBQZxyLv5uzjgEC1qfg9pHDOxBTtnFKOWWdEAzI-mXisHqWO-X1oSJmgeyOAO7YQqtPlwsJRHEJ0T3Y2SqgqTAVTf9MfkGo7WwNP8TJhioEa TbGKTLJ94Z5M9TBk9Zdwm6RA-DKui4taaZxXi95ug5c8D4-lptDSfRcJBaf3IN1Fc108bSp1txXG1WyegaYUwzwz3Xs6XXNZOAmMr77dtqh3P8dgqrjqlxBVKyhU24f DRThOFlgbfgcvvCNcLrnJflnv5yDHzyB2dvQS1Bc4cBUCT4AJxipmYw0Tq421cxdqihgWCrwKrWCoQ4TLVFcyxo3CYU0vhW6syK&refId=wHknSu6H4xMw1knJwKEsrg%3D%3D&trackingId=jCYR9447vnSh2v7Mulhs0g%3D%3D , based in New York. Posted salary range: $250K-$300K/year. - State Street is seeking a global head of data platform engineering https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4430774088/?alternateChannel=search&eBP=NOT ELIGIBLE FOR CHARGING&refId=3x1D74LnwM7Wm89sIu7sZQ%3D%3D&trackingId=0ewZe%2BeED7iEboXThwcQEw%3D%3D , based in Princeton, New Jersey. Posted salary range: $225K-$337.5K/year. - University of Michigan is seeking a CIO https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4437708783/?alternateChannel=search&eBP=CwEAAAGfPFkWsWKAOjinLsT0KkYxP3QGoG8OYOO7nRNgeMm0vKa-4Oth7FMyr9s3XCchSTAg3Tn4 qY 5YiH-4z0cHEWB1LbnyRcGe9-55k3fw-cpZrYeK0w0qj2RSV0OvLSq9tvk7iRcOxNzH4cykKLKnoA6pqoDj9ToQKRABuwGSk4MfjrUgRnEi9Hd16hM7txMBl4odE9JGpXzdsHLMZ5QzIdFiRY711ssY CIzvYi1VvBPDCT8jKnrl-IaRSdAdhLJJBPOrNAr7jLtfTsJqmHUrCa-lKwarb-NXtkKlq1jSaq GsXWinJq1JVs77R3eI8Z3HZOV8Ej6uCLPV5If1l3eeA5Okv57JP44No82VnDp YBQkOH-tEVjdgYZ990pmdsNw5R4j4TXjYTKrlH7EFv-3t6xAbKH3Hs-M-kMkZuNHYZZPWTt9QrB-gl5wV13prvFhncBp2Eips5H2ZyIZ&refId=SZepJklE7gATQ83qGle%2BSQ%3D%3D&trackingId=R0wpjPXQaxEAAMJ9OgwZ3A%3D%3D , based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Posted salary range: $190K-$240K/year. Hired: - Lyft announced https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260707414734/en/Lyft-Names-Senthil-Padmanabhan-Chief-Technology-Officer the appointment of Senthil Padmanabhan as CTO, joining the ridesharing platform effective July 20. He will report to CEO David Risher. Padmanabhan most recently served as VP of engineering at e-commerce company eBay, where he worked for 15 years and held various leadership roles. - Kelly appointed https://www.kellyservices.com/press-releases/kelly-appoints-alan-stukalsky-as-chief-product-and-technology-officer Alan Stukalsky as chief product and technology officer, effective July 13. Stukalsky will report to CEO Chris Layden and joins the staffing agency after most recently serving as chief digital and information officer at job recruiter firm LHH. He was previously chief digital officer and CIO for North America at staffing agency Randstad. - Dave promoted https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/07/07/3323129/0/en/dave-appoints-gopi-kuchimanchi-as-chief-technology-officer.html Gopi Kuchimanchi to serve as CTO, effective immediately, and reporting directly to the fintech company’s founder and CEO Jason Wilk. Kuchimanchi joined Dave in 2021 as director of engineering and was later elevated to VP of technology in March 2023. He previously held technology leadership roles at Happen Bank and Flexport. - GIX announced https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/07/01/3320537/0/en/gix-appoints-sara-dillon-as-chief-technology-officer.html the appointment of Sara Dillon as CTO, overseeing the securities exchange’s core enterprise technology strategy and trading infrastructure and product roadmap. Dillon most recently served as executive director and global head of trading surveillance technology at banking giant JPMorgan Chase. She also spent a decade at the New York Stock Exchange in senior leadership roles. - Applause promoted https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260706744354/en/Applause-Names-Aatish-Salvi-Chief-Executive-Officer-Promotes-Tacita-Morway-to-Chief-Technology-Officer Tacita Morway to the role of CTO after elevating Aatish Salvi, who had previously served as CTO, to the role of CEO at the software testing company. Morway joined Applause in February 2026 as VP of engineering and has led the expansion of the company’s agentic testing capabilities. She previously served as CTO at Textio and EVP of engineering and product at ActBlue. - O9 Solutions promoted https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260702591922/en/o9-Solutions-Promotes-Dr.-Ashwin-Rao-to-Chief-Technology-Officer Ashwin Rao to the role of CTO. Rao joined the enterprise planning software provider in November 2025 as EVP of next-gen AI and technology. Previously, he held executive roles at QXO, Target, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. - Envision Technology Advisors announced https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/envision-appoints-15-year-microsoft-veteran-stephen-rose-as-chief-technology-officer-302819669.html the appointment of Stephen Rose as CTO. He joins the technology consulting firm after most recently serving as an independent consultant and previously spending nearly 15 years at Microsoft, where he most recently served as senior product manager. Sign up https://fortune.com/newsletters/cio-intelligence?&itm source=fortune&itm medium=nl article tout&itm campaign=cio intelligence for free.