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S4 E10

From Retail to Robotics: Reinventing Homebuilding with AI

Technology transformation is moving beyond screens and software. In industries built around physical products, it is creating new ways to design, build and deliver – from robotics and prefabrication to AI-powered decision-making and more connected operations.

In this episode of CXO Secrets, David McClelland sits down with Michon Williams, Chief Technology and Information Officer at Mattamy Homes, to explore how technology is helping reshape one of the world’s most physical industries. Drawing on her experience across banking, retail and homebuilding, Michon shares how she is bringing lessons from previous waves of digital transformation into a new era of innovation at Mattamy.

Michon discusses the move towards prefabricated and modular homebuilding, the role of robotics in creating greater speed and affordability, and how AI is being used to identify opportunities, support operations and bring together knowledge across a highly decentralised business. She also explores the challenge of balancing local autonomy with consistency, why organisations need to understand what they know and what they don’t know before deploying AI, and why curiosity has remained one of her most important leadership traits.

Topics include:

  • Bringing technology transformation into the physical world of homebuilding
  • Using robotics and prefabrication to improve speed and affordability
  • What homebuilding can learn from banking and retail transformation
  • The role of AI in land buying, scheduling, trades and operations
  • Balancing local autonomy with central technology consistency
  • Creating the data and process foundations needed for effective AI
  • Turning tacit organisational knowledge into usable insights
  • Building Mattamy’s AI-powered “alignment engine”
  • Using AI to connect people, processes and knowledge across the organisation
  • Understanding what you know – and what you don’t know – before deploying AI
  • Why technology transformation is ultimately a business transformation
  • The changing role of technology in physical products and spaces
  • Managing the opportunities and economics of AI
  • Staying curious through successive waves of technology
  • Building trust around AI and the future of work
  • Why the next generation of technology leadership will require both technical understanding and business context
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Michon Williams
CTIO
Mattamy Asset Management

Technology, digital & data leader with 20+ years experience across retail, financial services, asset management, real estate.

What I do:
• I help companies design, prioritize, and deliver the right customer and business-aligned technology products and platforms
• Throughout my career, I have led tech (and org transformation) with various configurations of product, data, AI, engineering and technology
• I specialize in high-availability systems, and in leveraging customer platforms (CRM, loyalty, digital), data, analytics, AI, and operational technology to improve customer engagement, lifetime value, employee experience, and operational effectiveness

Key accomplishments include:
• As CTO of Walmart Canada (WMC), I led post-pandemic tech acceleration across e-commerce + stores, supply chain, merch, pharmacy, and financial services, including: significant supply chain modernization to improve delivery times (3 roboticized facilities, and WMC’s first GenAI platform to support operations); multiple deliveries for financial services, payments, and rewards (Walmart Mastercard, Buy Now Pay Later, customer omni ID, offers); and multiple digital pharmacy firsts, including the app, robotic prescription fulfillment, and insurance re-payments
• At TJX Canada, I led teams to accelerate product management and agile, enhance the Style+ loyalty experience (growing to 2MM customers), establish TJXC’s first formal data program, define the e-commerce strategy, deliver a wholesale buying app, and integrate TJXC systems across merchandising, finance, and supply chain ERPs into TJX global platforms
• At BMO, I led large-scale digital, marketing, and customer-data transformations, including modernization of BMO.com w/ personalization, a customer offer engine & multiple corporate system re-platforms
• At RBC, I built foundational digital banking, payment & contact centre capabilities (email money transfer, cross-border payments, intelligent responses, credit applications), led accessibility & UX practices, evolved our global architecture standards, and supported flagship retail concepts

Today, as CTIO at Mattamy, I lead the tech, AI & customer platform strategies that will transform the homebuying journey w/ richer digital homebuyer experiences, and transform our operations as we pivot to more pre-fab housing.

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