o9 Solutions Promotes Dr. Ashwin Rao to Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Rao brings experience from Wall Street, the technology industry, and academia. In his new role, he will lead the company's technology strategy and continue advancing its AI-powered planning platform across more than 30 industries.

Dr. Ashwin Rao's appointment reflects o9's focus on advancing AI-driven innovation to help businesses make better decisions in an increasingly volatile and uncertain business environment. One of the company's latest initiatives is APEX (Agile, Adaptive, Autonomous Planning & Execution), which aims to improve how organizations plan and execute their operations.

o9's Digital Brain platform was originally built to connect data, processes, and teams across an organization, helping companies make faster and better business decisions. It enables businesses to respond more effectively to changing market conditions and new opportunities.

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Building on this foundation, APEX is designed to make business transformation faster and easier. According to o9, success in the AI era requires more than better technology—it also requires companies to rethink their operating models, including their organizational structure, business processes, workforce skills, and data management.

APEX is built on a scientific, knowledge-based model that helps businesses manage complex planning, decision-making, and execution processes. It is designed to support organizations operating in fast-changing and uncertain business environments while improving overall business performance.

The platform continuously learns from business data to identify where value is being lost, uncover the root causes, and recommend improvements across planning processes, operations, and workforce capabilities. It also uses agentic AI to automate routine tasks and analysis, allowing employees to focus on more strategic decisions and higher-value work.

APEX is designed to help companies make business transformation simpler, faster, and more continuous. Its goal is to improve decision-making, business processes, and operations so organizations can create greater long-term value.

Since joining o9 in November 2025 as Executive Vice President of Next Gen AI and Technology, Dr. Ashwin Rao has played a key role in developing APEX. He has led the use of neuro symbolic AI, combining neural networks with o9s Enterprise Knowledge Graph to power the platform. Rao has also built a strong technology team and accelerated the development of new AI capabilities across the company.

"Enterprise decision-making has never been more complex, or more volatile,” Rao said. “By combining the power of neuro-symbolic AI with deep industry and enterprise domain knowledge, APEX is systematically transforming how enterprises detect risks and opportunities, plan, decide, execute and learn at scale. This is the future of enterprise intelligence, and I am thrilled to step into the CTO role at such a pivotal moment for o9.”

"Ashwin is an outstanding technologist because he understands the constraints and opportunities for true business value generation," said Chakri Gottemukkala, Executive Chairman, Co-Founder and CEO, o9 Solutions. "His conviction in neuro-symbolic AI, combined with an approach that connects vision to daily practical innovation and execution, will increase o9’s value creation potential and speed for our customers."

About o9 Solutions

Founded in 2009 by Sanjiv Sidhu and Chakri Gottemukkala, o9 Solutions develops an AI-powered enterprise planning platform that helps businesses improve decision-making in rapidly changing and uncertain markets. Its Digital Brain platform connects planning, forecasting, supply chain, and commercial operations, enabling companies to balance demand and supply better, improve forecast accuracy, strengthen collaboration, optimize inventory, and support product and business growth through faster and smarter decisions.

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