Apply Digital has named Ali Alkhafaji as its new CEO, tapping the former chief AI and technology officer at Omnicom Precision Marketing Group to lead the digital-services company’s next phase of growth.

Alkhafaji succeeds founder Gautam Lohia, who transitions to chairman after a decade in the role at the Vancouver-based digital-transformation and customer-experience firm. The move signals a deeper push into AI as Apply Digital positions itself between traditional consultancies and agency networks and it looks to capitalize on growing demand for AI-driven marketing infrastructure.

Having led the development of the Omni AI platform during the past two years at Omnicom, Alkhafaji says his role at Apply Digital will be to take AI beyond a service line and embed the tech across operations.

“The traditional professional-services model was built for a different era,” Alkhafaji tells strategy. “It sells time and bodies, measures success in utilization rates and treats technology as something you implement rather than something that fundamentally reshapes how you deliver value. That model is running out of road … the new model looks like what I’ve described as a client-obsessed AI agency – one where deep industry expertise meets elite talent to scale real-world results.”

Across 10 offices worldwide, Apply Digital works with brands such as Arc’teryx, Lululemon and Kraft Heinz, building digital platforms and infrastructure that enable marketing and customer experience at scale. The firm focuses primarily on consumer sectors, including retail and CPG, as well as entertainment, spanning sports and media, where it says clients share similar business challenges.

Its work with Kraft Heinz includes the development of TasteMaker, an AI-powered platform launched last April that uses Google Cloud, large language models and proprietary data to accelerate the product lifecycle – from concept to personalized marketing content. The firm says the tool can reduce time-to-market by up to 80% across more than 100 brands.

The company operates in a space adjacent to both consultancies and agency networks, with an emphasis on building and running the systems that support marketing execution rather than developing campaigns or buying media.

Rather than treating AI as a standalone capability, Alkhafaji says the focus is on integrating it into workflows, from how teams are structured to how output is delivered to clients.

“Building Omni AI for an organization of 75,000-plus people was like watching one of the fastest evolutions in technology from the front row,” Alkhafaji says. “The biggest lesson was the shift from exploration to execution. In the early days, the question was always ‘Can we do this?’ By the time I left, it had become ‘How do we do this securely, at scale, and with measurable impact?’ That mindset shift is everything, and it’s exactly what I’m bringing to Apply Digital.”