Nourishing the World: Cargill’s Digital and AI Evolution with CIDO Jennifer Hartsock

Technovation with Peter High (CIO, CTO, CDO, CXO Interviews)

How do you modernize a 160-year-old company feeding 500 million people?

Jennifer Hartsock, Chief Information and Digital Officer of Cargill, joins Peter High to unpack one of the most ambitious IT transformations in food and agriculture. Cargill, the largest privately held company in the U.S., is streamlining tech operations, insourcing talent, and deploying AI to drive global impact.

In this episode, Jen shares how she restructured Cargill’s tech teams to better align with business goals, reduced outsourcing from 80% to 60%, and embedded AI across R&D, sales, and operations. She also discusses her board service at Ingersoll Rand and reflects on ethical tech leadership at scale.

Key topics include:

• Cargill’s 2030 digital strategy and purpose-driven IT
• Scaling AI for precision agriculture and customer insights
• Building global tech hubs in Atlanta and Bangalore
• Navigating ethical AI and autonomous agent adoption