Aamer Charania is a global AI executive recognized for building and scaling top-performing enterprise AI organizations that deliver billions of dollars in annual business value. He has led AI-powered transformations across retail, financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, and airlines, aligning AI strategy with corporate priorities and driving innovation efficiently and responsibly.
As Head of AI at Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics retailer in the United States, Aamer built the company’s Applied AI department from the ground up. His teams power next-generation customer experiences and optimize enterprise operations, generating more than $1.5B in incremental annual revenue and over $500M in operational savings. Previously, he served as regional head of Capital One’s Center for Machine Learning, advancing AI adoption across the enterprise. Earlier, he built big data and machine learning platforms at Humana and Verizon, and began his career at MIT developing dynamic airline pricing algorithms.
Beyond his corporate roles, Aamer is a builder of the broader AI community. He is Founding President and Chief AI Officer of Dallas AI, the largest nonprofit AI organization in Texas with more than 10,000 members, and serves as Governing Body Co-Chair of the Gartner Dallas Chief Data & Analytics Officer (CDAO) community. He sits on advisory boards at Southern Methodist University and the University of North Texas, and supports MIT as a Career Advisor, Educational Counselor, and former President of the MIT Club of Dallas–Fort Worth.
Aamer holds more than 10 patents in AI. He earned a Master of Science in Engineering from MIT, a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. He lives in Flower Mound, TX, with his wife, two daughters, and their cat, and enjoys hiking and exploring nature.