The AI no competitor can copy: Haier Europe's vision with Hacca

Buying an AI licence delivers efficiency. Building your own platform delivers a competitive advantage. This is the conviction that led Haier Europe to develop Hacca, its proprietary enterprise GenAI solution, rather than relying on existing commercial tools. From multilingual support in contact centres to automated content production, Hacca now spans very different business functions, with a 70% adoption rate and an average time saving of 50% on key activities. Ruben Marco Ganzaroli, Group CDO of Haier Europe, tells us how to become the true driver of your own transformation.

AI transformation & prioritization

Question: Haier Europe built Hacca, its own proprietary enterprise GenAI platform, rather than relying on off-the-shelf tools. What drove that strategic decision, and what does it mean for Haier to "own" its AI transformation rather than simply adopt it?

Answer: The decision to develop a proprietary enterprise platform like Hacca reflects a clear vision: Artificial Intelligence cannot be treated as an off-the-shelf commodity. If you simply purchase a standard licence, you achieve the same level of efficiency as your competitors. "Owning" the transformation means embedding AI into the DNA of our core processes, while maintaining full control over data, security, and, above all, the customization of algorithms in relation to our operating model. The quick technological wins offered by ready-to-use commercial tools create an illusion of speed, but do not guarantee a sustainable competitive advantage in the long run. Building Hacca allows us to lay the foundations for a scalable architecture, transforming IT from a simple cost centre into a genuine strategic business enabler.

Q: From multilingual contact centre support to automated content production, Hacca touches very different business functions. How do you prioritize which use cases to activate first, and how do you measure what "real business impact" actually looks like on the ground?

A: The use case roadmap is not decided within IT laboratories. The strategic value of an application can only be defined and validated by the Business Units, which are the true owners of the processes. Our approach is based on equal and transparent collaboration: the business proposes and prioritizes use cases based on expected impact, but agrees to be measured against rigorous and objective KPIs. To determine what to activate first, we look for the intersection between strategic relevance and feasibility. We are not chasing fleeting success, but small, concrete, and measurable wins. These first steps are not the final destination, but fundamental enablers: they serve to demonstrate the effectiveness of the tool, to build trust within the organisation, and to fund, both in terms of budget and credibility, the broader and more structured transformation programmes. There is no room for finger-pointing: if a use case underperforms, we analyse the data together and adjust course.

Scaling technology

Q: Hacca already enables employees to save an average of 50% of their time on certain key activities within the personal productivity support space, with a 70% adoption rate across the organisation: how do you scale technology and company culture simultaneously to ensure that AI becomes a true daily habit rather than an isolated experiment?

A: A 70% adoption rate is an excellent result, but the real challenge in preventing AI from remaining an isolated experiment is cultural and methodological. The secret does not lie in training people to use a new tool, but in deeply questioning existing processes. If we apply AI to an old, inefficient process, we will simply end up with a slightly faster old, inefficient process. To truly scale, AI must be embedded in the workflow, transparent and native. This requires the political and organizational will to rethink the operating model. People integrate AI into their daily routines when they understand that it does not merely automate a repetitive task, but redefines their role, freeing up time for higher-value activities. Technology evolves rapidly, but company culture transforms only through the tangible value perceived day after day.

Evolving roles

Q: Enterprise analytics and agentic capabilities are next on Hacca's roadmap. How do you see the role of the CDO evolving as AI moves from automating tasks to generating insights and making autonomous decisions, and what guardrails does that future require?

A: The shift from automating isolated tasks to generating complex insights marks the natural evolution of Hacca: the transition from individual vertical agents to a fully orchestrated agentic architecture. We are no longer talking about software that responds to a command, but about interconnected systems capable of analysing data, proposing alternatives, and carrying out entire complex processes end to end. In this scenario, the role of the CDO (and of the entire IT leadership) evolves radically: from custodian of technology and data to director of decision-making processes. However, this future requires firm guarantees. Our philosophy holds that the AI's decision-making autonomy is always governed by a Human-in-the-loop principle. The human does not disappear, but moves up a level: setting ethical boundaries, validating decision models, and overseeing the algorithm. Model transparency (the so-called Explainable AI) and data governance are the non-negotiable pillars upon which this evolution rests.

Q: If Hacca reaches full adoption across your data teams within the next two years, what does a typical working day look like for your people, and how does it shift their focus from managing data to actually driving business impact?

A: In a scenario of full adoption, the typical working day of our professionals will be completely freed from data cleaning and manual preparation activities thanks to the orchestration of the agentic architecture, focusing exclusively on translating predictive insights into strategic business decisions and on the continuous redesign of business processes in partnership with the lines of business.

About Ruben Marco Ganzaroli

Ruben Marco Ganzaroli is a strategic leader at the intersection of business operations and technology, currently serving as Chief Data Officer (CDO) at Haier Europe, one of the world's leading home appliance companies and part of the Fortune Global 500 Haier Smart Home group. With a career spanning roles at organisations including Ferrari, where he served as Head of IT Project Management, Methods and Tools, and Autostrade per l'Italia, Ruben has built a track record of driving large-scale digital transformation and data strategy programmes across complex, global enterprises. At Haier Europe, he has been the architect of Hacca, the company's proprietary enterprise GenAI platform, designed to integrate Artificial Intelligence into core business processes while maintaining full control over data governance, security, and algorithmic customization.