Who leads AI at Ross Stores?

AI at Ross Stores is led by Todd Rayborn (Chief Information Officer (title per third-party sources)). Ownership of AI on the org chart: No named AI owner; AI work sits in IT, with no separate AI unit planned.

What AI platform does Ross Stores use?

Ross Stores has no named AI platform: AI work sits inside its IT organization, and job postings from Aug 2025 to Sep 2026 describe Microsoft Copilot Studio, Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search for assistants and agents, and GitHub Copilot for engineers.

Which AI models does Ross Stores use?

Ross Stores has not named its models; job postings list Azure OpenAI for AI agents and retrieval-augmented generation (Aug 2025, Sep 2026), and a Sep 2026 design posting names ChatGPT, Gemini and Vizcom as AI tools.

How far has AI spread at Ross Stores?

Ross Stores has reported no business return it credits to AI, at firm level or in any use case, and Jim Conroy said on Aug 20, 2026 that AI could be "icing on the cake" on top of basic execution. Ross Stores has also reported no company-wide AI rollout: Conroy said software developers use AI every day, and Ross's job postings say it uses AI in some recruitment processes, but Ross gives no count of the employees, among its about 111,000, who use AI tools and names no executive who owns AI. That places Ross Stores at Experimenting; one return credited to AI in a use case, or an official count of employees using its AI tools with a named AI owner, would move it to Piloting.

Verified Nov 1, 2026

Ross Stores

Experimenting

Off-price retail
~111,000 employees
No named AI owner or platform
Developers use AI daily (Aug 2026)
No AI return reported

Ross Stores deploys AI inside its existing IT team and business functions rather than through a named platform or a separate AI unit. CEO Jim Conroy said in Aug 2026 that software developers use AI every day and that new systems, including planning and allocation, are reviewed for AI, while job postings point to GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Azure AI services. Ross's FY2025 Form 10-K treats AI as a future opportunity with risks from premature adoption, and Ross reports no return on AI.

rossstores.com

Their approach to AI

The platform: Ross Stores has no named AI platform: AI work sits inside its IT organization, and job postings from Aug 2025 to Sep 2026 describe Microsoft Copilot Studio, Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search for assistants and agents, and GitHub Copilot for engineers.
The models: Ross Stores has not named its models; job postings list Azure OpenAI for AI agents and retrieval-augmented generation (Aug 2025, Sep 2026), and a Sep 2026 design posting names ChatGPT, Gemini and Vizcom as AI tools.
The reach: Ross Stores has not said how many of its about 111,000 employees use AI; Jim Conroy said in Aug 2026 that software developers use it every day, and Ross has announced no AI assistant for employees in general.
The catch: Ross Stores reports no return on AI, and its FY2025 Form 10-K warns of costs and risks from premature adoption of AI even as it says faster competitors could hurt Ross's position.

Snapshot

Employees: ~111,000; Jan 31, 2026, full and part time; over 85% work in stores (FY2025 Form 10-K)
Technology budget: Not disclosed; FY2025 capex of $819M included $398M for distribution, IT and other projects; about $1.1B planned for FY2026
AI/ML headcount: Not disclosed; Job postings refer to data science, analytics and data governance teams and an AI center of excellence (2025 to 2026)
Who owns AI: No named AI owner; Technology has been part of Group President and COO Michael Hartshorn's remit since Aug 2019
Platform: None named; Job postings point to Microsoft Azure AI services and GitHub Copilot
Models: Not disclosed; Azure OpenAI named in job postings (Aug 2025, Sep 2026)
Reach: Not disclosed; Software developers use AI every day (Jim Conroy, Aug 2026); no employee-wide assistant announced
Use cases: Coding and recruiting in production; Planning, allocation and analytics under review for AI (Jim Conroy, Aug 2026)

Key findings

Jim Conroy said on Aug 20, 2026 that Ross Stores' software developers use AI every day, that Ross reviews every new process and system, including planning and allocation, for ways to add AI, and that Ross is unlikely to stand up a separate AI unit.
Ross Stores' FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Mar 31, 2026, added language calling AI an opportunity to inform merchandising, pricing and assortment decisions while warning of costs and risks from premature adoption or over-reliance; the FY2024 Form 10-K had mentioned AI only as a cybersecurity risk.
Ross Stores has named no AI owner or platform as of Nov 2026, while its job postings from Aug 2025 to Sep 2026 describe Microsoft Copilot Studio, Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search for assistants and agents, GitHub Copilot for engineers, and an AI center of excellence inside IT.
Ross Stores reports no return on AI, and Jim Conroy said on Aug 20, 2026 that AI could be "icing on the cake" on top of basic execution on customer experience, assortment and sales growth.
Ross Stores' about 111,000 associates (Jan 31, 2026), over 85% of them in stores, have no announced AI assistant, and AI came up on only one of Ross's six earnings calls from May 2025 to Aug 2026, when an analyst asked about it.

Where Ross sits

Stage: Experimenting
Ross Stores has reported no business return it credits to AI, at firm level or in any use case, and Jim Conroy said on Aug 20, 2026 that AI could be "icing on the cake" on top of basic execution. Ross Stores has also reported no company-wide AI rollout: Conroy said software developers use AI every day, and Ross's job postings say it uses AI in some recruitment processes, but Ross gives no count of the employees, among its about 111,000, who use AI tools and names no executive who owns AI. That places Ross Stores at Experimenting; one return credited to AI in a use case, or an official count of employees using its AI tools with a named AI owner, would move it to Piloting.
How the stages are defined
Ownership: No named AI owner; AI work sits in IT, with no separate AI unit planned
Platform: Hybrid: No named platform; Microsoft Azure AI and GitHub Copilot in job postings
Models: Not disclosed; Azure OpenAI named in job postings
Hosting: Not disclosed; job postings point to Microsoft Azure, including Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search, alongside on-premises applications
Reach: Not disclosed; software developers use AI daily (Aug 2026)

How they deploy

An enhancer, not a separate unit

Jim Conroy said on Aug 20, 2026 that Ross Stores would rather integrate AI into how it runs the business than stand up a separate functional area that does only AI, and that AI will be an enhancer to how Ross operates. Conroy said Ross does not look at any new process or system application without working out how to enhance it with AI, naming analytics, planning and allocation, and said the software developers use AI every day.

Execution first

Jim Conroy called himself personally very bullish on AI on Aug 20, 2026, but said Ross Stores sees large opportunity in basic execution, improving the customer experience and the assortment and driving sales growth, with AI possibly "icing on the cake" on top. Conroy was answering an analyst's question about AI and agentic search; Ross sells only through its stores, according to its FY2025 Form 10-K.

Data foundation first

Jim Conroy said in Aug 2026 that well before he arrived in Dec 2024, "Michael and the IT team" had begun investing in the foundational data work Ross Stores needs to integrate AI; Michael Hartshorn, Group President and COO, has had Technology in his remit since Aug 2019. A Jul 2026 Ross posting for a data solution architect describes vendor-neutral enterprise data architecture built to support AI and machine learning, with forecasting, optimization, anomaly detection and decision intelligence as target uses.

Opportunity weighed against premature adoption

Ross Stores' FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Mar 31, 2026, says advances in technology, including AI, will present opportunities to inform merchandising, pricing, assortment and other key decisions, but carry costs, risks and potential adverse consequences from premature adoption or over-reliance, and that competitors who adopt them faster or better could hurt Ross's competitive position. Ross's FY2024 Form 10-K, filed Apr 1, 2025, mentioned AI only as a factor raising cybersecurity risk.

Microsoft tools in the job postings

Ross Stores has not named an AI vendor, but its IT job postings describe a Microsoft-centered stack: an Aug 2025 AI architect role to build digital assistants and AI agents with Microsoft Copilot Studio, Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Search and Microsoft Graph connectors, and a Sep 2026 engineering role that builds Azure cloud-native and on-premises applications and uses GitHub Copilot and MCP-based integrations.

Technology money goes to merchandising tools

Jim Conroy said on Mar 3, 2026 that roughly a third each of Ross Stores' planned fiscal 2026 capital spending of about $1.1 billion would go to distribution centers and new stores, about 25% to store maintenance, and the balance to technology enhancements to merchandising tools and other long-term initiatives. Ross's 2025 annual report letter says Ross expects to invest in technology to increase efficiency across the business, without mentioning AI.

Deployment model: Ross Stores runs AI through its existing IT organization and business functions rather than a separate AI unit, which Jim Conroy said in Aug 2026 that Ross is unlikely to create. Technology has been part of Group President and COO Michael Hartshorn's remit since Aug 2019; the FY2023 Form 10-K said the CIO and CISO reported to Chief Capability Officer Michael Kobayashi, who left that role on Mar 31, 2025, and later filings do not give the CIO's reporting line. An Aug 2025 Ross IT job posting refers to an AI center of excellence, an architecture review board and a cloud platform team, and 2026 postings refer to data science, analytics and data governance teams; Ross has not described any of these groups publicly. Ross's IT postings place staff at the Dublin, California headquarters and, for distribution center systems, in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
Model providers: Ross Stores has not named the models it uses. Ross's job postings name Azure OpenAI for digital assistants, AI agents and retrieval-augmented generation (Aug 2025 and Sep 2026), list LangChain, LangGraph and Semantic Kernel as preferred agent experience, and name GitHub Copilot as an AI-assisted development tool for engineers (Sep 2026). A Sep 2026 posting for a men's apparel designer asks for experience with ChatGPT, Gemini and Vizcom. Ross has not said which vendor supplies the AI in its recruitment processes.
Data and infrastructure: Ross Stores has not said where its AI models run. Ross's Sep 2026 engineering posting describes building Azure cloud-native and on-premises applications, and its Aug 2025 AI architect posting describes connecting enterprise file shares, SQL databases and APIs to retrieval-augmented generation through Microsoft Graph connectors, with integration into Microsoft 365 and Teams. A Jul 2026 Ross posting describes supporting the Arthur Planning application while moving planning data into cloud-based software-as-a-service planning, assortment and allocation tools. Ross's FY2025 Form 10-K says Ross keeps investing in store, supply chain, merchandising and cybersecurity systems, vets third-party service providers' security, and draws on frameworks including the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. Ross has not said whether its data may train outside models.

Platforms and internal tools

GitHub Copilot and MCP-based development toolsIn use by Sep 2026
Ross Stores' Sep 2026 engineering posting lists GitHub Copilot and MCP-based integrations as the AI-assisted development tools Ross engineers are expected to use for productivity and code quality, and Jim Conroy said in Aug 2026 that Ross's software developers use AI every day. Ross has not said how many engineers hold licenses.
Users
Ross software developers
Models
Not disclosed
Source
Microsoft Azure AI services for assistants and agentsPlanned from Aug 2025
Ross Stores' Aug 2025 posting for an AI architect describes digital assistants and AI agents built on Microsoft Copilot Studio, Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Search and Microsoft Graph connectors, with retrieval-augmented generation over enterprise data, LLMOps practices and reusable guardrails. Ross has not said whether any of these assistants are live.
Models
Azure OpenAI (job postings)
Source

Vendors and partners

MicrosoftBy Aug 2025
Azure cloud and AI services named in Ross IT job postings: Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Search, Copilot Studio, Microsoft 365 and Teams · Ross Stores has announced no Microsoft agreement; the services appear in job postings from Aug 2025 and Sep 2026. Microsoft executive Shelley Bransten joined Ross's board on Oct 1, 2026, which is a board appointment, not a commercial agreement.
GitHubBy Sep 2026
GitHub Copilot for AI-assisted software development · Named in a Sep 2026 Ross engineering job posting alongside GitHub Actions; Ross has not announced the deployment.

Leadership

AI, data and platform leaders

Todd Rayborn

Chief Information Officer (title per third-party sources)

Unconfirmed

Todd Rayborn is Ross Stores' Chief Information Officer according to InfotechLead (Mar 2026) and third-party directories, which variously give his title as Executive Vice President, Group Senior Vice President or Senior Vice President; Ross's filings refer to a CIO without naming one. Third-party directories also list earlier work at Accenture.

Executives

Jim Conroy

Chief Executive Officer

Jim Conroy became Ross Stores' CEO on Feb 2, 2025, after joining as CEO-elect and a director on Dec 2, 2024, and reports to the full board. Conroy was President and CEO of Boot Barn from 2012 to Nov 2024, held executive roles at Claire's Stores from 2007 to 2012, including COO and interim co-CEO, and earlier worked in consulting at Kurt Salmon Associates and Deloitte Consulting. Conroy said on Aug 20, 2026 that he is personally very bullish on AI but that Ross will build it into existing functions rather than a separate AI unit.

Michael Hartshorn

Group President and Chief Operating Officer

Michael Hartshorn has been Ross Stores' Group President and COO since Aug 2019, when Ross added Strategy, Marketing, Human Resources, Supply Chain, Stores and Technology to his responsibilities, and a director since 2021. Hartshorn joined Ross in 2000, held management roles in its IT and supply chain organizations from 2002 to 2006, and was CFO from 2014 to 2019. Jim Conroy said in Aug 2026 that "Michael and the IT team" began Ross's data foundation for AI before Conroy arrived.

Board

Shelley Bransten

Director and Audit Committee member (from Oct 1, 2026)

Shelley Bransten joined Ross Stores' board and its Audit Committee, which oversees cybersecurity, on Oct 1, 2026. Bransten is Corporate Vice President, Frontier Industry Advisory, at Microsoft Frontier Company, a unit Microsoft launched in Jul 2026 to help enterprises design and deploy AI systems, according to RTTNews; she was earlier Microsoft's Corporate Vice President, Global Industry Solutions from 2023 to 2026, SVP for Retail and Consumer Goods at Salesforce from 2014 to 2018, and held marketing roles at Gap from 1998 to 2014.

AI org map

AI built into IT and the business functions, with no separate AI unit; an AI center of excellence appears in IT job postings

Ross Stores has no chief AI officer or AI unit, and Jim Conroy said in Aug 2026 that Ross would rather integrate AI into how it operates. Technology has been part of Group President and COO Michael Hartshorn's remit since Aug 2019, and Ross's filings describe a CIO and a CISO who meet with the board's Audit Committee on cybersecurity, which receives quarterly reports. An Aug 2025 Ross IT job posting refers to an AI center of excellence and an architecture review board that would help write an AI governance framework; Ross has not described either publicly.

Ross Stores has not disclosed how many people work in IT, data or AI. Ross's job postings place IT staff at its Dublin, California headquarters and, for distribution center systems, in Fort Mill, South Carolina, and refer to data science, analytics, data governance and cloud platform teams and, in Aug 2025, an AI center of excellence and an architecture review board. Over 85% of Ross's about 111,000 associates work in its stores (Jan 31, 2026).

Reporting lines

Board of Directors
The CEO reports to the full board (Oct 2024 announcement)
- Audit Committee
  Primary oversight of cybersecurity risk; quarterly reports from management, including the CIO and CISO. Shelley Bransten joined Oct 1, 2026
- Chief Executive Officer
  Jim Conroy
  - Group President and COO
    Michael Hartshorn
    Took on Strategy, Marketing, HR, Supply Chain, Stores and Technology in Aug 2019, reporting to the CEO
    - Information Technology
      Todd Rayborn, CIO (per third-party sources)
      Shown under the COO, whose remit has included Technology since Aug 2019; the FY2023 Form 10-K had the CIO reporting to Chief Capability Officer Michael Kobayashi, who left that role in Mar 2025, and the current line is not published
Information Security
Elwin Wong, SVP and CISO (per Security Boulevard)
The CISO reported to the Chief Capability Officer in the FY2023 Form 10-K; the current line is not published
AI center of excellence
Referenced with an architecture review board in an Aug 2025 IT job posting; leader and reporting line not published

Ross Stores does not publish an org chart below its executive officers. Ross's Aug 2019 announcement put Technology under Michael Hartshorn, who then reported to the CEO, and the FY2023 Form 10-K said the CIO and CISO reported to Chief Capability Officer Michael Kobayashi, who reported to Hartshorn under his 2022 employment agreement. Kobayashi left the officer role on Mar 31, 2025, and later filings drop the reporting line, so the CIO's current manager is not published, and Ross has not said where the AI center of excellence named in its Aug 2025 posting sits.

Named people

Executive sponsors

Jim Conroy
Chief Executive Officer · Set out Ross's AI stance on the Aug 20, 2026 call
Michael Hartshorn
Group President and COO · Technology in his remit since Aug 2019

Information technology and security

Names from third-party sources; Ross's filings refer to a CIO and a CISO without naming either.

Todd Rayborn
Chief Information Officer · Title per InfotechLead and third-party directories
Elwin Wong
SVP and Chief Information Security Officer · Title per Security Boulevard (Apr 2026)

Use cases

Ross Stores has not published a count of its AI use cases or a return on any of them. The record shows two AI uses in production: AI coding assistants that Jim Conroy said software developers use every day (Aug 2026), and AI that generates text or enables search in some recruitment processes, according to Ross's careers site. AI for planning and allocation, analytics, marketing, and Microsoft-based assistants and agents appears only in Conroy's remarks and Ross job postings, and Ross Stores reports no firm-level return on AI.

Use case	Area	Status
AI coding assistants Jim Conroy said on Aug 20, 2026 that Ross Stores' software developers use AI every day, and a Sep 2026 Ross engineering posting lists GitHub Copilot and MCP-based integrations as the AI-assisted development tools engineers are expected to use.	Software development	In production
AI in recruiting Ross Stores' job postings say Ross uses AI in some recruitment processes to generate text or enable search features; Ross has not named the vendor or the processes (checked Nov 2026).	Human resources	In production
AI in planning and allocation systems Jim Conroy said in Aug 2026 that Ross Stores reviews each new system, including planning and allocation, for ways to add AI, and a Jul 2026 Ross posting describes building LLM-driven planning workflows, retrieval-augmented generation over enterprise data, and AI agents for reconciliation, variance analysis, reporting and exception handling as planning data moves to cloud software.	Merchandise planning and allocation	Announced
Forecasting, optimization and anomaly detection A Jul 2026 Ross Stores posting for a data solution architect lists forecasting, optimization, anomaly detection and decision intelligence as AI and advanced analytics uses to shape with Ross's data science and analytics teams, and Jim Conroy named analytics among the areas Ross reviews for AI (Aug 2026).	Analytics	Announced
Digital assistants and AI agents on Microsoft Azure An Aug 2025 Ross Stores posting for an AI architect describes digital assistants and AI agents on Microsoft Copilot Studio, Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search that draw on enterprise file shares, SQL databases and APIs and connect to Microsoft 365 and Teams; Ross has not said whether any are live.	Enterprise IT	Announced
Generative AI pilots for marketing Ross Stores' marketing technology postings from Feb and Jun 2026 ask the IT leaders who support Marketing and Customer Experience to evaluate AI and generative AI for marketing and drive pilots and adoption; Ross has not said which pilots run.	Marketing	Announced

Adoption

Ross Stores has not said how many of its about 111,000 associates use AI tools, and has announced no AI assistant for employees in general. The clearest adoption is among software developers, who Jim Conroy said use AI every day (Aug 2026), with GitHub Copilot named in a Ross engineering posting. Ross's 2026 job postings show AI expectations reaching beyond engineering: a men's apparel designer role asks for ChatGPT, Gemini and Vizcom, marketing technology roles are to evaluate and pilot generative AI, and Fort Mill, South Carolina roles in supply chain and distribution center systems are to find machine learning opportunities and champion AI, predictive analytics and digital twins. AI came up on one of Ross's six earnings calls from May 2025 to Aug 2026, when an analyst asked about it on Aug 20, 2026.

By the numbers

Software developers' AI use: Daily; Jim Conroy on the Q2 2026 call, Aug 20, 2026; Ross gives no user count

Employees: ~111,000; Full and part time at Jan 31, 2026, over 85% in stores (FY2025 Form 10-K)

Reported return on AI: None; No revenue, cost or headcount figure credited to AI as of Nov 2026

Rollout, first pilot to today

Aug 2019
Ross Stores added Technology to Group President and COO Michael Hartshorn's responsibilities, with Michael Kobayashi as President, Operations and Technology reporting to him.
Form 8-K
Before Dec 2024
Ross Stores' IT team began investing in the foundational data work Ross needs to integrate AI, according to Jim Conroy's Aug 2026 account.
Q2 2026 earnings call
Apr 2025
Ross Stores' FY2024 Form 10-K mentioned AI only as a factor raising cybersecurity risk.
FY2024 Form 10-K
Aug 2025
A Ross Stores posting for an AI architect described an AI center of excellence, an architecture review board, responsible AI guidelines, and assistants and agents on Microsoft Copilot Studio and Azure OpenAI.
Job posting via Talentally
Feb 2026
Ross Stores sought a marketing technology director to evaluate AI and generative AI for marketing and drive pilots.
Job posting via Talentally
Mar 2026
Ross Stores' FY2025 Form 10-K added language calling AI an opportunity for merchandising, pricing and assortment decisions, with a warning about premature adoption.
FY2025 Form 10-K
Jul 2026
Ross Stores posted roles to build LLM-driven planning workflows and AI agents for merchandise planning, and to make its enterprise data architecture ready for AI.
Job posting via NUL Jobs Network
Aug 2026
Jim Conroy said software developers use AI every day and that new systems, including planning and allocation, are reviewed for AI, with no separate AI unit planned.
Q2 2026 earnings call
Sep 2026
A Ross Stores engineering posting named GitHub Copilot and MCP-based integrations as tools engineers use, with Azure OpenAI and AI agents as preferred experience.
Ross Stores careers

Economics & controls

Spend and ROI

Technology spending

Ross Stores does not disclose a technology or AI budget. Ross spent about $819 million on capital projects in fiscal 2025, including $421 million for new and existing stores and $398 million for distribution, information technology and other projects, and plans about $1.1 billion in fiscal 2026, including investments in its information technology systems. Jim Conroy said on Mar 3, 2026 that after distribution centers, new stores and store maintenance, the balance of that plan would go to technology enhancements to merchandising tools and other long-term initiatives.

What AI itself costs

Ross Stores has not disclosed what AI costs. Ross's Aug 2025 posting for an AI architect included building internal AI financial management practices with the AI center of excellence, the cloud platform team and IT finance, and preparing ROI analyses before Ross buys new AI services.

Reported ROI

Ross Stores reports no firm-level or use-case return on AI. Jim Conroy said on Aug 20, 2026 that Ross sees large opportunity in basic execution on the customer experience, the assortment and sales growth, with AI possibly icing on the cake on top. Ross's 2025 annual report credits its sales growth to merchandising, marketing and in-store initiatives, not to AI.

Productivity and headcount

Ross Stores had about 111,000 full- and part-time associates on Jan 31, 2026, over 85% of them in stores, and has made no statement about AI's effect on headcount or productivity. Ross's Aug 2025 AI architect posting asked for expertise in using AI to raise productivity, efficiency and quality and to reduce operating costs in retail, a goal Ross has not reported against.

Governance and risk

Board oversight

Ross Stores' board has delegated primary oversight of cybersecurity risk to its Audit Committee, which receives quarterly cybersecurity reports and meets with the CIO and CISO, according to the FY2025 Form 10-K and the 2026 proxy statement; neither filing describes board oversight specific to AI. Shelley Bransten, a Microsoft executive whose unit helps enterprises deploy AI, joined the Audit Committee on Oct 1, 2026.

Disclosed AI risks

Ross Stores' FY2025 Form 10-K warns that AI and other emerging technologies carry costs, risks and potential adverse consequences from premature adoption or over-reliance, that competitors who implement them faster or better could hurt Ross's competitive position, and that advances in AI add to cybersecurity risk.

AI governance still being written

Ross Stores has published no AI policy. Ross's Aug 2025 posting for an AI architect called for developing an AI governance framework with an AI center of excellence and an architecture review board, reusable guardrails for AI use cases, and guidelines for responsible AI covering transparency, fairness and privacy.

AI in hiring

Ross Stores' job postings tell applicants that Ross uses AI in some recruitment processes to generate text or enable search features (checked Nov 2026).

Privacy and security frameworks

Ross Stores' privacy policy, last updated Mar 11, 2026, and its 2024 Corporate Social Responsibility Report do not mention AI. Ross's cybersecurity program draws on frameworks including the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and vets third-party service providers' security, according to the FY2025 Form 10-K.

Recent signals

Sep 17, 2026
Ross Stores named two directors to its board and Audit Committee effective Oct 1, 2026, including Microsoft executive Shelley Bransten of Microsoft Frontier Company, a unit Microsoft launched in Jul 2026 to help enterprises deploy AI.
Ross Stores press release (Form 8-K)
Sep 14, 2026
Ross Stores posted a Dublin, California engineering role that uses GitHub Copilot and MCP-based integrations and lists Azure OpenAI, LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, AI agents and retrieval-augmented generation as preferred experience.
Ross Stores careers
Sep 14, 2026
Ross Stores posted two roles in Fort Mill, South Carolina: a senior IT director for distribution center systems expected to champion predictive analytics, AI, machine learning and digital twins, and a supply chain data analytics manager expected to find problems machine learning can solve.
Ross Stores careers
Sep 2, 2026
A Ross Stores posting for a men's apparel associate designer in New York asked for experience using AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Vizcom for research, ideation and design visualization.
Job posting via Talentally
Aug 20, 2026
Jim Conroy said Ross Stores' software developers use AI every day, that Ross reviews new systems such as planning and allocation for AI, that Ross is unlikely to create a separate AI unit, and that AI could be icing on the cake.
Q2 2026 earnings call transcript
Jul 12, 2026
Ross Stores posted a merchandise planning engineer role to build LLM-driven planning workflows, retrieval-augmented generation and AI agents while supporting the Arthur Planning application and integrations with cloud planning software.
Job posting via NUL Jobs Network
Jul 3, 2026
Ross Stores posted a data solution architect role to make its enterprise data architecture ready for AI and machine learning, naming forecasting, optimization, anomaly detection and decision intelligence as target uses.
Job posting via Talentally
Jun 25, 2026
Ross Stores posted a senior manager role in marketing technology to help evaluate AI and generative AI for marketing and drive pilots and adoption.
Job posting via Talentally
Apr 7, 2026
Ross Stores' 2025 annual report letter, signed by Jim Conroy and the board chairman, said Ross expects to invest in technology to increase efficiency across the business, without mentioning AI.
2025 Annual Report
Mar 31, 2026
Ross Stores filed its FY2025 Form 10-K, adding language absent from the FY2024 filing that calls AI an opportunity to inform merchandising, pricing and assortment decisions and warns of risks from premature adoption or over-reliance.
FY2025 Form 10-K
Mar 3, 2026
Jim Conroy said the balance of Ross Stores' planned fiscal 2026 capital spending of about $1.1 billion, after distribution centers, new stores and store maintenance, would go to technology enhancements to merchandising tools and other long-term initiatives.
Q4 2025 earnings call transcript
Feb 28, 2026
Ross Stores posted a director role in IT marketing technology that includes evaluating AI and generative AI for marketing and driving pilots and adoption.
Job posting via Talentally

Quick answers

How does Ross Stores deploy AI?: Ross Stores deploys AI inside its existing IT team and business functions rather than through a named platform or a separate AI unit. CEO Jim Conroy said in Aug 2026 that software developers use AI every day and that new systems, including planning and allocation, are reviewed for AI, while job postings point to GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Azure AI services. Ross's FY2025 Form 10-K treats AI as a future opportunity with risks from premature adoption, and Ross reports no return on AI.
What does Ross Stores use AI for?: Ross Stores has not published a count of its AI use cases or a return on any of them. The record shows two AI uses in production: AI coding assistants that Jim Conroy said software developers use every day (Aug 2026), and AI that generates text or enables search in some recruitment processes, according to Ross's careers site. AI for planning and allocation, analytics, marketing, and Microsoft-based assistants and agents appears only in Conroy's remarks and Ross job postings, and Ross Stores reports no firm-level return on AI.
Who leads AI at Ross Stores?: AI at Ross Stores is led by Todd Rayborn (Chief Information Officer (title per third-party sources)). Ownership of AI on the org chart: No named AI owner; AI work sits in IT, with no separate AI unit planned.
What AI platform does Ross Stores use?: Ross Stores has no named AI platform: AI work sits inside its IT organization, and job postings from Aug 2025 to Sep 2026 describe Microsoft Copilot Studio, Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search for assistants and agents, and GitHub Copilot for engineers.
Which AI models does Ross Stores use?: Ross Stores has not named its models; job postings list Azure OpenAI for AI agents and retrieval-augmented generation (Aug 2025, Sep 2026), and a Sep 2026 design posting names ChatGPT, Gemini and Vizcom as AI tools.
How many Ross employees use AI?: Ross Stores has not said how many of its about 111,000 employees use AI; Jim Conroy said in Aug 2026 that software developers use it every day, and Ross has announced no AI assistant for employees in general.
How far has AI spread at Ross Stores?: Ross Stores has reported no business return it credits to AI, at firm level or in any use case, and Jim Conroy said on Aug 20, 2026 that AI could be "icing on the cake" on top of basic execution. Ross Stores has also reported no company-wide AI rollout: Conroy said software developers use AI every day, and Ross's job postings say it uses AI in some recruitment processes, but Ross gives no count of the employees, among its about 111,000, who use AI tools and names no executive who owns AI. That places Ross Stores at Experimenting; one return credited to AI in a use case, or an official count of employees using its AI tools with a named AI owner, would move it to Piloting.

Open questions

Which AI tools and models do Ross Stores employees use in production, and do they run on Microsoft Azure, as Ross's job postings suggest, or elsewhere?
Who owns AI at Ross Stores: does the CIO, named by third-party sources as Todd Rayborn, report to Michael Hartshorn, and who leads the AI center of excellence that an Aug 2025 posting referred to?
How many Ross developers use AI every day, which coding tools are licensed beyond the GitHub Copilot named in a job posting, and has Ross measured any effect on delivery speed or cost?
Do Ross merchants, planners, store managers or corporate staff have a sanctioned AI assistant, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, or is AI limited to IT and a few roles?
When will AI reach Ross's planning and allocation systems, which cloud planning software sits beside or replaces Arthur Planning, and what return does Ross expect?
Which vendor supplies the AI in Ross's recruitment processes, which hiring steps it touches, and how Ross reviews its output?
How much of Ross's planned fiscal 2026 capital spending of about $1.1 billion goes to technology, and how much of that to AI?
Has Ross tested computer vision for store safety, compliance or the customer experience, which its Aug 2025 AI architect posting listed as a target use?
Does Ross have a written AI policy or a board-level review of AI beyond the Audit Committee's cybersecurity oversight?
What does the foundational data work Jim Conroy described include, and which data platform does it run on?
Which marketing pilots, if any, came out of Ross's 2026 postings to evaluate generative AI for marketing?
Will Ross report a business return from AI, given that Jim Conroy called AI possible icing on the cake in Aug 2026?

Sources

Ross Stores

Filings and annual reports

Earnings calls

Ross job postings on job boards

News and analysis

Data confidence

Confirmed: Stated in a primary or reputable public source.
Estimated: Derived or approximated from public reporting.
Unconfirmed: Reported, but not yet corroborated.

Ross Stores profile · Enterprise AI diffusion report by Imagine · facts checked against their sources on Nov 1, 2026

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