# Ekta Chopra's grassroots AI strategy at E.l.f. Beauty

> E.l.f. Beauty's new tech chief is letting employees decide where AI agents fit best, not imposing solutions from above.
- Title: Ekta Chopra's grassroots AI strategy at E.l.f. Beauty · TIME
- Summary: E.l.f. Beauty's new tech chief is letting employees decide where AI agents fit best, not imposing solutions from above. The most effective AI deployment…
- Keywords: ekta chopra, e.l.f. beauty, chief technology officer, artificial intelligence, agentic ai, enterprise ai deployment, grassroots approach, employee empowerment, beauty industry, digital transformation, Ekta, Chopra's
- Source: TIME — https://time.com/collection/executives-of-the-year-tech-data/2026/ekta-chopra
- Published: 2026-09-22T13:01:10.409+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: ekta chopra, e.l.f. beauty, chief technology officer, artificial intelligence, agentic ai, enterprise ai deployment, grassroots approach, employee empowerment, beauty industry, digital transformation
## Speed defines beauty now
In the beauty industry, trends go viral on TikTok instantly. Companies that can't capitalize within hours lose momentum entirely.

> Culture moves at the speed of light. Things go viral on TikTok, and if you don't capitalize on that very quickly, you lose out.
## Meet Ekta Chopra
Ekta Chopra became chief technology and AI officer at E.l.f. Beauty in April 2025, after spending 10 years at the company in other roles.
## Her strategy: grassroots AI
Rather than imposing AI solutions from the top, Chopra lets employees identify where agentic AI can help them work faster and better.

> It's the people closest to the work who should figure out: What is the work agents can do versus the work humans should do?
## Redesigning jobs around innovation
The goal isn't replacing humans but freeing them from administrative work so they can focus on creative and strategic tasks.

> The human is still in the loop. All we're doing is building infrastructure that helps them react more quickly to opportunities.
## Building secure AI infrastructure
Chopra and her team create the operating models and security frameworks needed for agentic AI to run smoothly across E.l.f.'s enterprise systems.
## Key takeaway

The most effective AI deployment comes from the people doing the work, not from top-down mandates.