Molly Hartney Embraces Responsible AI at Rack Room Shoes

WWD profiles Molly Hartney in its Women Who Rock series, noting she holds the newly created role of chief digital officer at Rack Room Shoes after previously serving as chief marketing officer. Hartney tells WWD she is focused on building AI literacy and applying it responsibly across marketing, online inventory optimization, personalization, and internal productivity.

Hartney argues that fluency, not deep technical expertise, is what executives need: "I do not believe leaders need to be technologists, but I do believe we must be fluent enough to ask the right questions, understand risks and make thoughtful decisions around data, cybersecurity and long-term scalability." She emphasizes anchoring technology in the retailer's core tenets of accessibility, value, and family-centered experiences, and describes a leadership shift toward listening, connecting teams, and developing scalable capabilities. WWD notes she joined Rack Room Shoes in 2021 and previously held roles at Funko and Lowe's.

For retail and other nontechnical sectors, the profile reflects a common pattern: leaders who can frame risk and governance questions tend to translate AI capabilities into customer-experience and operational outcomes more effectively than those who treat models as isolated projects. Aligning AI pilots with core brand promises is a frequently cited way to reduce experimental sprawl and preserve trust during iterative deployment.

• •How retailers operationalize AI-literacy programs across nontechnical teams.
• •The interplay between the marketing and inventory use cases Hartney highlights.
• •Whether cross-functional facilitation replaces single-owner project ownership. WWD does not provide a detailed governance framework, and Hartney's quoted remarks are the article's primary source.