Top AI Execs to Watch in 2025

Jen Shreckhise

Vice President, Data and AI Platform Leader, U.S. Federal Market, IBM

Over the past four years, IBM achieved over $3.5 billion in internal productivity gains by applying its own AI technology across the company — and that number continues to grow.

Jen Shreckhise’s primary goal this year is to accelerate the adoption and accessibility of AI tools within the federal government, helping agencies realize similar benefits. IBM has been actively collaborating with federal agencies at various stages of their AI journey, providing them with the platform, tools and foundational building blocks for a robust AI implementation.

While AI holds vast potential, IBM remains committed to a use case-driven approach, focusing on addressing specific, tangible challenges to create replicable building blocks that can scale and deliver quick, measurable value to agencies.

Vanessa Hunt, general manager of technology for IBM’s U.S. Federal Market, noted that Shreckhise consistently demonstrated exceptional leadership, driving efforts to enhance technical expertise, increase client engagement and strengthen key business partnerships in the federal sector.

“Over the past year, Jen has played a pivotal role in driving AI adoption across federal agencies, building purpose-built solutions that address their unique needs,” Hunt added. “Her deep understanding of both technology and the federal landscape, combined with a relentless focus on delivering meaningful, results-driven AI solutions, has had a profound impact on our clients’ success and IBM’s growth. These reasons and her commitment to teamwork and collaboration make her a deserving candidate for the Top AI Execs to Watch 2025 award.”

Why Watch 

For over a year, IBM has been very vocal about the need for smaller AI models and more accuracy, reasoning, trust and transparency when it comes to enterprise deployment of large language models. While IBM remains committed to open-source AI models, federal agencies can’t always rely on the most popular models, as they may not be fully trained on the unique needs of government operations or federal data.

IBM is focused on developing purpose-built, smaller open-source AI models that speak the “federal language” and operate in alignment with how agencies work. IBM’s goal is to ensure clients can build accurate, trustworthy and cost-effective AI solutions.

“I’ve had the privilege of witnessing firsthand the incredible technical and cultural transformation happening at IBM through the application of our own AI technology internally,” Shreckhise said. “This experience has only strengthened my belief in the immense potential of AI to enhance the speed and accuracy of decisions, support the IT modernization process, combat cyber threats, and help reduce fraud, waste, and abuse. My team and I are excited to continue to collaborate with U.S. federal agencies, sharing our insights and creatively exploring new use cases that can help government work smarter.”