AI Decision Makers
A verified directory of 512 people who actually approve AI spend — budget owners, technical evaluators and internal champions, separated by which one they are. Preview free, unlock the full list with a free Articuler account.
Last verified
- 512
- AI decision makers
- 187
- Budget owners
- 41%
- In active evaluation
- 64%
- Passed model risk review
Verified in the last 30 days
Can approve without a committee
Shortlisting a vendor now
Their org has a written AI policy
Free preview
6 of 512 profiles
Names, roles, companies and live signals are public. Verified emails and LinkedIn URLs stay masked until you sign in.
- 01
Dolores Ashworth-Kim
VP Engineering · Calderwood Logistics
Columbus, OH
Owns a $400K tooling budget; posted an RFP for retrieval infrastructure in July.
- Budget owner
- Engineering leadership
- Active RFP
- Enforced policy
- d•••••@calderwoodlogistics.com Locked
- 02
Teodoro Nakashima
Head of Data Platform · Brightmoor Insurance
Hartford, CT
Ran a six-vendor bakeoff last quarter; picked none and restarted with new criteria.
- Technical evaluator
- Data & analytics
- Re-evaluating
- t•••••@brightmoorinsurance.com Locked
- linkedin.com/in/•••••• Locked
- 03
Marguerite Obi-Sandoval
Director of Operations · Pellingham Foods
Bentonville, AR
Champion for an internal forecasting pilot; needs a budget owner to sign by Q4.
- Internal champion
- Operations
- Pilot live
- m•••••@pellinghamfoods.com Locked
- linkedin.com/in/•••••• Locked
- 04
Ingram Vasilenko
Chief Information Security Officer · Tarnbridge Mutual
Des Moines, IA
Wrote the AI acceptable-use policy the whole group now follows; reviews every vendor.
- Security reviewer
- Enforced policy
- Veto authority
- i•••••@tarnbridgemutual.com Locked
- linkedin.com/in/•••••• Locked
- 05
Sunniva Achterberg
VP Finance · Rookhaven Retail
Portland, OR
Controls discretionary software spend; has never bought an AI tool and says so openly.
- Budget owner
- Finance / procurement
- No policy yet
- s•••••@rookhavenretail.com Locked
- linkedin.com/in/•••••• Locked
- 06
Kwabena Lindqvist-Roy
Group Product Director · Hessleton Media
Atlanta, GA
Moved from evaluating to shortlisting two vendors in the last six weeks.
- Technical evaluator
- Product
- In active evaluation
- k•••••@hesseltonmedia.com Locked
- linkedin.com/in/•••••• Locked
Unlock the full AI Decision Makers list
The other 506 profiles are in Articuler. A free account runs 3 directory matches a day — every match returns full profiles with verified emails and LinkedIn URLs. Upgrade for unlimited matches, filtering and export.
Sign in to unlock the full listFree account · No credit card · Takes about 30 seconds
Opens Articuler search for “AI Decision Makers”
Frequently asked questions
- What's the difference between a budget owner and a champion, and why does it matter here?
- A champion wants your product and cannot buy it; a budget owner can sign but often has not heard of you. 187 of these 512 can approve without a committee — the rest need one. Pitching a champion as though they are the buyer is the most common reason an AI deal stalls at 90 days, so every row here is tagged with which one the person actually is.
- Why is AI procurement slower than other software?
- Model risk review. 64% of these people work somewhere with a written AI policy, which usually means a security questionnaire, a data-residency answer and a statement about training on customer data before anything is signed. The 53 with no policy yet move fastest, and are the natural first cohort for a new entrant.
- Are these buyers at AI companies, or buyers of AI?
- Buyers of AI. Someone building foundation models is a founder or an engineer in the other directories; the people here approve spend on AI tooling inside companies that mostly do something else. That distinction matters because their evaluation criteria are procurement criteria, not technical novelty.
- What does "in active evaluation" mean and how is it dated?
- 41% have signalled a live vendor shortlist within the last 90 days — a posted RFP, a hiring req that names a tool category, or a public trial. It decays: a signal older than a quarter is dropped rather than left to age, because the difference between evaluating now and evaluating last year is the entire value of the field.
- Should I contact the security reviewer directly?
- Rarely first, but never skip them. The 58 tagged as security or model-risk reviewers can veto and almost never buy. Reaching them after a champion is engaged shortens the review; reaching them cold usually gets your product added to a blocklist before anyone has seen it.
- Why are there fewer of these than engineers or founders?
- Because approval authority is genuinely rare. Most organisations have dozens of people who influence an AI purchase and a handful who can authorise one. A list of 5,000 "AI professionals" is easy to assemble and tells you nothing about who can say yes.