Zalando SE announced that its supervisory board has proposed the election of Peter Sarlin, a European pioneer in machine learning and artificial intelligence, as a supervisory board member at the annual general meeting on 12 May 2026. Sarlin will add strong, dedicated AI expertise to the supervisory board as Zalando scales a wide range of AI innovations to drive growth and efficiency across its entire business.
Sarlin is the founder of Silo AI, Europe's largest private AI lab, which was acquired by AMD in 2024. He is also the chairperson of the board at companies NestAI and Qutwo, and a professor of practice at Aalto University, specializing in machine learning and AI. His nomination comes as Zalando seeks to strengthen its leadership in AI-driven commerce. Sarlin is nominated to succeed Susanne Schroter-Crossan, who has decided to step down from her supervisory board mandate.
Data, machine learning, and AI have been at the core of Zalando since its founding in 2008. The company is now supercharging the unique data and infrastructure platform it has built over 17 years with AI to make its own operations more efficient and provide customers and partners with experiences and services that seemed impossible just a few years ago. This includes leveraging what Zalando describes as the richest fashion-specific data set in Europe and the continent's leading logistics fulfillment network.
Zalando is embracing agentic commerce as an exciting opportunity to create true lifestyle agents that understand the full context of customers' lives and proactively serve them across all their fashion and lifestyle needs. As Zalando builds towards new, conversational ways to shop by evolving its Zalando Assistant into a true personal lifestyle companion, the company is already partnering with Sarlin's Qutwo, one of Europe's most ambitious AI labs. This existing partnership suggests Sarlin's appointment will deepen integration between Zalando's platform and cutting-edge AI research.
"Peter will play a crucial role in governing and scaling our AI innovations further as we unlock tremendous value for our customers, our partners, and our business. He is an AI pioneer, and we are excited to work with him to embrace the tremendous opportunities ahead of us," said Kelly Bennett, chairperson of the supervisory board. The nomination signals Zalando's commitment to making AI a central pillar of its competitive strategy in the European fashion e-commerce market.
For business and technology leaders, this move highlights how established platforms are institutionalizing AI expertise at the highest governance levels to drive transformation. Zalando's focus on agentic commerce—where AI systems act autonomously on behalf of users—could redefine customer relationships in retail. The full invitation to the annual general meeting 2026 of Zalando SE is available on corporate.zalando.com. Sarlin's background in leading Silo AI and his academic role position him to guide Zalando's ethical and technical AI deployment as the company aims to enhance personalization, logistics, and partner services through advanced algorithms.
