Jim Chirico, former CEO of Avaya, has been appointed as the new CEO of Instant Intelligence, an AI-driven data automation company. His return to a leadership role comes after a controversial exit from Avaya, where his tenure was marred by financial instability, a plummeting stock price, and legal challenges.
A Rocky Past at Avaya
Chirico’s time at Avaya ended abruptly in 2022, following the company’s financial troubles and failure to transition successfully to cloud-based services. His departure coincided with Avaya’s announcement of a $250 million cost-cutting plan and a leadership shake-up that saw Alan Masarek take over as CEO.
The company’s stock had suffered a dramatic drop, and revenue projections had fallen far short of expectations.
Compounding these issues, Avaya was later hit with a lawsuit from bondholders, who accused the company of misleading investors about its financial health. Filed in 2023, the lawsuit claimed Avaya engaged in deceptive financial practices that caused investors to lose more than $125 million.
Before joining Avaya, Jim Chirico held prominent leadership positions at Seagate Technology, where he served as Executive Vice President. In this role, he oversaw a workforce of over 40,000 employees across 14 global facilities, spearheading major operational improvements and enhancing the company’s overall efficiency. Prior to his time at Seagate, Chirico built extensive expertise at IBM, focusing on global operations, supply chain management, and manufacturing.
Zeus Kerravala, Founder of ZK Research, commented, “The hiring of Chirico is a bit of a surprise. Instant Intelligence positions itself as an AI company. We are very early in the AI cycle, which requires a CEO whose strength is vision and storytelling. Chirico’s core competency is operational discipline and restructuring. I would have expected a company like Instant to leverage a CEO with a history of making markets rather than share-shifting. This indicates there are other structural issues at play here.”
A New Start at Instant Intelligence
Despite his turbulent history, Chirico is stepping back into the executive spotlight with Instant Intelligence. The company, which focuses on AI-powered automation, believes his leadership will drive financial growth and scalability. Executive Chairman Michael McMackin praised Chirico’s expertise, saying his experience in financial strategy and sales will be instrumental in taking Instant Intelligence to new heights.
For his part, Chirico is confident in the company’s unique approach to AI, emphasizing that Instant Intelligence’s technology doesn’t just provide insights but actively learns and makes decisions. He sees this as a key differentiator in the crowded AI market and a foundation for future success.
Chirico stated, “Corporations are inundated with promises of artificial intelligence only to receive more reporting. INSTANT is different. Powered by agentic AI, INSTANT’s Platform is not simply reporting but learning and acting. The depth of information sourced by the INSTANT Platform occurs as transactional changes happen, making the timing of action as responsive as possible. INSTANT takes global enterprises beyond being informed to actual strategic, actionable intelligence.”
