AI starts at the top, says eBay CEO in fireside chat with President Aoun
EBay CEO Jamie Iannone told Northeastern that authentic leadership and embracing AI help employees grow, build skills and stay future-ready.
A good leader is authentic and fully invested in their team’s growth, said Jamie Iannone, president and CEO of eBay, during a recent fireside chat with Northeastern University President Joseph E. Aoun.
“When you show more of your authentic self, people want to do more for you, they want to work with you more,” Iannone said. “Hundred percent, my job is, can I make the people that work for me successful?”
Iannone visited Northeastern on Friday as part of Northeastern University’s Presidential Leadership Series, in which industry leaders join Aoun on stage to discuss innovative ideas and insights on entrepreneurship and best business practices.
Aoun expressed interest in learning more about the future of artificial intelligence and how eBay has been preparing its employees to adapt. He asked how leaders can ensure that employees embrace the company’s vision, what qualities new hires should possess and about Iannone’s own career journey. Aoun discussed with Iannone eBay’s mission, the changes he has made in the company over the last five years and the challenges he has had to navigate leading a global company in a rapidly changing world.
He described Iannone as a multifaceted leader who fully immersed himself in AI — exploring tools and championing proactive adoption at eBay to stay ahead of the competition.
On the future with AI
Iannone, who is a parent of two current Northeastern undergraduate students, said he was a “huge believer” in AI and optimistic about the opportunities the technology can bring for companies and people, improving productivity and efficiency.
His approach, he said, was “working at tomorrow’s pace of change.” He said he developed a vision of what eBay should be like with AI in a couple years, while at a conference several years ago, where he saw what OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, was working on.
“For me as a leader, I need to stay on the latest of what’s happening,” he said.
He utilized an AI image and video generator, Runway, available at the time, to create a short video presenting his vision to the eBay community. Iannone said the best way to get employees to embrace AI was to lead by example and use the tools himself.
“When I start an all-hands meeting, I walk out to AI music. I show AI videos that we’ve built, and I kind of try to really live it,” he said.
Ebay has approximately 11,500 employees globally and operates in 190 countries. To help employees embrace AI, the company has rolled out initiatives such as AI Week, AI Academy and a team of AI ambassadors who spread best practices throughout the organization.
“We’d be doing a disservice if we weren’t pushing our employees to embrace AI, giving them the tools and training to do so, and really helping them grow their skill set,” Iannone said. “That’s going to be good for them, career-wise, whether it’s at eBay or somewhere else.”
Frontline managers report to Iannone about the way AI is changing the organization, and eBay tracks how much code was facilitated by such AI tools as Claude. EBay also has AI awards at the company level and at the division level honoring people who’ve leveraged AI for their jobs.
On involving Gen Z in eBay
Aoun pointed out that Gen Z members are digital and AI natives, which gives them an edge on other workers. New college graduates can bring intensity to eBay and have the ability to help train the rest of the organization to use AI tools, Iannone agreed.
“If you grew up in a more AI native environment, and for your education, you’re really embracing AI, then you’re going to have a much better mindset and ability to use that when you come in than someone who didn’t have that in their early part of their career,” Iannone said. “It’s going to be an advantage [for companies] to bring in people who have those skill sets, who have that mindset, who have really kind of embraced it and lived with AI.”
Iannone recalled asking a recent class of interns to “vibe code,” or to use an AI assistant to generate code for a project with a desired “vibe,” for a new fashion experience on the platform. He said he was “blown away” when he saw the results.
“When you have an AI native type of employee, that’s kind of the beauty of how they can really push the rest of the organization forward,” Iannone said.
AI natives can help influence the more experienced people at the organization, which Iannone called “reverse mentoring.”
“That’s not a deficiency,” he said. “I do that all day long, where I will have people reverse mentor me.”
On the company’s mission
Iannone said that eBay’s mission remains aimed at enabling economic opportunity for all and helping individuals sell alongside large companies. He spoke about “accidental entrepreneurs,” individuals who may have started selling on eBay accidentally or out of hardship, but grew their businesses manyfold.
“I’m just proud of what our platform does for people from that perspective,” he said.
The other important part of eBay’s mission, he said, was driving sustainability in e-commerce, giving items and products a second or third life, reducing emissions and helping the planet.
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On navigating challenges as a CEO
But there are challenges, the biggest of which is navigating the uncertainty, whether because of the changing tariffs or the different macroeconomic conditions in different countries, Iannone said.
“You’re trying to make capital decisions or location decisions in a dynamic environment,” he said. “It’s just much harder to put capital to work, to be able to do so in a really smart, predictable way.”
His “secret weapon” for negotiating with different governments — bringing local entrepreneurs who sell on eBay with him to meetings and showing how policies would affect small businesses.
On leadership
Iannone stressed the importance of being authentic and investing in people’s growth so they can succeed, collaborate openly and thrive even without him present.
“You want to be the type of leader that people really want to follow, that people respect, that they value you for who you are,” he said. “I’ve tried to always be the type of leader where people know how invested I am in their development.”
Most important, Iannone said, is to hire the right people, who make great team players.
“The more they are working together and solving things, and the less they need me, the better I am as a leader,” he said. “I’ve got a leadership team that I have 100% confidence in, that knows how to work with each other. If I’m not there, they know how to resolve things together, and they’re transparent and candid.”
