Luciano Ayres
Portrait of Luciano Ayres

Director of Artificial Intelligence · ArcTouch

About Luciano Ayres

Luciano Ayres is Director of Artificial Intelligence at ArcTouch, an AKQA and WPP company, where he defines and executes the AI strategy across internal teams and client engagements. His work supports apps and connected experiences for global brands such as Cisco, Starbucks, Coca-Cola and Disney.

He brings more than 20 years of software and engineering leadership, combined with a postgraduate specialization in deep learning. He has trained hundreds of developers in modern AI workflows, led AI hackathons, owned platforms serving millions of users, and co-founded a mobile company that grew award-winning teams of 30+ developers.

He is the author of books on AI adoption and engineering leadership.

Experience

  1. ArcTouch, an AKQA and WPP company

    Director of Artificial Intelligence

    Aug 2025 – Present

    Leads ArcTouch's AI transformation by embedding AI into software delivery across engineering, product, design and QA.

    • Architected and led a company-wide AI enablement ecosystem supporting nearly 200 software engineers.
    • Created the ArcTouch AI Coding Playbook and AI Readiness Workflow, practical standards for AI-assisted software engineering.
    • Launched ArcTouch Upskill and ArcTouch Skills, reusable AI capabilities across Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot and other platforms.
    • Designed and built an internal AI coding agent integrated with Slack and WhatsApp.

    Engineering Manager

    May 2025 – Aug 2025

    • Led a web engineering team of 20+ frontend and full-stack engineers delivering products for global brands.
    • Ran hands-on agentic IDE training and built AI-driven productivity tools.

  2. AB InBev

    Engineering Performance Principal (AI, DX and System Performance)

    Apr 2025 – May 2025

    • Drove an AI-driven efficiency culture across a global B2B e-commerce platform operating in 28 countries.

    Global Software Engineering Manager

    Jan 2024 – Apr 2025

    • Managed two backend teams (20 developers) owning the Global Pricing Engine and BEES Sync value streams.
    • Led AI-driven modernization and cost optimization of cloud database and Kubernetes spend.

    Global Software Engineering Coordinator

    Dec 2022 – Jan 2024

    • Led backend and frontend teams on identity services for partners across 28 countries.
    • Built an AI support chatbot and organized an AI hackathon with 100+ participants.

  3. Havan Labs

    Tech Lead and Senior Software Engineer

    Apr 2022 – Nov 2022

    • Led frontend development of CRM and back-office systems; integrated biometric identification across 180 retail stores.

  4. NTT DATA Europe & LATAM

    Senior Software Engineer

    Dec 2021 – Mar 2022

    • Built microfrontends for AB InBev's global B2B e-commerce platform in 16 countries.

  5. i2 Mobile Solutions

    Co-founder and Tech Manager

    Aug 2005 – Dec 2021

    • Built and led award-winning mobile and web teams of 30+ developers for clients including BMW, Nestlé and Nivea.
    • Secured multi-million-dollar funding to turn applications into SaaS products.

Earlier roles

  • Politec, Software Consultant (2005–2007)
  • Educandus Tecnologia Educacional, Software Engineering Coordinator and Software Engineer (2004–2005)
  • Cartello, Software Engineering Intern (2003–2004)