AI Leader · Zen Practitioner

Phil Johnson

AI Manager & Tech Lead, DigiKey

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About

Building the
future of work,
one team at a time.

Phil Johnson leads AI at DigiKey — one of the world's largest electronics distributors. His work spans infrastructure, governance, education, and adoption across every part of the business.

People-first, technically deep, and grounded in practice. He believes the best technology disappears into the workflow — and the best teams don't notice the tools, only the results.

AI Platform
Built from the ground up at DigiKey
CoE
Center of Excellence — AI governance & enablement
Ruzan
Dharma name — ordained Zen Buddhist priest, MZMC
AI Work

Enterprise AI,
at scale.

DigiKey's internal AI platform exists because Phil built it. From infrastructure to policy, he created the systems that let every team move confidently with AI.

Platform Architecture — Designed and built DigiKey's internal AI infrastructure, enabling teams to prototype and deploy with confidence.
Center of Excellence — Runs the AI CoE: governance, best practices, and strategic guidance across business units.
Enterprise Adoption — Enables every business unit — from supply chain to customer experience — to adopt AI responsibly and effectively.
Education & Culture — Trains teams, demystifies the technology, and builds a culture of thoughtful AI use at scale.
Active · Always on
Meet Alfred

Not a chatbot.
A collaborator.

Alfred is Phil's persistent AI agent — a memory-enabled assistant that evolves with every conversation. It manages calendars, tracks projects, sends messages, does research, and runs scheduled tasks autonomously.

"Not a tool you pick up and put down. Alfred is the infrastructure layer of a human workflow — present, context-aware, and getting smarter over time."
Zen Practice

— Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

Phil is an ordained Zen Buddhist priest at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, where his dharma name is Ruzan. His practice — zazen, study, and teaching — informs everything: how he leads, how he listens, how he builds.