Sarah Arana-Morton’s career has taken her from helping build Tesco Clubcard’s analytics business at dunnhumby to leading OpenCorporates, an open database of company information and it seems the thread connecting those roles is trust in data.
Now CEO of Provenance, Sarah is applying that experience to a question how can people, and the AI tools increasingly helping them shop, tell whether a product claim is true?
In this Women in Commerce Q&A, Sarah discusses the people who shaped her career, why smaller teams can make an outsized impact and her advice to women building careers in commerce and technology. She also explains why giving shoppers reliable evidence behind product claims matters more as AI influences what they discover and buy.
Tell us about your role and career journey so far.
I’m CEO of Provenance, a platform that helps brands prove their product claims are true with evidence, so customers and AI shopping agents can trust them. The company has a strong legacy of working at the forefront of innovation in commerce and I’ve taken leadership to oversee this shift. It’s a really exciting moment to be here.
My career has always been about data and trust. I spent over two decades at dunnhumby, where I was part of the team that built the Tesco Clubcard analytics business. I worked across the UK, Asia, China, the US and Latin America, which was an incredible education in how data and retail really works at scale and why personalisation matters. After that I ran OpenCorporates, the world’s largest open database of company information, as CEO. That was a very different world but the same thread ran through it: making information verifiable, accessible, transparent and trusted.
When the Provenance opportunity came up, it was impossible to say no. AI is fundamentally changing how people shop, and the question of whether brands can be trusted has never mattered more. The mission of helping customers buy products they can genuinely trust felt urgent and right. And the founder, Jessi Baker, and the team she’d built were exceptional. That combination doesn’t come along often.
What achievement are you most proud of?
Undoubtedly the team we’ve built and what we’ve proved in the last year since I joined the company. A highlight was winning AI Company of the Year at the British Data Awards, which really solidifies the importance of what we’re building.
Outside of that, we’re delivering real impact for our clients – challenger brands and category leaders which are genuinely pushing boundaries with how they use data and technology.
We have proven that verified product claims change AI and customer behaviour. Products with our Proof Points get selected by AI shopping agents 50% more often. For example, Faith in Nature, saw a 47% increase in AI citation rates and 40% better AI visibility compared to a control group. The numbers don’t lie, and that’s something we’re proud of.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned during your career?
Never underestimate anyone. Whether that’s someone in your team, or the size of a company. Some of the most creative, impactful work I’ve seen has come from smaller teams with fewer resources and more conviction. They move faster, they care more, and they can make a real difference, to customers and to people’s careers. I’ve learned as much from them as from anywhere.
And try to work with people you know, trust and genuinely enjoy spending time with. That sounds simple but it’s easy to forget when you’re working remotely often or off chasing the next big thing. Some of the best friendships are built through working together on hard challenges!
The journey itself is the point. Enjoy it.
Have you faced any challenges as a woman in the industry?
Of course, but I was lucky early on. I had a female founder and CEO as a role model right at the start of my career, and that changed everything. When you see someone who looks like you doing it at the top, anything feels possible. It’s so important for young women to have role models, and for all women to support each other, because that ripple effect is real.
Many of the men I’ve worked with have supported me too.
Diversity of the whole team really matters. Different backgrounds, different experiences, different ways of seeing a problem – this all matters. It creates new opportunities and actually reduces risk because you avoid ‘groupthink’. The best teams I’ve been part of have always reflected that.
What advice would you give to women looking to build a career in commerce or technology?
Don’t wait until you feel ready because the most interesting opportunities rarely arrive at a convenient moment. You’ll figure it out as you go, and that’s fine.
Find people who will challenge you, not just cheer for you. The mentors and colleagues who give you honest feedback and open unexpected doors are the ones who actually change the trajectory.
And spend time with people in person. It is not a waste of time to get to know each other properly vs just doing the job or the task. Careers are long journeys and the deeper personal connections, the ones built over coffee, at events, through real conversation, are what make it fun and fruitful. Relationships that start as professional often become the most important ones in your working life.
If the culture somewhere isn’t working for you, it’s okay to leave. People and business needs change over time and that is usually the start of something new and exciting. Life is too short.
Who has inspired or influenced your career?
There’s no one famous name or inspirational figure that has inspired me from a distance. It’s seeing colleagues, founders, and leaders I’ve worked alongside day to day. Seeing how those people have handled hard things, have built teams and navigated uncertainty has shaped who I am as a CEO today.
My greatest thanks goes to the men and women who’ve guided me, challenged me, backed me when it mattered. Being open to growth and learning from those around you is one of the most important lessons to learn, however long you’ve been in your career.
What’s one thing you’d like to see change in the industry?
We should all have the ability to buy better. Whether that’s better quality, better for our health or better for the planet. As an industry we need to set a higher bar to create products that actually deliver on what they say they do.
That sounds obvious but it’s genuinely hard right now. The lines between the personal and commercial are blurring – take social media as the perfect example. Brands are building relationships with their customers in a way that wasn’t even imaginable 15 years ago. Because of that, there’s a lot of noise, and although shoppers are becoming increasingly astute and cautious, it’s a minefield navigating this complexity and trying to do the ‘right thing’.
I speak from experience when I say that most of the time, shoppers have no way of knowing what’s true.
But that’s the opportunity. AI is now making buying decisions on our behalf, recommending and selecting products at scale. If we can make sure the claims behind those products are verified and trustworthy, shoppers can finally buy with real confidence.
That’s what we’re building at Provenance. And I think it’s one of the most important problems in commerce right now.
