The AI in Business Podcast

Today we interview Scott Nowson, AI Lead at PwC Middle East. Scott has a Ph.D. in Informatics, with a focus in NLP. Also check out Emerj's guide: Practical Steps to AI Deployment at emerj.com/beg1

In this episode, we interview Yaron Lavie, VP of Products at Earnix. Yaron breaks shares powerful insights about how AI can be leveraged for customizing financial service products, as well as for other use cases in insurance and banking. For quick and valuable insights, download Emerj's AI in Insurance Cheat Sheet: emerj.com/ins1

What's next for AI in logistics? Listen as we break down prescient trends with Tim Gagnon, VP of Analytics & Data Science at CH Robinson, a $16+ Billion logistics & supply chain company based in the USA. Want to implement AI but you're not sure where to start? Discover 3 Key Insights for Non-Technical Professionals to Deploy AI: emerj.com/beg1

Today our guest is Nayeem Islam, CEO of Blue Hexagon, a bay-area cybersecurity firm that has raised $37 million+ for innovation in expansion. This episode focuses on AI applications for cybersecurity in Retail. For a quick breakdown, check out Emerj's AI in Retail Cheat Sheet: emerj.com/ret1

Discover how to nurture alignment that closes AI deals, as we interview Tim Estes, Founder & CEO of Digital Reasoning, an American AI company that raised over $130 million to bring cognitive computing services to intelligence agencies, financial institutions, and healthcare organizations. Whether selling or buying, technology leaders need to ask the right questions before purchasing or implementing AI solutions. In this episode, Tim offers his valuable perspective on how to match AI solutions with real business problems, how to estimate and quickly calibrate ROI, and how to effectively communicate with decision-makers. Discover our full range of high-ROI use cases for AI with Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1

This week we interview Gary Swart, Partner at VC firm Polaris Partners, former CEO of oDesk (now UpWork, NASDAQ;UPWK), the world's largest online service marketplace. Gary's portfolio includes investments in innovative medtech and pharmaceutical companies. And in this episode, he shares his valuable perspective on how the pandemic may transform the opportunity landscape, at the intersection between AI and Healthcare technology. Discover our full range of high-ROI use cases for AI with Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1

Discover how to leverage the learning capabilities of AI for strategic advantage, as we interview H.P. Bunaes, former Chief Data Officer at Suntrust, now Director of Banking for Data Robot, a Boston-based startup which has raised over $400 million to innovate enterprise AI solutions. H.P. shares his valuable perspective on how strategic leaders can outmatch competition by enhancing the speed at which the organization can learn, with AI-driven technology. What will separate winners from losers in the new economy? Discover 3 keys with Emerj's Guide here: emerj.com/k3

Discover how AI is transforming procurement as we interview Edmund Zagorin, founder of a bay-area, venture-backed startup called BidOps. Edmund shares his valuable perspective about what the future of AI in procurement looks like and how it ties into the broader landscape of logistics and supply chains. Learn more about how to make the business case for AI in the enterprise: emerj.com/p1

This week we interview Stephan Pawlowski, VP of Advanced Computing Solutions at Micron, a $20 billion computing company based in America's Midwest. Stephan breaks down the necessary components for AI readiness, sharing pragmatic insights about the AI hype cycle and its relationship to real value for businesses. Download our PDF guide "3 Ways to Discover AI Trends" at: emerj.com/t3

Discover how AI may shift the workflows and approaches to trading as we interview Ash Fontana, managing director at Zetta Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm focused on AI-first companies with B2B business models. Ash shares his valuable perspective on the present and future of AI in trading. Access Emerj's AI in Financial Services Vendor Landscape Brief here: emerj.com/vl1

This week we interview Gary Swart, Partner at VC firm Polaris Partners, former CEO of oDesk (now UpWork, NASDAQ;UPWK), the world's largest online service marketplace. In this episode, he offers a pragmatic perspective about opportunities and challenges for AI adoption in the current economic climate. Discover our full range of high-ROI use cases for AI with Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1

Logistics is behind the time when it comes to data maturity, and it's nearly impossible to get predictive value from disjointed data. This week, Priya Rajagopalan or FourKites shares critical lessons for finding value in logistics data - as well as AI use-cases already making their way into the supply chain. Learn more about Emerj Plus (emerj.com/p1), and discover our complete AI White Paper Library - including our latest PDF brief: "AI and the Future of the Supply Chain - 3 Critical Trends".

When it comes to AI, the EU is known more for its regulation than its innovation, but it might not have to be that way. This week, Cedric O, French Secretary of State of the Digital Economy, shares his thoughts about balancing the preservation of values and rights with the prosperity and opportunity of new technology. If you sell AI-related produces or services, and want to find opportunities to sell into the US government, learn more about our "Public Sector AI Opportunity Report" at emerj.com/gov1. This interview took place in Paris at OECD headquarters. Thank you to the OECD for arranging this interview and providing a recording room.

Every six months, the landscape of AI vendors and enterprise use-cases is shifting. This week, Gary Hagmueller of Clara Analytics shares his perspective on the kinds of tasks and processes most rip for AI transformation in insurance - with examples and explanations that any businessperson can understand. Stay ahead of insurance AI innovation with our PDF white paper "AI in Insurance Executive Cheat Sheet" - download your copy: emerj.com/ins1

Ryan Smithright is a Research Fellow at Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research, and the lead author in our latest "US Public Sector AI Opportunity Report" (learn more at emerj.com/gov1). Ryan spent months investigating and documenting the various AI initiatives, budgets, and strategies for different branches of the US government, and in this interview he breaks down some surprising trends and data snapshots from the complete report. Anyone with an interest in selling AI to the US government should get a lot out of this unique episode.

Chatbots are a hot topic, but it's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the broader evolution of the customer experience. This week we're joined by Suhas Uliyar, VP of Digital Assistant AI & Integration at Oracle. Suhas breaks down key areas of user experience change, and how AI is helping (or could help) to usher in that transformation. If you're new to chatbots and NLP applications, download our "Unlocking the Business Value of NLP" PDF guide: www.emerj.com/nlp1

Emerj CEO Daniel Faggella recently spoke at the OECD headquarters in Paris for the creation of their AI Policy Observatory. At the event, we spoke with this week's guest: Lynne Parker, Deputy Chief Technology Officer at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Lynne talks to us about what the US is doing with AI currently at a national level and what the country's priorities are when it comes to AI. This interview is made all the more relevant by the fact that the private sector is freezing up due to the coronavirus. Meanwhile, the public sector is still spending money on AI and innovation. If you want to learn what the opportunities are for vendors and service providers that want to work with the US government, get our US Public Sector AI Opportunity Report at emerj.com/gov1.

Small companies and enterprises alike are drastically changing their AI strategies in response to the coronavirus. This week, we talk about what it looks like to develop an AI strategy the right way during these disruptive times. We interview Joel Minnick, Head of Marketing for AI at Amazon Web Services. Joel breaks down his take on how AI can be used to competitive advantage and why an AI strategy is the foundation of that advantage. If your company is just getting started with AI strategy, be sure to download our Beginning With AI guide at emerj.com/beg1.

In this episode, we focus on digital twins and how AI will impact the future of manufacturing. Our guest is Laurent Laporte, CEO of Braincube, a company focused on AI In manufacturing. This episode is sponsored by Braincube. For more information on sponsorship opportunities, visit emerj.com/advertise.

Although the insurance industry doesn't get as much press about its use of AI as banking, the AI applications large insurance carriers are developing are no less transformative to core processes. This week, we speak with Tom Harrington, the head of the insurance wing at Pegasystems. Tom talks about how automation and AI are making their way into different insurance processes today and how they will change the way employees at large insurance carriers work. If you're interested in discovering best practices for AI adoption and deployment, consider joining our Emerj Plus membership at emerj.com/plus.

Supply chains are frozen, teams are working remote, and sales cycles are unpredictable. This week, we interview Paul Noble, CEO of Verusen, an AI-enabled logistics company. Paul discusses the impact of AI on supply chain and logistics and the new AI capabilities that will be all the more relevant in a post-coronavirus world. Paul also reviews some of the key themes from our AI Business Continuity Action Plan, which comes complimentary with Emerj Plus, including critical ideas about how business leaders can make their business disaster proof. Learn more about the report and Emerj Plus at emerj.com/ap1.

This week, we speak with Liga Semane, Policy Advisor at the European Banking Federation, about how tech priorities for business leaders in financial services are shifting right now because of the coronavirus crisis. Liga shares some of her best ideas about business continuity and risk, as well as some of her experience witnessing the reaction from global European banks and their priority shifts in AI projects and initiatives. This is one of dozens of interviews we've put together for our latest report, the AI Business Continuity Action Plan. It will eventually be offered for sale, but we are currently giving it away free with a subscription to Emerj Plus. Learn more and get the report at emerj.com/ap1.

In this episode, we speak to Saurabh Suri, CIO and managing partner at CerraCap Ventures, about building AI products for the enterprise. Saurabh discusses what he's seen work and not work across his portfolio of AI investments when it comes to their interface with the enterprise. We talk about the challenges that come with not only building a product but actually deploying it in the enterprise. If you want to learn more about how we discover which you can do so at emerj.com/aiol

When it comes to applying AI in the enterprise, it's useful to get the perspectives of companies that have bought AI products before. But it's also useful to get the perspective of companies that have sold AI. They have an idea of what it's like when a company buys AI for the wrong reasons and when a company buys AI for the right reasons. This week we speak with Don Vadakan, Head of Sales at Fractal Analytics. He gives his advice for vendors and service providers that are selling AI in the enterprise, including how to attract attention from potential buyers the right way. His advice is also applicable to enterprise leaders thinking about working with vendors. If you're selling AI into the enterprise, be sure to download our B2B AI Lead Generation Guide at emerj.com/b2b1

This week, we interview Marsal Gavalda, Head of Machine Learning at Square. Marsal gives his take on how to leverage AI for competitive advantage. Specifically, he talks about the elements of culture and teams. If you want to to build a company culture in which teams can leverage AI in a nimble fashion and wield it in different areas of the business, Marsal's advice will be useful. If you're looking to get started with AI at your company, download our Beginning With AI Guide at emerj.com/beg1.

This week on the newly rebranded AI in Business Podcast, we speak with Rashida Hodge, VP, Insurance Industry at IBM, about buying and selling AI in the enterprise. If you are someone at a big company looking to buy AI, you're going to learn a lot about what to do and what not to do in this episode. If you're looking to sell AI to the enterprise, you will learn how to avoid wasting time and money without gaining traction in the enterptise. If you are selling AI, be sure to download our B2B AI Lead Generation Guide, a 7-page PDF put together for vendors at emerj.com/b2b1.

We are changing the name of our podcast to AI in Business. In this episode, Dan explains why, talks about what's new at Emerj, and discusses some of the feedback we've received from our listeners.

This week, we dive into how AI is evolving personalization as we now know it. Brian Walker is Chief Strategy Officer at Bloomreach. He speaks with us about how Personalization works today in retail and how it will work tomorrow. He also discusses how AI can add additional context to the user's experience and how it can allow companies to make stronger calls to action. If you're interested in more AI use-cases in retail, be sure to download our AI in Retail Executive Cheat Sheet at emerj.com/ret1.

In this special bonus episode of the podcast, Emerj spoke with Dileep George, co-founder of AI company Vicarious, which has raised over $100 million in venture funding, for Kisaco Research's Brain Inspired Computing Congress 2020, which takes place April 21 – 22 in Milpitas, California We spoke with Dileep about the unique requirements and considerations for adopting AI in robotics use-cases, as well as where AI-enabled robotics will play a role in business in the new decade.

This week, we explore a novel use-case of AI in marketing: copywriting. Can AI write a better email subject line or social media post than a human being? Sometimes, the answer is yes. We interview Parry Malm, CEO of Phrasee, an AI company that got its start optimizing email subject lines with AI. Parry speaks with us about this particular AI capability and how it will impact the future of marketing. If you have an interest in discovering more about the AI use-cases in your industry, watch the 2-minute video about our AI Opportunity Landscape Service at emerj.com/aiol.

On this special bonus episode of the podcast, we spoke with Victoria Rege, Director of Alliances & Strategic Partnerships and Graphcore, for Kisaco Research's AI Hardware Summit in Europe, which takes place October 29 - 30th in Munich, Germany. We discuss the current challenges enterprises are facing in adopting and using AI hardware. We then project where AI hardware may find a home in business in the new decade.

Personalization is an area that is going to move fastest in retail and will spin out into other industries from there. This week, we interview the CTO of a company that does exactly that: Tyler Foster of Evolv.ai. Tyler gives his perspective on what personalization can do today and where AI will make its way into the future of retail. Download our AI in Retail Executive Cheat Sheet, a short collection of AI use-cases in retail and a rundown of AI-related terms in retail at emerj.com/ret1.

This week, we're continuing our month-long focus on AI use-cases in retail and eCommerce. Our guest this week is Mahmoud Arram, CTO and Founder of Bluecore. Mahmoud's focus is on the marketing and advertising side of retail. He provides an interesting perspective on how AI could evolve marketing processes in terms of getting the right message in front of the right person at the right time. Be sure to download our AI in Retail Executive Cheat Sheet, where we lay out the basic use-cases of AI in retail in eCommerce and define key AI-related terms in the industry at emerj.com/ret1.

This month on AI in Industry, we focus on AI in retail and eCommerce. Our first guest is Guru Hariharan, CEO of CommerceIQ. Guru shares his thoughts on the current impact of AI on retail and eCommerce today, including in sales, marketing, and supply chain. We've recently put together our AI in Retail Executive Cheat Sheet, an overview of prominent AI use-cases in retail and eCommerce. Also included is a glossary of key terms businesspeople in retail need to know to navigate the AI conversation in their industry. Download it at emerj.com/ret1.

Our guest this week is Dr. Charles Martin of Calculation Consulting, a bit of a mentor of mine when it comes to AI in the enterprise. He understands a lot of the ups and downs of what it takes to apply AI in business. He speaks with us this week about how to determine your vendor needs. Are you looking for a consultant? A specific vendor? Are you looking to partner with a vendor? Figuring this out right off the bat might be the easiest way to save money and time. If you're picking a vendor for your company or for your clients, be sure to download our free pdf guide on the topic: 5 Ways to Select the Right AI Vendor

Our guest this week is Gaurav Srivastava, CTO at Fareye, an AI company in the logistics space. Gaurav talks about which elements of the existing procurement procedures in the enterprise can stick around and which need to be different when it comes to shopping for AI and looking for new AI solutions. He talks about demos, pilots, social proof, and troubleshooting some of the potential issues that come up when looking for the right AI vendor. If you haven't already downloaded our PDF guide, 5 Ways to Select the Right AI vendor, you can do so at emerj.com/buy1

We continue our theme this month on buying and procuring AI in the enterprise with this week's guest: Shane Zabel, Head of AI at Raytheon. Shane has seen plenty of internal AI applications and heard plenty of AI vendor pitches. As such, he has some simple and succinct advice for picking an AI vendor that he shares with us on this episode of AI in Industry. If you haven't already, download our free PDF guide: 5 Keys to Selecting the Right AI Vendor at emerj.com/buy1

It's our first AI in Industry episode of the decade. January's theme is on buying and procuring AI in the enterprise. Many of our readers at Emerj want to know which vendors and use-cases are legitimate and which are riding the hype. When it comes to picking an AI vendor, that knowledge is critical. Our guest this week is Pranay Agrawal, CEO of Fractal Analytics. Pranay shares some of his advice on the technical and cultural considerations for finding the right vendor partner. If you're interested in learning more about working with an AI vendor, we've created a quick PDF guide called 5 Keys to Selecting the Right AI Vendor, which you can download at emerj.com/buy1.

We've touched on a lot of different kinds of expertise in this month-long series on using AI for competitive advantage. We end things by speaking with someone from the startup world: Adam Oliner, Head of Machine Learning at Slack. He speaks with us about building a data moat around your business when it comes to building AI solutions in-house. He puts the overall theme for leveraging AI for competitive advantage very succinctly. If you're just getting started with AI in your business, be sure to download our succinct guide to adopting AI, Beginning With AI, at emerj.com/beg1.

This week, we speak with Ylan Kazi, VP of Data Science and Machine Learning at UnitedHealth Group. Ylan speaks with us about his take on how AI can be leveraged for competitive advantage, including how to build a "flywheel" of data and build on critical capabilities for adopting AI in the enterprise. If you're at an existing business and looking to get started with AI, be sure to download our free report, Beginning With AI, at emerj.com/beg1.

This week, we speak with Abigail Hing Wen, Co-Chair of the Fairness, Transparency, and Accountability Expert Group, Machine Learning Transparency. We discuss which AI capabilities actually have the most traction in terms of the science. Most importantly, Abigail talks about how business leaders can wield these promising capabilities in their industries. If you're interested in getting started with AI capabilities, be sure to download ur free Beginning with AI report at emerj.com/beg1.

This week on AI in Industry we continue our theme of focusing on "The Competitive Advantage of AI." Babak Hodjat shares his insights about critical decision-points within a business, and how to leverage them to find high-ROI AI opportunities. Download our free PDF report titled "3 Ways to Discovery AI Trends in Any Sector": emerj.com/t3

This month's theme is on using AI for a competitive advantage. We speak first with Monika Wilczak, Managing Director of AI at EY. Monika speaks to us about how large companies can start to get an edge over the competition by leveraging AI, emphasizing how companies can get started with gaining that advantage. If you're looking for areas of AI opportunity, be sure to download our "3 Ways to Discover AI Trends in Any Sector" report by going to emerj.com/t3.

It's the final week of our month-long series on planning your corporate AI strategy. This week we speak with Shane Zabel, Head of AI at Raytheon. Shane talks to us about the phases of building an AI strategy. What are the steps? He discusses the importance of finding an AI pioneer at a company who can build some initial ideas of what AI use-cases could be viable at the company. If you're in the process of analyzing AI use-cases for your company or clients, we created a guide for this exact topic. Learn more about it at emerj.com/t3.

This week, we speak with Scott Nowson, AI Lead at PWC Middle East, about the critical capabilities nontechnical business people need to understand to be able to advance their career and apply AI in their industry even if their company hasn't started with AI yet. Scott has an uncanny ability to convey business lessons on AI, and he's one of the few people who got our full Getting Started with AI report before today's formal launch. The report is finally open, and in it, listeners can find the must-know knowledge that will allow you to take your AI interest and turn it into real career opportunity without learning any code. Listeners can learn more about it at emerj.com/a1

In this episode, we speak with Adam Bonnifield, VP of AI at Airbus, one of the youngest executives at the firm. He talks about how to think about starting a corporate AI strategy, which for him entails beginning with the data assets. Adam thinks through how to take account of those assets and what kinds of people need to be part of the conversation to unlock the most fruitful AI applications in an established company.

This is a special bonus episode of AI in Industry about advancing your career in the era of AI, specifically for non-technical professionals. If you don't want to learn to code but still make yourself tremendously valuable in the era of AI, this episode is for you. We put together a report on this topic that will be coming out this month, all about getting started with AI in business for nontechnical professionals. Interested listeners can go to emerj.com/c1 to learn more. This week, we have Germán Sanchis-Trilles on the podcast. He's one of our technical advisors, well-schooled in natural language processing, and extremely experienced in applying AI in business. In this episode, he reviews some of the key themes from our upcoming report, including critical ideas about how nontechnical professionals can involve themselves in AI while at work.

This week, we speak with Carlos Escapa, Global AI and ML Practice Leader for Amazon Web Services. Carlos speaks with us this week about starting an AI strategy with a more practical approach. Instead of thinking about how to radically reshape a key part of your business with AI or use AI for AI's sake, Carlos talks about instead thinking about where AI fits in with what your business is already doing. He provides some thought experiments to run through for thinking through this and how to get started with AI.

Last month, we focused on advancing your career in the age of AI, and this month we have a new theme: building your corporate AI strategy. At Emerj, much of our work in the public and private sector is in building an AI strategy and giving organizations data on where the ROI is in the AI world. This week, we speak with Ian Wilson, former Head of AI at HSBC and a research advisor for our banking work. He has rare experience applying AI strategically at one of the largest banks in the world, and I think he is just the person to start off this month's theme. Ian talks about beginning to plan your AI strategy.

This is our final episode in our series on advancing your career in the era of AI this month. We had more Linkedin messages on this theme than any we've done before, and it got me excited to think about what we could do with this kind of series in the future. In this episode, we distill the insights from this month's series with insights from our broad catalog of interviews with AI-minded executives throughout the many years doing this podcast. We also cover three AI-related career roles that do not involve coding.