Jeff Boudier, Product & Growth at Hugging Face, on Building a Culture of Impact & Why Small AI Models Win

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In this episode of Data & AI Mastery, Dr. Raoul-Gabriel Urma sits down with Jeff Boudier, who leads Product and Growth at Hugging Face, the world’s leading open platform for AI builders.

Throughout the episode, the pair explore how enterprises are turning to smaller, specialised open models to solve real business problems; the importance of maintaining control over your data; and how Hugging Face is helping enterprises bring AI safely into production.

Whether you’re a CTO navigating how to deploy AI at scale or an engineer eager to sharpen your edge, this episode delivers powerful takeaways on using data & AI strategically — not just for experimentation, but for driving real ROI.

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Chapter Markers:

(05:50) Real-world ROI: Financial services & patent tech using smaller open models

(08:50) When to adopt specialised vs. large models

(10:50) The AI adoption curve & why general models aren’t one-size-fits-all

(12:30) Protecting your data: governance, builder culture, and avoiding lock-in

(14:30) How Hugging Face keeps up with the latest developments in AI

(17:50) Supporting enterprises: from rogue IT to secure, compliant AI

(21:30) Security, safe tensors & scanning models for vulnerabilities

(24:40) Quick-fire round: Jeff’s favourite programming language, subjects & music genre

Useful Links:

Connect with Jeff Boudier on LinkedIn

Visit the Hugging Face Website

Follow Raoul for more AI insights on LinkedIn

Explore Cambridge Spark’s AI upskilling programs at cambridgespark.com