Experiencing Data w/ Brian T. O’Neill (AI & data product management leadership—powered by UX design) 174 - Why AI Adoption Moves at the Speed of User Trust Irina Malkova on Lessons Learned Building Data Products at Salesforce
Jul 23, 2025
Irina Malkova, VP of AI Engineering at Salesforce, dives into the synergy of AI and data analytics. She reveals how her team is transforming analytics with a Slack-based AI agent, aiming for smarter, faster decisions. Irina discusses the vital role user trust plays in AI adoption and shares insights on structuring data product teams effectively. She also highlights the challenges of demonstrating ROI in analytics and the crucial role of UX in user engagement with AI. A fascinating exploration of leadership in data and AI!
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Combine Product Data And AI In-Flow
- Irina runs both product analytics and an internal AI engineering team to unify classic data work with conversational AI.
- She builds Slack-based AI agents to answer analytics questions in the flow of work.
Centralize AI Engineering, Keep PMs Close To Business
- Keep product managers in business-facing teams to decide what to build while centralizing specialized AI engineering.
- Centralize AI engineering to give senior technical leaders visibility and speed to transform the function.
AI Requires Intentional Experimentation
- AI development is far less predictable than traditional software or ML and requires much more intentional experimentation.
- Product managers and engineering managers must break AI projects into measurable hypotheses and experiments.