Mass Appeal #25. Deconstructing AI for Beginners - Bani Malhotra (Walmart)
Feb 12, 2025
59:42
It’s no secret: AI has been all the buzz lately. But, what is it, really? In this episode, Tommy talks to Bani Malhotra, the former Senior Director of Product Management for Site Experiences and Omnichannel Personalization at Walmart U.S. eCommerce, who demystifies the many terms we hear related to artificial intelligence, including machine learning, deep learning, LLMs, SLMs, and Generative AI. She covers its many use cases for marketers and product managers to advance efficiency, productivity, creativity, and even business development. She also touches on some of her concerns about the technology regarding its drawbacks.
Questions Bani answered in this episode:
- What was your first foray into a product role from your finance and strategy background, and what was one of the biggest challenges in making that leap?
- Were you implementing AI to help tackle some of the challenges you faced in your role at Walmart?
- When does a decision go from a logic tree to AI?
- How do outlier consumer purchases affect AI predictions?
- Could you define SLMs and LLMs?
- Where do you see AI benefiting marketers the most?
- Do you have any fears of what AI may threaten?
Timestamp:
- 2:38 Bani’s background
- 9:58 Bani’s role at Walmart
- 17:42 Use cases of AI for user experiences at Walmart
- 21:10 The difference between heuristics and AI
- 23:52 The spectrum of machine learning
- 28:20 AI model confidence scoring
- 31:10 What is AI? Defining AI-related terms
- 41:00 Benefits of AI for marketers
- 54:45 Concerns for AI