Rob May, serial AI entrepreneur and investor,  started as a hardware engineer but realized he could have more of an impact as an entrepreneur and investor. Since then, he has started companies including Backupify (acquired by Datto) and Talla (conversational AI)  and invested in over 100 startups. Rob's a deep thinker and the author of the popular Inside AI weekly newsletter and Investing in AI podcast.Listen and learn...What's holding back AI adoption in the enterpriseNew approaches to address the "small data" AI problemAbout the ethics training we should require for AI algorithm developersWhy those who fear bots taking over are the modern equivalent of LudditesWhat it means to be human when machines are sentientThe moonshot AI idea Rob's most excited aboutReferences in today's episode:Krishna Gade from Fiddler on AI and the Future of WorkAdeptID for matching helping employees upskillMythic for edge AI

Elliot Shmukler, CEO and founder of Anomalo, needed a better way to monitor data quality at scale. He previously led growth teams at Wealthfront, Instacart, and LinkedIn and experienced firsthand the impact of incomplete or inaccurate data. Anomalo has now raised nearly $40M from amazing investors including Norwest, Two Sigma, and Foundation to make data problems a thing of the past.Listen and learn...What Elliot means when citing Jeff Weiner from Linkedin: "If you're launching a rocket even a one degree course change can mean you won't land on the moon."About the data quality issue nobody noticed at Instacart that impacted millions of users.How the role of the data scientist will change as AI platforms automate data quality monitoring.When there's a need for humans in the loop to override AI systems.Why every product will soon be as good at personalization as Spotify and Netflix.The number one skill every student needs to learn that will never be replaced by machines.Past episodes referenced in today's discussion:Milin Desai, Sentry CEOBarr Moses, Monte Carlo CEODerek Steer, Mode Analytics CEOPeter Fishman, Mozart Data CEOKrishna Gade, Fiddler CEOCharity Majors, Honeycomb CTO

Luke Arrigoni started Arricor in 2012 to help large companies make sense of their data. Since then, he and the team have taught organizations like Goldman Sachs, AT&T, and Thomson Reuters about the principles of AI. His secret? Focus on the business problem and the right technology approach becomes obvious.Listen and learn...How UPS uses AI to automatically assign the right tax code for packagesWhat responsibility AI developers have for the decisions their algorithms makeHow to clean dirty data to make it ready for AI model training When to use neural nets vs. gradient-boosted treesWhich tasks are good candidates for classifier models vs. NLPWhich job skills are future-proof... and which are likely to be replaced by automation References in this episode:Fish from Mozart Data on AI and the Future of WorkAirflow for data pipeline automation

Peter Fishman ("Fish"), co-founder and CEO of Mozart Data, had a vision for making it easy for any business to unlock the value of their data via a modern data stack. He and his co-founder believe rote data engineering work shouldn't require teams of in-house data engineers. Fish turned his PhD in Economics and passion for statistics into a successful, venture-backed YC company that is defining the future of data analytics.Listen and learn...Why Fish believes "not every business gets value out of their data... but every business can."The role of data pipelines in automating the cleaning and transforming of data.Fish's prediction for where humans will be needed for data analysis in a decade.What Fish learned working with David Sacks at Yammer.How bacon hot sauce inspired the founding of Mozart Data.References in this episode:Barr Moses from Monte Carlo  on AI and the Future of WorkDerek Steer from Mode on AI and the Future of WorkFivetran for simplifying data integration

Shawn Merani, entrepreneur and venture investor, has started two venture funds and been an operator at early stage companies including Liquidnet and ReachLocal. Shawn has invested in some amazing companies including Clubhouse, Dollar Shave Club, and Stance. He shares his definition of "hustle" and the challenges of raising money for a venture fund vs. raising money for a company.Listen and learn...How to raise your first venture fund.Why the goal of Parade Ventures is "to be the first call great founders make when raising money."Shawn's secret to getting access to over-subscribed deals with high-profile investors.Why Shawn makes it a priority to meet every one of Parade's founders every other week.The biggest mistake founders make when pitching investors.What one entrepreneur did to convince Shawn to invest in a first meeting.References in this episode:Intro: book in-demand experts for a video callSonar: change intelligence softwareMoichor: animal diagnosticsZi Wang from TimelessParade Ventures

Mel Engle,  executive and cancer survivor, has spent more than 30 years in and around the intersection of healthcare and technology. He's now the CEO of Predictive Oncology using AI and patient data to develop personalized cancer treatments. Mel discusses how research from Carnegie Mellon is being commercialized to accelerate the future of healthcare.Listen and learn...How Mel and his team have turned cancer detection and prevention into a data problem.How to use AI to figure out which tumor types can be healed by which chemical compounds to reduce the time required to develop new cancer treatments.How to mitigate the impact of bias in patient data when using AI to make high-stakes decisions.How long before AI will be more accurate at detecting cancer than human doctors.What's ahead for AI in healthcare for the next decade.References in this episode:Predictive OncologyDr. Bob Murphy from Carnegie MellonRene Morkos from ALICE Technologies on AI and the Future of Work

Matt Cowell started QuantHub in 2018 to help upskill and reskill employees to prepare for careers in data and AI. The QuantHub data skills platform exists to satisfy the growing demand for data-fluent team members. Amazing organizations like Uber and Southern Company use QuantHub to improve data literacy for employees. Plus, Matt's the first Alabamian on the podcast. Roll tide!Listen and learn...How a Chemist landed in IT and eventually became a venture-backed entrepreneurWhy there's a need for a "Duolingo for data literacy"What are the skills required for "data citizens" vs. "data storytellers"Why "every employee will soon be a knowledge worker"Why data literacy will be part of general education requirements in the futureReferences in this episode...Gary Bolles on AI and the Future of WorkPanos Siozos on AI and the Future of WorkBryan Talebi on AI and the Future of WorkDerek Steer on AI and the Future of Work

Dan Grunfeld, former professional basketball player and operator at Lightspeed Venture Partners, discusses the parallels between sports and entrepreneurship. His grandma's escape from the Holocaust inspired him to share her story, one he has been writing for five years. Dan's family history is inspirational. His advice for entrepreneurs is timeless.Listen and learn...Why professional basketball is a lot like entrepreneurshipDan's lessons from experiencing hardship on the court... and how to recover from setbacksHow the best entrepreneurs find product-market fitHow his 96 year-old grandma was saved twice by Raoul Wallenberg Why Dan says "...basketball was sent from heaven for my family"Dan's advice about discipline for aspiring authors: "if you snooze once, you can snooze every day."References in this episode:Rene Morkos on AI and the Future of WorkPanos Siozos on AI and the Future of WorkBernie and Ernie on ESPN 30 for 30Dan on Twitter: @dan_grunfeldDan's personal site: DanGrunfeld.com

Matt Compton's a restless tinkerer from Indianapolis who started Filo.co to solve a problem he had. He needed something better than Zoom to be able to spend more time with his family without being on the road three weeks a month. He and his co-founders joined a venture studio and built the prototype for Filo.co in four weeks. Now it powers virtual employee events for an impressive list of companies.Listen and learn...What's really required to make virtual events productiveHow Filo's better than ZoomHow Anaplan crushed sales kickoff using FiloThe future of virtual spacesWhy we don't need a metaverseReferences in this episode:Gary Bolles on AI and the Future of WorkNeelima Parasker on AI and the Future of WorkFilo.co

Phil Heltewig, co-founder and CEO of Cognigy, the low-code conversational AI platform for managing customer service bots, discusses how new AI technologies are improving the support experience. Phil started Cognigy in 2016 with two co-founders and has since raised $55M from Insight Partners among others. The team is now about 100 employees and boasts  an amazing customer list including Lufthansa and Bosch.Listen and learn...What Teddy Ruxpin has to do with the future of conversational AI.About the highs and lows of the entrepreneurial journey: "...there are days when you're wondering if you can make payroll..."How customer service bots "are designed to help humans in call centers, not replace them."What are the biggest technical challenges when applying NLP in narrow enterprise domains with limited training data.How Cognigy thinks about mitigating the impact of bias in AI models.Why your experience re-booking your flight will be much better in the future.References in this episode:Cognigy on TwitterCognigyAI and the Future of Work with Panos Siozos