ServiceNow Podcasts

Tired of executives breathlessly asking "what's our AI strategy?" while your data team drowns in 1,000 dashboards that nobody uses? In this episode, Juan and Tim cut through the noise with Juan Gorricho a data and analytics executive with more than 25 years of experience delivering business value at TD Bank, Visa, The Walt Disney Company We cover: Why do data leaders keep building vanity metrics instead of business value? How do you go from being an "order-taking reporting team" to a trusted decision intelligence partner? And why does every data governance initiative feel like building policies nobody wants to follow? The secret? Do it by slice. Not top-down. Not bottom-up. By slice—connecting each data product to real business outcomes while building reusable foundations underneath. If you're ready to turn your data team's NPS around and build trust that actually sticks, this one's for you. Spoiler: It starts with being brave enough to tell executives the truth. And btw, "I bet 40 columns drive 90% of your business."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the takeaway episode of our chat with Juan Gorricho, a data and analytics executive with more than 25 years of experience delivering business value at TD Bank, Visa, The Walt Disney Company. We cover: Why do data leaders keep building vanity metrics instead of business value? How do you go from being an "order-taking reporting team" to a trusted decision intelligence partner? And why does every data governance initiative feel like building policies nobody wants to follow? And so much more. If you liked these takeaways, listen to the full episode!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two friends rant over beers about Data Day Texas takeaways and the conference vibe. They recap keynote themes on adapting to change and ethics in data. Conversation jumps to librarian-style questioning, semantic layers controversy, and the Open Semantic Interchange idea. They debate agentic coding, pipelines as knowledge carriers, governance alignment, and the shift toward knowledge management roles.

Dr. Irina Steenbeek, data practitioner and author focused on data lineage and governance. She explores practical limits of full technical lineage and why scope and maintenance matter. She contrasts business and technical lineage needs and argues data foundations are essential for AI governance. She shares organizational challenges and pragmatic ways to get lineage to deliver value.

This is the takeaway episode with Dr. Irina Steenbeek, a data practitioner, and author of multiple books including Data Lineage from a Business Perspective. In this episode, Juan and Tim discuss with Irina the practical realities of implementing data lineage and its relationship to Data and AI governance. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A conversation with Jody Elliott, Head of IT Risk and Sustainability at National Grid, on embedding responsible AI and sustainability at scale.  In this episode of the ServiceNow Executive Circle Podcast, Jody Elliott, Head of IT Risk and Sustainability at National Grid, explores how sustainability, risk, and AI can work together to create real business value. Operating across critical national infrastructure in the UK and US, Jody shares why “good green operations are just good operations” and why sustainability and responsible AI must be embedded by design, not treated as standalone initiatives.  The conversation covers:  How IT sustainability, e-waste policy, emissions reduction, and regulatory compliance can drive efficiency, trust, and innovation  Practical, real-world AI use cases, including how generative AI can improve compliance and risk oversight by analysing large volumes of unstructured data  The importance of AI literacy, human-in-the-loop governance, and strong control frameworks  How organisations should prepare for emerging regulation, including the EU AI Act and CSRD  What’s next—from rising energy demand and supply chain risk to the next wave of responsible technology  Tune in now for a practical, real-world look at how responsible AI and sustainability can drive efficiency, trust, and innovation at scale.  If you’ve got an idea for a topic, would like to propose a guest for the show or discuss any of the points raised in this episode with a ServiceNow representative, just send an email to executivecircleuki@servicenow.com   And if you are not already an EXECUTIVE CIRCLE member and would like to learn more about our exclusive membership and all the benefits it brings, please visit.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AI, Skills, and the Future of Work at Aviva  In this episode of the ServiceNow Executive Circle podcast, Kat Finch is joined by Dan Godfrey, Group People Transformation and Talent Director at Aviva, to explore how people strategy, technology, and AI are coming together to reshape the future of work. Dan shares how Aviva’s scale, legacy, and long history influence its approach to transformation, and why operational readiness, adoption, and change management are just as critical as the technology itself. From learning and recruitment to people technology and data analytics, the conversation highlights how HR and IT must work in lockstep to deliver meaningful outcomes for both colleagues and customers.  The discussion also dives into the evolving role of AI in skills development, workforce planning, and customer experience. Some key topics include:  The evolving role of AI in skills development, workforce planning, and customer experience  Highlighting how Aviva is using AI to surface skills and support “squiggly careers”  Showing how AI helps colleagues navigate future career paths and learning opportunities  Emphasising the importance of human-in-the-loop governance, trust, and responsible use of AI  Looking ahead to how AI could democratise financial services by making financial knowledge more accessible  Reinforcing why investing in peoples capability remains the most critical transformation for organisations  If you’ve got an idea for a topic, would like to propose a guest for the show or discuss any of the points raised in this episode with a ServiceNow representative, just send an email to executivecircleuki@servicenow.com   And if you are not already an EXECUTIVE CIRCLE member and would like to learn more about our exclusive membership and all the benefits it brings, please visit.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ontologies are suddenly everywhere but they didn’t come out of nowhere. In this episode, Juan and Tim chat with Professor Oscar Corcho, who has been doing ontology engineering since the early 2000s (check out his book Ontological Engineering from 2003), to demystify what ontologies actually are, where they came from, and why that history still matters today. If you’re new to ontologies or feeling lost in the current hype, this episode gives you the grounding you didn’t know you needed to understand where the field has been and where it should be going next.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dive into the fascinating world of ontologies, where history meets modern AI! Explore how ontologies originated in the 1990s and their role in unifying complex systems like data centers and railways. Discover why human agreements are crucial for effective governance and how large language models can expedite ontology creation. Learn about innovative methods to reduce LLM hallucinations using ontologies, and why treating them as software artifacts is essential in today's tech landscape.

Juan and Tim dive into the buzz around context graphs and how they differ from semantics in AI. They discuss executives' skepticism about the hype surrounding context in social media. Context should be embedded in larger platforms rather than being a standalone feature. The hosts highlight the need for practical applications, emphasizing industry-specific solutions over generic claims. They caution against overpromising on data centralization, recalling lessons from the big-data hype era. Finally, they advocate for transforming data reporting into actionable decision-making.