Enterprise AI Innovators

On the 38th episode of Enterprise Software Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Mojgan Lefebvre, EVP and Chief Technology & Operations Officer of Travelers. Travelers is a Fortune 500 insurance company offering a range of insurance products to customers across the globe. With over $41 billion in revenue and over 32,000 employees, Travelers is the second-largest writer of U.S. commercial property casualty insurance and the sixth-largest writer of U.S. personal insurance through independent agents. In this conversation, Mojgan joins the show to share her perspective on integrating emerging technology into enterprise operations, prioritizing the customer experience through data-driven insights, and the importance of culture for successful AI adoption.Quick hits from Mojgan:On what makes the insurance industry different from other businesses: “We don't manufacture anything and have no physical goods. Everything we do is based on data and information. And so insurance companies have had data in those systems for years, and how you leverage technology to get insights from that data is really core to how we do business.”On the advantage of leveraging datasets with enterprise AI: “We think that [AI] can be huge for us, as a company that has so much data, so much of which is curated, whether it's our claim documents that we use to train our claim professionals or our underwriting standard operating procedures. The ability to bring all of that together and to leverage a technology that can go through that so quickly and put it at the fingertips of your employees [is powerful].”On understanding business processes to create impact with AI: “It's very important how you ask questions and how you prompt your AI. It's going to become even more important for your IT organization to truly understand your business and your business processes and have the ability to think of where these technologies will actually make a difference. You can't really do that without understanding the business process and where you can inject the technology."Recent Book Recommendation: Radical Candor by Kim Scott--Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.Enterprise Software Innovators is a show where top tech executives share how they innovate at scale. Each episode covers unique insights and stories that will help you succeed as a technology leader. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise Software Innovators is produced by Luke Reiser and Josh Meer.

Asana CIO Saket Srivastava discusses the potential of Gen AI, the evolving role of CIOs as business leaders, and identifying meaningful AI use cases. The podcast explores Asana's collaborative work management capabilities, the use of AI in digital transformation, and the future impacts of technology on society.

On the 36th episode of Enterprise Software Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Rob Carter, EVP & CIO of FedEx. FedEx is a multinational courier delivery services company with over $90 billion in annual revenue and is the fifth largest employer in the US, with more than 500,000 workers globally. With billions of packages delivered every year, using the world’s largest cargo fleet, FedEx uses sophisticated technology to provide a unique delivery service to customers across the globe. In this conversation, Rob shares fascinating insights into how FedEx uses AI, the future of automation in the transportation and logistics industry, and lessons on building a culture of innovation from his 23-year tenure. Quick hits from Rob:On what the potential of AI means to Fedex: “We're at a fascinating point in the journey of AI where it's not just a buzzword but a tangible tool that's reshaping how we think about movement, connectivity, and the global economy. At FedEx, we're harnessing this potential to redefine the delivery experience.”On the importance of understanding data: “The information about the package is as important as the package itself. This was a visionary statement by Fred Smith that has guided us for decades, and it's never been more relevant than now, in the age of AI and big data, where information is indeed power.”On the importance of culture for innovation: “Building a culture of innovation isn't just about introducing new technologies; it's about creating an environment where questioning the status quo, exploring new possibilities, and taking calculated risks are part of everyone's job description. That's the culture we cultivate at FedEx."Recent Book Recommendation: How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie--Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.Enterprise Software Innovators is a show where top tech executives share how they innovate at scale. Each episode covers unique insights and stories that will help you succeed as a technology leader. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise Software Innovators is produced by Luke Reiser and Josh Meer.

On the 35th episode of Enterprise Software Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Chris Helsel, SVP of Global Operations and  CTO of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Goodyear is a leading vehicle equipment manufacturer known for producing tires and rubber products for diverse applications, including cars, airplanes, and industrial equipment worldwide. Chris shares his thoughts on the vital role of technology at Goodyear, important blueprints for successfully leveraging AI, and how Goodyear tire sensors are enabling the future of self-driving vehicles.Quick hits from Chris:On the symbiotic nature of AI and cybersecurity teams: “The AI basically tells them right away what to go do. So I almost think of it as Tony Stark. When you put on the Iron Man suit, it gives you a kind of superhuman augmentation.”On the need for AI to manage data overload: “It's impossible that we're going to think engineers are going to be able to consume that data...You're going to need these types of [AI] technologies in order to discern those insights.”On enabling data-driven technology: “Our solution has a sensor in the tire... It measures temperature, pressure, acceleration, ID. It has a small chip and a battery. So we take that information off there, combine it with some other vehicle information, and pass it through Telematics, up to the cloud."Recent Book Recommendation: The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker--Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.Enterprise Software Innovators is a show where top tech executives share how they innovate at scale. Each episode covers unique insights and stories that will help you succeed as a technology leader. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise Software Innovators is produced by Luke Reiser and Josh Meer.

On the 34th episode of Enterprise Software Innovators, host Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) talks with Marty Brodbeck, CTO of Priceline. Priceline is an online travel agency that enables users to book hotels, flights, and rental cars across 400 airlines and 300,000 hotels in over 200 countries worldwide. Marty shares thoughts on organizational frameworks to implement AI effectively, underestimated use cases for generative AI, and how Priceline’s new chatbot, Penny, uses the latest generative AI capabilities to transform the customer experience.Quick hits from Marty:On the future of AI in business: “I firmly believe that... a lot of the biggest innovations [in the enterprise] are going to be the application of machine learning and generative AI to scale out infrastructures.” On the iterative development of AI applications: “These large language models don't work right out of the box. There's a corpus of information that they get trained on that isn't necessarily accurate, so you have to complement the capabilities you're going to get from a large language model with your own data.”On AI for personalization and customer interaction : “Number one, it's the iterative nature in which we built our prompts for Penny and tested those to get it to a point where it was conversion positive... And two, being able to iterate on prompts to get them right so that Penny is responding in the appropriate way that's valuable for our consumers, those are the two big things that we learned."Recent Book Recommendation: Going Infinite by Michael Lewis--Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.Enterprise Software Innovators is a show where top tech executives share how they innovate at scale. Each episode covers unique insights and stories that will help you succeed as a technology leader. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise Software Innovators is produced by Luke Reiser and Josh Meer.

On the 33rd episode of Enterprise Software Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Karl Mosgofian, CIO of Gainsight. Gainsight is an industry-leading customer success platform used by enterprise organizations to optimize the customer journey from beginning to end. In this conversation, Karl shares his thoughts on balancing the hype versus the reality of current AI capabilities, understanding opportunities presented by generative AI, and approaching AI integration as an enterprise team.Quick hits from Karl:On managing expectations between current enterprise AI and generative AI: “Some people are acting like AI was just invented, and it wasn't. Gainsight has had AI in our products for a long time. There are a lot of people out there who've been doing this for a long time, doing really effective stuff. But it's also true that OpenAI made a big breakthrough. LLMs are really different. They're doing some things that previous technologies couldn't do and it's super exciting, and it's going to have a big impact on the world. But the hype cycle is real.” On optimism for the potential of generative AI: “It makes me think of Arthur C. Clarke's line, that ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ And ChatGPT is maybe the most magical technology I have ever seen. So, in some ways I'm all in on the hype, in the sense that this is really an incredible technology that's capable of fantastic things. We're at ChatGPT 4, right? So what's ChatGPT 17 going to look like? Running on quantum computing. I mean, if this is what it is in the early stages, what's it going to look like in 5-10 years? I'm excited about it and it's adding a lot of value for a lot of people right now.”On advice for utilizing new technology at the enterprise level: “The first thing I did was identify someone on my team and said, ‘I want you to be the AI person. I want you to be a focal point and run a center of excellence within my team, so that somebody is really on point.’ The danger of things like this, especially when anybody can go to ChatGPT, you've got all these different people in the organization, they're doing cool stuff, but nobody's talking to each other. There is no security or governance around it. It is just like the wild west. And a little bit of that is okay. I don't want to stop that and try to control everything, but in the modern world, the role of it more and more is actually not to be dictators, but facilitators and coordinators across the company.”Recent Book Recommendation: Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter--Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.Enterprise Software Innovators is a show where top tech executives share how they innovate at scale. Each episode covers unique insights and stories that will help you succeed as a technology leader. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise Software Innovators is produced by Luke Reiser and Josh Meer.

On the 32nd episode of Enterprise Software Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Eric Johnson, CIO at PagerDuty, the digital operations management platform. Eric is a longtime technology leader and has been the CIO at many notable companies throughout his career, including Informatica, DocuSign, and SurveyMonkey. In this conversation, Eric shares his thoughts about the impact of data strategy on AI adoption, transforming business operations with automation, and best practices for using generative AI in the enterprise.Quick hits from Eric:On questions to ask before approaching enterprise AI: “One, how are you using data to drive business impact. Two, what are very clear use cases that you could be focusing on around generative AI? There's a lot of excitement around generative AI because it's a very powerful, sophisticated set of solutions that are going to change not only the business world that we live in, it's going to change people's lives. But right now if you're not careful, you can get sucked into this situation where you're spending a lot of time and energy running around looking for a problem to solve.” On the importance of promoting organizational buy-in to leverage AI: “Change is something that you just have to understand is a constant. The pace of technology change is fast. And now with more new technology coming out that companies are starting to get better at managing and leveraging automation and AI and some of these other tools. You have to sit down with the organization. You have got to talk about what kind of change that is going to be in the organization and make sure the executive team is on board with that. If you can't get that done, then you're not going to go very far on that sort of transformation.”On potential limitations of AI interacting with legacy code: “There is this belief that AI is going to transform. And there are elements of it for sure, but I don't know how great AI is at taking a bunch of old legacy code and untangling that. This gets back into the whole problem where we have got to be careful not to assume that generative AI is the utopia, because there are still a lot of limitations to it.”Recent Book Recommendation: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni--Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.Enterprise Software Innovators is a show where top tech executives share how they innovate at scale. Each episode covers unique insights and stories that will help you succeed as a technology leader. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise Software Innovators is produced by Luke Reiser and Josh Meer.

On the 31st episode of Enterprise Software Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Pranab Sinha, CIO of Matterport. Matterport is a next-generation virtual modeling tool that uses 3D-scanning technology and machine learning to create immersive digital replicas of physical spaces. In this conversation, Pranab shares how Matterport uses the latest AI capabilities to enhance their products, the importance of a cohesive AI data strategy, and upcoming AI use cases he’s most excited about.   Quick hits from Pranab:On AI powering Matterport’s newest products: “Our digital twin technology and platform is powered by the Cortex AIm an advanced machine learning engine, which essentially takes the physical spaces and combines the digital image into a photorealistic, digitally accurate digital twin.” On areas where Pranab sees AI’s immediate impact: “One is around customer service, customer support, IT service. It's a lot of repetitive tasks that we have and we see real use cases, real potential on using AI to augment our intelligence that we have with our people on the front line. The second use case is around security. There is good news and bad news. You have all this great technology being developed, but at the same time, that technology will be available to the guys who are trying to disrupt your business.”On data structures needed to make AI viable for Matterport: “One of the big things we pride ourselves on is the data that we get and how we train our models. Trust is a big thing. Data security is the biggest thing. And so when you put your physical space on our digital twin platform, we want to make sure that you have absolute confidence.”Recent Book Recommendation: Good to Great by Jim Collins--Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.Enterprise Software Innovators is a show where top tech executives share how they innovate at scale. Each episode covers unique insights and stories that will help you succeed as a technology leader. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise Software Innovators is produced by Luke Reiser and Josh Meer.

On the 30th episode of Enterprise Software Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Alan Boehme, Former CTO at H&M, Procter & Gamble, and former CIO at The Coca-Cola Company. For over 20 years, Alan has led technology teams at some of the world’s most recognizable brands. He has a wealth of insights into how next-generation technology can transform customer experiences and improve business processes. In this conversation, Alan shares how H&M uses technology for sustainability, his insights into the ways startups can best collaborate with enterprises, and details about how smart mirrors piloted at H&M are now in use at both H&M and COS to enhance the customer experience.Editor’s note: This episode was recorded in 2022 when Alan was still CTO of H&MQuick hits from Alan:On leveraging data locked in clothing tags to enhance customer experience: “There's a lot of RFID data locked in tags on garments. We decided to lift the data out of our core warehousing systems and we created a data layer in the store that now mimics what's in the warehouse. By using 5G readers embedded in the ceiling and RFID readers in the walls, we can get 99% accuracy of everything that's in the store at the same time. When you pick a garment up and walk around the store, we know which are going into the fitting rooms and which ones are being left behind. Which ones are being tried on which ones are being returned to the rack. We can create an experience for you with a mirror [using that data]. By lifting the data out and making it available using artificial intelligence and machine learning, it becomes more predictive.”On the global nature of innovation: “The way we have to look at innovation is that it comes from anywhere and everywhere in a corporation and around the world. It's not bound by any geography anymore.”On how startups and corporations can best collaborate: “Corporations tend to define their problems too tightly and they're looking for specific solutions; [doing so] loses the creativity of the startups. You lose the intellectual capital that the startups bring, on top of their technology and services if you try to focus them too much. [As a startup], you want to present a business problem, and instead of telling [a corporation] how to solve it, ask them what they can bring to the table in order to make it work and make it solvable.”Recent Book Recommendation: Everybody Wants to Rule the World by R “Ray” Wang--Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.Enterprise Software Innovators is a show where top tech executives share how they innovate at scale. Each episode covers unique insights and stories that will help you succeed as a technology leader. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise Software Innovators is produced by Luke Reiser and Josh Meer

Former Snowflake CEO and Microsoft President, Bob Muglia, discusses exciting trends in AI, the role of data quality, ethics in AI development, and the future impact of relational knowledge graphs and robotics.