Today's guest is Brian L. Keith, a research advisor for Emerj AI Research and Federal Azure Data & AI Leader for Microsoft, based in Washington, DC. Brian has spent nearly 21 years as senior director partner for IBM Data and AI, North America, focusing on the federal space. Brian speaks with us today about some of the core challenges to overcome when large companies adopt AI. He brings a perspective through the lens of technical debt and how AI projects build more technical debt than a foundation for AI to blossom and bloom into the future. Brian brings his perspective on how enterprise AI maturity develops how we can build as little technical debt as possible and invest in projects that can deliver ROI and set us up for the future. Suppose you need to frame the ROI case for the enterprise and go to market successfully. In that case, you might want to learn more about our Catalyst program, where we coach AI services and consulting company founders one-to-one and help them start and grow their business and enter the market with success. To learn more, visit: emerj.com/catalyst

Today's guest is Sanjeev Agrawal, President & CEO of LeanTaaS. LeanTaaS raised over a quarter billion dollars to take on AI in healthcare and is working with over 300 hospitals in the US. Sanjeev is an alumnus of MIT and was head of global product marketing for Google back in the earlier 2000s. Sanjeev walks us through the state of technology adoption in the healthcare space in an exciting way and talks about how hospitals can start small by leveraging smaller datasets to improve some of their existing processes. We talk a lot about the back-office operations critical to ensure that healthcare facilities are financially salient and patients treated well. Subscribers can reach out to Sanjeev on LinkedIn to get a PDF copy of his book "Better Healthcare Through Math" for free. Interested in more use cases, best practices for AI adoption, strategy, and ROI? Check out Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1

Today's guest is Dr. Poornima Parameswaran, Co-founder & Senior Executive at Trace Genomics, a firm that has raised nearly $25M to attack the space of soil science and the value of soil. Today, Dr. Parameswaran explains how AI is being used to extract data from the soil, why that matters for farmers and anyone who cares for the environment, what that might be leading to predicting crop yields, and more effective use of fertilizers and pesticides. Interested in more interesting AI use cases? Subscribe to our newsletter at: emerj.com

Today's guest is Debjani Deb, CEO of ZineOne, an AI-based personalization firm in the Bay Area, who has raised over $15M and has worked with well-known retail brands such as Men's Warehouse. Debjani speaks to us this week about two topics. One, how she sees the retail world reeling and responding, the changes that are happening, and the perspective, boots on the ground, in the retail world post-Covid-19. Second, what is the scale of maturity of personalization, where can companies start, and how should they think about first projects for building recommendations and personalization into their experience. She lays out several potential use cases that companies should apply and rules of thumb for shifting and sorting through them. Are you interested in more use cases for AI in Retail? Download our AI in Retail cheat-sheet PDF guide at: emerj.com/ret1

Today's guest is Monte Zweben. Monte started doing AI with NASA in the late 80s, took a company public for nearly $3B at the height of the internet boom of the late 90s, and is now CEO at Splice Machine. This company offers a scalable SQL data platform for modernizing applications. In this episode, Monte speaks to us about some of the mirrored elements of tech's past transitions into AI and what they mean for how AI will start to become the norm in enterprises. He also applies lessons learned from his previous business transitions into what leaders can do to better prepare for this next wave of AI. Do you want to support this show? Be sure to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, and let us know what you like about the program! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-in-business/id670771965

In today's short episode, we will be covering some of the recent updates to the show. I will cover what we learned in 2020 from our listeners, bring exciting news on what we aim to focus on, and what insights and skills you will pick up from the show in the coming year. I cover the changes coming in terms of frequency and format, and lastly, some of the fantastic episodes we have coming up. Do you want to support this show? Be sure to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, and let us know what you like about the program! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-in-business/id670771965

Today's guest is Caroline Gorsky, Group Director of R2 Data Labs at Rolls Royce. Rolls Royce needs no introduction as it is one of the pioneering providers of cutting-edge technology solutions in automotive, aerospace, and power. This week, Caroline speaks to us about using Natural Language Processing to optimize their massively complex supply chain and get better transparency in their processes. She also talks about where they hope to use this technology to gain a deeper view of their operations. Do you like and want to support our show? Consider leaving us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-in-business/id670771965

Today's guest is Mahmoud Arram, Co-Founder and CTO at ‎Bluecore. Bluecore is a marketing technology company that's reimagining how retailers communicate with shoppers and has raised over $100 million to deliver Artificial Intelligence to enterprises. Mahmoud helps us answer where to target your efforts with AI and how to identify problems that will deliver business results, a real problem versus a toy problem, whether you are building an AI product or thinking about where to apply AI to your own business. Interested in more use cases, infographics and frameworks? Check out Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1

Today, our returning guest is Per Nyberg, Chief Commercial Officer at Stradigi AI, a leading North American SaaS AI business platform provider that enables organizations to bring business-accelerating AI projects to fruition quickly. We speak this week about what he has seen in the market in terms of AI adoption, what is going well, and the trends and patterns that he has seen across the industry. We will also talk about building AI maturity and AI fluency. Then we wrap things up with the art of starting small, what is essential to bear in mind, the important ways to take action, and how companies can get the ball rolling in a way that will lead to a bigger value. Are you interested in reaching the Emerj audience via our newsletter or podcast? Learn more at emerj.com/ad1

Returning today is one of my favorite guests, the great and brilliant Derek Choy, Co-Founder & COO of Aktana. This Silicon-Valley-based startup has raised $65+ million to empower data-driven insights for Life Sciences sales professionals with its AI-driven platform. In this episode, Derek helps us understand how you make an AI product work when it is a game-changer, and what hurdles and opportunities arise when bringing a new product to market. Are you interested in more use-cases? Download our guide: "Beginning with AI Guide - 3 Key Insights for Non-Technical Professionals" at emerj.com/beg1