The AI in Business Podcast

Priya Rajagopalan, Chief Product Officer of FourKites, shares how to leverage AI for a real competitive advantage. FourKites has raised over $100 million in venture capital to build an end-to-end supply chain visibility platform that major global companies use to track and manage freight. This conversation sheds light on how emergent intelligence is disrupting even the world's most stable and traditional industries. Enterprise strategy and innovation leaders may glean valuable insights from this example. Want to discover more case studies and insights? Explore Emerj's AI Best Practices Library: emerj.com/p1

Dr. Tanushree Luke, Head of AI at US Bank (USA's 5th largest bank), shares pragmatic opportunities for improving customer experience in banking, by learning from customer interactions. For example: how to prompt users with the right features and services to predict needs and solve problems more effortlessly. Dr. Luke earned her Ph.D. in Theoretical/Mathematical Physics and MS in Physics and Applied Engineering from George Mason University. Previously she served as the Head of Predictive AI and Machine Learning for Capital One's Conversational AI Platform. Dr. Luke also served as Technical Lead for the Department of Defense/DARPA Network Defense Program and held leadership roles at companies supporting the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Energy. Want to learn more about AI opportunities in banking? Download Emerj's AI in Banking Cheat Sheet: emerj.com/cs1

Our AI Futures series aims to share perspectives from those pushing the boundaries of technology, and this episode's discussion steps toward farther-out potential futures. Before founding the US Transhumanist Party, Zoltan earned a degree in Philosophy & Religion from Columbia University, worked as a reporter for National Geographic, and served as a Director for WildAid (a nonprofit protecting endangered species). In recent years, he's shifted his focus to authorship, speaking, and activism, with a focus toward the long-term future for humanity. His book, "The Transhumanist Wager," is an Amazon best-seller. This episode dives into perspectives pertinent to the future of AI governance e.g. dynamics of the USA-China AI race, the "winner-take-all" potential for powers controlling artificial general intelligence (AGI), and China's potential rise in an environment with fewer regulations and hurdles for transformational technologies like AGI, gene editing, and neurotech.

Manny Medina, CEO and co-founder of unicorn startup Outreach.io, shares wisdom from the trenches of AI adoption. We're excited to have him on for many reasons - to celebrate his success (Outreach's valuation recently surpassed $1 billion), exemplify how AI early adopters are disrupting Industry, and learn from his real-life journey of AI adoption. He shares how he thought about potential leverage points for AI, the kinds of experiments necessary to test these opportunities, what Outreach learned the hard way, and what they feel like they're getting right. Before Outreach, Manny was employee number three on Amazon's AWS team and led the Microsoft mobile division from launch to $50M in annual revenue. He holds an MBA from Harvard and a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Outreach is a sales engagement platform that accelerates revenue growth by optimizing every interaction throughout the customer lifecycle. The platform manages all customer interactions across email, voice and social, and leverages machine learning to guide reps to take the right actions. Customers include Cloudera, Glassdoor, Pandora, Zillow. This episode was inspired by Emerj's community, requesting more tales and lessons learned from successful AI implementations. What else do you want to hear? We'd love your feedback and ideas. Get engaged with Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1.

Nicholas Pilkington, CTO and Co-Founder of DroneDeploy, breaks down drone technology trends and dives into some powerful use cases in heavy industry. Notably, drones are transforming best practices for equipment maintenance monitoring by using computer vision. Nick goes into great detail about the process improvement opportunities in this space and shares valuable insights about the trajectory of drone technology capabilities. To date, DroneDeploy has raised 90+ million dollars for its cloud-based drone mapping and analytics platform, which enables capabilities such as automated flight safety checks, workflows, and real-time mapping and data processing. Industries adopting this technology include: agriculture, real estate, mining, construction, and many other commercial and consumer arenas. DroneDeploy is compatible with any drone. Want to learn 3 ways to find AI trends in any sector? Download Emerj's free pdf: emerj.com/t3

Ben Garfinkel is a Research Fellow at Oxford's Future of Humanity Insitute (FHI). In this episode, he breaks down key issues central to the near-term formation of good AI governance, such as: the comparative advantages of centralized vs decentralized governance structures, the influence of big tech on governance, etc. He does a great job of presenting the possibilities in clear and objective terms for consideration. We're grateful for Ben and FHI's seminal and leading contributions to AI governance, and - writ large - we suggest that our listeners and clients take heed and engage with the important work manifesting from FHI's brilliant minds. Ben is a DPhil student at Oxford's Department of Politics and International Relations. He previously earned a degree in Physics and in Mathematics and Philosophy from Yale University. FHI is a multidisciplinary research institute at the University of Oxford. Academics at FHI bring the tools of mathematics, philosophy and social sciences to bear on big-picture questions about humanity and its prospects. The Institute is led by Founding Director Professor Nick Bostrom, author of "Superintelligence".

Today's discussion is with Brett Beranek of Nuance Communications, arguably the best-known NLP company in the world. Nuance has been selling AI to enterprises for decades, earning billions of revenue in this mature space. In this episode, Brett shares valuable insights and predictions about how technology priorities might and should transform in the post-Covid world. Learn more with Emerj's Pandemic Response - Business Continuity Playbook: emerj.com/p1

Glen de Vries cofounded Medidata in 1999, offering SaaS-based clinical development solutions addressing the functioning of customers' clinical trials, and 20 years later the company - which he still leads - sold to Dassault Systemes for almost $6 billion. What a triumph, Glen! Thank you for joining the podcast. Listen in as Glen shares his unique and valuable perspective on the current state and potential futures for the data ecosystem in Life Sciences. Want to stay on the cutting edge of emerging data-driven technologies? Try out Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1

Today's interview is with, Konstantinos Karachalios, Managing Director of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association (ieee.org). Konstantinos earned a Ph.D. in Energy Engineering (nuclear reactor safety) from the University of Stuttgart. Before IEEE, Konstantinos played a crucial role in international scenario simulation for large-scale nuclear reactor accidents. And with the European Patent Office, his experience included establishing EPO's patent academy. For 100+ years, the IEEE has developed global standards for bleeding-edge technologies like nuclear power, blockchain, nanotech, systems engineering, and many more. Emerj is a big supporter of the IEEE's AI standards for "Ethically Aligned Design", and in this talk, we speak about what's happening in the early stages of AI standards and policy formation around the world.

In this podcast Joel Minnick, AI & ML Strategy Leader at Amazon Web Services (now VP at Databricks), shares his valuable perspective on what defines "AI Readiness" for large enterprises. Want to discover how to pick high-ROI projects? Explore Emerj's flagship Research and Strategy Services: emerj.com/aiol