The AI Consulting Podcast

This week’s guest is Roey Mechrez, the CTO of BeyondMinds, an AI firm based in London. Today he speaks about the origins of BeyondMinds and how the company got off the ground by doing unique and bespoke projects. Roey also discusses how he’s aiming to transition towards offering products in addition to their existing services. While Roey is not looking to transition BeyondMinds to a pure Saas firm, he seeks to create a core platform that will enable his team to make interactions with customers a bit more productized. Roey is also a valued member of our Emerj Plus and Slack communities. If you’re interested in our best practices and frameworks for AI ROI, AI strategy, and more, visit emerj.com/p1 to learn more.

Our guest this week is Christopher Pavlak, currently serving as a Specialist Master for AI Ethics and Governance at Deloitte. Today, Chris speaks with us as a consultant himself about what AI governance is at a practical level and how consultants and business leaders can think through AI governance as a framework to help them mold more successful AI adoption strategies. We’re also grateful to have Chris as an Emerj Plus member. If you are not already a member, Emerj Plus is our online platform home to our entire library of AI use-cases, whitepapers, best practices, and frameworks. If you’d like to learn more, be sure to visit emerj.com/p1.

This week’s guest is Joseph Suquet, a Partner, Board Member, and Executive Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at Fligoo. Fligoo is an AI firm based in the Bay area with employees worldwide. Today, Joseph shares how Fligoo turned from primarily AI services to offering its own suite of products. He specifically discusses how to discover an AI product idea and turn it into an AI business model. This topic is frequently requested in our Emerj Plus community. Emerj Plus is our premium platform where members access all of our resources and tools as well as access to our private Slack community of service leaders around the world. To learn more, visit emerj.com/p1.

This week’s guest is Graham Holt, GM at Daitan. Founded in 2004, Daitan was recently acquired for an undisclosed amount after being ranked as one of the fastest-growing companies in America by Financial Times. Today, Graham shares his insights on what it looks like to scale talent and processes, procedures, and departments. He also discusses how Daitan experimented with different models for services from their traditional IT and digital product business. If you’ve benefitted from the insights shared in this episode, consider supporting us by leaving us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and let us know what episode you found most helpful or what you’d like to hear more about in the future.

Today’s guest is Nikola Mrkšić, CEO and Co-Founder of PolyAI. PolyAI is an AI voice company based in the United Kingdom. Nikola previously appeared on an episode with us to discuss the future of voice AI for the customer experience. Today, Nikola dives into the use-case of appointment-setting with AI for voice. He talks specifically about the technical constraints, AI capabilities, and how to create workflows that add real value to the business. This episode is sponsored by PolyAI. If you run a disruptive AI firm and you’re looking to reach a global audience of AI-interested leaders, be sure to visit emerj.com/ad1 to learn more about Emerj’s Creative Services.

This week’s guest is Roey Mecherez, CTO of BeyondMinds and Ph.D. from the Israeli Institute of Technology and Electrical Engineering. In this episode, Roey shares his business knowledge and experience at BeyondMinds, which has raised approximately $15M to date. Roey also discusses how to explain the technical nuances around preparing data, training algorithms, the iteration process, and more in a way that conveys complexity in non-technical terms. Roey is also a valued Emerj Plus member. Emerj Plus is our private platform where we share our AI best practice guides, frameworks for AI ROI, and other specific resources for AI consultants. If you’d like to learn more, visit emerj.com/p1.

This week’s guest is Vish Rajalingam, AI Solutions Architect at MulticoreWare, a 250-person AI services firm focused primarily on smart cities and autonomous vehicles. Vish also holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science, focusing on Artificial Intelligence from UT Arlington. Today, Vish shares his insights from his experience working on and understanding algorithms and interacting with clients and customers to set realistic expectations about measuring AI success and potential capabilities. To explore this episode’s topics more, visit emerj.com to read our popular AI best-practice guide, “Setting the Right AI Expectations – A Key for Turning Pilots into Deployments.”

Today’s guest is Sam Daish, Head of AI and Data Science at Qrious, a technology services firm based in New Zealand. Sam didn’t start his career in consulting and shares what it was like to learn today’s skills. Sam also discusses some considerations for AI fluency for mid-size firms and effective strategies for starting conversations that transform into real AI projects. We’re grateful to have Sam in the Emerj Plus community, where members gain access to our entire library of AI use-cases, AI whitepapers, frameworks, and best practice guides. If you’d like to take your AI fluency to the next level and deliver more value for your clients, be sure to visit emerj.com/p1.

Today’s guest is Joseph Suquet, Director of Strategy and Corporate Development, Partner, and Board Member at Fligoo, a 50-person AI Services firm that focuses on AI projects for companies such as Mastercard, Coca-Cola, and more. Today, Joseph speaks about some of the common misconceptions he sees in the enterprise world regarding AI strategy and how consultants can tactfully help clients achieve better results. Joseph also shares business lessons useful for consultants and business leaders on how to get building AI strategy right. To unlock access Emerj’s non-technical guide for getting started with AI deployment, check out emerj.com/beg1.

Today’s guest is Ash Fontana, Managing Director of Zetta Venture Partners, a firm based in San Francisco. Ash was also a previous guest on our AI in Business Podcast. Today, he gives his recommendations for companies looking to transition from being service-oriented with AI to becoming more product-oriented. Ash also shares some lessons from his experience investing in AI firms and insights from his recently published book, “The AI-First Company: How to Compete and Win with Artificial Intelligence,” on what it takes to iterate and find a scalable business model. Download our whitepaper “Beginning with AI” to learn more about the practical steps for AI deployment at emerj.com/beg1.