The AI Consulting Podcast

Today's guest is Sam Daish, an Emerj Plus member and Head of AI and Data Science at Qrious. Qrious is a sizable tech services company based in New Zealand. Sam talks to us today about how we went from being trained as a teacher of the classics to someone who worked in big industry and startups, and now to someone who works in AI services and has learned all the skills required for AI services. Skills such as selling, setting expectations, finding AI opportunities, and more. His journey is motivating because he is head of AI in a firm with hundreds of employees, who essentially got there purely by enthusiasm and by his self-starter attitude and willingness to learn. If you are interested in unlocking our AI best practice guides, our frameworks for AI ROI, and our specific guides and resources for AI consultants, check out Emerj Plus at emerj.com/p1

Today's guest is AGK Karunakaran, president, and CEO at Multicoreware, a Sunnyvale firm with over 200 employees worldwide. AGK speaks to us today about making the transition from an idea to a firm with more than 200 employees and how to bend and mold a company to take over and focus on a particular niche and set of industries. We dive deeper into the art and science of finding your focus as a services firm to deliver more value faster and becoming more prominent in a specific space, which is the key to big-time growth. If you are interested in unlocking our AI best practice guides, our frameworks for AI ROI, and our specific guides and resources for AI consultants, check out Emerj Plus at emerj.com/p1

Today's guest is DJ Das, Founder & CEO of Thirdeyedata.io. DJ speaks to us today about how he got off the ground by starting meetups. He speaks about how he leveraged and grew a network, developed early conversations enough to build his early revenue, team, and base of employees based on earlier projects. He also talks about the pivot from big data into AI and data service-related offerings. Are you interested in starting or growing your own AI Consulting or Services firm? Today is the last day you can register for and join our "Starting an AI Consulting Practice - 3 Critical Factors for Success" webinar. Register your spot now at: emerj.com/st1

Today's guest is Stylianos Kampakis, CEO of The Tesseract Academy, a London-based firm whose mission is to help tech ventures and entrepreneurs improve their growth and launch new ideas. Stylianos speaks to us today about stepping out on your own, being your own boss, and spinning out businesses and how to grow a presence, develop a personal brand and work your way towards growing a company from the world of having a job. We are confident that his insights are directly transferable to many of you listening. If you are interested in starting or growing your own AI Consulting or services company, you can learn more about some of the best practices we have learned here at Emerj by joining our "How to Start an AI Services Company" webinar ending tomorrow at: emerj.com/st1

Today's guest is Marius Kierski, managing partner of Sigmoidal, a firm based in New York and Poland focused on AI and the development of AI projects. Marius speaks to us about his start in AI consulting, when he had no revenue guarantee and wanted to get his business off the ground. He talks about what did it look like to win early contracts, what were some of the sources he used to get leads, how he kept the bench warm with the right kind of talent, and what were some of the entrepreneurial gambles that he made to staff his company right, to win very big projects. Are you interested in more AI use-cases, best practice guides, white papers, frameworks, and more? Join Emerj Plus at: emerj.com/p1

Today's guest is Ric Edinberg, US President at The Evolved Group, which started as a market research firm, and they built an AI platform to support their work and the results they drive for their clients. Today Ric talks about what it looks like to evolve that layer of AI services on top of existing services offering. The lens that he applies will hopefully apply to almost any existing consulting business. This episode will give you a good idea of the different permutations of business models and in how many ways AI services can be brought to enterprise clients to support a growing company. If you are looking to start or grow your own AI consulting or services firm, be sure to check out our new webinar, "Starting an AI Consulting Practice - 3 Critical Factors for Success", which will be live until the end of this week. Register your spot now at: emerj.com/st1

Today's guest is Sanjiv Gossain, Global Head of AI for the Google Cloud business group of Cognizant, one of the world's largest IT firms. Sanjiv speaks to us today about finding the right AI fit in the enterprise. We walk through the discovery session process in terms of what team members have to be in the room, how we prioritize tasks and possibilities, how we look at workflows and find AI pockets and fits where we could discover initial projects to start with. Interested in unearthing AI projects through a process and a team, also check our infographic article on "Finding the Right AI Fit in the Enterprise" at emerj.com/fit1

Arnab Chakraborty, a Global Managing Director at Accenture and a leader in Applied Intelligence, shares insights on uncovering AI opportunities with clients. He discusses the importance of initiating effective discovery sessions to educate the C-suite about AI's benefits. Engaging executives through storytelling is essential to illustrate AI's impact on revenue growth. Arnab also emphasizes the need for committed leadership in driving AI transformation and building a culture of data fluency within organizations.

Today's guest is David Ponevac, CTO of Duos Technologies. Duos Technologies focuses on the transportation industry's automated systems, intelligent digital video, integrated smart Command and Control centers, and a broad range of smart sensors systems. David speaks to us today about what he's learned and how he's come to develop a cheat sheet for onboarding new clients. No matter what your process looks like, the idea of what he has put together can apply to your business and allow you to deliver value more quickly to customers for projects that are not bespoke. If you are looking to start or grow your own AI consulting or services firm, be sure to check out our new webinar, "Starting an AI Consulting Practice - 3 Critical Factors for Success", which will be live until the end of next week". Register your spot now at: emerj.com/st1

Today's guest is Luming Wang, CTO of ElectrifAi, a company that offers pre-trained AI models. Luming has held many lofty technology roles for companies in the US, like Microsoft, Amazon, and Uber. Luming provides some great insights today into how to guide clients to the best possible solution for them, how to pair up a client's opportunity and a client's problem with the right kind of AI tool that is well suited for their problem. Is this something we can use a pre-trained/off-the-shelf solution for, or is it something that needs to be custom-built? Interested in more frameworks for matching opportunities to AI opportunities, conveying the ROI of AI, and also being able to determine the right services mix to bring to market? Register for our "Starting an AI Consulting Practice - 3 Critical Factors for Success" webinar at emerj.com/st1