Me, Myself, and AI

Michelle McCrackin, senior manager of analytics learning and development at Delta Air Lines, never imagined that she’d be an analytics leader when she first joined the airline as an HR business partner. But, faced with the challenge of hiring outside analytics talent, she proposed a solution that would change her career path along with the paths of other Delta employees: an internal analytics training program. Delta Analytics Academy (DAA) enables front-line employees to gain in-demand tech skills and the opportunity to advance within the organization. In December 2022, DAA graduated its first cohort of 12 students, selected from a pool of 750 applicants that included gate agents, baggage handlers, flight attendants, and other operational experts interested in learning how data and analytics can be applied to process-improvement challenges. In this episode, Michelle joins Sam and Shervin to discuss how the program, started in partnership with Georgia State University, fits into the airline’s talent development and retention strategy. Read the episode transcript here.Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Sophie Rüdinger.Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn.Guest bio:Michelle McCrackin is a strategy and analytics leader with over 13 years of experience in the corporate space. She worked in the consumer packaged goods and automotive industries before moving into the field of aviation, where she is currently senior manager of analytics, learning, and development at Delta Air Lines. McCrackin’s passion for raising the analytics capability across the operations and commercial functions at Delta is exhibited in creation and development of Delta Analytics Academy (DAA), a program with the objective of producing an internal talent pipeline and closing the talent gap within the analytics skill set. DAA was developed in partnership with Georgia State University based on the hypothesis that taking an industry expert and providing them with a wraparound analytics education in a condensed format would produce top-performing analytics professionals.We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.We want to know how you feel about Me, Myself, and AI. Please take a short, two-question survey.

As a partner with OpenAI — the company that recently wowed the tech world and the general public with its DALL-E image generator and ChatGPT chatbot — Microsoft helped to make those generative AI tools possible. But Microsoft has long invested in developing its own artificial intelligence technologies, for internal and external customers alike. And even when AI is not the centerpiece of a specific software program, it’s often driving how that tool — such as the company’s Bing search engine — works.As corporate vice president of Microsoft’s AI platform, Eric Boyd oversees product and technology teams that build artificial intelligence and machine solutions for the company’s Azure platform and its AI services portfolio. Eric joins Sam and Shervin on this episode to talk about how Microsoft builds AI tools and embeds the technology in its various products, AI’s potential for helping to expand people’s creativity, and the democratization of AI. Read the episode transcript here.Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Sophie Rüdinger.Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn.Guest bio:Eric Boyd leads the AI platform team within Microsoft’s Cloud + AI division. This global organization includes Azure Machine Learning, Microsoft Cognitive Services, Azure Cognitive Search, and internal platforms that provide data, experimentation, and graphics processing units cluster management to groups across Microsoft.Boyd joined the company in 2009 to create the Silicon Valley Search Ads team. In 2011, he moved to Bellevue, Washington, to lead the Bing Ads Development team before taking on his current role in 2015.Before joining Microsoft, Boyd was the vice president of engineering at Mochi Media, an ads startup that was acquired by Shanda Games. Previously, he was vice president of platform engineering at Yahoo for 10 years.Boyd has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from MIT.We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.We want to know how you feel about Me, Myself, and AI. Please take a short, two-question survey.

When Ziad Obermeyer was a resident in an emergency medicine program, he found himself lying awake at night worrying about the complex elements of patient diagnoses that physicians could miss. He subsequently found his way to data science and research and has since coauthored numerous papers on algorithmic bias and the use of AI and machine learning in predictive analytics in health care. Ziad joins Sam and Shervin to talk about his career trajectory and highlight some of the potentially breakthrough research he has conducted that’s aimed at preventing death from cardiac events, preventing Alzheimer’s disease, and treating other acute and chronic conditions. Read the episode transcript here.For more about Ziad: http://ziadobermeyer.com/researchNightingale Open Science: https://www.nightingalescience.org/Dandelion Health: https://dandelionhealth.ai/Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Sophie Rüdinger.Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn.Guest bio:Dr. Ziad Obermeyer works at the intersection of machine learning and health. He is an associate professor and the Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Berkeley; a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator; and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His papers have appeared in a wide range of journals, including Science, Nature Medicine, and The New England Journal of Medicine; his work on algorithmic bias is frequently cited in the public debate about artificial intelligence. He is a cofounder of Nightingale Open Science, a nonprofit that makes massive new medical imaging data sets available for research, and Dandelion, a platform for AI innovation in health. Obermeyer continues to practice emergency medicine in underserved communities.We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.We want to know how you feel about Me, Myself, and AI. Please take a short, two-question survey.

While Me, Myself, and AI is on winter break, we hope you enjoy this bonus episode excerpted from an MIT Sloan Management Review-BCG webinar based on our 2022 research report, "Achieving Individual — and Organizational — Value With AI."Cohost Sam Ransbotham is joined by BCG Henderson Institute's global director François Candelon for a discussion of our global survey findings.Download a PDF copy of the slide deck from this webinar here.Follow along with our speakers:1:31-1:53 — Page 41:54-2:29 — Page 52:30-4:27 — Page 6 (and, listen to our episode featuring Land O'Lakes' CTO Teddy Bekele)4:28-7:15 — Page 77:16-8:45 — Page 88:46-11:52 — Page 9 (and, listen to our episode featuring The Estée Lauder Companies' Sowmya Gottipati)11:53-13:19 — Page 1013:19-14:33— Page 1114:34-16:04 — Page 1216:05-17:20 — Page 1317:21-18:44— Page 1418:45-20:50— Page 1520:51-21:35 — Page 16Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Sophie Rüdinger.Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn.We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.We want to know how you feel about Me, Myself, and AI. Please take a short, two-question survey.

While Me, Myself, and AI is on winter break, we hope you enjoy this bonus episode excerpted from an MIT Sloan Management Review-BCG webinar based on our 2020 research report, "Expanding AI's Impact With Organizational Learning."Download a PDF copy of the slide deck from this webinar here.Follow along with our speakers:1:15-1:35 — Page 31:38-1:52 — Page 41:53-3:13 — Page 73:14-3:38 — Page 83:39-4:13 — Page 94:14-4:50 — Page 104:51-6:10 — Page 116:11-6:27 — Page 126:28-11:31 — Page 1311:32-12:17 — Page 1412:18-13:10— Page 1513:11-13:22 — Page 1613:25-13:59 — Page 1714:00-14:54 — Page 1814:55-15:05 — Page 1915:06-16:05 — Page 2016:06-16:38 —Page 2116:39-16:59 — Page 2217:00-18:08 — Page 2318:09-18:28 — Page 2418:29-21:12 — Page 2521:13-23:52 — Page 26Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Sophie Rüdinger.Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn.We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.We want to know how you feel about Me, Myself, and AI. Please take a short, two-question survey.

With a background in building enterprise platforms for organizations, including Oracle and Walmart, Wayfair CTO Fiona Tan oversees all of the technology initiatives for the Boston-based e-commerce company. As the home furnishings retailer begins to open brick-and-mortar stores, it’s taking lessons learned from the digital space to inform how it markets its home products to customers in physical locations.On this episode, Fiona joins Sam and Shervin to discuss how artificial intelligence fuels nearly everything the retailer does, from ad purchasing to product pricing, and where human decision makers fit in. She also describes how AI enables Wayfair’s marketing automation technology, as well as some innovative new programs underway to help customers experience the company’s products virtually. Read the episode transcript here.Read the 2022 MIT Sloan Management Review-BCG Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy report here: sloanreview.mit.edu/ai2022.Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Sophie Rüdinger.Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn.Guest bio:Fiona Tan is the chief technology officer at Wayfair, where she oversees a global innovation team responsible for creating market-leading experiences through the home furnishings retailer’s world-class e-commerce platform. Before joining Wayfair, Tan served as senior vice president of U.S. technology at Walmart, where she was responsible for innovation and engineering execution spanning its site, mobile app, and all associate and merchant-facing technology across its e-commerce business and retail stores in the United States.We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.We want to know how you feel about Me, Myself, and AI. Please take a short, two-question survey.

Khatereh (KK) Khodavirdi is focused on using AI to create better customer experiences — a process she compares to creating an “AI Legoland,” in which various technology components fit together to build cohesive solutions for PayPal’s customers. This is an approach she is applying in her role as senior director of data science in the online payment systems company’s consumer products division, where she oversees data science teams for PayPal, its peer-to-peer payment app Venmo, and e-commerce coupon-finder Honey.On this episode, KK joins Sam and Shervin to describe how PayPal’s various consumer products work together to help users have a seamless experience across its products. She also talks about AI’s role in further personalizing the customer experience across the company’s brand portfolio, data governance challenges following corporate acquisitions, and her approach to creating effective teams. Read the episode transcript here.Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Sophie Rüdinger.Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn.Guest bio:In her role as senior director of data science, Khatereh Khodavirdi leads a cross-functional team of data scientists, analytics experts, and strategists to help accelerate revenue growth through data and insights for PayPal, Venmo, and Honey. She was a founding member of eBay’s advertising data team and has spent her career building analytics functions to accelerate growth initiatives in commerce, advertising, monetization, and digital payments, with increasing levels of responsibility.We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.We want to know how you feel about Me, Myself, and AI. Please take a short, two-question survey.

Ameen Kazerouni, chief data and analytics officer at Orangetheory Fitness (OTF), believes that AI’s role isn’t to replace human experts but rather to help them make better decisions. That’s why OTF collects heart rate and telemetry data during its in-studio fitness classes: so that AI algorithms can turn that data into feedback that empowers people to make real-time choices about their workouts and enables coaches to offer personalized recommendations.On this episode, Ameen joins Sam and Shervin to describe how OTF’s data collection and algorithms are used to create a curated fitness experience for its members, and he explains why it’s critical to keep humans in the feedback loop when implementing artificial intelligence. Read the episode transcript here.Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Sophie Rüdinger.Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn.Guest bio:Ameen Kazerouni is chief data and analytics officer at Orangetheory Fitness. Over the course of his career, Kazerouni has had the opportunity to use machine learning in a variety of fields, including clinical research, medical imaging, data warehouse design, e-commerce, and now health and wellness. He is currently focused on the challenges of operationalizing large volumes of data into scalable customer solutions and strategic initiatives.A core belief of his is to “build experiences, not algorithms,” which drives his team to put forward scalable solutions with measurable impact on real-world use cases. In his free time, Kazerouni enjoys keeping up to date with the latest methods in artificial intelligence and the newest comedy specials on Netflix, burning his savings on expanding his smart home, and marching down the path of becoming bionic by quantifying himself with any and all wearable fitness tech.We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.We want to know how you feel about Me, Myself, and AI. Please take a short, two-question survey.

As chief data officer of payroll and benefits management company ADP, Jack Berkowitz has three primary responsibilities. One is to oversee the organization’s data overall, ensuring that functions like data governance, security, and analytics, are running well. Another is to build ADP’s data products, such as people analytics and benchmark tools. But the responsibility that’s of most interest to our hosts is Jack’s oversight of the organization’s use of artificial intelligence.In this episode of the podcast, Jack describes how focusing on the outcomes the organization wants to achieve leads to better processes and results. He also dives into the topic of AI ethics and outlines how other organizations might consider assembling an AI ethics board. Read the episode transcript here.Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Sophie Rüdinger.Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn.Guest bio:Jack Berkowitz is chief data officer at ADP, where he leads the company’s data security and governance, data platforms, and analytics/machine learning operations. His role also involves partnering with stakeholders to develop new data initiatives to improve clients’ experience and ADP’s competitive position.Berkowitz joined ADP in 2018 as the senior vice president of product development for the DataCloud people analytics and compensation benchmarking solution. Before that, he was vice president of products and data science for Oracle’s Adaptive Intelligence program. Previously, he spent 20 years in product development and the implementation of intelligent information systems. He has been on the executive team of four startups involved in search, reasoning, or metadata-driven applications, and he cofounded Edapta, which enabled dynamic user interfaces and personalization for mobile and web clients.Berkowitz has a master’s degree in industrial engineering and operations research from Virginia Tech and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the College of William and Mary.We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.We want to know how you feel about Me, Myself, and AI. Please take a short, two-question survey.

Tonia Sideri was a data scientist herself before taking on her role as head of Novo Nordisk’s AI and Analytics Center of Excellence. Now she’s putting her experience to use helping the Danish pharmaceutical company in its quest to develop medicines and delivery systems to treat diabetes and other chronic diseases, such as hemophilia, obesity, and growth disorders.In a highly regulated industry where failures are costly, Tonia’s philosophy is to fail fast through what she calls “data-to-wisdom sprints.” These two-week hackathons enable her group to rapidly test the feasibility of new product ideas with input from their colleagues on the business side.Tonia joins this episode to discuss her team’s approach to hypothesis testing, the benefits of incorporating design thinking into building data and AI products, and why she believes empathy is the most important skill a data scientist can have.Read the episode transcript here.Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Sophie Rüdinger.Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn.Guest bio:Tonia Sideri is head of the AI and Analytics Center of Excellence (CoE) at Novo Nordisk, a global pharma company based in Denmark that develops diabetes care products, as well as solutions that target other chronic diseases, such as obesity, growth disorders, and hemophilia.The CoE is a group of data scientists, machine learning engineers, and software developers located within Novo Nordisk’s Global IT group who work cross-functionally with the company’s machine learning/analytics systems and its machine learning operations platform.Sideri was a data scientist before taking on a management role. She has years of experience in startup incubators and corporate transformation labs, where she helped unlock the potential of data across the banking, pharma, and biotechnology industries and across a variety of business models, including B2C, B2B, and digital native vertical brands.We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.We want to know how you feel about Me, Myself, and AI. Please take a short, two-question survey.