Me, Myself, and AI

MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Why do only 10% of companies succeed with AI? In this series by MIT SMR and BCG, we talk to the leaders who've achieved big wins with AI in their companies and learn how they did it. Hear what gets experts from companies like Microsoft, Delta Air Lines, and others excited to do their jobs every day and what they consider the keys to their success. read less

Continuous Learning With AI: Aflac’s Shelia Anderson
5d ago
Continuous Learning With AI: Aflac’s Shelia Anderson
Shelia Anderson parlayed a love of learning into studying the emerging field of engineering when she began her undergraduate education. After gaining experience leading IT teams in the technology, airline, and insurance industries, she joined Aflac in the summer of 2022. Shelia joins Sam and Shervin to share how using artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the processing of somewhat routine insurance claims frees up staff members to spend more time serving customers and processing more complex, higher-value claims. She also discusses the types of skills she looks for in data science and engineering talent beyond technical capabilities, and why she believes the insurance industry offers a great opportunity for people interested in a career working with AI and machine learning. 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. *NEW! For specific takeaways from this episode and guidance on how you can implement them in your own work, download our episode toolkit here. Guest bio: Shelia Anderson joined Aflac in July 2022 as senior vice president and CIO. She is responsible for overseeing the company’s digital services division and driving technology strategy in support of the insurer’s U.S. business. Anderson has a rich history as an executive leading the IT functions at Fortune 500 global organizations, including Liberty Mutual, USAA, HP, and Electronic Data Systems. 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.
Trust and Fraud Detection at Scale: Instagram’s Stephanie Moyerman
May 9 2023
Trust and Fraud Detection at Scale: Instagram’s Stephanie Moyerman
Stephanie Moyerman’s background in cosmology and astrophysics — where she worked with large data sets, looking for a signal among what was mostly noise — prepared her well for a career in data science and ethics. Today, she is the data science director of well-being at Instagram, where she works to enhance trust, safety, and integrity for users of the social media platform. Stephanie joins Sam and Shervin on this episode to discuss how applying artificial intelligence to social media enables Instagram to detect fraud and abuse at scale to help protect users, as well as the importance of human input in AI feedback loops and the need for more experienced practitioners in the field. 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. *NEW! For specific takeaways from this episode and guidance on how you can implement them in your own work, download our episode toolkit here. Guest bio: Stephanie Moyerman is the data science director of well-being at Instagram, where she works to minimize negative experiences and maximize positive experiences on the platform. Previously, she was the senior director of risk and trust science at eBay and a senior science manager in Amazon’s Customer Trust and Partner Support unit, where she worked to protect the e-commerce platforms from bad actors. Moyerman has a doctorate in physics (experimental cosmology) and a master’s in computational science, math, and engineering from the University of California, San Diego. She also has dual bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and physics from Harvey Mudd College. Moyerman enjoys many hobbies, including running, hiking, surfing, snowboarding, judo, jujitsu, glassblowing, flying airplanes, and racing cars. 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.
Partnerships in AI Drive Conservation Efforts: WWF’s Dave Thau
Apr 25 2023
Partnerships in AI Drive Conservation Efforts: WWF’s Dave Thau
Wildlife conservation efforts may not be the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks about opportunities to use artificial intelligence and machine learning. But Dave Thau, data and technology lead scientist at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), can share myriad examples of how these technologies are helping our planet. On this episode, Dave joins Sam and Shervin to discuss WWF’s many uses of AI and machine learning. Among them are applications that predict deforestation, analyze images from motion-sensitive cameras to identify species, optimize wildlife patrols to catch poachers, and reduce the illegal wildlife trade online. These conservation efforts are not only supported by nonprofit partners with shared goals but by tech-company partners that are sharing advanced AI technologies. Read the episode transcript here. NEW! For specific takeaways from this episode and guidance on how you can implement them in your own work, download our episode toolkit 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: Dave Thau is the World Wildlife Fund’s data and technology global lead scientist, focusing on applying artificial intelligence in conservation and using technology for long-term impact monitoring. Previously, he worked at Google, where he helped launch Google Earth Engine and managed developer relations. He also helped to develop the Global Forest Watch nature monitoring platform with the World Resources Institute, and the Map of Life species data platform. Thau’s work in data management, sustainability, AI, and remote sensing has been published in several journals. He is also a member of the Knowledge and Data Task Force for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Thau has a doctorate in computer science from the University of California, Davis. 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.
Making 600 Billion Decisions With AI: Expedia Group’s Rathi Murthy
Apr 11 2023
Making 600 Billion Decisions With AI: Expedia Group’s Rathi Murthy
Rathi Murthy has always been passionate about technology roles that allow her to drive business transformation and improve customer experience. In her current role as CTO and president of Product & Technology for Expedia Group, she’s able to do both. One of her key goals is to enhance and unify the end-user experience across Expedia’s many brands, among them Hotels.com, Vrbo, and Travelocity. Another transformation goal: helping to modernize the entire travel industry by making Expedia’s AI technology available to B2B partners throughout the travel ecosystem, such as hotels, airlines, car rental companies, and cruise lines. Expedia Group’s travel platform processes more than 600 billion AI predictions each year and relies on AI and machine learning technology to provide a range of services, including fraud prevention, customer service through virtual agents, flight price comparisons, and quick and seamless travel booking. Rathi joins Sam and Shervin to explain how Expedia Group is using artificial intelligence to continually improve the customer experience for travelers and travel providers alike. Read the episode transcript here. New! For specific takeaways from this episode and guidance on how you can implement them in your own work, download our episode toolkit 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: Rathi Murthy is CTO and president of Expedia Product & Technology. In this role, she focuses on accelerating Expedia Group’s Open World platform, developing accessible and equitable products, and delivering quality experiences for travelers, partners, and developers. Previously, as CTO, she oversaw Verizon Media’s global technology strategy, including its platform technology and infrastructure and innovations in 5G. As CTO at Gap Inc., she developed an end-to-end technology strategy for its portfolio of brands. She has also held senior technology leadership roles at American Express, eBay, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, and WebMD. Murthy currently sits on the board of directors for PagerDuty. She has a master’s degree in computer engineering from Santa Clara University. 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.
A One-Stop Data Shop: The Lego Group’s Anders Butzbach Christensen
Mar 28 2023
A One-Stop Data Shop: The Lego Group’s Anders Butzbach Christensen
Anders Butzbach Christensen began his career in product management before landing his dream job working for the Lego Group in Denmark. Today, as head of data engineering, he’s leading Lego’s digital transformation with a specific focus on designing and building data products, including self-service applications that technology and business teams can all use to better serve their customers. In this episode, Anders joins Sam and Shervin to describe how the Lego Group is approaching digital transformation, and how the toymaker is empowering its product teams by becoming a product-, architecture-, and engineering-led company. 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: As head of data engineering at the Lego Group, Anders Butzbach Christensen is responsible for building up a strong competency area and great data products that will enable the company to become more data-driven. The product teams he leads are currently building a self-service core data platform to ensure that employees can discover and use data across the organization. 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.
A Third Path to Talent Development: Delta’s Michelle McCrackin
Mar 14 2023
A Third Path to Talent Development: Delta’s Michelle McCrackin
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.
Out of the Lab and Into a Product: Microsoft’s Eric Boyd
Feb 28 2023
Out of the Lab and Into a Product: Microsoft’s Eric Boyd
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.
Helping Doctors Make Better Decisions With Data: UC Berkeley's Ziad Obermeyer
Feb 14 2023
Helping Doctors Make Better Decisions With Data: UC Berkeley's Ziad Obermeyer
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/research Nightingale 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.
Bonus Episode: How Encouraging AI Use Will Benefit Your Organization
Jan 10 2023
Bonus Episode: How Encouraging AI Use Will Benefit Your Organization
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 4 1:54-2:29 — Page 5 2:30-4:27 — Page 6 (and, listen to our episode featuring Land O'Lakes' CTO Teddy Bekele) 4:28-7:15 — Page 7 7:16-8:45 — Page 8 8:46-11:52 — Page 9 (and, listen to our episode featuring The Estée Lauder Companies' Sowmya Gottipati) 11:53-13:19 — Page 10 13:19-14:33— Page 11 14:34-16:04 — Page 12 16:05-17:20 — Page 13 17:21-18:44— Page 14 18:45-20:50— Page 15 20:51-21:35 — Page 16 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. 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.
Bonus Episode: Learn to Make the Most of Your Relationship With AI
Dec 6 2022
Bonus Episode: Learn to Make the Most of Your Relationship With AI
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 3 1:38-1:52 — Page 4 1:53-3:13 — Page 7 3:14-3:38 — Page 8 3:39-4:13 — Page 9 4:14-4:50 — Page 10 4:51-6:10 — Page 11 6:11-6:27 — Page 12 6:28-11:31 — Page 13 11:32-12:17 — Page 14 12:18-13:10— Page 15 13:11-13:22 — Page 16 13:25-13:59 — Page 17 14:00-14:54 — Page 18 14:55-15:05 — Page 19 15:06-16:05 — Page 20 16:06-16:38 —Page 21 16:39-16:59 — Page 22 17:00-18:08 — Page 23 18:09-18:28 — Page 24 18:29-21:12 — Page 25 21:13-23:52 — Page 26 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. 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.
Digital First, Physical Second: Wayfair’s Fiona Tan
Nov 8 2022
Digital First, Physical Second: Wayfair’s Fiona Tan
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.
Investing in the Last Mile: PayPal’s Khatereh Khodavirdi
Oct 25 2022
Investing in the Last Mile: PayPal’s Khatereh Khodavirdi
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.
Keeping Humans in the (Feedback) Loop: Orangetheory Fitness’s Ameen Kazerouni
Oct 11 2022
Keeping Humans in the (Feedback) Loop: Orangetheory Fitness’s Ameen Kazerouni
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.
The Three Roles of the Chief Data Officer: ADP’s Jack Berkowitz
Sep 27 2022
The Three Roles of the Chief Data Officer: ADP’s Jack Berkowitz
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.
From Data to Wisdom: Novo Nordisk’s Tonia Sideri
Sep 13 2022
From Data to Wisdom: Novo Nordisk’s Tonia Sideri
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.
Big Data in Agriculture: Land O’Lakes’ Teddy Bekele
Aug 30 2022
Big Data in Agriculture: Land O’Lakes’ Teddy Bekele
You might have seen Land O’Lakes’ dairy products on store shelves without giving much thought to how they got there, but that’s something CTO Teddy Bekele thinks about every day. While the farmers and agricultural retailers of Land O’Lakes work to produce the cooperative’s products, starting from the seeds used to grow animal feed, Teddy Bekele is focused on supporting agriculture’s “fourth revolution” — one that’s embracing technologies like artificial intelligence. On this episode of the Me, Myself, and AI podcast, Teddy explains how Land O’Lakes uses predictive analytics and AI to help farmers and other agricultural producers be more productive and make better decisions about the business of farming. 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. Read more about our show and follow along with the series at https://sloanreview.mit.edu/ai. Guest bio: Teddy Bekele is the CTO of Land O’Lakes, leading the organization’s digital transformation by leveraging existing and emerging technologies to discover, implement, and deliver solutions and ecosystems. Previously, Bekele served as vice president of ag technology for WinField United. Bekele holds an MBA from Indiana University and a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University. His community leadership includes serving as chair of the Minnesota Broadband Task Force and the Federal Task Force on Precision Ag Connectivity, and as a board member for Stella Health, Genesys Works Twin Cities, and the Minnesota Technology Association. 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.
Inventing the Beauty of the Future: L’Oréal’s Stéphane Lannuzel
Aug 16 2022
Inventing the Beauty of the Future: L’Oréal’s Stéphane Lannuzel
Stéphane Lannuzel has worked in the beauty industry for 15 years and now directs the Beauty Tech program at L’Oréal. His team uses artificial intelligence to improve customer experience in a variety of ways, including helping them try on cosmetics virtually and providing product recommendations. L’Oréal recently developed TrendSpotter, an AI-based social listening tool that tracks macro-influencer posts and other online content and informs the cosmetics, skin care, and hair products company of upcoming trends that can then inform new product development. Listen to this episode to learn how Stéphane sees AI, and technology more broadly, as a force of good and the enabler of more meaningful professional and customer experiences. 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: Stéphane Lannuzel is director of L’Oréal Groupe’s Beauty Tech program, which aims to personalize the customer experience through technology. He started his career in project finance in Australia at Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, a large French bank, after graduating from École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (Paris) and Imperial College (London). He then spent seven years with Kearney, a consulting firm specializing in the luxury and consumer goods industries. For the past 15 years, Lannuzel has been working in the beauty industry, first for Shiseido and then for L’Oréal, where he has been for the past seven years. He has held various positions in the role of operations director, most recently serving as chief digital officer in charge of Operations 4.0, a large-scale digital and tech transformation program within L’Oréal Operations. Lannuzel is also a member of the GS1 management board. 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.
Precision Medicine in Pharma: Sanofi’s Frank Nestle
Aug 2 2022
Precision Medicine in Pharma: Sanofi’s Frank Nestle
Frank Nestle, Sanofi’s global head of research and chief scientific officer, was inspired to enter the health sciences field after reading an Albert Camus novel and realizing his calling was to help others. In his current role, Frank oversees the pharmaceutical company’s transition from primary care to specialty care, which includes developing medicines for immunology, oncology, and rare diseases. In this episode, Frank explains how artificial intelligence enables Sanofi to work toward drug discovery in more agile ways. 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: Dr. Frank O. Nestle is global head of research and chief scientific officer at Sanofi, with responsibility for its main therapeutic research areas of immunology and inflammation, oncology, neurology, rare diseases, hematology, and genomic medicine. Before joining Sanofi in 2016, Nestle was a professor and chair of cutaneous medicine and immunotherapy at King’s College London and practiced medicine at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital. At King’s College, he led research, translational clinical trials, and teams in dermatology, allergology, and immunology. He also held several executive roles, in particular at the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Biomedical Research Center. Nestle is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a senior investigator emeritus at the National Institute for Health Research, and past president of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies. He has published over 220 scientific articles and has received several awards and honors, including the Alfred Marchionini Research Award at the 20th World Congress of Dermatology. 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.
The Beauty of AI: Estée Lauder's Sowmya Gottipati
Jun 14 2022
The Beauty of AI: Estée Lauder's Sowmya Gottipati
It might seem like cosmetics and perfume are products shoppers need to try out in person before buying, but artificial intelligence is opening up new avenues for reaching and understanding consumers — as well as new ways to manage supply chains. In this episode, we learn how Estée Lauder’s Sowmya Gottipati leveraged her earlier technology leadership experience in telecommunications and broadcast media to deploy brand technology projects for a portfolio of cosmetics, fragrances, and skin and hair care product brands. She talks about AI’s role in product development, a virtual try-on tool for lipsticks and foundations, and a fragrance recommendation engine, as well as an application for supply and demand planning. Sowmya also explains why, despite AI’s power, she believes human-machine interaction will always be necessary. Listen to 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. Watch Shervin Khodabandeh's recent TED talk on human-machine collaboration here. Guest bio: Sowmya Gottipati is an accomplished business and technology leader who has managed and delivered products across the telecom, media, and retail industries. She is currently vice president of global supply chain technology at Estée Lauder, leading digital transformation and providing oversight of all technology solutions globally. Previously, she was the company’s vice president of technology in the capacity of brand CIO. Before joining Estée Lauder, Gottipati was vice president of digital and emerging technologies at NBCUniversal. She also served as a technology leader at AT&T, where she managed and delivered products in data, web, mobile, and cloud services. Gottipati has a master’s degree in engineering from North Carolina State University and MBA from Columbia Business School, as well as a private pilot license. 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.