453: In this episode, Anima discusses the synergy of working in both academia and in the industry, from her previous positions at AWS and University of California, Irvine, to her current research at NVIDIA and Caltech. She shares how AI can accelerate scientific discovery with engineering capabilities, such as powerful GPUs, that continuously push AI forward at a very fast pace. We also discuss what is known as the Trinity of the deep-learning revolution: algorithms, data, and compute infrastructure. Anima shares insights on scaling, self-supervision techniques, embodied intelligence, and her thoughts on the future of AI. Finally, we end with a discussion of Anima’s mission of globally democratizing and diversifying AI.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Podcast Index | Deezer | Youtube Music | RSS | More
452: Visteon CIO Raman Mehta discusses how IT has enhanced its role and gained the trust of the business. Historically, IT at Visteon has been great at solving problems it was presented with. However, IT was never given a voice in the company’s strategy or product roadmap. That has changed, and the board and executive committee now has great confidence in the capabilities of IT, which has enabled the organization to take on a more strategic role. We also discuss Raman’s take on 3D printing and autonomous driving, the tech landscape in Detroit, where Visteon is based, how the company is looking to turn its technology debt into a dividend, and a variety of other topics.
451: Dow CIO and CDO Melanie Kalmar recaps the merger with DuPont, subsequent executive shuffle, and ultimately the spinoff that resulted in Dow and two other publicly traded companies, Corteva and Dupont. The new Dow is a material science company that heavily invests in research and development and collaborating with customers to drive innovation. She notes that mergers present an opportunity to invest in future capabilities, and that Dow invested heavily in its digital transformation. We also discuss the expansion of her role to include the CDO title, the three anchors of Dow’s digital and IT strategy, her interest in artificial intelligence and Dow’s artificial intelligence competency center, and a variety of other topics.
450: XPRIZE Foundation CEO Anousheh Ansari discusses XPRIZE’s Pandemic Alliance, a global coalition of corporate, academic, and non-governmental partners focused on accelerating solutions to the coronavirus pandemic. In the short-term, that means expanding visibility into solutions underway in areas such as remote care and access to testing. We also discuss the XPRIZE Data Collaborative which provides access to exclusive data sets and AI capabilities, how XPRIZE facilitates resource and idea sharing between alliance members, and why XPRIZE is well positioned to bring together uncommon partners to tackle this historic challenge.
To learn more and get involved, click here
To hear our interview with XPRIZE Founder Peter Diamandis, click here
449: In this interview, Julie discusses how the IT team has evolved its approach and positioned itself to mirror the business organization by embedding its people within the business units, Julie’s approach to creating new value streams, and how IT has grown in strategic importance inside the company. We also discuss the OnCommand intelligent vehicle platform and how Navistar uses insights from the platform to change internal processes, trends in telematics and connected vehicles, and a variety of other topics.
448: Johnson Controls Chief Customer and Digital Officer Mike Ellis discusses his experience joining the company after the recent merger with Tyco, the digital agenda that drives innovation across Johnson Controls’ multiple businesses, and his role as Chief Customer and Digital Officer. We also discuss the importance of the different customer personas that he must be aware and attuned to, the importance of internal partnerships, and the capabilities that drive innovation in the business, specifically data-edge capabilities, smart edge, IoT, and AI and machine learning. We end with Mike’s outlook on the growing importance of AI and machine learning.
Among the topics we discuss are
447: In this interview, Ajeet discusses the value of transparency within a company. In his time in Silicon Valley, Ajeet has noticed situations where there is a disconnect between how executives are thinking, what is happening in reality, and how much the board gets to know. However, Ajeet has built a culture with absolutely nothing to hide, as he notes. He has chosen to invite all the employees to board meetings because he claims that employees should know everything that is going on in the company. Further, he cites that this has given young engineers the opportunity to present to some of the most respected investors in Silicon Valley. We also discuss Ajeet’s goal for 10 unicorns to come out of ThoughtSpot, the benefits Ajeet gains from taking a personal off-site alone frequently to contemplate the company’s priorities, the partnerships ThoughtSpot has formed with a variety of different companies, and brainstorm new ideas, among other topics.
446: World Fuel Services COO Jeff Smith discusses the form that digital transformation has taken at World Fuel Services. Jeff talks about how the company’s updated data systems now allow for customer and supplier information to be processed digitally and how applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning are improving the company’s operating margins and the customer experience. We also discuss how Jeff went about evaluating what needed to change in the company, and how he used the concept of job content to attract the necessary talent to drive change. We end our discussion with Jeff’s outlook on the importance of cloud capabilities in digital transformation.
445: In this interview, Shri shares the details and challenges of his new position, his mission to fundamentally democratize analytics and AI, his objective to create a team of people from diverse knowledge backgrounds, and his predictions for the future of the analytics and AI space. We also discuss solutions to the growing demand for data science talent and how Experian is working to attract talent to achieve their goals.
444: In this interview, David lays out his three strategic pillars as CEO. First, David is focused on driving an organizational and strategy shift from product to platform. Second, he is looking to move the company’s products from on-premise to being cloud-first, and third, he is focused on a business model shift to move from perpetual licensing to a subscription model. We also discuss how Citrix’s technology allows the company to be a virtual organization, the challenges of attracting the right employees and retaining them, the partnerships Citrix has developed over the years, among other topics.
