The AI in Business Podcast
The AI in Business Podcast is for non-technical business leaders who need to find AI opportunities, align AI capabilities with strategy, and deliver ROI. Each week, Emerj research staff and journalists interview top AI executives from Fortune 2000 firms and unicorn startups, uncovering trends, use-cases, and best practices for practical AI adoption.
Episodes
Reengineering Work with Intelligent Agents - with Debanjan Saha of DataRobot
A growing share of enterprise work now depends on systems that can support both human and AI agents, exposing bottlenecks in coordination, governance, and cross‑functional process design. In this episode, Debanjan Saha, Chief Executive Officer at DataRobot, examines how enterprises can rebuild their operational architecture to support digital employees at scale in conversation with host Daniel Fa
Inside the Shift to Agentic IT Ops - with Assaf Resnick of BigPanda
Enterprise IT teams are drowning in alert volume as cloud, microservices, and CI/CD pipelines outpace what human operators can process. In this episode, Assaf Resnick, CEO and Founder at BigPanda, examines how agentic AI can shift IT operations from reactive troubleshooting to a prevention-first model built on an enterprise IT knowledge graph. The conversation covers how to build and own that know
Managing AI Agents at Scale Across BFSI Operations - with Yoav Naveh of Reindeer AI
As financial institutions move beyond AI experimentation, the primary bottleneck is no longer capability; it is governance. In this episode, Yoav Naveh, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Reindeer AI, examines how enterprises can operationalize agentic AI inside regulated financial workflows, including the two-loop oversight model that keeps agents compliant, self-correcting, and continuously improving. The
Why Data‑Driven Efforts Stall in Fragmented Environments - with Jason Loomis of Freshworks
Enterprise AI adoption is moving faster than security and governance frameworks can follow, forcing organizations to make difficult trade-offs between competitive urgency and operational risk. In this episode, Jason Loomis, CISO at Freshworks, examines why most enterprises have not yet resolved the tension between AI deployment speed and security maturity, and outlines a sequenced approach; begin
From Connected Agents to Collective Intelligence with Guillaume De Saint Marc of Outshift by Cisco
As enterprises move from single to multi-agent AI deployments, a coordination infrastructure problem is emerging that connectivity protocols alone cannot solve. In this episode, Guillaume de Saint Marc, VP of Engineering at Outshift, examines why agents that can communicate still fail to collaborate — and outlines the semantic alignment, shared memory, and authorization architecture required to ad
Building Compute Foundations for the Physical Economy - with Drew Henry of ARM
A widening gap between mature digital compute and the newly awakening physical world is forcing enterprises to rethink how they embed AI into logistics, manufacturing, and other high‑stakes environments where errors carry real operational risk. In this episode, Drew Henry, Executive Vice President for Physical AI at Arm, joins host Daniel Faggella and examines how leaders are navigating the shift
AI Copyright Risk in Financial Services and the Limits of Legacy Licensing - with Roanie Levy of CCC
A surge in AI adoption is creating a rights gap inside financial institutions, where everyday workflows now generate copyrighted reproductions at a scale existing governance models were never built to manage. In this episode, Roanie Levy, Licensing and Legal Advisor at CCC, joins host Yolandi de Weerdt and examines how AI‑driven content use is outpacing traditional licensing frameworks and why lea
How Financial Services Leaders Operationalize Safe AI - with Dr. Oscar A. Rodriguez of Citi
The rapid expansion of AI in financial services is creating a widening gap between enterprise ambition and the operational readiness required to deploy systems that are secure, compliant, and trusted. In this episode, Dr. Oscar A. Rodriguez, Vice President of Data Analytics at Citi, joins Daniel Faggella, Emerj CEO and Head of Research, to describe how leaders build the operating model for safe AI
Closing the Decision Gap in Volatile Supply Chains - with & Prasad Mahajan of Optilogic and Dr. Gopalendu Pal of Target
Supply chains are moving from predictable planning cycles to a reality where volatility demands continuous redesign and faster decision‑making. In this episode, Dr. Gopalendu Pal, Director of Operations at Target, and Prasad Mahajan, Senior Director of Customer Engagement at Optilogic, examine how leaders can adapt by tightening the gap between sensing disruption and adjusting operations, as Emerj
Why AI in Document-Heavy Workflows Fails Without the Right Foundation - with Sumedh Chaudhary of IBM
Enterprise AI initiatives consistently break down in document-heavy environments, not because the underlying models are inadequate, but because fragmented data silos, page-break context loss, and uncoordinated extraction tools erode the semantic layer AI needs to reason accurately. In this episode, Sumedh Chaudhary, CTO US Industry Market at IBM, breaks down why a multi-agent architecture is the o
AI-Empowered Customer Service, From Hype to Scalable Operations - with Shri Nandan of Comcast
Significant enterprise investment in AI-driven customer service is producing inconsistent outcomes — and the gap between deployment ambition and measurable business value remains striking. In this episode, Shri Nandan, VP of AI Products and Experiences at Comcast, examines why organizational culture and readiness are the primary determinant of whether AI in CX delivers results that move the needle
Unified Predictive Decision Making for Retail Growth - with Felix Hoffman of 7Learnings
Retailers managing pricing, marketing, and inventory through separate teams with separate data are losing margin not to market volatility, but to decisions that were never designed to work together. In this episode, Felix Hoffmann, CEO at 7Learnings, examines how predictive, unified commercial decision-making replaces reactive, rules-based approaches — and why most retailers underestimate how much
How Commerce Leaders Avoid Renewal Traps and Vendor Drag - with David Cost of Rainbow Apparel
Enterprise software costs are rising while vendor performance often isn't, and AI has fundamentally changed what enterprises can credibly threaten to build in-house. In this episode, David Cost, Chief Digital Officer at Rainbow Apparel, explores how enterprise leaders can restructure vendor contracts to maintain exit leverage, eliminate auto-renewal traps, and use AI-enabled build alternatives as
Moving from Delayed Data to Event-Level Visibility - with Alex Curran of Aptitude Software
Finance teams are being asked to influence outcomes in real time while operating on architectures built for delayed, aggregated, and heavily reconciled data. In this episode, Alex Curran, CEO at Aptitude Software, examines how finance functions can move toward real‑time, event‑level visibility and discusses this shift with host Dan Faggella. She highlights the practical changes required for CFOs —
Scaling Agentic AI in CX Without Losing the Customer - with Shri Nandan of Comcast
As enterprises move agentic AI from controlled pilots into production customer-facing workflows, the gaps in data continuity, governance, and human-agent coordination become the deciding factors in whether AI scales or stalls. In this episode, Shri Nandan, VP of AI Experiences at Comcast, examines why customer experience has become the real stress-test for enterprise AI — and what it takes to scal
How Vertical AI Achieves Defensible Accuracy - with Steve Hasker of Thomson Reuters
The rising use of general‑purpose models in regulated environments is creating a widening gap between what AI can generate and what fiduciary professionals can safely rely on. In this episode, Steve Hasker, CEO at Thomson Reuters, examines how AI must be trained, validated, and governed to deliver the level of accuracy required in legal, tax, and audit workflows in conversation with host Dan Fagge
Fixing the Decision Speed Gap in Modern Supply Chains - with Joris Wijpkema of Optilogic
Supply chain organizations still struggle to respond to major disruptions because their core planning systems can't evaluate structural options or network‑level changes at the speed required. In this episode, Joris Wijpkema, Executive Vice President for Solutions and Strategy at Optilogic, joins host Marilie Fouché and examines how a dedicated, high‑compute modeling layer enables teams to run thou
How Enterprise Leaders Should Measure the ROI of AI - with Darko Todorovic of HTEC
Enterprise AI investments frequently succeed at the pilot stage and collapse at scale, not because the technology fails, but because the organizational conditions for adoption were never established. In this episode, Darko Todorovic, CTO at HTEC Group, examines why most AI ROI gaps originate in poor problem definition and inadequate change management, and outlines how senior leaders can build the
Modernizing Targeting to Close the Field Execution Gap - with Damion Nero of Daiichi Sankyo
Pharma commercial teams are generating more data than ever, but field intelligence is still arriving too late to change rep behavior before the engagement window closes. In this episode, Damion Nero, Global Head of Statistics at Daiichi Sankyo, joins Emerj editor Yolandi de Weerdt to examine why fragmented data pipelines, not a shortage of data, are the structural root of the gap between commercia
How Unified Context Turns AI Into Real Enterprise Performance - with Ravi Marwaha of Arango
Enterprise AI agents fail consistently in production, not because of model limitations, but because they lack a live, temporally aware context layer grounded in the actual current state of the business. In this episode, Ravi Marwaha, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Technology Product Officer at Arango, explores how treating context as infrastructure—rather than a data pipeline problem—enables agen
AI Models as a Commodity and Why Data Foundations Decide Who Wins - with Guillermo B. Vazquez of SAP
Enterprise leaders face a growing gap between rapid AI advancement and the fragmented data and processes that limit their ability to operationalize it. In this episode, Guillermo Vazquez, Chief Architect in the Business Transformation Services for SAP America, examines with host Nick Gersch how harmonized data, standardized processes, and clear identification of differentiating workflows form the
From Overwhelm to Working AI in Pharma and Life Sciences - with Art Shectman of Elephant Ventures
Regulatory volatility, scientific‑grade context requirements, and entrenched legacy processes are creating a level of operational complexity in pharma that makes even high‑value AI initiatives difficult to move from concept to production. In this episode, Art Shectman, CEO at Elephant Ventures, examines with host Marilie Fouché how leaders can cut through that complexity by isolating a single, cle
How AI Is Reshaping the Way Enterprises Build Software - With Tim Sears of HTEC
Individual AI productivity gains are already here, but they are uneven, and they are not the main event. In this episode, Tim Sears, Chief AI Officer at HTEC, argues that the real transformation in software development will arrive when AI becomes a catalyst for teamwork rather than an enhancer of individual performance. The conversation examines why software development is the clearest available m
How Industrial Service Leaders Are Closing the Knowledge Gap Before It's Too Late with Mike Hughes of Peak International Group
The skilled labor crisis in industrial equipment service is not a future problem; it is eroding operational performance now, as retiring engineers take decades of institutional knowledge with them and incoming technicians cannot fill the gap at speed. In this episode, Mike Hughes, Group Service Director at Peak International Group, outlines how service organizations can close the expertise gap thr
Human-Centered AI Development Strategies for CPG Leaders - with Shaje Ganny of Procter & Gamble
A widening gap has emerged between the speed of AI innovation and the ability of large enterprises to deploy it responsibly, leading many organizations to repeat avoidable mistakes in scaling. In this episode, Shaje Ganny, Author, Guest Lecturer, TEDx Speaker, and Digital Transformation Director at Procter & Gamble, joins Matthew DeMello to examine how leaders can ground AI adoption in clear busin
The Pricing Shift Reshaping Enterprise AI Spend - with Adam Mansfield of UpperEdge
The rapid shift from seat‑based licensing to hybrid and consumption‑based AI pricing has made technology spend significantly harder for enterprises to predict and control. In this episode, Adam Mansfield, Practice Leader at UpperEdge, examines how these new pricing models create financial exposure for buyers and why clear forecasting, transparency, and leverage are increasingly difficult to secure
Why the Way AI Feels Is as Important as How It Works - with Carsten Wierwille of HTEC
Enterprise AI initiatives treat design as a finishing step. Carsten Wierwille, Chief Product & Design Officer at HTEC, argues that this is a strategic mistake, and one that explains why so many AI investments produce tools that work technically but fail to change how people actually work. In this episode, Wierwille examines why enterprises keep building AI because they can rather than because they
How Vision AI Scales Across a Manufacturing Network - with Jeff Witt
Computer vision implementations in manufacturing never advance beyond the pilot phase — not because the technology fails, but because deployment is treated as a software problem rather than an operational one. In this episode, Jeff Witt, Digital Transformation Leader at a Fortune 500 global leader in building materials and fiberglass composites, examines the architectural, organizational, and chan
AI Improving Dose Decisions and Patient Outcomes in Oncology- with Shefali Kakar of Novartis
The growing use of AI‑driven modeling in clinical development is exposing how limited traditional, single‑study dose selection and patient assessment methods have been for complex oncology programs. In this episode, Shefali Kakar, Global Head of PK Sciences and Oncology at Novartis, examines how deeper data integration across phases enables more precise dose decisions, clearer safety interpretatio
Breaking Free from AI Overwhelm in Banking and Financial Services - with Art Shectman of Elephant Ventures
The pressure on financial services AI leaders to show board-level results has intensified — yet the pace of vendor pitches, shifting tooling stacks, and stalled pilots has made action feel riskier than waiting. In this episode, Art Shectman, CEO and Founder at Elephant Ventures, breaks down why the instinct to evaluate everything before building anything is the primary obstacle to production, and
Fixing the Pilot‑to‑Production Gap in Enterprise AI - with Ronny Fehling of HTEC
The reason enterprise AI programmes stall is not the technology — it is the sequence in which decisions are made before and after the pilot succeeds. In this episode, Ronny Fehling, Chief AI Transformation Officer at HTEC, examines why AI initiatives lose momentum at the production threshold and what organisational conditions determine whether they make it through. The discussion covers production
Why Deepfake Fraud Beats Your Workflows, Not Your Technology - with Jon-Rav Shende of Thales Group
Deepfake voice fraud is not bypassing enterprise security technology, it is beating the workflows agents rely on to make trust decisions in real time. In this episode, Jon-Rav Shende, Global CTO for Data and AI at Thales Group, outlines where enterprise voice channels are most exposed, why identity, urgency, and business action converging in a single call represents the highest risk point, and wha
Scaling Scientific R&D with AI Supercomputing Infrastructure — with Thomas Fuchs of Eli Lilly
A growing share of pharmaceutical innovation is now constrained not by scientific imagination, but by the infrastructure required to support AI at scale. In this episode of the AI in Business podcast, Thomas Fuchs, Chief AI Officer at Eli Lilly & Company, joins Matthew DeMello to explore how Lilly's new AI supercomputing platform is reshaping scientific discovery and enterprise operations. The con
The Hidden Risk in Every Enterprise AI Vendor Contract - with John Belden of UpperEdge
Boards are pushing CIOs to commit to AI strategies built on contracts written for an entirely different era of enterprise software. In this episode, John Belden, Chief of Research and Strategy at UpperEdge, breaks down the six dimensions of uncertainty CIOs now face when weighing major AI and ERP commitments, and explains why the next five years are about flexibility, not productivity. The conver
The Architecture Shift Behind Reliable Enterprise AI - with Ravi Marwaha of Arango
Context defines accurate, reliable AI decision‑making, forcing enterprises to confront the fragmentation that prevents systems from accessing the information those decisions depend on. In this episode, Ravi Marwaha, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Technology Product Officer at Arango, examines how AI breaks down when it is asked to reason across disconnected architectures that cannot supply a unif
Why Manufacturing's Most Valuable Data Isn't in Any System — with Anand Gnanamoorthy of Ingersoll Rand
A significant share of manufacturing knowledge still lives in the heads of retiring workers, and the window to capture it is closing as operations push toward AI-enabled ways of working. In this episode, Anand Gnanamoorthy, Director of Corporate Strategy and AI at Ingersoll Rand, examines how manufacturers can digitize tribal knowledge, structured operational data, and decades of unstructured arch
Why Predictive AI in Service Only Works on the Right Foundation - with Niken Patel of Neuron7.ai
Enterprise service leaders are realizing that deploying AI for simple productivity gains fails to resolve the underlying issues that cause repeat truck rolls and high costs. In this episode, Niken Patel, CEO and Co-Founder at Neuron7.ai, unpacks why moving beyond basic automation requires a deterministic intelligence layer to make fragmented data ready for complex resolution decision-making. The d
Building Predictive Safety Systems in Energy Operations - with Patricio Rivera of Oxy
Energy organizations have made progress in safety, but most still rely on backward‑looking investigations rather than systems that anticipate when risk is rising. In this episode, Patricio Rivera, Former Vice President of HSE International at Oxy, joins host Matthew DeMello and examines how learning from good days and leveraging existing observation data can strengthen an organization's ability to
What Enterprise AI Looks Like When It's Real - with Lawrence Whittle of HTEC Group
AI enthusiasm has outpaced enterprise readiness, leaving many organizations stuck with pilots that work in the lab but fail to deliver meaningful value in production. In this episode, Lawrence Whittle, Chief Strategy Officer at HTEC Group, joins Emerj's Marilie Fouché to examine how the gap between individual users, isolated use cases, and true end‑to‑end sequences prevents companies from moving b
From Experimentation to Clinical-grade AI in Healthcare - with Alex Tyrrell of Wolters Kluwer
Agentic AI is running into a hard limit: most enterprise systems, security layers, and operational backends aren't yet built to support automated execution at scale. Alex Tyrrel, SVP and CTO of Health at Wolters Kluwer, joins Emerj's Matthe DeMello to unpack how agentic systems adapt models to domain‑specific tasks and act directly inside regulated environments. He outlines the practical requirem
Capturing Tribal Knowledge to Solve the Manufacturing Skills Gap - with Sebastian Dykas of Smith+Nephew
A widening gap between retiring experts, manual craftsmanship, and limited process visibility is making it increasingly difficult for manufacturers to maintain consistency, prevent errors early, and onboard new operators effectively. In this episode, Sebastian Dykas, Director of Manufacturing, Engineering, and Maintenance at Smith+Nephew, joins Emerj's Marilie Fouche to examine how capturing best
Designing Supply Chains for Volatility - with Dr. Gopalendu Pal of Target
Volatility is exposing the limits of traditional scenario planning, where siloed KPIs and thin operational margins prevent enterprises from seeing how disruptions cascade across forecasting, procurement, and operations. In this episode, Dr. Gopalendu Pal, Director of Operations at Target, joins us to examine how running hundreds of interconnected simulations enables leaders to understand enterpris
Operationalizing Real-Time Voice Intelligence for FinServ and CX - with Ken Morino of Modulate
Voice-based fraud has moved from a fringe security concern to a primary operational risk for financial institutions and enterprise contact centers, and the authentication methods most organizations rely on are no longer adequate. In this episode, Ken Morino, Director of Market and Behavioral Research at Modulate, examines how enterprise leaders can deploy real-time voice intelligence to detect fra
Building Trustworthy AI for Enterprise Workflows - with Amar Akshat of PaySafe
The consistency gap in enterprise AI represents a critical failure point where unpredictable system behavior outside of controlled demos threatens to derail executive sponsorship and regulatory compliance. In this episode, Amar Akshat, SVP & Chief Architect at Paysafe, examines how leaders can move beyond experimental shadow AI by embedding determinism and high-threshold guardrails directly into t
Scaling Regulated Data Workflows Without Lock‑In - with Juan Orlandini of Insight
Legacy financial systems often trap organizations in "data swamps" where AI is mistakenly treated as a magic fix for fundamentally broken manual architectures. In this episode, Juan Orlandini, CTO of North America at Insight, outlines why senior executives must distinguish between statistical AI outputs and the mathematical precision required for financial compliance to avoid significant reporting
Breaking Bottlenecks in Life Sciences R&D with AI Innovation - with Aziz Nazha of Incyte Pharmaceuticals
R&D teams are starting to advance AI capabilities faster than they can translate them into measurable business value, creating mounting friction between scientific progress and operational reality. In this episode, Aziz Nazha, Global Head of AI Innovations Institute at Incyte Pharmaceuticals, examines how culture, talent, infrastructure, and expectation‑setting determine whether AI meaningfully im
Scaling Customer Experience with Operationalized Agentic AI - with Shezan Kazi of Dialpad
A recurring challenge for leaders is that the use cases they expect to automate rarely match what customers actually struggle with once large‑scale conversation data is analyzed. In this episode, Shezan Kazi, Head of AI Transformation and AI Products at Dialpad, examines how autonomous agents should take the first pass on high‑volume deterministic requests, when they must hand off to humans, and w
Turning Computer Vision Into Real‑World Value at Enterprise Scale – with Joseph Nelson of Roboflow
A major shift is underway as enterprises move from lab‑ready computer vision to the far more complex reality of deploying visual intelligence across messy, variable, high‑stakes physical environments. In this episode, Joseph Nelson, Co‑founder and CEO at Roboflow, examines how dependable visual data, models tuned to real operating conditions, and integration with existing production and safety sys
Making Workforce Training Affordable with Tiered Storage - with Aaron Demory of Fearlus
Today's guest is Aaron Demory, Senior Partner at Fearlus and Chief of Information Technology and Security at the FDIC. Fearlus is a strategic governance and risk innovation firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., founded in 2024. They offer the Fearlus Risk Operating Model, a structured approach designed to help organizations align strategy, execution, and governance through cognitive infrastructu
Connecting Forecasting and Warehouse Decisions at Scale - with Jerod Hamilton of Tyson Foods
Operational complexity in modern distribution centers is accelerating faster than most organizations can adapt, leaving leaders with fragmented data, static facility designs, and inefficiencies that compound across planning and fulfillment. In this episode, Jerod Hamilton, Director of 3PL Warehouse Strategy at Tyson Foods, joins Emerj's Marilie Fouche to examine how disconnected forecasting and wa
Decentralized Trials That Scale Globally Without Compliance Risks - with Emma Vitalini of Amgen
Today's guest is Emma Vitalini, Head of Global Digital Health Technology Innovation at Amgen. Amgen is a global biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing, and delivering medicines for serious illnesses. Emma joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to examine how data and AI are reshaping patient recruitment, decentralized clinical trials, and compliance workflows in highly re
Solving the Expertise Gap with AI in Manufacturing - with Antoine Bisson of Poka
Aging expertise, paper‑based instructions, and inconsistent onboarding are creating a widening execution gap on the factory floor as experienced workers retire and new operators expect real‑time digital support. In this episode, Antoine Bisson, CEO and Co‑Founder at Poka, examines how manufacturers can capture institutional knowledge and convert it into structured digital guidance that accelerates
How Digital K‑1 Data Changes Tax Workflow Maturity - with Ken Powell and Neal Schneider
Tax processes remain constrained by document-based workflows that limit data accessibility, speed, and cross-system integration. In this episode, Neal Schneider, Co-Founder and CTO at K1x, and Ken Powell, Chief Revenue Officer at K1x, unpack how shifting to standardized, connected tax data enables more efficient processing, interoperability, and improved use of information across stakeholders. The
Closing the Customer Service Gap: How AI Is Redefining Scale, Speed, and Satisfaction - with Philipp Heltewig of NiCE
The gap between customer expectations and operational delivery is widening as traditional reactive service models struggle with volume volatility and workforce attrition. In this episode, Philipp Heltewig, Chief AI Officer at NiCE, unpacks how enterprises can transition to a proactive, AI-first customer experience by rethinking core service processes for the age of automation. The discussion outli
Creating a Single Source of Truth for Enterprise Legal Work - with Christo Siebrits of AbbVie
Enterprise legal departments are currently navigating a breakdown in AI adoption caused by scattered data, inconsistent global regulations, and a lack of clear governance for grading automated workflows. In this episode, Christo Siebrits, Senior Associate and General Counsel at AbbVie, outlines how a validated internal large language model environment combined with a forced-ranking strategy for us
What Global Tariff Uncertainty Means for Supply Chain Leaders - with Edmund Zagorin of Arkestro and Michael Shin of Trinity Rail Industries
Supply chains are being pushed to move faster while geopolitical volatility makes traditional planning cycles increasingly fragile for global enterprises. In this episode, Edmund Zagorin, Founding Chief Strategy Officer at Arkestro, and Mike Shin, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Trinity Rail Industries, join Daniel Faggella, Emerj CEO and Head of Research, to examine how proactive, data‑driven procu
Managing Third-Party Risk at Scale Without Drowning in Surveys - with Carey Smith
The collapse of traditional, static survey models at scale creates a systemic visibility gap that transforms multi-tier supply chain dependencies into boardroom-level risks. In this Aravo-sponsored episode, Carey Smith, former CIO and Chief Technology Innovation Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and President and CIO of XcelerateHealth, outlines how enterprises must transition to cont
Why Enterprise AI Fails Without a Context Engine - with Eran Yahav of Tabnine
Enterprises are facing an 80% failure rate for AI agents in complex tasks because these systems lack the deep understanding required to navigate established legacy environments and existing internal systems. In this episode, Eran Yahav, CTO and co-founder at Tabnine, outlines how an enterprise context engine acts as a persistent memory and mapping layer that onboards AI systems into specific busin
From AI Experiments to Enterprise Value Driving Real Business ROI - with Dan Diasio of EY
AI adoption is forcing a shift from automating yesterday's processes to redesigning the enterprise for differentiation and growth. In this episode, Dan Diasio, Global AI Consulting Leader and Americas Consulting CTO at EY, joins Emerj's Matthew DeMello to unpack why leading organizations are reallocating AI gains toward workforce reinvention, new operating models, and competitive advantage rather
Why Ensemble Architectures Win Against Real-Time Voice Risk - with Mike Pappas of Modulate
The contact center is shifting from a service channel to a primary point of fraud, where text‑based systems fail to catch the signals that surface only in live voice. In this episode, Mike Pappas, CEO & Co‑Founder at Modulate, joins Emerj's Nick Gertsch to examine how audio‑native, multi‑model analysis exposes social engineering and deepfake‑driven threats that traditional tools routinely miss. Th
From Multi Agent Systems to Institutional Learning in the Enterprise - with Papi Menon of Outshift by Cisco
A growing number of enterprises are discovering that early agent wins don't translate into scale because agents can connect but cannot yet share context or improve as a coordinated system. In this episode, Papi Menon, Vice President of Product Management and Chief Product Officer at Outshift by Cisco, joins Emerj's Matthew DeMello to unpack why the missing cognitive layer in multi‑agent environmen
Why Financial AI Can't Scale Without Unified Governance with James Dean of Google and Mark Crean of Securiti
Financial institutions are finding that the primary bottleneck to AI adoption isn't the technology itself, but the inability to govern sensitive data with the precision required for enterprise-scale deployment. In this episode, Mark Crean, Regional Vice President of Sales from Securiti AI and James Dean, AI Specialist at Google Cloud, breaks down how fragmented data and access risks keep high-valu
How Digital Workers Are Changing Industrial Performance - with Somya Kapoor of IFS Loops
A decade of stalled industrial AI efforts has given way to a new phase where agentic systems can finally handle complex, variable operational tasks without the brittle constraints of earlier automation. In this episode, Somya Kapoor, CEO at IFS Loops, joins Daniel Faggella Emerj CEO and Head of Research to examine how digital workers can be introduced as task‑specific assistants that learn from bu
How Walmart Is Reengineering AI Delivery Speed - with David Glick of Walmart
Enterprise AI is outpacing the operating models built to support it, forcing leaders to reconcile rapid iteration with safety, governance, and real‑world scale. In this episode, David Glick, SVP of Enterprise Business Services at Walmart, examines how stopwatch‑speed prototyping, nano‑agent architectures, and evolving security processes are reshaping enterprise delivery. The discussion highlights
Why Supply Chain Design Becomes the Differentiator as AI Automates Planning - with Don Hicks of Optilogic
The traditional focus on supply chain efficiency has created brittle networks that break under modern volatility and shifting global trade consensus. Optilogic provides an AI‑native platform for supply chain design, where autonomous agents build models, generate scenarios, and evaluate network tradeoffs. In this episode, Don Hicks, CEO at Optilogic, unpacks why enterprise leaders must run supply c
Turning Market Shifts into Field Action for Medtech Commercial Teams - with Mike Monovoukas & Alex Wakefield of AcuityMD
The reliance on historical data and manual CRM entry has created a significant gap between internal strategy and the real-time signals driving today's complex medical technology market. In this episode, Mike Monovoukas, CEO and Co-founder, and Alex Wakefield, CRO at AcuityMD, examine how operationalizing AI through proactive market signals and field-based insights can drive revenue growth by incre
Why Manual K-1 Workflows Are Breaking Under Modern Tax Complexity - with Ken Powell of K1x
In today's episode sponsored by K1x, the accounting sector faces a critical inflection point as a deficit of 300,000 professionals intersects with escalating regulatory complexity and a doubling of alternative investment data. Ken Powell, Chief Revenue Officer at K1x, examines how sophisticated tax technology is facilitating a transition from experimental pilot programs to the institutional deploy
Building a Virtuous Cycle of Analytics in Global Enterprises - with Barry McCardel of Hex
Enterprise data estates often optimize for platform expansion over decision velocity, producing reporting layers that signal activity but fail to accelerate strategic outcomes. In this episode, Barry McCardel, CEO at Hex, examines how leading organizations can compress the gap between executive questions and decision-grade insight to materially increase the enterprise value of data. The discussion
AI Use Cases, Deployment, and Measuring Real-World ROI - with Ylan Kazi of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota
Today's guest is Ylan Kazi, Chief Data and AI Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota. With deep experience leading enterprise AI strategy in regulated healthcare, Ylan brings a grounded perspective on how organizations can innovate responsibly with emerging technology. Ylan joins Emerj Emerj Client Narrative & Content Strategy Lead Nick Gertsch to discuss how healthcare leaders can appr
Operationalizing Customer Service at Scale with Outcome-Driven Agentic AI - with Craig Walker of Dialpad
Customer service leaders face rising pressure to resolve more interactions faster, while maintaining high-quality experiences — and many legacy systems and processes can't keep up. In this episode, Craig Walker, CEO of Dialpad, joins Daniel Faggella, Emerj CEO and Head of Research, to break down how AI can augment human agents to handle routine requests like order status and password resets, freei
Pricing Changes in Small Commercial Without Governance Debt - with Barbara Stacer of Utica National Insurance Group
The critical bottleneck in small commercial pricing is no longer the actuarial model itself, but the operational friction and administrative stagnation that occurs during the transition from indication to production deployment. In this episode, Barbara Stacer, Vice President and Head of Small Commercial Underwriting and Underwriting Operations at Utica National Insurance Group, unpacks how carrier
Funding Agentic AI in HR Without Losing Control - with Carey Smith of Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Today's guest is Carey Smith, Former President and CIO of XcelerateHealth and Chief Technology Innovation Officer (CTIO) of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. XcelerateHealth is a health-tech startup and business unit of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, focused on AI-driven digital products to transform healthcare insurance experiences. Carey joins Emerj's Nick Gertsch to discuss how
Rethinking Pharma Commercial Targeting with AI - with Philip Poulidis of ODAIA
Commercial life‑sciences teams are facing a widening gap between strong brand strategy and fragmented real‑world execution, driven by misaligned workflows, static targeting, and an inability to act at the speed patients move through their therapeutic journeys. In this episode, Philip Poulidis, CEO and Co-founder of ODAIA, unpacks how AI can close that gap by connecting brand intent to real‑time ex
How AI Is Reshaping Shutdown and Turnaround Operations - with Raghu Ahobilam of NOV
Today's guest is Raghu Ahobilam, Global Director of Inventory and Assets at NOV. Raghu brings global leadership experience across inventory management, asset strategy, and operational transformation in the energy and industrial manufacturing sector. Raghu joins Daniel Faggella Emerj CEO and Head of Research to examine how enterprise data foundations and emerging AI capabilities are reshaping maint
Trusted AI Architectures for Risk and Compliance Leaders - with Dean Alms & Eric Hensley of Aravo
Enterprise risk leaders are currently struggling to move beyond static, episodic checklists while managing the data "fire hose" generated by continuous monitoring. In this episode, Dean Alms, Chief Product Officer, and Eric Hensley, Chief Technology Officer at Aravo, break down how AI-native orchestration transforms fragmented risk data into a holistic, board-level resilience strategy. They examin
AI for Better Customer Connections in CX - with Joe Atamian of Comcast
Eliminating the friction caused by fragmented customer context is a primary mandate for enterprise operations leaders. Joe Atamian, Vice President at Comcast, joins the program to discuss the transition to an AI-first operating model — where AI acts as the connective infrastructure that maintains history and intent across IVR, chat, and live agents. This briefing explores how the Fortune 500 can
Turning Real World Data into Safer Outcomes for Fleets and Physical Operations - with Hemant Banavar of Motive
Today's guest is Hemant Banavar, Chief Product Officer at Motive. Hemant leads product strategy for AI-driven systems that bring real-time visibility and decision support to safety-critical physical operations. Hemant joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to unpack what changes when AI moves from after-the-fact reporting to edge-based, real-time detection and feedback — where accuracy and
Overcoming Skepticism and Driving AI Adoption - with Umesh Rustogi of Microsoft
Today's guest is Umesh Rustogi, General Manager of Dragon for Nursing at Microsoft Health & Life Sciences. An expert in applying AI to clinical workflows, Umesh joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explain how healthcare organizations are moving AI from pilot programs to real-world adoption. Umesh also shares practical strategies for reducing nurse documentation burden, improving accu
Improving Warehouse Efficiency with Unified Data and AI-Driven Visibility - with Dan Keto of Easy Metrics
Today's guest is Dan Keto, President and Co-founder at Easy Metrics, where he focuses on helping warehouse and distribution teams turn fragmented transactional data into a unified "single pane of glass" that supports faster diagnosis of variance and more defensible decision-making. Dan joins Emerj's Matthew DeMello to explore what a solid data foundation looks like in warehouse networks — and why
Enterprise AI Adoption at a Moment of Maximum Skepticism - with Nishtha Jain
Today's guest is Nishtha Jain, AI Innovation Leader. Nishtha leads enterprise data and AI strategy in the biopharma sector, focusing on aligning advanced analytics and AI systems with real-world clinical, regulatory, and operational workflows. Nishtha joins Emerj Client Narrative & Content Strategy Lead Nick Gertsch to examine why most enterprise AI pilots fail to scale, how unrealistic expectatio
