The Data & AI Chief

Epizody

• Why Most Enterprise AI Pilots Fail: Lessons on Trust and Deployment 27.05.2026 37min

  Understand how to close the gap between AI experimentation and enterprise production. Shub Agarwal, Founder of the AI Trust Lab at USC and author of Successful AI Product Creation: A Nine-Step Framework, shares his AI product management framework for taking enterprise AI strategy from demo to production, drawing on two decades of product leadership at Amazon and Fortune 50 firms. He breaks down why experimentation must tie directly to business OKRs, the four mindset shifts leaders need to scale AI responsibly, and how the AI Trust Lab is building a benchmark evaluation framework for AI model trust and governance.
• S&P Global’s Chief Data Officer on Turning Data into Business Outcomes 13.05.2026 41min

  Learn what happens when the executive accountable for data strategy is also the executive accountable for the business results that depend on it. Saugata Saha, President of S&P Global Market Intelligence and Chief Enterprise Data Officer at S&P Global, shares how he manages one of the world's largest financial data estates while driving business outcomes across public and private markets. He breaks down the four pillars of S&P Global's data strategy, the federated organizational model that connects data teams to business value, and why capturing ROI from AI requires deliberate workflow transformation.
• How Semantic Layers and Ontologies Create Trusted AI 22.04.2026 53min

  Learn why an organization’s ontology, a structured framework for how a business defines, connects, and makes sense of its data and knowledge, is the most valuable and most overlooked asset in any AI strategy. Jessica Talisman, CEO and Founder of The Ontology Pipeline, and Tony Seale, Founder of The Knowledge Graph Guys, break down what it actually takes to build trusted AI, covering everything from semantic layers and knowledge graphs to why provenance is non-negotiable. They explain how organizations can start building their knowledge infrastructure for AI, and make the case for why their ontology is their most defensible competitive asset.
• Inside WHOOP's Wearables AI Engine for Predictive Health 08.04.2026 40min

  Discover how WHOOP is building an AI-powered health data infrastructure that is redefining how we understand human health. Emily Capodilupo, Senior Vice President of Research, Algorithms, and Data at WHOOP, explains how continuous physiological data is uncovering new opportunities in predictive health through AI, from presymptomatic disease detection to biological age scoring. She examines the governance challenges of deploying AI in a regulated environment and what it takes to build the data trust required to make it work at scale.
• A Wharton AI Research Leader's Formula for Responsible AI 25.03.2026 42min

  Learn why scaling AI is as much a human challenge as it is a technological one. Stefano Puntoni, Co-Director of Wharton Human-AI Research and Professor at The Wharton School, examines the limits of data-driven decision-making in the age of AI and why insights so often fail to translate into action. He breaks down the psychology behind AI resistance and outlines the leadership and change management strategies needed to turn AI potential into real organizational impact.
• How a Serial CDAO Scales AI in Insurance with Verisk 11.03.2026 46min

  Discover how enterprise AI and data strategy are operationalized at scale in one of the most highly regulated industries in the world. Louis DiModugno, Global Chief Data Officer at Verisk, shares how he builds AI-ready data foundations across 40+ petabytes of insurance and risk data, and the best practices behind embedding AI into enterprise products. He discusses unstructured data, deepfakes, and the shift from governance to observability, offering practical insights for data leaders scaling AI responsibly.
• How AI Augments Human Creativity at Scale: The WPP Blueprint 25.02.2026 41min

  Learn how AI agents are reshaping enterprise decision-making, AI governance, and brand creativity. Daniel Hulme, Chief AI Officer at WPP & CEO of Satalia/Conscium, explains how AI agents, decision intelligence, and his concept of “brand brains” (AI systems designed to create brand-specific, production-grade content) are changing how organizations operate. He shares why companies don’t have data problems but decision-making problems, and how AI can augment human creativity at scale.
• How Nasdaq Architected a $90 Trillion Data Ecosystem 11.02.2026 43min

  Discover how Nasdaq uses data platforms at a massive scale to power markets and prepare for AI. Angie Ruan, Nasdaq’s CTO of Capital Access Platforms, explains how large-scale data systems support market integrity, transparency, and decision-making across public and private markets. She defines what it really means to be AI-ready, how leaders should modernize data platforms, and how market fundamentals help separate real AI value from hype.
• How OneDigital Is Reframing AI Agents as Coworkers 28.01.2026 48min

  Discover why the future of AI at work is more human than you think. Vinay Gidwaney, Chief Product Officer at OneDigital, shares how treating AI agents as talent rather than technology is changing AI adoption at work. He explains people-first change management, managing AI coworkers, building trust in human AI teams, and why real transformation depends on equity, access, and better decision-making.
• Preparing for Agentic AI: Top Trends in Data and AI 2026 14.01.2026 56min

  Learn from three industry leaders on what’s next for AI and what you need to do to be successful in 2026.
• GenAI Best Practices: What Early Adopters Have Learned 17.12.2025 45min

  In this special episode, host Cindi Howson pulls together the most useful, and hard-won, lessons from a year of conversations with Data Chiefs leading the GenAI charge. With generative and agentic AI no longer a side experiment, this episode spotlights five practices early adopters can rely on to move from pilots to profit. Expect straight talk on what to prioritize, how to bring people with you, and how to scale AI with the trust, literacy, and guardrails that make impact stick.
• How Yum! Brands is Using Data & AI as a Recipe for Innovation with CDO Cameron Davies 03.12.2025 40min

  Learn how one of the world’s biggest restaurant companies is turning data and AI into a recipe for global innovation. Cameron Davies, Chief Data Officer at Yum! Brands, shares how he’s combining strategy, technology, and change management to drive global growth. He explains how Yum! is building AI literacy from the top down, reimagining operations with generative AI, and partnering with NVIDIA to scale innovation. Cameron reveals what true data leadership looks like, balancing bold ideas with business impact, and proving transformation starts with people, not technology.
• Alghanim Industries on Why the Middle East Is the New Frontier for Data-Driven Innovation 19.11.2025 44min

  Step inside a conversation on the art and architecture of AI transformation. Vedran Karamani, Group Data Analytics & Agentic AI – CDAIO at Alghanim Industries, shares how he’s embedding intelligence across one of the Middle East’s largest conglomerates. He breaks down what it takes to make AI approachable in the boardroom, why data literacy is now a business imperative, and how to balance innovation with operational reality. Discover how Vedran is redefining the role of data, technology, and human insight in shaping the next generation of enterprise transformation.
• When Navan Chose to Build, Not Buy: The AI Decision That Changed Everything 05.11.2025 48min

  In this episode of The Data Chief, Ilan Twig, co-founder and CTO of Navan, shares why large language models will revolutionize our relationship with technology—just like the mouse did for the keyboard. From pushing AI to its limits to launching Navan Cognition, built for zero critical hallucination, Ilan reveals what it really takes to lead through change and build AI that people can trust. He also dives into a critical question every company must face: Will you build AI from scratch, or build with AI partners?? And if you're curious about the next frontier, Ilan paints a bold vision of agent-to-agent communication—where AI services talk to each other and your admin work disappears into the background. A must-listen for anyone building the future of AI-powered user experiences.
• Canva’s Moe Kiss on Why Creativity Is the Missing Ingredient in Data 22.10.2025 40min

  Learn how Canva’s Moe Kiss builds data-driven marketing cultures through storytelling, experimentation, and empathetic data leadership.
• 3 Must-Read Data and AI Books for 2025 with Geoff Woods, Wendy Batchelder, and Malcolm Hawker 08.10.2025 1h 21min

  Authors Geoff Woods, Wendy Batchelder, and Malcolm Hawker share bold strategies for leading with data in the AI era.
• Why CDO of WEX Puts People Before Technology in the Age of AI 24.09.2025 43min

  Learn how to lead AI-driven change with Karen Stroup, CDO at WEX—covering data trust and agile decision-making.
• Unlocking the Autonomous Enterprise, with ThoughtSpot CEO 10.09.2025 45min

  ThoughtSpot CEO Ketan Karkhanis shares the future of the autonomous enterprise, where AI agents act on insights and automate workflows.
• From Building at Pinterest and Airbnb to Revolutionizing AI at Kumo.AI 20.08.2025 32min

  How the former CTO of Pinterest and Airbnb is reshaping enterprise AI—from the rise of data-forward organizations to Kumo.AI’s bold vision for predictive, cloud-first innovation.
• Why "Garbage In, Disaster Out" is AI's New Reality: Ecolab CDO 06.08.2025 40min

  Transform your data strategy with expert insights from Anand Iyer, Ecolab's CDO. Learn to navigate the "garbage in, disaster out" reality, and discover self-service analytics with AI.