Episodes
Hina Dixit’s interest in supporting people and solving problems has its roots in her family’s call office business, where she helped people place telephone calls when she was growing up in India. Later, after earning her bachelor’s degree in computer science, she was quickly recruited into the tech space, where her problem-solving and customer service skills have served her well as both a software engineer and tech investor. From a developer role at Symantec, to project leader at Apple, to an...
Published 06/06/23
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...
Published 05/23/23
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...
Published 05/09/23
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...
Published 04/25/23
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...
Published 04/11/23
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...
Published 03/28/23
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...
Published 03/14/23
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 —...
Published 02/28/23
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...
Published 02/14/23
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...
Published 01/10/23
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...
Published 12/06/22
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...
Published 11/08/22
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...
Published 10/25/22
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...
Published 10/11/22
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...
Published 09/27/22
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...
Published 09/13/22
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...
Published 08/30/22
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...
Published 08/16/22
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...
Published 08/02/22
Me, Myself, and AI returns on Tuesday, August 2. Hear what others are saying about the show — and leave us a review! (Your review comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.) 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.
Published 07/19/22
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...
Published 06/14/22
As Boeing China’s regional director of airspace and airport programs, Helen Lee is helping the aerospace giant work toward improving airport and airspace operational efficiency and enhancing flight safety for its aviation customers. In this episode, Helen discusses ongoing research that involves using AI to analyze the wake turbulence of aircraft with computer vision systems, using speech recognition to analyze interactions between pilots and air controllers to minimize the potential for...
Published 05/31/22
eBay is familiar as an e-commerce site that facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers. But as eBay’s first chief AI officer, Nitzan Mekel-Bobrov is focused on the role artificial intelligence technology can play in enhancing the user experience for everyone who engages with the platform. In this episode, Nitzan shares examples of the AI tools eBay is building, such as a 3D visualization tool for sellers create their own models, and intent detection tools to enhance customer service....
Published 05/17/22
Over the course of her nine-year tenure at LinkedIn, Ya Xu has held technology roles with increasing responsibility. Today, she heads the data function for the online professional networking platform. Ya joins hosts Sam and Shervin in this episode to discuss AI’s essential role in helping LinkedIn create the best “matches” — content creators with content consumers, job seekers with employers, and buyers with sellers — within its three key marketplaces. Ya also describes how the company has...
Published 05/03/22
Specialized teams — particularly technology teams — often face challenges as they strive to work cross-functionally, especially at legacy organizations. For Kobi Abayomi, vice president of data science at Warner Music Group, addressing such challenges starts with hiring strong talent into the technology function. In this episode, Kobi joins Sam and Shervin to explain how the music company is moving its infrastructure into the digital era, how it leverages vast amounts of consumer data to make...
Published 04/19/22