Leading With Data

In this exciting first episode of Leading with Data for the new year 2025, we are honored to host Navin Dhananjaya, Chief Solutions Officer at Merkle. With over 27 years of expertise in data, analytics, and technology for Fortune 1000 companies, Navin has been at the forefront of transforming customer experiences. He played a pivotal role in developing Merkle GenCX, leveraging generative AI to redefine customer engagement. Here’s a glimpse of what’s in store: ➡️Navin's incredible journey in data science and analytics—from early challenges to key milestones. ➡️His "Aha Moment" and how it shaped his career trajectory. ➡️Behind the scenes of helping Amazon with category classification—requirements, solution-building, and impact. ➡️Game-changing generative AI applications that transformed customer experiences, past and present. ➡️The potential of AI agents—what they can enable and the types of problems they can solve. ➡️Best practices for enterprises starting their journey with generative AI pilots. ➡️Navin’s advice for young professionals entering the industry. ➡️His vision for synthetic data—generation, usage, and ethical considerations. Don't miss out on this thought-provoking conversation! #LeadingWithData #GenAI #AgenticAI #CustomerExperience #DataScience #Podcast

This week, we sat down with Anand Ranganathan, Chief AI Officer and Co-founder of OneByZero. A seasoned technology leader with over a decade of experience at IBM and multiple startups under his belt, Anand now leads global consulting projects in Generative AI, Machine Learning, and Data Platforms, while building a talented team of over 50 professionals across three countries.Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll learn in this insightful episode: ➡️ Anand’s journey into data science and AI, and what his early days in the field looked like.➡️ Why he left a decade-long career at IBM to venture into entrepreneurship and the challenges he tackled.➡️ The story behind his first startup, Unscramble, and its milestones.➡️ How he adapted to the structural differences between building Unscramble and OneByZero.➡️ Key lessons learned from his journey and what he’d do differently now.➡️ Exciting future trends in AI and the evolution of agentic workflows.➡️ His advice for aspiring professionals, drawing from his 30+ patents, extensive industry experience, and entrepreneurial journey. Don't miss out on this thought-provoking conversation!#LeadingWithData #GenAI #ConversationalAI #SymbolicAI #DeepLearning #AgenticAI #DataScience #Podcast

This week, we have Alan Nichol, Co-founder & CTO of Rasa, a leading open-source conversational AI company that empowers developers to create advanced bots capable of more than just answering simple questions. With a rich academic background and a passion for innovation, Alan has built a thriving product, maintained an open-source version, and fostered a strong community around it. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll discover in this episode: ➡️ Alan’s early journey and key milestones that shaped his career. ➡️ The story behind the birth of Rasa and its incredible growth. ➡️ Key milestones following Rasa’s release and its impact on conversational AI. ➡️ A deep dive into Rasa’s current offerings, including open-source and enterprise features. ➡️ Emerging trends in conversational AI and what excites Alan most about the future. ➡️ Insights into the evolution of voice technology for industrial use cases and its potential as the first layer of conversation. Don't miss out on this thought-provoking conversation!

Celebrating 50 episodes of Leading with Data, this time, we’re joined by Didier Rodrigues Lopes, Founder and CEO of OpenBB, a company revolutionizing the space of open-source financial tools. Before founding OpenBB, Didier worked as a sensor fusion engineer at NURVV, where he played a pivotal role in enhancing the GNSS receiver’s time-to-first-fix, re-imagining altitude estimation with Kalman Filters, and designing a GPS filtering algorithm to improve accuracy. Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect: ➡️ The story behind OpenBB’s inception and journey. ➡️ Didier’s unique strategies for stock trading. ➡️ How the community’s feedback shaped the product. ➡️ Building a business around open-source products. ➡️ Didier’s vision for OpenBB’s future. ➡️ Startups and examples that inspired him along the way. ➡️ The motivation behind OpenBB’s rebranding. ➡️ A look into OpenBB’s offerings and upcoming roadmap. ➡️ Exploring agentic workflows in OpenBB’s platform. Don't miss out on this thought-provoking conversation!

This week, we’re joined by Mark Landry, Director of Data Science & Product at H2O.ai and a top-ranked Kaggle Grandmaster. With extensive experience supporting data science for various H2O.ai products and award-winning applications developed with PwC, Mark’s journey spans data science, business intelligence, and data warehousing roles across healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing. Here’s a sneak peek of what’s in store:   ➡️Mark’s early competition days and how they shaped his role at H2O.ai.   ➡️Key lessons from competitions and their real-world applications.   ➡️His perspective on GenAI and recent advancements in AI.   ➡️A closer look at how H2O Document AI works.   ➡️Thoughts on the evolution of LLMs and Vision Transformers.  ➡️ The role of agentic AI in solving today’s business challenges.   ➡️An overview of his work on multimodal training for H2O’s LLM, including its process and applications. Don't miss out on this thought-provoking conversation!#LeadingWithData #GenAI #AIAgents #MultimodalModels #DataScience #PodcastT