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 AI Research CEO Daniel Faggella and team interview top AI executives from Fortune 2000 firms and unicorn startups - uncovering trends, use-cases, and best practices for practical AI adoption.
Visit our advertising page to learn more about reaching our executive audience of Fortune 2000 AI adopters: https://emerj.com/advertise
Last refreshed: ⓘ
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more
Today’s guest is Miranda Jones, SVP of Data & AI Strategy at Emprise Bank. Miranda returns to discuss the evolving reality of responsible AI in the financial services sector. As generative and agentic systems mature, Jones emphasizes the importance of creating safe, low-risk environments where employees can experiment, learn prompt engineering, and develop a critical understanding of model limitations. She explores why domain-specific models outperform generalized foundational models in bank...
Today’s guest is Neil Bhandar, Chief Data Analytics Officer for Generac. Neil brings decades of experience in artificial intelligence, from academic research to enterprise-scale implementation across manufacturing and financial services. He joins Emerj Managing Editor Matt DeMello to explore the hidden costs of building AI in-house, the risks of over-relying on large models, and how service organizations can deploy GenAI to improve efficiency and preserve institutional knowledge. Neil shares how...
As global food demand accelerates, the agricultural sector faces rising pressure to innovate faster, safer, and more sustainably. Today’s guest on the ‘AI in Business’ podcast is Brian Lutz, the Vice President of Agricultural Solutions at Corteva Agriscience, the world’s leading pure-play seed and crop protection company. Brian joins Emerj Senior Editor Matthew DeMello to discuss their partnership with Deloitte to drive AI for discovery across biology and chemistry in agriculture. He explains ho...
Neil Bhandar, Chief Data Analytics Officer for Generac. Generac is a U.S.-based industrial manufacturer that designs and produces a wide range of power solutions—including portable, residential standby, commercial, and industrial generators, along with automatic transfer switches and related accessories. Neil joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello on today’s show to explore how companies can make smarter decisions around compute and storage—without falling into the trap of overbuilding f...
Today’s guest is Josh Haddock, Director of Contact Center Technology at Herbalife. Herbalife is a global health and wellness company that develops and sells nutritional products, personal care items, and weight management solutions through a network of independent distributors. With operations in over 90 countries, Herbalife combines direct selling with a strong focus on community, personal coaching, and customer education. Josh joins the program to share how his team is redefining customer and ...
Today’s guest is Phil Christianson, Chief Product Officer at Xurrent. Xurrent is an IT service management platform that helps large organizations coordinate incident response and improve system reliability. They serve clients across healthcare, government, and financial services and are known for their focus on post-incident accountability and automation. Phil joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello on today’s episode to explore how AI can help break this cycle and build lasting resilienc...
Today’s guest is Brad Kennedy, Senior Director of Business Solutions Strategy at Orlando Health — a not-for-profit healthcare organization headquartered in Florida. With years of experience leading innovation and patient experience programs in hospital systems, Brad joins Emerj Managing Editor Matthew DeMello on the show today to explore how healthcare leaders can turn emerging technologies into measurable improvements for patients and clinical teams. He explains how federal policy has elevated ...
Today’s guest is Itumeleng Masunyane, Senior Vice President of Internal Audit at Amicorp Group. Amicorp provides corporate management, financial markets, and fund administration services with a strong presence in emerging markets. Itumeleng joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello on the show to discuss the expanding role of AI in internal audit — moving beyond compliance into broader strategic influence across the enterprise. She shares how AI is enabling real-time risk monitoring, automa...
Today’s guest is Arun Subramaniyan, Founder and CEO of Articul8. After earning his PhD simulating jet engines and leading GE's digital twin revolution, he's helping Articul8 build domain-specific AI solutions for the world's most complex industries - from Wall Street to electrical grids and aerospace design. Arun joins us on today’s show to share why simply plugging in large language models isn’t enough for industries with complex, high-stakes processes. Arun explains how enterprises can move be...
Today’s guest is Joe Troy, Senior Manager of Site Risk at Amazon. Joe leads efforts to harness AI-powered video intelligence to transform retail security and operational workflows. With extensive experience in risk management and physical security, Joe joins Emerj Managing Editor Matt DeMello to discuss how AI is accelerating investigations, reducing labor costs, and enabling real-time fraud and safety alerts. He unpacks how video intelligence is shifting security teams from reactive surveillanc...
Today’s guest is Michael Zaiac, Head of Medical Oncology for Europe and Canada at Daiichi Sankyo. Michael joins the platform in a special episode focused on how AI is driving measurable ROI in clinical trials — particularly in eligibility and driving diversity in patient populations. Their conversation explores how life sciences teams are applying advanced analytics to accelerate enrollment, improve diversity in study populations, and reduce time to trial completion. Michael also shares where ge...
Today’s guest is Miranda Jones, SVP Data & AI Strategy Leader at Emprise Bank, to explore how banks can design AI systems that balance compliance obligations, customer expectations, and employee experience. Miranda unpacks why explainability shouldn’t be an afterthought—and how embedding transparency into AI workflows helps institutions avoid costly rework and build trust across all stakeholders. She discusses the importance of co-designing solutions with the people closest to the work and w...
Today’s guest is Marc Fredman, Chief Strategy Officer at CCC Intelligent Solutions. Marc joins Emerj CEO and Head of Research Daniel Faggella to discuss how leading insurers are using AI to manage growing complexity across the insurance supply chain — from vehicle damage assessment to claim settlement and subrogation. He breaks down where AI is already delivering value across the claims process — including computer vision for total loss prediction, generative AI for document summarization, and p...
Today’s guest is Brad Kennedy, Senior Director of Business Solutions Strategy at Orlando Health. Brad joins Emerj Senior Editor Matthew DeMello to explore what it takes to implement AI across a complex care environment. From improving patient experience to easing clinician burdens, Kennedy highlights the need for precision, transparency, and collaboration to ensure AI earns its place in provider workflows. Brad shares lessons from his experience in patient experience strategy and innovation, off...
This episode explores how agentic AI is revolutionizing care and disease management in healthcare by connecting fragmented data and surfacing real-time insights. Raheel Retawalla discusses practical use cases for US payers and international health plans, from optimizing benefit utilization and medication adherence to identifying behavioral health risks. The discussion emphasizes AI as an infrastructure-level augmentation, not a replacement, and outlines a maturity curve from summarization to task execution for successful deployment.
Today’s guest is Emily Nguyen, Head of Industrials at Palantir Technologies. Emily joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to discuss how Project Warp Speed is helping manufacturing leaders scale AI rapidly and effectively. She breaks down the key values driving successful AI adoption — including mission focus, first-principles thinking, and urgency — and shares real-world examples of AI applications in manufacturing, such as visual inspection and predictive maintenance. Emily recommends ...
Today’s guest is Kevin Kiley, President of Airia. With extensive experience helping large enterprises implement secure and scalable AI systems, Kevin joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explore how agentic AI is reshaping enterprise workflows across industries like financial services. He explains how these systems differ from traditional AI by enabling autonomous action across connected environments—introducing both new efficiencies and new risks. Kevin breaks down a phased roadmap...
Today’s guest is Dr. Ankur Sharma, Head of Medical Affairs for Medical Devices and Digital Radiology at Bayer. Dr. Sharma joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explore the complex intersection of AI, medical devices, and data governance in healthcare. Dr. Sharma outlines the key challenges that healthcare institutions face in adopting AI tools, including data privacy, system interoperability, and regulatory uncertainty. He also clarifies the distinction between regulated predictive m...
Today’s guest is David Glick, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Business Services at Walmart. Walmart is one of the world’s largest retailers, serving millions of customers through thousands of physical stores and online platforms. David joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to share practical lessons from Walmart’s experience building AI at scale. He dives into how Walmart uses small, focused AI “nano agents” to solve specific business problems quickly and effectively, and how a “sup...
Today’s guest is Annabel Romero, Specialist Leader focusing on AI for Drug Discovery at Deloitte and a structural biologist by training. Deloitte is a global consulting firm known for its work in digital transformation, data strategy, and AI adoption across regulated industries. Annabel joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explore how AI systems are being designed to think more like scientists—particularly in protein modeling and life sciences research. She shares how tools like Alp...
Today’s guest is Yunke Xiang, Global Head of Data Science for Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Quality at Sanofi. Yunke joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to discuss the challenges that slow AI adoption in life sciences manufacturing, highlighting how fragmented data systems and legacy infrastructure create hurdles for AI initiatives. In this episode, Yunke explains how years of acquisitions and siloed data have made building a cohesive data foundation difficult, impacting AI’s poten...
Today’s guest is Tim Burge, Director at Aquant. Aquant is an AI platform built for service teams that maintain and repair complex equipment. It gives clear, accurate answers to service questions — from basic fixes to deep diagnostics — so field techs, call centers, managers, and customers can get to solutions faster. Used by top manufacturers like Siemens and Hologic, Aquant helps reduce downtime, lower service costs, and boost customer satisfaction. Tim joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew De...
In this episode of the ‘AI in Business’ podcast, Principal Group Product Manager Will Guyman of Microsoft and Senior Director Lyndi Wu of NVIDIA explore how healthcare providers are deploying AI at scale to drive clinical and operational transformation. With host Matthew DeMello, they discuss the combined power of NVIDIA’s GPU acceleration and Microsoft’s Azure cloud to enable seamless AI integration—from the exam room to the data center. Will explains how AI is alleviating administrative burden...
Enterprise leaders are no longer asking if they should adopt AI — the question is how to do it effectively. In this episode, Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello speaks with James Raybould, SVP and GM of Turing Intelligence at Turing, about what distinguishes successful enterprise AI deployments from stalled pilots. Turing is one of the world’s fastest-growing Artificial Intelligence companies, working with the world’s leading AI labs to advance frontier model capabilities and leveraging tha...
In this second of a two-part series, Nick Lewis, Managing Director for the High Risk Client Unit at Standard Chartered Bank, returns to the AI in Business podcast to unpack the ongoing transformation of anti-financial crime efforts in an increasingly digitized world. In this episode, Nick and Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello examine the persistent tension between rule-based alert systems and the nuanced, judgment-driven work of human investigators in financial crime prevention. Nick high...
Fraud in retail is evolving fast — from return scams to first-party misuse that blurs the line between customer error and criminal intent. In this episode of the ‘AI in Business’ podcast, Naveen Kumar, Director of Financial Crimes at Walmart and former PwC fraud specialist, joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to discuss how AI, automation, and policy analytics are reshaping fraud detection strategies in retail and beyond. Naveen outlines the expanding threat surface across digital tou...
Today’s guest is Alain-Sam Cohen, Head of Product at InstaDeep—an AI firm using reinforcement learning and other advanced techniques to solve complex design and optimization problems across industries. It may not make headlines like generative AI, but for manufacturers and engineers, PCB design remains one of the most time-intensive steps in building physical systems. From strict physical constraints to millions of potential component arrangements, even expert teams face persistent bottlenecks. ...
Today’s guest is Damion Nero, Head of Data Science at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. With over 15 years of experience applying AI, machine learning, and real-world data to drug development and precision medicine, Damion joins Emerj Managing Editor Matthew DeMello to explore the evolving role of AI in drug development and supply chain management. He breaks down how AI is currently streamlining administrative and regulatory tasks, improving efficiency across clinical trials, and saving valuable time for ...
With customer expectations at an all-time high, even one broken interaction can result in permanent brand damage. In this episode of ‘AI in Business,’ Cognigy Chief Marketing Officer Alan Ranger joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explore how conversational, generative, and agentic AI are reshaping contact center strategy across telecom, retail, and financial services. Cognigy is a leading provider of AI-powered customer service solutions, offering an advanced platform that enables...
Today’s guest is Xiong Liu, Director of Data Science and AI at Novartis. Xiong returns to the platform in a special episode brought to you by Medable to explore the evolving role of AI in modernizing clinical trials. Their conversation covers how life sciences teams are leveraging AI to streamline data workflows, accelerate study readiness, and maintain regulatory compliance in both decentralized and traditional models. Throughout the episode, Xiong shares insights into the growing importance of...
