Enterprise Software Innovators

On the 68th episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, host Saam Motamedi (General Partner, Greylock Partners) talks with Paul Beswick, SVP & Chief Information and Operations Officer at Marsh, about building production-grade AI tooling in days, why a portfolio of twenty small sequential projects beats three big flagship ones, and what the scaffolding around the firm's internal LenAI tool taught Marsh about agent harnesses and operational AI. Quick Hits from Paul: On staying current as a CIOO: "I code probably weekly if not more." On building scrappy versus buying commercial: "We only lag by a few months, and it costs a lot less to do it this way." On a new CIO's first three AI projects: "Break those three into 20 each and do them sequentially, one at a time." Book Recommendation: Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake. Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share specific ways AI changes how work gets done in the enterprise. Find more great insights from technology leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Abnormal Studios.

On the 67th episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, host Evan Reiser (CEO and co-founder, Abnormal AI) talks with Joel Hron, Chief Technology Officer at Thomson Reuters. Joel shares how Thomson Reuters is rebuilding 150-year-old knowledge-work franchises in legal, tax, and compliance around agentic AI, what changed when more than half of his engineers' code started being written by AI, and why the right mental model for working with AI is "colleague," not "copilot." Quick Hits from Joel: On the engineer-to-controller reframe: "Your job as an engineer shifted from being the contributor and owner of the code base to being more the controller and governor of the code base." On the trust gaps blocking enterprise agents: "The control system around the agent is something that I think really needs to be built out further for enterprises to get comfortable with allowing agents to just do work in a more independent way." On doing technical review at 5,000-engineer scale: "You can literally go clone the repo and spend an hour with Claude or with Codex talking about the code." Book Recommendation: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.  Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share specific ways AI changes how work gets done in the enterprise. Find more great insights from technology leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Abnormal Studios.

On the 66th episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, host Evan Reiser (CEO and co-founder, Abnormal AI) talks with Aldo Noseda, Chief Information Officer at Eastman Chemical Company. Eastman is applying AI in two directions at once: productizing data science for customers (e.g., Fluid Genius for predicting thermal-fluid degradation) and deploying “AI for the masses” internally via a secure, customized layer on top of tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, with clear guardrails based on situational risk. Quick Hits from Aldo: On customer-facing AI as a product: “We at Eastman, in the last year or so started to do something fairly unique for the chemical industry is that we started to offer to our customers digital solutions in the form of services. And we have four products in the market right now that we are that we are offering. One of those is the product is called Fluid Genius.” On “AI for the masses” with security and customization: “What we had to do is create an engine utilizing, obviously, the base of the existing products in the market, but wrap it up with a solution that was not only secure, but customized to the needs of that company. And we deploy that very quickly. Right now, we have approximately 6000 recurring users utilizing that engine for individual consumption. That is where I call AI for the masses.” On fast operational wins: “We loaded the script, we put it on top of the helpdesk, and in two weeks we have the engine up and running for our users to consume… we were in from 5000 lines of code per month for a programmer to like 40,000 lines of code using AI agent. Recent Book Recommendation: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey – –  Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share specific ways AI changes how work gets done in the enterprise. Find more great insights from technology leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Abnormal Studios.

On the 65th episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (CEO and co-founder, Abnormal AI) and Saam Motamedi (General Partner, Greylock Partners) talk with Steve Chase, KPMG International Global Head of AI & Digital Innovation and KPMG US Vice Chair, AI & Digital Innovation. KPMG’s AI push is not “tools on the side.” Steve outlines an operating model that starts with trusted AI principles and embedded training, then scales through firmwide enterprise search and targeted agent-driven products. The throughline is simple: unlock people at the edge while keeping control structures, observability, and accountability in view. Quick Hits from Steve: On AI forcing org redesign (not just tool adoption): “We're going to rewrite the org charts, we are going to rewrite how work gets done.”  On embedding AI training into the job: “If I train you how to do something in the course of training you how to do your job, you're going to be way better at using the AI when it's contextualized for you, right?” On the first foundational use case: “One of our number one early objectives with our AI program was to solve for enterprise search. I should be able to find out the answer to what we’re up to, what we think about something.” Recent Book Recommendation: Creation by Gore Vidal – –  Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share specific ways AI changes how work gets done in the enterprise. Find more great insights from technology leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Abnormal Studios.

On the 64th episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, host Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talks with Bill Briggs, Chief Technology Officer at Deloitte. Bill argues that most organizations stall because they try to graft new models onto old workflows, and because their data and system foundations were never built for agentic execution. He shares a practical “start at the outcome” framing, why modernization still matters (even in the GenAI era), and how trust, security, and privacy have to be engineered in, not audited after the fact. Quick Hits from Bill: On AI-native starting at the top: “I actually start with the CEO and the chair and sit them down and say, if this isn't coming from you and this not this isn't about here in a year, it's about here. And what that means. We should stop the conversation…” On why agent pilots stall without foundations: “[Leaders hoped GenAI meant] we didn’t have to do… hard work in data foundations… [but enterprises lack] orchestration backbone… microservice enablement… without that, the bounds of what agents can do [are] limited.” On redesigning outcomes, not steps: “The point is, you want to have folded clean laundry when you need it. Not [a] step by step replacement of the steps you learned as a child to complete that task.” Recent Book Recommendation: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara – –  Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share specific ways AI changes how work gets done in the enterprise. Find more great insights from technology leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Abnormal Studios.

On the 63rd episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (co-founder and CEO, Abnormal AI) and Saam Motamedi (General Partner, Greylock Partners) talk with Lev Gonick, Chief Information Officer at Arizona State University (ASU). ASU treats AI like a product and a platform: build internal capacity, run structured grant cycles to surface real workflows, and ship a “builder” that can support tens of thousands of users. Gonick also lays out why student agency matters, and why universities that wait for vendors risk becoming “nothing but vendor management.” Quick hits from Lev: On building an internal AI acceleration team: “We literally took, initially 20 and now it's 40 people dedicated from morning till night working on platform technology, security, compliance, tooling, building tools to support what we knew that needed to grow up to be, again, a low code, no code kind of environment.” On scaling demand through structured internal grants: “We thought there be, you know, 40 or 50 great ideas, you know, as we speak today. Now we're through through four full rounds of engagements. We have over 600 projects in-flight, right now.” On fixing the friction-filled student journey with AI: “Focus in on transforming the ways in which students have to navigate incredibly, difficult, friction-filled, journey. Applying for, getting into, having to do financial aid, landing in a dorm room, [solving] some of the back office through again tools that they're using in their consumer life.” Recent Book Recommendation: Capitalism: A Global History by Sven Beckert -- Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, or Youtube you listen to podcasts. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share how AI is transforming the enterprise. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/.  Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Abnormal Studios.

On the 62nd episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (CEO and co-founder, Abnormal AI) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Mike Trkay, CIO at FICO. Mike explains how FICO is moving AI from pilots to production by prioritizing ROI, data foundations, and governance. He argues for sanctioned LLM access to curb leakage, system integration for business-wide answers, and smaller domain models when accuracy, compliance, and trust matter. Quick hits from Mike: On the shift from pilots to ROI: “We’re leaving that phase and starting to get to the point of going, okay, but where’s the true return on that investment?” On the must-do for enterprises: “Everybody who works for you… they’re going to go use one of the LLMs somewhere… and probably share data and proprietary data.” On why one big model is not enough: “Sometimes you need the PhD. Who’s got who speaks the jargon, understands the context, and it helps deal with some of the hallucinations and bias, and other things that could be influencing.” Recent Book Recommendation: The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture by Joshua Kendall -- Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, or Youtube you listen to podcasts. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share how AI is transforming the enterprise. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/  Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Abnormal Studios.

On the 61st episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (CEO and co-founder, Abnormal AI) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Allen Fazio, CIO at Houlihan Lokey. Allen lays out how a global mid-cap M&A leader is rethinking investment banking as a professional service powered by AI. By putting a single orchestration layer at the center and starting with “100-level” use cases for analysts and interns, he is building an innovation engine that protects regulatory exposure while transforming how human bankers research, model, and execute deals. Quick hits from Allen: On orchestration and data advantage: “We've been looking for almost three years for what I'll call the orchestration layer. What do we put in the middle of the picture?” On analyst-first AI adoption: “So for us, our focus is going to be on the lookout level, right. Let's start with the analysts, associates, and interns. And let's really focus on their capabilities, where I think some of our peers are. I'm not saying they're wrong, but where they're spending more time than I'm going to spend is on these high-end use cases.” On culture over tools: “You're building out an innovation culture, not deploying a technology or a toolset.” Recent Book Recommendation: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson  -- Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share how AI is transforming the enterprise. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/  Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Abnormal Studios.

On the 60th episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (CEO and co-founder, Abnormal AI) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) speak to Ronald White, the former CIO of Avanade. Ronald brings deep experience leading global enterprise IT at Avanade and shares actionable lessons from orchestrating large‑scale AI adoption across business functions. Quick hits from Ronald: On moving beyond surface-level AI: "What are we going to get past these little parlor tricks and actually do something that impacts the enterprise?" On proving value through AI adoption: "A lawyer using general AI technology will 100 percent of the time beat a lawyer who is not. Period. End of statement." On early enterprise wins with AI: "You’re changing the game right away... and so if you don’t stay on top of it and iterate and iterate and iterate, you lose." Recent Book Recommendation: Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard -- Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share how AI is transforming the enterprise. Discover more great lessons from tech leaders and experts in emerging AI technologies at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Josh Meer

On the 59th episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (CEO and co-founder, Abnormal AI) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) welcome Sanjay Macwan, Chief Information Officer at Sprinklr. Sanjay explains how Sprinklr is using AI to enhance customer experience at scale by reducing friction, making engagement intuitive, and ensuring every user feels heard. He also shares practical examples of how internal operations are being optimized through AI. Quick takes from Sanjay: On transforming billing with AI: "That workflow from sending a bill to collecting the cash can be incredibly complex. I did solve that in my prior work using AI." On Sprinklr's AI architecture: "Now we have a platform with three rich components: custom models, GenAI, and allowing our customers to integrate their own models." On AI making customer experience feel more human: "Even if they couldn't solve the things because there are some physical barriers, I got heard. They heard me. They genuinely reacted to me." Recent Book Recommendation: All in on AI by Thomas Davenport and Nitin Mittal -- Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share how AI is transforming the enterprise. Each episode covers the real-world applications of AI, from improving products and optimizing operations to redefining the customer experience.  Find more great insights from technology leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Josh Meer.

On the 58th episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal AI) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Jaime Montemayor, Chief Digital & Technology Officer at General Mills. They’re reimagining what a food company can be by leveraging AI to reduce waste, tailor marketing, optimize supply chains, and accelerate product innovation. Jaime shares how strategic clarity, cloud-first infrastructure, and clean data enabled these AI transformations, and why being a hands-on, tech-forward CIO is essential to leading through change. Quick takes from Jaime: On operational AI scale: "As of today, we have thousands of those machine learning models running day in and day out in the company. And with those models, our teams have the benefit of being able to do predictive analytics to run their business on a day-to-day basis.” On generative AI adoption: “Up to 30 percent of our workforce is using this new technology consistently. We have some functions like HR... the use rate goes all the way to 65, 75 percent... doing performance assessments or helping people develop specific development plans.” On ROI and accountability: “In most cases, the value proposition is about driving efficiency, improving time to market, reducing cost, growing the top line. And what I’ve done is that I partner with my CFO... they keep the score for every investment that we make in our organization.” Recent Book Recommendation: Rewired by Eric Lamarre, Kate Smaje, and Rodney Zemmel -- Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share how AI is transforming the enterprise. Each episode covers the real-world applications of AI, from improving products and optimizing operations to redefining the customer experience. Find more great insights from technology leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Josh Meer.

On the 57th episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, host Evan Reiser (Abnormal AI) talks with Mark Sherwood, EVP & CIO at Wolters Kluwer. Mark shares how his team is applying AI across internal operations and product development. From automating SOP creation to surfacing risk in contracts and predicting IT incidents, each project starts with a specific business challenge and ends with a measurable impact. Wolters Kluwer now sees over half of its revenue from AI-enabled products, a result of decades of domain expertise paired with rapid experimentation. Quick hits from Mark: On AI-generated SOPs: “It used to take two or three weeks to finalize and get it done. Now, it's essentially 15 minutes, worst case, probably two minutes, best case.” On contract lifecycle automation: “It’s not just a, you know, search and replace or search and find or go find all these things, but helping understand, you know, what is the best way to rephrase this.” On disaster recovery readiness: “We're basically checking all these systems 24-7 to understand, do we have something brewing out there? I mean, hopefully we don't have a disaster, but we want to be prepared just in case we do.” Recent Book Recommendation: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown -- Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share how AI is transforming the enterprise. Each episode covers the real-world applications of AI, from improving products and optimizing operations to redefining the customer experience.  Find more great insights from technology leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/  Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Josh Meer

On the 56th episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, host Evan Reiser (Abnormal AI) welcomes Sally Miller, Global Chief Information Officer at DHL Supply Chain. Sally reveals how AI and robotics are reshaping the warehouse floor, the back office, and customer expectations at a company operating 2,500 sites across more than 50 countries. From early bets on generative tools to inclusive bots supporting multi-language teams, she shares the strategy, systems, and human factors required to scale AI across the globe. Quick hits from Sally: On strategic clarity for AI: “We look for where people spend time doing non-value-added tasks and ask if AI can do that for them.” On AI’s impact at DHL: “Where we would be calling over the course of a week to confirm delivery appointments, we now kick off agents and those appointments are confirmed within a couple of hours. We’ve saved that [manual work], we’ve automated it, and we have the data faster. So the downstream processes are more efficient.” On business framing for AI usage: “I view AI as to the white-collar workforce what robotics was to the blue-collar workforce. It is going to change the way people work, much like the introduction of the personal computer.” Recent Book Recommendation: The Gray Man by Mark Greaney -- Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top security executives share how moves to the cloud have created an evolved threat landscape that requires new tools to protect against cybercrime. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/  Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Josh Meer

On the 55th episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal AI) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) welcome Richard Donaldson, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Duke Energy. Richard explains how one of the largest regulated utilities in North America is embracing AI to reshape its digital infrastructure and accelerate enterprise-wide transformation. He shares concrete use cases, like Duke Energy Explorer for regulatory responses and generative AI authoring relicensing documentation, and conceptualizes a future where AI-powered drones and intimate co-pilots redefine operational productivity. Quick Hits from Richard:  On strategic clarity for AI: “Everybody’s waiting for me to say we did this AI thing straight out of a science fiction book, but the most valuable stuff doesn’t always come with the spice.” On AI’s impact at Duke: “We built a conversational AI that harvests data across hundreds of sources for regulatory Q&A. It’s not banan, but it moves the needle every single time.” On business framing for AI usage: “We spent 2024 doing the unsexy work: protecting data, governing AI platforms. That was the homework. Now we're turning the page and going fast.” Book Recommendation: Fall; or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson — Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share how AI is transforming the enterprise. Each episode covers the real-world applications of AI, from improving products and optimizing operations to redefining the customer experience.  Find more great insights from technology leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/  Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Josh Meer.

On the 51st episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, host Evan Reiser (Abnormal AI) talks with Shyam Bhojwani, Chief Information Officer at Nextdoor. With millions of users across the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, Nextdoor is one of the largest neighborhood-based platforms in the world, connecting communities with real-time information, local recommendations, and public safety alerts. In this conversation, Shyam shares his perspective on how AI is shifting automation from static workflows to dynamic, context-aware agents, why IT and cybersecurity are prime candidates for fast AI wins, and how culture, architecture, and data readiness all shape the long-term success of enterprise transformation. Quick hits from Shyam: On unlearning in the age of AI: “Every day with AI is a new learning but also a lot of unlearning. What we thought wasn’t possible yesterday is already possible today.” On the evolution from automation to agentic orchestration: “Earlier, you would sort of create static processes, step A, step B, step C. Now with AI, it can go from step A to step C based on context. These AI agents aren’t just automating tasks, they’re orchestrating workflows with real-time intelligence. On how to avoid AI chaos across teams: “There needs to be a centralized AI Ops team to connect the dots. Otherwise, every department ends up buying the same tool twice.” Recent Book Recommendation: The New Automation Mindset by Vijay Tella -- Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share how AI is transforming the enterprise. Each episode covers the real-world applications of AI, from improving products and optimizing operations to redefining the customer experience.  Find more great insights from technology leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/  Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Josh Meer.

On the 50th episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Sesh Tirumala, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Western Digital. Western Digital is one of the world's largest data storage manufacturers, with over 51,000 employees, 13,000 patents, and $13 billion in annual revenue. From enterprise data centers to high-performance hard drives for creative professionals, Western Digital has been a storage pioneer for over 50 years. In this conversation, Sesh offers insights into practical applications of AI in enterprise productivity, the critical role of IT in global manufacturing, and the future of IT architecture to enable business transformation. Quick hits from Sesh: On AI’s ability to reduce enterprise dependencies on meetings: “We all have this fear of missing out and we try to attend all meetings. What if you told your staff, ‘You don't need to, here's just a snippet that you need to know.’ 90% of the meetings are generally non action driven, so boring and monotonous. You can spare a lot of people from pain, I see value in that. On the current direction of AI and enterprise data: “If your sales data, procurement data, and contract data are all connected, your system should be able to tell a sales rep, ‘Take this action because your customer is about to churn.’” On the importance of experimenting with new AI solutions: “You need to jump in and not wait, because if you wait for too long, then you're going to be irrelevant. So, it's important to get your teams to test out of the box solutions. Because I think data is going to be the ultimate differentiator, both from a cost and connective tissue perspective.” Recent Book Recommendation: Driving Digital Strategy by Sunil Gupta -- Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share how AI is transforming the enterprise. Each episode covers the real-world applications of AI, from improving products and optimizing operations to redefining the customer experience.  Find more great insights from technology leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/  Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Josh Meer.

On the 49th episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Vineet Khosla, Chief Technology Officer of The Washington Post. The Washington Post is the third-largest newspaper in the United States, with 135,000 print subscribers and 2 and half million digital subscribers. In this conversation, Vineet shares his thoughts on the mainstream integration of AI technology, the transformative impact of AI on journalism, and the future of personalized news delivery. Quick hits from Vineet: On proof that AI is having a true impact on our lives: “The Nobel Prize for Physics went to Geoffrey Hinton. The Nobel Prize for chemistry went to Demis Hassabis, the deep mind. This is the first time we’re seeing the top prize in physics and chemistry go to people who created an AI which solved a problem in that field. It is the AI they invented that did such a commendable job that other people were forced to recognize their achievement as being top notch.” On the impact AI has on human creative roles: “So when these AI models start to be creative, it is understandable everyone's afraid. Let's put that as the baseline and say this is not wrong. It doesn't make anybody bad. But slowly and the way we're doing it with creative tools is that we want AI to do the part of your job that you shouldn't have been doing anyways, and you start to see a change in people's behavior, their hearts and minds. And of course, some people will move faster than others. But when they see the actual benefit, the skeptics will come around and use it to their power.” On encouraging Productivity and creativity through AI tools: “You give people these tools, let them be productive, let them go on their journey,  and you encourage them. You obviously give really good use cases. Like I said, when I was writing code recently, I got the AI to write me most of my unit tests because as an engineer, I hate that. And I know they're super important. There is no way I will check in code without it, but I hate writing them. Now that time gets freed up.” Recent Book Recommendation: Our Mathematical Universe by Max Tegmar -- Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share how AI is transforming the enterprise. Each episode covers the real-world applications of AI, from improving products and optimizing operations to redefining the customer experience.  Find more great insights from technology leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/  Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Josh Meer.

On the 48th episode of Enterprise AI Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Sathish Muthukrishnan, Chief Information, Data, and Digital Officer of Ally Financial. Ally is an American bank holding company, with over $8 billion in annual revenue and over 11,000 employees. The company provides auto financing, mortgage loans, banking, and other financial services to 11 million customers across the United States. In this conversation, Sathish explores Ally’s groundbreaking journey from mainframes to AI-powered banking, the game-changing role of generative AI in customer support, and his predictions for how AI will redefine personal banking in the years to come. Producer’s note: This episode was recorded in August of 2024. Quick hits from Satish: On the rules for engaging with Gen AI: “Gen AI is new and fast evolving. Like any new technology, there are risks that you have to tackle. We came up with guiding principles for how we use AI: One, let's build use cases that face our internal customers as the technology evolves. Two, there should always be a human in the middle. And three, we cannot allow sensitive information to leave Ally.” On the necessary data journey to unlock AI’s potential: “AI is having its moment because of the convergence of other hype cycles that have happened. Whether that’s data, cloud, native app development, or any technology investments. If you went through the data journey, and you have cloud enabled, you've made it findable, and you've made it easy to compute the data, now you have the ability to access the data and use the insights, and you can take advantage of this AI explosion.” On the importance of staying up to date with new technology: “Do not forget to experiment. Do not be afraid of the fast evolving technology. Continue to experiment, have your team be empowered. Whether it’s on the offensive or defensive side, it's extremely important for you to be prepared. You need to continue familiarizing yourself with new technology so you can be prepared.” Recent Book Recommendation: Ideaflow by Jeremy Utley and Perry Kleb -- Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Enterprise Software Innovators is a show where top tech executives share how they innovate at scale. Each episode covers unique insights and stories that will help you succeed as a technology leader. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise Software Innovators is produced by Luke Reiser & Josh Meer.

On the 47th episode of Enterprise Software Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Ramesh Razdan, Global CIO & CTO of Bain & Company. Bain & Company is a “Big Three” management consulting firm with 65 global offices, 19,000 employees, and over $8 billion in annual revenue. Bain helps Fortune 500 companies optimize performance, enhance operational efficiency, and implement innovative technology at scale. In this conversation, Ramesh shares his thoughts on how generative AI is transforming Bain, the evolution of the CIO role in the AI era, and how Bain’s clients harness the latest AI capabilities. Quick hits from Ramesh: On AI’s exciting potential to enhance security: “I remain to be extremely bullish on where AI can take us. I believe AI as a human oversight can really increase the velocity of our defense. We have to do that. Human beings cannot respond fast enough.” On choosing which use cases to apply generative AI first: “A famous two by two exercise is to say, ‘What data is available and what value is at stake there?’,  and then plot what's the most valuable data for what you are trying to do. What you don't want is the most complex use case up front because the engine is not warmed up. We need to prove the value.” On understanding risk and compliance before adopting AI: “ This technology doesn't come with its own sets of risks. It doesn't come with its own set up. You need to establish proper risk and compliance forums. You need to make sure you are in lockstep with legal teams and risk teams. We want to make sure we're training the right way. We want to change the right behavior.” Recent Book Recommendation: Optimal by Daniel Goleman -- Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Enterprise Software Innovators is a show where top tech executives share how they innovate at scale. Each episode covers unique insights and stories that will help you succeed as a technology leader. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/  Enterprise Software Innovators is produced by Luke Reiser and Josh Meer.

On the 46th episode of Enterprise Software Innovators, host Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) talks with Munir Hafez, CIO of TransUnion. TransUnion specializes in credit reporting, fraud detection, and data analytics. With over 19,000 employees and over $3.6 billion in annual revenue, the company impacts more than a billion people worldwide. In this conversation, Munir shares his thoughts on AI transforming business operations at TransUnion, balancing the potential of AI against the current hype cycle, and the future impact of AI in the enterprise. Quick hits from Munir: On the importance of grounding data to train AI: “If you're asking it how to make a chocolate chip cookie, you don't really need to ground that in your data. If you're trying to say, ‘What cross-sell opportunities can I have for this customer?’ You have to be able to feed it your product catalog and everything else.” On prompt engineering driving value in the current AI environment: “Over time, [AI] is going to get smarter where you need less and less prompt engineering teaching it. But certainly in the short term, I think training, custom LLM, and then depending on the tool, teams that are designed and focused on extending the prompt engineering and the capabilities will be the best way to get the value.” On identifying real use cases for enterprise AI: “My team supports over 500 applications. Everything has AI, including toothbrushes and trash cans. So which tools are actually far enough along that [the AI component] provides value. We were looking for if the triangulation of the technology is advanced enough. The business case makes sense and the business users are engaged and are willing to learn and help support.” Recent Book Recommendation: Outliers by Malcom Gladwell -- Like what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Enterprise Software Innovators is a show where top tech executives share how they innovate at scale. Each episode covers unique insights and stories that will help you succeed as a technology leader. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ Enterprise Software Innovators is produced by Luke Reiser and Josh Meer.