Data Futurology - Leadership And Strategy in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science

By Felipe FloresTechnology

Data Futurology - Leadership And Strategy in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science episodes

January 19, 2021#139 Causal Inference with Carlos Avello - Marketing Science Lead
We have Carlos Avello, Marketing Science Lead at Amazon (Director of Marketing Analytics at eBay at the time of recording) joining us for an insightful chat on Causal Inference and how it can help businesses understand causes and impacts for better decision making.
Even before ecommerce started, Carlos was already working within an extremely data-driven business model. He started his journey in direct response marketing, tracking data from coupons and later analyzing it.
In his own words, he explains causal inference is based on evidence you collect of the impact a certain marketing effort had on your overall sales. Experimentation is the core of causal inference, and specifically A/B tests are used very often.
Quotes:
"Causal inference is based on evidence you collect of the impact a certain marketing effort had on your overall sales."

"Experimentation is at the core of it. You cannot get into causal inference if you do not compare two different populations with different treatments."

"Marketing is the product of a partnership between the advertiser and the advertising platform. Two different companies and there are things that we are ready to share and some others that are tricky to share, like customer data. If you want to setup a test where you are suppressing treatment to some people and allowing others to be exposed to the treatment and then compare the final results on sales you need to find a solution were you are saving enough information so the advertiser knows who has been exposed and who has not and later they can compare the sales."
Thanks to our sponsor:
Talent Insights
Read the full episode summary here: Ep #139
Enjoy the show!
57 min
January 12, 2021#138 Standardisation and Governance of AI with Aurelie Jacquet - Chair
We are joined by Aurelie Jacquet, Chair of Standards Australia, an independent not-for-profit organisation that specializes in the development and adoption of internationally-aligned standards in Australia.
Aurelie is an expert in governance, data ethics, privacy and responsible use of technology. She starts by sharing with us how her journey in the data and ethics world started. She is a lawyer by trade, who started as a litigator and then moved on to work in finance for algorithmic trading. Her interest in AI and ethics peaked in 2016, she soon realized all law initiatives regarding AI were done overseas, so she decided to venture into the world of standards and push for Australia to participate in the international standards around AI.
Quotes:
"A use case I see that keeps coming back is 'how do you manage privacy, bias and accountability?"

"The solution you use to address fairness and bias should strongly align with the legal principles of fairness and bias."

"If you don't have the right control in place, or the right filters, then your output can be problematic."
Thanks to our sponsor:
Talent Insights
Read the full episode summary here: Ep #138
Enjoy the show!
1 hr 1 min
January 05, 2021#137 Rethinking Advanced Analytics at Australia Post with Silvio Giorgio - GM Data Science & Strategy
We’re starting 2021 with Silvio Giorgio, GM Data Science & Strategy at Australia Post. He is an energetic senior leader appointed by the Group CFO to disrupt finance from within. Silvio establishes and leads Data Science for Australia Post applying artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive modelling, robotics and much more to improve people's safety, customer experiences and commercial outcomes. He was named #1 in the #IAPA Top 25 Analytics Leaders Program 2020.
Quotes:
"We’re not doing dashboards anymore."

"If this is where the future is, then what are you going to do?"

"It popped into my mind the concept of doing magic with data. And it wasn’t about what we would do, it was about what people would see. We needed to make people excited about it, we needed to make people think it was magic and want to see more, to sparkle the curiosity that magicians do."
Thanks to our sponsor:
Talent Insights

Read the full episode summary here: Ep #137
Enjoy the show!
49 min
December 20, 2020SL-12 New Hope: What's Ahead of Us in Data and Diversity?
In our last episode, we have Alan Ho, Head of Global Partner Marketing at Tibco Software. We look back on the challenges brought by this year and, as it comes to an end, we reflect on what we need to do differently moving forward and what areas offer hope to those who wish to participate more actively in the data economy.
As a part of today’s discussion, we also had the pleasure of chatting with Sara Tiew, Public Sector Leader & Job Redesign Practice Leader at Mercer around the topic of the future of work.
Sara acknowledges the fear people have of losing their jobs due to technology and automation, but she clarifies that technology will also create several million new jobs. Therefore, it’s extremely important to help workers employed in roles that are at risk and transit them into new job opportunities available.
Quotes:
"When I look at diversity I am not just looking at gender diversity, I’m looking at cultural diversity. I’m looking at orientation diversity."

"I want to spend my time giving back to society and what can I do in my capacity to support those that require this help."

"The Pandemic has brought forward digitization. It has impacted such a great deal in countries that are not ready will face a bigger challenge, especially from a skillset perspective."

"If you look at banking and tech sectors, they are always at the forefront of adopting technology."

Thanks to our sponsors:
Shine Solutions Group
Talent Insights
SAS
Women in Analytics (WIA) Network
Growing Data
Read the full episode summary here: #SheLeads Ep 12
Enjoy the last episode of our #SheLeads Series!
38 min
December 15, 2020SL-11 The Changing Role of the CMO
We are joined by Disha Goenka Das, Director of Marketing at Twitter APAC to discuss the modern CMO's job.
Disha has had a great career in marketing and has experience in several areas like sales, operations, product management and product marketing. She describes herself as endlessly curious and always wanting to explore the world. Creating marketing strategies and campaigns purely for customer delight is her happy place.
She acknowledges technology is moving at a dramatic pace, and marketing is one of the most technology-dependent business functions, so she advises all marketing professionals to make a disciplined effort in staying up to date with the new technologies coming along.
Quotes:
"If I had to give advice to anyone who is in marketing I would say that marketing and technology are moving at a dramatic pace, it’s moving at a faster pace than any of us ever predicted. Keeping ourselves up to date requires structured learning and working. Whether you are a CMO today or you are a marketing manager you have to make sure that there is a disciplined effort in learning the new tech that is coming as we move along. That is one thing that will be critical for marketing professionals to succeed going forward."

"The other advice I would give for any young marketing professionals starting out in marketing right now is, looking back from my experience, try to spend some time in sales to try to understand the end customer and figuring out what they really care about. Also, on the product side to understand, for example, how engineering makes product decisions. I truly believe it makes you a better marketer. Whether you can do that through rotation programs or spend a year or two in these roles, it is going to be super critical for understanding the business’ core."

"I feel CMOs need to be both analytical and creative. Exceptionally successful CMOs who are at the leading edge of technology, deeply first understand the questions that they’re trying to answer, work with data to figure out how to answer it and most importantly, how do they use that information and data to bring it to life in a way that is truly beneficial. That balance is something important and I don’t see it going away despite how much AI and ML comes into the world."
Thanks to our sponsors:
Shine Solutions Group
Talent Insights
SAS
Women in Analytics (WIA) Network
Growing Data
Read the full episode summary here: #SheLeads Ep 11
Enjoy the eleventh episode of our #SheLeads Series!
54 min
December 08, 2020SL-10 Career Aspirations Post Pandemic: What Every Hiring Manager Needs to Know
Kate Carruthers, Chief Data & Insights Officer at the University of New South Wales joins us for an episode that discusses the results of a survey shared by She Loves Data across their community regarding women's expectations about their careers, given the challenges of the past year.
To start us off, Kate shares how her change-ready attitude has allowed her to seize new opportunities and learn new things. Though it might be intimidating, she encourages others to step up and say ‘yes’ to challenges.
The pandemic of 2020 changed the nature of work forever, affecting millions of careers. Sadly, more women were hit harder. For this reason, She Loves Data reached out to their community and asked professional women about their worries, challenges and aspirations regarding work.
Her advice for women listening is to find a community of people like them and groups that support them. Surrounding yourself with others may provide helpful and valuable perspectives that you might have not yet considered.

Quotes:
"I got my start in IT by being in the kitchen of the National Trust and making a comment about the network to the executive director and she said, you seem like you know what you’re doing, you should be in charge, and I said, sure."

"I say yes a lot. When new opportunities come up I have a tendency to say yes because I’m very change-ready. I’m at the front-end of that change curve, I’m not one of the people at the back end of the change curve. I think that’s so important because it gives you the opportunity to try, and you might fail but you might not. I’ve succeeded more than I’ve failed, on average."

"Getting everybody together because in the modern world it's much more complex and no one person has the solution to the problems. It needs to be a collaborative effort and if you don't bring people together you don’t get the best solutions. You don’t get that diversity of thinking from the different perspectives, and that brings better and richer solutions."

"I was suddenly responsible for all computer systems in the organization and I had no idea of what I was doing, but I got up to speed and I really had an amazing opportunity and I took it."
Thanks to our sponsors:
Shine Solutions Group
Talent Insights
SAS
Women in Analytics (WIA) Network
Growing Data
Read the full episode summary here: #SheLeads Ep 10
Enjoy the tenth episode of our #SheLeads Series!
56 min
December 01, 2020SL-9 The Role of the Chief Data Officer
We are joined by Celine Le Cotonnec, Chief Data & Innovation Officer at Bank of Singapore and Shameek Kundu, Chief Data Officer at Standard Chartered Bank.
They share with us their perspective on what the function and goal of the Chief Data Officer is. From Shameek’s experience, the function of the Chief Data Officer role varies by industry, maturity of the organization with respect to data and sometimes even by geographic location.
Celine refers to a study that shows a successful data transformation is 20% about tech, 50% about the people’s mindset and 30% process reengineering wherever you are implementing some type of data product. For her, one key aspect of the CDO role is how you manage the people to achieve transformation within the organization.
Quotes:
"Many banks that have built some kind of credit model, even with traditional analytics, have seen their models crumble with Covid-19."

"In any successful data transformation; 20% is about the tech, 50% is about people and their mindset and 30% is about process change."

"If you want to detect financial crime, absolutely the holy grail of AI, in order to detect something like financial crime, at least in supervised learning, you need to know that a transaction was financial crime. But all we can do is detect potential financial crime, then we go and report it to a regulator and we never hear back."
Thanks to our sponsors:
Shine Solutions Group
Talent Insights
SAS
Women in Analytics (WIA) Network
Growing Data
Read the full episode summary here: #SheLeads Ep 9
Enjoy the ninth episode of our #SheLeads Series!
55 min
November 24, 2020SL-8 Data Skills, Check. What About Soft Skills?
In this episode we have Figen Ulgen, Head of Data & Analytics at Woolworths NZ and Angela Kim, Head of Analytics & AI at Teachers Health joining us for a conversation around soft skills and their relevance in the world of data.
Figen gives soft skills the same importance as technical skills, given that both of them are necessary for individuals to reach success.
Soft skills may come naturally for some people, but even those who struggle can learn them. It may not come automatically, but it is definitely possible to improve. Angela encourages organizations to provide training for their teams in this area, to help them understand each other and their differences better, and also to learn from each other.
Quotes:
"If you don't have the communication skills or the ability to try and see things from their perspective, I think it is pretty difficult to get to the actual analytics part."

"We need to be able to socially well coordinate relationships because it is adding another dimension to the workplace."
Thanks to our sponsors:
Shine Solutions Group
Talent Insights
SAS
Women in Analytics (WIA) Network
Growing Data
Read the full episode summary here: #SheLeads Ep 8
Enjoy the eighth episode of our #SheLeads Series!
53 min
November 17, 2020SL-7 Innovation and Disruption in the Finance Industry
On our 7th episode we are joined by two very talented women, Siew Choo Soh, Managing Director & Group Head of Consumer Banking and Big Data/AI Technology at DBS Bank and Terisa Roberts, Director and Global Lead: Risk Modelling and Decisioning at SAS.
Siew Choo shares with us DBS’s mindset around innovation. For them, the use of technology does not equate to innovation. They don’t have a designated innovation department, just a small innovation team whose job is not to innovate, it’s rather helping other people across the bank to innovate. They provide resources to enable everyone to be able to innovate by empowering the individuals and teams to be curious.
Terisa draws attention to a recent study by Deloitte, showing that firms who invest in diversity and innovation are 8 times more likely to achieve their business outcomes. She also mentions that in Risk Management, they monitor the algorithms they’re using in society and how these algorithms can discriminate against certain groups. Whenever they are faced with these challenges, a diverse team is in charge of identifying and remediating these biases.
Quotes:
"Their job is not to innovate, their job is to help other people across the bank to innovate."

"You have to introduce bias to unbias your algorithm, because the algorithm has been trained by biased data."

"Because of historical biases that were present in the training data that the algorithms learned from, that was perpetuated. A diverse team would have been able to stop that bias from becoming operational in the way decisions are made within that firm."

"To make them understand each other from the different background they have, whether from cultural perspective or job experience perspective, can sometimes be quite a challenge, but I would say that once you manage to go through that initial phase you’ll see that it will help you get the best results, if you have a very diverse group of people."

Thanks to our sponsors:
Shine Solutions Group
Talent Insights
SAS
Women in Analytics (WIA) Network
Growing Data
Read the full episode summary here: #SheLeads Ep 7
Enjoy the seventh episode of our #SheLeads Series!
44 min
November 10, 2020SL-6 Why Data-Driven Marketing is a Must
In this episode we have Vidyarth Eluppai Srivatsan, Director of Marketing Technology at The Coca-Cola Company and Pavel Bulowski, Chief Marketing Officer at Meiro and Co-Founder of She Loves Data.
Vidyarth describes the Director of Marketing Technology position as a bridge between the roles of Chief Data Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Information Officer. It’s about going across the marketing, digital or technology to bridge the knowledge gaps and come up with both the strategy and execution.
Data’s importance in marketing has soared. Currently, there are over 8000 AI and automation platforms available for marketers to take advantage of, so it can be tricky to know which ones are worth our attention and money. Pavel emphasizes the importance of thinking of them as strategic purchases and looking for the ones that offer capabilities that will help differentiate ourselves from the competition.
Quotes:
"Often when I work with people on my team who have that one very linear trajectory in their career, they are good at what they do but they don’t see a bigger picture. That’s what I can bring to the table, synthesize across the board a little bit more."

"This role is a bridge between all those roles, CDO, CMO, CIO, that deal with marketing. There is a definite knowledge gap. We can’t expect all of these functions to know everything about how the fundamental layer that connects each of these buckets to really come through, and that to me is the central role of anyone who heads up the domain of marketing technology. So regardless of where this role sits, this particular person has to think about going across the marketing, digital or technology to bridge the gaps and really come up with both the strategy and the execution of the angles. That in essence is what the role entails, the definition of the structure will vary across companies but the purpose is to bridge the knowledge gap between these departments."

"It’s a bit of a blindside because you can’t drive businesses by data, I think that’s a bit of a misconception. Business has to be driven by business, you need to have business objectives.In my mind it’s business driven and informed by data, but not data-driven on its own. When people put it out, a bit out of context and into the open it often feels like there are a bunch of data scientists who are able to find these whole new insights and directions for a company, and it is not necessarily so straight forward. Often, data analysts don’t have the business context. I think over the next couple of years it’s going to go back and we are going to hear more of business reasoning in marketing again, supported by data, of course."
Thanks to our sponsors:
Shine Solutions Group
Talent Insights
SAS
Women in Analytics (WIA) Network
Growing Data
Read the full episode summary here: #SheLeads Ep 6
Enjoy the sixth episode of our #SheLeads Series!
54 min

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Artificial intelligence is a tremendously beneficial technology that's advancing at an incredibly rapid pace.

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Data Futurology - Leadership And Strategy in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science

Data Futurology - Leadership And Strategy in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science episodes

About Data Futurology - Leadership And Strategy in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science