The structured data that powers business decisions is more complex than the sequences processed by traditional AI models. Enterprise databases with their interconnected tables of customers, products, and transactions form intricate graphs that contain valuable predictive signals. But how can we effectively extract insights from these complex relationships without extensive manual feature engineering?

Graph transformers are revolutionizing this space by treating databases as networks and learning directly from raw data. What if you could build models in hours instead of months while achieving better accuracy? How might this technology change the role of data scientists, allowing them to focus on business impact rather than data preparation? Could this be the missing piece that brings the AI revolution to predictive modeling?

Jure Leskovec is a Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, where he is affiliated with the Stanford AI Lab, the Machine Learning Group, and the Center for Research on Foundation Models.

Previously, he served as Chief Scientist at Pinterest and held a research role at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. He is also a co-founder of Kumo.AI, a machine learning startup. Leskovec has contributed significantly to the development of Graph Neural Networks and co-authored PyG, a widely-used library in the field. Research from his lab has supported public health efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic and informed product development at companies including Facebook, Pinterest, Uber, YouTube, and Amazon.

His work has received several recognitions, including the Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship (2011), the Okawa Research Award (2012), the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (2012), the Lagrange Prize (2015), and the ICDM Research Contributions Award (2019). His research spans social networks, machine learning, data mining, and computational biomedicine, with a focus on drug discovery. He has received 12 best paper awards and five 10-year Test of Time awards at leading academic conferences.

In the episode, Richie and Jure explore the need for a foundation model for enterprise data, the limitations of current AI models in predictive tasks, the potential of graph transformers for business data, and the transformative impact of relational foundation models on machine learning workflows, and much more.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

• Jure’s Publications
• Kumo AI
• Connect with Jure
• Course - Transformer Models with PyTorch
• Related Episode: High Performance Generative AI Applications with Ram Sriharsha, CTO at Pinecone
• Rewatch RADAR AI 

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Healthcare AI is rapidly evolving beyond simple diagnostic tools to comprehensive systems that can analyze and predict patient outcomes. With the rise of multimodal AI models that can process everything from medical images to patient records and genetic information, we're entering an era where AI could fundamentally transform how healthcare decisions are made. But how do we ensure these systems maintain patient privacy while still leveraging vast amounts of medical data? What are the technical challenges in building AI that can reason across different types of medical information? And how do we balance the promise of AI-assisted healthcare with the critical role of human medical professionals?

Professor Aldo Faisal is Chair in AI & Neuroscience at Imperial College London, with joint appointments in Bioengineering and Computing, and also holds the Chair in Digital Health at the University of Bayreuth. He is the Founding Director of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in AI for Healthcare and leads the Brain & Behaviour Lab and Behaviour Analytics Lab at Imperial’s Data Science Institute. His research integrates machine learning, neuroscience, and human behaviour to develop AI technologies for healthcare. He is among the few engineers globally leading their own clinical trials, with work focused on digital biomarkers and AI-based medical interventions. Aldo serves as Associate Editor for Nature Scientific Data and PLOS Computational Biology, and has chaired major conferences like KDD, NIPS, and IEEE BSN. His work has earned multiple awards, including the $50,000 Toyota Mobility Foundation Prize, and is regularly featured in global media outlets.

In the episode, Richie and Aldo explore the advancements in AI for healthcare, including AI's role in diagnostics and operational improvements, the ambitious Nightingale AI project, challenges in handling diverse medical data, privacy concerns, and the future of AI-assisted medical decision-making, and much more.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

• Aldo’s Publications
• Connect with Aldo
• Project: What is Your Heart Rate Telling You?
• Related Episode: Using Data to Optimize Costs in Healthcare with Travis Dalton and Jocelyn Jiang President/CEO & VP of Data & Decision Science at MultiPlan
• Rewatch RADAR AI

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The relationship between humans and AI in the workplace is rapidly evolving beyond simple automation. As companies deploy thousands of AI agents to handle everything from expense approvals to customer success management, a new paradigm is emerging—one where humans become orchestrators rather than operators. But how do you determine which processes should be handled by AI and which require human judgment? What governance structures need to be in place before deploying AI at scale? With the potential to automate up to 80% of business processes, organizations must carefully consider not just the technology, but the human element of AI-driven transformation.

Steve Lucas is the Chairman and CEO of Boomi, marking his third tenure as CEO. With nearly 30 years of enterprise software leadership, he has held senior roles at leading cloud organizations including Marketo, iCIMS, Adobe, SAP, Salesforce, and BusinessObjects. He led Marketo through its multi-billion-dollar acquisition by Adobe and drove strategic growth at iCIMS, delivering significant investments and transformation. A proven leader in scaling software companies, Steve is also the author of the national bestseller Digital Impact and holds a business degree from the University of Colorado.

In the episode, Richie and Steve explore the importance of choosing the right tech stack for your business, the challenges of managing complex systems, the role of AI in transforming business processes, and the need for effective AI governance. They also discuss the future of AI-driven enterprises and much more.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

• Boomi
• Steve’s Book - Digital Impact: The Human Element of AI-Driven Transformation
• What is the OSI Model?
• Connect with Steve
• Skill Track: AI Business Fundamentals
• Related Episode: New Models for Digital Transformation with Alison McCauley Chief Advocacy Officer at Think with AI & Founder of Unblocked Future
• Rewatch RADAR AI 

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Business intelligence has been transforming organizations for decades, yet many companies still struggle with widespread adoption. With less than 40% of employees in most organizations having access to BI tools, there's a significant 'information underclass' making decisions without data-driven insights. How can businesses bridge this gap and achieve true information democracy? While new technologies like generative AI and semantic layers offer promising solutions, the fundamentals of data quality and governance remain critical. What balance should organizations strike between investing in innovative tools and strengthening their data infrastructure? How can you ensure your business becomes a 'data athlete' capable of making hyper-decisive moves in an uncertain economic landscape?

Howard Dresner is founder and Chief Research Officer at Dresner Advisory Services and a leading voice in Business Intelligence (BI), credited with coining the term “Business Intelligence” in 1989. He spent 13 years at Gartner as lead BI analyst, shaping its research agenda and earning recognition as Analyst of the Year, Distinguished Analyst, and Gartner Fellow. He also led Gartner’s BI conferences in Europe and North America. Before founding Dresner Advisory in 2007, Howard was Chief Strategy Officer at Hyperion Solutions, where he drove strategy and thought leadership, helping position Hyperion as a leader in performance management prior to its acquisition by Oracle. 

Howard has written two books, The Performance Management Revolution – Business Results through Insight and Action, and Profiles in Performance – Business Intelligence Journeys and the Roadmap for Change - both published by John Wiley & Sons.

In the episode, Richie and Howard explore the surprising low penetration of business intelligence in organizations, the importance of data governance and infrastructure, the evolving role of AI in BI, and the strategic initiatives driving BI usage, and much more.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

• Dresner Advisory Services
• Howard’s Book - Profiles in Performance: Business Intelligence Journeys and the Roadmap for Change
• Connect with Howard
• Skill Track: Power BI Fundamentals
• Related Episode: The Next Generation of Business Intelligence with Colin Zima, CEO at Omni
• Rewatch RADAR AI 

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Technology and human consciousness are converging in ways that challenge our fundamental understanding of creativity and connection. As AI systems become increasingly sophisticated at mimicking human thought patterns, we're entering uncharted territory where machines don't just assist creative work—they actively participate in it. But what does this mean for the future of human creativity and our relationship with technology? How do we maintain meaningful human connections in a world where emotional labor is increasingly commoditized? As we navigate this rapidly evolving landscape, the question isn't just whether machines can think, but how their thinking will transform our own.

Ken Liu is an American author of speculative fiction. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards, he wrote the Dandelion Dynasty, a silkpunk epic fantasy series, as well as short story collections The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and The Hidden Girl and Other Stories. His latest book is All that We See or Seem, a techno-thriller starring an AI-whispering hacker who saves the world. He also translated Cixin Liu’s seminal book series, the Three-Body Problem. 

He’s often involved in media adaptations of his work. Recent projects include “The Regular,” under development as a TV series; “Good Hunting,” adapted as an episode in season one of Netflix’s breakout adult animated series Love, Death + Robots; and AMC’s Pantheon, with Craig Silverstein as executive producer, adapted from an interconnected series of Liu’s short stories. 

Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Liu worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. Liu frequently speaks on a variety of topics, including futurism, machine-augmented creativity, history of technology, bookmaking, and the mathematics of origami.

In the episode, Adel and Ken explore the intersection of technology and storytelling, how sci-fi can inform AI's trajectory, the role of AI in reshaping human relationships and creativity, how AI is changing art, and much more.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

• Ken’s Books
• Ken on Substack, Ken on X
• Skill Track: AI Fundamentals
• Related Episode: What History Tells Us About the Future of AI with Verity Harding, Author of AI Needs You
• Rewatch RADAR AI 

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Welcome to DataFramed Industry Roundups! In this series of episodes, we sit down to discuss the latest and greatest in data & AI. 

In this episode, with special guest, DataCamp COO Martijn, we touch upon the hype and reality of AI agents in business, the McKinsey vs. Ethan Mollick debate on simple vs. complex agents, Meta's $15B stake in Scale AI and what it means for data and talent, Apple’s rumored $20B bid for Perplexity amid AI struggles, EU’s push to treat AI skills like reading and math, the first fully AI-generated NBA ad and what it means for creative industries, a new benchmark for deep research tools, and much more.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

• Meta bought Scale AI
• Apple rumoured to buy trying to acquire Perplexity for $20Bn
• McKinsey's Seizing the Agentic AI Advantage report
• The first fully AI-generated NBA Ad
• EU Generative AI Outlook report
• Mary Meeker's Trend in AI report
• Deep research benchmark
• Rewatch RADAR AI 

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The enterprise adoption of AI agents is accelerating, but significant challenges remain in making them truly reliable and effective. While coding assistants and customer service agents are already delivering value, more complex document-based workflows require sophisticated architectures and data processing capabilities. How do you design agent systems that can handle the complexity of enterprise documents with their tables, charts, and unstructured information? What's the right balance between general reasoning capabilities and constrained architectures for specific business tasks? Should you centralize your agent infrastructure or purchase vertical solutions for each department? The answers lie in understanding the fundamental trade-offs between flexibility, reliability, and the specific needs of your organization.

Jerry Liu is the CEO and Co-founder at LlamaIndex, the AI agents platform for automating document workflows. Previously, he led the ML monitoring team at Robust Intelligence, did self-driving AI research at Uber ATG, and worked on recommendation systems at Quora.

In the episode, Richie and Jerry explore the readiness of AI agents for enterprise use, the challenges developers face in building these agents, the importance of document processing and data structuring, the evolving landscape of AI agent frameworks like LlamaIndex, and much more.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

• LlamaIndex
• LlamaIndex Production Ready Framework For LLM Agents
• Tutorial: Model Context Protocol (MCP)
• Connect with Jerry
• Course: Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) with LangChain
• Related Episode: RAG 2.0 and The New Era of RAG Agents with Douwe Kiela, CEO at Contextual AI & Adjunct Professor at Stanford University
• Rewatch RADAR AI 

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The line between generic AI capabilities and truly transformative business applications often comes down to one thing: your data. While foundation models provide impressive general intelligence, they lack the specialized knowledge needed for domain-specific tasks that drive real business value. But how do you effectively bridge this gap? What's the difference between simply fine-tuning models versus using techniques like retrieval-augmented generation? And with constantly evolving models and technologies, how do you build systems that remain adaptable while still delivering consistent results? Whether you're in retail, healthcare, or transportation, understanding how to properly enrich, annotate, and leverage your proprietary data could be the difference between an AI project that fails and one that fundamentally transforms your business.

Wendy Gonzalez is the CEO — and former COO — of Sama, a company leading the way in ethical AI by delivering accurate, human-annotated data while advancing economic opportunity in underserved communities. She joined Sama in 2015 and has been central to scaling both its global operations and its mission-driven business model, which has helped over 65,000 people lift themselves out of poverty through dignified digital work. With over 20 years of experience in the tech and data space, Wendy’s held leadership roles at EY, Capgemini, and Cycle30, where she built and managed high-performing teams across complex, global environments. Her leadership style blends operational excellence with deep purpose — ensuring that innovation doesn’t come at the expense of integrity. Wendy is also a vocal advocate for inclusive AI and sustainable impact, regularly speaking on how companies can balance cutting-edge technology with real-world responsibility.

Duncan Curtis is the Senior Vice President of Generative AI at Sama, where he leads the development of AI-powered tools that are shaping the future of data annotation. With a background in product leadership and machine learning, Duncan has spent his career building scalable systems that bridge cutting-edge technology with real-world impact. Before joining Sama, he led teams at companies like Google, where he worked on large-scale personalization systems, and contributed to AI product strategy across multiple sectors. At Sama, he's focused on harnessing the power of generative AI to improve quality, speed, and efficiency — all while keeping human oversight and ethical practices at the core. Duncan brings a unique perspective to the AI space: one that’s grounded in technical expertise, but always oriented toward practical solutions and responsible innovation.

In the episode, Richie, Wendy, and Duncan explore the importance of using specialized data with large language models, the role of data enrichment in improving AI accuracy, the balance between automation and human oversight, the significance of responsible AI practices, and much more.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

• Sama
• Connect with Wendy
• Connect with Duncan
• Course: Generative AI Concepts
• Related Episode: Creating High Quality AI Applications with Theresa Parker & Sudhi Balan, Rocket Software
• Register for RADAR AI

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The modern data stack has transformed how organizations work with data, but are our BI tools keeping pace with these changes? As data schemas become increasingly fluid and analysis needs range from quick explorations to production-grade reporting, traditional approaches are being challenged. How can we create analytics experiences that accommodate both casual spreadsheet users and technical data modelers? With semantic layers becoming crucial for AI integration and data governance growing in importance, what skills do today's BI professionals need to master? Finding the balance between flexibility and governance is perhaps the greatest challenge facing data teams today.

Colin Zima is the Co-Founder and CEO of Omni, a business intelligence platform focused on making data more accessible and useful for teams of all sizes. Prior to Omni, he was Chief Analytics Officer and VP of Product at Looker, where he helped shape the product and data strategy leading up to its acquisition by Google for $2.6 billion. Colin’s background spans roles in data science, analytics, and product leadership, including positions at Google, HotelTonight, and as founder of the restaurant analytics startup PrimaTable. He holds a degree in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University and began his career as a Structured Credit Analyst at UBS.

In the episode, Richie and Colin explore the evolution of BI tools, the challenges of integrating casual and rigorous data analysis, the role of semantic layers, and the impact of AI on business intelligence. They discuss the importance of understanding business needs, creating user-focused dashboards, and the future of data products, and much more.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

• Omni
• Connect with Colin
• Skill Track: Design in Power BI
• Related Episode: Self-Service Business Intelligence with Sameer Al-Sakran, CEO at Metabase
• Register for RADAR AI - June 26

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Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) continues to be a foundational approach in AI despite claims of its demise. While some marketing narratives suggest RAG is being replaced by fine-tuning or long context windows, these technologies are actually complementary rather than competitive. But how do you build a truly effective RAG system that delivers accurate results in high-stakes environments? What separates a basic RAG implementation from an enterprise-grade solution that can handle complex queries across disparate data sources? And with the rise of AI agents, how will RAG evolve to support more dynamic reasoning capabilities?

Douwe Kiela is the CEO and co-founder of Contextual AI, a company at the forefront of next-generation language model development. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor in Symbolic Systems at Stanford University, where he contributes to advancing the theoretical and practical understanding of AI systems.

Before founding Contextual AI, Douwe was the Head of Research at Hugging Face, where he led groundbreaking efforts in natural language processing and machine learning. Prior to that, he was a Research Scientist and Research Lead at Meta’s FAIR (Fundamental AI Research) team, where he played a pivotal role in developing Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)—a paradigm-shifting innovation in AI that combines retrieval systems with generative models for more grounded and contextually aware responses.

In the episode, Richie and Douwe explore the misconceptions around the death of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), the evolution to RAG 2.0, its applications in high-stakes industries, the importance of metadata and entitlements in data governance, the potential of agentic systems in enterprise settings, and much more.

Links Mentioned in the Show:

• Contextual AI
• Connect with Douwe
• Course: Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) with LangChain
• Related Episode: High Performance Generative AI Applications with Ram Sriharsha, CTO at Pinecone
• Register for RADAR AI - June 26

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