In this episode, we sit down with Bhagya Reddy, a data professional with over 20 years of experience, to discuss the critical importance of data literacy across organisations and how data skills can empower career transitions. Bhagya shares her journey of building a comprehensive data university at Virgin Media, training over 10,000 employees, and her passion project helping women and men return to work through data education.

What You'll Learn

1. How to scale data literacy across an entire organization - Bhagya shares her approach for training 10,000+ employees at Virgin Media, from initial resistance to widespread adoption and the impact it had
2. Why data skills are perfect for career transitions - Discover how data education can empower women and men returning to work, and why data literacy skills are so important
3. The secret to making data education stick - Learn the teaching techniques that actually work, from using everyday examples to creating engaging, self-service learning experiences

Resources & Links - connect with Bhagya:

• LinkedIn: Bhagya Reddy
• Website: trainingindata.com
• Email: [email protected]

Guest Bio

Bhagya Reddy is a seasoned data professional with 20+ years of experience currently working at Virgin Media. She's a passionate advocate for data democratisation and sustainability, and the founder of Training in Data, an organisation dedicated to helping people transition back into careers through data education. 

In this conversation, I sit down with Mauro Nicolao, Director of Data Science at Soapbox Labs - a trailblazing company building voice technology designed specifically for children. Recently acquired by Curriculum Associates, Soapbox Labs is now bringing their specialised speech recognition technology to over 13 million students across the US.

From his roots in academia to leading cutting-edge AI products, Mauro shares the story behind his journey and the mission driving Soapbox’s work. Listen to hear:

- Mauro's journey from academia to Soapbox Labs
- How AI tools can support teachers rather than replace them
- What it was like to go through an acquisition, and how Soapbox Labs benefited
- The unique challenges of building ethical and robust AI technology for children
- Real-world lessons from building AI for education

As schools adopt AI tools, understanding how to implement voice technology that works for ALL students has never been more crucial. Mauro's insights are valuable for anyone working at the intersection of AI, voice technology, and education.

Find Mauro on LinkedIn, and learn more about Soapbox Labs and Curriculum Associates.

In this conversation, Shawn Wen, co-founder and CTO of PolyAI, shares insights into the journey of building PolyAI into a successful series C AI startup focused on automating phone calls for contact centres. He discusses the early days of PolyAI, the challenges faced in scaling the team, the importance of company culture, and the evolving role of a CTO in a growing organisation. Shawn also reflects on the impact of industry changes in AI and the lessons learned throughout the startup journey. Listen to hear:

- How Shawn thought about his CTO role as PolyAI evolved
- How PolyAI's culture got set on the right path in its earliest days
- The challenges of hiring new roles into PolyAI
- Why keeping up with the AI firehose sometimes means throwing away what you've built

Follow PolyAI on LinkedIn to keep up-to-date. 

Find Chris on LinkedIn, and learn about Obrizum.

I talk with Chris Pedder from Obrizum. Chris started his career as a Physicist, before moving into AI and Data. He is now Chief Data and AI Officer at Obrizum, who use AI to deliver adaptive learning. 

In this episode we talk about the behaviours that Chris intentionally fosters in his team, including: 

• Empowering your team to own and deliver the whole AI/ML stack
• Fostering ownership and growth in teams, along with a culture of learning
• Chris' experience using ideas from Team Topologies to organise Obrizum's teams
• The importance of friction in learning, and why you don't want AI to remove all the friction
• Being mindful of the ethical considerations in the Education domain
• Chris' lessons learned

Find Sarah on LinkedIn, and learn about In The Room by visiting intheroom.global

Today we're talking with Sarah Coward from In The Room - who use conversational AI technology to enable organisations to make their best expert available to their audiences 24/7, 365 days a year.  

We cover:

• The Origin Story of In the Room
• The Importance of Authenticity in Technology
• Building trust in Conversational AI
• Trust in Technology: Video vs. Text Interactions
• Lessons Learned in Conversational AI Development

Find Prass on LinkedIn, and find his Feed Forward podcast on Spotify & YouTube. 

In this first episode, I talk with Prassanna Ravishankar from Papercup. Prass started his career as a computer vision researcher, before moving into Engineering & MLOps. He now leads the ML platform initiative at Papercup, which is a London-based startup providing AI dubbing solutions. 

We cover 

• Prass' view of platforms and MLOps
• Skills an ML Platform team needs
• Keeping up with the fast-paced world of AI and MLOps
• Engaging stakeholders in platform development
• The impact that a platform team can have on an AI business
• When startups should think about investing in dedicated MLOps capability
• Lessons learned in the journey building Papercup's ML Platform