Our guest today is Neal Lathia, Associate Director of Machine Learning at Monzo bank, a major UK digital bank which is now valued at around $4.5 billion. 

In our conversation, we first talk about Neal's PhD in recommender systems, the type of AI algorithms used by Youtube, Netflix, Spotify which provide user specific recommendations. We then go over his experience as a freelance Data Scientist and dig into different projects that he worked on.  We also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of working freelance vs working in industry. We finally focus on AI at Monzo where Neal explains how to efficiently use machine learning within a bank to deliver value and dig into how AI algorithms can be used to improve customers experience. 

Throughout the conversation, Neal shares various advice on how to quickly progress in your career, how to become a better Data Scientist / ML Engineer but also how to acquire the skills to lead a team.