How can organizations ensure that their data pipelines deliver consistent, trustworthy insights without frequent disruptions? In this episode of the Talking AI podcast, host Matt Paige co-host Omar Shanti, CTO of HatchWorks AI, speak with Andrew Jones, Principal Engineer at GoCardless, about the concept and practice of data contracts. Andrew explains what data contracts are, why they emerged, and how they improve data reliability and collaboration.

The discussion explores how data contracts relate to data mesh and platform thinking, helping teams share responsibility for data while maintaining clear standards. Andrew and Omar share examples of data contracts addressing issues like schema changes, governance, and data quality.

They also consider how data contracts support AI initiatives by ensuring that the data feeding into models is accurate and reliable. Practical steps are given, including starting with a clear problem and involving the right people.

Andrew provides resources for deeper learning, including his book and online materials. Matt and Omar also mention an upcoming webinar on data contracts, inviting listeners to learn more and move toward more structured, dependable data practices.

Key Moments:

• Introduction to data contracts and their purpose
• Highlighting the common reliability issues that data contracts can prevent
• Linking data contracts to data mesh and other modern data architectures
• Exploring how data contracts help maintain governance and compliance
• Demonstrating how data contracts ensure quality for AI-driven applications
• Discussing platform thinking and its role in scaling data contract implementations
• Offering practical advice on how to begin using data contracts in your organization

Key Links:

• Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn
• Connect with Omar on LinkedIn

Mentioned in this episode:

Gen AI Solution Accelerator

Got a Gen AI idea for your business but don't know where to start? Hatchworks Gen AI Accelerator turns your concepts into prototypes fast. From tech selection to fine-tuning, we guide you through every step, ensuring a low-risk path to innovation. See your idea come to life in just 2-8 weeks. Dive into Gen AI with confidence.

How is the growing world of AI agents reshaping enterprise systems? In this episode of Talking AI, host Matt Paige is joined by Praveen Gunasekaran, Senior Director and Chief Architect at Visa, and Omar Shanti, CTO of HatchWorks, to explore the possibilities of agentic systems and their impact on software development.

Together, they look at the power of agentic systems—technologies that can autonomously make decisions and execute changes in business processes without human intervention. This shift from deterministic to probabilistic systems opens up new opportunities for software developers to create more dynamic and responsive products.

One of the key points in this episode is that agentic systems could help to democratize access to tech, enabling people with minimal coding experience to harness more advanced tools. But with that comes the question of governance. Omar talks about ensuring accountability and accuracy while preventing potential risks associated with AI agents.

Curious about how AI agents are changing the landscape of automation and real-time systems? Tune in to discover the future of multi-agent systems, real-time processing, and AI-driven innovation with Praveen Gunasekaran and Omar Shanti!

Key moments:

• How Praveen defines agentic systems and thinking
• How the agent model could lead to greater democratization of technology
• Why governance is essential for ensuring accuracy
• How measures like "AI judges" and breaking tasks into manageable parts could be the key
• How “an agent mesh” could become a new architecture for AI systems
• Are APIs still the standard that the industry will follow?
• Praveen’s advice for making decisions on architecture and how agentic systems might change that

Key links: 

• Connect with Praveen on LinkedIn

Mentioned in this episode:

Gen AI Solution Accelerator

Got a Gen AI idea for your business but don't know where to start? Hatchworks Gen AI Accelerator turns your concepts into prototypes fast. From tech selection to fine-tuning, we guide you through every step, ensuring a low-risk path to innovation. See your idea come to life in just 2-8 weeks. Dive into Gen AI with confidence.

Could AI evolve from its position as a handy assistant to a fully-fledged teammate in the workplace?

Patrick Lynch, PhD, AI Faculty Lead at Hult International Business School, and Omar Shanti, CTO of HatchWorks, join host Matt Paige to explore the AI industrial revolution we’re seeing and how human-AI collaboration could drastically affect the way teams collaborate.

Patrick takes us through the "four faces of AI" - mechanical, analytical, intuitive, and empathetic - highlighting the progression of AI maturity and what it could mean for the future of work. This framework provides a valuable lens through which leaders can understand and leverage AI in the future.

The episode also touches on cutting-edge AI applications, such as Hume AI's voice models, which can detect and respond to human emotions, opening up new possibilities for AI-human interaction in various fields, from customer service to therapy and education.

Curious about how AI is becoming your new co-worker? Listen to Talking AI, where we explore how AI is turning into a real teammate at work. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and join us as we discuss how this technology is changing our future!

Key moments:

• Why we’re seeing an AI industrial revolution
• How we can start thinking of AI as co-workers
• The four faces of AI
• A demonstration of Hume AI
• How AI is starting to recognize emotion
• Potential use cases for AI co-workers
• The challenge of coding charisma into AI
• How adoption of AI could be affected by inaccurate results
• Which cultures are best suited to using AI

Key links: 

• Visit Patrick’s website
• TEDx Talks
• Connect with Patrick on LinkedIn
• Connect with Omar on LinkedIn

Mentioned in this episode:

Gen AI Solution Accelerator

Got a Gen AI idea for your business but don't know where to start? Hatchworks Gen AI Accelerator turns your concepts into prototypes fast. From tech selection to fine-tuning, we guide you through every step, ensuring a low-risk path to innovation. See your idea come to life in just 2-8 weeks. Dive into Gen AI with confidence.

Change is often met with resistance, but Neil Goodrich, Chief Innovation Officer at Envista Forensics, challenges us to rethink our approach to innovation in this episode of Talking AI.

Together with host Matt Paige, Neil explores where new AI tools can help to lead innovation and how small incremental changes can drive larger transformative projects. We look at how AI can boost efficiency at different stages of an innovation process, from creating faster prototypes to democratizing access to data insights across teams.

Matt and Neil swap ideas on how AI could impact things like customer feedback, everyday work, job displacement, and education (for better or worse). A key takeaway point from this episode is the importance of adaptability – a skill that we will all need as tech like AI continues to evolve rapidly.

Key moments:

• How AI can be involved in innovation projects big or small
• Neil provides the backstory to the DePaul innovation labs
• Will AI become an everyday tool like email is today?
• How AI could change different elements of an innovation process
• What excites and concerns Neil about the future of AI
• How AI could impact jobs and education

Key links: 

• Envista Forensics
• Connect with Neil on LinkedIn

Mentioned in this episode:

Gen AI Innovation Workshop

Generative AI is revolutionizing industries, staying ahead means not just understanding its capabilities but actively leveraging them. This episode dives into Hatchworks' cutting-edge Generative AI Innovation Workshop, designed to equip businesses with the knowledge and tools needed for success in this transformative landscape.

Generative AI may feel like the new kid on the block, but it's not as different from traditional machine learning as you might think.

In this episode of Talking AI, we’re joined by Simba Khadder, Co-Founder & CEO of Featureform, and Omar Shanti, CTO of Hatchworks AI, to discuss how generative AI builds upon established ML principles and infrastructure. We explore the misconception that it exists as its own little island, when in reality, we see a clear continuity between classic ML and newer AI technologies.

Simba and Omar break down the unique aspects of GenAI, such as prompting and large language models (LLMs), while also highlighting the shared foundations with traditional ML. They also touch on the evolution of retrieval augmented generation (RAG), the ML vs. GenAI lifecycle, and what MLOps teams should consider when it comes to driving value in a business.

Want to stay ahead in the fast-moving world of AI? Tune in to Talking AI where we break down the latest trends and tools in Generative AI, MLOps, and more. Subscribe now, and don't miss out on practical insights from industry experts. Let’s transform your data into real business impact!

Key moments:

• The similarities and differences between generative AI and traditional machine learning
• How prompts differentiate LLMs from earlier transformer models
• The challenges of implementing AI in production versus creating pilot projects
• How RAG has evolved and what it could mean for the future
• The importance of data as the core foundation for both traditional ML and generative AI
• How feature engineering in ML relates to embeddings in LLMs
• How an ML lifecycle differs from a GenAI one

Key links: 

• Featureform
• Connect with Simba on LinkedIn

Mentioned in this episode:

Gen AI Innovation Workshop

Generative AI is revolutionizing industries, staying ahead means not just understanding its capabilities but actively leveraging them. This episode dives into Hatchworks' cutting-edge Generative AI Innovation Workshop, designed to equip businesses with the knowledge and tools needed for success in this transformative landscape.

Does generative AI have a place in the highly regulated world of life sciences, and can it produce value without compromising patient safety?

In this episode of the Talking AI podcast, host Matt Paige sits down with Matt Lewis, Global Chief AI Officer at Inizio Medical, to explore the delicate balance between innovation and risk in healthcare AI.

Matt brings a wealth of experience from his role at Inizio Medical, a powerhouse in the life sciences industry that balances scientific knowledge with cutting-edge technology like AI to transform medical communication and content.

He shares invaluable insights on how AI is transforming pharmaceutical research, biotech advancements, and medical device development.

Matt reveals Inizio’s strategy for prioritizing AI use cases, explaining why there's no one-size-fits-all approach in such a complex field. He also discusses how AI can save time in creating patient summaries and why personalization and custom AI tools are needed to produce complex content.

Key moments:

• Generative AI's potential in life sciences and the associated risks
• How augmented intelligence can enhance decision-making and improve patient outcomes
• Matt’s dual role in improving internal operations and supporting clients in AI adoption
• How to identify and prioritize AI use cases unique to each organization
• Practical applications of AI and how they can save time and improve understanding
• The limitations of off-the-shelf AI tools like ChatGPT and the need for tailored solutions
• Why personalization in AI is important to provide tailored content

Key links: 

• Inizio’s Website
• Connect with Matt on LinkedIn
• The Neuron
• OpenTools
• Superhuman
• One Useful Thing
• There’s An AI For That
• Regulated industries white paper Conor Grennan (Chief AI Architect, NYU) and Matt Lewis co-authored

Mentioned in this episode:

Gen AI Innovation Workshop

Generative AI is revolutionizing industries, staying ahead means not just understanding its capabilities but actively leveraging them. This episode dives into Hatchworks' cutting-edge Generative AI Innovation Workshop, designed to equip businesses with the knowledge and tools needed for success in this transformative landscape.

In this bonus episode of Talking AI, Omar Shanti, CTO of HatchWorks AI, breaks down how LangChain’s abstractions have both helped and hindered AI innovation.

He explains why these tools, while useful for quick starts, can sometimes make simple tasks harder as projects scale. The conversation highlights where LangChain shines and where it falls short.

Viewers will hear insights on why prompt engineering and tuning are more challenging than building agent tools. Omar shares how over-abstraction can cause issues when taking projects into production, leading many to rethink their toolkits.

If you’re working with LangChain or similar abstraction tools, this episode gives you practical advice on avoiding common pitfalls and understanding when these abstractions might not serve your needs.

Key Moments:

• Introduction to LangChain’s abstractions
• What is abstraction?
• LangChain’s pros and cons
• Challenges with LangChain in production
• Observability and orchestration
• How much orchestration do you need?
• Final thoughts on using LangChain

Key links:

• HatchWorks AI
• Connect with Omar on LinkedIn

Mentioned in this episode:

Gen AI Innovation Workshop

Generative AI is revolutionizing industries, staying ahead means not just understanding its capabilities but actively leveraging them. This episode dives into Hatchworks' cutting-edge Generative AI Innovation Workshop, designed to equip businesses with the knowledge and tools needed for success in this transformative landscape.

Is AI-generated content really good enough to compete in the highly competitive world of search engine optimization? This was a question that Tim Hanson had early on in his AI journey, as many of us were experimenting with ChatGPT and other tools with varying results.

His solution? Penfriend.ai – a tool that generates articles based on proven content strategies without the need for traditional prompting. As Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Tim joins the Talking AI podcast to delve into the world of AI-powered content and how Penfriend avoids the dreaded “AI wrapper” label.

We hear Tim’s journey of developing Penfriend, inspired by his background in SEO and experience constantly adapting to Google’s algorithm tweaks. He tells host Matt Paige about the top mistakes he’s seen marketers make when using AI, and how his solution is built to mimic the multiple complex decisions a human makes before writing an SEO article.

Tim's approach demonstrates that successful AI integration goes far beyond simple prompts, involving complex workflows, proprietary data, and a nuanced understanding of the target audience.

Key moments:

• Creating value with an AI solution
• The importance of effective prompting and not overloading AI with too many tasks
• Comparison of human decision-making in blog creation vs. using a single AI prompt
• Penfriend’s approach to using different AI models for specific tasks
• The non-linear process of keyword research and title selection in Penfriend
• How Penfriend uses different prompts for various blog sections
• Discussion on how AI is affecting SEO practices
• The biggest challenges and lessons learned when creating Penfriend
• What Tim’s most excited about in the future of AI content creation

Key links: 

• Penfriend
• Connect with Tim on LinkedIn

Mentioned in this episode:

Gen AI Innovation Workshop

Generative AI is revolutionizing industries, staying ahead means not just understanding its capabilities but actively leveraging them. This episode dives into Hatchworks' cutting-edge Generative AI Innovation Workshop, designed to equip businesses with the knowledge and tools needed for success in this transformative landscape.

Gen AI promises to completely transform our world, from how we work to how we live. But do the core first principles in product management and strategy change with this new technology?

Join Matt as he digs into this question with Uday Kumar, Principal - Data and AI Product Management at Metashore. Uday shares his insights on maintaining core principles in product management while leveraging the new tools and technologies offered by generative AI. He emphasizes that while the fundamentals of understanding customer needs and solving problems remain unchanged, generative AI presents a new and compelling toolset.

They also discuss the potential of generative AI to revolutionize sectors like healthcare, fintech, and education by making complex technological solutions more user-centric and effective and highlight the importance of 'falling in love with the problem'—spending significant time understanding the issue before looking at the tools available to solve it. The conversation also explores how organizations can start integrating generative AI into their operations.

Key moments:

• Gen AI and product strategy
• Fundamentals of project management in the age of AI
• Challenges and opportunities with gen AI
• Implementing gen AI in organizations
• Data considerations and security in AI
• Strategic implications of gen AI
• The future of AI Agents and project management
• How to get in touch with Uday

Key links: 

• Metashore
• Connect with Uday on LinkedIn

Mentioned in this episode:

Gen AI Innovation Workshop

Generative AI is revolutionizing industries, staying ahead means not just understanding its capabilities but actively leveraging them. This episode dives into Hatchworks' cutting-edge Generative AI Innovation Workshop, designed to equip businesses with the knowledge and tools needed for success in this transformative landscape.

What if the future of work is not just about humans collaborating with machines, but about creating entire organizations that operate through AI agents?

In this episode of the Talking AI podcast, host Matt Paige unpacks this concept with Alan Wunsche, Managing Partner at Agentware AI and an expert in organizational change and emerging technologies. Together, they discuss the rise of "agentic organizations," where AI agents are not merely tools but integral members of the workforce, executing tasks autonomously and enhancing productivity.

Alan draws parallels between the current AI revolution and historical technological advancements, such as the printing press. He explains how organizations are beginning to give AI agents more agency, allowing them to take on responsibilities and make decisions that were once the domain of human workers. They also discuss the challenges organizations face in implementing AI agents, the critical role of HR leaders in managing the transition, and lots more.

Key moments:

• A look at ‘agentic organizations’
• Comparison of AI’s impact to historical technological revolutions
• A look at the transition of AI from assistant roles to autonomous agents
• The critical role of HR leaders in managing organizational change related to AI
• Insights into the challenges organizations face adapting to the advancements
• What the potential displacement of knowledge workers due to AI advancements could look like
• How to equip employees with new skills to thrive
• The evolving relationship between humans and AI agents
• Where people can connect with Alan

Key links: 

• Alan's Book
• Connect with Alan on LinkedIn

Mentioned in this episode:

Gen AI Innovation Workshop

Generative AI is revolutionizing industries, staying ahead means not just understanding its capabilities but actively leveraging them. This episode dives into Hatchworks' cutting-edge Generative AI Innovation Workshop, designed to equip businesses with the knowledge and tools needed for success in this transformative landscape.