Today’s guest is Ken Mertzel, Global Industry Leader in Financial Services at Automation Anywhere. Automation Anywhere is a global software company that develops various automation software for major industries. Before joining Automation Anywhere six years ago, Ken spent his career in the financial sector, including 15 years at Bank of America. There, he served as CFO of the insurance division and held various leadership roles in finance, risk management, and consumer operations, ultimately leading financial operations for the bank. Before that, he was part of Accenture’s Financial Services Strategy practice, advising clients on industry-leading financial strategies. Ken joins us on this week’s program to explore the evolution of automation in heavily regulated industries. He explains why traditional RPA has only been able to automate a fraction of tasks and how AI is unlocking new opportunities. Ken also breaks down how agentic automation is transforming key financial processes, from AML investigations to fraud detection and underwriting. By combining AI with automation, organizations can extract valuable insights, streamline decision-making, and create more interactive, human-in-the-loop systems. This episode is sponsored by Automation Anywhere. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.

Today’s guest is Roenen Ben-Ami, Co-founder and Chief Risk Officer of Justt. Justt is an AI-driven tech company whose platform helps retail leaders and merchants reduce loss from chargebacks with automation and friendly fraud prevention. Roenen joins us on today's podcast to break down the complexities of chargebacks and how AI-driven automation can help merchants recover lost funds at scale. Together with Emerj Managing Editor Matthew DeMello, Roenen helps explain the "guilty until proven innocent" nature of chargebacks, the rise of friendly fraud, and why merchants often leave money on the table due to inefficiencies in the dispute process. He details how Justt’s proprietary approach—leveraging data enrichment, dynamic arguments, and automation—creates tailored chargeback responses that maximize win rates while reducing manual effort. This episode is sponsored by Justt. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.

Today’s guest is Kimberly Powell, Vice President of Healthcare and Life Sciences at NVIDIA. Kimberly joins us to discuss how AI is reshaping the healthcare landscape. As generative AI adoption accelerates, Kimberly shares her insights on the major challenges the healthcare industry faces, particularly in terms of technology infrastructure. Together, we explore the critical need for hybrid strategies that blend on-premise and cloud computing, enabling real-time data processing for medical imaging, clinical operations, and more. Kimberly emphasizes the importance of developing infrastructure capable of supporting these advanced AI applications to improve patient care and operational efficiency. To discover more AI use cases, best practice guides, white papers, frameworks, and more, join Emerj Plus at emerj.com/p1.

Today’s guests are two senior executives from Sanofi’s manufacturing division, Head of Data & AI for Manufacturing & Supply Chain Kartik Pant and Head of AI & Data Products, Manufacturing & Supply Shreyas Becker, respectively. Together they return to the podcast to cover the challenges and opportunities in adopting data infrastructure and AI solutions in life sciences manufacturing. Throughout the episode they emphasize the need for a unified data architecture, starting small, and articulating a problem-driven approach to technology adoption. Kartik and Shreyas also discuss the importance of understanding specific use cases and leveraging data to identify areas for optimizing processes. If you’re interested in unlocking our AI best practice guides, frameworks for AI ROI, and specific resources for AI consultants, visit emerj.com/p1.

Today’s guest is Paul Cuglietta, Head of Contact and Claims at Simplyhealth. Simplyhealth is a health insurance provider based in the UK whose history goes back to the late 1800s. Paul joins today’s discussion to unpack the challenges organizations face when driving digital transformation. With nearly two years of AI integration experience, Paul provides unique insights from his time at Simplyhealth into overcoming internal and external hurdles in their transformation journey. This episode is sponsored by Hyperscience. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.

Today’s guest is Yonas Yohannes, CTO of FinTech and FIS at Oracle. An accomplished executive and author, Yonas joins us on today’s podcast to explain the evolving role of endpoint storage for driving new AI capabilities at the edge. He breaks down AI’s true value beyond the marketing hype,  and its broader impact on infrastructure across industries, with a special focus on financial services. Throughout the episode, Yonas addresses the real challenges businesses face in adopting AI while ensuring transparency and avoiding regulatory risk. To access Emerj’s frameworks for AI readiness, ROI, and strategy, visit Emerj Plus at emerj.com/p1.

Today’s guest is Duncan Cass-Beggs, Executive Director of the Global AI Risks Initiative at the Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). He joins Emerj CEO and Head of Research Daniel Faggella to explore the pressing challenges and opportunities surrounding Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) governance on a global scale. This is a special episode in our AI futures series that ties right into our overlapping series on AGI governance on the Trajectory podcast, where we’ve had luminaries like Eliezer Yudkowsky, Connor Leahy, and other globally recognized AGI governance thinkers. We hope you enjoy this episode. If you’re interested in these topics, make sure to dive deeper into where AI is affecting the bigger picture by visiting emergj.com/tj2.

Today’s guests are Vrinda Khurjekar and Paul Pallath, VP of North Americas and Applied AI Lead, respectively, at Searce. Searce is a cloud computing solutions and technology services provider globally that specializes in Cloud, AI, and Analytics. Vrinda and Paul join us today to explore how regulated industries such as financial services and healthcare are navigating the complexities of AI adoption. This episode is sponsored by Searce. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.

Today’s guest is Michelle Longmire, Co-founder and CEO of Medable. Medable is a platform technology company that accelerates drug development by improving evidence generation in clinical trials. Michelle joins us on the show today to explore how AI is transforming the clinical trial experience for patients, sites, and sponsors from start to finish. Michelle also offers valuable advice on adopting a portfolio-level digital strategy and managing the organizational change required to embrace AI innovation in clinical research. This episode is sponsored by Medable. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.

Today’s guest is Vivek Khindria, Former SVP Cyber Security, Network and Technology Risk at Loblaw Companies Ltd., Canada’s largest food retailer. With its operations spanning grocery, pharmacy, banking, and apparel, Loblaw faces unique and multifaceted fraud challenges across diverse verticals. Vivek offers expert insights into the evolving fraud landscape, highlighting the critical balance between mitigating false positives and minimizing customer friction. He shares how leveraging data, information sharing across sectors, and advanced AI tools are reshaping fraud prevention strategies. If you've enjoyed or benefited from some of the insights of this episode, consider leaving us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, and let us know what you learned, found helpful, or liked most about this show!