Stay ConnectedThe AI in Business Podcast is for non-technical business leaders who need to find AI opportunities, align AI capabilities with strategy, and deliver ROI.
Each week, Emerj research staff and journalists interview top AI executives from Fortune 2000 firms and unicorn startups – uncovering trends, use-cases, and best practices for practical AI adoption.
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Copyright: © Daniel Faggella, 2014
Today's guest is Baker Johnson, Chief Business Officer at UJET. UJET is a next-generation cloud contact center platform that leverages AI to modernize the customer experience. Baker joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explain why conversational and agentic AI often fall short in CX, and how legacy processes and fragmented data prevent meaningful results. Baker also offers practical steps for improving ROI — from redesigning workflows before automating them to aligning real-time interaction data with systems of record and building a healthier balance between human and AI agents. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/expert2 for more information and to be a potential future guest on the 'AI in Business' podcast! This episode is sponsored by UJET.
Today's guest is Sandro Venturini, Executive Director at UBS Asset Management Switzerland. Sandro brings deep expertise in fund structuring, cross-border launches, and data integration for financial services. Sandro joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explore how fragmented fund data creates silos in mergers and launches, and how a single source of truth enables AI to streamline compliance and reporting. Sandro also shares practical takeaways, such as using AI to anticipate stakeholder concerns from term sheets, generate draft prospectuses that slash legal fees and formation costs, and customize investor reporting to reduce manual errors across share classes. Just a quick note for our audience that the views expressed by Sandro Venturini on today's program do not reflect those of UBS or its leadership. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/expert2 for more information and to be a potential future guest on the 'AI in Business' podcast!
Today's guest is Kuo Zhang, President of Alibaba.com. Alibaba.com is a global B2B marketplace connecting small and mid-sized businesses with manufacturers and suppliers worldwide. Kuo joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello for an exclusive interview following his keynote address at this year's CoCreate event in Las Vegas to discuss how agentic AI is lowering barriers to global sourcing, transforming procurement workflows, and reshaping how organizations of all sizes move from product idea to execution. Kuo also breaks down the practical efficiencies emerging from AI-driven automation—from reducing manual supplier communication to streamlining global transactions and trade assurance—and explains where enterprises are already seeing measurable ROI through faster cycle times, expanded sourcing options, and increased operational resilience. You can read an article analysis of today's conversation, originally published on Emerj.com, here. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/expert2 for more information and to be a potential future guest on the 'AI in Business' podcast! 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! Watch Matt and Kuo's conversation on our new YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@EmerjAIResearch.
Today's guest is Nina Edwards, Vice President of Emerging Technology and Innovation at Prudential Insurance. With decades of experience driving strategy, innovation, and AI-enabled growth at leading financial and consulting firms, Nina brings deep expertise in applied intelligence and emerging technology. Nina joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to unpack why 95% of AI pilots fail to deliver enterprise value and reveal strategies for translating productivity gains into measurable ROI by ditching pre-AI metrics. Nina also shares practical takeaways, including protected sandboxes that slash approval cycles from months to days, unified KPI glossaries standardizing cycle time and exception rates, outcome charters targeting business value, and human-centered operating models shifting teams from doing to deciding to scale pilots enterprise-wide. This episode is sponsored by Moody's. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/expert2 for more information and to be a potential future guest on the 'AI in Business' podcast!
Today's guest is Robert Wenier, Global Head of Cloud and Infrastructure at AstraZeneca. Robert leads enterprise cloud, infrastructure, and platform strategy across a highly regulated, data-intensive global organization. Robert joins Emerj CEO and Head of Research Daniel Faggella to discuss how enterprise data and AI architectures are shifting from service-oriented and microservice models toward emerging agentic architectures that prioritize end-to-end business outcomes over stepwise technical execution. The conversation explores why AI is moving from a supporting role to a direct driver of competitive advantage, and how this changes expectations for infrastructure, data strategy, and leadership ownership. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/expert2 for more information and to be a potential future guest on the 'AI in Business' podcast! 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! Watch Daniel and Robert's conversation on our new YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@EmerjAIResearch.
Today's guest is Naveen Kumar, Head of Insider Risk, Analytics, and Detection at TD Bank. With deep expertise in financial crime and risk analytics, he offers a frontline view into how regulated institutions manage AI securely at scale. Naveen joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to discuss the foundations required for responsible AI adoption in banking — from data protection and governance to fraud prevention and machine-assisted investigation. Naveen also breaks down practical steps leaders can take to improve ROI, including role-based AI access, full data visibility, and phasing innovation to meet regulatory expectations. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/expert2 for more information and to be a potential future guest on the 'AI in Business' podcast! This episode is sponsored by NLP Logix.
Today's guest is Kun He, Lead Scientific Advisor at Bayer Crop Science. He joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to discuss how AI is transforming human talent and workforce development in agricultural manufacturing, balancing data-driven efficiency with the irreplaceable role of human gut instinct. Kun also explores practical takeaways, such as integrating genotyping and phenotyping data to accelerate crop-breeding workflows, empowering breeders to drive "step change" innovations, and treating AI as a co-pilot to check biases while prioritizing customer needs for blockbuster R&D outcomes. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/expert2 for more information and to be a potential future guest on the 'AI in Business' podcast!
Today's guest is Chris Joynt, Director of Product Marketing at Securiti. Securiti is a leader in AI-powered data security, privacy, and governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Chris joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explore why trust in data remains the defining challenge for AI in financial services, and how institutions can modernize their architectures to enable safe, compliant, and scalable AI adoption. Chris also breaks down the practical workflows that reduce regulatory and cyber risk — mapping data flows, classifying unstructured data, preventing shadow AI — and shows how stronger governance ultimately accelerates ROI by enabling faster, more reliable AI deployment across the enterprise. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/expert2 for more information and to be a potential future guest on the 'AI in Business' podcast! This episode is sponsored by Securiti.
Shefali Kakar, Global Head of PK Sciences and Oncology at Novartis, returns to the AI in Business podcast to discuss how AI is reshaping the earliest and most critical phases of drug development—where strategic investment decisions are made long before a clinical trial begins. Together with Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello, Shefali explores how advanced modeling, in silico design, and patient data are creating a clearer picture of risk and return across R&D portfolios. She explains how pharmaceutical organizations are leveraging multi-factorial models to simulate safety, efficacy, and market potential—down to the molecular level. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/expert2 for more information and to be a potential future guest on the 'AI in Business' podcast!
Today's guest is Umesh Rustogi, General Manager of Dragon for Nursing, Microsoft Health & Life Sciences. Umesh joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explore how nursing workflows are straining under documentation burden, and how ambient AI is being built — not repurposed — to fit the realities of frontline care. The conversation also examines practical workflow changes already emerging in the field, as well as early ROI signals to watch for. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/expert2 for more information and to be a potential future guest on the 'AI in Business' podcast!
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