Driving the Systemic Change for AI – with Deborah Golden of Deloitte
Release Date: 11/22/2025
Why Financial AI Can’t Scale Without Unified Governance with James Dean of Google and Mark Crean of Securiti
The AI in Business Podcast
Financial institutions are finding that the primary bottleneck to AI adoption isn't the technology itself, but the inability to govern sensitive data with the precision required for enterprise-scale deployment. In this episode, Mark Crean, Regional Vice President of Sales from Securiti AI and James Dean, AI Specialist at Google Cloud, breaks down how fragmented data and access risks keep high-value use cases trapped in the pilot phase. They outline the shift toward disciplined data classification and the cross-team alignment necessary to transition AI into regulated, revenue-critical...
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How Digital Workers Are Changing Industrial Performance - with Somya Kapoor of IFS Loops
The AI in Business Podcast
A decade of stalled industrial AI efforts has given way to a new phase where agentic systems can finally handle complex, variable operational tasks without the brittle constraints of earlier automation. In this episode, Somya Kapoor, CEO at IFS Loops, joins Daniel Faggella Emerj CEO and Head of Research to examine how digital workers can be introduced as task‑specific assistants that learn from business instructions and progressively take on procurement, service, and back‑office responsibilities. She highlights the shift toward managing these agents alongside human teams, emphasizing...
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How Walmart Is Reengineering AI Delivery Speed - with David Glick of Walmart
The AI in Business Podcast
Enterprise AI is outpacing the operating models built to support it, forcing leaders to reconcile rapid iteration with safety, governance, and real‑world scale. In this episode, David Glick, SVP of Enterprise Business Services at Walmart, examines how stopwatch‑speed prototyping, nano‑agent architectures, and evolving security processes are reshaping enterprise delivery. The discussion highlights shifts from monoliths to federated agents, faster iteration cycles, and the emerging need to build the machine that builds the machine. Executives shaping real AI outcomes are invited to...
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Why Supply Chain Design Becomes the Differentiator as AI Automates Planning - with Don Hicks of Optilogic
The AI in Business Podcast
The traditional focus on supply chain efficiency has created brittle networks that break under modern volatility and shifting global trade consensus. Optilogic provides an AI‑native platform for supply chain design, where autonomous agents build models, generate scenarios, and evaluate network tradeoffs. In this episode, Don Hicks, CEO at Optilogic, unpacks why enterprise leaders must run supply chain planning and design as parallel, symbiotic processes to move beyond current network constraints and build for long-term resilience. The discussion outlines a framework for using AI to automate...
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Turning Market Shifts into Field Action for Medtech Commercial Teams - with Mike Monovoukas & Alex Wakefield of AcuityMD
The AI in Business Podcast
The reliance on historical data and manual CRM entry has created a significant gap between internal strategy and the real-time signals driving today’s complex medical technology market. In this episode, Mike Monovoukas, CEO and Co-founder, and Alex Wakefield, CRO at AcuityMD, examine how operationalizing AI through proactive market signals and field-based insights can drive revenue growth by increasing representative effectiveness. The discussion outlines frameworks for achieving 10x efficiency gains by integrating voice-driven workflows and predictive data to accelerate territory onboarding...
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Why Manual K-1 Workflows Are Breaking Under Modern Tax Complexity - with Ken Powell of K1x
The AI in Business Podcast
In today's episode sponsored by K1x, the accounting sector faces a critical inflection point as a deficit of 300,000 professionals intersects with escalating regulatory complexity and a doubling of alternative investment data. Ken Powell, Chief Revenue Officer at K1x, examines how sophisticated tax technology is facilitating a transition from experimental pilot programs to the institutional deployment of automated workflows that neutralize the limitations of manual compliance. The discussion outlines a strategic framework for implementing straight-through processing to extract intricate,...
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Building a Virtuous Cycle of Analytics in Global Enterprises - with Barry McCardel of Hex
The AI in Business Podcast
Enterprise data estates often optimize for platform expansion over decision velocity, producing reporting layers that signal activity but fail to accelerate strategic outcomes. In this episode, Barry McCardel, CEO at Hex, examines how leading organizations can compress the gap between executive questions and decision-grade insight to materially increase the enterprise value of data. The discussion focuses on tightening feedback loops, operationalizing collaborative and AI-augmented analysis, and redefining data ROI around adoption, trust, and measurable business impact rather than production...
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AI Use Cases, Deployment, and Measuring Real-World ROI - with Ylan Kazi of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota
The AI in Business Podcast
Today’s guest is Ylan Kazi, Chief Data and AI Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota. With deep experience leading enterprise AI strategy in regulated healthcare, Ylan brings a grounded perspective on how organizations can innovate responsibly with emerging technology. Ylan joins Emerj Emerj Client Narrative & Content Strategy Lead Nick Gertsch to discuss how healthcare leaders can approach AI adoption through clear organizational posture, strong governance, and a focus on measurable customer and operational value. Ylan also shares practical takeaways, including balancing...
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Operationalizing Customer Service at Scale with Outcome-Driven Agentic AI - with Craig Walker of Dialpad
The AI in Business Podcast
Customer service leaders face rising pressure to resolve more interactions faster, while maintaining high-quality experiences — and many legacy systems and processes can’t keep up. In this episode, Craig Walker, CEO of Dialpad, joins Daniel Faggella, Emerj CEO and Head of Research, to break down how AI can augment human agents to handle routine requests like order status and password resets, freeing teams to focus on complex issues. He shares actionable strategies for enterprise leaders, from cleaning knowledge bases and analyzing ticket patterns to running controlled pilots and scaling AI...
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Pricing Changes in Small Commercial Without Governance Debt - with Barbara Stacer of Utica National Insurance Group
The AI in Business Podcast
The critical bottleneck in small commercial pricing is no longer the actuarial model itself, but the operational friction and administrative stagnation that occurs during the transition from indication to production deployment. In this episode, Barbara Stacer, Vice President and Head of Small Commercial Underwriting and Underwriting Operations at Utica National Insurance Group, unpacks how carriers can eliminate premium leakage and accelerate speed-to-market by implementing standardized operational infrastructure to automate versioning, documentation, and governance. The discussion outlines a...
info_outlineThe gap between a promising AI pilot and enterprise-wide, scalable impact remains a critical divide where momentum and resources often stall. Today’s guest is Deborah Golden, U.S. Chief Innovation Officer at Deloitte who returns to the show to join Emerj CEO Daniel Faggella to tackle the costly reality of stalled AI initiatives. This conversation moves beyond traditional theory, offering a new strategic lens for driving the systemic and cultural change required to scale AI responsibly. Deborah shares how leaders can overcome deep-seated organizational inertia that typically hinders initiatives, architecting novel approaches for innovation – like AI sandboxes, portfolio-based funding, and “blameless postmortems” – forging the critical, and often missing, connective tissue between experimentation and measurable business impact. The conversation delivers concrete strategies for connecting innovation to core operations and unlocking the promise of AI across your enterprise. This episode is sponsored by Deloitte. Discover how your company can connect with Emerj’s audience through our curated media offerings: emerj.com/ad1. Share your perspective with an audience of enterprise AI decision-makers — apply to join the AI in Business podcast: emerj.com/expert2.