The Data Chief

7 episodes scanned. 30% of ad slots promote the show's own products.

Recent Episodes

1. Separating AI Hype From Reality with Capgemini’s Danielle Crop

   Oct 28, 2026

   Danielle Crop, Head of Strategic Foresight & Influence at Capgemini and former chief data officer at Albertsons and American Express, discusses how data leaders can move into business strategy, using curiosity and courage as key skills. She argues that AI should be treated as a tool rather than a colleague, and that historical precedent supports pragmatic optimism about job creation. The conversation also covers AI myths, the security gaps that appear as agents move into production, and her view of the Hugging Face incident as a human and infrastructure problem rather than AI going rogue.

2. Why AI for Good Fails and How Leaders Can Fix It

   Oct 14, 2026

   Dr. Ben Green, Assistant Professor of Information and Public Policy at the University of Michigan, discusses why well-designed algorithms can still harm the people they are meant to help. He covers his experience as a data scientist for the City of Boston's EMS department, the "algorithm in the loop" framing, the limits of fairness and transparency as regulatory tools, and his case for legal liability and pre-deployment testing of AI systems. The conversation also touches on the risks of outsourcing critical thinking to AI and on his book Algorithmic Realism.

3. What Most Companies Get Wrong About AI Strategy with Jeff McMillan, former Morgan Stanley AI Leader

   Sep 30, 2026

   Jeff McMillan, founder of McMillanAI and former head of firmwide AI at Morgan Stanley, discusses the real bottlenecks in enterprise AI strategy. Rather than debating AI models, McMillan emphasizes that successful AI transformation depends on leadership curiosity, organizational structure, data quality, and thoughtful task elimination rather than wholesale job cuts. He shares his framework for triaging data foundations and why promoting internal AI leaders often outperforms hiring external talent.

4. AI Literacy Starts in the C-Suite

   Sep 16, 2026

   Beth Miles, Chief AI Officer at Advantage Solutions, discusses building AI literacy and readiness across a distributed workforce of 60,000+ field workers in retail merchandising and CPG. She shares her journey from Chief of Staff to Chief AI Officer, the importance of executive AI training, and how Advantage is redesigning processes before automating them rather than optimizing broken workflows. The episode covers governance structures, the AI Champions program, and measuring success beyond adoption metrics to service excellence and time-to-completion.

5. Discover three must-read books from Linda Hill, Sanjeev Mohan, and Harveer Singh on scaling AI innovation, AI-ready data, and human-centered AI.

   Sep 2, 2026

   Harveer Singh, Co-Founder and CIO of Rizz Wireless and author of When Data Moves, discusses the human consequences of data pipeline decisions and the need for accountability in AI systems. He explores how AI agents must understand the real-world impact of their decisions, shares research on bias detection in credit models, and advocates for human-centered, empathetic AI design that accounts for vulnerable populations affected by algorithmic decisions.

6. How Vanguard is Architecting its AI Semantic Layer

   Aug 19, 2026

   Raman Tallamraju, Senior Director and Head of Enterprise Data Architecture and Engineering at Vanguard, discusses how semantic layers and ontologies have become foundational for enterprise AI. Drawing on 20+ years leading data strategy across four major asset managers, Raman explains why autonomous agents expose decades of data debt, how to build AI-ready data foundations, and why unified semantic layers must be balanced with pragmatic federated operating models at scale.

7. How Grant Thornton Reimagines Core Processes in the AI Era

   Aug 5, 2026

   Alpa Lally, Chief Product Officer at Grant Thornton, discusses how the firm is transforming into a frontier organization by reimagining core processes rather than automating legacy ones. She shares how embedded analytics (ThoughtSpot) and AI governance enable faster, more strategic client conversations, and explores how product management is evolving—not dying—in the AI era. The conversation spans her unique career pivot from structural engineering to product leadership and her philosophy on embracing discomfort as a driver of innovation.

8. How Google Is Building Enterprise Trust in Agentic AI

   Jul 22, 2026

   Andy Gutmans, VP and General Manager of Data Cloud at Google, discusses how enterprises can build trust in agentic AI systems. The conversation covers the spectrum of AI autonomy—from human-in-the-loop to fully autonomous agents—using real examples like Virgin Voyages' inventory rebooking and Vodafone's network operations. Gutmans emphasizes that success requires strong data foundations, open standards, and a measured crawl-walk-run approach rather than token maximization.

9. How Swire Coca-Cola Turned Governance Into an AI Growth Engine

   Jul 8, 2026

10. How to Transform a SaaS Company with AI from ELMO CTO

    Jun 24, 2026