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Daniel Faggella

The 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.

Visit our advertising page to learn more about reaching our executive audience of Fortune 2000 AI adopters: https://emerj.com/advertise

The AI in Business Podcast

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!

Rewiring Systems to Scale AI From Demos to Deliverables - Nina Edwards of Prudential Insurance

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.

Accelerating Speed to Value through Agentic Systems and Intelligent Automation in Life Sciences - with Robert Wenier of AstraZeneca

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.

Governing AI for Fraud, Compliance, and Automation at Scale - with Naveen Kumar of TD Bank

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!

Transparency for AI Systems, Regulations, and Humans in Agricultural Manufacturing - with Kun He of Bayer

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.

Why Granular Visibility and Data Control Determines AI Success in Financial Services - with Chris Joynt of 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!

Rethinking Clinical Trials with Faster AI-Driven Decision Making - with Shefali Kakar of Novartis

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!

Human-Centered Innovation Driving Better Nurse Experiences - with Umesh Rustogi of Microsoft

Today's guest is Cody Barrow, CEO at EclecticIQ. EclecticIQ is a global cybersecurity leader specializing in threat intelligence technology. Cody joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to discuss how AI-driven analytics and automation are revolutionizing threat detection and response in enterprise cybersecurity. Barrow also highlights practical improvements in workflow automation, early threat identification, and measurable ROI through reduced breach risks and operational efficiency. This episode is sponsored by EclecticIQ. 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!

The Biggest Cybersecurity Challenges Facing Regulated and Mid-Market Sectors - with Cody Barrow of EclecticIQ

Today's guest is Dirk Michiels, CEO of Savaco. Savaco is a Belgium-based managed service provider specializing in hybrid cloud solutions, cybersecurity, and enterprise software deployment. Michiels joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to discuss the transformative role of hybrid cloud architectures in enterprise data and AI strategies. He also highlights how seamless integration, enhanced security protocols, and optimized deployment workflows lead to faster innovation and measurable ROI for modern organizations. This episode is sponsored by Xurrent. 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!

Overcoming Cloud Complexity in Mid Market Operations - with Dirk Michiels of Savaco

Today's guest is Meghna Punhani, Chief People Officer at Eightfold AI. Eightfold AI provides an AI-powered platform for talent management, helping organizations optimize hiring, internal mobility, and workforce development. Meghna joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to discuss how HR leaders can adopt AI responsibly to enhance workforce capabilities and drive strategic impact. She also shares practical insights on reengineering HR workflows, leveraging AI for candidate screening and internal mobility, and building human-centered ethical guardrails for AI implementation. This episode is sponsored by Eightfold AI. 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!

From Hiring to Growth and the Future of Workforce Strategy - with Meghna Punhani of Eightfold AI

Today's guest is Ermir Qeli, Head of Data Science in AI at Swiss Re. Ermir joins us on the program to talk about the array of challenges facing insurance leaders at this stage of AI adoption across the sector and how the pace for which is marked by the fundamentally unstructured data at the heart of insurance tech stacks. Throughout the episode, Ermir offers his perspective on scaling systems dealing with these and similar issues, offering numerous use cases in generative AI and beyond to assist in these processes along the way. To discover more AI use cases, best practice guides, white papers, frameworks, and more, join Emerj Plus at emerj.com/p1.

Lessons from Retail Banking on Solutions for Structuring Insurance Data - with Ermir Qeli of Swiss Re

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