Feed Drop: MIT CSAIL Alliances Podcast

Today’s episode is a bonus drop from our friends over at the MIT CSAIL Alliances podcast. We'll be back on September 16 with new episodes of Me, Myself, and AI. Chris Miller is professor of international history at Tufts University. He joins the MIT CSAIL Alliances podcast to share insights from his recent book, Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the executive producer is Allison Ryder. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at ⁠mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders⁠ or by following Me, Myself, and AI on ⁠LinkedIn⁠. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

Julian Adams tried but didn’t succeed at retirement after a productive career as a medical chemist with several U.S. Food and Drug Association approvals of cancer-related treatments, including cell therapy for bone marrow transplantation. Soon after, his participation in a Stand Up To Cancer advisory group led to his appointment as the nonprofit’s president and CEO. The research organization raises money to advance the diagnosis of numerous cancers. Given rapid technological advancements, our podcast hosts were eager to invite Julian on the show to share how Stand Up To Cancer uses artificial intelligence to aid in this pursuit. Read the episode transcript here. For more information on Stand Up To Cancer and how to donate to the organization, please visit this website. Guest bio Julian Adams, president and CEO of Stand Up To Cancer, is among the world’s foremost oncology researchers. He was previously CEO of biopharmaceutical company Gamida Cell and president of R&D at Infinity Pharmaceuticals, where he oversaw development of small molecule drugs to treat cancer. He has also held roles at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Boehringer Ingelheim, LeukoSite, and ProScript. Adams’s recognitions include the 2012 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize for his role in the discovery and development of bortezomib, an anti-cancer drug; the 2012 C. Chester Stock Award Lectureship from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; and the 2001 Ribbon of Hope Award for Velcade from the International Myeloma Foundation. He holds more than 40 patents and has authored more than 130 papers and book chapters. He received his bachelor’s degree and an honorary doctor of science degree from McGill University and his Ph.D. from MIT in synthetic organic chemistry. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the executive producer is Allison Ryder. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

Josh Weiner, senior vice president of consumer engagement and analytics at CVS Health, is passionate about making health care more personalized, connected, preventative, and accessible. On today’s episode, Josh joins Sam and Shervin to explain how the integrated health care company is structured and how it is using AI to achieve those goals. Read the episode transcript here. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the executive producer is Allison Ryder. Guest bio At CVS Health, where Josh Weiner is the senior vice president of consumer engagement and analytics, his priority is personalizing consumer experiences and developing the health care company’s app. Previously, he was a health care leader at Meta, where he supported product development, algorithm engineering, and acquisitions. He was also a senior analytics expert at McKinsey and Co. Weiner is a board member at nonprofits Enduring Hearts and Docs for Tots. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a master’s from Northwestern University. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

The suggestions and support offered by AI are helpful only if they’re relevant. On today’s episode, Walter Sun, senior vice president and global head of artificial intelligence at SAP, joins Sam and Shervin to share how his organization is helping employees get smarter about artificial intelligence through the company’s AI Days. Additionally, Walter gives specific examples of support that AI agents could provide to an end user, and makes the case that small language models (fine-tuned large language models) can be built to assist in decision-making. Read the episode transcript here. Guest bio: Walter Sun is senior vice president and global head of artificial intelligence at SAP, where his team applies AI across applications for improved automation, natural human-machine interaction, and augmentation of decisions. Sun joined SAP in 2023 from Microsoft, where he was vice president of Copilot Applied Artificial Intelligence. While there he founded Bing Predicts, which leveraged anonymized and aggregated data for predictive analytics. He also delivered many AI features for the Bing search engine, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Power Platform. Previously, Sun worked at BlackRock Financial Management and at Apple as a senior software engineer. Sun has taught at Seattle University and the University of Washington, and he is currently an advisory board member at Georgia Tech and the University of Rochester, and an MIT Tech Review Global Insights panelist. He obtained his bachelor’s from Georgia Tech and his Ph.D. and master’s from MIT. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the executive producer is Allison Ryder. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

Many of us know Goodwill Industries International as a retailer that accepts and resells donated goods. What the average consumer may not know is that the nonprofit takes in over 5 billion pounds of goods each year — and not all of it can be resold. For those unwanted or unviable items, the organization can either look into recycling or upcycling, and with the help of AI, it’s able to efficiently make that determination while also improving its process for sorting and allocating sellable goods for different retail channels. Additionally, Goodwill helps its workforce with career-development skills. Much of this training has been enhanced with AI. Tune in to this episode to hear directly from Goodwill CEO Steve Preston about how the organization is using technology to fulfill a mission that extends beyond the retail store. Read the episode transcript here. Guest bio: As president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International, Steven C. Preston leads a network of 153 local Goodwill organizations with a combined revenue of $8.2 billion. In addition to being a secondhand retail leader, Goodwill is a leading nonprofit provider of workforce training and development in North America. Positioning the organization at the forefront of workforce development has been a top focus for Preston since he joined Goodwill in 2019. He has also forged partnerships with organizations focused on sustainable practices in the secondhand retail marketplace and developed mission-focused marketing efforts to elevate the Goodwill brand. Previously, Preston served in numerous operational and financial leadership positions in both the public and private sectors. After heading the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Small Business Administration, he led successful turnarounds as the CEO of Oakleaf Global Holdings and Livingston International. He also served as the CFO of Waste Management and ServiceMaster. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the executive producer is Allison Ryder. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

In today’s episode, Chandra Kapireddy, head of generative AI, machine learning, and analytics at Truist, delves into the evolving landscape of AI with a particular focus on how GenAI tools reshape the way Truist and similar organizations must navigate model risk management and regulations. GenAI is more versatile than traditional AI, he notes, yet its flexibility introduces new challenges around ensuring model reliability, validating outputs, and making sure that AI-driven decisions don’t lead to unfair or opaque outcomes. Chandra’s responsible AI approach at Truist is focused on risk mitigation while emphasizing the importance of human oversight in high-stakes decision-making. He points out that while GenAI can vastly improve productivity by handling repetitive or analysis-heavy tasks, it’s essential to properly train employees in order to use the tools effectively and not over-rely on their outputs, especially given their tendency to hallucinate or produce inaccurate results. Read the episode transcript here. Guest bio Chandra Kapireddy is head of generative AI, machine learning, and analytics, at Truist. He brings over 27 years of experience building and leading world-class data, analytics, and artificial intelligence teams to the financial services firm. Kapireddy has held key leadership positions at some of the industry’s leading companies, including Capital One, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Oracle, and Amazon Web Services. Most recently, he served as managing director and head of AI/ML products for JPMorgan Chase, where he served on the firm’s AI Executive Council, which influences its strategy, products, controls, and governance. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the executive producer is Allison Ryder. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

Linda Yao, chief operating officer and head of strategy for Lenovo’s Strategy, Solutions, and Services Group and vice president of hybrid cloud and AI solutions, joins us to explain the organization’s transition from technology product company to managed services provider. It’s now helping organizations with the change management required to implement AI in the enterprise. She shares both a framework around speed, ease, and expertise to facilitate this adoption, as well as the four pillars of AI readiness that Lenovo guides its clients to achieve. Tune in to this episode, also, for Linda’s perspective on the role of human connection in what she calls the era of inference, a time when we should focus on the implementation of maturing AI tools. Read the episode transcript here. Guest Bio: Linda Yao serves as vice president of hybrid cloud and AI solutions at Lenovo. Yao recently also took on the role of chief operating officer and head of Lenovo’s Strategy, Solutions, and Services Group and established the company’s AI Center of Excellence. Previously, at Boeing, she incubated a data science practice in the U.S. and India, built an M&A team, and oversaw investments for one of the largest corporate retirement plans in the world. She earned her finance chops at IBM in New York and Shanghai. Yao earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Harvard University and an engineering certificate from MIT. She is an active liaison for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Foundation and the YoungArts, a national foundation. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the executive producer is Allison Ryder. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

Harvard Business School professor Raffaella Sadun’s research has historically focused on digital reskilling. Now, rapid technological changes — like AI — are reshaping the nature of work. Raffaella’s research has explored how AI might empower those with intermediate expertise, such as store managers and blue-collar workers, to become more efficient and satisfied in their roles. She shares a bit about her research on today’s episode of Me, Myself, and AI and highlights the potential for AI to improve teamwork and innovation by bridging the gaps between different functional teams. Her experiments show that AI can enhance productivity and output quality, sometimes even substituting for team collaboration, while also improving speed and efficiency in problem-solving tasks. Read the episode transcript here. Guest bio: Raffaella Sadun is the Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where she cochairs the Project on Managing the Future of Work and is coprincipal investigator of the Digital Reskilling Lab. Her research focuses on managerial and organizational drivers of productivity and growth in corporations and the public sector. She cofounded several large-scale projects to measure management practices and managerial behavior in organizations, such as the World Management Survey, the Executive Time Use Study, and U.S. Census Bureau’s Management and Organizational Practices Survey of hospitals. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Alanna Hooper. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

Today’s episode is a bonus drop from our friends over at the MIT CSAIL Alliances podcast. We’ll back in two weeks for Season 11 of Me, Myself, and AI. David Autor, the Daniel (1972) and Gail Rubinfeld Professor, Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow in MIT’s Department of Economics, says that AI is “not like a calculator where you just punch in the numbers and get the right answer. It’s much harder to figure out how to be effective with it.” Offering unique insights into the future of work in an AI-powered world, Autor explains his biggest worries, the greatest upside scenarios, and how he believes we should be approaching AI as a tool, and addresses how AI will impact jobs like nursing and skilled trades. Read the episode transcript here. Studies and papers referenced in this conversation:  AI and Product Innovation AI and the Gender Gap Robotics and Nursing Homes CSAIL Alliances connects business and industry to the people and research of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Each month, the CSAIL podcast features cutting-edge MIT and CSAIL experts discussing their current research, challenges, and successes, as well as the potential impact of emerging tech. Follow the podcast here. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Alanna Hooper. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

Barbara Wixom, principal research scientist at MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), draws on 30 years of research in this bonus episode of the Me, Myself, and AI podcast. She believes data monetization is the key to enterprise success with AI and breaks down why. With hosts Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh, Barb details case examples to highlight best practices for AI implementation and how to measure value, as well as how data governance and ethics play a critical role in successful AI projects. They also talk about what companies get wrong and the challenges and rewards of AI research. Read the episode transcript here. Guest bio: Barbara Wixom is a principal research scientist at the MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR). Her academic research explores how organizations generate business value from data assets. She is the author of the award-winning book, Data Is Everybody’s Business: The Fundamentals of Data Monetization, which she wrote to inspire workers to engage in data monetization. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Alanna Hooper. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.