What Executives Need to Know About Quantum Computing and AI - with Daniel Lidar of the University of Southern California and Izhar Medalsy of Quantum Elements Inc.

Today's guests are Daniel Lidar, Holder of the Viterbi Professorship of Engineering at USC, Director of the USC Center for Quantum Information Science & Technology, co-founder and CSO of Quantum Elements, Inc., and Izhar Medalsy, Co-founder and CEO of Quantum Elements. Quantum Elements develops tools to reduce noise in quantum computers for scalable performance. Daniel and Izhar join Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explore why quantum computing is entering enterprise strategy now, explaining qubits, quantum simulation, and practical applications beyond hype. Daniel and Izhar also share practical takeaways like quantum simulation for accurate materials and drug design, optimization for financial portfolios, post-quantum encryption for data centers, and assessing business impact by identifying problems quantum solves today. 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 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 discuss how enterprises can adopt AI safely and effectively, balancing innovation with compliance while mitigating data and copyright risks. She also shares practical takeaways, including implementing instrumented sandboxes, structured licensing, and governance frameworks that boost experimentation confidence, reduce risk, and deliver measurable ROI across business workflows. This episode is sponsored by CCC. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1. Join an exclusive circle of executive leaders shaping the future of AI. Apply to be a guest on the 'AI in Business' podcast at emerj.com/expert2 – share your insights with peers, cement your reputation as a forward-thinking innovator, and have your expertise highlighted to a curated audience of decision-makers.

Today's guest is Thomas Holmes, Chief Actuary, North America at Akur8. Holmes works at the intersection of actuarial pricing, AI governance, and operationalizing analytics inside regulated insurance environments. Thomas joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to discuss how insurers move from AI experimentation to enterprise deployment — particularly when models must satisfy regulators, executives, and the realities of day-to-day actuarial and IT workflows. 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 Akur8. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.

Today's guest is Emma Vitalini, Head of Global Digital Health Technology Innovation at Amgen, where she leads initiatives at the intersection of digital health, data strategy, and clinical innovation. Emma joins Emerj Editorial Senior Editor Marilie Fouche to explore how data and AI are reshaping patient recruitment, consent, and execution in clinical trials, with a focus on decentralized models, scalable compliance, and explainable AI in regulated environments. Emma also shares practical guidance for enterprise leaders on where AI is delivering near-term ROI today, including accelerating patient screening by surfacing unstructured data, reducing enrollment delays through digital and remote monitoring tools, and designing modular, plug-and-play AI platforms that balance speed, flexibility, and regulatory trust. 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!

Today's guest is Vasili Triant, CEO of UJET. UJET is a next-generation cloud contact center platform leveraging AI to modernize customer experiences. Vasili joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to unpack the shift from reactive customer service to proactive, data-driven engagement — and why the transition matters for enterprises rethinking the role of their contact centers. The conversation also explores how fragmented data stacks hinder real-time decision-making, why proactive service improves lifetime customer value, and what enterprises can change today to build contact centers that operate more like strategic customer hubs than cost centers. 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 Rommel Ong, Regional Service Director at Belimed. Belimed provides sterilization and infection control solutions for healthcare facilities. Rommel joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explore how data and AI address field service challenges like staffing shortages, paperwork burdens, and capturing tribal knowledge from veteran technicians. Rommel also shares practical takeaways, such as using chat systems to search for error codes and share solutions across teams, net promoter scores for tracking customer sentiment, and remote equipment monitoring to predict issues, reduce on-site visits, and enable proactive service efficiencies. 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 Thomas Holmes, Chief Actuary for North America at Akur8. Holmes focuses on how actuarial teams can modernize pricing and reserving with automation and AI while maintaining governance and actuarial soundness. Thomas joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to discuss why pricing and reserving modernization is hard to execute in practice, and how insurers can adopt AI with the governance and explainability actuarial teams require. The conversation also covers starting with a clear problem statement, avoiding generic "bolt-on" AI approaches, and targeting small wins that deliver measurable workflow and cycle-time improvements. 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 Akur8. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.

Today's guest is Prukalpa Sankar, Co-Founder & CEO at Atlan. Atlan is a metadata platform delivering data and AI governance. Combining enterprise data with AI infrastructure with business context and security, Atlan allows humans and AI agents to find, trust, and govern data across the entire enterprise. Prukalpa joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to unpack why so many enterprise AI pilots still fail in production — and why solving for context rather than just data volume or model complexity is becoming the decisive factor. The conversation also highlights how leading enterprises are closing this context gap and what "context readiness" means for any organisation aiming to operationalise AI in 2026. 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 Atlan.

Today's guest is Vaithi Bharath, Associate Director of Data Science & AI Solutions at Bayer. Bharath joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to break down why clinical R&D timelines often slip for reasons that have little to do with model performance. Rather, delays compound when data moves across fragmented systems, teams rely on slow handoffs, and validation requirements turn minor adjustments into major cycle-time hits. He walks through where decision-making slows from data capture through database lock, and what it takes to accelerate workflows without replacing a validated environment. 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 AnswerRocket.

Today's guest is Tami Craig Schilling, Vice President of Agronomic Digital Innovation at Bayer Crop Science. Tami brings decades of expertise in agricultural sales, R&D, and digital tools for farmer support. Tami joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explore how generative AI delivers localized recommendations across the plan-plant-grow-harvest cycle amid variable soil, practices, and weather conditions. Tami also shares practical takeaways like using zip code-based tools such as ELI for prompting that triangulates genetics, environment, and pests—augmenting human expertise with precise agronomy advice, prompt guides for optimal outputs, and scale-neutral support from commercial to smallholder farmers. 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!