The AI in Business Podcast

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!