AI Today Podcast

Social media is filled with lots and lots of content and most of it is unstructured data, meaning that it doesn’t fit into databases or rows and columns on a spreadsheet. In particular, lots of text, images, video and audio content is posted daily. In this podcast, Cognilytica analysts Kathleen Walch and Ronald Schmelzer interview Nav Kesher, Head of Data Sciences, Facebook Marketplace Experience...

Public defenders in the United States are burdened with large workloads and ever-increasing piles of information they need to sort through. Additionally, they are deeply needed in an environment where defendants are unable to afford the legal protection they are entitled to under the rights of the constitution. This is one problem that AI and machine learning is promising to solve. Continue readin...

Anyone observing the news can see that artificial intelligence and machine learning are getting lots of attention. As long as a startup has AI or cognitive technologies in their business plans or marketing material, they seem to get funding. And the amount of funding some of these startups are getting is eye-opening! So this makes us ask the question: Are we in a bubble? Continue reading AI Today...

When people hear about the race for AI dominance, they often think that the main competition is between the US and China. The US and China do have most of the largest and most well funded AI companies on the planet, and the pace of funding, company growth, and adoption doesn’t seem to be slowing anytime soon. Continue reading AI Today Podcast #056: AI’s Strategic Importance: A Look at Different Co...

The big idea of AI and cognitive technologies is to address and tackle problems that require human cognitive capabilities. Many vendors in the RPA market are simply using AI as a marketing vehicle and are not fundamentally changing or improving the way business process is done. This is why companies looking to pursue the path of Intelligent Process Automation need to have the desired end state in...

The AI Today podcast is celebrating our 1 year anniversary!  With this, we wanted to revisit our first podcast topic “Does AI Matter?” as well as reflect on a year of great podcasts, awesome guests, and some thought provoking content. In our inaugural podcast hosts Kathleen Walch and Ron Schmelzer discuss our reasons for Why AI Matters and we thought it was a great idea to go back and visit this t...

In recent years we have seen amazing advances in the field of conversational AI.  Machine learning, and in particular deep learning, has been getting a lot of attention lately. But this is not always the best method when building conversational AI.  In this podcast Cognilytica analysts interview Martin Reddy, Co-Founder and CTO at PullString.  We discuss 3 fallacies related to conversational AI, w...

Arizona State University (ASU) is trying something very interesting: in addition to giving their incoming students the usual handbooks and orientation materials, they’re also giving some of them an Amazon Alexa device preloaded with ASU-specific skills. The results of this test are quite remarkable and might suggest that voice assistants could be the future of providing knowledge and interaction t...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is making inroads into a wide range of industries, and there’s no exception even within the world of kid’s play. In this podcast, Cognilytica analysts Kathleen Walch and Ronald Schmelzer interview James Poulter, Head of Emerging Platforms and Partnerships at Lego. He explains how Lego is adopting AI in a wide range of ways including with its Alexa voice assistant skill...

AI and cognitive technologies are enhancing many different industries and providing significant ROI for early adopters. However, AI is also providing benefit in improving our various experiences in life. In this podcast, Cognilytica analysts Kathleen Walch and Ronald Schmelzer interview Tom Edwards, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer at Epsilon Agency, who shares insights into how AI is impact...

On July 31, 2018 Cognilytica released the latest iteration of the Cognilytica Voice Assistant Benchmark.  Conversational interface-based devices are quickly taking off with devices and technology such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana, and an increasing number of new entrants into the space.  Cognilytica calls these devices “voice assistants”, rather than the less-useful...

With the rise in popularity of AI has come the inevitable wave of those looking to take advantage of its popularity.  Startups are beginning to realize that simply saying they have “AI” capabilities leads to increased valuations, greater attention, and more possibilities.  But people are starting to get wise and it’s already starting to catch up with these firms.  Continue reading AI Today Podcast...

Artificial Intelligence is allowing companies to improve customer service in ways not possible before.  Chatbots allow companies to have an always-on agent that can be integrated into customer support service teams to answer questions or help provide more relevant products and services based on customer preferences. AI enabled systems can help handle complicated, multi-step transactions that are o...

If you’re ever worked in an office you know that there is much to be improved with back office processes.  It’s often discussed how AI can help the front office, but it’s doing just as much to improve back office operations as well.  AI can be a smart, augmented assistant that can help enhance data, provide research, and collect valuable information. Continue reading AI Today Podcast #46: AI in th...

Many governments worldwide are looking at using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other cognitive technologies as part of making their operations more efficient, better serving their citizens, and increasing the range of ways they can meet their missions. In this podcast, Cognilytica analysts Kathleen Walch and Ronald Schmelzer interview Jose Arrieta, Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquis...

AI is seeing increasing adoption across a wide range of industries, and banking is no exception. Founded in 1922, USAA is a Texas-based Fortune 500 diversified financial services company offering banking, investing, and insurance to people and families who serve, or served, in the United States military, with over 12.4 million members. As a result of their broadly geographically distributed custom...

In this week’s episode of the AI Today podcast we interview Doba Parushev, Senior Associate at Edison Partners.  It’s no secret that companies with an AI focus has been receiving lots of funding these days and Edison Partners is a very active VC firm in the AI industry.  It’s always interesting  to get VCs perspectives on the market and how new technologies are trending.  Continue reading AI Today...

In this week’s episode of the AI Today podcast we interview Antoine Desmet, Analytics Manager at Komatsu.  Many people might not realize just how much technology is involved in mining.  We discuss the concept of the “Digital Mine” and how Komatsu uses Internet of Things (IoT) in combination with AI and ML to enable a large range of capabilities.  Continue reading AI Today Podcast #42: AI in the Di...

In this week’s episode of the AI Today podcast we interview Jorge Sanchez, Director of Product Strategy at Appian.   It seems that everyone these days is taking notice of AI.  We discuss how AI is transforming modern enterprises and  how low-code platforms like Appian can help reduce the dependency on highly technical staff to build applications and greatly reduce the time to go from application c...

In this week’s episode of the AI Today podcast we interview Oliver Mitchell who is a Founding Partner of Autonomy Ventures and syndicated writer and host of local tech events in NYC.  As a seasoned professional who has been involved in tech for 20+ years, Oliver shares insights into the future of the AI industry, with a unique focus on hardware and robotics. Continue reading AI Today Podcast #40:...

Artificial Intelligence is on most everyone’s radar these days. And it’s no different with governments as well. In this podcast we interview Michael Hayes, Senior Manager of Government Affairs at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA.) We discuss laws and regulations surrounding AI, why it’s important to create workable definitions now for various terms related to AI (such as defining narrow AI...

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere and in all industries. In this podcast, we interview long-time AI researcher and thought leader Dragos Margineantu, AI Chief Technologist at Boeing, who shares with us how Boeing is using AI and Machine Learning (ML) for its operations, manufacturing, supply chain, and Internet of Things (IoT) interactions and some thoughts on what the future o...

Ever wonder how fully autonomous vehicles at Level 5 on the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) classification will impact your life? How will the way you live, work, interact socially, and care for the needy, disabled and elderly change when vehicles that can drive themselves safely from point to point and be beckoned at any time become prevalent? Continue reading AI Today Podcast #37: Life wit...

Companies of all sorts are increasing their investment in AI. Toyota has a wide range of applications of AI, so it’s no surprise that they are interested in helping to spur further growth in the industry by investing in early stage startups that are focused on AI and Machine Learning technology. In this podcast, we interview Jim Adler, Founding Managing Director, of Toyota AI Ventures. Continue re...

In this wide ranging podcast, hear from Professor Tom Davenport, Distinguished Professor at Babson College, fellow of MIT initiative on digital economy, and senior advisor to Deloitte’s Analytics & AI practice. Tom Davenport recently wrote a piece for the Harvard Business Review on “Artificial Intelligence for the Real World”, as well as the widely promoted “Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of...