Pivotal with Hayete Gallot

Alberta Wildfire is the fire management agency of the province of Alberta, Canada. With recent fire seasons growing longer and more intense, the agency has been looking to technology to help them be more strategic in how they allocate firefighters and equipment. ​ ​ In 2022, they began using an AI-powered tool that provides duty officers with data-driven insights for their deci...

Among her many roles and accomplishments, Arianna Huffington is the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, a leading behavioral change technology company with a mission to redefine productivity through wellbeing.​ ​ Thrive Global is building an AI-powered assistant that will gently nudge people to take small breaks, add a few steps to their day, cut down on processed foods and pursue other habits...

Project Gutenberg is the world’s first digital library. For over 50 years, it has been steadfast in its commitment to provide free, unfettered access to digitized literature for everyone. Run entirely by volunteers and driven purely by its mission to share public domain literature and information, Project Gutenberg stands out for how closely it hews to its altruistic vision, from creating e-books...

After a successful initial rollout of GitHub Copilot that increased developer productivity, Accenture now has given the tool to more than 10,000 developers worldwide — with a burgeoning waitlist of teams eager to deploy other Copilots.  In this episode, we hear from Karen Odegaard, Accenture's Global IT Managing Director, about how the firm is using generative AI and GitHub Copilot...

What if every student had access to a personal tutor who could help them learn based on customized areas of improvement or subjects of interest? This was the ambitious goal of the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Education. To turn this into reality, they connected with Quddus Pativada, the 20-year-old founder of AI learning firm ASI. Pativada had already developed and tested an AI tutor with the...

On this episode of Pivotal, we meet Matija Zulj, the founder and CEO of the Croatian software company AGRIVI. Mitija explains how his company’s new AI solution — AGRIVI Ed — is making a large trove of industry and environmental data available and accessible to farmers to help them make better, faster decisions that can significantly improve their crop yields and income. AGRIVI believes that the po...

BeeOdiversity’s mission is to help regenerate biodiversity and reduce pesticides and heavy metals in the environment by combining the brilliance of Mother Nature with technology. Their BeeOmonitoring solution uses data obtained from bees to measure pollutants and the state of biodiversity — and then help people use those measurements to change things for the better. After 10 years of collecting en...

In the world of customer service, being able to understand the customer's needs, resolve issues, and pass along critical information to other service agents are critical factors that companies must get right. Ric Todd, Director of Strategy and Innovation for Customer Service and Support at Microsoft, believes the advent of generative AI will transform these processes for service age...

When somebody is shopping for a car, they need real-world reviews and practical information about each make and model. But for retailers with tens of thousands of cars for sale at any given time, offering the right content for shoppers to make an informed decision is a continual challenge. ​ ​ Today, CarMax is tackling this fundamental business problem by using AI to empower its content creation t...

Since the beginning of Natasha Crampton’s career in law, she’s had an interest in the areas where law intersects with technology and its effects on society at large. And as technology has evolved, so has her focus. ​  ​ Today Natasha is Microsoft’s Chief Responsible AI Officer, and no two days are the same. Internally she works shoulder-to-shoulder with engineering teams to build ne...

When we think of AI, it’s usually in the context of offices, call centers or manufacturing plants — but today USA Surfing is using AI to understand and analyze the performance of athletes in one of the world’s most unpredictable natural environments. ​ ​ On the latest episode of Pivotal, Chair of USA Skateboarding and President of the Global Action Sports Foundation Brandon Low...

Local journalism has long been the lynchpin that connects people to their communities and to the nation at large. Those diverse local perspectives are critical for providing a sense of place and including everyone in the national dialogue. But across the U.S., journalism has become imperiled as news outlets dry up and go out of business — and those remaining are being asked to do more with less. I...

Pivotal was created to highlight the human element of technology’s evolution. In the first season, we hosted 12 incredible storytellers, each one unpacking how people in their organizations are giving technology purpose by applying it in ways that solve problems, create opportunities, and spark transformation. In this episode, we reflect on our guests' ingredients for success that illustrate the c...

Following a devastating 2019 ransomware attack on the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), Principal Chief Richard Sneed breaks down the damage done, lessons learned, and cybersecurity protocols his department has since established. Chief Sneed explains why his perspective of cybersecurity changed after this incident, and how he has prioritized cloud migration and a zero-trust mindset to prote...

Rachel Higham, CIO of WPP, reflects on the principles of human-centered design and how it helped her not only overhaul the company’s global IT organization but also craft the team that planned and carried out the work. In prioritizing human experience, growth mindset, and service to employees and clients, Rachel and her tight-knit crew kept their “big rules” in perspective to reset WPP’s technolog...

Ahmed Mihaimeed of SOS Children’s Villages International discusses what he observed among the parents he met in eastern and southern Africa: a desire to find the tools to grow as caregivers, and to be able access those tools without extensive travel. He tells the story of Rafiki, the mobile app he helped to create as a companion to parents that provides support while honoring their lifestyles, lan...

Valerie Beaulieu-James of The Adecco Group discusses how her company has helped both clients and job candidates adapt to a changing labor market, using innovative tech platforms to modernize how employees think about and learn new skills. Valerie shares how tech-driven approaches to train existing workers, identify transposable skills, and match workers’ strengths to available roles has helped emp...

Julie Clugage shares how her passion for providing access to quality education led her to creating Team4Tech, a non-profit that helps bring technology programs to schools in the developing world. In this episode, Julie and Theophile Habiyambere of Gashora Girls Academy in Rwanda tell the story of their partnership, and how it has had a lasting impact on students, teachers, and schools across the c...

Sally VanDereedt has always held curiosity for science and enthusiasm for new challenges. As a technology specialist for St. Lucie Public Schools in Florida, Sally has transformed the experience of learning and working in the district by encouraging faculty and students to embrace technology. In this episode, Sally explains the timeless and powerful philosophy behind her approach — to get people t...

Jenny Lay-Flurrie “rode the wave of the nerdy” from an IT desk all the way to Microsoft, where accessibility became her day job. As Microsoft’s Chief Accessibility Officer, she joined and shaped a community that spearheaded the company’s accessibility journey, transforming experiences for employees and customers alike. Jenny discussed her calling to do something impac...

Technology adoption is all about change management and how companies incorporate employees through the integration process. Nadja Soto Huurre shares how she harnessed technology and led the integration of IKEA's new scheduling tool – the Shifts app in Microsoft Teams – helping connect and empower IKEA's workforce. Nadja’s drive to find wa...

Gianni Giacomelli is in it for the “aha” moments, when connections between coworkers, the workplace, and the work itself are strong enough to engage employees, but flexible enough to foster innovation. I spoke with Genpact’s Senior Advisor, Innovation about the intersection of technology and neuroscience and its impact on how the human network evolves. As we increasingly match advances in technolo...

Dr. Lilian Pintea gave me a fascinating window into how he harnesses technology in his work as VP of conservation science at the Jane Goodall Institute. From leveraging Cloud and AI to digitize more than 400,000 records of chimpanzee behavior, to using satellite imagery to observe ecosystems and animals from space, Dr. Pintea says technology helps him feel more deeply connected to the nature he st...

REI’s Kate Wendt shares how a pivotal decision to rethink the role of the office while maintaining employee engagement impacted REI’s commitment to their triple bottom line (people, place and planet). Plus, we learn the many ways that doing good is good for business. Link to full episode transcription. Produced by Larj Media . Connect with Hayete on Linkedin .

At the center of every technology transformation are people with visionary ideas for innovation, and the drive to push them forward. Pivotal with Hayete Gallot from Microsoft spotlights the heroes who are giving technology its purpose and driving impact for their business, community, and society.