Decisions Now

Gordon Chu, the Digital Innovation Manager at Cathay Pacific, and host Erin Pearson have an engaging conversation about creating an innovation culture and democratizing AI within an organization.

In this episode, they explore:
✔️ Strategies for upskilling employees and enabling AI adoption.
✔️ Changing perceptions of AI and its transformative potential.
✔️ How to foster a culture of transparency, collaboration, and innovation.
✔️ The importance of storytelling to inspire and drive AI adoption.
✔️ Real-world examples and practical advice for AI implementation.

📌 Quote from the Episode:
📣 "Ultimately, the technology is not for replacing your entire workflow. But there are definitely spaces in your existing workflow where AI can play a role." – Gordon Chu

📌 Speakers in this Episode:
🎙️ Erin Pearson, Vice President, Marketing at Evalueserve
🎙️ Gordon Chu, Digital Innovation Manager at Cathay Pacific

Like all domains right now, intellectual property (IP) and research & development (R&D) are wrestling with how to apply AI to their work most effectively and what it means for the industry’s future. In this insightful episode, Ashish Bodhankar, IP Strategist Leader at Dow Chemical Company, and Decisions Now host Erin Pearson detail these topics.

Ashish and Erin discuss:
✔️ The evolving role of IP management and how technology is influencing it.
✔️ How AI accelerates R&D processes, from formulation design to predictive modeling.
✔️ The importance of starting small, collaborating, and using cross-functional teams when adopting AI strategies.
✔️ Common misconceptions about AI, especially concerning job displacement and its ability to enhance human work.

📌 Quote from the Episode:
📣 “One of the key challenges is in understanding that this is applicable to our industry. When you look at chemical and material science, people think, ‘What has AI got to do with it? I mean, we're going to make materials, correct? How would a computer make materials? How is this going to be used?’ So, that is one challenge in terms of accepting that this can play a role in the organization or in R&D in particular.” – Ashish Bodhankar

📌 Speakers in this Episode:
🎙️ Erin Pearson, Vice President, Marketing at Evalueserve
🎙️ Ashish Bodhankar, IP Strategist Leader at Dow Chemical Company

In this episode, Erin Pearson welcomes Daniel Helmig, CEO and founder of helmig advisory, as a special guest. With an extensive background in procurement and transformation at companies such as Ford Motor Company, ABB, and PepsiCo, Daniel shares his expertise in supply chain sustainability and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction.

Daniel and Erin discuss topics including:
✔️ Globalization’s impact on GHG emissions.
✔️ The role of CEOs in driving sustainability.
✔️ The importance of modern tools, including AI-enabled products, in advancing supply chain decarbonization efforts.
✔️ Collaborating with suppliers and partners on the net zero journey.

📌 Quote from the Episode:
📣 "As long as the CEOs of the companies are not willing to say it will change because of me and I'll do this for my children and for my grandchildren, it's not going to change in the near future." – Daniel Helmig

📌 Speakers in this Episode:
🎙️ Erin Pearson, Vice President, Marketing at Evalueserve
🎙️ Daniel Helmig, CEO and Founder of helmig advisory

Enter the complex world of the battery space and learn how to apply market insights with host Erin Pearson and special guest Raúl Arredondo. Raúl is a seasoned strategy and marketing executive in the battery industry, having worked for Rockwell, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (now part of Stellantis), and Clarios.

In this thought-provoking episode, they discuss:
✔️ The shift to electric vehicles (EVs) and how it’s reshaping the manufacturing process and supply chains in the battery and automotive industries.
✔️ The significance of market insights in shaping strategy.
✔️ Navigating global markets, cultural differences, and governmental policies.
✔️ Team structures and vendor partnerships.
✔️ Predictions for the automotive and battery industries.

📌 Quote from the Episode:
📣 “If you don’t believe what you’re reading, you’re not going to do anything with the data. And that is the worst thing you can do.” – Raúl Arredondo

📌 Speakers in this Episode:
🎙️ Erin Pearson, Vice President, Marketing at Evalueserve
🎙️ Raúl Arredondo, Global Strategy and Marketing Executive and Expert on the Battery Space

Join host Erin Pearson and special guest Justin Berger, Chief Operating Officer at 7 Knots Digital, as they explore the exciting world of AI’s transformative impact on B2B marketing.

This thought-provoking episode covers topics including:
✔️ Using generative AI technologies to personalize and target content for account-based marketing and campaign optimization.
✔️ The value of AI in repurposing or repositioning content.
✔️ The importance of finding small wins and building confidence on your way to success in integrating AI into your daily work.
✔️ Learning from your peers and your networks. Everyone is experimenting with generative AI, so learn from others and share your own knowledge.

📌 Quote from the Episode:
📣 "More often than not, there'll be little nuggets that I like from more than one. I'll say, 'Give me 10 suggestions.' I tend to take it not wholesale but rather take piecemeal, little elements of each of them and plug them together." – Justin Berger

📌 Speakers in this Episode:
🎙️ Erin Pearson, Vice President, Marketing at Evalueserve
🎙️ Justin Berger, Chief Operating Officer at 7 Knots Digital

Dive into the intersecting worlds of data science and fashion retail! In this episode, Vivek Anand, Director of Advanced Analytics at Gap, joins host Erin Pearson to discuss applying data analytics to the retail industry. Gap is a renowned worldwide clothing and accessories retailer.

Vivek and Erin delve into a myriad of topics, including:
✔️ The complexities of demand forecasting in the fashion industry.
✔️ Identifying emerging trends using user-generated data such as search queries.
✔️ Vivek's experience in creating innovative, data-efficient, yet highly effective AI-driven pricing models across multiple industries.
✔️ The significance of dynamic pricing strategies and methods to discourage team members from engaging in aggressive price undercutting.
✔️ The need for collaboration across departments.


📌 Quote from the Episode:
📣 "People think that, hey, machine learning, AI is coming to replace me. It's taking my job. The idea is to convince or let people see that it's there to make your life easier. You spend most of your time on the most complex problems. If you have vanilla problems, you can just rely on the machine to do it for you. So, it's trying to help you. It's not trying to replace you." – Vivek Anand

📌 Speakers in this Episode:
🎙️ Erin Pearson, Vice President, Marketing at Evalueserve
🎙️ Vivek Anand, Director of Advanced Analytics at Gap

Sustainability and decarbonization are trending topics across every industry right now. The building industry is no exception, and host Erin Pearson is joined by Mike Loth, Executive Director and General Manager of Specialty Services in Global Sustainable Infrastructure at Johnson Controls, for today’s episode.

Johnson Controls is a leading provider of technology and services in energy efficiency, building efficiency, and sustainability spaces. They are renowned for their HVAC, building automation, fire, and security systems.

Mike and Erin discuss:
✔️ Johnson Controls’ eight-step framework for achieving sustainability goals in buildings.
✔️ Voice of the customer research and how important it is to understand what customers want and need.
✔️ How Johnson Controls uses the insights it receives from voice of the customer and market research to formulate a strategy regarding new market opportunities.
✔️ The first steps businesses should take on their building sustainability journey.

📌 Quote from the Episode:
📣 “Typically, about 40 percent of the carbon emissions in the world can be traced back to buildings, whether that's the construction of those buildings or the ongoing maintenance of those buildings. And so, to get that 40 percent of carbon emissions down to zero can be a big challenge.” – Mike Loth

📌 Speakers in this Episode:
🎙️ Erin Pearson, Vice President, Marketing at Evalueserve
🎙️ Mike Loth, Executive Director and General Manager of Specialty Services in Global Sustainable Infrastructure at Johnson Controls

Global standardization of the competitive intelligence function is an important hurdle for many large, complex organizations to overcome. Global standardization comes with countless benefits; it facilitates knowledge sharing and collaboration across geographies, eliminates redundant data collection efforts, allows for scalable, efficient operations, and, most importantly, provides a comprehensive view of the market across regions, enabling better decision-making.

In this episode of Decisions Now, Kory Weisman, Director of Global Commercial Excellence at Clarios, joins host Erin Pearson, Evalueserve’s VP of Marketing, to discuss how Clarios standardized its competitive intelligence efforts worldwide. Clarios is a prominent low-voltage battery supplier powering one in three of the world’s vehicles.

In this installment, Kory and Erin discuss:
✔️ Challenges encountered in standardizing competitive intelligence across the globe.
✔️ The benefits Clarios has seen from transitioning to a global structure.
✔️ The importance of collaboration and strategic alignment across a large organization.
✔️ How to encourage buy-in and adoption of an initiative across various teams.

📌 Quote from the Episode:
📣 “The standardized approach has really allowed us to accurately look at different aspects of our business, such as our segment share, our pipeline, how we’re performing as planned, and so on, in a real-time way that can be leveraged across regions, OEM levels, or even across various pieces of the organization.” – Kory Weisman

📌 Speakers in this Episode:
🎙️ Erin Pearson, Vice President, Marketing at Evalueserve
🎙️ Kory Weisman, Director of Global Commercial Excellence at Clarios

In this installment of Decisions Now, host Erin Pearson is joined by Kirsty Grant, who serves as the International Marketing Director of Public Safety Solutions at Everbridge. Everbridge is a global software company that empowers resilience. For over 20 years, Everbridge has helped both public and private organizations navigate the unpredictable world safely, reduce costs associated with critical events, protect lives, and accelerate recovery.

Kirsty and Erin discuss a variety of topics related to AI in the marketing sphere, including:
✔️ Use cases for generative AI, especially in content creation.
✔️ The tendency of the marketing function to be at the forefront of tech adoption.
✔️ Concerns around generative AI, including issues with privacy, validating the information it provides, and potential regulations.
✔️ Consumer-facing AI is new, but AI has impacted people’s daily lives for a few years.

📌 Quote from the Episode:
📣 "The genie’s out of the bottle. We can’t put it back in." – Kirsty Grant

📌 Speakers in this Episode:
🎙️ Erin Pearson, Vice President, Marketing at Evalueserve
🎙️ Kirsty Grant, International Marketing Director of Public Safety Solutions at Everbridge

In the age of data and analytics, businesses can enhance and make well-informed decisions by leveraging data and technology in their favor. In this episode of the Decisions Now podcast, we talked to Erica Brigance, Vice President of Data Science at Arcbest on how to realize value from analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) projects.

📌Key Takeaways
✔️ The future of using technology well,
✔️ ROI (return on investment),
✔️ Demand and value realization, and
✔️ The hype of ChatGPT

📌Quote Takeaways in this Episode:

📣 “The new technology, of course, keeps evolving, but from a business-centric standpoint, typically you want to not always take the shiniest stuff you want to test and try and make sure it stands to the enterprise-grade needs,” Chevala said.

📌The Speakers in This Episode:
🎙️Rigvinath (Rigvi) Chevala | Chief Technology Officer, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com 🎙️Erin Pearson | VP Marketing, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️Erica Brigance | Vice President of Data Science at Arcbest https://arcb.com/

Companies have been racing to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and data science to succeed. But before teams can benefit from them, it’s important to establish these practices in a manner that’s profitable and done correctly, so we talked to expert Josh Edwards, global data science and operations director at Black & Veatch.

📌Key Takeaways
✔️ Common obstacles and best practices when establishing an AI practice
✔️ Picking the right use cases,
✔️The next steps, and
✔️ The Hype around AI

📌Quote Takeaways in this Episode:
📣 “If AI is not part of your digital transformation program, you're doing your digital transformation wrong, it needs to be a heart and center of that,” Edwards said. “And then the second thing is that data underpins all of that. So take whatever investment that you're making in data and times it by ten. That's where it needs to be.”

📌The Speakers in This Episode:
🎙️Rigvinath (Rigvi) Chevala | Chief Technology Officer, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com 🎙️Erin Pearson | VP Marketing, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️Josh Edwards |Global Data Science and Operations Director, Black & Veatch https://www.bv.com/

Today, Artificial intelligence (AI), has penetrated the defense industry, like most. On this episode of the Decisions Now podcast, we are joined by Rob Albritton, vice president, and AI practice lead at Octo, who shares all the innovative ways AI is making strides in the defense world.

📌Key Takeaways
✔️ Use of AI in Defense
✔️ How Octo is Optimizing AI for Data Pattern and Recognition
✔️ Machine Learning Operations and
✔️ Building an AI Team

📌Quote Takeaways in this Episode:
📣 “How long it takes for a model to drift varies. There's no empirical or there's no hard and fast rule. This type of model architecture always drifts every three days. There's just no way to put that kind of metric on it,” he added.

📌The Speakers in This Episode:
🎙️Rigvinath (Rigvi) Chevala | Chief Technology Officer, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️Erin Pearson | VP Marketing, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️ Rob Albritton, VP, and AI practice lead at Octo, https://olabs.octo.us/

The auto insurance industry is rapidly transforming with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics, like many other businesses. In this episode of the Decisions Now podcast, Charles Boyle, VP, and global chief data officer at Octo Telematics discusses how the industry is succeeding by leveraging the power of data and technology.


Co-hosts Rigvinath Chevala, Evalueserve’s chief technology officer, and Erin Pearson, VP of marketing chat with Boyle on how AI is being used to assess driving risk, insurance rates, driving behaviors, predictive maintenance, and more!

📌Key Takeaways:
✔️ Digital transformation
✔️ AI and ML in the Auto Industry

✔️ Auto Insurance and Risk
✔️ Predictive Maintenance
✔️More in the Auto Industry with AI, and
✔️ Careers

📌Quote Takeaways in this Episode:
📣 “Think about it like the credit score, like your FICO credit score, but based on your driving habits and your driving behaviors. And insurance companies are using that because it's an insurance grade score that's based on claims and observed losses,” Boyle said. “And ultimately, they're using that to differentiate risk profiles and price the premiums accordingly.”

📌The Speakers in This Episode:
🎙️Rigvinath (Rigvi) Chevala | Chief Technology Officer, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️Erin Pearson | VP Marketing, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️Charles Boyle | VP and Global Chief Data Officer, https://www.octotelematics.com/

The quick service restaurants (QSR) industry is being revolutionized by data and analytics (DA) and artificial intelligence (AI). In this episode, Zachary Richard, director of global data science at McDonald's, shares how the company is using data to boost customer and crew experience, the challenges with data exploration, streamlining different departments to avoid silos, and general tips and tricks.

Listen to the full episode of the Decisions Now podcast, as co-hosts, Rigvinath Chevala, Evalueserve’s chief technology officer, and Erin Pearson, VP of marketing chat with Richard to get the scoop on how McDonald’s is paving the way to success using data analytics!

📌Key Takeaways:
✔️ Leveraging Data and Analytics to Transform the Experience
✔️ Data Exploration and Challenges
✔️ The Power of Computer Vision and Speech Analytics
✔️ Data Privacy Change Management Transformation

📌Quote Takeaways in this Episode:

📣 “Everything that we do is geared towards improving the customer experience, but also the crew experience as well,” Richard said. “Making sure that people who are in the restaurants, from customers to crew are all having great, kind of what we call feel-good moments while there in the restaurant.”

📌The Speakers in This Episode:

🎙️Rigvinath (Rigvi) Chevala | Chief Technology Officer, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️Erin Pearson | VP Marketing, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️Zachary Richard | Director of Global Data Science, McDonald’s https://www.mcdonalds.com/

Today, we have laws in place to protect and efficiently govern our freedom, privacy, and rights. The growth in technology has spiked the interest in ethics in AI and technology and has called organizations to be more responsible with their products.

On the latest episode of the Decisions Now podcast, we are joined by, CEO and Founder of Emergent Line, Christopher Sanchez who shares all about the Global AI Bill of Rights, which he wrote.

📌Key Takeaways
✔️ Global AI Bill of Rights✔️Making Rights Accessible ✔️ Education and ✔️ Data Privacy✔️
📌Quote Takeaways in this Episode:
📣
“The key thing that I want you to think of with the global AI bill of rights is we are thinking of how we are creating the world that not only we will live in, but future generations will live in,” Sanchez said. “If algorithms don't have explainability, they don't have transparency. If algorithms don't have explainability, they don't have transparency.”

📌The Speakers in This Episode:
🎙️Rigvinath (Rigvi) Chevala | Chief Technology Officer, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️Erin Pearson | VP Marketing, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️Christopher Sanchez | CEO & Founder of Emergent Line, https://www.emergentline.com/

On the twelfth episode of the Decisions Now podcast, we are joined by AI ethicist, Olivia Gambelin, founder of Ethical Intelligence, who brings us a thought-provoking conversation centered around ethics in AI.

Tune in as co-hosts Rigvinath Chevala, Evalueserve’s chief technology officer, and Erin Pearson, our vice president of marketing chat with Gambelin about ethics in AI, the challenges that come with it, building an ethical strategy, and what the future looks like!

📌Key Takeaways
✔️ What is Ethical AI ✔️Ethics in AI and the Challenges ✔️ Ethical AI vs Explainable AI ✔️ Three Step Process in Building an Ethics Strategy, and the ✔️ The future of AI Within the Ethics Realm

📌Quote Takeaways in this Episode:

📣 “Going from a nice to have, or an interesting conversation, ethics in AI is now at the front and center of conversation around AI development,” Gambelin said.

📌The Speakers in This Episode:
🎙️Rigvinath (Rigvi) Chevala | Chief Technology Officer, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️Erin Pearson | VP Marketing, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️ Olivia Gambelin | Founder of Ethical Intelligence, https://www.ethicalintelligence.co/

With AI adoption in full swing for many, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are paving the way for progress in different business sectors. On the eleventh episode of the Decisions Now podcast, Joshua Starmer, Founder, and CEO of StatQuest, and Lead AI Educator at Lightning AI dives into the nuts and bolts of ML algorithms, updating the technology, educating teams on ML within organizations, and more.

Don’t miss this engaging episode as co-hosts, Rigvinath Chevala, EVS chief technology officer, and Erin Pearson, VP of Marketing get the scoop from Starmer, in the most musical manner.



📌Key Takeaways

✔️ Verifying Your Models & Data ✔️Updating & Understanding the Models ✔️Syncing it With Reality ✔️Knowing When to Call it Quits, and ✔️Educating Teams on ML


📌Quote Takeaways in this Episode:

📣 "ML is becoming easier to do and more cost-effective or price the price for doing it is much more reasonable than it used to be. And so yeah, so there's going to be smaller companies with fewer resources diving into the deep end,” Starmer added. “It's like a pet, you got to keep taking care of it. Go take it for a walk every day. Not many people think of it as something that requires care.”



📌The Speakers in This Episode:

🎙️Rigvinath (Rigvi) Chevala | Chief Technology Officer, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com

🎙️Erin Pearson | VP Marketing, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com

🎙️ Joshua Starmer | Founder, and CEO of StatQuest, and Lead AI Educator at Lightning AI. https://statquest.org/

Industry experts are constantly sharing their AI experiences and stories. We decided to cast the net wider and get a different perspective, in this episode we are joined by Chris Ehrlich, managing editor of Datamation. Ehrlich brings over 20 years of experience reporting on B2B technologies and chats with co-hosts, Evalueserve’s CTO Rigvinath Chevala, and VP of Marketing Erin Pearson about all things AI.
From the AI as a misnomer, biases, innovation demand, and more, the trio brings you an engaging conversation.

📌Key Takeaways:
✔️ AI as a Misnomer ✔️AI and ML ✔️Biases ✔️AI Advancement.

📌Quote Takeaways in this Episode:

📣 “AI and ML kind of go hand in hand in most material that you see out there. The way I see it is that machine learning is more of a mechanism. It's the means by which you apply math to a certain set of problems. So, it's in a way it's an applied math problem and AI is the concept,” Chevala said. “It's like two different things like, AI is just describing the fact that the outcome of using that mechanism, then mimics some sort of human intelligence, which is why it's Artificial Intelligence. So, that's the way I differentiate in my mind.”

📌The Speakers in This Episode:

🎙️Rigvinath (Rigvi) Chevala | Chief Technology Officer, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️Erin Pearson | VP Marketing, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️Chris Ehrlich | Managing Editor at Datamation https://www.datamation.com/

Data analytics and AI are terms we hear in the market way too often. Everywhere you go, people want data-driven insights, now more than ever it's essential to understand what it takes to forge this strong analytic transformation journey. In the ninth episode of the Decisions Now podcast, we talked with Data and Analytics Professor at IE Business School and Founder of DBP Institute, Prashanth Southekal about what it takes to build a strong data culture powered by AI and analytics.

In this conversation, co-hosts Rigvinath Chevala, EVS chief technology officer, and Erin Pearson, EVS VP of Marketing talk to Southekal about what data analytics can do for you, types of insights, and the criteria that make insights actionable.

📌Key Takeaways

✔️Data analytics and types of insights ✔️Making insights actionable ✔️Translating the insights ✔️Data literacy, and ✔️Building a data culture.

📌Quote Takeaways in this Episode

📣 “The whole purpose of data analytics is to ask the relevant questions, so as to gain insight to facilitate decision-making,” Southekal said. “It is basically patterned, specifically, it's about correlations, it's about relationships, inferences, outliers, predictions, so on and so forth, which will help me make a decision if I had not known it earlier.”

📌The Speakers in This Episode:

🎙️Rigvinath (Rigvi) Chevala | Chief Technology Officer, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️Erin Pearson | VP Marketing, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com
🎙️Prashanth Southekal | Data and Analytics Professor at IE Business School and Founder of DBP Institute.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms have paved the way for the retail industry to gain great insights into consumer behaviors as well as other market needs. This digital transformation in the retail sector was accelerated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, making AI-powered technology a necessity for these companies.



In the eighth episode of the Decisions Now podcast, we are joined by Mansoor Kazi, partner at Bain, who works specifically in the retail space. Co-hosts Rigvinath Chevala, EVS CTO, and Erin Pearson, our VP of Marketing, talk with Kazi who has clients ranging from Walmart to Food Lion, Harris Teeter, and more, as he shares an insightful conversation on AI, data, and analytics.





📌Key Takeaways

✔️How retailers can use data ✔️The challenges with disparate data sets and more ✔️Why you should blend AI with human expertise and how it benefits you ✔️The three things retailers can focus on when kick-starting their analytics-powered AI journey.




📌Quote Takeaways in this Episode

📣“Retailers have massive amounts of data and it's becoming more and more important in terms of driving value for the retailer,” Kazi said. “Because if you think about how consumers are shopping and what drives preferences, one of the underlying trends that we're seeing is, from consumers is the need to have personalized, curated experiences.”



📌The Speakers in This Episode

🎙️Rigvinath (Rigvi) Chevala | Chief Technology Officer, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com

🎙️Erin Pearson | Director GTM, Evalueserve www.evalueserve.com

🎙️Mansoor Kazi | Partner, Bain & Company https://www.bain.com/