AI Podcast Interviews Articles and Reports

Episode Summary: This week we interview Polaris Partners' Gary Swart, who gives his perspective on companies that are doing "AI right" i.e. laying strong foundations for using AI applications optimally. Swart provides valuable examples of how he's seen companies use AI as a tool to build more defensible and durable business models in an increasingly competitive landscape. Getting an investor's perspective in AI is always a good idea for companies looking to raise money, particularly when it comes to understanding the types of AI trends that excite VC's. Even more broadly, an investor's perspective can point to emerging factors in how AI is going to impact a particular industry, shining a light on industry developments and commonalities that matter for companies across industries who are leveraging an increasing number of AI tools and applications.

Episode Summary: The upsurge of malware and sophisticated attacks continue to keep cybersecurity in the spotlight, but new developments in AI and deep learning offer more advanced solutions to combat security threats. This week, we catch up with Eli David, CTO of Deep Instinct—a company founded in Israel with US headquarters in San Francisco—that applies deep learning in malware defense and information security. David spoke with us about why and how the deep-learning approach to AI is relevant to the future of cybersecurity.

Episode Summary: One of the most clear insights from our recent consensus on machine learning in marketing was that companies who have more digital touch points along the path to conversion—and more conversion in general—have an advantage when applying AI and ML technologies. In this week's episode, Scopely Co-Founder Ankur Bulsara shines a light on this dynamic and describes how gaming companies are taking advantage of digital trails and applying machine learning technologies. We don't cover much gaming on the Emerj podcast, so this interview is a bit off the beaten path. Bulsara speaks about how dialed-in and instrumented the mobile gaming environment is and how data is used to leverage higher conversions over time, as well as how Scopely's systems are set in place to ensure success of their business model. We think his insights on how gaming companies leverage higher conversions with (and without) machine learning can serve as an analogy for companies in other industries that are considering how to set in place similar, optimal digital processes over time.

Episode Summary: In this episode we speak with Co-founder and CEO Alex Holub of  Vidora about how businesses, particularly in the digital and B2C spaces, can improve marketing results with AI. Holub discusses the resources needed—time, money, in-house or outside expertise, calibration, and data—in order to leverage AI in a realistic way. It's safe to say that today, some businesses are not yet set up to be leveraging AI, while others should be seriously considering taking the leap to using machine learning in their marketing processes. Holub draws some firm lines as to what kinds of businesses are primed to take advantage of AI, and what it takes to flip the switch and make AI a useful and inspired revenue driver in the marketing domain. Many of Holub's useful insights are echoed in our machine learning in marketing consensus from last month, also worth reading if you're interested in additional first-hand perspectives from executives using AI in the marketing space. Alex was introduced to us by our friends are BootstrapLabs.

Episode Summary: Venture investing in AI healthcare applications has been on the uptick and is directly related to the subject of this week's episode: just how the healthcare industry is (and isn't) being impacted by innovations in AI technology. Guest Steve Gullans of Boston-Based Excel Venture Management talks about some of the various healthcare-related ML and AI applications that he sees being brought to light, and touches on which innovations have a better chance of getting blocked and redirected by parties of interest and those that have more promise in being accepted and rolled out sooner.

Episode Summary: At Emerj, we like to look around the corner at where AI is impacting industries and how people can make better business decisions based on that information. AI and data-driven software for enterprise is an emerging topic of interest, and in this episode we get a venture capitalist's perspective on where AI will play a vital and necessary role with real results in software and industry.

Episode Summary: In some ways, investors in AI have to do a lot of what we do at Emerj, which is sort through marketing fluff and determine what's actually working and what's more of a pipe dream, as well as what's coming up in the next five years that seems inevitable and what's more likely to flop. In this episode we're joined by Li Jiang, a venture capitalist with GSV Capital whom I was connected with through BootstrapLabs. This week, Jiang speaks about the current areas of AI that he sees driving business process automations, as well as what technologies he believes will make a long-term impact in terms of automation. His insights on where AI automations are generating cost savings and increased efficiency, as well as what roles might be completely replaced or significantly augmented by AI, are useful nuggets for companies who are thinking through some of their own business processes and are eager to identify low-hanging fruit.

Episode Summary: As it turns out, survival of the fittest applies as much to algorithms as it does to amoebas, at least when we're talking about genetic algorithms. While we've explored other types of machine learning algorithms in business in past articles, genetic algorithms are newer territory. We recently interviewed Dr. Jay Perret, CTO of Aria Networks, a company that uses genetic algorithm-based technology for solving some of industry's toughest problems, from optimization of business networks to pinpointing genetic patterns that are correlated with specific diseases.