Episodes

  • AI Predictions for 2026 That Actually Matter | Tom Davenport
    Jan 13 2026

    📢 AI is everywhere—but what’s real, what’s hype, and where is the business value actually coming from?In this episode of the Data Faces Podcast, David Sweenor sits down with Tom Davenport, Distinguished Professor at Babson College and one of the most trusted voices in analytics and AI. They unpack where AI is delivering durable value today, why generative AI may be overvalued, and what leaders should realistically expect as we move through 2025 and into 2026.This is a grounded conversation for executives and practitioners who want clarity—not speculation—on how AI is reshaping work, decision-making, and enterprise strategy.🔍 Key Takeaways:1- Why generative AI is overhyped—and where real value still exists2- What most organizations misunderstand about agentic AI today3- The shift from individual AI use to enterprise-level impact4- Why disciplined experimentation matters more than pilots5- How AI is quietly changing workflows, not just tools⏳ Timestamps for Easy Navigation:00:00 – Welcome & introduction to Tom Davenport02:10 – What’s real vs hype in AI today04:20 – Are we in an AI bubble?05:50 – Agentic AI: real use cases vs experimentation07:00 – Is generative AI analytics “on steroids”?08:55 – One underestimated AI shift coming by 202610:59 – Where enterprise AI value will show up first13:20 – Why generative AI requires new disciplines17:15 – Jobs, education, and the limits of AI predictions28:10 – Governance vs enablement in AI30:55 – The positive case: AI, workflows, and business change32:35 – Final thoughts📩 More insights & resources:👉 Blog & episode write-up: https://tinytechguides.com/blog/why-boring-ai-use-cases-will-win-in-2026/🔗 Connect with Tom Davenport:💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davenporttom/💬 What’s your take—where do you see real AI value today? Drop your thoughts in the comments.👍 If this conversation was useful, like, share, and subscribe for more practical insights on AI, data, and analytics leadership.#AILeadership #Analytics #BusinessValue

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    33 mins
  • Enterprise AI in Practice: What 2025 Taught Leaders
    Dec 30 2025

    📢 2025 was the year AI met the real world. No demos. No hype. Just results—and hard lessons.
    In this special Data Faces year-in-review episode, we synthesize insights from 27 conversations with leaders across data, analytics, and AI to surface what actually mattered in enterprise adoption.

    Rather than new models or bigger tools, the story of 2025 centered on strategy, operational maturity, agent management, and the human realities behind AI at scale. This episode distills a full year of dialogue into one clear narrative for data leaders who need signal, not noise.

    🔍 Key Takeaways:
    1- Why most GenAI projects failed—and it wasn’t the technology
    2- How AI agents shifted from novelty to core infrastructure
    3- What governance looks like when speed still matters
    4- Where AI delivered value: narrow, unglamorous, high-impact work
    5- Why culture, alignment, and ethics became the real constraints

    Timestamps for Easy Navigation:
    00:00 – Opening & scope of the 2025 review
    01:10 – Strategy over technology: where projects broke down
    03:05 – AI agents move from tools to infrastructure
    04:35 – Real enterprise value in narrow workflows
    05:19 – Culture, alignment, and human failure modes
    06:09 – Ethics, fairness tradeoffs, and real-world consequences
    07:58 – Adoption shifts and governance as a value driver
    09:06 – Managing agents at scale
    10:02 – Automation that makes people better, not obsolete
    11:09 – What 2025 teaches us going forward

    📩 More insights & resources:
    👉 https://tinytechguides.com/data-faces-podcast/

    🔗 Connect with Data Faces:
    🌎 Website: https://tinytechguides.com/data-faces-podcast/
    🎧 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube

    💬 What resonated most from 2025—strategy, agents, or people?
    👍 If this was useful, like, share, and subscribe for future episodes.

    #DataFaces #EnterpriseAI #DataLeadership

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    14 mins
  • Open Source Meets AI Innovation | Bruno Trimouille
    Dec 16 2025

    📢 Can open source, AI, and enterprise analytics really coexist? Absolutely—and Bruno Trimouille from Posit is here to explain how.

    How are open source tools reshaping enterprise data science? What role does AI play in bridging business and technical teams? In this episode, Posit CMO Bruno Trimouille breaks down how his team supports millions of users—while staying true to an open source mission.

    🎯 Whether you’re a data leader, marketer, or innovator, you’ll learn practical approaches to balancing innovation with governance, productizing models into apps, and using AI for both technical and marketing acceleration.

    🔍 Key Takeaways:

    1- Why a code-first approach delivers trust, transparency, and reproducibility

    2- How AI bridges the gap between business users and data scientists

    3- What Posit’s B2B open source flywheel model looks like behind the scenes

    4- Why governance doesn’t have to kill speed—in fact, it can enable scale

    5- How marketing teams can harness Gen AI for content, segmentation & insights

    ⏳ Timestamps for Easy Navigation:

    00:00 – Intro & guest welcome

    00:52 – What is Posit? (formerly RStudio)

    02:06 – Bruno’s journey: Engineer to CMO

    04:53 – Open source, code-first, and the future of data science

    07:32 – AI’s impact on productivity and risk in analytics

    09:13 – Solving the governance vs. speed tension

    11:29 – Using models & apps to make insights business-ready

    13:13 – Building a business on open source: Posit’s flywheel

    15:31 – Why organizations bet on open data tools

    18:09 – Community-building as a growth engine

    21:31 – How Posit marketing uses Gen AI every day

    24:04 – AI for personalization, segmentation & ABM

    27:51 – Multimedia & interactive learning with Gen AI

    30:31 – Using AI for data insights & campaign analysis

    33:14 – How AI is reshaping the marketing org chart

    34:04 – Future of data-driven marketing leaders

    35:49 – Final thoughts from Bruno

    📩 More insights & resources:

    👉 https://tinytechguides.com/blog/category/data-faces-podcast/

    🔗 Connect with Bruno Trimouille:

    💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brunotrimouille

    🌎 Website: https://posit.co

    💬 What do you think? Drop your thoughts in the comments!

    👍 Enjoyed this video? Like, share & subscribe for more AI insights!

    #OpenSourceAI #DataScienceLeadership #ResponsibleAI


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    36 mins
  • Data Lineage for AI: Why Truth Beats Hope | Tina Chace
    Dec 2 2025

    📢 Most AI failures don’t come from the model—they come from the data feeding it.
    In this episode of the Data Faces Podcast, Tina Chace, VP of Product Management at Solidatus, explains why incomplete lineage, missing context, and silent upstream changes quietly undermine AI systems long before anyone notices.

    Tina shares lessons from deploying AI and machine learning in major banks, breaking down how column-level lineage and business context prevent cascading failures across systems, teams, and decisions.

    🔍 Key Takeaways:
    1- Why 90% of AI production issues trace back to data quality problems.
    2- How technical and business lineage work together to build trust.
    3- Why column-level tracking exposes the hidden transformations behind every metric.
    4- How visibility without control increases anxiety across data teams.
    5- Where organizations should start to get quick wins without “boiling the ocean.”

    Timestamps for Easy Navigation:
    00:00 – Intro: David Sweenor introduces Tina Chace
    00:54 – Tina’s early career and the origins of her data skepticism
    02:28 – The 90% data problem in AI and ML deployments
    03:24 – What data lineage actually captures
    06:47 – The rounding-error problem that compounds at scale
    07:59 – Bridging the language gap across data, reporting, and business teams
    09:46 – Who really owns data quality and lineage?
    12:43 – Technical vs. business lineage, with real examples
    16:24 – Managing complexity across systems, teams, and tech stacks
    18:16 – Why documenting “everything” never works
    23:28 – Data lineage in generative AI and RAG systems
    30:57 – Why AI makes complete lineage non-negotiable
    33:26 – The trust paradox: more visibility, more skepticism
    34:27 – How to get started without boiling the ocean
    35:35 – Closing remarks

    📩 More insights & resources:
    👉 Blog: https://tinytechguides.com/blog/data-lineage-for-ai-why-truth-beats-hope-in-banking/

    🎧 Listen to the Data Faces Podcast:
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzrDACjTQ4OBoQ8qM1FMGBwYdxvw9BurR
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6SmGkQGvZQSAT1O7g1l2yF
    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/data-faces-podcast/id1789416487

    🔗 Connect with Tina Chace:
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-chace-rho-5433133b/
    Solidatus: https://www.solidatus.com

    💬 What’s the biggest data trust challenge in your organization? Tell us in the comments.
    👍 Like, share, and subscribe for more conversations with leaders shaping AI, analytics, and data strategy.

    #DataLineage #DataQuality #AITrust

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    36 mins
  • Culture Meets Code | Gina von Esmarch
    Nov 18 2025

    📢 What happens when culture and technology collide—do they compete, or do they enhance one another?
    In this episode of Data Faces, Gina von Esmarch, Founder and CEO of Adesso Associates, shares how cultural heritage, storytelling, and emerging technologies work together to shape stronger communities and brands.

    🔍 Key Takeaways:1- How AI and cultural identity can evolve together, not apart.2- Why authenticity and values are the foundation of innovation.3- How diversity of thought drives long-term business success.

    📩 Watch the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8-j7nqzsGk
    👉 More insights: https://prompts.tinytechguides.com/s/the-data-faces-podcast
    💬 How do you see culture influencing technology in your industry?
    👍 Like, share & subscribe for more insights.
    #DataFaces #AI #CultureAndTech #Leadership #Innovation

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    38 mins
  • AI in Sales Enablement | Matt Magne
    Nov 4 2025

    📢 What happens when AI becomes your sales coach? In this episode, we explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping how sales teams learn, ramp, and perform.Join David Sweenor, Founder of TinyTechGuides, as he talks with Matt Magne, Senior Enablement Manager of Revenue Enablement at LaunchDarkly, about the new frontier of AI-driven sales enablement — from AI role plays to digital coaching and the future of human + machine collaboration.🔍 Key Takeaways:-- Why AI is redefining how SEs and AEs practice and master sales conversations-- How LaunchDarkly integrates AI role plays to accelerate ramp time and confidence-- The balance between automation and authentic human coaching-- The data challenges still holding back innovation in enablement-- Why the future of enablement is about augmentation, not replacement⏳ Timestamps for Easy Navigation:00:00 – Welcome to Data Faces with David Sweenor01:00 – Meet Matt Magne and LaunchDarkly06:10 – What revenue enablement really means08:25 – How AI role plays improve ramp and coaching11:00 – Do reps prefer training with bots or humans?14:00 – Space repetition, practice, and performance17:10 – Building hybrid AI + human onboarding programs21:00 – Overcoming skepticism about AI training26:00 – The “skeptical buyer” prompt and realistic simulations27:15 – Human + machine collaboration: finding the right balance31:20 – Beyond scale: personalization and productivity with AI34:50 – The future of sales enablement: data, integration, and intelligence39:30 – Final takeaway: staying human in an AI-driven world📩 More insights & resources:👉 Read more at: https://open.substack.com/pub/davidsweenor/p/augmented-intelligence-the-future?r=1s6e48&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true🔗 Connect with Matt Magne:💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/exrocker/🌎 LaunchDarkly: https://launchdarkly.com💬 What do you think — can AI make us better sales coaches? Drop your thoughts in the comments!👍 If you enjoyed this episode, like, share, and subscribe for more insights from Data Faces.#AIinSales #SalesEnablement #DataFacesPodcast

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    42 mins
  • The End Goal of AI: Humans, Not Machines | Eric Kavanagh
    Oct 22 2025

    📢 What’s the real end game of AI? Is it about smarter machines—or smarter organizations?In this episode of Data Faces, Eric Kavanagh, AI analyst and syndicated radio host of DM Radio, joins David Sweenor, founder of TinyTechGuides, to explore what success in AI truly means for business, technology, and society.Eric has spent decades helping enterprises navigate the data-driven world. He argues that AI isn’t a monolith—it’s a tool that works best when humans stay in control, governance evolves, and organizations learn to use intelligence responsibly.🔍 Key Takeaways:1- Why the “end goal” of AI is human productivity, not machine autonomy2- How corporate hierarchies will evolve as AI becomes embedded in workflows3- Why transparency, audit logs, and explainability will define governance success4- The risks of “big model” complexity and why small, focused models may win5- Why AI will change how we work more than what we do⏳ Timestamps for Easy Navigation:00:00 – Welcome and introduction to Eric Kavanagh01:00 – How Eric built a career at the intersection of data and media05:20 – Defining the “end goal” of AI: business, life, and technology08:45 – Where humans remain central—and why that won’t change12:10 – Transparency, bias, and the challenge of giant AI models19:00 – Real-world AI agents: when automation works and when it doesn’t22:50 – The rise of small language models and the age of execution29:45 – Governance, audit logs, and minimal viable oversight33:00 – The future of jobs, creativity, and collaboration39:00 – Where to find Eric Kavanagh and DM Radio📩 More insights & resources:👉 Blog recap: https://tinytechguides.com/blog/why-80-of-ai-projects-fail-and-the-three-boring-decisions-that-save-the-other-20/🔗 Connect with Eric Kavanagh:💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erickavanagh/🌎 Website: https://dmradio.biz💬 What do you think? What should the end game of AI be? Drop your thoughts below!👍 Enjoyed this conversation? Like, share & subscribe for more real-world AI and data insights.#AI #DataFacesPodcast #EricKavanagh

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    40 mins
  • AI Agents & Governance Explained | Catalina Herrera
    Oct 7 2025

    📢 AI agents are moving fast from hype to enterprise reality. But how do leaders ensure they deliver real ROI—without creating risk and chaos?

    In this episode of Data Faces, David Sweenor sits down with Catalina Herrera, Field Chief Data Officer at Dataiku, to explore how organizations can adopt AI agents responsibly. Catalina shares a practical framework for balancing speed, governance, and reliability—while keeping business impact front and center.

    🔍 Key Takeaways:
    1- Why “agent sprawl” is the biggest hidden risk for enterprises
    2- The guardrails every AI leader should put in place on day zero
    3- How bad data leads to bad agents—and what to do about it
    4- Practical patterns for scaling adoption with human-in-the-loop trust
    5- The next 12 months: where AI agents will make the biggest impact

    Timestamps for Easy Navigation:
    00:00 – Introduction and guest overview
    02:10 – Why AI agents matter now for business leaders
    07:25 – Governance guardrails every enterprise needs
    13:40 – Data foundations and making agents reliable
    19:15 – Avoiding agent sprawl and scaling adoption
    25:50 – Looking ahead: what’s next for AI agents
    30:20 – Final thoughts and closing

    📩 More insights & resources:
    👉 Blog recap: https://prompts.tinytechguides.com/s/the-data-faces-podcast


    🔗 Connect with Catalina Herrera:
    💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/herreracatalina/
    🌎 Dataiku: https://www.dataiku.com/

    💬 What do you think? How are you preparing for AI agents in your organization? Drop your thoughts in the comments!
    👍 If you enjoyed this conversation, remember to like, share, and subscribe for more episodes of Data Faces.

    #AIagents #AIGovernance #DataScience

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    41 mins