This week we spoke to Dr Jean Leah-Leah Njoroge Ph. D. about AI use cases and benefits from an experienced data scientist. This was one of the best episodes of the season. AI may be all the rage right now, but there are experienced experts who have been building AI for years. It was refreshing to ask questions about this topic that were answered in such a practical manner!

Show notes:

• Introductions
• Is AI going mainstream?
• What are you doing if you “work in AI”
• Smallest part of AI is the algorithms, biggest is the data and infrastructure
• Data scientists solve problems, and algorithms come into play to get the right data to make decisions
• The use cases come from business problems
• Who owns the data is political – and that can slow things down
• Whoever generates the data owns the data – and has responsibilities related to that data
• Companies that are doing it right have data stewards.
• Companies are learning that data scientists can’t be responsible for all aspects of building an AI program
• Why do 80% of algorithms fail?
• Recommendations to business leaders to make AI successful in providing insights from the data

Jean-Leah Njoroge Ph.D. is a leading voice in Artificial Intelligence. She has led AI initiatives for Fortune 100 corporations and has won many awards for her work in AI. She has held AI leadership roles at Lowes where she was the Director of Conversational AI and at Dell Technologies where she led AI initiatives in global deployment and partner services (GDPS) organization. Dr Njoroge, has been recognized for her ability to work across global functional teams to identify AI opportunities within billion-dollar businesses. She is also an expert in algorithm development, providing thought leadership across the business, helping business leaders align their goals to the data.  

Dr Njoroge has worked for the Texas A&M University System (TAMUS), where she served as Licensing & Commercialization Advisor and she has also had engineering roles with major corporations including, Caterpillar Inc, Huntsman Technology and Praxair Inc. 

Dr. Njoroge holds a Ph.D., in Computational Material Science and Engineering from Texas A&M University, a B.Sc., degree in Chemical Engineering Prairie View A&M University. She, combines her skills and passion for engineering and data science to educate and mentor both students and transitioning professionals in the areas of big data and AI.  She is a fierce advocate for Ethical AI and diversity in STEM fields, and recently, she was named one of the Top thirty Women advancing AI in Texas by Re-Work. 

Connect with Dr. Njoroge  on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeannjoroge/