I’m really excited that AI has the potential to redefine what’s possible for our businesses, for customers, for society as a whole. AI will fundamentally reshape the collaboration between humans and machines. And I believe it really opens up a lot of potential around human-led innovation at massive scale. –Jeff Boudreau, chief AI officer, Dell Technologies
What top predictions do Dell thought leaders see for the coming year, and how can leaders prepare their organizations to make the vision board a reality in 2024? In this conversation, Carol Wilder, vice president of ISG product management for Dell Technologies, hosts the chief AI officers of Accenture (Lan Guan) and Dell (Jeff Boudreau) as they demystify GenAI and data trends for the new year.
In this episode:
- AI strategy and data management (0:03)
- AI strategy, data readiness, people readiness, and responsible AI (4:29)
- How AI will impact the workforce, how Accenture is approaching people development (9:02)
- Impact on work and the value of open ecosystems (13:31)
- Embracing open ecosystems for AI success (18:58)
- AI adoption and its challenges for various industries (23:28)
Guest List:
Lan Guan serves as chief AI officer for Accenture. In this role, she works closely with companies across industries and geographies to develop data and AI strategies that drive value and growth. Lan brings deep expertise in embedding AI into business processes and transforming data into actionable insights and leads. Lan is also a member of the Global Management Committee.
Lan also leads the Accenture Center for Advanced AI—the AI epicenter that enables enterprises to capture and create value from their AI investment by leveraging deep expertise, differentiated scalable assets and solutions underpinned by data prowess and industry knowledge, and market-leading thought leadership and research.
Prior to this role, Lan was the global leader for Data & AI for Accenture Cloud First, where she focused on transforming data propelled by the Cloud Continuum into actionable plans and scalable solutions to maximize market opportunities for clients.
Lan serves on the advisory board of the AI4All, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing diversity and inclusion in AI education, research, development and policy. She is a founding member of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)—an institute dedicated to advancing AI research, education, policy and practice to improve the human condition—where she established the Accenture Stanford Foundation Model Scholar Program.
Lan was listed as one of the Top 25 Consultants and Leaders in AI by The Consulting Report in 2023. She received the Outstanding 50 Asian American in Business award in 2023 and was the recipient of the Top Women Leaders in Consulting for 2022.
Lan holds an MBA degree in Computational Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and a PhD ABD in Quantitative Econometrics from Wayne State University. She been awarded over ten patents in AI-related areas including content recommendations, digital marketing and sales optimization. Lan is an Adjunct Faculty with Data Science Institute at Columbia University.
Jeff Boudreau is chief AI officer at Dell Technologies. He was most recently serving as President of the Infrastructure Solutions Group at Dell Technologies. In this role, Jeff was responsible for a global team of innovators that imagine, design and deliver the ISG portfolio of modern infrastructure—industry-leading solutions that accelerate and enhance data computation, storage, networking and data protection, and are integrated into our converged and hyperconverged offerings. Jeff joined Dell Technologies in 1998 (previously EMC) and has over 25 years of engineering, business management and executive leadership experience in the IT industry.
Jeff has held a number of management, operations, and services leadership positions. Most recently, he was President of Dell EMC Storage, responsible for the development and management of a market-leading storage portfolio that helps organizations modernize their data centers, leverage the economics of the cloud and accelerate IT transformation. Prior to that, Jeff was Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Midrange Solutions business, leading the innovative engineering teams that delivered next-generation midrange solutions for managing customer data with less cost, complexity and risk.
Jeff completed his undergraduate studies at Wentworth Institute of Technology and received an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Jeff is based in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.
Carol Wilder is the VP for Product Management – Cross Platform Software/Solutions in ISG. Carol most recently headed a multi-faceted product team at Puppet that encompassed product management, UX, corporate research and community engagement. Puppet provided products and solutions in the devops and devsecops spaces. Prior to Puppet Carol held a variety of roles in strategy, engineering and marketing at Intel and Amazon. She began her career in the semiconductor test industry.
Carol currently lives in Portland, OR. She gives back in a few ways – she is a member of Chief, a network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders and their aspirations and enrich, which provides practical conversations for leadership. Additionally, she is on the board and volunteers at Rose Haven, Portland’s only day shelter and community center specifically serving women, children, and gender-diverse people. She also travels and attends Timbers’ games and adult children.
This content is part of the GenAI Expert Series that aims to untangle the hype from the reality of GenAI with practical discussions on how to approach its application within your organization. To learn more about how to create a data-driven innovation process, click here.