(Middle East and Africa) Vukosi Sambo, Executive Head of Data Insights at Afrocentric Group, speaks with David Atkinson, VP, Data and Analytics at Sun Life, in a video interview about getting stakeholders to invest in data and AI capabilities, measuring success, and delivering the value generated from data and AI to customers.

Sambo begins by stating that most organizations are under pressure to be value-driven and data leaders need to balance the ability to meet the needs and build for the long term sustainably. They need to prioritize high-value projects so that they keep the sponsors engaged and invested and get them to fund the foundational elements.

Sambo however maintains that data leaders cannot run away from the need to deliver value quickly. When asked how his team’s success is measured by stakeholders, he mentions the following criteria:

• How has it supported revenue?
• How has it driven growth?
• How has it helped the organization manage risk better?
• How has it helped in improving customer experience?

While these are directly linked to key business outcomes, these efficiencies are also looked at from respective areas like operations, producing recommender models, or even sales. Sambo says that these are then correlated with the cost to deliver these solutions and capabilities, and the platforms, people, and technologies required to achieve them.

Further, Sambo speaks about how data analytics is integral for understanding inefficiency patterns which then aids the development of personalized customer journeys with better outcomes that eventually reduce the cost of care. He reveals that his team managed to deliver cost savings of over 4.3 billion Rand through smarter use of analytics and data-driven health risk initiatives in the previous financial year.

The value generated is circled back to clients in various ways without compromising the quality of their care, Sambo concludes.

CDO Magazine appreciates Vukosi Sambo for sharing his insights and data success stories with our global community.

See more from Vukosi Sambo

Data By Itself Is Meaningless