CDO Magazine welcomed Chicago and Milwaukee senior data, analytics, and AI leaders to exchange ideas, share best practices, and engage in strategic dialogue around the future of enterprise AI at its Executive Boardroom Dinner on June 5 at RPM Italian. The highlight was the engaging panel discussion on the timely topic of “How to Drive GenAI Impact with AI-Ready Data.” 

The panelists explored how aligning data strategies with AI initiatives is critical to accelerating GenAI outcomes. They emphasized the importance of governance, ethical considerations, and compliance risks mitigation. Panelists also shared strategies for addressing data bias, ensuring high data quality, and overcoming roadblocks when moving AI initiatives from pilot to production—an area where data quality, lack of skills, and technical maturity remain significant challenges.

The panel of experts were:

• Michael Grimes, Northwestern Mutual VP, Data Engineering & Governance
• Frank Sung, Loop Capital Markets VP, Data Management

The discussion was moderated by Brett Roscoe, Informatica SVP & GM, Cloud Data Governance & Cloud Ops.

Reflecting on the insightful conversations, Grimes noted that “Governance is no longer optional” with leading organizations embedding compliance, privacy, and ethics into the AI development life cycle. He says, “Foundational to building reliable AI systems is high-quality, trusted data which can be especially challenging across unstructured sources. And, perhaps most critically, strong partnership and collaboration with your business leaders is essential to ensuring that AI initiatives are aligned with real-world priorities and outcomes.”

Speaker Fung concurs that high-quality data is essential for building a reliable and effective AI system. Looking back on the evening, he shares the following takeaways:

• AI’s Three Core Elements: Data, Algorithms, and Computing Power:  Data is the fuel, algorithms are the brain, and computing power provides the strength.
•  “Data for AI” and “AI for Data” Must Work Together:  High-quality data is essential for training AI models (“Data for AI”), while AI can analyze and improve the quality and trustworthiness of data (“AI for Data”).
• Common Roadblocks in AI Projects and Initiatives:  Challenges include unclear ROI and total cost of ownership (TCO), data quality and availability issues, governance and ethical concerns, technology immaturity, and a lack of skilled talent.
• Processing Unstructured Data in Modern AI:  Unstructured data can be processed using multimodal large language models (LLMs), transformed into embeddings, stored in vector databases, and made searchable through semantic queries.

Allyson Alston, Mars Veterinary Health Global VP, Data & Analytics, adds that she found the governance topic particularly relevant – “especially as we balance control with identifying ways to lower the guardrails and use the power of our data to deliver value. I also always find the community so interesting. I sat next to a former food critic turned data professional and got a great recommendation for Thai food. Wins all around!”

Anthony Losanno, CDO Magazine SVP, Sales, highlights, “CDO Magazine and Informatica had a great evening with some of our Chicago community discussing AI governance, the need for high quality data, and addressing concerns around ROI. The panel shared valuable insights while other guests chimed in with their thoughts and questions.”

Moderator Roscoe, sums up the event, saying, “We had a great discussion with the attendees at the CDO Magazine Dinner. The pressures around accelerating their AI projects was key to driving an interactive discussion that highlighted some great steps many of the attendees have taken and the need to collaborate with peers in this quickly changing space.”

Special thanks to Informatica for making the CDO Magazine Executive Boardroom Dinner such a resounding success.

*Michael Grimes and Allyson Alston are members of the CDO Magazine Global Editorial Board. 

Executives attending the CDO Magazine Chicago Executive Boardroom Dinner included: 

Yusuf Abbasi, Whirlpool Global Sr. Director Data & Analytics, Center of Excellence; Allyson Alston, Mars Veterinary Health Global VP, Data & Analytics; Dhruv Baronia, Northern Trust Corporation SVP, Head, Analytics, Wealth Management; Patrick Chew, AIT Worldwide Logistics VP, AI & Data Science; Daniel Cromer, Walker & Dunlop SVP, Product, WDTech; Jennifer Dickey, Dykema Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Attorney; Ivana Donevska, BMO US Data, Analytics & AI Risk Head; Meera Dugar, JPMorgan Chase SVP, Tech Partner; Grant Ecker, Ecolab VP, Enterprise Architecture; Michael Grimes, Northwestern Mutual VP, Data Engineering & Governance; Vikram Jain, CNA Insurance Architecture Consulting Director; Murali Kashaboina, Health New England Data & AI Strategies Sr. Leader, Consulting Chief Data Officer; Deepak Konale, Northern Trust Wealth Management Chief Data & Analytics Officer; Sabrykrishnan Loganathan, Bain & Company Principal Consultant, AI Search & Knowledge Retrieval; Gokula Mishra, former Direct Supply VP, Data Science; Rajib Nandi, Harris Associates Head, Data Analytics & Investment Technology; Kedar Pandit, Ulta Beauty VP, Strategic Analytics & Data Science; Nalini Polavarapu, The Hartford VP, Enterprise AI; Sid Raina, Medline Industries VP, AI & Data Analytics; Anand Ramakrishnan, Vantive Director, Data Services Platforms & Delivery; Purvi Savera, Alliant Credit Union Director, Data; Bradley Schaufenbuel, Paychex VP & Chief Information Security Officer; Rashmi Sinha, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine Chief Architect, Innovative Medicine, Data Fabric; Frank Sung, Loop Capital Markets VP, Data Management; Deb Bade, Informatica VP, Customer Success; Lauren Fischer, Informatica Director, Regional Marketing; Michael Nagrant, Informatica Strategic Client Partner & Account Executive; Nathan Rain, Informatica Data Governance, Quality, Privacy Specialist; Brett Roscoe, Informatica SVP & GM, Cloud Data Governance & Cloud Ops; Anthony Losanno, CDO Magazine SVP, Sales; Corey Maxner, CDO Magazine Director, Client Success & Digital Operations.