The enterprise AI landscape is evolving at an unprecedented pace, with organizations racing to build infrastructures capable of handling complex data relationships. CDO Magazine’s exclusive New York Executive Boardroom Dinner on March 12 brought together senior data, analytics, and AI leaders for an engaging fireside chat on “The Changing Dynamics of Enterprise AI Infrastructure and the Importance of Graph Databases.”

Rohit Chauhan, Mastercard EVP of Artificial Intelligence, Fraud Solutions, took the stage to discuss how AI architectures are adapting to detect sophisticated fraud patterns, leveraging the power of graph databases to uncover hidden relationships in vast datasets. Moderated by Alex Ullman, TigerGraph Director of Enterprise Sales, the conversation offered insights into how enterprises are navigating AI infrastructure shifts, overcoming integration challenges, and ensuring model explainability in high-stakes fraud detection.

Chauhan shares the following takeaways:

• The transactional world is typically graphical in nature, with entities interacting with each other. Therefore the graph structure provides a natural encapsulation of this data type.

• Graph features provide orthogonal information that is not captured through typical velocity and time-based features.

• We have consistently seen that an ensemble of graph-based algorithms and traditional ML algorithms always outperforms either of them alone.

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Reflecting on the event, Alaa Moussawi, New York City Council Chief Data Scientist, says: “The conversations were delightful, from getting a real peek into how the industry is utilizing graphs for fraud detection, to discussing chess and surfing on the west coast. Staying in the loop keeps us aware and up to date on how tech is solving some of the biggest industry challenges. But most of all, getting to meet and network with brilliant peers who have made this technology a reality is invaluable.”

Kjersten Moody, Prudential Financial Global Chief Data Officer, expresses her “thanks to CDO Magazine and Tiger Graph for a brilliant evening!” She says, “The dinner in NYC was not only a chance to reconnect with colleagues in the data/AI industry, but an opportunity to learn about graph database technology and hear first-hand how it’s being used to deliver transformative business results at scale. Inspirational!”

Sharing his thoughts, Sherman Cooper, QBE North America Head of Data, says: “CDO Magazine continues to be an important catalyst for cross-industry data innovation. The New York Executive Boardroom session highlighted the strategic value of graph-powered AI to achieve both organizational efficiencies and drive organic growth.”

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Anthony Losanno, CDO Magazine SVP of Sales, says: “The fireside chat covered lots of topics around AI infrastructure, integrating graph databases, measuring ROI, and using AI models to leverage graph data. The paraphrased quote from Rohit that stuck with me the most was ‘If you dream small with AI, you’ll do small things. If you dream big, you’ll do big things. The biggest risk of AI is not using AI.’”

Ullman sums up the event saying, “Wednesday’s event in New York City was great! We have been working with Rohit Chauhan and his teams at Mastercard for about 6 years, so we knew he’d be a phenomenal speaker. Rohit drew on his experience as Head of AI, Cyber & Intelligence at Mastercard. He shared fascinating and valuable lessons about how he executed on his mandate to make Mastercard an AI powerhouse, and the key role that graph analytics has played.”

Special thanks to Tigergraph for their partnership in making the event a success.

*Alaa Moussawi, Kjersten Moody and Sherman Cooper are members of the CDO Magazine Global Editorial Board.

Executives attending the New York CDO Magazine Executive Boardroom Dinner included: 

Amit Bharti, BNP Paribas Director, Head, Americas End User Computing & Collaboration Technologies; Rohit Chauhan, Mastercard EVP, Artificial Intelligence, Fraud Solutions; Franzine Co, Starz Executive Director, Business Intelligence & Data Science; Sherman Cooper, QBE North America Head, Data; Kishore Gunda, New York Life Insurance VP, CIO, Enterprise Data & Platforms; Nathalia Londono, BNY Division Data Officer, Wealth Management; Kjersten Moody, Prudential Financial Global Chief Data Officer; Alaa Moussawi, New York City Council Chief Data Scientist; Linda Powell, BNY Deputy Chief Data Officer; Sanjay Ramchandani, Wells Fargo VP, Analytics; Andrew Reiskind, Mastercard Chief Data Officer; Laura Rogers, BNY Chief Operating Officer, Enterprise Data Management; Manu Sasi, Bank of America Director; Rahul Sinha, Citi Enterprise Architecture, SVP; Dennis Suler, New York Life Insurance Corporate VP, Head, Data Governance, Data Quality & Data Strategy; Greg Haney, Tigergraph Director, Enterprise Sales; Paige Leidig, Tigergraph Chief Marketing Officer; Lisa McKenna, Tigergraph VP, Americas; Rajeev Shrivastava, Tigergraph CEO; Alex Ullman, Tigergraph Director, Enterprise Sales; Gerri Caveness, CDO Magazine Global Events Manager; Bill Gannon, CDO Magazine EVP, General Manager; Anthony Losanno, CDO Magazine SVP, Sales.