(US and Canada) Srinivasan Sankar, Enterprise Data and Analytics Leader, The Hanover Insurance Group, speaks with Robert Lutton, Vice President, Sandhill Consultants, about the value of machine learning/AI/deep learning, and shares his best practices for applying data and analytics.

Speaking on how machine learning, AI, and deep learning helps Hanover as an organization, Sankar says that any strategy and architecture starts with the data, and that they cannot achieve AI without data. He adds that there is no AI without IA or information architecture. He further points out that an organization cannot succeed with a huge amount of bad data since it will eventually lead to AI delivering skewed outcomes.

Sharing best practices for data analytics from his experience, Sankar mentions that he follows very diligently: “discover faster, learn faster, fail faster, and move on.” Sankar reveals that the team quickly researches any tool or technology available in the data and analytics stack, and learns it quickly. However, the number of tools adopted is much less than the number of tools tried.

Concluding, Sankar stresses that data leaders have to be tech-savvy. He points to a recent Gartner CDO survey that highlighted technical skills as the number one skill for a CDO and data leader.