Show Notes:

In this episode of "AI with Maribel Lopez," host Maribel Lopez sits down with Vijay Sundaram, Chief Strategy Officer at Zoho, at Zoho Day 25 in Austin, Texas. They discuss Zoho's strategic evolution and approach to AI.

Key Highlights:

• Zoho's Market Evolution: Vijay explains how Zoho has expanded from primarily serving small and medium businesses to increasingly being adopted by larger enterprise customers worldwide. This evolution has happened naturally as their products became more sophisticated and larger customers discovered them.
• Enterprise Adaptation Challenges: To serve enterprise customers, Zoho had to make changes in three areas:
  1. Technology (their strength as a product-driven company)
  2. Operations (building expertise in account management, solutions consulting, etc.)
  3. Transitioning from an inbound to outbound business model
• AI Implementation Strategy: Vijay clarifies that while generative AI has recently captured public attention, Zoho has been implementing various AI technologies (machine learning, NLP, video recognition) for over a decade. Much of this AI has been "headless" - working behind the scenes in applications rather than through conversational interfaces.
• Three Levels of AI: Zoho approaches AI implementation through:
  1. Contextual AI within business applications
  2. Interactive AI for specific purposes
  3. Expert-level insights that enable non-experts to gain valuable business intelligence
• Platform Approach: By integrating applications and creating a comprehensive platform, Zoho can leverage data across domains (finance, sales, HR, operations) to provide more valuable AI-driven insights.
• AI Market Shift: Vijay predicts that AI differentiation will increasingly move from foundational models to the application layer, where companies like Zoho can add value through their access to business data across domains.
• Privacy and Security: Zoho maintains a strong stance on privacy (no trackers on their websites) and has built a "trust layer" into their platform to ensure proper data access controls for AI interactions.

Summary

In this conversation, Maribel Lopez speaks with Ivana Bartoletti, the Global Privacy Chief Officer at Wipro, about the intersection of AI, privacy, and governance. They discuss the transformative impact of generative AI, the importance of embedding ethics in AI development, and the role of synthetic data in mitigating bias. Ivana also shares insights on the Audrey initiative aimed at promoting human rights in the digital age and highlights common mistakes in AI regulation. The conversation concludes with a positive outlook on the collaborative efforts to build fair and responsible AI.

Takeaways

• Public trust is essential to harness AI's benefits.
• Generative AI is transforming how we live and work.
• Privacy is a crucial collective good that must be respected.
• Ethics in AI goes beyond compliance with laws.
• AI should retain human agency and decision-making.
• Bias in algorithms can perpetuate social inequalities.
• Synthetic data can help mitigate bias but has limitations.
• Transparency in data usage is vital for equity.
• AI regulation should not be seen as opposing innovation.
• Collaboration across sectors is key to responsible AI governance.

You can follow Ivana here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivana-bartoletti-77b2b29/

You can follow me here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maribellopez/

https://www.youtube.com/@AIwithMaribelLopez

https://x.com/MaribelLopez

Episode Overview:

Maribel Lopez speaks with Tim Marklein, CEO of Big Valley Marketing, about how AI is changing marketing and communications. The conversation explores the practical applications, limitations, and future of AI in the marketing landscape.

Guest:

Tim Marklein - CEO of Big Valley Marketing, an award-winning consulting firm that helps technology companies grow and win in various markets including software infrastructure, AI, cybersecurity, digital health, and supply chain.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Current state of AI adoption in marketing: Despite surveys showing varied adoption rates, most professionals are still "dabbling" with AI rather than fully integrating it into workflows
• Three key areas where AI is proving valuable:
  • As a search alternative for market insights
  • For pattern analysis and audience research
  • For writing and editing assistance
• The continued importance of original thinking: AI can't replace a company's unique point of view, especially in B2B contexts where buyers want to understand a company's beliefs and perspectives
• Brand differentiation concerns: Discussion about whether widespread AI adoption might lead to homogenized marketing content and brand positioning
• AI for audience targeting: How AI can help with audience research but cannot replace strategic decisions about which audiences to prioritize
• Workflow integration challenges: The disconnect between the ideal AI tools and those integrated into existing workflows
• AI and marketing metrics: How AI primarily makes it easier to capture existing metrics rather than creating new ones
• Authenticity and ethics: The research showing that simply disclosing AI use doesn't build trust when 80% of people don't trust AI to begin with
• Appropriate vs. responsible use: The importance of communicating who is using AI and why, not just how it's being used
• Skills development for the AI era: The value of experimentation and curiosity over becoming a dedicated "prompt engineer"

You can follow Tim Marklein, the Founder and CEO, Big Valley Marketing ( bigvalley.co) at LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmarklein/ X: @tmarklein

You can follow me at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maribellopez/

https://www.youtube.com/@AIwithMaribelLopez

https://x.com/MaribelLopez