The Spark & The Forge: Patterns That Actually Work
Air Canada's chatbot gave a passenger wrong information about bereavement fares. The customer followed it, booked the flight, and applied for a refund. Air Canada rejected it. In court, Air Canada's defense: "The chatbot is a separate legal entity." The tribunal rejected it. Air Canada lost. You are liable for what your AI says — even if you can't explain how it arrived at that answer. In this episode, I sit down with Malcolm Hawker (Chief Data Officer at Profisee, former Gartner analyst, 1,500+ CDO conversations) to unpack what actually breaks when companies deploy AI on ungoverned data. What we cover: * Why 95% of AI pilots fail (governance breaks first, not technology) * The Rule of 10: Fix data after = 10× cost, use bad data in decisions = 100× cost * How Lexmark generated $2M in additional revenue from answering one question: "How many copiers do we have?" * The "Turn It Off" moment: Why a CEO rejected accurate data (it broke sales compensation) * Jevons Paradox: Why good governance creates MORE demand, not less * The 15% vs 85% divide: What separates companies who ship customized AI from those stuck on "best effort" * IBM's guardrail paradox: Using AI to police AI's bias * Why legacy frameworks (DAMA wheel) consume 2-3 years with zero ROI * What Malcolm's seeing in production: Explainability becomes the only defense Guest Background: Malcolm Hawker is Chief Data Officer at Profisee and author of The Chief Data Officer's Playbook and The Data Hero Playbook. As a former Gartner analyst, he's had over 1,500 conversations with Chief Data Officers and seen what works — and what fails — in production AI deployments. For Leaders Who Need to Decide: If you're a CDO, CTO, or AI product leader deploying AI this quarter, Malcolm offers field-tested frameworks you can test immediately: * Don't start with frameworks — start with outcomes * Hire a value engineer (quantify governance in CFO language) * Go outcome by outcome (not "fix it all" strategies) * Recognize that good governance unleashes demand (Jevons Paradox) * Ask: Can you explain your model's output to a judge? This isn't theory. These are patterns from 1,500+ CDO conversations and real production deployments. Connect with Malcolm:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malcolmhawker [https://www.linkedin.com/in/malcolmhawker] Host:Subrata Kar studies patterns from builders who scale — enterprise systems, AI platforms, and startups — and extracts actionable insights leaders can apply immediately. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/subroto [https://www.linkedin.com/in/subroto] Newsletter: https://substack.com/@subratakar [https://substack.com/@subratakar]
15 episodios
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