Making Data Simple

• From 9× Safer Cars to Hallucination-Free LLMs: Inside Sama with Duncan Curtis SVP for GenAI & AI Product + Technology

  Send us a textFrom Elephant Butts to Ethical AI — Duncan Curtis on De-Risking GenAI at SamaEpisode intro Duncan Curtis, SVP for GenAI & AI Product + Technology at Sama, has shipped everything from autonomous-vehicle platforms at Zoox to game-changing data products at Google. Today he leads a 160-person team that’s reinventing how training data is curated, labeled, and audited so enterprises can ship production-ready GenAI—without the lurking model risk. Sama’s newest release, Sama Automate, is already cutting annotation time by 40 percent while keeping quality above SLAs, and Duncan says they’re “aiming for a 10× improvement by 2025.” (aiuserconference.com, sama.com)If you want the inside track on AI ROI, ethical guardrails, and why A’s hire A’s (but B’s hire C’s!), lean in—this one’s for you. (And yes, we do get to elephant butts.)Timestamped roadmap00:46 Meet Duncan Curtis03:51 The Duncan Brand05:52 Making Time for Yourself08:47 Autonomous Cars — 9× Safer12:21 Favorite Jobs13:24 Inside Sama14:39 Data & LLM Training16:04 De-Risking Models19:08 Ethical AI22:43 Stopping Hallucinations27:18 Data Labeling Deep-Dive31:56 Production-Ready GenAI33:44 AGI Horizons35:34 What Makes Sama Different36:31 Calculating AI ROI38:50 State of the LLMs44:48 Elephant Butts & Closing ThoughtsQuick linksLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duncan-curtis/Sama: https://www.sama.com/Latest blog: “Sama Introduces New Data Automation Platform” (sama.com)Hear more: Duncan on “Human Guardrails in Generative AI” (DataCamp podcast) (datacamp.com)Hashtags#MakingDataSimple #AIProduct #GenAI #DataLabeling #EthicalAI #AIROI #AutonomousVehicles #PodcastWant to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at [email protected] and tell us why you should be next. The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.

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• 🎯 Strategic Sales, AI Smarts & Pixar Roots: Ralph Gootee CTO of TigerEye Tells All

  Send us a textThis week on Making Data Simple, we welcome Ralph Gootee, CTO and co-founder of TigerEye, a company reshaping strategic sales intelligence with a data-driven edge. Ralph’s journey spans Pixar, Sony, and PlanGrid — and now he’s building tools to help sales leaders see around corners. From the secrets behind TigerEye's intuitive reporting to the realities of entrepreneurship and the affordability of LLMs, this episode hits both the business brain and the tech heart.00:52 Meet Ralph Gootee 01:43 TigerEye 04:49 PlanGrid 07:43 Monetization 08:50 TigerEye's Objective 12:38 Reinventing Reporting 17:06 How it Works 22:21 The Secret Sauce 27:48 LLM Affordability 34:14 Last Call 38:57 The Entrepreneur Dilemma 39:47 Where to Reach TigerEye 40:07 Do Code Assistants Work? 47:32 For Fun🔗 Connect with Ralph & TigerEye LinkedIn: Ralph Gootee Website: TigerEye Blog: TigerEye Blog#MakingDataSimple #SalesIntelligence #AIinSales #EntrepreneurMindset #LLMs #StartupLife #PixarToPipeline #DataDrivenDecisions #TechLeadership #TigerEyeWant to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at [email protected] and tell us why you should be next. The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.

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• In case you missed it....The Future of Risk, Powered by AI with Kathy Stares, EVP of North America at Provenir

  Send us a text🎧 REPLAY ALERT: The Future of Risk, Powered by AI In case you missed it the first time — we’re bringing back this incredible conversation with Kathy Stares, EVP of North America at Provenir.Kathy dives into how Provenir’s AI-powered risk decisioning software processes over 4 billion transactions annually across 50+ countries. From fintech to traditional banking, learn how this platform is shaking up risk strategies with automation, innovation, and global reach.🌍 Why does risk decisioning need AI? 🚀 What’s driving the next wave of banking transformation? 📊 How can Gen Z shape the future of financial services?Timestamps: 01:14 Meet Kathy Stares 04:34 The Start of Summer 08:01 AI-Powered Risk Decisioning 11:31 The Tech Behind Provenir 13:42 Models 14:32 Data Source 16:43 The Business Problem 17:33 Banking Strategies 18:48 Platform Scope 20:28 Automation 21:46 Provenir’s Differentiator 22:47 Millennials & Gen Z 29:05 Trends to Watch 31:57 Kathy’s Takeaway 33:28 Connect with Provenir 35:25 The Wealthy Barber🎙️ Guest: Kathy Stares 🔗 Learn more: provenir.com#AIinFinance #FintechInnovation #RiskDecisioning #FinancialServices #AIReplay #Automation #FutureOfBanking #GenZFinance #WomenInTech #MakingDataSimple #TechPodcast #ProvenirAI #PodcastReplayWant to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at [email protected] and tell us why you should be next. The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.

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• Part 2: Automation Remix: Observability, IBM Concert & the Next Wave of IT Ops

  Send us a textWe’re back for Part 2 of our Automation deep-dive—and the hits just keep coming! Host Al Martin reunites with IBM automation aces Sarah McAndrew (WW Automation Technical Sales) and Vikram Murali (App Mod & IT Automation Development) to push past the hype and map out the road ahead.🎬 Episode Highlights00:12 Observability – why seeing everything is half the battle04:17 IBM Concert – orchestrating dev, ops & business in one score07:42 Tech vs. Culture – the million-dollar question11:34 Real-world use cases that ship value today13:65 Scanning the Future of Automation (spoiler: it’s closer than you think)15:32  Hashi – tooling that scales with you17:42 Top resources to learn more and stay ahead of the curve18:13 Lightning-round fun to wrap it upWhether you’re wrangling legacy systems or architecting cloud-native dreams, this conversation will spark ideas, bust myths, and give you action items of immediate value. Smash that play button, tag a colleague, and join the movement to #MakingDataSimple! 🔗 Connect: Sarah McAndrew LinkedIn | Vikram Murali LinkedIn🌐 Explore IBM Automation: ibm.com/automation#MakingDataSimple #IBMAutomation #Observability #TechPodcast #FutureOfWorkWant to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at [email protected] and tell us why you should be next. The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.

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• This week Ross Mauri discusses his career and changes at IBM

  Send us a textWant to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at [[email protected]] and tell us why you should be next. AbstractHosted by Al Martin, VP, Data and AI Expert Services and Learning at IBM, Making Data Simple provides the latest thinking on big data, A.I., and the implications for the enterprise from a range of experts.This week on Making Data Simple, we have Ross Mauri General Manager, IBM Z & LinuxONE IBM Systems. Ross has expertise in strategy, technology, engineering, marketing, and sales. This week we discuss his career at IBM, the people and CEOs of IBM, Mainframes, Databases, Cloud, and Datastores, the myth of Z, and IBM's Z15. Show Notes3:43 - Ross Mauri's career8:22 – People of IBM and CEOs12:11 – Working with CEOs14:34 – Ross talks legacy 17:20 – What does the mainframe do that no one else can?18:28 – Z myth21:22 – LinuxONE24:29 – RedHat25:15 – What does Z not do well?26:00 – Z15Ross Mauri - LinkedInConnect with the TeamProducer Kate Brown - LinkedIn. Producer Meighann Helene - LinkedIn. Producer Michael Sestak - LinkedIn. Producer Steve Templeton - LinkedIn. Host Al Martin - LinkedIn and Twitter.  Want to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at [email protected] and tell us why you should be next. The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.

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