Becoming A ‘Magic’ AI Leader And Awakening The 'Genius' In Every Employee

For veterans of the IT industry, AI is far from their first hype cycle. What is different, however, is how fast the technology is justifying the hype — and already replacing legacy fads.

“There's been so many evolving components,” former Bridgestone Chief Data Officer Johnathan Tate said on a recent episode of IT vendor Fivetran’s podcast. Now, “RPA … is kind of dead at this point because AI agents have replaced what RPA can do, and they do it so much better,” he added.

But as data and AI investments grow, so are expectations. Now the data and AI tansformation leader at Highspring, Johnathan recalled asking frustrated business leaders for investment for the company’s master data strategy and data governance controls.

“That really wore out the patience of our business leaders. Our executives would come and say: ‘Okay, you know what, you're going to have to start showing some value for this,’” he said. “It shifted my mindset from doing data strategy for the sake of.”

Now, AI is on every executive’s mind — and increasingly baked into every department’s budget. As a result, leaders like Johnathan are focused on more than just technical data science work. They’re engaging with stakeholders across the business to translate raw data into outcomes that improve productivity, efficiency, and ultimately the bottom-line.

“Taking that turn from being a data geek, being an analytics geek, to [thinking] like I own this company … has really made a huge difference in our team's success and connecting with our business partners,” Johnathan said.