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Gardar Björnsson Rova, ​​Leader of QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey in the Nordics, has been part of McKinsey for over 9 years, helping clients set-up and drive technology transformations.

In this conversation, Gardar and Patrik discuss topics such as the potential of AI, how business leaders influence the success of AI transformations, and whether or not you have missed the train if you are yet to start with AI.

00:00 Intro

02:20 What does it mean in practice to be the global leader of QuantumBlack Private Capital?

06:00 What was the starting point for the big interest among the LPs and GPs when it comes to AI?

09:22 What AI phase are we in today and how has our AI journey looked like in the past decade

23:05 Difference between doing a lot of AI pilots vs. focusing and executing on a few domains?

28:15 How involved does the CEO need to be for AI use cases to succeed?

31:27 Should there be a difference between an AI strategy and a Business strategy?

33:47 Where are we in the current AI Hype cycle - Have you missed the train if you haven’t started today?

39:00 What are the main blockers and hurdles ahead for AI adoption ?

53:11 How does the level of maturity and adoption differ among different countries?

59:05 What’s the split in practice between traditional AI and GenAI when it comes to adoption and implementation?

1:01:13 Breaking down McKinsey’s 4.4 trillion USD estimated value of the potential of AI

1:03:50 Are there certain industries that are more in the forefront when it comes to AI?

1:06:01 How do you measure AI readiness ?

1:10:09 How AI will change how we do Software development

1:18:00 The main driver for companies to reach out to McKinsey when it comes to AI

1:21:55 How realistic are business leaders’ expectations on AI?

1:25:50 What are the top 3 most important things for a business leader who wants to go all in on AI?

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Learn more about McKinsey QuantumBlack here

Danica is a professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences as well as the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and is on the Board of Directors of companies such as H&M, SAAB and FAM. With one foot in research and one in Business, Danica shines light on today's developments in AI and Robotics, what has happened til this day and what we can expect in the future; how organizations can benefit from these technologies and the importance of embracing them to not be disrupted.

00:00 Intro

13:16 How a world-class researcher can contribute to large enterprises

16:39 The future of education

28:45 AI and education

34:46 How AI can help us generate new insights

43:46 Is it right to just monitor basic metrics such as usage as your company adopts AI?

47:00 What is the impact on companies that are quick vs. late to adopt new technologies?

50:35 Are we in an AI hype cycle and is there an AI winter around the corner?

1:05:26 Will we have a future society that is designed more for robots?

1:12:45 Visual, smell and tactical language models

1:20:49 Collaboration between academia and business - difference between the US and Sweden

1:24:24 Who should drive AI adoption in organisations?

1:26:43 Competence vs. trust in AI leadership

1:30:28 What are you most excited about for the future?

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In this episode I sit down Pietro Casella, who at the time of the recording, headed AI Acceleration at EQT Group, the third largest Private Equity on the planet with hundreds of portfolio companies. 

Previously Pietro has been working at companies such as Accenture, KPMG and Spotify. Now, he is the Chief AI Architect at MGX, driving portfolio value creation through AI at MGX’s Operating Partners team.

In this conversation, Pietro shares how a day as the head of AI at EQT can look like, his thoughts on today’s developments in AI and how he thinks organizations will look like vs how they should look in the future.

In this episode I sit down with Helene Barnekow, one of Sweden’s most recognised business leaders.

Helene has more than 30 years of experience in leadership positions, including serving as the CEO of Microsoft Sweden and the telco giant Telia. 

Today she serves on the board of directors of companies such as Storytel, Voyado, Mindler and Handelsbanken. 

During our conversation, Helene shares what it means and takes to be a successful leader, the importance of walking the talk and how to stay competitive in the era of data & AI.

Whether you are a leader, or just starting your career, I assure you that you will leave this episode with some new learnings and valuable insights.