Latest / The DEX Show: A Show for IT Change Makers / H.I.G. Capital CTO Luis Suarez: "The Missing Layer in AI Transformation? DEX!"

Transcript

H.I.G. Capital CTO Luis Suarez: "The Missing Layer in AI Transformation? DEX!" · The DEX Show: A Show for IT Change Makers

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi everybody, This is Tom with a special message to
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: all the Redditor listeners out there, and that's the plug
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the great new deck subredit our slash next Think and
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: with it an upcoming special AMA featuring your favorite Dex
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Show regular guest Jeffrey Wright from Mondley's International, hosted by
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the Deck Show. Jeff will be answering your questions and
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: ours live on the subredit four pm Eastern Standard Time
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: next Wednesday, June tenth, and you can get a link
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: to the subredit in the show notes too. Looking forward
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: to seeing you there.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Hey it change makers and welcome to the Deck Show
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: with Tom Ac gra Let's get into it.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Hello everybody, Welcome back to the Deck Show.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Listen.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: You know, we try and be responsive to the zeitgeist
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: here of the Deck Show, and we couldn't, you know,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: where as we are of a World Cup approaching, we
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: wanted to get a really, really relevant guest. So it's
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: a great honor and privilege to welcome Louis Suires to
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  Speaker 1: his show. Louis, how you do?
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Good? Good Good Tom. Unfortunately I'm not the Lewis Swires
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: You're you're you're referring to. I'm gonna have to have
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: a word about production team. We're very very happy to
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: have you in anyway, so you might you.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Might be fortunate to be in a North American Louis
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: because you're probably never you've never escaped comments about your
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: name in the rest of world, as I'd like to say,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well we we we've got European offices. So when
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: whenever Lewis Suarez uh would do something interesting my email,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: my email would blow up my Texas and and we're
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: also very fortunate, you know, here in South Florida, we
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: have a very big uh, you know, European soccer contingent,
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: so a lot of fans down here.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: I'm sure, I'm sure, well we will be sticking our
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: teeth into into something other than a World Cup today. Okay,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: that's that's the end of vesuaires Jakes, I promise no,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: but we're absolutely delighted, delighted to have you on CTO
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: HIG Capital. Tell us a little bit about yourself and
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: your rover to begin with.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Sure, So, as you said, I'm the CTO for a
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Tategy Capital. Been here a little over two decades. I've
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  Speaker 3: gotten to see an impressive growth, uh from four billion
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  Speaker 3: a UM to seventy five billion a u M from
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  Speaker 3: UH four offices North America base to now what, we're global,
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: having offices in Europe, Asia, and Latin America as well
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: as the US, so our geographic footprint has expanded dramatically
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: users across all of that geography. UH and you know,
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: our our world just continues to get more complex as
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: our users are more spread out, more demanding, as they
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  Speaker 3: should be. And you know, we really try to be
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: operationally efficient as well as maintaining good response to our
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: users operationally as we're almost operate about twenty hours out
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  Speaker 3: of the twenty four hour cycle, our users are up
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: and running.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: We had sort of a couple of months ago, almost now,
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  Speaker 1: I think, a really fantastic kind of preliminary chat which
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: made us, you know, want to get you on the show.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: We covered things like AI adoption, organizational transformation, workforce enablement,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: all kinds of things we're going to get into right shortly.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: But one thing that really struck me coming off that
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: conversation was realization that hey, you're CTO, You're not CIO
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: on paper. How do you see the CTO role evolving
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: or the distinctions between them starting to blur? Perhaps that
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: that will bound between technology leadership and business transformation.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So so it's it's it's you're using the the
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: exact word there. It's a blurring of the functions. I've
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: actually had the CIO role title, the CTO title, and
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: and they've really become blurred. Technology now is not just
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  Speaker 3: a a back office operation. It's not a just a
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  Speaker 3: pure cost center. You know, we're we're we believe we're
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: helping to drive the business. We're helping to enable the business. Uh.
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  Speaker 3: You know, you mentioned AI, you mentioned UH data and
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  Speaker 3: all of these items are becoming increasingly more important to
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: the business. And so we we we are in the
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: age of AI. We are, we are driving it, supporting it. Uh.
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  Speaker 3: For us, we're using AI at the beginning of the
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: business cycle when we're looking at deals all the way
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  Speaker 3: to the execution and the operation, not only for ourselves
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  Speaker 3: but for the hundred plus portfolio companies that we own
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  Speaker 3: and operate. So it is it is a constant conversation,
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  Speaker 3: how can technology be a partner to the business. It's
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  Speaker 3: no longer an afterthought. We're being brought in early in
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  Speaker 3: the conversation and we're being asked to help deliver value
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  Speaker 3: all the time.
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  Speaker 1: One percent, and you used a phrase really loved equal
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  Speaker 1: opportunities disruptor, I should say, with regards to AI as
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: an equal opportunities disruptor, tell us what that means a HIG.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So so at HIG we're looking at AI as
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: a dual edged sort. So we're looking at it across
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  Speaker 3: the business that we've invested in how it can help
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  Speaker 3: those businesses in some cases provide more efficiencies, help create
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: new product lines, help them explore areas that they had
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: not been able to in the past. By the same token,
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  Speaker 3: we need to be realistic, AI is the major disruptor
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  Speaker 3: going on right now. So we look at business that
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: we have today, business that we're going to buy invest in,
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  Speaker 3: is AI an extential threat to that business? And in
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  Speaker 3: some cases we've had to look at some of our
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: portfolio companies and really helped them really retool themselves to
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  Speaker 3: be a different business than what they were when we
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  Speaker 3: originally entered it to that because you know, no business
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  Speaker 3: is isolated or immune to the effects of AI, and
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  Speaker 3: so we're trying to make sure they're in our case
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  Speaker 3: the effects are positive and where they're not so positive,
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  Speaker 3: we're using our business acumen, our thirty plus years of
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: experience to really turn the corner for those businesses and
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  Speaker 3: turn what could have been a negative into a positive
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: for them.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe if anybody outside the financial sector, I'm sure we'll
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: be curious to hear you unpack some of the ways
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: that human and the AI collaboration is creating new kind
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: of industry specific opportunities that you've got to help ensure
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: the company's taken advantage of. Maybe tell us about some
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  Speaker 1: of those you've got your eye on.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, you know, so we're obviously looking into
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: only to us, we're using it to help us process
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: data better, more deals, more information. I mean, we're living
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: in thee of the age of data. We're now getting
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: more data on prospective deals and we've ever gotten and
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: so the human is still in the loop, but it's
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  Speaker 3: really right now the age of agents and digital assistance,
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: assistance and helping our invest professionals really process this data more,
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  Speaker 3: find those nuggets of information that really help us either
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: identify a deal that maybe we would not have looked
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: at before, or identify a new piece of insight that
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: maybe avoids us getting into a deal that we should
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: not have gotten into, and then operationally the companies that
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: we are involved with. We are using AI on a
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: constant basis to help the companies find more efficiency, to
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: help them drive better value in their processes. In some cases,
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: you know, there's your standard processes that are a cross
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: any business ap ar you know, all the hr all
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: these standard business but then even within specific sectors manufacturing
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  Speaker 3: business services, there's all these opportunities to really drive more value,
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: help them find new business opportunities. As I said, as
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: I said earlier in the past, maybe they didn't have
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: the manpower or a person power to go in and
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: now AI is allowing them to really explore these in
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  Speaker 3: a quicker, better fashion than ever before.
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  Speaker 1: Hypothetically, at least, deficiencies are relatively easy to could be
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: easy to demonstrate. We can imagine demonstrating an efficiency easier
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  Speaker 1: than we can imagine demonstrating value I think through use
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: case at least, So how are you able to make
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  Speaker 1: how are you able to aspiring to measure and demonstrate
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: the impact this kind of technology is having in the organization.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so right now we are obviously like everyone else,
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: we're not uggling is the wrong word, but we are
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: exploring that ability to identify quantifiable value in our processes.
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  Speaker 3: So in processes that we are totally re engineering that
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  Speaker 3: that that's an easy case. We have an original DNA
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: of RPA technology, so we're using that methodology where we
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  Speaker 3: have processes where we're going in and we're injecting a
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  Speaker 3: new AI process beginning to end. We're able to quantify
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: that upfront and measure that and continue to measure in
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: the cases of using gen AI tools such as your
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: open AI and your anthropics, where we're allowing our users
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: and encouraging our portfolio companies to use them, we are
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: right now extrapolating that based on the usage that we're
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: seeing and really talking to those high consumption users and
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: asking them what are you doing? And not from a
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  Speaker 3: negative There are pockets of greatness going on as we
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: bring in this technology, and our challenge is to take
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  Speaker 3: these innovative things that our users are doing with this
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  Speaker 3: newly democratized technology and take that and enterprise take that
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  Speaker 3: to an enterprise approach and really let the rest of
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  Speaker 3: our community, whether it's in our portfolio companies, whether it's
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  Speaker 3: an HIG and bring these new skills, these new prompts,
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  Speaker 3: and bring them out to the masses and let them
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: all gain the value to it. And you know, some
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: of our best wins that we've had are coming from
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  Speaker 3: from some of these users, some of these power users
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  Speaker 3: that are now being able to be empowered to really
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: use these great tools that are out there with some guidance,
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  Speaker 3: with some guardrails, with some upskilling, and they're creating some
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  Speaker 3: fantastic products to then use inside the firm to really
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: make ourselves better.
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  Speaker 1: Tell us a bit more about how you're able to
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: facilitate that kind of internal disruption and is that an
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: area where that kind of blurred boundary between CIO and
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  Speaker 1: CTO is most blurred as it were?
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, you know, we we have to the days of
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: saying no, the day of saying things takes months years
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: UH to develop are gone. Right, So we are being
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: challenged in a positive way to go ahead and drive
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: the new technology, the new innovation UH to really help
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: problem solve UH and and and so the example I
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: give is I could be talking to you today about
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: UH claude about UH UH chat GBT and and tell
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: you everything it's gonna do in the moment I finished
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: a call. There there's five new features and and so
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: in in the c IO CTO role. We need to
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: be enablers. I need to be an enabler. My peers
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: need to be enablers, which is to drive the technology
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: UH in a secure, in a safe way, but to
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: really drive it for our UH users the business the
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: days as I said of saying, know we have to wait,
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: we are gone that the cycles are are really quick
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: now and so we we We've been driving and as
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: well as continuing to explore the landscape for new tools,
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: new features constantly. We can't wait for the users to
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: come to the request for us. We need to come
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: with the ideas to the table and say we have
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: a new offering, we have a new product, we have
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: a new technology, and I think you can use it
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: for this or that, and then have that partnership to
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: go ahead and drive towards the solutions.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Quicker, amazing and as an equal opportunity as disruptor. How
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: is it enabling AI to transform itself internally? Oh?
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, you you hit you you really hit an important point.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: You you can't be embracing this technology UH with without
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: using it yourself. And so while our CEO has mandated
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: the firm UH embrace AI and is providing the mandates
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: to training the upscilling the funding within my organization, we
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: have made it. I have made it a clear mandate
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: that we are to be embracing AI in every part
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: of our work streams. The days of working harder, we
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: already work harder, So now we have to work smarter,
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: and so we are trying to find opportunities wherever possible
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: to really be in some cases on the bleeding edge
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: of trying some of this technology, so that as as
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: we're being asked to support and deploy it, we've already
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: been using it. We've already been fluent in it, and
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: so we're using it from everything to analyze our problems better,
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: to provide solutions, to speed up our development of new
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: tools within IT. And we've been doing this for the
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: last two years and it's just been increasing and so
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: we we are the first adopters, which means we're also
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: the first ones to quantify whether the solution has value
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: or not. And that is a constant, ongoing process.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Where have you seen the most value for.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: The IT organization. It's really been in problem or resolution.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: It's been fantastic. We have our in our service desk.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: It is now part of almost every workstream that they
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: have a problem comes in, we're using gen Ai to
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: analyze to come up with the first set of answers. Uh.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: What's really amazing about this technology is that we're taking
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: all sorts of information in. We're taking in logs, we're
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: taking in pictures, we're taking in user comments, taking all
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: of that then leveraging our decades worth of knowledge that
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: we have about our environment and coming up with solutions.
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: Our time to close tickets has dramatically improved for us,
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: which really leads to a better end user experience. And
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: that's really what it's all about. It's really about providing
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: our users with a quicker response, getting them resolved quicker.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: And so we're really pushing in and we're embracing technology
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: that allows us to go ahead and get more information
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: about our user experience without having to ask them. You know,
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: we now have access to more data than we've ever had.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: These tools now let us correlate this information to really
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: understand what the problem is, what the perceived problem is,
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: and really what the real problem is, and then drive
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: to a better resolution for our users.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: We just published on our sister YouTube channel, Soul of
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: the Cio. Everybody listening hasn't checked that out. Should check
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: that out. We just published an amazing interview with the
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Lado Cio and one of the things she said that
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: I'm hearing a lot of the moment is that dex
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: is really increasingly seen as a crucial enabler or foundation
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: for successful AI transformation. I'm intest to do this align
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: with your perspective and if so, why are those two
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: beings so married together?
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: Absolutely so. We've been on the Deck's journey for for
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: the last eighteen months progressively, and part of it comes
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: to what I was talking about, which is that end
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: user experience. A user is only going to be able
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: to tell you so much, so a good deck solution
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: and approach of embracing it allows you to really unearth
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: uncover issues that your user may not be aware of.
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: In our case, as I mentioned earlier, we're running about
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: twenty hours of active time and our users out of
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: a twenty four hour day, So my team is spread
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: around the world to be able to collect information not
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: only about the user but our entire enterprise and really say, oh,
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: this person's having a problem, what does it look like?
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: Against collecting all that information, leveraging it, having a good
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: AI platform on top of that at I mean, the
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: efficiencies that we have found have been great, but more importantly,
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: we are uncovering true root causes of issues more efficiently,
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: more in depth than ever before. Whereas in the past past,
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: I think a lot of times you were seeing symptoms.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: We are now able to really uncover the root cause
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: and take the noise away with it. And I think
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: we've now reached a level in our maturity where we
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: are seeing things almost a minute or two ahead of
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: the user actually reporting it. We are getting really to
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: be in that what I would I really strive for,
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: which is that proactive approach of getting to the issues
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: before the users are really surfacing them to us. And
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: then also, you know, our users are busy. They'll report
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: a problem and DEX really allows us to investigate it
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: deeper and more thoroughly without having to take up more
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: of their time. We're coming to the table with answers
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: versus questions, and I think DEX is critical to that.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: And what about directly facilitating that kind of external transformation
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: piece we were discussing earlier, so adoption, experience, productivity and
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: so on. How is DEX contributing to your ability to
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: lead AI transformation? Externally.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: So we are with DEX, with the information that we're gaining,
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: the insight that we're gaining, we're able to identify areas
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: where we had not thought about in the past of saying, well,
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: maybe AI might be able to help with this. Also,
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: DEX is giving us visibility into the AI usage as well,
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: so we have other observability products, but DEX gives us
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: just that next level of granularity. So taking that information,
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: layering in what we've seen before, it really allows us
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: to model what our user behavior is for AI. You know,
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: as I said with resolving problem, you're seeing issues that
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: users are not necessarily reporting AI usage. We're able to
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: identify power users or process that they're using for that
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: we really didn't see before. So the more knowledge we have,
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: the more ability we have to go ahead and uncover it.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: As I said before, these pockets of greatness that are
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: going on within the firm on this AI adoption of
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: what we're doing, and so that's really we're engaging with
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: users that are really coming to this. Oh, I didn't
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: know you knew that I was doing that, and we're like,
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: we think we saw enough signals to it. Let's have
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: a conversation and once you bring a user into that
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: conversation like that, they are part of the solution now.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: And that is the really biggest way to get to
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: a successful adoption.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: And is that visibility, that added visibility contributing in turns
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: of what we were discussing earlier regarding measuring value, whether
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: it's measuring efficiencies, measuring value you and really kind of
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: demonstrating the kind of AI R O I piece.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: Yes, you know, by us identifying these folks quantifying this,
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: it gives us another measure of the value proposition. We're
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: all spending a lot of money on tokens. Now we're
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: spending a lot we're investing, not spending investing a lot
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: of money on this technology. And the more layers of usability,
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: more layers of productivity that we can get in, not
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: one layer is the answer, but these multiple layers are
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: really allowing us to go ahead and pinpoint and say
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: this is where where we're the efficiency opportunity is and
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: then come back and say and quantify it and say
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: here's we're we're seeing it. And so between decks other
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: tools of observability, putting all those together, we have more
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: information available to us to really help us quantify that
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: than ever before, and we're using every angle that we
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: can with that.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Tell us about the DEX roadmap from here on, what
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: what stands out to you? What are you excited about
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: over the next couple of years.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're actually uh going harder and harder into deck.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: So DEX observability is just the first part. The next
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: part with the DEX tool that we've chosen, it's the
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: ability because AI is so integrated into it, to be
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: able to remediate, to be able to take things that
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: we know that we've identified and really have it go
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: ahead and get into this self healing model to where
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: as issues come up, be able to in a lot
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: of cases come in and say, oh, the system itself
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: can now help solution that. That That that is really
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: our end goal where we are right now, which is
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: fantastic is it is with with the use of the
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: AI tools that are built into it. It is allowing
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: instead of having a human going in and collecting the data.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: There's a problem. There's these age agentic workflows that are
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: collecting data and really processing it for us in a
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: way that we need instead of a human go in
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: and say I need to collect these five pieces of
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: data or ten or twenty or thirty. The DEXT tool
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: is now really serving it up in this great fashion.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: We've seen great results to it. Now as we escalate
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: in our internal processes, the person getting the escalation now
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: has what they need, how they need it. And so
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: our goal as the next evolution is to reduce the
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: number of escalations to let the tool really self remediate.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: This one thing that strikes you in an industry such
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: as finance right is how high the stakes are with
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: regards to AI transformation. You're very experienced in this industry
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: and at HIG.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: What is that?
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: What if those increased stakes meant for a visibility and
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: expectations placed on it, have they risen exponentially?
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah? So so when when when you're in the capital
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: markets like like this, right, we cannot continue to uh
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: throw bodies at problems the state. The stakes are about profitability, viability,
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: UH expansion and what really you know, what's being asked
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: of the technology function is to really help scale and
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: scaling is no longer uh only identified by by by
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: quality talent. It's the tools. It's the technology that that
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: needs to be added to it. And and the stakes
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: are higher than ever you know, we're being asked to
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: do more with the same and that's why I really
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: believe we're right now in this age of digital assistant
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: heading towards the earth in some cases agentical workflows and
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: failure is not an open We need to innovate faster
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: than ever. As we said early on, we are now
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: part of the solution, part of the financial solution, part
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: of the business outcome, and we're being asked to be
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: the equal partner in this and help drive this.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, So leading on AI transformation, it's a it's a privilege,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: not right, you know, for it What does it have
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: to do to make sure it earns that privilege?
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so you're absolutely right. It's a privilege. It's also
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: an exciting time and so we have to earn it,
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: in my opinion, every day. We have to keep solutioning,
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: we have to keep enabling and I know when we
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: talk AI with this transformation that's going on right now,
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: it's about doing it securely. But the days, as I said,
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: they're saying, no, we're gone. We need to find the
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: way to get to that enablement. Uh, in a way
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: that's secure, in a way that has governance to it.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: But that provides value, and that challenge is literally every day.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: It's it's an everyday conversation. It's a I've challenged my
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: teams over the years of we cannot be the department
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: of No, we need to be the department of let
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: us think about it, let us come back to you
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: with a solution, with a possibility, with an option, and
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: that's how you drive to being that partner that that success.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: Otherwise the business will stop coming to you. You know,
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: if if you don't provide them a route for success,
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: then you get shadow it shadow AI tools. You need
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: to give them a path. And so we're always challenging
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: ourselves how do we get to a yes that works
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: for both sides.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: There's want to finish on a sort of an almost
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: kind of more person no question, right, You've had a
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: really amazing tenure at HIG and talking to you, it's
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: obvious that your kind of passion for what you do
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: hasn't diminished at all during that time there. I was
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: curious to ask how you stay so focused on what's
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: next inside the same organization and what you think the
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: key is to maintaining the kind of openness and curiosity
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: necessary to stay successful, to remain relevant to keep the
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: business coming back to you, not just as a part
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: of a department, but as a leader.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: So I think the first part of it is I
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: think I have an innate curiosity and so constantly being
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: curious about the involvement of technology, curious about the business,
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: constantly trying to be an eternal student of the business.
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: Our business has evolved at HIG so as we've added
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: new strategies, I've tried to learn as much as I
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: can about it. I try to empower and challenge my teams.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: Go learn about the business. If you haven't been involved
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: with a particular business unit, then that means that's an
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: opportunity to go learn about it. As you learn about
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: that business, you learn about what technology they're using, they
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: would like to use. You try to solution, you try
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: to partner, and it's a constant dialogue. It's constant bridge building.
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: Leave your assumptions at the door when you're walking into
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: a meeting. One of the things that I've done for years,
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: I've asked the different business units to sit in on
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: some of their weekly calls as an observer, just to
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: be on the call and take off whatever My title
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: is cio CTO CSO leave that at the door and
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: just sit there to listen, to understand what their struggles are,
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: what their questions are, kind of walk a little bit
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: in their shoes for a little bit, and that education
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: is priceless to then come back and say, how can
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: we add value, how can we do something to ease
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: the pain, accelerate the process, give them some and then
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: come back with a formal discussion. And the moment you
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: start speaking their language, the moment you start translating technology
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: into their business language, you just see the eyes open
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: up and the encouragement and enthusiasm. It's just an amazing experience.
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: And then you do that once and then they come
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: to you as often as you come to them. But
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: that takes time. That takes investment, and you have to
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: keep investing in it. And to me, what's been great
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: here is that ATIG still has a very entrepreneurial DNA,
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: and so I try to take advantage of that because
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: technology is entrepreneurial, it's constantly changing. I chose to get
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: into technology a long time ago because it's never the
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: same event every week. I walk in every Monday thinking
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: I know what my schedule is going to be, and
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: by Monday ten am eleven am. I have a whole
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: new schedule and I thrive in that, and I enjoy.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: That phenomenal career guidance and advice. So Liis, and I'm
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: just going to before I thank you and say goodbye,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: trying to recommend to any listeners out there who really
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: enjoyed this interview to check out what I think is
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: almost a sister interview on our sister channel solo the CEO.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: That's Alexandra gimp Cio at Lado. So I think what
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: the two of you have had to say about AI
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: transformation and dex really compliments one another. So if you've
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: enjoyed this, be sure to enjoy that as well. We've
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: got links to the show notes. Just remains for me
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: to say, Louis, thank you so much. Enjoy the World
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Cup over there starting in a few days, and a
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: best of luck putting up with the revised Suarez jokes
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: for that duration. I'm sure it won't go on forever.
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Tom, It's been a pleasure.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: That's it for this week's Deck Show. We'll be back
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: next week, and if you don't already, be sure to
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: follow the show so you don't miss an episode until
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: next time,