#385 Creating an Engine of Value from AI | Jim Rowan, Head of AI at Deloitte USA

Most large organizations have bought into AI, yet far fewer have turned it into measurable value. Surveys of thousands of business leaders show the same pattern: spending on technology is up, while investment in data foundations, process redesign, and people lags behind. For data and AI professionals, that gap shows up as pilots that never reach production, automated steps that only move the bottleneck, and teams unsure how to use the tools they've been given. How do you fix messy data before AI agents arrive? How do you redesign a process instead of speeding up a broken one? And how do you get people to actually use AI?
Jim Rowan is a Principal and the US Head of AI at Deloitte Consulting LLP, where he works with technology organizations, clients, and Deloitte business leaders on their AI goals. He previously served as National Managing Partner for the US Strategy & Analytics practice and as US AI & Data Operations Offering Leader, and he was one of the authors of Deloitte's State of AI in the Enterprise report.
In the episode, Richie and Jim explore why enterprise AI stalls, building the data foundation, writing business cases that hold up as models change, rethinking org charts and processes, leadership's role, build versus buy, controlling token costs, change management and continuous learning, and much more.
Links Mentioned in the Show:
• Deloitte: State of AI in the Enterprise (deloitte.com/us/en/what-we-do/capabilities/app…)
• Deloitte Enterprise AI Navigator (deloitte.com/us/en/about/press-room/deloitte-a…)
• Ethan Mollick: Co-Existence (penguin.co.uk/books/477828/co-existence-by-mol…)
• The Rundown AI newsletter (rundown.ai)
• Connect with Jim: LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/jim-rowan1)
• AI-Native Course: Intro to AI for Work (datacamp.com/courses/introduction-to-ai-for-work)
• Related Episode: How to Thrive in a World of Continuous Transformation with Phil Le-Brun and Jana Werner, Executives in Residence at AWS (datacamp.com/podcast/how-to-thrive-in-a-world-…)
New to DataCamp?
• Learn on the go using the DataCamp mobile app (datacamp.com/mobile)
• Empower your business with world-class data and AI skills with DataCamp for business (datacamp.com/business)