How AI Built This

In this episode, we talk to Tim Wyatt, Head of Data Science and AI at Admiral Group, about the challenges and opportunities in today’s AI landscape. Why do data scientists dislike testing? Tim unpacks the creative vs. structured tension in their work. The state of AI today: democratization, innovation, and growing adoption pains. Governance and regulation: how to balance risk with innovation in generative AI. Tim’s most controversial opinion: We’re underestimating AI’s long-term impact. Tune in for a mix of deep insights, candid opinions, and a glimpse into the future of AI.

In this episode, Iain Mackie, CEO & co-founder of Malted AI, joins us to talk about building AI startups, why small language models are the future, and what it takes to scale a deep-tech company in Scotland. We dive into Malted AI’s £6M seed round, winning the Amazon Alexa Prize, the challenges of hiring AI talent, and why Edinburgh might be the next big AI hub. If you’re into AI, startups, or just love a good pun, this one’s for you!

Description:In this episode, we sit down with Peter Laflin, Director of Data & Analytics at Morrison’s, to explore his journey from a numbers-obsessed child to a leader in data science. Peter shares insights on how supermarkets use AI and analytics, the challenges of scaling data-driven decision-making, and what it takes to transition from hands-on data work to leadership. Plus, we discuss how AI is shaping the future of businesses—and why slowing down might just be the key to speeding up.

Ben McLoughlin is the Head of Data Science at Webuyanycar in Manchester.Armed with a PhD in Robotics & Computer Vision, Ben has quickly risen through the ranks to lead the considerable data science efforts at a UK household name in Webuyanycar. A fascinating conversation, where we discussed his career journey; some top tips for aspiring data scientists and his approach to building his own personal brand. I hope you enjoy! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Technology, technology recruitment experts and Infer, a game changing analytics platform allowing data analysts to do advanced analytics all within SQL.Music by Noisyfilter from FugueShow produced and edited by the awesome team at Sound Media

Liam & Hannah are the Co-Founders (CEO & CTO respectively) of Frame, a data science consultancy and computer vision organisation based in West Yorkshire. Not only are the Co-Founders, but they're also partners, so we dived into that dynamic on the podcast and how they separate work from life - 'pub Thursdays' play a key part in this ... We also chatted about how their Computer Vision product can have a radical impact on organisations who are trying to sell their products online - with some great real world stories!This was a really fun one to record, hope you enjoy! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Technology, technology recruitment experts and Infer, a game changing analytics platform allowing data analysts to do advanced analytics all within SQL.Music by Noisyfilter from FugueShow produced and edited by the awesome team at Sound Media

Rachel is the Head of Data Product, Insights & Data Science at Admiral Group and is our first guest who has spent their entire career at one employer - which is pretty awesome! A real life fan of the show as well, so it was very exciting to finally chat with Rachel about her career, approach to data and the amazing work going on at Admiral. I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Technology, technology recruitment experts and Infer, a game changing analytics platform allowing data analysts to do advanced analytics all within SQL.Music by Noisyfilter from FugueShow produced and edited by the awesome team at Sound Media

Megan is the Head of Data Science at the BBC in their Product Group. With a PhD in Maths from the University of Cambridge and an impressive data career in the world of media, I loved chatting to Megan about her journey. I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Technology, recruitment experts and Infer, the data analytics platform changing how analysts work forever.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Welcome back to How AI Built This, the show dedicated to data and entrepreneurial story telling. This episode I spoke to Ross Turner, The Chief Product Officer at Natural Language Generation specialists Arria. Ross is Berlin based, working remotely for a now global team at Arria, where they are at the cutting edge of NLG. We had a great chat about his journey, NLG, data in general and of course, some non-data related content, this time in the form of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Technology, recruitment experts & Infer who are building the next generation of analytics. Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Jacopo is a prominent face in the world of MLOps, speaking at various events around the world and giving access to some amazing open source content - as he puts it, gaining karma points! From researching in Italy, to moving to the States and starting his own NLP company which was acquired in only a few years by Coveo - Jacopo has been on an incredible journey and his personality is infectious. You'll definitely learn something from this episode! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Fuzzy Labs & Cathcart Technology.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Josh is the Director of Retail & Consumer at Faculty, a Machine Learning consultancy who were born out of academia and have a really unique fellowship programme. With a varied background, starting with a Physics Degree, followed up by a few years in big consultancies, Josh ended up in the States as Director of Data at Red Bull, before heading home to start at Faculty. We had a great chat through his career, some of the choices he made along the way and of course, his thoughts on machine learning projects within the retail domain. A fun episode! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Fuzzy Labs, open source MLOps experts and Cathcart Technology, tech recruitment agency.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Massimo is a Data Science Manager at Bumble, where he and his team are responsible for getting machine learning into production and adding value to the business. With previous experience at a start-up, where Massimo identified the need for what we'd now call MLOps, he was in a unique position when he joined Bumble to implement some of this into an environment at a much larger scale. As an individual contributor, lead engineer and now manager, Massimo has some great thoughts on building successful teams and setting them up for success.A great chat - which finished on a story of flying to Berlin specifically for a burger.I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Fuzzy Labs and Cathcart Technology.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Simon is an experienced MLOps practitioner who has worked for the Amazon of the Netherlands, a large consultancy group and now Transactie Monitoring Nederland (TMNL).With a wealth of experience across Machine Learning, Simon spotted the potential for MLOps whilst consulting and has been involved in this world ever since. He also spotted the potential in growing his personal brand, where using LinkedIn and blogs he has become a prominent voice in MLOps. Oh and on the side he gives back to the next generation through lecturing and teaching.I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Fuzzy Labs and Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Ed is the Head of Developer Relations at Seldon and an open source enthusiast. Seldon are at the forefront of MLOps with several industry leading products, both in the open source community and enterprise world with their Core, Alibi and Deploy products. Ed joined Seldon to spearhead their open source offering through community building, events and essentially be at the heart of their open source user base. A really enjoyable chat with Ed - be sure to check him out on LinkedIn!

Hamza is the Co-Creator of ZenML the open-source MLOps framework for reproducible ML pipelines and production-ready Machine Learning.He & the team have created something pretty special and his story is really cool.We had a great chat about his passion for indie hacking; Arsenal; start-ups and how he ended up running an MLOps start-up in Germany. Hope you enjoy! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Technology, technology recruitment experts and Infer, a game changing analytics platform allowing data analysts to do advanced analytics all within SQL.Music by Noisyfilter from FugueShow produced and edited by the awesome team at Sound Media

Regina is the Director of Research, Analytics & Data at TvSquared, an Edinburgh headquartered analytics who are the world’s largest measurement and attribution platform for converged TV.We had a great chat through Regina's academic background; career to date including working in a start-up; growing teams and her current role at TVSquared.Really enjoyed this one! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Technology, technology recruitment experts and Infer, a game changing analytics platform allowing data analysts to do advanced analytics all within SQL.Music by Noisyfilter from FugueShow produced and edited by the awesome team at Sound Media

Sarah is one of the pioneers of using data in football and spent 10 years working for StatDNA/Arsenal as their Head of Analytics. Recently she moved on to join Blue Crow Analytics as a VP, Sarah will still be focusing on using data in football/sport. A really interesting conversation around using data in football, issues with things like the rise of Expected Goals (xG), and clubs not making the most of data for transfers! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Abigail is the Chief Data Science Officer at Vertice Cloud, an Oracle Solutions Provider specialising in Oracle Cloud. Abigail works across their customer base helping them get value from Data Science & Analytics. We had a great chat about Abi's background; building teams and a fair amount on using data in grassroots football! Really enjoyed this one and I hope you enjoy as well!As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Leanne Fitzpatrick is back!If you haven't had a chance to listen to Leanne's data story before - go check out episode 15. Since that show, Leanne has moved on to be the Director of Data Science at the The Financial Times and I was keen to bring her back on for a chat about that move and the challenges of working in a much more established organisation. We also touched on being back in Manchester, the buzzing Manchester data community, going back to live events, speaking at events and everyone's favourite topic - MLOps. Always great speaking to Leanne!I hope you enjoy.As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Teodora is the Head of Data Science & Analytics at Saint Gobain UK and Ireland, where she leads a team of Data Scientists, Analysts and BI professionals. We had a great chat about studying in Budapest, then the States and eventually working her away up to leading a team of analytics professionals for one of the biggest companies in France. Teodora is also part of the women's network at Saint Gobain, trying to encourage a more diverse environment - which can be tricky working in technology (male dominated) and construction (very male dominated!) but Saint Gobain seem to be making good strides.I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Catherine Wilks is a Director of Slalom, helping set up their Manchester Data Analytics Practice. An experienced Consultant, Catherine has a great insight into the world of customer facing data solutions.We had a good chat about her PhD background, working in Consulting and how she builds great data teams.I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue