Ramesh Korepala, Chief Technology Officer, Keranova
Earlier this year, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the world's largest technology conference in Saudi Arabia, LEAP 2024. It was my first time attending the conference and I was amazed at how it brought together the best technology experts from around the world, providing a platform to exchange ideas and make connections, further strengthening my belief that technology has the power to bring about positive change.
Along with other CTOs, I participated in a panel on leadership in the era of innovation and AI, had the opportunity to engage with CEOs of leading technology companies and learn from their expertise, and witnessed the vibrant collaboration that is happening.
As we continue our digital journey at Kellanova, the insights and inspiration we gain from events like LEAP will fuel our commitment to leveraging technology as a catalyst for inclusion, innovation, and business success. Here are some core strategies Kellanova is prioritizing to “leap forward” into the new world of AI-enabled business:
- Train your workforce to grow with AI. Kellanova's philosophy is focused on building a learning culture that is essential to staying competitive. Through our YODA (Year of Development Always) education program, we are upskilling our IT colleagues for the AI revolution.
- Technical skills – Keep your team up to date on new programming languages, data science that helps with predictions, and machine learning algorithms that help build new AI models.
- Soft Skills – AI can be complex, so improving your creative process and emotional intelligence to communicate with both technical and non-technical colleagues will help IT departments collaborate more effectively on AI projects across the enterprise.
- Industry-specific skills – We need to have expertise in our own industry and know how our peers are using AI, ethics, governance and bias awareness.
- Guardrails for AI. Building on what we've learned from past AI pilots, we've built a framework to guide us.
- Start with a business-backed problem – AI should function as a means to an end, not the sole end.
- Transform your business problem into a data problem – We translate business challenges into clear briefs that design and deployment teams can understand and enthusiastically embrace.
- Governance – Our cross-functional advisory board evaluates proposed use cases and develops governance appropriate to the risks. We closely track the development of AI laws, regulations and frameworks, plan and execute compliance activities that align with data, privacy and technology laws and regulations, and encourage our partners across the value chain to do the same.
- Ensuring the right talent mix – Not all engineers, data scientists, etc. are the same. Different skill sets are required to design inputs that can transform model outputs into actionable insights.
- Establishing the right tech stack – This is essential to effectively carry out data analysis.
- Practice data hygiene – Maintaining clean data and standardized taxonomies is important for accurate and meaningful data analysis.
- Embrace a culture of testing and learning. Only about 15% of AI projects are successful the first time around, and that's OK: you can learn from your failures, and with the right approach, AI can unlock opportunities for growth.
- We have taken this belief across the organization and recently launched “Kuriosity Clinics” to provide an opportunity for colleagues, regardless of their title or function, to be curious and explore Gen AI in Microsoft Copilot for the web. We have seen a tremendous response, with nearly 6,000 people attending voluntary clinics, resulting in lively interactions and many creative ideas. The next new snack might be inspired by AI!
The AI pilot has resulted in growth by optimizing supply chain efficiency, optimizing e-commerce search, improving assortment to reduce out-of-stocks and increase sales, and leveraging data to get closer to consumers.
As we leap into the future, we’re constantly reimagining how we do every aspect of our business with the help of AI, and we look forward to taking you on that journey.
