A new report by research company Fortune Business Insights predicts that by 2026, the global artificial intelligence market will have a value of $202.57B, a nearly-ten-fold jump from the market’s value in 2018, which stood at $20.67B. The same report says interest in AI is being driven by four main factors: big data and the need to manage it, cloud-based technologies, machine learning, and a growing demand for virtual assistants. The report also says North America dominates in terms of market share, having generated $9.72B in 2018. The market share of Asia Pacific is expected to grow as well, propelled in large part by China and the application of AI in a variety of industries, including agriculture, manufacturing and biopharmaceuticals.
Unsurprisingly, the report describes the AI market as “very fierce”. A large portion of the sector, according to report, is held by approximately 10 companies only. The advantages of having a business and competitive intelligence expert in this industry cannot be overstated.
Here are the profiles of some of the CI and BI practitioners in companies engaged in the AI market.
CI Manager
Salesforce
Matthew Coblentz, Competitive Intelligence Manager at Salesforce
Matthew Coblentz is a 15-year industry veteran who recently joined Salesforce as manager of competitive intelligence.
Coblentz is an expert in business intelligence, competitive analysis, data analysis and visualization, product vision and leadership and strategic business planning.
He joined Salesforce in April following a more than five-year stay at Dell Technologies, where he served as lead of competitive intelligence data analytics. In this role, Coblentz analyzed data insights to provide actionable competitive intelligence to the sales team, coached and mentored data analysts, improved sales performance by combining data science techniques with analysis and customized Dell Technologies’ Salesforce platform to communicate with sales about the new market opportunities competitors may pursue, his LinkedIn profile said.
Coblentz also spent more than eight years at Dell EMC, the enterprise data storage business unit of Dell Technologies, most recently as manager of competitive intelligence.
From June 2012 to September 2014, Coblentz collected competitive intelligence to improve Dell EMC’s competitiveness and sales positioning, assisted the product management and marketing teams in evaluating offerings and client trends, monitored the activities of key competitors, and evaluated sales trends and effectiveness of competitive activities.
Prior to joining the data storage company, Coblentz served as a staff product manager at Documentum.
Coblentz holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from University of Colorado Boulder and a master’s degree in library and information science from University of Kentucky.
Senior BI Manager
Amazon
Luis Elizondo, Amazon’s Senior Manager of Business Intelligence
Luis Elizondo is Amazon’s senior manager of business intelligence who focuses on the company’s worldwide last-mile delivery program.
Elizondo works closely with teams across Amazon Logistics (Last Mile), such as operations, finance, fleet management, supply chain and customer experience to identify their business needs and provide them with actionable insights to improve efficiency of the program and ensure products are delivered on time to customers.
He initially joined the Seattle, Washington-based company, which focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, in 2015 as a pathways operations manager based in Manchester, U.K.
In this role, Elizondo led the outbound operation team that consisted of four operations managers, 20 area managers and over 400 associates, and helped launch a new robotics fulfillment center in the city, his LinkedIn profile said.
Elizondo also served as a senior operations manager at Amazon from March 2017 to May 2019.
He previously worked at Tenaris, a global manufacturer and supplier of steel pipe products, as part of the company’s planning and business intelligence team, where he identified key insights by analyzing procurement process data and built business intelligence dashboards.
Elizondo holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from The Tecnologico de Monterrey and a master’s degree in business administration from Duke University-The Fuqua School of Business.
Head of Global CI
Amazon
David Ricke, Amazon’s Head of Global Market and Competitive Intelligence
David Ricke serves as the head of global market and competitive intelligence for Amazon’s advertising talent acquisition team.
He is responsible for establishing and scaling new market and competitive intelligence for the group and is currently looking for library scientists and data engineers to join Amazon.
Ricke joined the e-commerce company in March 2019 to lead the global legal and protective services recruiting team.
He previously worked at Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon that provides cloud computing services, as a recruiting manager focused on centralized design, product management, computer vision, applied sciences and machine learning and artificial intelligence, his LinkedIn profile said.
Ricke left AWS to join social media giant Facebook as a product design recruiting lead, responsible for overseeing the company’s sourcing pipeline efforts for five primary lines of business: advertising, business platform, artificial intelligence, privacy and data usage and integrity.
At Facebook, he led a team tasked with discovering senior product design talent, working with the cross-functional brand and talent attraction team to expand the social network’s employment brand strategy and conducting domestic and international product design events.
Ricke also oversaw the recruiting efforts of software development company Atlassian, boutique search agency UX Recruiters and retailer Oriental Trading.
Senior Data Scientist
Microsoft
Nick Kaufmann, Senior Data Scientist, Market Research Manager at Microsoft
Nick Kaufmann has been working for Microsoft as the senior data scientist and market research manager of public cloud technologies since August 2011.
In his current position, Kaufmann leads commercial technology research efforts for Microsoft’s public cloud sector, including share tracking and forecasting, brand and product positioning, product development and segmentation, as well as generating product awareness and perception. Research projects conducted under Kaufmann’s supervision provide Microsoft with cloud insights including Amazon Web Services cloud usage, Microsoft Azure cloud purchase drivers and hybrid cloud messaging and positioning, according to his LinkedIn profile.
In addition, Kaufmann tests hypotheses and creates forecasts for the company through a wide range of analytic techniques like multivariate regression, data mining, clustering and predictive modeling. His expertise has also been critical for measuring and improving marketing campaign performance.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Kaufmann served as the market and competitive intelligence manager for Deloitte. During his nearly four-and-a-half year tenure, he was responsible for tech industry market research and analysis to drive informed business decision-making. In the said role, Kaufmann conducted research for the company’s hardware, semiconductor, enterprise software and information technology services sectors.
Earlier in his career, he held senior research positions for Massachusetts-based companies Iron Mountain and IDC.
Kaufmann holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and management from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master of business administration degree in finance and strategy from The University of Chicago.
Senior Director
DataRobot
Thomas Dinsmore, Senior Director at DataRobot
Thomas Dinsmore serves as a senior director at DataRobot, an information technology and services company that specializes in data science, statistical modeling, automated machine learning, visual artificial intelligence and augmented analytics.
With 35 years of industry experience, Dinsmore is an expert in competitive analysis, with emphasis on machine learning and artificial intelligence. Over the past decade, Dinsmore served as a knowledge expert for The Boston Consulting Group and as product marketing director for Cloudera and Revolution Analytics, where he managed limited availability programs and supported product pricing, according to his LinkedIn profile.
In 2010, Dinsmore joined IBM company Netezza as a solution architect for advanced analytics. During his three-year tenure, he implemented a high-performance predictive modeling and scoring system using the IBM Netezza appliance. He was also responsible for providing information on IBM Netezza Analytics, including its interfaces to analytic tools and software.
In addition, he worked briefly for Razorfish, a New York-based marketing and advertising company, as its principal consultant. His tenure at Razorfish was highlighted by his development of a rapid response analytics capable of providing quick campaign impact assessments for client senior management.
Dinsmore was also tapped to fill in consultant and analyst roles for companies like PriceWaterhouseCoopers, ThinkingMachines, Prevision Marketing and AT&T.
He earnined his master of business administration degree in accounting and decision sciences from the University of Pennsylvania.
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