An experienced products and solutions leader , Marshall Choy , SVP of Product at SambaNova Systems , is skilled in AI / ML , cloud , data centre , management , pre-sales , solution architecture , and technical leadership . Having held previous roles at Oracle and Sun Microsystems , he joined SambaNova in 2018 .
Q . Tell me about SambaNova , your role and your responsibilities there ?
» SambaNova turned five years old last November . We ’ re a growth-stage start-up , focusing on developing and delivering game-changing deep-learning products and solutions . Our mission is to develop the capabilities that enable businesses and organisations to transform their technology stack and accelerate their business with deep learning .
My responsibility , as Senior VP of Product , is to oversee the definition , development , design , and delivery of our products . I work closely across all organisations – both internally and externally – with our customers and partners . What I find most exciting about my role is being able to touch every aspect of the product development lifestyle . From ideation to deployment at a customer site , I get to know every organisation and person involved in the process .
Q . Why do you think AI is critical for a company ’ s digital transformation journey ?
» AI is critical not just as the enabler , but as the accelerant for a company ’ s digital transformation journey . It is the driving force for businesses today and in the future . When you look at prior digital transformations in the last couple of decades , two milestones come to mind . More recently , it ’ s the advent of mobile computing ; before that , the big bang that was the internet . I believe AI will have an even greater magnitude of impact than the last two technology shifts we ’ ve seen over the last 20 years or so .
AI has the potential to reshape the Fortune 500 , just like the internet did . Established , decades-old players could fall away while unknown , disruptive challengers could rise and become the next leaders of industries . The defining factor determining the winners will be their adoption of AI : to ride out the coming wave , or rise to the top , companies need to adopt AI as a key tenet of their digital transformation strategy .
Digital transformation driven by AI has massive implications across three significant areas : first , and most obviously , is the technology stack ; second is the way that AI will transform the business processes and operations of the firm ; third , and perhaps most importantly , is the transformation that AI will have on the organisation .
AI will change the nature of work . This is because AI-enhanced automation can take over tasks that are mundane , repetitive , and error-prone when performed by a human . This allows humans to operate in a more strategic manner and perform more innovative , creative , or emotional tasks – in short , more innately human activities .
“ A key learning we have taken from our customers is that many are moving from model-centric computing to datacentric computing ”