Exclusive Interaction - Leila Pourhashemi, CIO & VP, Blackhawk Network

Smart tech is becoming more and more integral to the IT sector today. Leila Pourhashemi, CIO & VP, Technology Business Operations, Blackhawk Network, talks to us about her work in this domain.

How helpful are AI & ML in your platform? Are any statistics available of improved efficiency, business growth etc. because of AI & ML?

Leila - Harnessing customers’ digital information is crucial to the success of any business, and AI & ML can be powerful tools. At Blackhawk Network, we use AI & ML to solve interesting problems in the areas of planogram optimisation, inventory planning, demand forecasting, fraud prediction, risk identification, product recommendation, cloud capacity planning, and hosting cost optimization. Over the last few years, AI & ML applications have contributed significantly towards top-line growth and bottom-line improvement for multi-billion-dollar gift card businesses. It will empower us to gain a greater competitive advantage enabling business growth for Blackhawk Network.

What are the challenges involved in integrating AI & ML, especially in India?

Leila - While there are many favourable views on the outlook of the Indian AI/ML ecosystem, there are quite a few challenges that the country will have to overcome to survive and thrive in a global market. AI & ML tools rely on data to train underlying algorithms. Effective AI initiatives depend on a large volume of data from which organisations can draw information about the best response to a situation. Without sufficient data - AI falters. Further, the more complex the situation, the more likely it will not match the AI’s existing data, leading to AI failures. Enterprise data tends to be biased, outdated, unstructured, and full of errors. Therefore, the ability to gain quality data is the solution to excellent AI systems in the future. In India, some organisations are trying to innovate new methodologies and are creating AI models that can give accurate results despite the scarcity of data. Likewise, others jump on the AI bandwagon with too much optimism and no clear strategy. AI implementation requires a strategic approach, setting objectives, identifying KPIs and tracking ROI. Otherwise, organisations cannot assess the results brought by AI and compare them with their assumptions to measure the success or failure of their investment.

How are you resolving these challenges?

Leila - The challenge that lies with AI adoption is to design and execute intelligent algorithms function that can solve specific problems and cannot deviate from what they are built for. We started small to establish our proof of concept with AI/ML-powered solutions. We prioritised organisational alignment over technical hurdles to get leadership support on a realistic scope by first defining the problems and staying focused to solve them. A lot of effort has gone into data architecture design that can be stable enough to support users’ needs but also agile enough to scale as the organisation grows. To capitalise our investment in clean data aggregation, we are constructing storage and pathways to support quality data collection and providing access to the tools necessary to process the data.

What motivated you to take up this innovative path?

Leila - The question was not whether to invest in or adopt AI, it was how to overcome the significant challenges associated with AI adoption and ensure success. We expect AI to be exceedingly important to Blackhawk Network’s success over the next few years. Some areas where AI is proven to be delivering significant accuracy and performance improvement have motivated us to explore and invest in these AI solutions. These include enhancing customer experience, automation, and improved decision-making and predictions over time.