#64 Intersections of Analytics, AI, Linguistics and Culture with Prashant Natarajan – Principal, AI & Analytics

Prashant Natarajan has 18+ years’ experience in building EMRs, ERP, big data platforms, actionable analytics, and machine/deep learning applications. Before joining Deloitte, he served in hands-on global consulting and product leadership roles at H2O.ai, Oracle, McKesson Payer Solutions, Healthways, and Siemens. Prashant is Co-Faculty Instructor of Data Science and AI at Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA. He volunteers as an industry expert and guest lecturer at leading Australian universities. Prashant serves as an industry advisor at the CIAPM computer vision project in University of California San Francisco, Council for Affordable Health Coverage, and Pistoia Alliance Center for Excellence in Artificial Intelligence.

In this episode, Prashant describes how essential human interaction is for success. In a technology-heavy space, human interaction and linguistics were not very common. Instead of complaining about it, Prashant went and got his masters to focus on English in the technology space. To have success, we need a clear understanding of culture. Culture is language, and language at its core is mathematics. How do we interact with people to figure out what their strengths are? Prashant considers himself the luckiest person on earth to have the experiences he has had in his career.

Enjoy the show!

We speak about:

• [01:25] How Prashant started in the data space
• [03:45] Studying communications and linguistics
• [08:45] Mentoring young professionals
• [11:45] Work with people who are smarter than you
• [15:00] Merging business problems with data science
• [19:45] The value business leaders see in data
• [25:00] Advice for companies who are moving into data-driven products
• [29:45] What excites Prashant about the future of data
• [34:05] Horizontal capabilities
• [37:20] The use of machine learning in healthcare
• [44:20] Improving product development
• [48:40] Prashant’s proudest moment
• [50:15] The manufacturing industry
• [52:20] We learn more from our failures than our successes
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Resources:

Prashant’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natarpr/

Demystifying Big Data and Machine Learning for Healthcare (Himss Book)

Quotes:

• “Human interaction is the most key determiner of success or not.”
• “Today, we have the technology that has caught up with the human need.”
• “Data science is increasingly a horizontal capability that will impact all of us.”
• “I celebrate relationships because they allow me to learn.”

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