Analytics and Artificial Intelligence – Pablo González
Pablo Gonzalez Muñoz is an expert in Analytics and Artificial Intelligence. He has specialized in this field thanks to his extensive professional experience, in which he highlights his last position as a partner of Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence in Deloitte. His skills are mainly focused on achieving a sustainable and scalable digital transformation for the companies for which he has worked thanks to the understanding of Big Data.
Previously, Pablo González worked for twelve years at EY (Ernst & Young) in the fields of Digital Transformation and Analytical Client Strategy after training at Banco Cetelem and The Boston Consulting Group.
This professional highlights the value of analytics in order to adapt our business to the new opportunities of the digital world, although it is clear that the important thing is not to collect data but to know how to interpret it correctly.
In the same way, he clarifies that Digital Transformation is a task that must be taken care of by the entire company, from the digital and technological departments to the top positions of the company. Emphasizing that training in this aspect should be a key point before planning our strategies.
What was the first thing that attracted you to Analytical and Artificial Intelligence? How can we apply it?
All my formative life has been focussed in the fields of analytics. This led me to study Mathematics and to be part of the first class of Graduates in Statistics of Spain. During my academic stage I did internships at the Flores de Lemus Institute of Advanced Economic Studies, where I already understood that the value of analytics was more in its application to concrete cases than in the theorization of them.
This learning has been the one that has guided me throughout my professional career. It has made me look for fields of application of artificial intelligence and advanced analytics in the value chain and in the results of the companies.
During his professional career, in the last 20 years, you have developed numerous projects for companies from different sectors seeking the transformation of the businesses of the companies. What could you highlight in your last stage at Deloitte?
From my time at Deloitte, I can not help but have great words. When you work for the largest professional services company in the world, its power to add capabilities to solve and transform business models is evident from the start. This represented a challenge, since we had to develop unique Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytical capabilities on which to support these transformations in a sustainable and scalable way over time.
In this sense and based on his experience in Deloitte in the development of Advanced Analytical and Artificial Intelligence projects. Do you think that companies are taking full advantage of their potential?
In my experience, for an organization to extract all the value of advanced analytics, it is not enough to have professionals capable of operating or developing technologies or algorithms. In fact, the problem for companies is not there, usually found in how to apply it to real business uses.
On the other hand, it also often appears when creating work forms and structures capable of making these business applications really occur continuously and recurrently in companies. In this sense, there are few companies that have made firm progress to possess these capabilities.
Before working at Deloitte, you worked as a Transformation Digital & Customer Strategy partner at EY (Ernst & Young). How important is digital transformation for companies? How do Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence coexist within the digital transformation of companies?
The companies have the ultimate purpose of generating income and profits for their shareholders. This leads them to a continuous search to improve their competitiveness and this seems complicated in a world where the margins are getting narrower and in which the barriers of competition are diluted while new competitors with different abilities enter.
In this sense, one of the levers that most notoriety gives is that of digital transformation. This is enabling companies to capture value thanks to analytics and data. This is what makes any digital transformation plan a privileged position for the promotion of initiatives and analytical capabilities.
In your opinion, what actions should we take to implement a digital transformation plan?
In my opinion, there are two issues to consider when talking about digital transformation and companies.
The first is that it is an issue that is a business challenge and not a technological one. That’s why it’s the work of the entire company.
And second, it is very necessary that the leaders of the companies generate sensitivity on these issues and become aware. They should arrive and even receive training on what this is or what it is for. But, above all, what is not and why it does not work.
It is important to avoid false expectations or blocking points that do not allow organizations to move forward, since it is necessary to understand that this is a long way.
What advice would you give us to take advantage of the data we collect as a company?
I think the first advice is to know what you want them for. Once the organizations have it clear and the whole team is aligned with a single objective, the idea would be to think big but act in small. Always in an agile and fast way.
When we talk about the importance of concepts such as artificial intelligence, big data or digital transformation. Are they more relevant in certain sectors or should this adaptation be given in everything that surrounds us?
All sectors and industries are or will be disruptive due to digital transformation. Good for the new business models or for their new competitive skills. That is, new competitors may arise or current competitors may compete differently.
The difference is in the speed of adoption of the industries. Either because the regulatory frameworks are more lax or because the existence of a margin accelerates the appetite of these new models. This means that sectors such as retail or retail are more advanced than the financial sector.
Do you think that your experience as a Digital Transformation & Customer Strategy partner in EY has helped you to later perform your role as Deloitte Digital?
My entire professional career, from the beginning in BCG, has been marked by the use of analytics and data to help companies in the transfromation of their businesses. This has meant a continuous search and evolution of the fields of application of said analytics.
In this sense, all the experience acquired in EY to apply these techniques to the field of marketing and business relationship models, allowed me to have a transversal vision of the business models of the companies.
This has been a fact of high value for the different projects and solutions developed in Deloitte digital.
