Resilient Leadership, AI in Regulated Industries, and Ethical Innovation - Erika Kiely

Speaker A: Hello again and welcome to another episode of spherecast. In this mini series of CT accelerator, we welcome Erica Kiely, powerhouse in tech leadership, whose journey from surviving political unrest in Peru and leading uh, large scale technology initiatives in the insurance world is nothing short of remarkable. So Erika, welcome with us. And in this one we have also Mario, Mario schwartz, our data AI, uh, director Sphere. So he will be also my host today in this podcast. Erica, let's start first with you. So I love that people introduce themselves because they know themselves much better than I do. So can you give us a little bit of insights who Erica Kennedy is?

Speaker B: Absolutely. And Aiden. Mario, what a pleasure to be here today with you. I appreciate this opportunity to voicing a little bit of the thoughts and the journey that has brought me right here. Originally born in Peru and uh, from the professional side I have been leading technologies efforts and program efforts for the past 20 years. Started a little bit with the process improvement side and met a Fortune 100 company not long ago. Uh, with 20 years about a great, great, great journey and leading all the international technology and all the international programs and we were able not to be pretty successful with the deployment in Latin America and the Caribbean, which are the markets that we are serving right after. Just decided to find my own voice and that is called Protective Strategies, which is really the soul of my journey. And as consulting company that focus on technology, focus on regulatory and compliance matters are very tied to AI because the thought process is technology has to go along of certain guardrails and I think merging those and ensuring that there is a synergy is a great value that we can bring to the table. So quite a bit of the journey on the professional side. But at the end of the day, I'm a human being, I'm a mother, I'm a friend, I'm a wife. And I am someone who is deeply hopeful about improving the status quo, especially of the people in my country.

Speaker A: Thanks for the intro, Erika. To continue on that intro, your story is deeply inspiring. So could you share with our listeners what shaped your early resilience and how your upbringing peri influenced your leadership style today?

Speaker B: That opened the door of a very intense phase of my life. Growing up in Peru was very challenging. During the era of the 90s, Peru was a country that was heavily

Speaker C: run

Speaker B: by the corruption on the politics. We were hit by the terrorism with the Shining Path and then the desperation of the people who doesn't have much cause, really do not have any character or any values to follow. And that was the perfect combination for the tragedy that my family went through. So back in the 90s, my father was running for Congress. And as the result of certain decisions, my dad and his team and another candidate, they were assassinated. Back in that time, I was only 14 and I realized that at, uh, times there is not a limit for when men looks for power so desperately thinking that that will be the sense of realization. So recover from that experience. I don't think that will ever end. I think recovery is a continuous matter. But the experience that I went through didn't diminish me, nor did define me actually cause to shape a way to lead people in the way that I do today. And I think the key word is resilience. And resilience has changed the meaning along the way. It's no longer survivorship. I think resilience is the posture that we have when we are going to any challenging situation. And the resilience being paired with compassion and empathy can move masses and can cause transformational effects. And not only for my recovery, uh, but also for. It's a transformational effect for the people who is around me. And that has been translated in a leadership model that has generated terrific results. Because when we bring resilience to the, to the table, we don't pause, we take some risks, realizing that not everything will go right, but we have the capacity to quickly people get back up and try one more time.

Speaker A: Wow, thanks for sharing that. Yeah.

Speaker B: Um,

Speaker A: sorry about your dad. Yeah, yeah. So Mario, please, go ahead. Yeah.

Speaker C: So, you know, evolving from that, why did you launch the protective, uh, strategies, and uh, how do your experience shape the mission of this beautiful company that you have put out there?

Speaker B: I. I had a terrific career at, uh, a Fortune 100 company. And it happened that when I entered this business, I was able to join the area that serves Latin America and the Caribbean. So I was away from home, but not necessarily away from home. I was able to serve the people in Latin America and the Caribbean. Especially coming from the experience of understanding what happened when someone passes and there is no life insurance. That made it very real. So I pour a lot of heart. And when we pour heart, we also pour a lot of energy. So the past 20 years was a lot about of continuous improvement. My initial degree is in journalism and communications. And midway I realized that technology is critical to have technology knowledge. And I start getting very close to matters of continuous improvement. So let's talk a little bit of Dimaya Lean Six Sigma. And it felt very natural, very organic, to the point that I was offered the opportunity to run the technology and the Programs. And for a company that is also emerging because having a successful business, the next step was to diversify and expand. And that was the past three years in that company. And the greatest accomplishment as a professional, uh, was to lead a full implementation of another insurance company that is in the international private medical insurance from zero, from ground zero, all the way to launch. What that means that we talk about regulatory matters, compliance, marketing, operations, systems integration, security, vendors. And it was just like, you know, the greatest gift but also the greatest challenge because it forced me to learn very quickly about every single work stream that needed to be implemented in order to launch this company. When I reached the final point, I had to take a little bit of time to pause and reflect what is next? And the what is next came back as, uh, a little whisper from the time when I was 14 because growing up I had the best leadership and character model very close to me. And that's my dad, a man who sacrificed his life for his country. And that means there was no limit. But also there was purpose, mission and value on that. And I do have a young daughter, she's 20 and she is watching me and I think that's the greatest gift that I can give to her. Not what I say, but please, I hope you pay attention to the decision making and hopefully to emulate. So 20 years in that, uh, company reached a point where I had to reflect what is next, what brings purpose to life. And for some reason right now the Maslow pyramid is starting to hit. We go through many phases and transcendence is the answer that I got. And I think that's what this protective strategy is, transcendence. It's no longer about what are my personal pursuits, what are my professional pursuits, but what I can give back, give back to my community, give back to my country, and hopefully to establish a legacy for my own child. So protective strategies really is the vision that I have for what technology implementation should look like. I mean the speed is incredible, but we definitely need to bring the compliance. Right? We need to be ethical about that, but also we want to make it accessible. So protective really is about, you know, it's about caring and protecting in guiding because, uh, sometimes we make technology so complicated and we think that it's going to be so expensive and we forget that. But that also is paired with innovation. And it doesn't have to be expensive, but when we sprinkle a little bit of creativity, we can do a lot with very little. So really that is the message and that is something that I want to translate for home Nice.

Speaker A: Yes. All right, so, uh, let's talk maybe also about the, the national AI program you're leading, Erica. And you know, I would love to understand and our listeners, I think as well, you know, how does it reflect your, your values on ethical innovation? And what is the, uh, and what is the vision, of course, behind the AI program?

Speaker B: So when I reached that pause that I just mentioned, living, you know, a great company, and I live, I left, you know, and highest, at the highest possible level, many people will say I wanted for more. That restlessness was there. And I do believe in the law of synchronicity, that uh, when something is ready for us, if I am paying attention, it will be revealed. And that's what happened. As I was building protective and strategy heavily, heavily powered by AI, I had an old friend that contacted me. We both went to the same university back home. And she starts sharing about the first Peruvian Chamber of Artificial Intelligence. And the more that I was listening, the more I was connecting the dots. And I kept thinking, I have done that, I have done that, I have done that. And when she was sharing this, we would like to do that, we would like to do that, we would like to do that. And it was just pretty organic. And I said, can I please have the opportunity to meet the group? And when I met them, I share a little bit of my journey. What was able to do with artificial intelligence? How. I think the how is sometimes the big mystery. And I was able to explain that in a way that was so easy to understand, that became appealing. And in no time I became a member of the Chamber, which, it's not just a subscription. You have to go through a screening process, through an alignment process. It's really, it's an honor and it's a privilege. And so grateful to the Chamber and so grateful for the opportunity to be at service. And as the conversations were taking place, you know, we were trying to align, uh, the level of the skill with the work stream and also the vision, the availability, because we are volunteers and we are professionals, you know, some of us, you know, in, in different parts of the world, some of them, you know, the majority, you know, in Peru is a multidisciplinary group. And one of the directors said, can you join us? Because at the enterprise level, we would like to have, uh, like a model, you know, something that can be attractive for the companies. And. But it was kind of a high level thought. And what I did is I grabbed it, I study and I said, what about an AI maturity model? And from that note, we needed to bring the enterprise pieces. Okay, we can evaluate artificial intelligence, but what is the reason to tell you you are in a, uh, low, mid or high level. That is not enough. It's not enough in a country that has the responsibility to generate opportunities for its people and create more work. So what I did is I grabbed that initial thought and I coupled with a balance scorecard and I coupled with the KPI and ROI and I built a house. You know, it was kind of, you know, okay, so if we're thinking to bring a model, what do we give back to the companies? You know, it's just not the initial roadmap that says this is where you are and good luck. No, we want, you know, to take full advantage of, um, the multidisciplinary group that we have here and build a process from beginning to end. And it starts with phase zero, with that one on one with the CEO and said, okay, I have studied your financials. I know this is the toughest part. We can offer a model. Let's start with the diagnostic. We can provide a roadmap. M. Let's find a poc, a proof of concept that can be implemented quickly and with very low expense, demonstrate the power of AI, see how it moves the needle and the balance scorecard, how moves the needle and the KPIs and the ROIs, and be able to just say, this is what we can do. What is key here is to demonstrate that with a very low budget. And I think because we're talking about a country that's still in development. So the vision, the vision is the sepia, the Chamber of Artificial Intelligence wants to be an ethical reference, but also wants to be, be a source that can propel opportunity through AI, removing the fear concept that makes people believe, especially in our countries, that it will take my job instead of that to make it accessible, to make it appealing and say it's a matter of creativity, as a matter of innovation. It's a matter of asking the right questions. That is how the model took place.

Speaker C: So following the. This is an interesting story, right? And I think our listeners would like to really get from you how you use it, because that's, that's people say, yeah, I see it, but how do you get to use the AI, uh, in a real enterprise setting? And not only that, is AI only geni, or is it also machine learning? Is it also the other pieces of, you know, really artificial intelligence that people just now only relate to AI? So if you can share some examples of how that added value, I think that they would Appreciate very much that insight.

Speaker B: Absolutely. I think the use of AI now is generative is the key word that is what people interpret as an AI. We start using AI goodness 12, 13 years ago with a group that I was leading. Uh, and it was a, uh, group of three innovators, two people in process improvement and one of my key engineer. And we started this, uh, applying to an UM enrollment, an insurance electronic enrollment model. Machine learning. So comes from very long time ago. And how did we do it? We were planning to. We're developing a new product, designing a new product. A new insurance product needed to be offered to Latin America and the Caribbean. We at that time, we remain a very small group, you know, and let's go ahead and bring resilience necessity. We got very creative. And I said, you know, we are, we have a team group. We need to be mindful and not about not burning people out with excessive hours. How can we help each other? And that's when we learn about machine learning. So one of the uses, very practical use was, you know, number one is what are all the rules for this new insurance model? Document everything and start writing down what will be the questions and how do we grade the questions and how impact the final process. That was our first kind of touch with machine learning. Developed this huge engine, rules with questions, possible answers, and what will be the rating model. So the moment that I will complete my insurance application, in no time, um, it will tell me, oh, you got approved, you know, you got to prefer, you got to prove a standard. You got postponed because we have to wait six months until you recover from this condition. All of that was powered back in the day with machine learning. As time keep advancing in order to sustain that business. Because we continue growing and always with a challenge to have only a few of us working on this endeavor. The next step was how do we improve all our workflows. That was another effort. So we transitioned from manual, from paper, from scanning to have different type of technology. That instead of us reading a medical examination or the underwriting reading a medical examination and taking three hours, having a scanning of the full data, transfer the data, knowing that a bare minimum of quality control was needed. That is when the human is so key because we need to quality control the output. And what we did is we pretty much retired legacy systems. And we also automated a full workflow full of machine learning, some of artificial intelligence with the bots, which we scripted because being an insurance is highly regulated. Because of the LLM was pretty limited and we were able to reduce cost in that way, you know, but I think maybe, you know, one of the key examples, you know, in that journey was also the remediation that we did for this insurance company. When we're dealing with insurance, so many of these products accumulate cash value. And then we were subject to an audit. And when an audit comes, the question says, you know, what is your KYC model? How does your AML program work? And we were so early in our maturity level on those matters that we had to work on a full remediation. So the first thing is, was to think about resources. And I had around 17 college students joining my team and we pretty much wiped out the entire data, over 7,000 accounts we were able to remediate. But as we were remediating also with those brilliant months, we started creating um, how can we make this sustainable in the long run? So we created automated flows, how to capture the data, how to standardize the data and how the data can propel me to make the right decisions. That was phase one finished, um, that completed that remediation, the program, the AML anti money laundering know your customer program kick. But then even with all that automation that we did with the, you know, few tools we had was not enough to sustain the new business, the new incoming business and also the new company that we were trying to implement. So we decided to partner up with a world company, uh, in the United States that does that automation and the monitoring, the financial monitoring of the premiums, transactions patterns. And that was another opportunity just to bring the power of AI heavily powered by business rules. I think you know, that that is when we cannot discard the human being from technology and artificial intelligence. That human being needs to be able to connect the dots, ask the right questions, provide the right mapping and then improve all those artifacts with artificial intelligence. So those are a few, a few examples.

Speaker C: So I would say in short before uh, I pass it but onto Adam in your examples what you're saying is don't fear for your job. It's really use AI to assist, to make you better at your job, right?

Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. I think, you know, the key, uh, the key for us has been AI is a capacity increase tool. You have the right skill in the right place and you want to multiply the capacity of that resource. And really I have no way to measure what AI has done for us. And if we just bring protective strategies back to the table. That full company has been built with AI tools but with a human heart and with my mind.

Speaker A: Can I go one level deeper onto that? I think this is very interesting. For our listeners, Erica and Mario, you can also add your comment maybe as well onto that. But what do you guys think is the, the skills and the foundational knowledge that needs to, you know, every leader should have before they want to integrate effectively AI into their teams? I think, I think many people ask them themselves because we see that from, uh, many events that we do that people have the AI on the roadmap, but they don't know what, where, how, and you know, what to start with, basically. So Erica, can, can you share something about that? And Mario, then, you know, please, you know, share also your, your opinion as well.

Speaker B: Sure. I think as a leader, the first thing is I have to be curious. I cannot just delegate. Uh, uh, for me, leadership is synonymous of character. And it's not just, you know, me reading the financials and the ROIs, but I have to be very curious. So my, I am spread very thin and I consider that a problem of abundance. And so with that in mind, okay, I am leading my company. I have pretty limited time. How can I make my time worth in curiosity? So, uh, I think the first thing is just try it yourself. What does that give you? Okay, we spent three hours reading a financial statement to make couple decisions. Why can't I not just grab that financial statement, put it in a secure AI, you know, bucket, give, give, you know, and ask the right question, you know. And I said, this is where my company is. This is where the fine. This is what I think the company is. This is where the financials is. Can you please help me to understand, give me a summary, you know, give me the five highlights and how will that impact the current status and what decision making do you suggest if a leader doesn't try, it's still very intangible and it's still, still something that maybe an engineer will do it. And I think that is the other thing. Engineers are wonderful building the models, but really my purpose is to bring the model to the user and say, this is absolutely easy to do, but let's go ahead and you and I, let's work together and asking the right questions, bringing the right content so we get great output that will help us to make great decisions and then game on.

Speaker A: Well, thank you for that. Mario, what do you, what do you see talking to many, many clients and prospects?

Speaker C: What I see, you know, I see with Erica, I mean, uh, a lot of what starts and on what makes the success, you know, be on that 20%. Because Erica, uh, as you know, 80% of these initiatives with Gen AI fail. Right? So how do you get into that 20% and the challenge of that 20% and the factor you see with them is that they are curious. I agree with with Erica on that end. The other piece is a uh, lot of the success comes on understanding that you AI is not going to substitute people, they're going to make them more efficient. And third, but not last I would say is they're looking at doing not just a poc, but more about ah, take the proof of concept to another level or a real mvp. So a product that can be implemented quickly. Because if you just do a proof of concept, depending on how it needs to be. Erica touched on security and other aspects of it. Usually you don't care about all those things when you just trying to do the proof of concept and then incorporating that to POC is a big task. While if you're designing as uh, a product, as an mvp, you take into account all those things. So helping understand how that journey is, that maturity, those leaders that understand that they need to embark into understanding the level of maturity will be more successful than the others.

Speaker A: Interesting, thanks for sharing that Mario.

Speaker B: And Mario, let me go ahead and add a little bit and this is experiential. So while I was still with the prior company, the whole generative AI boom start happening and start happening very quickly. Part of the success of this company has been, you know, early adoption, quick adoption, but responsible adoption. So the fact we, we couldn't deny the fact that AI was you know, starting to get everywhere. So we had to put one more time a pause and determine, okay, where would we put the guardrails? And what we did is, you know, do a full study of our uh, policies, procedures and processes and start to adding, you know, just simple lines. Okay. If a vendor decides to be part of our ecosystem, we need to add additional questions. Do you use AI? Do you use our AI to train your models? But it had to be a very um, quick adjustment, change management for sure because we were just. It goes so fast that if we miss a bid we can put the company in a huge risk. But it starts with the CEO buy in. Hopefully the CEO is curious enough. And then it has to cascade first to the security piece, compliance piece, legal piece. Now that is an uh, affair in a country like the United States where you have the luxury to have all those departments. When you translate the experience to countries and development, the conversations are a little bit more easier but also has to be more gentle because there is not so much exposure and knowledge of all the items that I just brought. So the Thought process is. Let's start, uh, with curiosity and let's find, you know, let's determine how this impact today your roi. Let's see how we can build a simple proof of concept. That will not cost you much, but we can see the results.

Speaker C: Yeah, and I would say, Eric, following into that, to be honest with you, I think you and, uh, I should probably do another podcast and focus on how important change management is. I think it's one of the pieces that people don't understand the value on a project, how important it is. And with this technology, if you don't really put it as a foundation as well as you do with data quality and with security and compliance, there's no way that you be successful. So I will invite you to have another discussion and focus on that now that people know you a little bit, you know, maybe have another discussion and go a little more in depth on the importance of that and how that makes your projects be more successful. Uh, I know that Adam has one last question about if you would recommend somebody for us to, you know, have another.

Speaker A: I have, I have something before that, Mario, actually. So I, um, have something on the personal note, I think, you know, so, so, so Erika, when we talked to each other initially, you know, you definitely. And I saw it also in, in the PR pieces that I read, you know, your daughter is definitely one of your main center points in your life, I think. Right. So I want to go there and you know, just see like you and your daughter travel with a mission to give back and grow. That's, that's, you know, kind of the message I got. So I just want to understand how do you see AI playing a role in global development, development and community building, and what legacy do you hope to leave through your work?

Speaker B: Thank you for the question, Aiden. And it is a very special area of my life. And just going back to Mario very quick. Yes. I would love to do a podcast on change management. My daughter's name is, ah, Sophia. And as I have gone through certain hardships in my early years, she had her own. And I think human beings connect through vulnerability and also through sharing those hard experiences. When humans can do that, it builds a bond that is incredibly strong. So Sophia and I have that. I do believe, you know, that there is such much grace on her because it is. It baffles me at times that someone who has gone through the experiences that she has has the capacity to exercise the level of grace and compassion that she has. So at times she becomes my role model. So it has been a Beautiful symbiotic experience on leadership. So her traits were, you know, pretty, you know, pretty clear and shiny, you know, since a, uh, very early start. And what I do believe is that we cannot value what we don't know. And the US Is a wonderful place. My goodness. We have the safety, we have the organization, we have the structure, we have the protection. We have the right to exercise our voice. And with all of that, I wanted to show her that the rest of the world might not work on that way. So since early in her life, we have visited Peru a few times. We have been in several areas in Europe, and not certainly in the fancy and the glamour, um, and what you see in so many social labs, but actually in the sights of the world, including Africa, where life does not work as fine and as precise as it work here. Why do I do that? Because for me, it's absolutely critical that she does not remove the lenses of compassion and cares to humanity. One of her masterpieces was one of her essays when she decided to apply for college. And the name, the title of her essay was A Citizen of the World. And that is how she sees her. And why do I focus so much on getting her out? Because my hope is that she will carry the legacy of service, the legacy of service, of selflessness, the legacy of resilience. And I think it has been, uh, an intentional partnership that every time that we have felt that life has hit in a way that might be painful, we have had each other to quickly brainstorm and to say, okay, these are the conditions, how we're going to get back up. Now, my hope is that someday she will have her own children, right? And she will be able to pass that character trait. But along those lines, something that has kind of propelled the resilience is AI we have a challenging situation, and it's kind of automatic. Our AI model has a name. I said, okay, let's ask Arlo. What are we going to do? And we kind of just dump the situation and we ask the questions, right? What are best practices? What are the most common traits? What has been the result of people making these decisions? And it can go to anything. It can go from caring for our dogs. It can be from being stranded somewhere in Bulgaria. It can be not knowing how to get out, you know, in a little street from Marrakech, you know, it can be, okay, how do I negotiate if I need, you know, this amount of spices, you know, and the little silks, and still be gentle and polite. So we have used AI for so many things, and if any it has enhanced, enhanced the way how we choose to live our life, how we choose to connect with community. Because, you know, another good question is cultural awareness. I am here. I am in your land. You don't have to cater to me. I am the visitor now. It is my responsibility to cater to you to the best of my ability and make this relationship work. So she has been, I mean I had had the joy to see powerful deliveries of her own journey in front of women in leadership here in Oklahoma. Powerful deliveries about what service mean at high school. Today she works with house representative here in the state of Oklahoma and also for an agricultural technology company that is injecting AI. So not legacy. I think the legacy is there. It's not so much what she knows, but it's what she brings to the table with grace and humility.

Speaker A: Well, thanks for sharing that personal note, Erika. So, yes, and now my final question, and I don't know if Mario has one, but we ask that every guest on the podcast. So who can you recommend to do the next podcast with us? Uh, so the name company and we will, we will hunt them through you, of course.

Speaker B: Absolutely. I can think about my friend Ben Ribeski. And, um, both of us serve in the Project Management Institute, Oklahoma City chapter board. He's incredibly innovative, creative, has developed a great framework for project successful project management that can deliver high value. I will be more than glad to connect with him and just establish those relationships, but I think he will be a terrific addition, um, to the podcast, guys.

Speaker A: Thank you for that, Erica. Thank you very much. All right, so that's, that's it on this episode, I would say so, Erica, I think this is maybe not the last one as I can hear it from Mario. So let's, let's see if we can make that happen. The change management one. Uh, thank you so much for being on this one. Taking your time from the day. Ah, sharing so much professional and private with us, Erica. So that's, that's from me, Mario. I leave it with you and then with Erika and then, uh, we can, we can stop the podcast.

Speaker C: Thank you, Erica. It's been a real pleasure meeting you and uh, sharing some battle scars. We'll talk a little bit more on the other podcast on change management. We definitely have a lot of work stories that we can share and uh, uh, look forward to, you know, meeting again.

Speaker B: Thank you so much. And Aidan and Mario, I leave with the final that AI is a mirror and a lever. It's a, uh, mirror because AI is going to mirror me. My thought process, my character, my skill. And it's going to enhance and it can go either way, but also is a lever. And it's a lever can help us to propel so much progress, especially in those countries that need progress the most. I am very grateful to. To both of you. Grateful for the space, grateful for allowing me to dust off some of my memories and help me to relive, you know, the excitement of what this journey has been. So thank you so much.

Speaker A: You. You are. You know, we need to. Thank you, Erica. So. Yeah, definitely. Speak. Speak. Another time I would say so have I. Have a nice afternoon, Erica.

Speaker B: You too. Bye. Bye.