Biography

Eric Siegel, Ph.D. is a leading consultant and former Columbia University professor who helps companies deploy machine learning. He is the founder of the long-running Machine Learning Week conference series, the instructor of the acclaimed online course “Machine Learning Leadership and Practice – End-to-End Mastery,” executive editor of The Machine Learning Times, and a frequent keynote speaker.

He wrote the bestselling Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die, which has been used in courses at hundreds of universities, as well as The AI Playbook: Mastering the Rare Art of Machine Learning Deployment. In his first book, Eric Siegel explained how machine learning works. In the latest, he shows how to capitalize on it and master the rare art of machine learning deployment. 

Eric’s interdisciplinary work bridges the stubborn technology/business gap. At Columbia, he won the Distinguished Faculty award when teaching the graduate computer science courses in ML and AI. Later, he served as a business school professor at UVA Darden. Eric also publishes op-eds on analytics and social justice

Eric has appeared on Bloomberg TV and Radio, BNN (Canada), Israel National Radio, National Geographic Breakthrough, NPR Marketplace, Radio National (Australia), and TheStreet. Eric and his first book have been featured in Big Think, Businessweek, CBS MoneyWatch, Contagious Magazine, The European Business Review, The Financial Times, Forbes, Fortune, GQ, Harvard Business Review, The Huffington Post, Luckbox Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, Newsweek, Quartz, Salon, The San Francisco Chronicle, Scientific American, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and WSJ MarketWatch.

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How Machine Learning Delivers on the Promise of AI

The excitement over machine learning and AI has reached a fever pitch. But what is the value, the function, the purpose? The most actionable win to be gained from data is prediction. This is achieved by analytically learning how to render predictions for each individual from data. Such predictions drive more effectively the millions of operational decisions that
organizations make every day. In this keynote, Machine Learning Week founder and bestselling author Eric Siegel reveals how machine learning – aka predictive analytics – works and how it delivers value to organizations across industry sectors.

The AI Playbook: How to Capitalize on Machine Learning

The greatest tool is the hardest to use. Machine learning is the world’s most important general-purpose technology – but it’s
notoriously difficult to launch. Outside Big Tech and a handful of other leading companies, machine learning initiatives routinely fail to deploy, never realizing value. What’s missing? A specialized business practice suitable for wide adoption. In this keynote, bestselling author Eric Siegel presents the gold-standard, six-step practice for ushering machine learning projects from conception to deployment. He illustrates the practice with stories of success and failure, including revealing case studies from UPS, FICO, and prominent dot-coms.

Most Machine Learning Projects Fail to Deploy – Here's the Remedy

Industry leader Eric Siegel's latest research shows most models generated with machine learning to improve business
operations in a new way never deploy. It turns out that machine learning operationalization – which changes existing processes to improve them – takes more planning, socialization, and change-management efforts than most ever begin to realize. The problem is more in leadership than in technology. In this talk, Eric will outline the required practice needed to run ML projects so that they successfully deploy and deliver a business impact.

How Machine Learning Reduces Risk in Financial Services

The gold standard method for leveraging data to reduce risk – in credit, insurance, and other lines of business – is machine
learning. The predictive models this technology generates reduce risk, cut costs, and boost profit. In this keynote address,
bestselling author and former Columbia University professor Eric Siegel will demonstrate what is learned from data and how enterprises apply what's learned to improve the business metrics that matter most in the financial services sector.

The High Cost of AI Hype

Machine learning has an “AI” problem. With new breathtaking capabilities from generative AI released every several months — and AI hype escalating at an even higher rate — it’s high time we differentiate most of today’s practical ML projects from those research advances. Including all ML initiatives under the “AI” umbrella oversells and misleads, contributing to a high failure rate for ML business deployments. In this keynote address, author Eric Siegel shows that, for most ML projects, the term “AI” goes entirely too far — it alludes to human-level capabilities. By unpacking the meaning of “AI,” he'll reveal how overblown a buzzword is.

Five Ways to Lower Costs with Machine Learning

Question: How does machine learning actively deliver increased returns? Answer: By driving operational decisions with
predictive scores, one score is assigned to each individual. In this way, an enterprise optimizes on what customers WILL do.
But, in tough times, our attention turns away from increasing returns and towards decreasing costs. On top of boosting us
up the hill, can machine learning pull us out of a hole? Heck, yes. Marketing more optimally means you can market less. Filtering high-risk prospects means you will spend less. And, by retaining customers more efficiently, well, a customer saved is a customer earned - and one you need not acquire. In this keynote, Eric Siegel will demonstrate five ways machine learning can lower costs without decreasing business, thus transforming your enterprise into a Lean, Mean Analytical Machine. You’ll want to return home and break the news: We can’t afford not to do this.

Testimonials

Eric spoke for us across the US and Canada for a six-city dinner series, and was absolutely fantastic! The attendees thoroughly enjoyed his presentations and he is an absolute pleasure to work with. Not only is he THE expert in predictive analytics, but he delivers his message in an easy-to-consume, understandable way, so that both novices and experts come away with something valuable.
– Joe Kaszynski Marketing Manager, IBM Business Analytics
Eric Siegel, Ph.D., is one of the luminaries appearing in [National Geographic TV's] Predicting the Future episode... Eric does a great job of talking about deep learning and AI from a layperson’s perspective.
– Forbes
Mr. Siegel, is a fine orator who can craft his knowledge to your unique industry or conference topics. Of more than 28 speakers he performed highest on our conference evaluations. We hit a home run in asking Eric to bring his wit, unique skills set and polished presentation to INMA Data Insights in Chicago.
– Eric Hutchins, Event Manager, International News Media Association
Eric did an excellent job distilling the science of predictive analytics into digestible examples that resonated with our audience. I commend him on helping acclimate a roomful of legal industry professionals on one of the most complex – and daunting – trends impacting business development.
– Nicholas Giannini, Ph.D., Conference Director, Thomson Reuters
Eric Siegel is an engaging speaker who knows how to package complicated information so that it is interesting, relevant, and memorable. He delivered the keynote at our 2023 government Health & Human Services IT conference and he was able to reach our broad array of attendees representing the full spectrum of human services programs. It felt like each person had their own takeaway from his powerful presentation; we each left with new insight and ideas for how we could each employ an aspect of his teachings to our own work.
– Steph Bloch, Deputy Administrator, Economic Security Administration, Department of Human Services
Eric is a great presenter, always fun to listen to, and he has done a great job bringing this to his new book.
– James Taylor, CEO, Decision Management Solutions
Eric has the gift of clarity and simplification of the ultra complex.
– Juan Llanos EVP Operations, Unidos Financial
Eric Siegel... makes machine learning easy to understand.
– Charles Duhigg on Siegel’s The AI Playbook

Booksby Eric Siegel, Ph.D.

The AI Playbook

Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die

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