Empowering the AI-Driven Enterprise: Teradata's Vision and Impact

In an era defined by data, Teradata stands at the forefront of transforming businesses through AI-driven insights and innovation. With a mission to empower individuals and organizations, the company has been instrumental in harmonizing data, fostering trusted AI, and driving faster innovation. At its helm is CEO Steve McMillan, a leader whose personal journey echoes the spirit of transformation and re-imagination that defines Teradata's culture and mission.

Teradata's Vision and Approach

Teradata's journey begins with a fundamental belief – that individuals and organizations thrive when they are empowered with better information. In the data-driven landscape of today, this belief takes on renewed significance. By harmonizing data, Teradata integrates vast volumes of information from any source and deployment, ensuring consistency across organizations and delivering cost-effective results. Trusted AI is another cornerstone, offering powerful, open, and connected analytics that perform with speed, deliver superior insights, and inspire the confidence to act. Lastly, the concept of faster innovation revolves around making breakthroughs that unlock the next great discovery, enhancing performance, and driving profitable growth with unprecedented velocity.

The AI-Driven Decade and GenAI

We are on the cusp of a new era, the AI-driven decade, where artificial intelligence is set to revolutionize the way businesses operate. GenAI, a term introduced by Steve McMillan, represents a sea change in AI innovation. It unlocks AI's potential in a more powerful and flexible manner than ever before. GenAI is already making waves across various sectors, including customer operations, marketing, sales, software engineering, and R&D. While GenAI has applications in every business sector, banking, technology, consumer packaged goods, retail, and healthcare are expected to experience immediate traction.

However, the adoption of GenAI is not without its challenges. Teradata's survey, conducted in collaboration with IDC, revealed that more than half of respondents felt significant pressure to implement GenAI within the next 6 to 12 months, but only 30% believed they were ready. Challenges include development bottlenecks, rising costs, talent shortages, business process redesign requirements, and seemingly endless investment demands.

The Foundation of Trust in AI

The real question that looms over AI is trust. Can AI be trusted to deliver reliable and ethical results? This trust starts with the underlying data that fuels AI. AI is inherently reliant on data, and for businesses to succeed, they must effectively manage and analyze the vast amounts of data generated, especially when importing it into an AI system in a hybrid multi-cloud environment.

The sheer scale of data is staggering. The data universe is expected to grow over tenfold from 2020 to 2030, reaching 660 zettabytes, equivalent to 610 iPhones (128GB) per person. Without knowing and trusting their data sets, businesses cannot fully rely on AI outputs. The quality of predictions and insights is directly tied to the quality of data used.

Teradata's Unique Role

Teradata's story is marked by its remarkable journey with data. The company has been transforming customers into data-driven businesses long before it became a global conversation. With a focus on handling massive, unstoppable data sets, Teradata obsesses over AI and analytics. It all started with one clear purpose – managing data.

Today, Teradata manages trillions of digital interactions, serving customers across the globe. It has evolved into the complete cloud analytics and data platform for AI. Teradata's core offering is an analytics platform that enables clean data to inform AI in the cloud of your choosing, laying the foundation for any successful AI initiative.

Challenges Faced by Leading Company Decision-Makers

Teradata's collaboration with Forbes involved surveying 1,000 C-level executives worldwide about their vision for Enterprise 2030. The survey highlighted the top data challenges facing organizations today:

Ensuring data security, privacy, and compliance (32%)

Integrating data resources across enterprise silos or domains (26%)

Ensuring data quality (26%)

Managing and storing large amounts and varieties of data (25%)

Establishing better data governance (25%)

These challenges underscore the complexity and importance of managing data in the modern business landscape.

Harnessing the Possibilities of Generative AI

Generative AI represents a game-changing breakthrough with the potential to add trillions to the global economy. McKinsey projects that generative AI use cases could contribute over $4 trillion to the economy, with additional productivity improvements. Three high-value use cases for generative AI include:

Improved Business Performance: Generative AI enables knowledge workers to instantly sift through vast data, drawing insights and making better decisions without the need for coding.

Hyper-Contextualized Customer Experiences: Generative AI enhances Customer 360 analytics and recommendation engines, allowing businesses to respond with more authentic and relevant interactions, improving customer engagement and loyalty.

Faster Product Innovation: Technology teams can use generative AI to automatically create code, reducing operational expenses and delivering innovative software and data products that drive business value faster.

However, the key to unlocking this value lies in moving AI initiatives from proof of concepts (POCs) into production. Teradata plays a pivotal role in overcoming the challenges of scaling AI and accelerating its value. The company does so by:

Reining in data sprawl and modernizing the technology environment.

Delivering flexibility with an open and connected ecosystem.

Scaling AI innovation across the enterprise.

Steve McMillan's Inspirational Journey

Steve McMillan's journey to become the CEO of Teradata is a personal story of transformation and re-imagination. Born in a working-class village in Scotland, his family faced financial challenges. But McMillan's parents, with courage and determination, moved to England, finished their education, and shattered the status quo.

Inspired by his parents' courage, McMillan left behind his shy, bookish persona and embraced a life of challenges and re-imagination. He married, had children, and made 're-imagination' his personal mission as a leader. When he was approached for the position of CEO at Teradata in June 2020, McMillan recognized the company's refusal to accept the status quo, its drive to transform, and its courage to re-imagine, values that resonated with his own journey.

Teradata's Mission and Vision

Teradata positively impacts millions of lives worldwide by managing trillions of digital interactions, each one a data point that informs better decisions and empowers more confident choices. Businesses use Teradata to deliver rapid innovation, scale operational efficiency, reduce supply chain friction, and protect valuable information. Their goal is to create exceptional customer experiences and drive business growth.

Values and Work Culture

Teradata's values and work culture are the foundation of their success:

Customer-Driven: They innovate with their customers' future in mind, building the business of tomorrow.

Innovate with Purpose: As a cloud-first company, they provide real-time insights, empowering clients to innovate from start to scale.

Accountability to Each Other: They trust and collaborate transparently, inviting debate and tackling challenges head-on.

Relentlessly Sustainable: Teradata is committed to addressing global environmental challenges by advancing sustainable practices.

Commitment to Inclusion: The company is dedicated to making Teradata a workplace where every perspective is welcomed and valued.

Community-Focused: Partner programs with universities and organizations aim to build stronger, more diverse communities.

The company's commitment to data quality, trust, and innovation makes it a key player in shaping the future of AI-powered businesses.