Decision Intelligence in Regulated Industries | Natalia Kuklova

What does decision intelligence look like in a bank, where every model has real downside risk? Natalia Kuklova, a senior data science and AI leader and Forbes Technology Council contributor, joins host Henry Clavo to explain how to connect data science to the decisions leaders actually make, and how to scale AI responsibly in regulated industries.

Natalia shares why every dashboard needs a story and a recommendation, how she tracked a recommendation-to-action ratio with the C-suite, what breaks during mergers, where LLMs still fail, and her framework for deciding whether AI should automate, augment or inform.

Chapters

0:00 Cold open

0:18 Orlando Insights Podcast intro

0:58 Meet Natalia Kuklova

2:15 What decision intelligence means in practice

3:34 Building analytics leaders trust enough to act

4:31 When decision clarity, not data, is the problem

6:26 The recommendation-to-action ratio: beyond dashboards

8:19 What breaks first in data teams during mergers

10:42 AI governance, shadow AI and model risk

12:17 Speed vs. control in regulated environments

15:51 Keeping data science tied to business outcomes

17:56 When to test vs. commit, and the A/B testing misconception

19:43 Learning AI tools and explaining their output

22:01 Where machine learning delivers the most durable value

23:36 Lessons from LLM analysis of contact center transcripts

25:22 Where LLMs don't belong yet: structured data

26:49 How to measure ROI on AI use cases

29:01 Automate, augment or inform: a framework for AI decisions

30:25 How the data leader role has changed

33:35 Building a data science team from scratch, in hindsight

37:42 The future of decision intelligence and what's next for Natalia

40:07 Outro

About the guest

Natalia Kuklova is a senior data science and AI leader with more than a decade of experience building enterprise analytics, machine learning and decision intelligence systems in highly regulated industries. She has led initiatives across risk, product analytics, experimentation and enterprise AI transformation, working closely with executive teams. She contributes to the Forbes Technology Council, writing about AI strategy, decision intelligence, governance and the future of work.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8m414AUJrrQ

More episodes: https://orlandoinsightspodcast.com

Find Natalia: LinkedIn (Natalia Kuklova).

Host Henry Clavo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henryorlandoclavo/

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