The building power of AI: A conversation with Dr. Maryam Ashoori

In this episode of Catalyst, Tammy sits down with Dr. Maryam Ashoori, Senior Director of Product Management and Head of Product for IBM’s Watsonx.ai. Maryam brings a unique blend of engineering, design and product leadership to her work, which centers on making technology more human. Tammy and Maryam talk about everything from AI ethics to product team dynamics to what the future of programming might look like.

Highlights from the episode include:

• Lead with empathy and high expectations. Maryam shares her leadership philosophy of combining care and empathy with high performance standards. She gives her team autonomy but makes sure they have a clear mission and access to the right data. That combination, she says, sets people up to succeed.
• Agents need careful planning. The AI agent space offers exciting opportunities, but enterprises must proceed thoughtfully. True agents operate autonomously, and not every process should be automated. Organizations need to ensure transparency and traceability of agent actions before deployment.
• AI literacy is the new equalizer. Tammy and Maryam explore how AI creates an even playing field where domain experts can leverage AI tools without deep technical knowledge. This transition creates opportunities for everyone to help shape AI’s future, not just consume it.

Check out the full episode to hear more about Maryam’s patent work and why this moment in AI feels like a rare chance to reshape how we all work.

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Please note that the views expressed in this episode may not necessarily be those of NTT DATA.