Seth Dobrin
Bio
Dr. Seth Dobrin was IBM's first ever Global Chief AI Officer
Widely recognized as one of the industry’s most preeminent business leaders in AI.
Dr. Seth Dobrin has ideated and spearheaded some of the most innovative AI strategies for a variety of Fortune 500 companies. Trained as a human-geneticist, he launched his career in tech with an unwavering passion for the rigor of the scientific method appliedto business, combined with his interest in human nature described through data.
Dr. Dobrin is the President of the Responsible AI Institute, and Founder of Qantm AI, a strategic advisory firm focused on bridging the business value of AI to its technical execution through a human-centered approach, providing tailored solutions to each client. He founded the business after creating and launching a new human-centered methodology for designing and executing an AI strategy. Dr. Dobrin’s proprietary methodology enables organizational transformation through a bespoke design-driven process that guides the prioritization and implementation of a well-defined set of AI initiatives that align with a company’s business strategy. Dr. Dobrin’s outcome-based strategy fundamentally transforms the elements of every company's functions, from business operations to product development, by driving optimal business results, with consistency and responsibility.
As a thought leader, Dr. Dobrin’s unique combination of business experience and high level of technical expertise has allowed him to carve out a niche space in the AI field. His human-centered approach to AI in business utilizes humans as a lens to frame data and AI issues, while simultaneously uncovering new business opportunities to design AI solutions around. Dr. Dobrin credits his emphasis on trust, fairness, and inclusiveness as being paramount to his success in AI. As an advocate for ethical AI and inclusivity in tech, Dr. Dobrin’s thoughtful approach delivers comprehensive returns, helping each client achieve their unique goals.
Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Dr. Dobrin designed and led cutting edge technology strategy initiatives with IBM. Most recently, he was appointed as IBM's first-ever Global Chief AI Officer and led the entire corporate AI strategy. In this role, Dr. Dobrin was responsible for connecting the AI development and governance across IBM’s divisions with a systemic creation of business outcomes. Earlier, he also served as Vice President and Chief Data Officer for IBM Cloud & Cognitive Software, where he realized billions of dollars and cost savings for IBM and its clients by building a highly diverse team of data scientists and designing leading measurable technology, data, and AI strategies. Before joining IBM, Dr. Dobrin held a variety of leadership roles focused on data and digital strategy with Monsanto Company.
Cultural change.
The hardest part of implementing AI in large enterprises is the cultural change. Enabling the needed cultural shift revolves around trust. Trust requires Explainability, Fairness, Robustness, Transparency, and Privacy. Additionally, adoption requires a human-centered, outcome-based approach. Seth has been an industry leader in championing and defining both aspects over the last decade. This is also tightly integrated into IBM’s AI Strategy as well as many of the Fortune 1000 based on his direct and indirect influence. Seth has also championed diversity and inclusion in both in words and action. He has led hundreds of data science and AI projects both internal to companies and worked at and with IBM customers helping to generate billions of dollars of value.
Seth’s long experience in innovating enterprises through data and AI extends beyond IBM to many companies. By sharing his expertise, he has helped several Fortune 500 companies design and execute an AI strategy via a human-centered methodology that he has created. Seth has been named one of Corinium’s Top 100 Leaders in Data & Analytics 2022. He was also nominated AI innovator of the year in 2021 by winning the AI Summit award, which recognized Seth as a business leader who has trailblazed breakthrough AI solutions.
Seth advocates for responsible AI and inclusivity in tech.
he is also a board advisor for the network Women Leader in Data and AI, and a member of the Calyxt’s Scientific Advisory Board, a member of the Advisory Board of the Brauch Department of Math and Statistics, and a member of the Arizona State University Biotechnology’s Advisory Board. He is also a member of Protocol’s Braintrust and the XPrize Braintrust.
Seth is the creator of a new human-centered methodology for designing and executing an AI strategy. The framework enables organizational transformation through a bespoke design-driven process that guides the prioritization and implementation of a well-defined set of AI initiatives that align with a company’s business strategy. Seth's outcome-based strategy fundamentally changes every company's area, from business operations to product development, by ensuring continuous and responsible delivery of tangible business results.
What sets Seth apart is his human-centered approach to AI in business. One of the peculiarities of Seth’s framework is using humans as a lens to frame data and AI problems and uncover new business opportunities to design an AI strategy around. Trust, fairness, and inclusiveness are the differentiators of Seth's approach to AI strategy for the enterprise.
Thanks to his innovative work, focused on bridging the business value of AI to its technical execution through a human-centered approach, Seth is a prominent voice in the world of AI. He has been featured in major international outlets such as Inc. Magazine, Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The National, The Gulf News.
Thanks to his innovative work, Seth is a prominent voice in AI.
He has spoken at numerous events, conferences, and institutions around the world, including The World AI Forum Cannes, AI Summit, TEDx Buffalo, Gitex Technology Week, London Tech Week, The AI World Summit, the CDO Summit, the Spark Summit, IBM Think.
Seth has been interviewed for many podcasts and video series, including The Cube, ZDNet, The CDO magazine, the Equal AI podcast, the New York Times report’s podcast an Eye on AI, Smart Talks with IBM podcast featuring Malcolm Gladwell, AI in Business podcast, and many others.
Chief Data Officer
Before being appointed as Global Chief AI Officer, Seth led the digital transformation of IBM's Software business as Chief Data Officer. In that role, Seth's mission was to fundamentally change how the IBM Software unit operates by surfacing the data needed by the business to run more efficiently.
His experience in transforming companies through data and AI, and his far-sighted vision make Seth a transformational leader that innovates business culture by advocating for diversity and inclusiveness.
Innovation, diversity, and inclusion in AI.
One of Seth's most significant accomplishments is the creation of the IBM Data Science Elite: this team of more than 100 people, which is highly diverse and composed of multidisciplinary experts, was designed by Seth to help clients successfully execute, operationalize, and scale AI in the enterprise. The success of the Data Science and AI Elite team dwells in the unique model that Seth created by adopting a data-driven approach to hiring diverse talents. The innovative approach has been featured by Forbes. Since then, the Data Science and AI Elite team has become an iconic model in IBM and has radically changed how the company assembles new teams in data and AI.
The principles of diversity and inclusiveness are also at the core of the IBM Data Science Profession Board, of which Seth is the chairperson, and the women's diversity network GROW, of which he is the co-founder. Thru his leadership of the data science and AI Profession in IBM, he co-created and built a Certified Data Scientist program in partnership with the Open Group, built a Data Science Apprenticeship as well as an open source Master Degree curriculum.
Seth earned a Doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology, with a focus on Genetics and Genomics of Mental Illness at Arizona State University. Trained as a human-geneticists, he has been always driven by two opposing forces: the rigor of the scientific method applied to business and his interest in human nature described through data. True to these two dichotomies, Seth developed a unique career path that led him from being a scientist to becoming a leader in AI.