#Data #AI: 7 hot topics for 2023

The 7 hot topics Data and AI of this 7th edition are the solutions for the performing company. What are specifically the trends and topics to track in 2023? This year, we decided to ask the question directly to those who are on the front line: Chief Data Officer, Data Transformation Managers, Data Strategy Managers, Data and AI Directors… The program of the videos: industrialization of artificial intelligence, Data Governance, Data Virtualization, Data Mesh… let’s go! Happy New Year everyone 🙂

1. Air France accelerates the industrialization of AI

“Hi, I’m Julie Pozzi, Head of Data Strategy, Operations Research and Data Science at Air France KLM. My hot topic for 2023 is the acceleration of AI projects.

To meet this challenge, we are using two types of levers at Air France. Firstly, we are spreading our Data project management methodology, the fruit of many years of experience, which encourages iterations with our businesses.

And secondly, the creation of an “AI as a service” offer for our businesses, namely ready-to-use bricks based on their needs. This allows us to reduce our time to market and our costs thanks to a philosophy of reusability and proximity to our businesses.

To promote these two levers among all Air France employees, we are relying on our Data Factory, which was launched last summer. This is our flagship Data, a place of acculturation, training, inspiration and also collaboration that enables the business units to be supported in all their Data and AI issues.”

2. TotalEnergies uses AI to support the energy transition

“Hello everyone, I’m Michel Lutz, Chief Data Officer at TotalEnergies, and one of my Data hot topics for 2023 is a topic everyone is talking about, without realizing to what extent it is actually linked to Data, it’s energy.

Energy is at the heart of our society’s major challenges.

I work at TotalEnergies and I really have the opportunity to see on a daily basis how Data is a major lever for action to initiate the energy transition.

At TotalEnergies, we have two priorities: to reduce CO2 emissions from energy production and consumption, and then to transform our energy mix by developing the company’s activities in the fields of electricity and renewable energy.

Behind the scenes, behind all this, there is always data. There are millions of sensor data around the world, to be ever more efficient in energy production: hydrocarbon, solar, wind, battery production too.

There are also tens of petabytes of data from underground workings that can be used for CO2 capture projects, for example. 

And millions of customer data, logistic data, which are also very important because energy distribution is a field that is changing a lot: charging stations, micro grids…, new mobilities…

In short, in the energy sector, data is just everywhere, and it’s highly motivating to know that by working with data at TotalEnergies , we are helping to provide answers to produce and supply energy that meets the planet’s sustainable development challenges.”

3. Le Parisien / Les Echos deploys its Group Data Governance

“Hi, I’m Violette Chaumier, Chief Data Officer at Les Echos – Le Parisien Group.

My hot, and if I may add, exciting topic for 2023 is the implementation of a Data Governance.

Why am I so excited about this? First of all, it marks the end of three fundamental steps: the first was the establishment of a perennial and robust technical base, the second was a long period of work on Data Quality, and the third, today, is the establishment of the Data Governance, which will allow us to accelerate the implementation of our Data use cases.

The second point is that this is a very unifying subject for the Group. The Les Echos – Le Parisien Group goes far beyond the two flagship brands whose names it bears, since the group holds a portfolio of some 20 brands, 25 brands in fact. So it’s really a collective that is going to lead this Data Governance – a collective of highly motivated people.

The last point, of course, is that the implementation of a Data Governance is a very strong business enabler. This will enable us to harmonize the data collection rules, to imagine cross-brand and cross-theme offers. And then, of course, it will allow us to share use cases and have a good time together in 2023.

In short: Data Governance is a key issue in the digital transformation of our Group.”

4. COVEA relies on Data Virtualization to streamline data access

“Hi, I’m Guillaume Lemele, Chief Data Officer of COVEA Group.

COVEA Group consists of three well-known insurance brands in France: MMA, MAAF and GMF, and we are the leader in property and casualty insurance in France.

My challenge in 2023 with regard to Data and AI is to make it easier and more fluid for users to access all of our data sources on our entire Data platform: whether it’s Business Intelligence, Big Data or Data Science. In order to do so, we are going to move towards the Data Mesh concept and experiment with Data Virtualization solutions for platforms.”

5. Michelin accelerates its Data Products in Data Mesh mode

“Hi, my name is Joris Nurit and I’m in charge of the Data transformation of Michelin Group.

So, our hot topic for 2023 will be to improve the user experience and ease of consumption of our data products in an ecosystem where the use of Data has been multiplied by 10 in 2022.

We already have a Data Mesh type architecture, consisting of platforms, Data Products and governance. This is a real accelerator, allowing us to answer business questions with great agility.

But we still need to improve certain functionalities, in particular those that allow us to think of our data as products to increase its reuse.

We will therefore increase the flexibility offered by the Cloud, by Data Lake technologies, with an access layer to simplify SQL queries, to improve performance, to create a reusable semantic layer, or to federate our different sources.

This effort is the building blocks that will minimize the overlap between our different initiatives, while increasing the robustness of the solutions we build.”

6. BPCE places Data acculturation at the heart of its strategy

“Hi, I am Luc Barnaud, Chief Data Officer of Groupe BPCE (Banques Populaires and Caisses d’Epargne).

And my hot topic for 2023 is acculturation, training, in a word: employee support, so that everyone can access and analyse the data that is useful for their business in an efficient and informed manner.

Why did I choose this topic? New data, new tools, new use cases, new regulations: transforming the company is necessary in order to innovate and exploit the potential of data, which is in full swing.

But transformation also means avoiding pitfalls. What are these pitfalls? First of all, there is a risk of being isolated, of a transformation led by experts for experts. But also the belief that change can be limited to investing in new technological capabilities. On the contrary, we need to invest in the democratization of uses within all businesses and in the support of data users.

To do this, I believe we need to go beyond acculturation or generalist training formats. In 2023, we need to personalize and invent micro-acculturation systems to better support and engage employees… which is a great challenge in a group of 100,000 employees like BPCE, even if we are already off to a flying start with nearly 10,000 employees supported by our Data Academy, and acculturation wich is at the heart of our data roadmap.”

7. Bpifrance activates its data counters in Go Data mode

“Hi, Pejman Gohari, I am Chief Data Officer at Bpifrance.

The challenge for 2023: Go Data! So what is Go Data? An inspiring leader used to say: “Make it simple”, and data is an ideal playground to simplify.

For the past three years, we have been working on a concept, which we have called “data counters” (data offices), within Bpifrance. Today, we call it Data Mesh, in order to make data available to various players.

It is the business that is going to create the value of data within the company – and the business still needed a little push, in order to be able to explore and consume this data, and to create value with analytics and AI.

Go Data is about “rights” and “duties”. The right to freely come and consume the data. And the duty to make this shared asset grow. We have to enhance the exploitability, we have to inform the other side of the chain: “I consume this data, this is the quality I expect”. This means that at the other end of the chain, the other players – the data owners – are aware of the value that needs to be provided, of the quality of the data that needs to be provided.

We hope to add even more value to the data for our clients through this method.”

🙏 Many thanks to all the experts.