Turning 90 Years of Data into AI-Powered Insights — with Vineet Mahajan, U.S. News & World Report

Discover how to turn decades of data into a competitive edge, build lasting customer relationships beyond the first click, and apply AI in ways that truly drive impact. Joining me is Vineet Mahajan, CTO of U.S. News & World Report, who shares how he's led the 90-year-old brand through a sweeping digital transformation. From rearchitecting infrastructure to deploying semantic search, generative AI, and agentic tools, Vineet explains how his team is reimagining what a legacy institution can become — and what every tech leader can take from that journey.

Chapters:

0:00 — Meet Vineet Mahajan, CTO of U.S. News & World Report

4:45 — How to Unlock the True Value of Your Data

9:55 — Why First-Party Data Is Key to Building Customer Relationships

14:32 — What Is Semantic Search and How Can Generative AI Improve UX?

18:39 — How to Overcome Data Cleaning and Structuring Challenges

21:18 — How to Evaluate Emerging Tech Trends (Like Agentic AI)

25:43 — How to Lead Change: Data Governance and Digital Transformation

32:38 — What's Next for U.S. News and the Future of AI-Driven Strategy

Guest: Vineet Mahajan, Chief Technology Officer, U.S. News & World Report — LinkedIn