How to Maximize ROI on AI in 2026 — with Sumeet Arora
The promise of agentic AI has been massive — autonomous systems that act, reason, and make business decisions. But most enterprises are still struggling to see results.
In this episode, I sit down with Sumeet Arora, Chief Product Officer at Teradata, to unpack why the gap exists between AI hype and actual impact, and what it takes to make AI scalable, explainable, and ROI-driven. From the shift toward "AI with ROI" to the new era of human + AI systems and data-quality challenges, Sumeet shares how leading enterprises are moving from flashy demos to measurable value and trust in the next phase of AI.
Chapters:
0:00 — The AI Hackathon Era
3:10 — Hype vs Reality in Agentic AI
6:05 — Redesigning the Human-AI Interface
9:15 — From Demos to Real Economic Outcomes
12:20 — Why Scaling AI Still Fails
15:05 — The Importance of AI-Ready Knowledge
18:10 — Data Quality and the Biggest Bottleneck
20:46 — Building the Customer 360 Knowledge Layer
23:35 — Push vs Pull Systems in Modern AI
26:15 — Rethinking Enterprise Workflows
29:20 — AI Agents and Outcome-Driven Design
32:45 — Where Agentic AI Works Today
36:10 — What Enterprises Still Get Wrong
39:30 — How AI Changes Engineering Priorities
55:49 — The Future of GPUs and Efficiency Challenges
Guest: Sumeet Arora, Chief Product Officer, Teradata — LinkedIn
