The global hype surrounding the potential benefits of AI has captured the attention of the business world and beyond, so it’s no surprise that new and existing SaaS startups are integrating it into their products. According to one recent survey, 35% of SaaS businesses already use AI, while another 42% plan to in the near future.
Yet the potential risks are as numerous as the benefits, and this reality creates challenges to building AI into SaaS applications. We’re excited to have three leading experts who can unpack those challenges on the SaaS Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, which takes place September 19–21 in San Francisco.
Panelists — including Ines Chami, chief scientist, Numbers Station; David DeSanto, chief product officer, GitLab; and Navrina Singh, founder and CEO, Credo AI — will join us for a discussion called “AI for SaaS.”
The discussion will center around whether, why and how you should make AI part of your core product. And, given AI’s well-known bias and toxicity problem (algorithms can end up discriminating against or causing harm to certain segments of customers), how to do so ethically and responsibly.
Other areas we’ll look at include jumping on the AI bandwagon (not every problem requires AI to find a solution), the risks associated with cloud-based AI and uploading sensitive data through a third-party server, and the potential liability issues stemming from using AI trained on public and even copyrighted data.
We’ll also likely touch on regulation — like the EU’s AI Act, which may introduce roadblocks to implementing AI in SaaS.
Learn more about our speakers — and their qualifications for tackling this challenging topic — below.
Ines Chami: Numbers Station chief scientist
Ines Chami received her PhD from the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering at Stanford University. Prior to attending Stanford, she studied mathematics and computer science at École Centrale Paris.
Chami is particularly excited about building intelligent models to automate data-intensive work. Her work spans applications such as knowledge graph construction and data cleaning. For her work on graph representation learning, Chami won the 2021 Stanford Gene Golub Doctoral Dissertation Award. While getting her PhD, she interned at Microsoft AI and Research and Google Research, where she co-authored the graph representation learning chapter of Kevin Murphy’s book “Probabilistic Machine Learning: An Introduction.”
David DeSanto: GitLab chief product officer
David DeSanto focuses on delivering a stellar product experience to GitLab’s users from startups to global enterprises. He leads GitLab’s Product division (product management, product monetization and operations, user experience) to define and execute GitLab’s product vision and roadmap.
He is responsible for facilitating strong collaboration between product, engineering, the CEO and other executives. DeSanto also leverages customer and industry feedback to build, ship and support products that improve GitLab’s position within the DevSecOps market.
DeSanto holds an MS in cybersecurity from New York University and a BS in computer science from Millersville University of Pennsylvania. He is a frequent speaker at major international conferences on topics such as threat intelligence, cloud security, GNSS security issues and SSL/TLS issues, in addition to being the co-author of “Threat Forecasting.”
Navrina Singh: Credo AI founder and CEO
Navrina Singh is the founder and CEO of Credo AI, an AI governance platform that empowers organizations to deliver and embed artificial intelligence responsibly by proactively measuring, monitoring and managing AI risks.
Before founding Credo AI, Singh spent nearly two decades building products in mobile, SaaS and AI at companies like Microsoft and Qualcomm. She is a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee (NAIAC), which advises the president and the National AI Initiative Office.
Singh is also a young global leader with the World Economic Forum and currently served as an executive board member of Mozilla, supporting its trustworthy AI charter. She lives in Palo Alto with her family.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 takes place in San Francisco on September 19–21. You can save up to $600, but the deadline is August at 11:59 p.m. PDT. Hurry and buy your Disrupt pass today!
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