Welcome to the season nine premiere of Data Driven, where we kick things off with a thought-provoking deep dive into the world of AI-powered leadership. In this episode, hosts Frank La Vigne, Andy Leonard, and BAILeY are joined by Geoff Woods, bestselling author of "The AI Driven Leader." Together, they explore how artificial intelligence is quickly evolving from a tactical tool that writes emails and automates tasks to a transformative thought partner that can help leaders navigate high-stakes business decisions, develop innovative strategies, and even challenge their own thinking.

Geoff challenges the notion that AI is just another tech buzzword and shares real-world stories of executives using AI as a strategic confidant—literally building virtual AI boards featuring iconic figures like Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett. He breaks down his practical CRIT framework (Context, Role, Interview, Task), offering listeners actionable ways to move beyond surface-level AI use and harness its power for exponential personal and business growth.

Whether you’re a seasoned data scientist, a curious executive, or just someone looking to level up your leadership skills, this conversation will inspire you to reconsider how you work with AI—and how much more you can achieve when you use it as your smartest collaborator yet. Get ready to have your assumptions challenged, your creativity sparked, and your sticky notes filled with new ideas. Let’s get data driven!

00:00 "AI: Your Strategic Cofounder"

05:26 Strategic Leadership with AI

07:35 "Focusing on 20% High-Impact Tasks"

11:07 AI Strategies for Debt Restructuring

13:28 AI in Negotiations: Role Play Insights

19:01 Mentor in Your Pocket

21:52 "Imaginary Advisory Board"

25:17 "Starting AI: First Domino Approach"

28:33 Coaching Corporate Growth Strategy

31:51 Interactive Knowledge Experience

35:06 "Becoming an AI-Driven Leader"

38:54 "Visionary Super Connector"

43:06 Leadership Beyond Technology

47:11 Rethinking AI and Strategic Questions

49:26 "AI-Powered Strategic Visioning"

53:29 "Choosing Growth Over Perfection"

56:24 AI Achievements: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Andy and I are kicking off Season Nine of Data Driven with a bang: an insightful interview with Jeff Woods, author of “The AI Driven Leader.”

Andy, Bailey, and I are thrilled to bring you brand-new conversations, deep dives, and data stories all season long. Stay tuned for the official release, and as always, thank you for being part of our data-driven journey.

Listen for the Season Nine kickoff soon!

This week, Frank sat down with Dr. Jacob Leverich—Stanford PhD, cofounder of Observe, and a veteran of the Google MapReduce team and Splunk. Jacob’s journey, from tinkering with video game code as a kid, to innovating at the cutting edge of distributed systems and energy efficiency, is as inspiring as it is informative.

• Early Tech Roots: Hear how curiosity with QBasic and classic PCs (think IBM PCXT and Commodore) put Jacob on a path to high-impact data engineering.
• MapReduce, Dremel, & the Rise of Big Data: Jacob pulls back the curtain on working with some of the most influential data processing tools at Google and how these systems shifted the entire data landscape (hello, BigQuery!).
• Building Efficient Systems: It’s not just about scale—energy efficiency and performance optimization are the unsung heroes of today’s data infrastructure. Jacob explains why making things “just work” isn’t enough anymore.
• The Realities of Ops & Observability: Remember the days of grepping logs at 2AM? There’s a better way. Jacob shares how platforms like Observe help teams consolidate, visualize, and act on operational data—turning chaos into actionable insight.
• Bridging Data & Ops: The lines between data observability and traditional ops are blurring, and Jacob’s unique experience shows how best practices from data warehousing are finally making ops smoother (and less sleepless).
• Power Concerns & the Future: As data grows, so does energy consumption in data centers. Find out why optimization isn’t just good for performance—it’s key to sustainability.

00:00 Interview with Jacob Levrich

05:59 Journey into Game Programming

06:43 "Pursuing Fast Video Game Code"

10:23 Data Processing and Power Efficiency

16:11 Snowflake's Transformative Database Approach

19:18 Journey to Data Management Industry

21:37 Data Products: Solving Core Challenges

27:07 Early Web Log Analysis Techniques

28:57 Consolidating Data for Efficiency

33:23 Specialized Tools and Context Switching

35:43 Unique Dual-Expertise in Tech

38:58 User-Centric Business Strategies

42:13 IP Data Analysis in Cloud

47:23 Electricity Transport Upsets Local Farms

48:25 Shift to Parallel Computing

52:10 Hardware Specialization & Software Optimization

57:32 "Stay Data Driven"