Navigating Data and AI (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798996266265)

Navigate the AI transition without the hype, the jargon, or the regret.

You are a leader, and your organisation is about to spend significant money on AI. Or it already has, and the results have been disappointing. Or you need to make a decision next quarter that will shape the next decade, and the people advising you are either selling something or guessing.

Navigating Data and AI is the field guide for that moment. Written by Dr. Sarah Choudhary, a technologist with a PhD in Data Science and two decades of experience building and advising production systems, this is the book that explains what AI actually is, what it actually does, and what it actually costs, without the breathless optimism or the apocalyptic fear that fills most of the genre.

Three parts. Eight chapters. One coherent map.

• Part I, The Ground. How AI got here, the basics in plain language, and where the cloud actually fits.
• Part II, The Build. How to architect AI that does not break, secure what you build, and recruit the team that can actually run it.
• Part III, The Long View. Data engineering as a discipline, and how to stay useful as the ground keeps moving.

Who this book is for:

The CIO, CTO, or VP making a real decision about AI this year. The board member who needs to ask better questions in the next strategy meeting. The founder whose product now depends on a layer of machine learning they do not personally maintain. The leader who needs to understand data and AI well enough to lead it, but does not have time to become a practitioner.

What you get:

Eight tight chapters in three parts, followed by a complete back-matter toolkit: a plain-language glossary of every term you need, six fillable worksheets (AI Readiness Assessment, Build vs Buy Matrix, AI Pilot Checklist, Cybersecurity Posture Check, Ethical AI Rubric, Personal Learning Plan), real-world case studies from Netflix to AlphaFold to ChatGPT, and a curated resources list for every chapter.

Why this book is different:

Most leadership books on AI fall into two camps. The first is hype: AI will transform everything, you must act now, here are five trends. The second is fear: AI will displace everyone, the regulators are coming, here is a framework. Both extremes produce bad decisions. This book is the third option: a clear-eyed, opinionated, technically literate guide written by someone who has actually built and shipped these systems for two decades.

About the author:

Dr. Sarah Choudhary is a technologist, founder, and writer with a PhD in Data Science and more than two decades of experience building products and leading teams. She is the author of three books on entrepreneurship and digital transformation.

If you are leading an organisation through a data and AI transition, or about to, this is the book to keep on the desk.