About

Our Story

Brains Behind AI happened when Ari Yacobi was searching for a product development podcast for AI products and could not find one that takes the listener through the experience of building, launching, and scaling AI products. Ari’s goal is to create a podcast where we are not just sharing feel-good heart-warming success stories but where we are listening to AI product development experience with an ear for principles and frameworks that we can draw from and apply to our products and startups

About The Host

Ari Yacobi is a data scientist, a strategist and a storyteller who has spent his career at the intersection of three. Presently, Ari is a Data & AI strategy leader at Accenture, where he leads Data & AI driven digital transformation for Fortune 500 clients.  Formerly, Ari was the Chief Data Scientist & Strategist at Knowledgent (acquired by Accenture, 2019), where he headed artificial intelligence, data science, and advanced analytics strategy for Fortune 500 clients. Ari was pivotal in setting up Innovation lab at Knowledgent, to enable quick data science experimentation and prototyping utilizing lean startup principles.

Previously, Ari was the Chief Technology Officer at ProfitPoint, a loyalty platform-as-as-service provider to middle-market retailers, where he led the development of first of its kind data science driven loyalty platform. Ari also played a key role in company forming partnership with Google and integrating the loyalty platform into Google Wallet. The company was acquired in 2013.

Ari started his career at Microsoft where he was selected to be part of Microsoft’s leadership development program for college hires. He holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and a dual Master’s in Engineering and Business from The University of Pennsylvania (Penn Engineering & The Wharton School)

Ari sits on the advisory board of several Heath & Life Sciences startups. He is data science expert-in-residence for an impact-focused global VC firm. He occasionally teaches data science and does one pro bono data science project every year for a healthcare /education startup / non-profit in a developing country

Outside work, Ari is an avid runner and has participated in several marathons.