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What if the biggest mistake organizations make isn't in their data or their AI, but in never actually defining the decision they're trying to make?
In this episode of the Decision Intelligence Lab, hosts Vijay Mehrotra and Michael Watson sit down with James Taylor, the author of Digital Decisioning, and Executive Partner at Blue Polaris. James traces the idea back 25+ years to a simple observation in financial services: fraud, origination, and collections systems all ran on the same technology stack yet were treated as entirely separate things. Naming that pattern changed how a whole industry approaches automation.
The conversation digs into why decisions should be isolated as their own unit of work, why you should aim to automate everything to discover the parts that truly need people, and how a disability-claims team once saved 15 months of work simply by understanding the decision before building the model. James also shares where decisioning is going next, why he partners so closely with IBM, and his three durable principles for anyone trying to improve how their organization decides.
Chapters
0:00 - Preview & Introduction
1:00 - Meet James Taylor & the origins of "decision management"
3:20 - Economies of scale and cross-team learning
5:25 - Task automation vs. true decisioning
11:35 - Decision maps and who successfully adopts them
13:25 - What to do when companies say "our data is no good"
18:26 - Why data science teams get undermined presenting without business input
19:35 - Automating decisions with uncertainty and multiple objectives
23:05 - The case for "automate first" as a default mindset
28:30 - Beyond financial services: healthcare payers and personalized care plans
32:45 - The Blue Polaris business story
38:15 - 3 principles for aspiring decision leaders
Follow the show
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-decision-intelligence-lab/id1811085064
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0lFoAVKqJHTYSZNpeN61ou?si=0ae973aab0174b3b
Connect with James
Email: james@bluepolaris.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamestaylor/
Website: https://bluepolaris.com/
James's Book: https://www.amazon.de/stores/James-Taylor/author/B001IOH7UI
Connect with hosts
Prof. Vijay Mehrotra (University of San Francisco): https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijay-mehrotra-ba9498/
Prof. Michael Watson (Northwestern University): https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-watson-07600a1
About the podcast
The Decision Intelligence Lab podcast delivers real-world insights for data professionals, business leaders, and anyone seeking to leverage data & AI for smarter decision-making & successful business outcomes.
For business inquiries, email at decisionintelligencepodcast@gmail.com
