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Dr Moez Draief, Vice President Analytics, Capgemini Invent

What has been your path to power?

I started my career as an academic at Imperial College London where I spent ten years. In addition to engaging in teaching and research, I collaborated extensively with companies such as Microsoft, Technicolor and IBM. Through this dual path, I have learnt to bring together the messy world of data and analytics in business and the more harmonious world of research. From optimising energy in telecommunication systems to helping hospitals provide better care, I translate business challenges into the language of data and algorithms and then back into strategies and technologies.

 

Since I joined Capgemini two years ago, I have been supporting many clients across Europe to transform their processes and businesses. My teams and I help clients in the public sector, financial services, life sciences and telecommunications to define their AI strategy, deploy use cases to transform their businesses and to empower their employees to own and shape these transformations. This combines innovative design thinking and delivery approaches, creative data processing techniques, state-of-the-art technologies and algorithms, and a great emphasis on making our solutions robust, ethical and centered on the humans that interact with it.

What impact has the pandemic had on demand from your clients?

The pandemic has accelerated the journey of my clients to reinvent themselves by being more digital and nimbler and focusing on purpose. More concretely, the pandemic has accelerated their data modernisation by moving to the cloud with the various challenges of data localisation, cost and business value that this entails, to using more and new sources of data to understand a transient world, work more closely with their broader eco-systems and monitor their sustainability roadmaps.

Do you get a seat at your clients’ strategic discussions? If not, what will it take to get you there?

With topics such as automation and the future of work through to data sovereignty, the ethical uses of AI, and the opportunities and risks that AI brings to their sustainability ambition, I am involved in strategic discussions with many clients about the role that AI plays in both their business and societal missions.

 

What are your key areas of focus for the business in 2022?

To keep the momentum of the digital and data transformations brought to the fore by the pandemic, it is essential to transition many of the associated use cases and initiatives from being new ways of working to becoming an essential part of day-to-day business. This will be most impactful if the benefits from data and analytics projects are clearly linked to boardroom level business KPIs and metrics, as well  as to the societal missions of organisations.

 

How do you apply your leadership skills a) within your own business and b) on behalf of your clients?

Both in my organisation and on behalf of my clients, I foster an environment where everyone is valued and empowered to have the impact that aligns with their skillsets and career aspirations. I also support people I work with to make data and analytics an integral part of their work through relevant training and the deployment of the appropriate tools, making it easier for all to leverage the plethora of analytics solutions and opportunities available.

 

What key skills or attributes do you consider have contributed to your success in this role?

I believe that my deep technical and operational expertise combined with my commercial acumen and my drive to impact business outcomes are at the heart of my success in this role. I can seamlessly go back and forth between business challenges, algorithmic design and technological requirements, throughout the stages of a data project from a business case formulation to its deployment as a data product working with executives, business owners, designers and technical experts and engineers.

 

How did you develop – and continue to develop – these skills or attributes?

I believe that we will experience more breakthroughs in the areas of advanced analytics in the next decade. My goal is to make these breakthroughs accessible to my clients to make the work of their people more fulfilling while delivering value. I also believe that these breakthroughs will come with many risks to our privacy, jobs and society.

 

My goal is to support academics, governments, regulators, international organisations and companies to define a pragmatic journey that fosters innovation and anticipate and address potential risks. This will enable me to further develop by business sense and technical expertise about where the use of AI is most impactful and anticipate the risk inherent to using AI without grounding it into the mission of the organisation.

How do you ensure that your proposition keeps pace with your clients’ goals and requirements so that you are leading rather than lagging behind their demands?

I work across many industries and with organisations at different levels of maturity. This enables me to explore business challenges from different perspectives and understand the challenges of deploying AI solutions in these diverse settings. I am also an active member of the applied AI community both as a scientist, an engineer and business leader. I am therefore experiencing first-hand the opportunities that are constantly emerging to use AI in conjunction with other technological breakthroughs to invent new business opportunities and enable organization to transform their business.

Dr Moez Draief
has been included in:
  • 100 Enablers 2021 (EMEA)
  • 100 Enablers 2022 (EMEA)

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