Haslam College of Business - Sessions

Session 1 – AI Automation & Future of Work

This session explores how AI is redefining roles, skills and talent strategy across every function. Panelists will address reskilling workforces, redesigning jobs, what it means to build an AI-ready organization from the inside out and how industries and universities should collaborate on workforce challenges. 

Analytics, Marketing, Sales, Finance, Supply Chain 

Speakers 

• Rebecca Hinds, Glean
• Matt Kittrell, Consulting Delivery Director, CGI, Knoxville Technology Council member
• Kang Zhao, Associate Dean of Research, University of Iowa
• Jason Thatcher, Information Systems Ph.D. Program Director, Full Professor and Tandean Rustandy Esteemed Endowed Chair, University of Colorado

Session 2 – AI Strategy, Data, and Organizational Transformation 

Deploying AI successfully is as much an organizational challenge as a technical one — the companies pulling ahead have built the culture, leadership, and governance structures to support it at scale. This session examines how organizations are developing AI-ready cultures, managing change across every function, and balancing innovation with accountabilit-y. Panelists will share what it takes to move from AI experimentation to enterprise-wide transformation, what effective AI leadership looks like in practice, and the decisions that determine whether AI initiatives succeed or stall. The conversation will offer concrete lessons for leaders at any stage of their AI journey.

Speakers 

• Kevin Jones, Associate Professor of Management, Indiana University Columbus
• Che Guan, Vice President and Principal Data Scientist of Data Science, Alliance Bernstein

Session 3 – AI-Driven Decision Intelligence 

Every major business decision is only as good as the data, models, and speed behind it — and AI is raising the bar across all three. This session explores how leading organizations are using AI for financial forecasting, audit analytics, demand sensing, and real-time reporting, shifting from retrospective analysis to predictive intelligence. Panelists will share practical examples from finance, accounting, supply chain, and operations, where AI is meaningfully improving decision quality and speed. The conversation will offer actionable takeaways for leaders looking to elevate decision-making performance through AI.

Analytics, Finance, Accounting, Supply Chain, Operations 

Speakers

• Pal Narayanan, Chief Information Officer, Kenco, UT Global Supply Chain Institute Fellow
• Keith Moore CEO AutoScheduler.AI, Founder, ProvisionAI, One of the first employees of AI unicorn – SparkCognition, BSME Engineering UT-Knoxville
• Anind Ravindran, VP Customer Operations, Four Kites, 16 years at DHL
• David Lee, AVP Applied AI at Cox Communications

Session 4 – AI, the Customer and the Market 

AI is redefining how organizations attract, understand and serve customers — making personalization possible on an unprecedented scale. This session explores how marketing, sales and supply chains are converging around a shared goal: a seamless, AI-enabled customer experience from first touchpoint to last-mile fulfillment. Panelists will share how leading firms use AI-powered sales intelligence, demand sensing and personalization to drive revenue and deepen loyalty. The commercial edge increasingly belongs to organizations that deploy AI across the full customer journey. We will also address the data and organizational challenges of executing this in practice. 

Marketing & Sales, Analytics, Management 

Speakers 

• Will Croushorn, product lead – FreshAi, Wendy’s – Nashville
• Johannes Habel, Michael J. Cemo Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Houston
• March Liao, Trinet 

Session 5 – AI Infrastructure and Ecosystem

The rapid growth of AI is placing unprecedented demands on the infrastructure that powers its data centers, energy grids, and the global supply chains behind every chip and server. Yet this infrastructure layer is often overlooked in business conversations, despite directly affecting AI deployment timelines, costs, and resilience.

This session examines how to navigate capacity constraints, energy sustainability pressures, and the required partnership between the public and private sectors.

We will explore AI for Workforce and Economic Development centered on a question that matters for every institution in this state: How can Tennessee leverage public-private partnerships to build the large-scale AI and computing infrastructure our economy needs to compete?

Panelists will explore the strategic implications for business leaders across key elements of AI infrastructure both in Tennessee and nationwide. Whether you are scaling AI internally or evaluating vendor dependencies, understanding the infrastructure landscape is essential to making sound AI investment decisions.

Analytics, Finance, Management, Supply Chain 

Speakers

• Gene Casciola, Senior Vice President, Public Sector, Oracle Corp.
• Kristin Darby, Chief Information Officer, State of Tennessee
• Tim Fitzgerald, Economist specializing in resource and energy economics, University of Tennessee Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs
• Shaun Gleason, Director for Partnerships, former Associate Laboratory Director and Director, National Security ORNL, Oak Ridge Natl Labs

Session 6 – AI Policy and Regulation

AI adoption is outpacing the governance frameworks organizations need to deploy it responsibly — creating real exposure around regulatory compliance, data privacy, and cybersecurity. This session examines the practical challenges of responsible AI, including algorithmic bias, audit readiness, and emerging regulations at the state, federal, and international levels. Panelists will share frameworks for ethical AI governance that satisfy regulators, protect customers, and reduce organizational risk. As AI automates higher-stakes decisions and ingests more sensitive data, accountability is no longer just a legal concern — it is a strategic one

Analytics, Finance, Management, Supply Chain 

Speakers

• Aalok Mehta, Director, Wadhwani AI Center