How OBI Built a Lean, High-Impact AI Function That Scales
Jan 14, 2026
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Kris Peeters & Dr. Ruth Janning
How OBI builds high-impact AI use cases : From GenAI realism to team structure, impact-first use cases, and avoiding the hype.
In this episode of The Data Playbook, we sit down with Dr. Ruth Janning, Head of Data Science & AI at OBI, to talk about what actually drives AI impact in real organisations.
We break down:
Why GenAI hype leads teams in the wrong direction
How to choose between ML, GenAI and agentic AI
Real-world retail AI use cases (recommendations, assortment, automation)
How a 10-person team delivers outsized business value
AI governance, self-service, templates & AI ambassadors
🎧 Listen to more episodes of The Data Playbook for real-world stories on data platforms, GenAI, data products and cloud independence from Europe’s leading data practitioners and leaders.
🌐 More at our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxi05zIoV9bm69OAUmRoUDQ?sub_confirmation=1
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