A Class Act: AI, Data & Leadership
What does it really take to build and lead a world-class AI or data team?
I'm Michael Young, founder and CEO of MBN Solutions in Scotland. After two decades placing top talent across data, AI, and tech, I've seen what actually separates high-performing teams from the rest, and it's rarely what the headlines tell you.
A Class Act is where I bring you those stories.
Honest, experience-led conversations with the data and AI leaders making the hard calls right now: who they hire, how they build data science capability, and what real leadership looks like when the technology never stops moving.
No hype. No jargon. Just practical insight from people who've actually done it.Whether you're a data leader, a people manager, or hiring in tech, you'll walk away from every episode with something you can use.
New episodes twice a month. Follow A Class Act so you never miss one.
A Class Act: AI, Data & Leadership
The 4 Pillars of AI Adoption Strategy EVERY Enterprise Leader Needs with Lead Enterprise Architect at NatWest Group
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
If 99% of executives say their AI rollout isn’t mature, so what’s actually going wrong?
In this episode of A Class Act, Michael chats with Natalia Konstantinova, Lead Enterprise Architect in AI at NatWest Group. Natalia holds a PhD in Computational Linguistics and has spent her career at the intersection of AI research and enterprise delivery, including leading AI strategy at BP before joining NatWest.
In this conversation, they get into👇
✔ Why only 1% of executives describe their AI rollout as mature
✔ Natalia’s four pillars of AI adoption
✔ Why governance is critical and what good governance actually looks like
✔ Why less than one in five organisations are tracking KPIs for their AI solutions and what to measure instead
✔ The biggest barriers to AI adoption and why they’re not technical
✔ What good AI leadership actually looks like and hiring challenges leaders face
✔ Why hiring one person and expecting them to solve everything doesn’t work
✔ One concrete action a leader should take this week
Guest Information👇
Natalia Konstantinova is a Lead Enterprise Architect in AI at NatWest Group. She holds a PhD in Computational Linguistics from the Research Institute in Information and Language Processing (RIILP) and brings deep expertise across NLP, machine translation, information extraction, dialogue systems, and data analytics.
Connect with Natalia Konstantinova on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nkonst/
About Your Host👇
Michael Young is the Managing Director of MBN Solutions and host of A Class Act: Conversations in Data & Leadership. With nearly two decades of experience helping organisations build high-performing data, analytics, and AI teams, he brings frontline insight into what makes exceptional talent and leadership.
Please note: The views expressed by the guest in this episode are their own and do not reflect those of their current or former employers.
Subscribe & Follow👇
Enjoying the series? Don’t miss an episode. Follow A Class Act wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review to help more listeners discover these conversations in data and leadership.
Connect with MBN Solutions
If you’re hiring for data or AI leadership roles, scaling AI capability, or rethinking how talent supports your AI strategy, the team at MBN partners with organisations to build data and AI teams that actually deliver.
MBN Solutions on LinkedIn – Explore industry updates, groundbreaking projects, and the latest in data and analytics talent. Join the conversation and discover how MBN Solutions is shaping the future of data leadership
For questions, guest recommendations, or to connect:
Email: michael@mbnsolutions.com
Visit MBN Solutions website at www.mbnsolutions.com