Cracking the AI Code: Insider Secrets With Paul Lewis

Paul Lewis is the Chief Technology Officer at Pythian, a global IT services company that helps organizations transform by leveraging data, analytics, AI, and the cloud. With over 25 years of experience in technology leadership, he is recognized for his expertise in digital transformation and operational IT strategy. Before joining Pythian, Paul served as Global CTO for Hitachi Vantara and held senior technology roles in the financial services sector. He is also a frequent speaker at industry events and serves on advisory boards for programs in business analytics and artificial intelligence.  About the Episode The enterprise AI race is full of bold claims, rapid innovation, and mounting pressure to keep up or risk falling behind. But amid the hype, how can organizations cut through the noise to focus on what actually works? What does it take to win with AI at scale? According to Paul Lewis, a globally recognized technology strategist and AI advisor, the answer lies in intellectual honesty and practical readiness. He highlights that most organizations are captivated by futuristic AI use cases but lack the foundational data quality and governance to support them. As a result, AI initiatives often stall or fail due to mismatched expectations and underdeveloped infrastructure. In this episode of Built to Convert, host Tyler Lane sits down with Paul Lewis, Chief Technology Officer at Pythian, to discuss what it really takes to win with AI in the enterprise. They explore the five-part AI readiness framework, the gap between hype and execution, and how to uncover the five percent of AI ideas worth building. Paul also emphasizes the importance of prompt engineering and highlights why data quality is still the primary barrier to AI success.