Ep44: The Future of AI Teams - Research, Product, and Domain Expertise

In this episode of the Data Neighbor Podcast, we sit down with Shelby Heinecke, PhD, Senior AI Research Manager at Salesforce, to break down what modern AI teams actually look like and how enterprise AI gets built in practice.Shelby shares how her team moves research into production, why small crisp problem definitions outperform ambitious abstractions, and how evaluation before development has become a non negotiable part of the workflow.We also talk about the shifting shape of AI teams, the rising importance of domain experts, and why interdisciplinary collaboration is quickly becoming the core of the field.If you want an inside look at how leading AI orgs actually operate, this is the episode.Connect with the team (tell us which platform sent you!):- Sravya Madipalli: https://linkedin.openinapp.co/9be8c- Shane Butler: https://linkedin.openinapp.co/b02fe - Hai Guan: https://linkedin.openinapp.co/4qi1rConnect with Shelby:https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelby-heinecke/In this episode, you’ll learn:- How enterprise AI research teams actually set direction- Why crisp scope and early evaluation decide which projects reach production- What makes interdisciplinary collaboration essential for AI success- How small models and agents are being deployed across Salesforce- What skills matter most for the next generation of AI roles- Why embodied agents may represent the next major leap in AI#aipodcast #airesearch #salesforce #aiteams #aiproducts #llm #datascience #mlengineering #aidevelopment #agents #embodiedai #dataneighbor #aifuture