The AI Readiness Journey: Lessons from 75 years of Brand Protection

In this episode of The Databricks Diaries, Daniel Thornton sits down with Yann Cluchey, CTO at Corsearch, to explore what it really means to build an AI-first business.Yann shares his journey from writing code and specialising in web technologies, databases, and distributed processing, to leading technology strategy at Corsearch, where the mission is to protect consumers and brands by fighting counterfeits, piracy, and trademark infringement at scale. It is a powerful example of technology being used with real-world purpose: as Yann puts it, writing code to fight crime.The conversation dives into Corsearch’s transformation journey, including the challenges of fragmented systems created through years of growth and acquisition, and the thinking behind consolidating onto a more scalable, modern data platform with Databricks and AWS. Yann explains why simplicity, talent availability, community support, and long-term scalability all matter when choosing foundational technology.Daniel and Yann also unpack some of the harder realities of AI adoption: migrating legacy pipelines, managing cost in pay-per-use platforms, building organisational readiness, and closing the gap between promising AI experiments and reliable production systems. Along the way, Yann shares practical lessons on MLOps, change management, platform design, and how businesses can create faster, more accurate, and more innovative data workflows.If you’re a CTO, data leader, architect, or AI practitioner thinking about replatforming, AI readiness, or scaling data-driven products, this episode is full of practical insight.Follow The Databricks Diaries for more conversations with the leaders building the future of Data and AI.**