AI has rapidly become a key priority for product teams in all manner of software companies, but it’s often not easy to incorporate the technology. AI capabilities are changing fast, there are many distinct forms of AI to consider, relevant training data may not be easily accessible, and outputs aren’t always reliable.

Aarthi Ramamurthy is familiar with these challenges, and she’s routinely addressing them. Ramamurthy is Chief Product Officer at Rithum, a platform that processes an average 2.4 billion transactions a day to match up brands such as the online shops for Home Depot and Nordstrom’s with over 40,000 suppliers. The platform handles over $50 billion in commerce annually, which is about 30% more than eBay in the U.S.. Following stints at Meta, Clubhouse, Microsoft and two e-commerce start-ups, she’s seen a range of product departments and is bringing those lessons to Rithum.

Ramamurthy told me that she starts in an essential place. “I begin with empathy for our customers. I know what the retail ecosystem goes through and all the complexity in it.” Without the deep customer understanding, the plan lacks direction and risks being technology in search of a problem to solve.

Read the full article at Forbes here.