Collectively, they create a huge asset for any AI team--diversity of thought. Ultimately, though, success with AI comes back to the foundation: data strategy. "You could have the best, most diverse talent in the world," says Dobrin, "but if you don't have a good strategy and have that first part nailed, you're likely not going to be adding value."

Representatives of three leading organizations – Google, Telefónica and BBVA – spoke during the Open Summit event about the different applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in the business world and how to extract tangible value from data for people and for society as a whole, at a scale and in a structured way. Systems capable of identifying exoplanets, algorithms to boost efficiency in network deployment operations, automatic translation tools or virtual assistants capable of recommending content. AI promises to bring a virtually limitless range of applications to organizations, and these are just some of the ones that Google and Telefónica are exploring through the use of machine learning techniques. Ricardo Martin Manjón was named as BBVA Global Head of Data in April this year, having previously been the bank's Global Head of Data Strategy and Data Science Innovation. His role sees him lead the bank's development, deployment and future thinking around how BBVA drives forward its use of data throughout the Group, so it can achieve its strategic objective of bringing the age of opportunity to everyone.

Systems capable of identifying exoplanets, algorithms to boost efficiency in network deployment operations, automatic translation tools or virtual assistants capable of recommending content. AI promises to bring a virtually limitless range of applications to organizations, and these are just some of the ones that Google and Telefónica are exploring through the use of machine learning techniques. Ricardo Martin Manjón was named as BBVA Global Head of Data in April this year, having previously been the bank's Global Head of Data Strategy and Data Science Innovation. His role sees him lead the bank's development, deployment and future thinking around how BBVA drives forward its use of data throughout the Group, so it can achieve its strategic objective of bringing the age of opportunity to everyone. In this interview Martin Manjón outlines why BBVA has a strategic focus on data, how that manifests itself across the entire group, what it will mean for customers in the future and the critical importance scale plays in data management.