Work Smarter With AI feat. Summer Husband ’02

Owl Have You Know

With a Ph.D. in computational and applied mathematics from Rice, Summer Husband ’02 has been at the forefront of AI and data innovation for years. From transforming how the U.S. Navy uses machine learning to now leading data products and applied intelligence at Worley, her career bridges complex tech and real-world impact.

Following her workshop, Unleashing Your Inner Cyborg, at this year’s Women in Leadership Conference, Summer joined Owl Have You Know co-host Brian Jackson ’21 to discuss the evolution of AI, the power of pairing machine learning with human judgment, and the ethical guardrails she believes are essential in today’s data-driven world.

Episode Guide:

00:12 Meet Summer Husband: AI and Data Expert

01:00 Women in Leadership Conference Insights

01:52 Ethics and Rapid Advancements in AI

04:01 Upskilling and AI Deployment in Business

04:53 AI as a Sales Response Generator

06:47 Summer's Career Journey and AI Evolution

13:05 AI's Impact on Human Roles and Ethics

16:20 Future of AI and Human Intuition

22:59 Empowering Women in Tech and Leadership

26:06 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

The power of being surrounded by empowered women

22:32: It's really powerful for women to be around other very capable and talented women. I didn't realize what an impact that had. I've loved all the organizations that I've worked for. My first job, there was only one other woman on the technical side. I didn't think that impacted me. But my next organization had a lot of women in executive leadership, and I suddenly started to feel like taking a more senior role was a possibility.

23:04: I never would've connected those dots, but I really appreciate Rice opening up the opportunity for women to hear from other women.

23:26: It's just a little different when it's mostly women in the room, and you feel safe to ask some questions that you just don't feel safe to ask in some other spaces. That's just kind of the way that goes. So, I appreciate the opportunity.

On navigating AI ethics without a roadmap

The technology is just changing really quickly, which makes this a very exciting space to be in, but it makes it really challenging around ethics. One of the other, I think, challenges in this space is, because it's fairly new, it's changing rapidly, so the technology is changing rapidly. The legal landscape is changing really rapidly, also. So, some of the partners that we tend to go to for playbooks in these spaces don't have a fully baked playbook in this space. A lot of organizations are needing to define and figure out their approach to ethics and AI together. So, at Worley, we're approaching that with a pretty comprehensive approach that includes our AI experts, of course, our legal experts. We want to ensure that we've got our operations involved in that. They're the ones that are, boots on the ground and are going to be using these tools. We've had to cast a pretty wide net, but we've had to do a lot of discovering and shaping for ourselves.

The challenge of deploying AI thoughtfully

03:05: There definitely are some roadblocks in keeping pace. And the risk and the ethical concerns is one of those. But I would say, also, having the right skill set in your workforce and upskilling your workforce — that's a challenge. There's a real opportunity for people who know their business very well and do the work to learn how to deploy AI in their field, in their area. It's that combination of skills. I think there are a lot of very smart people doing very smart things to build really amazing technology. What I think a lot of businesses have challenges with and where we face a bit of a roadblock is, how do you deploy those tools well in a breadth of different businesses?

Show Links:

• Transcript

Guest Profiles:

• Summer Husband | Rice University