Discover how to turn decades of data into a competitive edge, build lasting customer relationships beyond the first click, and apply AI in ways that truly drive impact. Joining us is Vineet Mahajan, CTO of US News & World Report, who shares how he’s led the 90-year-old brand through a sweeping digital transformation. From rearchitecting infrastructure to deploying semantic search, generative AI, and agentic tools, Vineet explains how his team is reimagining what a legacy institution can become—and what every tech leader can take from that journey.

Key Moments:

• 00:00 Meet Vineet Mahajan, CTO of US News & World Report
• 04:45 How to Unlock the True Value of Your Data
• 09:55 Why First-Party Data Is Key to Building Customer Relationships
• 14:32 What Is Semantic Search and How Can Generative AI Improve UX?
• 18:39 How to Overcome Data Cleaning and Structuring Challenges
• 21:18 How to Evaluate Emerging Tech Trends (Like Agentic AI)
• 25:43 How to Lead Change: Data Governance and Digital Transformation
• 32:38 What’s Next for US News & World Report and the Future of AI-Driven Strategy

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This episode was produced by the team at Mission.org and brought to you by Brightspot.