In this episode, we sit down with Jocelyn Goldfein, Managing Director at Zetta Venture Partners, former engineering leader at Facebook and VMware, and one of the most respected voices in AI-driven innovation. Jocelyn offers a candid look into how today’s leaders evaluate AI opportunities, why project selection determines 80% of success, and what executives get wrong when adopting emerging technologies.

From identifying tractable use cases to building for real ROI, Jocelyn breaks down the frameworks every CFO, CTO, and operator needs to ensure their AI investments create meaningful business impact—not just impressive demos.

Whether you're navigating early experimentation or scaling AI across the enterprise, this conversation delivers the clarity modern leaders need to make confident strategic decisions.

Key Takeaways

• Project selection is the make-or-break factor in AI success — most failures stem from choosing problems that are too high-stakes or too low-impact.
• “Toy problems” kill momentum — even technically successful AI builds won’t get deployed if they don’t deliver value.
• Successful AI adoption requires cross-functional ownership — CFOs and technical leaders must align on resources, constraints, and business outcomes.
• The AI frontier is accelerating scientific innovation — many recent Nobel-adjacent breakthroughs have leveraged AI to expand the boundaries of discovery.
• Experimentation is essential, but it must be purposeful — companies need intentional guardrails to avoid wasted cycles and stalled pilots.