DataDriven25: From LEO to GenAI: Data’s Transformative Journey in Shaping Work

While executives grapple with the AI revolution, it’s easy to forget that data’s disruptive influence on the workforce began long before ChatGPT. In 1951, a British catering company built its own computer, LEO, cutting payroll processing time per employee from an agonizing 8 minutes to mere seconds. Even then, the importance of data was evident: without it, there would be no value in the speed and power of computers.

Today, GenAI’s language models boast trillions of parameters, but the core challenge remains: optimizing the human-machine partnership. From LEO’s humble beginnings to today’s AI titans, Laura Merling, former Chief Transformation Officer of Arvest Bank, traces data’s relentless journey and glimpse how it will continue to reshape the world of work.