Oshkosh Corporation

Marina Pashkevich is a visionary executive with repeated success in enabling significant business growth through machine learning and artificial intelligence projects spurring performance turnarounds, and leading advanced analytics transformation on a global scale. She currently serves as the vice president of Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence at Oshkosh Corporation where she brings business segments together and synthesizes business with advanced analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities to move the company forward in its mission by delivering insights that improve business outcomes, create value, and gain an advantage.

Please tell our readers about your journey in the industry and key roles and responsibilities at your organization.

Over the past two decades, I have developed expertise in the quantitative arena and developed analytic strategies for a variety of companies globally across all levels of analytical maturity. I have helped companies integrate advanced analytics and AI capabilities into business processes to achieve significant improvements.

For the last decade, I worked in a consultative space with companies SAS Institute, IBM Global Consulting Practice leading big data and advanced analytics practices. I joined Oshkosh four years ago to lead their advanced analytics practice, designing roadmaps and building an analytics team, including data scientists, data analysts, data governance specialists, and engineers. Our practice is divided into three areas: data strategy, infrastructure strategy, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence.

 Collaboration between humans and AI will become increasingly important and prevalent in the future, and this trend will only accelerate in the coming years 

What are the pain points and challenges that you have observed in the industry?

Supply chain disruption and labor shortage are some of the major issues that we have observed. To address these pain points, we are leveraging advanced analytics projects. However, with regards to AI adoption, ethical considerations have started to play a significant role. OpenAI and chatGPT are some of the latest technological challenges that every company is trying to understand better. In terms of AI trends, data access and quality remain a top priority. Lack of operationalization and visibility are also significant issues, as companies struggle to see tangible business impact. Costly and complex infrastructure is also a barrier to adoption.

How do you envision the future of the industry?

In my opinion, the future of industry will involve further democratization of AI, as well as an increased emphasis on the ethical implications of its use. In the manufacturing industry specifically, I see the rise of intelligent automation. Additionally, I believe there will be a growing trend towards combining quantum computing with AI. However, I don't believe that machines will fully replace human workers. Instead, there will be a need for effective management and direction of these machines, along with the inclusion of the right data and information to achieve the desired outcomes. Collaboration between humans and AI will become increasingly important and prevalent in the future, and this trend will only accelerate in the coming years.

What will you advise your peers and colleagues?

I have two pieces of advice that I would give to my peers and colleagues. First, it's important to come up with the right strategy by working with business partners to identify pain points of the business and then devise a plan to address them. Secondly, it's important to conduct experiments with AI before fully operationalizing it in order to avoid any unfavourable outcomes. Additionally, data is a critical component of AI, so it's important to include high-quality data to ensure favourable outcomes.