Episodios

  • Oracle's AI Ecosystem
    Sep 16 2025
    In this episode, Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham are joined by Principal Instructor Yunus Mohammed to explore Oracle’s approach to enterprise AI. The conversation covers the essential components of the Oracle AI stack and how each part, from the foundational infrastructure to business-specific applications, can be leveraged to support AI-driven initiatives. They also delve into Oracle’s suite of AI services, including generative AI, language processing, and image recognition. AI for You: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/ai-for-you/152601/ Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode. ------------------------------------------------------------- Episode Transcript: 00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started! 00:25 Lois: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I’m Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs with Oracle University, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services. Nikita: Hey everyone! In our last episode, we discussed why the decision to buy or build matters in the world of AI deployment. Lois: That’s right, Niki. Today is all about the Oracle AI stack and how it empowers not just developers and data scientists, but everyday business users as well. Then we’ll spend some time exploring Oracle AI services in detail. 01:00 Nikita: Yunus Mohammed, our Principal Instructor, is back with us today. Hi Yunus! Can you talk about the different layers in Oracle’s end-to-end AI approach? Yunus: The first base layer is the foundation of AI infrastructure, the powerful compute and storage layer that enables scalable model training and inferences. Sitting above the infrastructure, we have got the data platform. This is where data is stored, cleaned, and managed. Without a reliable data foundation, AI simply can't perform. So base of AI is the data, and the reliable data gives more support to the AI to perform its job. Then, we have AI and ML services. These provide ready-to-use tools for building, training, and deploying custom machine learning models. Next, to the AI/ML services, we have got generative AI services. This is where Oracle enables advanced language models and agentic AI tools that can generate content, summarize documents, or assist users through chat interfaces. Then, we have the top layer, which is called as the applications, things like Fusion applications or industry specific solutions where AI is embedded directly into business workflows for recommendations, forecasting or customer support. Finally, Oracle integrates with a growing ecosystem of AI partners, allowing organizations to extend and enhance their AI capabilities even further. In short, Oracle doesn't just offer AI as a feature. It delivers it as a full stack capability from infrastructure to the layer of applications. 02:59 Nikita: Ok, I want to get into the core AI services offered by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. But before we get into the finer details, broadly speaking, how do these services help businesses? Yunus: These services make AI accessible, secure, and scalable, enabling businesses to embed intelligence into workflows, improve efficiency, and reduce human effort in repetitive or data-heavy tasks. And the best part is, Oracle makes it easy to consume these through application interfaces, APIs, software development kits like SDKs, and integration with Fusion Applications. So, you can add AI where it matters without needing a data scientist team to do that work. 03:52 Lois: So, let’s get down to it. The first core service is Oracle's Generative AI service. What can you tell us about it? Yunus: This is a fully managed service that allows businesses to tap into the power of large language models. You can actually work with these models from scratch to a well-defined develop model. You can use these models for a wide range of use cases like summarizing text, generating content, answering questions, or building AI-powered chat interfaces. 04:27 Lois: So, what will I find on the OCI Generative AI Console? Yunus: OCI Generative AI Console highlights three key components. The first one is the dedicated AI cluster. These are GPU powered environments used to fine tune and host your own custom models. It gives you control and performance at scale. Then, the second point is the custom models. You can take a base language model and fine tune it using your own data, for example, company manuals or HR policies or customer interactions, which are your own personal data. You can use this to create a model that ...
    Más Menos
    16 m
  • Buy or Build AI?
    Sep 9 2025
    How do you decide whether to buy a ready-made AI solution or build one from the ground up? The choice is more than just a technical decision; it’s about aligning AI with your business goals. In this episode, Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham are joined by Principal Instructor Yunus Mohammed to examine the critical factors influencing the buy vs. build debate. They explore real-world examples where businesses must weigh speed, customization, and long-term strategy. From a startup using a SaaS chatbot to a bank developing a custom fraud detection model, Yunus provides practical insights on when to choose one approach over the other. AI for You: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/ai-for-you/152601/ Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode. --------------------------------------------------------------- Episode Transcript: 00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started! 00:26 Nikita: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I’m Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services with Oracle University, and with me is Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs. Lois: Hi there! Last week, we spoke about the key stages in a typical AI workflow and how data quality, feedback loops, and business goals influence AI success. 00:50 Nikita: In today’s episode, we’re going to explore whether you should buy or build AI apps. Joining us again is Principal Instructor Yunus Mohammed. Hi Yunus, let’s jump right in. Why does the decision of buy versus build matter? Yunus: So when we talk about buy versus build matters, we need to consider the strategic business decisions over here. They are related to the strategic decisions which the business makes, and it is evaluated in the decision lens. So the center of the decision lens is the business objective, which identifies what are we trying to solve. Then evaluate our constraints based on that particular business objective like the cost, the time, and the talent. And finally, we can decide whether we need to buy or build. But remember, there is no single correct answer. What's right for one business may not be working for the other one. 01:54 Lois: OK, can you give us examples of both approaches? Yunus: The first example where we have got a startup using a SaaS AI chatbot. Now, being a startup, they have to choose a ready-made solution, which is an AI chatbot. Now, the question is, why did they do this? Because speed and simplicity mattered more than deep customization that is required for the chatbot. So, their main aim was to have it ready in short period of time and make it more simpler. And this actually lead them to get to the market fast with low upfront cost and minimal technical complexities. But in some situations, it might be different. Like, your bank, which needs to build a fraud model. It cannot be outsourced or got from the shelf. So, they build a custom model in-house. With this custom model, they actually have a tighter control, and it is tuned to their standards. And it is created by their experts. So these two generic examples, the chatbot and the fraud model example, helps you in identifying whether I should go for a SaaS product with simple choice of selecting an existing LLM endpoint and not making any changes. Or should I go with model depending on my business and organization requirement and fine tuning that model later to define a better implementation of the scenarios or conditions that I want to do which are specific to my organization. So here you decide with the reference whether I want it to be done faster, or whether I want to be more customized to my organization. So buy it, when it is generic, or build when it is strategic. The SaaS, which is basically software as a service, refers to ready to use cloud-based applications that you access via internet. You can log into the platform and use the built-in AI, there's no setup requirement for those. Real-world examples can be Oracle Fusion apps with AI features enabled. So in-house integration means embedding AI with my own requirements into your own systems, often using custom APIs, data pipelines, and hosting it. It gives you more flexibility but requires a lot of resources and expertise. So real-world example for this scenario can be a logistics heavy company, which is integrating a customer support model into their CX. 04:41 Lois: But what are the pros and cons of each approach? Yunus: So, SaaS and Fusion Applications, basically, they offer fast deployment with little to no coding required, making them ideal for ...
    Más Menos
    16 m
  • The AI Workflow
    Sep 2 2025
    Join Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham as they chat with Yunus Mohammed, a Principal Instructor at Oracle University, about the key stages of AI model development. From gathering and preparing data to selecting, training, and deploying models, learn how each phase impacts AI’s real-world effectiveness. The discussion also highlights why monitoring AI performance and addressing evolving challenges are critical for long-term success. AI for You: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/ai-for-you/152601/252500 Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode. -------------------------------------------------------------- Episode Transcript: 00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started! 00:25 Lois: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I’m Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs with Oracle University, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services. Nikita: Hey everyone! In our last episode, we spoke about generative AI and gen AI agents. Today, we’re going to look at the key stages in a typical AI workflow. We’ll also discuss how data quality, feedback loops, and business goals influence AI success. With us today is Yunus Mohammed, a Principal Instructor at Oracle University. 01:00 Lois: Hi Yunus! We're excited to have you here! Can you walk us through the various steps in developing and deploying an AI model? Yunus: The first point is the collect data. We gather relevant data, either historical or real time. Like customer transactions, support tickets, survey feedbacks, or sensor logs. A travel company, for example, can collect past booking data to predict future demand. So, data is the most crucial and the important component for building your AI models. But it's not just the data. You need to prepare the data. In the prepared data process, we clean, organize, and label the data. AI can't learn from messy spreadsheets. We try to make the data more understandable and organized, like removing duplicates, filling missing values in the data with some default values or formatting dates. All these comes under organization of the data and give a label to the data, so that the data becomes more supervised. After preparing the data, I go for selecting the model to train. So now, we pick what type of model fits your goals. It can be a traditional ML model or a deep learning network model, or it can be a generative model. The model is chosen based on the business problems and the data we have. So, we train the model using the prepared data, so it can learn the patterns of the data. Then after the model is trained, I need to evaluate the model. You check how well the model performs. Is it accurate? Is it fair? The metrics of the evaluation will vary based on the goal that you're trying to reach. If your model misclassifies emails as spam and it is doing it very much often, then it is not ready. So I need to train it further. So I need to train it to a level when it identifies the official mail as official mail and spam mail as spam mail accurately. After evaluating and making sure your model is perfectly fitting, you go for the next step, which is called the deploy model. Once we are happy, we put it into the real world, like into a CRM, or a web application, or an API. So, I can configure that with an API, which is application programming interface, or I add it to a CRM, Customer Relationship Management, or I add it to a web application that I've got. Like for example, a chatbot becomes available on your company's website, and the chatbot might be using a generative AI model. Once I have deployed the model and it is working fine, I need to keep track of this model, how it is working, and need to monitor and improve whenever needed. So I go for a stage, which is called as monitor and improve. So AI isn't set in and forget it. So over time, there are lot of changes that is happening to the data. So we monitor performance and retrain when needed. An e-commerce recommendation model needs updates as there might be trends which are shifting. So the end user finally sees the results after all the processes. A better product, or a smarter service, or a faster decision-making model, if we do this right. That is, if we process the flow perfectly, they may not even realize AI is behind it to give them the accurate results. 04:59 Nikita: Got it. So, everything in AI begins with data. But what are the different types of data used in AI development? Yunus: We work with three main types of data: structured, unstructured, and ...
    Más Menos
    22 m
  • Core AI Concepts – Part 3
    Aug 26 2025
    Join hosts Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham, along with Principal AI/ML Instructor Himanshu Raj, as they discuss the transformative world of Generative AI. Together, they uncover the ways in which generative AI agents are changing the way we interact with technology, automating tasks and delivering new possibilities. AI for You: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/ai-for-you/152601/252500 Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode. ------------------------------------------------------- Episode Transcript: 00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started! 00:25 Lois: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I’m Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs with Oracle University, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead of Editorial Services.  Nikita: Hi everyone! Last week was Part 2 of our conversation on core AI concepts, where we went over the basics of data science. In Part 3 today, we’ll look at generative AI and gen AI agents in detail. To help us with that, we have Himanshu Raj, Principal AI/ML Instructor. Hi Himanshu, what’s the difference between traditional AI and generative AI? 01:01 Himanshu: So until now, when we talked about artificial intelligence, we usually meant models that could analyze information and make decisions based on it, like a judge who looks at evidence and gives a verdict. And that's what we call traditional AI that's focused on analysis, classification, and prediction. But with generative AI, something remarkable happens. Generative AI does not just evaluate. It creates. It's more like a storyteller who uses knowledge from the past to imagine and build something brand new. For example, instead of just detecting if an email is spam, generative AI could write an entirely new email for you. Another example, traditional AI might predict what a photo contains. Generative AI, on the other hand, creates a brand-new photo based on description. Generative AI refers to artificial intelligence models that can create entirely new content, such as text, images, music, code, or video that resembles human-made work. Instead of simple analyzing or predicting, generative AI produces something original that resembles what a human might create. 02:16 Lois: How did traditional AI progress to the generative AI we know today? Himanshu: First, we will look at small supervised learning. So in early days, AI models were trained on small labeled data sets. For example, we could train a model with a few thousand emails labeled spam or not spam. The model would learn simple decision boundaries. If email contains, "congratulations," it might be spam. This was efficient for a straightforward task, but it struggled with anything more complex. Then, comes the large supervised learning. As the internet exploded, massive data sets became available, so millions of images, billions of text snippets, and models got better because they had much more data and stronger compute power and thanks to advances, like GPUs, and cloud computing, for example, training a model on millions of product reviews to predict customer sentiment, positive or negative, or to classify thousands of images in cars, dogs, planes, etc. Models became more sophisticated, capturing deeper patterns rather than simple rules. And then, generative AI came into the picture, and we eventually reached a point where instead of just classifying or predicting, models could generate entirely new content. Generative AI models like ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot are trained on enormous data sets, not to simply answer a yes or no, but to create outputs that look and feel like human made. Instead of judging the spam or sentiment, now the model can write an article, compose a song, or paint a picture, or generate new software code. 03:55 Nikita: Himanshu, what motivated this sort of progression? Himanshu: Because of the three reasons. First one, data, we had way more of it thanks to the internet, smartphones, and social media. Second is compute. Graphics cards, GPUs, parallel computing, and cloud systems made it cheap and fast to train giant models. And third, and most important is ambition. Humans always wanted machines not just to judge existing data, but to create new knowledge, art, and ideas. 04:25 Lois: So, what’s happening behind the scenes? How is gen AI making these things happen? Himanshu: Generative AI is about creating entirely new things across different domains. On one side, we have large language models or LLMs. They are masters ...
    Más Menos
    23 m
  • Core AI Concepts – Part 2
    Aug 19 2025
    In this episode, Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham continue their discussion on AI fundamentals, diving into Data Science with Principal AI/ML Instructor Himanshu Raj. They explore key concepts like data collection, cleaning, and analysis, and talk about how quality data drives impactful insights. AI for You: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/ai-for-you/152601/252500 Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Episode Transcript: 00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started! 00:25 Lois: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast. I’m Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs with Oracle University, and with me today is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services. Nikita: Hi everyone! Last week, we began our exploration of core AI concepts, specifically machine learning and deep learning. I’d really encourage you to go back and listen to the episode if you missed it. 00:52 Lois: Yeah, today we’re continuing that discussion, focusing on data science, with our Principal AI/ML Instructor Himanshu Raj. Nikita: Hi Himanshu! Thanks for joining us again. So, let’s get cracking! What is data science? 01:06 Himanshu: It's about collecting, organizing, analyzing, and interpreting data to uncover valuable insights that help us make better business decisions. Think of data science as the engine that transforms raw information into strategic action. You can think of a data scientist as a detective. They gather clues, which is our data. Connect the dots between those clues and ultimately solve mysteries, meaning they find hidden patterns that can drive value. 01:33 Nikita: Ok, and how does this happen exactly? Himanshu: Just like a detective relies on both instincts and evidence, data science blends domain expertise and analytical techniques. First, we collect raw data. Then we prepare and clean it because messy data leads to messy conclusions. Next, we analyze to find meaningful patterns in that data. And finally, we turn those patterns into actionable insights that businesses can trust. 02:00 Lois: So what you’re saying is, data science is not just about technology; it's about turning information into intelligence that organizations can act on. Can you walk us through the typical steps a data scientist follows in a real-world project? Himanshu: So it all begins with business understanding. Identifying the real problem we are trying to solve. It's not about collecting data blindly. It's about asking the right business questions first. And once we know the problem, we move to data collection, which is gathering the relevant data from available sources, whether internal or external. Next one is data cleaning. Probably the least glamorous but one of the most important steps. And this is where we fix missing values, remove errors, and ensure that the data is usable. Then we perform data analysis or what we call exploratory data analysis. Here we look for patterns, prints, and initial signals hidden inside the data. After that comes the modeling and evaluation, where we apply machine learning or deep learning techniques to predict, classify, or forecast outcomes. Machine learning, deep learning are like specialized equipment in a data science detective's toolkit. Powerful but not the whole investigation. We also check how good the models are in terms of accuracy, relevance, and business usefulness. Finally, if the model meets expectations, we move to deployment and monitoring, putting the model into real world use and continuously watching how it performs over time. 03:34 Nikita: So, it’s a linear process? Himanshu: It's not linear. That's because in real world data science projects, the process does not stop after deployment. Once the model is live, business needs may evolve, new data may become available, or unexpected patterns may emerge. And that's why we come back to business understanding again, defining the questions, the strategy, and sometimes even the goals based on what we have learned. In a way, a good data science project behaves like living in a system which grows, adapts, and improves over time. Continuous improvement keeps it aligned with business value. Now, think of it like adjusting your GPS while driving. The route you plan initially might change as new traffic data comes in. Similarly, in data science, new information constantly help refine our course. The quality of our data determines the quality of our results. ...
    Más Menos
    13 m
  • Core AI Concepts – Part 1
    Aug 12 2025
    Join hosts Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham, along with Principal AI/ML Instructor Himanshu Raj, as they dive deeper into the world of artificial intelligence, analyzing the types of machine learning. They also discuss deep learning, including how it works, its applications, and its advantages and challenges. From chatbot assistants to speech-to-text systems and image recognition, they explore how deep learning is powering the tools we use today. AI for You: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/ai-for-you/152601/252500 Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode. ------------------------------------------------------------- Episode Transcript: 00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started! 00:25 Lois: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast. I’m Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs with Oracle University, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services. Nikita: Hi everyone! Last week, we went through the basics of artificial intelligence. If you missed it, I really recommend listening to that episode before you start this one. Today, we’re going to explore some foundational AI concepts, starting with machine learning. After that, we’ll discuss the two main machine learning models: supervised learning and unsupervised learning. And we’ll close with deep learning. Lois: Himanshu Raj, our Principal AI/ML Instructor, joins us for today’s episode. Hi Himanshu! Let’s dive right in. What is machine learning? 01:12 Himanshu: Machine learning lets computers learn from examples to make decisions or predictions without being told exactly what to do. They help computers learn from past data and examples so they can spot patterns and make smart decisions just like humans do, but faster and at scale. 01:31 Nikita: Can you give us a simple analogy so we can understand this better? Himanshu: When you train a dog to sit or fetch, you don't explain the logic behind the command. Instead, you give this dog examples and reinforce correct behavior with rewards, which could be a treat, a pat, or a praise. Over time, the dog learns to associate the command with the action and reward. Machine learning learns in a similar way, but with data instead of dog treats. We feed a mathematical system called models with multiple examples of input and the desired output, and it learns the pattern. It's trial and error, learning from the experience. Here is another example. Recognizing faces. Humans are incredibly good at this, even as babies. We don't need someone to explain every detail of the face. We just see many faces over time and learn the patterns. Machine learning models can be trained the same way. We showed them thousands or millions of face images, each labeled, and they start to detect patterns like eyes, nose, mouth, spacing, different angles. So eventually, they can recognize faces they have seen before or even match new ones that are similar. So machine learning doesn't have any rules, it's just learning from examples. This is the kind of learning behind things like face ID on your smartphone, security systems that recognizes employees, or even Facebook tagging people in your photos. 03:05 Lois: So, what you’re saying is, in machine learning, instead of telling the computer exactly what to do in every situation, you feed the model with data and give it examples of inputs and the correct outputs. Over time, the model figures out patterns and relationships within the data on its own, and it can make the smart guess when it sees something new. I got it! Now let’s move on to how machine learning actually works? Can you take us through the process step by step? Himanshu: Machine learning actually happens in three steps. First, we have the input, which is the training data. Think of this as showing the model a series of examples. It could be images of historical sales data or customer complaints, whatever we want the machine to learn from. Next comes the pattern finding. This is the brain of the system where the model starts spotting relationships in the data. It figures out things like customer who churn or leave usually contacts support twice in the same month. It's not given rules, it just learns patterns based on the example. And finally, we have output, which is the prediction or decision. This is the result of all this learning. Once trained, the computer or model can say this customer is likely to churn or leave. It's like having a smart assistant that makes fast, data-driven guesses without needing step by step...
    Más Menos
    20 m
  • What is AI?
    Aug 5 2025
    In this episode, hosts Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham, together with Senior Cloud Engineer Nick Commisso, break down the basics of artificial intelligence (AI). They discuss the differences between Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), and explore the concepts of machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI. Nick also shares examples of how AI is used in everyday life, from navigation apps to spam filters, and explains how AI can help businesses cut costs and boost revenue. AI for You: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/ai-for-you/152601/252500 Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode. ----------------------------------------------------------- Episode Transcript: 00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started! 00:25 Nikita: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast. I’m Nikita Abraham, Team Lead of Editorial Services with Oracle University, and with me is Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs. Lois: Hi everyone! Welcome to a new season of the podcast. I’m so excited about this one because we’re going to dive into the world of artificial intelligence, speaking to many experts in the field. Nikita: If you've been listening to us for a while, you probably know we’ve covered AI from a bunch of different angles. But this time, we’re dialing it all the way back to basics. We wanted to create something for the absolute beginner, so no jargon, no assumptions, just simple conversations that anyone can follow. 01:08 Lois: That’s right, Niki. You don’t need to have a technical background or prior experience with AI to get the most out of these episodes. In our upcoming conversations, we’ll break down the basics of AI, explore how it's shaping the world around us, and understand its impact on your business. Nikita: The idea is to give you a practical understanding of AI that you can use in your work, especially if you’re in sales, marketing, operations, HR, or even customer service. 01:37 Lois: Today, we’ll talk about the basics of AI with Senior Cloud Engineer Nick Commisso. Hi Nick! Welcome back to the podcast. Can you tell us about human intelligence and how it relates to artificial intelligence? And within AI, I know we have Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI, and Artificial Narrow Intelligence, or ANI. What’s the difference between the two? Nick: Human intelligence is the intellectual capability of humans that allow us to learn new skills through observation and mental digestion, to think through and understand abstract concepts and apply reasoning, to communicate using language and understand non-verbal cues, such as facial expressions, tone variation, body language. We can handle objections and situations in real time, even in a complex setting. We can plan for short and long-term situations or projects. And we can create music, art, or invent something new or have original ideas. If machines can replicate a wide range of human cognitive abilities, such as learning, reasoning, or problem solving, we call it artificial general intelligence. Now, AGI is hypothetical for now, but when we apply AI to solve problems with specific, narrow objectives, we call it artificial narrow intelligence, or ANI. AGI is a hypothetical AI that thinks like a human. It represents the ultimate goal of artificial intelligence, which is a system capable of chatting, learning, and even arguing like us. If AGI existed, it would take the form like a robot doctor that accurately diagnoses and comforts patients, or an AI teacher that customizes lessons in real time based on each student's mood, pace, and learning style, or an AI therapist that comprehends complex emotions and provides empathetic, personalized support. ANI, on the other hand, focuses on doing one thing really well. It's designed to perform specific tasks by recognizing patterns and following rules, but it doesn't truly understand or think beyond its narrow scope. Think of ANI as a specialist. Your phone's face ID can recognize you instantly, but it can't carry on a conversation. Google Maps finds the best route, but it can't write you a poem. And spam filters catch junk mail, but it can't make you coffee. So, most of the AI you interact with today is ANI. It's smart, efficient, and practical, but limited to specific functions without general reasoning or creativity. 04:22 Nikita: Ok then what about Generative AI? Nick: Generative AI is a type of AI that can produce content such as audio, text, code, video, and ...
    Más Menos
    18 m
  • Modernize Your Business with Oracle Cloud Apps – Part 2
    Jul 29 2025
    In this episode, hosts Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham welcome back Cloud Delivery Lead Sarah Mahalik for a detailed tour of the four pillars of Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications: ERP, HCM, SCM, and CX. Discover how Oracle weaves AI, analytics, and automation into every layer of enterprise operations. Plus, learn how Oracle Modern Best Practice is redefining digital workflows. Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications: Process Essentials https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-fusion-cloud-applications-foundation-hcm/146870 https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-fusion-cloud-applications-foundations-enterprise-resource-planning-erp/146928/241047 https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-fusion-cloud-applications-foundation-scm/146938 https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-fusion-cloud-applications-foundation-cx/146972 Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode. ------------------------------------------------------------- Episode Transcript: 00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started! 00:25 Lois: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I’m Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs with Oracle University, and joining me is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services. Nikita: Hi everyone! Last week, we spoke about Oracle Cloud Apps and the Redwood design system. Today, we’ll take a closer look at the four key pillars of Oracle Cloud Apps. Lois: And we’re so excited to have Sarah Mahalik back with us. Sarah is a Cloud Delivery Lead here at Oracle. Hi Sarah! In the last episode, we briefly spoke about the various Oracle Cloud Apps offerings and their capabilities. For anyone who missed that episode, can you give us a quick introduction? 01:06 Sarah: Oracle Cloud Applications is an incredibly broad suite that covers many of the most important business functions, from Human Capital Management, Supply Chain Management, to Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Experience. The products in the Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications suite are organized by functional groups or pillars. All of these applications sit on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, a foundation built from scratch to support mission-critical applications. Oracle Fusion Applications deliver a single source of truth, enabling quick responses to disruptions and market opportunities. With unified data and consistent business rules, teams can build streamlined end-to-end processes, access real time analytics, and make faster data-driven decisions for improved outcomes. 01:52 Nikita: Ok, let’s actually get into each of these areas. I think we can start with Human Capital Management. Sarah: Oracle Human Capital Management is an end-to-end solution that allows you to manage all aspects of people data from hire to retire. It all starts with recruiting, or requisitions are used to advertise vacant positions, and candidates are managed through the hiring process. After recruitment, successful candidates are transferred to the human resources module. You can configure the organization structure to mirror that of your business. And this allows for easy reorganization whenever the structure changes. People data is a staple element of HCM. Therefore, as part of this product, an HR specialist can manage everything about the employee life cycle, including promotions, transfers, general assignment changes, and terminations. A robust self-service offering allows employees and managers to take ownership and responsibility for the data pertaining to themselves and their teams. By removing the burden of simple data processing from the HR specialists, it not only eases the pressure on the HR department but allows them to concentrate on more specialized tasks. 03:00 Lois: And how are the core products of HCM categorized? Sarah: The core products of Human Capital Management are categorized into four main groupings according to their logical purpose. First up, we have our human resources. This grouping includes the elements for implementing and maintaining the enterprise and workforce structure and employee life cycle data. This is where you would configure the organization structure as well as manage an employee's data from the HR specialist point of view. In addition, modules such as benefits, work life, workforce modeling and planning, and advanced HCM controls also sit within this category. This brings us to talent management. This category is one of the largest because it includes recruiting, learning, goals and performance ...
    Más Menos
    16 m