Human-centered leadership for the AI era.
Catalyst brings technology leaders, design thinkers, and business operators into measured conversations about transformation. Its strongest episodes connect AI adoption, customer experience, workforce change, and leadership judgment to the real people expected to make those shifts work.
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Catalyst is a business and technology interview show with a steady focus on human-centered transformation. It treats AI as important, but rarely as magic. The conversations are more interested in leadership judgment, organizational behavior, customer needs, and team culture than in novelty for its own sake. Episodes often begin with a guest’s path into the work, then use that background to frame a larger operating problem. Dr. Bratin Saha discusses leadership in the age of AI and the need to separate signal from noise. Michael Mahar brings the customer-experience view, connecting AI tools to travel planning, loyalty, and the emotional side of hotel search. Jim Kalbach turns design language into sharper customer questions through jobs-to-be-done thinking. Tresa Gowland frames manufacturing innovation as something leaders can govern, test, and scale without overloading operators. Sarina Malik brings a perspective on AI, sustainability, data, and creativity. Christen Bell focuses on fear around AI adoption, trust, regional differences, and how people react when intelligent systems enter sensitive parts of work. Munawar Ahmed’s episode emphasizes healthy teams, shared understanding, and scaling human-centered design practice. Raj Singh talks about IT as a business partner rather than a back-office function. Across those conversations, Catalyst keeps asking how technology can augment people instead of replacing their value. The show’s rhythm is composed and generous. It gives guests room to explain, then pulls the thread back toward a useful takeaway. That makes it a strong fit for leaders, product teams, designers, consultants, and operators who want AI and transformation discussed in practical, people-aware terms.
Made for: Catalyst is for business leaders, design practitioners, product teams, consultants, and technology operators who want practical conversations about AI, transformation, and culture. It especially suits people responsible for helping teams adopt new tools without losing trust, clarity, or customer focus.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by treating enterprise technology as a leadership and culture problem, not just a tools problem. Its interviews translate AI, design, and transformation into grounded questions about teams, customers, trust, and day-to-day execution.
Catalyst, Launch by NTT DATA’s podcast hosted by Tammy Soares, puts humans at the heart of transformation. Each week, visionary leaders and changemakers share how creativity, technology and human insight are reshaping business, culture and the future of work. From platform innovation to AI and design leadership, Catalyst isn’t just about what’s next in tech — it’s about shaping business, technology, and culture through a human lens and spotlighting the visionaries paving the way forward. Learn more about Launch by NTT DATA Please note that the views expressed may not necessarily be those of NTT DATA.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Catalyst turns executive conversations about AI and digital change into practical lessons about adoption, process design, trust and leadership.
Catalyst follows Tammy Soares into the practical decisions behind technology-led business change. Her interviews connect AI adoption to customer experience at Wyndham Hotels, process redesign, manufacturing operations, product design and leadership judgment.
From an Irish-accented travel plan to retiring factory workers, your AI questions get out of the slide deck.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
AI leadership is framed as a human-centered test of judgment, oversight, and priorities.
Catalyst positions the guest's path through Intel, NVIDIA, and AWS as a clear test of AI leadership: how to separate signal from noise, choose what to amplify, and keep people at the center.
Wyndham's AI shift is framed through guest calls, cloud migration, and a travel story that gives the tech a human edge.
Catalyst makes Wyndham Hotels and Resorts' AI shift feel concrete rather than abstract. Mike Maher is presented as a leader whose path from a contact center to commercial technology, loyalty, and digital products helps explain why the company now uses AI agents to handle…
A grounded case for naming the customer's real job before design teams commit to an interface or solution.
Catalyst frames Jod Captain's conversation with Jim Kalbach as a practical argument for beginning with the customer's job, not the interface. Kalbach, author, educator, and chief evangelist at Mural, shows how jobs to be done can give teams durable artifacts and shared language…
A grounded look at manufacturing innovation, workforce strain, and the trust needed to make new technology stick.
Manufacturing innovation is framed as a leadership practice rooted in the way manufacturers already run and govern work. The guest describes an "innovation factory" where ideas are shaped into usable objects through a process, with governance helping teams test and scale without…
AI fear, HR trust and regional culture shape how organizations approach adoption.
Catalyst frames AI adoption less as a tools rollout than as a human and cultural challenge. Tammy Soares' conversation with Kristen Bell, Launch's AI Empowerment Solutions Manager, centers on Bell's research into fear of AI and what that fear says about trust.
A grounded conversation on partnership, software delivery and the human side of leading transformation at UPS.
Transformation at UPS comes through here as a matter of working relationships, not just systems and process. Sean Jansen, UPS's VP of software engineering, argues for partnership over finger-pointing, then ties that idea to smaller software deployments, reduced blast radius and…
AI adoption depends on redesigned work, reliable data, and people who can judge what good looks like.
Catalyst frames AI adoption less as a software rollout than a shift in how work gets done. The CEO of Everest Group argues that the real value sits in redesigned processes, stronger data fabric, and people with the skills to use the tools well.
Leadership balance before burnout takes over.
A midweek reset for school leaders.
Tammy Soares interviews Jimit Arora, CEO of Everest Group, on Catalyst.
Host Tammy Soares introduces Jessica Hartley, head of design and customer experience at JPMorgan Chase, discussing her leadership philosophy and commitment to inclusive workplaces.
Tammy Soares hosts Sean Jantzen, VP of software engineering at UPS with 24 years at the company, in a live recording at Nexus 2025.
Signal beats noise.
Tammy Soares talks with Mike Maher about how Wyndham Hotels and Resorts is using AI to reshape guest service.
Catalyst opens with Jod Captain welcoming Jim Kalbach for a conversation about jobs to be done, shifting technology, and customer needs.
The guest opens with a manufacturing metaphor for innovation.
Host Tammy Soares interviews recent Columbia graduate Sarina Malik about her perspective on entering the workforce shaped by AI and sustainability.
AI first doesn't mean you're human last, and the message has to start at the top.
Host Tammy Soares introduces design leader Munawar Ahmed, who discusses building and scaling human-centered teams with a focus on understanding team members' roles and needs.
Raj Singh, global CIO of Visteon Corporation, discusses his philosophy of using IT to solve business problems and drive organizational success.
Rori Duboff discusses building trust through signals and indicators of truth in digital experiences.
Tony Kanaan discusses his transition from IndyCar driver to team principal at Arrow McLaren, sharing insights on leadership and risk-taking.