Looking Forward to Computer Vision in 2023: Q&A With Dan Maloney, Landing AI COO

Dan Maloney recently joined Landing AI as its first-ever COO, bringing to the team more than 20 years of high-tech experience as a strategic and operational leader for startups and large and multinational enterprises.

We sat down with Dan to find out what exactly drew him to Landing AI and what he hopes to accomplish.

Q: Why did you choose to join Landing AI?

Dan: It was really a mix of people, product, and market opportunity. From a people perspective, it was getting to partner up with Andrew, but it was more than just him. The entire Landing AI team is brilliant, bold, collaborative, and welcoming. Next, I was blown away by the product and how mature it is for a young company. I thought to myself,  “Wow. If they have accomplished this much in such a rapid timeframe, I can’t wait to see what we will accomplish together in the years ahead.” Finally, tackling AI from a computer vision perspective was extra enticing. My past decade or so in the AI arena was much more focused around structured data. The unstructured data world, which makes up more than 80% of all enterprise data, was a new challenge for me and computer vision is at the heart of it.

Q: As we start a new year, what excites you about computer vision in 2023?

Dan: I’m excited about continuing Landing AI’s mission to democratize the building of AI. We’ve heard a lot in recent weeks that ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion and other AI models and tools are opening the doors for AI to be used in all sorts of new applications. We’re seeing the same trend in computer vision and more specifically around Landing AI.

Andrew Ng had a bold mission that started back more than a decade ago to truly democratize AI.  That journey started with an initial focus on training and education when he co-founded Coursera and with his work at Stanford. To date he has trained nearly 7 million people about how to use data science and machine learning.  Landing AI is the next step of that journey in helping democratize the building of AI by providing a tool that enables builders to create AI-powered applications for computer vision.

There are now more cameras on the planet than humans and more unstructured data exists than structured data.  Yet the majority of the tools out their to handle these images and other unstructured data have barely tapped the power of AI.  At Landing AI, we are delivering a solution that makes computer vision fast and easy to use for everyone. Companies are using Landing AI for numerous use cases for everything from detecting defects on the manufacturing line, to ensuring the optimal amount of pesticides are used to help with growing healthier crops, to helping to accurately detect cancer in medical images.  The number of use cases and applications truly is limitless. I’m excited to see what our users will do with Landing AI in 2023 and beyond!

Q: What difference will you make here at Landing AI?

Dan: The team has already built an incredible foundation from a cultural perspective by building a great product and by engaging with some incredible customers in the manufacturing arena. In partnering with Andrew, I hope to help build upon that success,  accelerate our growth into new verticals, and tackle new use cases that support Landing AI’s vision of democratizing the building of AI for all. At the same time, I want to do this by bringing operational excellence to the company as we prepare for hyper growth and scaling across the globe.

Q: What will be your initial areas of focus for the company?

Dan: We will focus on the transformation of our go-to-market motion and operational excellence. It is a cool role, figuring out how to make things better between teams and strengthening our critical functions beyond just product and engineering such as sales, marketing, customer success, etc. Landing AI has an incredible product, some of the best team members I’ve had the privilege to work with in my career and truly some world-class customers and partners.  I’m excited to help the company continue to help customers in the manufacturing and industrial automation while at the same time open up our platform to new verticals to tackle some of the most difficult challenges facing customers around the world today where AI and computer vision can truly make a game changing impact . That’s what it’s truly all about and I believe we have the right team, passion and product to make a profound impact!.