Seema K. Gopal

About Seema K. Gopal

With over two decades of professional experience, I specialise in leveraging AI and data science to drive transformative business outcomes. As a Global AI & Data Science Leader at Shell, I lead a team of 200+ data scientists and analysts to enhance commercial decision-making across finance, pricing, marketing, and supply chain operations. My mission is to deliver measurable value through AI and data science, with projects enabling over a hundred million every year. I am passionate about not only building fit for purpose solutions, but also fostering a culture of Responsible AI, ensuring our work is ethical, trusted, and compliant with emerging regulations like the EU AI Act.I consider myself as a catalyst for AI-Driven Commercial Growth. I bridge the gap between AI technologies and business strategy, building the teams that turn data into hundreds of millions in financial value. My unique value is in transforming mindsets and behaviours—moving beyond outputs to create a culture that is outcome- and transformation-driven, ensuring AI is not just intelligent, but also responsible, profitable, and fundamentally human-centric.

Experience

1. Gm Commercial Data Science

   Shell

   Dec 2018 — Present · Bengaluru, IN

   Impact & Leadership: I lead a large, global team of over 200 data science professionals, enabling more than hundred million of value every year, from data science and AI projects. I collaborate in a matrixes organisation to leverage expertise across teams to deliver solutions across different geographies. I also speak at internal and external forums on driving value from data science and AI at scale.* Strategy & Execution: I am responsible for authoring and executing AI and data science strategies for commercial decisions. My strategy focuses on maximizing business performance by choosing key transformational areas, optimising processes, and leveraging data and technology. I manage hybrid operating model to flex and optimise costs, and do more with less* Value Creation & Transformation: My team has delivered an average of over a hundred million in value annually through key transformational programs. The use cases cover improving effectiveness as well as efficiency in the businesses. I oversee the governance of multi-year AI programs, including prioritisation and business case evaluation. Key programs include a multi-year effort to automate financial forecasting, optimizing business processes with process mining, global marketing spend optimisation, pricing, space planning optimisation, supply chain and risk operations.* Responsible AI & Mindset Transformation: I\'ve established a traceable technical assurance process for Responsible AI at scale, mitigating risks associated AI. I empower teams to operate with a product mindset, that allows scaling professionally built models safely with citizen data scientists in businesses and functions to exponentially increase value. I focus on cultivating the mindsets and behaviors to achieve outcomes, instead of output. I serve on the leadership team and Steer co for the Math, Computation and Data Science Discipline in Shell. I co-design control frameworks for AI related risks and compliance to upcoming EU AI Act

Education

• Directors' Institute - World Council Of Directors

  Certified independent Director, Corporate governance

• Bangalore University

  BE, Electronics and Communications

  1994 — 1998

Skills

• Global Delivery
• Data Quality
• Cognitive Technologies
• Solution Architecture
• Artificial Intelligence
• Data Warehousing
• Project Management
• Data Integration
• Analytics
• Digital Solutioning
• Business Intelligence
• Consulting
• Informatica
• Sql
• Big Data
• IT Strategy
• Data Warehouse Architecture
• Program Management