In this enlightening episode of The AI-Powered Marketing Show, host Keith Bell interviews Surya Patchipala, a seasoned data engineer with over 15 years of experience in AI, ML, and banking. Together, they break down how real-time decision-making hinges on clean, enriched data—and how bad inputs can derail even the smartest AI systems. Surya dives deep into the role of a data engineer: ingesting, cleaning, and enriching data to fuel machine learning models. He explains why “data is the key,” how synthetic data protects privacy, and how banks use tokenization to comply with regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Listeners also learn about the evolving importance of near real-time to true real-time AI applications, as well as tools like Apache Spark and Flink that support this shift. Keith and Surya unpack hot-button topics like hallucinations in AI models, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), synthetic vs. training data, and how large financial institutions are safeguarding customer privacy while pushing innovation. Whether you’re a marketer, data nerd, or AI enthusiast, you’ll walk away with a richer understanding of how AI really works behind the scenes. Start your free trial with Make.com today and experience the power of AI-driven marketing automation. 👉 Click the link 📩 Subscribe to our newsletter for more episodes and insights: 👉 https://ai-powered-marketer.beehiiv.com/ 🌐 Visit our podcast website: 👉 https://aipoweredmarketingshow.supapass.xyz/