Chat & Learn

From Data to Deployment: Why the Humans Behind Your Model Determine Its ROI

5 speakers

October 14, 2026 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET Virtual Free to attend

From Data to Deployment: Why the Humans Behind Your Model Determine Its ROI

About this session

Your AI model is only as good as the people shaping it. That means bringing in experts with varied backgrounds, industries, and lived experiences, because that breadth is what produces outputs that reflect the world your customers actually live in. In this deep dive, we’ll talk about what it takes to train, evaluate, and operationalize AI models that people can truly trust.

Topics will include:

Diverse human input is a performance driver, not just an ethics checkbox. The breadth of backgrounds, industries, and lived experience among the people training and evaluating a model directly shapes how well its outputs reflect real-world customer contexts — which ties straight back to accuracy, relevance, and ultimately ROI.
Trustworthy AI requires human judgment at every stage, not just at launch. Training, evaluation, and operationalization are all points where human expertise determines whether a model performs reliably in the real world — trust is built incrementally through the people involved throughout the pipeline, not bolted on at the end.
The people behind your model are a strategic investment, not a cost center. Who you bring in to shape, test, and refine your AI has measurable downstream business impact — treating human capital as central to AI strategy, rather than an afterthought, is what separates models that deliver ROI from those that don't.

This event will be eligible for SHRM credits.

Meet the speakers

Rob Ribar

Director, Events & Marketing, PowerToFly

Robert Ribar is a New York based professional with over fifteen years of experience in programming diverse content, community engagement, executing dynamic events and comprehensive marketing campaigns. He currently leads PowerToFly’s B2C and B2B events, including the virtual summit series. Rob also oversees the company’s dual marketplace marketing strategy as well as playing a key role in community growth and partnership programs. At PowerToFly, Rob has produced events for American Express, Meta, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft and Slack, just to name a few. Prior to joining PowerToFly, Rob served as Production Coordinator at DKC/Hangar4, working on events for Pixar, Jaguar LandRover, FanDuel, L’Oreal and producing the reopening of the Hudson Theatre on Broadway. He also worked as the Associate Producer for the Tony Award winning production company Triptyk Studios developing works for film, television and the stage with such artists as Stevie Wonder, Linda Perry and James Gandolfini. In his spare time, he co-hosts the Dear Watchers comic book podcast and co-owns Sleepover Trading Co, a video store in upstate New York.

Mara Gates

Director, Content Marketing, PowerToFly

Mara Gates is PowerToFly’s Director of Content Marketing. She works at the intersection of strategy, people, and leadership, with a recent focus on what it looks like to integrate AI into work efficiently and empathetically. She approaches problems with curiosity and an interest in the people behind them.

Milena Berry

Co-Founder, CEO and Board Director at PowerToFly

Milena is the Co-Founder, CEO, and Board Director of PowerToFly - the fastest growing global platform dedicated to fast-tracking economic equity by upskilling and connecting underrepresented talent to roles in highly visible sectors. Milena’s on a mission to partner with top 100 brands to bring them a slew of diversity solutions provided through the PowerToFly platform.

Milena was born in Bulgaria and moved to New York City a week before September 11th to pursue a Masters at ITP NYU. Prior to co-founding PowerToFly, Milena has contributed to numerous startups, and had a blast being the CTO of Avaaz.org where she oversaw the technology to support growth to over 30 million members.

Milena is a frequent commentator on how companies can diversify their teams, especially in tech. Her work for PowerToFly has been recognized in Business Insider and she was named Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business in 2015. Her biggest accomplishments are her four children who constantly push her to rethink what work-life balance means.

Shawntay Skjoldager

COO/Integrator, ThinkHuman

Shawntay Skjoldager has spent nearly 20 years building the systems that let good teams get better instead of just busier, work that's taken her through learning and development, leadership development, and business operations across corporate, nonprofit, higher education, and association settings, including LegalShield, Mary Kay Inc., and the International Association of Exhibitions and Events. At ThinkHuman, she holds AI to the same standard she holds any tool to: it should help make teams stronger, better, and faster.

Elena Agaragimova

People & Operations executive, 2x Founder

Elena Agaragimova is a People & Operations Executive and startup operator who helps growing companies build the infrastructure they need to scale. Currently Head of People at Horizon Industries, she has spent 15+ years at the intersection of talent, people strategy, organizational design, and business operations, including co-founding two companies, Bessern (acquired) and Shiftwell.ai. Columbia-trained in neuroscience, coaching, and performance, Elena translates behavioral science into practical strategies that make companies actually work. She is the host of Shift with Elena Agar and co-host a newly launched Suits & Scrappy podcast.

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About PowerToFly

The bridge between professionals and the companies building what's next.

PowerToFly connects talent, community groups, and industry leaders in one platform. Meet hiring managers, recruiters, and peers from anywhere — and with our virtual events and exclusive career content, hone your skills and grow your network all in one place.

Community

800K+ Active members across every industry, domain, and geography — from anywhere in the world.

Verified experts

80K+ Domain specialists in healthcare, law, finance, and more — vetted and ready.

AI professionals

6,500 Annotators, red teamers, and model evaluators who've worked on frontier AI.

Countries

204 A truly global community, so you can connect and grow your network without borders.

Women & BIPOC

75%+ The voices most underrepresented in tech are overrepresented here — by design.

Years building

12+ Connecting talent with companies that value it, since 2014.

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