Fireside Chat: Navigating Data & AI Talent Challenges with Milind Kamkolkar

 

 

It’s a rare privilege to sit down with Milind Kamkolkar, a foremost leader in data and AI transformation within the healthcare and life sciences sectors. Milind brings over 20 years of leadership experience from his pivotal AI & Data Leadership roles at Sanofi, Novartis, and Cellarity, as well as being on the investor side of the house with RA Capital. His career spans driving enterprise-wide data strategies, pioneering AI initiatives, commercializing AI products on the front line with customers, and shaping innovative uses of AI spanning drug discovery, clinical trials, manufacturing and drug commercialization. Milind’s insights reveal the unique cultural and strategic challenges organizations face amid rapid talent, technology, and organizational shifts, especially in highly regulated industries. He has built and led diverse, high-impact data and AI teams globally across pharma and biotech.

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CJ Nakamura (CJ): Milind, thank you for joining me and sharing your journey, lessons, and perspectives on driving meaningful data and AI transformation today. The talent war is central in this AI-driven economy. With ever-escalating salaries and intense competition for top experts, how are organizations navigating this landscape? What key challenges have you seen in finding and retaining the right talent?

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Milind Kamkolkar (Milind): The talent crunch is intensifying across sectors, including healthcare and life sciences. Many candidates claim AI skills, but deep expertise to lead transformative initiatives is rare. Large tech firms setting million-dollar sign-on bonuses raise the stakes, pricing out many mid-sized or financially cautious organizations. But compensation alone isn’t enough; meaningful projects where talent sees real impact and growth are essential. Balancing external hires with internal development is tricky - external talent brings critical skills but requires integration and alignment with complex industry contexts, while nurturing internal talent demands sustained investment and patience. Hiring speed remains a hurdle as many traditional processes lag behind market demands. Leveraging AI-enabled recruiting and emphasizing diversity and skills-based hiring helps, but competition is fierce and accelerating. Ultimately, retention hinges on culture, trust, and seeing measurable business outcomes beyond pilots. I am not convinced we are at the age of autonomous developers that can build production grade, culturally-configured nuanced applications.

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CJ: That really captures the nuance-not just salary but culture, purpose, and speed. From my executive search vantage point, companies’ financial health drives choices: lean companies tend toward contractors for flexibility, while well-backed firms enhance internal Talent Acquisition functions. Yet I’ve seen internal teams struggle to meet pace demands, risking transformation momentum. How are organizations overcoming this?

 

Milind: In highly regulated industries like pharma, we’re deliberate before pursuing sign-on bonuses-we avoid hype-driven quick fixes given compliance and complexity. Yes, trends around hiring ex-folks from big tech sounds sexy at dinner parties but in truth, can massively backfire too. Conversely, slower moves risk losing talent to others paying more. This talent challenge spans company sizes; many mid-sized firms hire well but lack strategies to effectively utilize or retain these experts, causing turnover unless organizations pivot culturally and operationally.

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CJ: That’s a real blind spot for mid-sized companies. Culture integration, especially across generations and functions with different expectations, can be very complex.

 

Milind: Culture is key, especially engaging younger generations who seek meaning, inclusion, autonomy, and continuous learning. Many traditional companies repel them with outdated norms. Successful organizations actively transform to embrace and nurture these professionals. It’s not just hiring but retaining young talent that’s the bigger challenge. Leadership’s temptation to write off culture misfits is a missed opportunity. Instead, investing in understanding and integrating younger talent’s values fosters loyalty and innovation, positioning companies for sustainable success. What we see over and over again is the enthusiasm of youth being mistaken for brashness, and the experienced population as being slow and lacking innovation. This creates visible and open clashes, which is both tedious and sucks up valuable collaboration time. This hyperbole is not limited to the tech generation but frankly, is a part of life over centuries. Business has to balance risk with experience vs new approaches and give space to both challenge yet “move on” culture.

 

CJ: Agreed-evolving together is vital. How can a culture be built so durable it becomes part of the company’s DNA, lasting decades?

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Milind: It requires dual focus. Leadership establishes macro-level culture and signals people matter. But micro-level culture managers cultivate daily truly drives retention. At Sanofi and Cellarity, intentional nurturing of diversity in IQ & EQ across backgrounds transformed team strength. Retention depends on meaning and impact people derive from work. Most want projects advancing beyond pilots to real-world outcomes. People are motivated uniquely-growth, recognition, mission alignment. Good leaders connect personally, integrate these drivers into culture, and create environments nurturing loyalty, innovation, and high performance. Enduring culture demands continual investment in mentoring, open dialogue, psychological safety, experimentation, and embracing failures as learning.

 

CJ: As we close, Milind, what’s your headline advice for organizations facing AI and data talent challenges?

 

Milind: Investing equally in people and culture as in technology is fundamental. Technology enables transformation, but sustainable impact comes from holistically engaging, developing, and retaining talent through meaningful work. Organizations must cultivate environments where employees see clear value in contributions, feel empowered to innovate, and have personalized growth access. Retention thrives in cultures prioritizing trust, inclusivity, and psychological safety-experimenting openly and learning from failures. Building such resilient cultures ensures teams adapt agilely to evolving AI landscapes. Moreover, specialized executive search firms like AI81Works accelerate access to top-tier talent to drive transformation.

 

CJ: Thank you, Milind, for your candid insights and time. It’s been inspiring.

 

Milind: Thank you, CJ. I hope this dialogue encourages positive change for those navigating these complex challenges.

 

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Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by Milind Kamkolkar in this interview are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organization with which he has been affiliated.