Adriana Kosowski, passionate about data and artificial intelligence

After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Adriana decided to specialise in data and artificial intelligence. In this interview she tells us about her experience at EDHEC International BBA and how her career path gradually took shape.

What is your background?
I graduated from EDHEC International BBA in 2017. Then I completed a Master of Science in Marketing & Digital Media before joining IBM as a Consultant in the Data and Artificial Intelligence team. I loved the subject so much that after two years at IBM, I decided to take a three-month break to do a training course in Data Science at Le Wagon - which enabled me to get the job as Data & Artificial Intelligence Project Manager today.

Why did you choose EDHEC?
I knew about EDHEC Business School's excellent reputation. It's a really prestigious school, recognised in both France and abroad. After I finished my end-of-school exams, I hesitated a lot between a preparatory class followed by a Grande Ecole or the BBA. I finally chose to join the bachelor because I wanted to get into the world of work quickly, with the possibility to do an internship as early as the first year so I could really work on my career plan.

What was your course like at EDHEC International BBA?
The first three years are fairly general. We had foundation courses in Marketing, Finance, and so on which gave me a very good general business culture and introduced me to the different careers that it’s possible to do. In my final year, I chose the E-commerce and Digital Business specialisation and discovered the challenges of digital business, a fascinating and topical area in which many companies are recruiting. I also discovered new technologies like artificial intelligence, which made me want to learn more about it.

What was your most memorable experience?
One of the things that sets the programme apart is the organisation of Hackathons - two- or three-day events devoted to building a project as a team. During my course, I competed in several challenges, such as "rethinking tomorrow's connected healthcare" or "reinventing dating applications" (with Meetic). These Hackathons were organised in conjunction with engineering and design schools, so the teams were multi-disciplinary. It inspired me to organise one at IBM afterwards. What's more, during my studies I had several international opportunities: two internships abroad in London and Tel Aviv, and an Erasmus exchange in Sheffield.

Can you tell us more about your current position?
I really took an interest in technology, especially data and artificial intelligence, when I started working at IBM. Today, after 5 years with the company, I'm a Senior Consultant. My role is to help customers in all sectors: banking, insurance, luxury goods, telecommunications, etc. who turn to IBM to support them in their digital makeover, particularly when they want to adopt complex new technologies, such as artificial intelligence. To achieve this, we first use methodologies such as Design Thinking to understand their needs and find the best adapted technological solution. We then define a transformation roadmap and set up a team that can deliver the solutions. After that, we use the Agile method, for instance, to measure the team's efficiency and collect continuous user feedback. The idea is to build the most technically efficient solutions but, above all, solutions that really meet the customer's needs and help them to speed up their digital transformation.

And some final thoughts?
We're all players in our own careers, and it's up to us to develop our career after school. As far as I’m concerned, the EDHEC experience didn't stop with graduation, as I come across a lot of EDHEC alumni in my work and I've also taught MBA students a Design Thinking course for two years running. We always stay in touch as EDHEC alumni!