Unlocking Hidden Value: How AI and Analytics Drive Growth in Technology Enterprises

By: Thomas Thayyil Thomas, Chief Executive Officer; Dr. Sai Mali Ananthanarayanan, Chief Data Scientist; Kyle Rasmussen, Managing Director  

We recently shared our insights on leveraging AI and analytics to drive value creation with over 30 portfolio companies at a top private equity firm’s conference. Speaking to CIOs and technology leaders, we showcased how lower middle-market and middle-market PE portfolio companies can leverage AI to drive operational excellence and unlock hidden value.

Our Case Studies 

  • Our proprietary AI solution analyzed over 20 million words across 120,000 customer service emails to help a PE-backed business services company accurately estimate true cost-to-serve and assess customer churn risk. We demonstrated how portfolio company management is operationalizing these AI-driven insights—previously unattainable through manual efforts or conventional tools—to develop ideal customer profiles and drive strategic price negotiations with customers and vendors. 
  • A PE-backed data products company leveraged our AI solution to replace manual data extraction with 5-15x greater efficiency, delivering high accuracy and auditability. After witnessing the AI’s impact firsthand, management is now exploring opportunities to optimize and elevate their global workforce to focus on higher-value efforts that drive operational excellence and expand data product offerings into new sectors and regions for revenue growth. 

 

Key takeaways  

  1. Governance and Guardrails: Define AI governance early on, including technical, regulatory and legal considerations, starting with an “acceptable use” policy. Employees will likely start leveraging off-the-shelf AI solutions anyway; therefore, it is prudent to establish guardrails that enable and empower them to leverage AI safely.
  2. Start Small, Scale Smart: Quick wins are important. Begin with quickly achievable, realistic use cases that deliver tangible business impact while building toward larger transformations. Focus on use cases with clear value-creation potential, whether through efficiency improvement, cost reduction, or revenue enhancement.
  3. A Robust Data Foundation is Critical for Leveraging AI: Trustworthy, high-quality data is imperative to fully leverage the transformative power of AI technology. While most boards and C-suites have a strong desire to adopt AI, CIOs and CFOs will need to lay out a realistic and achievable roadmap for adopting AI pervasively across the enterprise. Success depends on robust planning and meticulous execution starting from establishing a robust data foundation to a “crawl-walk-run” strategy for adopting AI.
  4. Change Management Matters: AI adoption is not just about technology—it requires buy-in from leadership and employees to drive real impact. Resistance to change, lack of familiarity with AI-driven processes, and skill gaps can hinder successful implementation. Organizations must invest in training programs, clear communication, and leadership alignment to ensure smooth adoption. A structured change management approach should include education on AI benefits, pilot programs to build confidence, and incentives to encourage adoption. Ultimately, AI success is determined by how well people embrace and integrate it into their workflows. 
  5. Build Internally vs 3rd Party Partner Strategy: Organizations must carefully evaluate whether to build AI capabilities in-house or partner with specialized firms based on their core competencies, existing infrastructure, and strategic objectives. Building in-house provides greater control, proprietary advantages, and deeper integration but requires significant investment in talent, technology, and time. Partnering, on the other hand, offers faster deployment, access to cutting-edge expertise, and reduced operational risk. The right strategy often involves a hybrid approach—leveraging external partners for specialized AI capabilities while developing internal expertise for long-term sustainability. 

Want to learn more about driving value creation through AI at your company?

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Scott Briggs

BS International Business | American University of Paris

BS Computer Science | American University of Paris

Seasoned DevOps and infrastructure engineer with expertise in AWS, Kubernetes, and Terraform; led cloud migrations and scalable infrastructure projects at Sfara, FanDuel, and Kickstarter.

With over 15 years of experience in small and medium-sized startups, Scott is a seasoned expert in designing, optimizing, and maintaining robust, scalable, and secure infrastructure. He specializes in automation and embedding security from the ground up, consistently delivering reliable systems tailored to meet dynamic business requirements.

Prior to joining Teragonia, Scott made a significant impact at Sfara, where he built the company’s entire infrastructure from scratch. He engineered systems capable of supporting hundreds of thousands of users with seamless scalability, implemented automated development pipelines, and introduced observability tools to monitor and manage resources effectively. Additionally, Scott led the infrastructure team in achieving ISO27001 security certification, ensuring security was integrated into every aspect of the system and transforming it into a critical asset for business-to-business operations.

Beyond his technical expertise, Scott has a proven track record of managing and mentoring high-performing teams. As a Senior DevOps Engineer at FanDuel, he gained invaluable experience in scaling infrastructure and optimizing resources to support millions of daily users, aligning technological capabilities with organizational goals.

Jack Amedio

Master’s in Human Resources | University of Illinois

Bachelor’s in Management | Loyola University

Former Financial and Operations Manager at Houlihan Lokey, Golin Harris, and MSL Group.

Jack is a highly driven, cross functional professional with extensive experience in operations and administration. 

Prior to joining Teragonia, Jack held financial and facilities management roles for Houlihan Lokey, MSL Group/Publicis, and Golin Harris in which managed and created processes and trainings for multiple functional areas ensuring operational and administrative procedures were well planned, efficient, cost-effective, and aligned with business objectives while ensuring initiatives, internal events as well as client events propelled employee and client engagement.

Jack holds undergraduate degrees from University of Illinois and Loyola University Chicago and has completed graduate certificates in Business Administration, Strategic Human Resources, and Operations at Cornell, CUNY-Buffalo, and University of Illinois and is in the process of completing a Master’s in Human Resources at Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business.

Mason Taylor

MS Analytics | Georgia Institute of Technology

BS Management Information Systems | Oklahoma State University

Former analytics engineer at Cyderes and ConocoPhillips with a Master’s in Analytics from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Bachelor’s in Management Information Systems from Oklahoma State University

Mason is an Analytics Engineer with deep experience in data analytics, business intelligence, machine learning, and cybersecurity. He brings a proven track record of leading analytics engagements spanning architecture, insights, visualizations, and delivery.

Before joining Teragonia, Mason was a Senior Analytics Engineer at Cybersecurity MSSP CYDERES where he built a scalable, standardized, and secure analytics architecture for over 300 clients across many industries and consulted with them to deliver insights through bespoke data driven solutions. In addition, he managed the data delivery of the insight platform leveraged by the Security Operations Center to respond to incidents in a timely and effective manner.

Prior to joining CYDERES, Mason worked in ConocoPhillips’ Analytics and Innovation Center of Excellence holding varied roles within the Data Analytics organization from Data Engineering, to Business Intelligence, and Data Science. He delivered robust data solutions in all operating units for various functions including Engineering and Production, Finance, IT, and more. Including projects to standardize cost and production data across operating units. 

Mason started his career at The Williams Companies in cybersecurity and transitioned to cybersecurity at ConocoPhillips where he found his passion for Data Analytics through SIEM management, detection engineering, and threat intelligence.

Grace Sun

Bachelor’s in Finance & Accounting | Georgetown University

Former analytics engineer at Houlihan Lokey and financial analytics at JP Morgan Chase with a Bachelor’s in Finance & Accounting at Georgetown University

Grace is a seasoned analytics engineer with specialized expertise in crafting and implementing analytics solutions that drive agile, informed executive decisions in M&A and value creation for private equity-backed companies.

Before joining Teragonia, Grace was a part of the data science and business analytics team at Houlihan Lokey. She has excelled in harmonizing, enriching, and analyzing data from diverse sources, providing key insights that enabled private equity investors and portfolio company executives to make rapid, data-driven decisions across the investment lifecycle. She has developed novel analytics solutions, including deal sourcing and evaluation tools for platform investments that employ a buy-and-build or de novo growth strategy, as well as post-close value creation and KPI reporting tools for operators and management teams.

Grace has also worked at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the Global Finance and Business Management rotational program, where she built analytics solutions to evaluate banker attrition and KPI reporting within the Global Private Bank.