Jan 29, 2026

Today’s guest is David Carmona, Vice President of Discovery & Quantum at Microsoft. David leads work at the intersection of AI, scientific discovery, and advanced computing, with a focus on scaling research innovation in complex, regulated environments. David joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to discuss how enterprise leaders should think about AI’s role in transforming R&D beyond productivity gains—toward net-new discovery, augmented scientific reasoning, and structurally different innovation workflows. The conversation explores why R&D represents one of the highest-impact domains for AI adoption, and how coordinated systems of specialized models and agents are reshaping the scientific method itself. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/expert2 for more information and to be a potential future guest on the ‘AI in Business’ podcast! If you’ve enjoyed or benefited from some of the insights of this episode, consider leaving us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, and let us know what you learned, found helpful, or liked most about this show! Watch Matthew and David’s conversation on our new YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@EmerjAIResearch.