Learning to Lead Digital Transformation

Josh Paolini (MBA '21) jokes that he lives and breathes digital transformation. 

As the founder and CEO of Per4m.ai, an AI platform that helps companies build high-performing teams, Paolini spends his days thinking about how technology can improve people and organizations.

He's now bringing that same thinking to Northwestern's Master of Engineering Management (MEM) program, where he is teaching the new course Digital Transformation: Evolving Product,Vision, and Business Strategies.

The goal is to prepare students to lead in a time when AI and digital technologies are rapidly transforming how people live and work.

"Leadership in the age of AI transformation requires more than understanding technical capabilities," Paolini said. "Leaders need to be able to align business strategy with the right technology, people, process, and governance."

The course is designed to give students the skills necessary to adopt transformative solutions, whether those solutions are for 300, 3,000, or 3 million people.

Paolini will rely extensively on his own experiences for the class. His professional journey includes roles at Adobe, where he launched the customer experience optimization and digital performance strategy practices, and as director of analytics at Rise Interactive.  

He launched Per4m.ai in 2022. The company uses AI to conduct large-scale organizational analysis, develop tailored strategies to improve efficiency, enable AI adoption, and upskill talent.  

To date, Paolini has helped more than 100 companies — from startups to Fortune 1000 companies — incorporate digital strategies and digital transformations to their businesses.  

"Organizations are unprepared for the speed and scale of change that AI is driving," he said. "We turn this into an advantage with technology that helps us conduct a rapid large-scale organizational analysis, identify opportunities, and implement tailored plans to boost performance. Our technology helps us bridge the gap between executive-level coaching and accessible data-driven training." 

That strategic perspective is what he hopes to share with MEM students.  

Digital Transformations will teach how to adopt new technology in a way that will make for better products, customer experiences, and organizations. The class is designed to teach students through a range of real-world examples, case studies, and class exercises.  

Students will examine successful companies as well as ones that struggled with digital transformation. 

Paolini will frequently incorporate lessons learned throughout his career, as well as experiences from a number of guest speakers. 

He wants students to hear from startup founders and Fortune 1000 executives about their digital transformation experiences, including how it impacted their careers and the challenges they had to overcome.  

Ultimately he wants to arm students with the knowledge and perspective he has through his work at Per4m.ai. 

"I get to bring together business leaders, academics specializing in organizational learning and development, and the latest advances in AI," he said. "It’s rewarding because we get to take organizations from being overwhelmed by the future of work to embracing it as a competitive advantage."