In this episode of the CIONET Podcast, Hendrik Deckers interviews Angélique Bidault-Verliac, the Chief Data & Performance Officer at SNCF Connect & Tech, the nominee in the Data & AI category during the #CIONETAwards2026. Register here to find out who wins this prestigious title: https://www.cionet.com/events/cionet-awards-2026-part-1! Angélique is the force behind the evolution of SNCF Connect & Tech from its strong digital foundation to becoming a data-driven and AI-augmented organisation. This transformation powers the SNCF Connect platform, which is used daily by millions of people in France. Angélique's work spans critical areas including customer data, performance management, and AI innovation, driving significant business impact. Angélique shares her career journey, which is rooted in a core conviction: data must be used to solve an issue or fix something important, not collected merely for pleasure5. This problem-solving approach is central to her belief that data should help people make better decisions. The conversation spotlights two major, impact-driven applications her team delivered: - My Retrainspective: This initiative, which began as an internal hackathon, provided customers with a "year-in-journey" retrospective. It compared the kilometres travelled by train to the CO2 emissions saved versus driving. The result was phenomenal, with over 5.6 million visits in one day, showcasing its high customer engagement and reputational return. - The Full Train Alert: Developed to address customer frustration over full trains, this feature allows users to subscribe to an alert for when a seat becomes available. The project was a great success, boosting client satisfaction, with one in two subscribers later booking a train. - She concludes by identifying the next big challenge as moving from mass segmentation to true one-to-one personalisation using AI, a goal that places even higher demands on data quality. She also stresses the ongoing need to challenge and test the output of AI tools to ensure accuracy and responsibility. Don't miss this inspiring talk about driving transformative change in the heart of French mobility!

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