Tobias Zwingmann

RAPYD.AI

Independent AI consulting to create profitable AI solutions to innovate and grow your business. Fast.

Managing Partner

O'Reilly Media

Author and Instructor

LinkedIn

LinkedIn Learning Instructor

D2A2

Chief of Research - Applied AI

Springboard

- Helping Springboard as a subject matter expert in AI, especially for data analytics
- Mentoring students who want to switch careers to data science / data analytics 
- Top Mentor Award in 2021 (Springboard Inspire)

AI SME & Data Science Mentor

Insurgence

Partner

Toptal

Independent Consultant

Data Science Dojo

ML/AI Instructor

Deutsche Messe AG

Systematic retrieval, analysis and utilization of (unstructured) data from diverse sources to build new products and processes.

- People movement analytics 
- Computer vision with focus on text retrieval

Senior Data Scientist

Building & maintaining predictive models. Generating and communicating insights about customer trends and behavior to product owners and senior management.

- Churn Prediction
- Next Best Offer Recommendations 
- Customer Segmentation
- Visual Analytics

Data Scientist

Leading various international trade show projects in e.g. China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Myanmar, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey.

Project Director

Deutsche Messe Dubai Branch

Management Trainee

Author of AI-Powered BI (O'REILLY) | AI Coach & Mentor | I help organizations leverage AI and use data more intelligently to improve business performance. Sharing AI use cases & learnings.

I didn’t start my AI/ML journey doing “Profitable AI”.

I started it as a Data Scientist who built models that looked impressive on paper:

– Customer churn prediction with 95% accuracy ✅
– Next-best-offer systems with 15% uplift ✅
– Data-driven B2B products generating 6-figure revenues from day one ✅

But the hard lesson I’ve learned after 10+ years at the intersection of business and technology is that none of this matters if you can’t show results on the bottom line.

I’ve spent the last 5+ years in applied AI consulting where my work has taken me inside global enterprises in automotive and insurance, mid-sized companies with 500–1,000 employees, solopreneurs aiming to double their output, and small business owners uncovering $10k+ monthly savings in unexpected places. 

The contexts differ, but the patterns of what makes AI succeed (and fail) remain remarkably consistent.

Success is not about:
- Chasing the next shiny AI tool
- Hiring data scientists from Silicon Valley
- Hoping IT will figure it out

It’s about applying the principles of Profitable AI to deliver outcomes that matter: doing things faster, at lower cost, with higher quality — or scaling what you do to entirely new levels.

Along the way, I’ve shared many of these lessons in my books AI-Powered Business Intelligence (O’Reilly, 2022) and Augmented Analytics (O’Reilly, 2024), as well as in my weekly newsletter that is now read by 10,000+ professionals at companies like Google, Amazon, Gucci, H&M, Santander, and Mercedes-Benz.

So If you’re tired of the shiny AI demos and want to see it deliver real results instead — I think you found a good place.

We help you build amazing AI products faster.

Gemini 3 is making a lot of noise. And it's a really great model. "Is it better than GPT-5?!" My take: Use whatever works for you. Both are LLMs, both have their quirks. But if you want to know where each shines, here's what I found:

Gemini 3 = Messy Inputs → Clean Outputs
Throw it chaos: screenshots, transcripts, logs, mixed documents. It's great at compressing that mess into structure. Best when you're very specific about the output format you want. Seems like if you need to organize messy information, call Google.

Examples:
- Summarizing multiple meeting recordings into structured notes
- Extracting data from a messy pile of PDFs, screenshots, and spreadsheets

GPT-5.1 = Clean Inputs → Complex Thinking
Give it organized information and let it reason. It's great at planning, narrative, and multi-step decisions. Best when the task itself is complex, not the input.

Examples:
- Writing code (though Claude still beats it here)
- Building a strategy doc from a clean brief

Scenarios to combine both:

1/ Competitive analysis
Gemini 3 gathers data from competitor sites, pricing, and reviews; GPT 5.1 delivers the strategy

2/ Client onboarding
Gemini 3 cleans and organizes intake docs; GPT 5.1 produces the project plan

3/ Sales pipeline review
Gemini 3 compiles CRM data, calls, and emails; GPT 5.1 spots trends and recommends actions.

Don't try to find "the" best. 
Find whatever works best for you.

Fun fact: The infographic was done by me with Gemini-3 image gen ("Nano Banana"), first shot, Prompt in comments.

AI Advisor | O’Reilly Author | Instructor @ LinkedIn Learning | I find & realize profitable AI opportunities – here to share wins, fails, examples & frameworks.

I see a lot of confusion around AI workflows, AI agents, workflow automation, and agentic workflows. Most people can't even tell the difference. Which isn't a problem until you want to build an AI solution that is neither over-engineered nor insufficient.

So I put together a quick guide that breaks down each type and when to use what, along with a few examples.

Read the full blog post here: https://lnkd.in/erYqeVPi

AI Workflows vs. AI Agents

ChatGPT launched today 3 years ago. ONLY three years I should say. Feels like a decade compressed. To catch you up on what’s happened, I generated this little timeline with the help of ChatGPT Deep Research, had Gemini 3 double-check it, and Claude 4.5 generated the PDF.

Tasks like this would have taken a whole day in the "old" world.
Now done in less than 60 minutes with AI.

We're still far away from AGI.
But I don't care.
We're living in the most exciting timeline.
And I can’t wait to see what this timeline looks like 3 years from now.

3 Years Since ChatGPT

A while ago, I shared the AI Profit Stack – a simple framework to assess whether your AI projects are actually creating profit. People loved it, clients used it. Then someone asked me:

“How do I apply this to my Copilot licenses?”

Short answer:
You don’t.

Long answer:
Trying to measure all AI with the same ROI formula is exactly how you end up with fictional numbers, cynical finance teams, and AI steering committees that debate themselves into extinction.

Today I've shared the fix I'm using now in every client engagement – and the one I want you to have too.

Find it here here:

Open article: The Two Tracks of AI ROI by blog.tobiaszwingmann.com

How to separate 'AI that helps' from 'AI that pays'

Flavor Forward Strategy

Independent Strategist partnering with brands to create healthy, sustainable food innovation

Recent Projects:
• Innovation Strategy Lead for a rapidly growing ($50MM) BFY confectionery snack brand. Established brand guardrails, landscaped 5 adjacent categories, and facilitated cross-functional ideation workshop culiminating in category extension / brand stretch recommendations.

• Interim Innovation Director for a ($1.5B+) private equity backed juice brand. Created brand & innovation architectures, shaped consumer insights & unmet needs into innovation platforms, wrote 75 product concepts in <1 week, and filled the brand's 5 year innovation pipeline.

• External Facilitator for a ($300MM) growth-stage, better for you, better for the planet meat snack. Conducted stakeholder interviews, planned, moderated, and directed the brand's first-ever innovation summit generating 10 testable new product concepts.

• Brand Strategist supporting a global team of behavior change specialists & nutritionists. Tasked with landscaping the dietary diversity needs of school-age children in India to fight malnutrition & micronutrient deficiency, mapping best practices & gaps in existing programs (public, private, NGOs, and PPPs), and making recommendations to further improve the ($600MM) health drink's social impact.

• Head of Insights & Innovation for a rapidly growing ($50MM), purpose-driven, clean-label frozen novelties brand. Established repeatable commercialization process, tested 50 category extensions, filled 3-year innovation pipeline, wrote sell-in story and customer-facing category strategy for long-term growth.

• Innovation Strategist for two of the world's largest ($1B+) salty snack brands. Elevated jobs to be done with culturally relevant & emotionally rich consumer insights, drafted discussion guides, moderated digital consumer interviews, facilitated cross-functional ideation workshops, and wrote new product platforms & concepts.

More here: 
FlavorFwd.com

Founder & Innovation Director

Drake University

Guest Lecturer for Drake's College Of Business & Public Administration

Courses:
-Consumer Behavior: Marketing + Psychology (Mktg 115)
-Money or Mission: First Year Seminar in Social Entrepreneurship (FYS 004)

Guest Lecturer - Consumer Behavior & Social Entrepreneurship

The Taste Trust

Co-Founder of The Taste Trust. We're a merry band of food innovators with 3 goals...

• Connect - smart people with different perspectives (brand, co. size, location, function, seniority)
• Learn - from each other, making each of us 10% smarter about food innovation
• Play with Purpose - bringing fresh air to stale (but real) business problems

Every month, Taste Trustees bring one of the the following to our call:
• A food innovation challenge / business issue we're wrestling with
• An untapped whitespace opportunity we believe has potential
• An innovation trend we're keeping an eye on
• A new product that we love / hate

Along the way we learn a little and laugh a lot.

Co-Founder

Tropicana Brands Group

Interim Innovation Director, Tropicana

GoodPop

Interim Head of Insights & Innovation

Wells Enterprises

Brand Manager for Blue Bunny's $500MM ice cream & frozen novelties businesses

• Served as "general manager", overseeing all daily operations for flagship Blue Bunny brand
• Orchestrated 8-figure IMC/360 marketing campaign incl. TV, social media, digital, PR
• Led new product commercialization & portfolio management for all product lines
• Supported director & innovation team on 3 year plan and innovation pipeline
• Owned media plan & marketing budget; led monthly demand meetings with senior leadership
• Managed two senior associate brand managers & creative/PR/social/media agencies

Brand Manager, Blue Bunny

Yum! Brands

Brand manager with P&L responsibility for $1.5 billion KFC U.S. Group Occasion segment

• Returned declining segment to growth, delivering +30% sales growth YTD thru Aug '20
• Coached 2 associate brand managers & served on KFC’s Coaches Council on behalf of marketing
• Oversaw the design, planning, and execution of 10+ cross-functional projects at a time
• Facilitated bi-weekly innovation alignment meetings with c-suite and key franchisees
• Sold 400k Cinnabon Desert Biscuits per day and won QSR's 2019 package of the year
• Generated over one billion impressions with Chicken & Donuts, driving millennial consideration
• Coached new ABM through KFC's biggest bet of 2019, Kentucky Fried Wings in <6 months

The relaunch of Kentucky Fried Wings effectively tripled our sales of wings during the promotion, and doubled ongoing everyday sales for the layer.  This was a highly complex launch, touching virtually every part of the business, including:

• Renovation of 2 core menu items (hot wings & BBQ sauce)
• Launch of a new sauce (buffalo)
• Development of new cooking & saucing procedures back of house
• Significant changes to menu boards
• National rollout of Delivery via GrubHub
• An ambitious supply plan increasing wings production to over one million pounds per week

Brand Manager, KFC Calendar Marketing

Innovation manager responsible for overhauling KFC’s innovation stage-gate process

• Redesigned KFC’s innovation process to generate more ideas and standardize consumer testing
• Accelerated product development process, cutting down on paperwork & time to market
• Filled 18 month innovation pipeline, a key enabler for 2018 & 2019 annual operating plans
• Started embedding a culture of innovation with R&D, marketing, finance, and operations teams

Brand Manager, KFC Upstream Design & Innovation

Unilever

Innovation lead for two of Unilever’s largest heritage ice cream brands: Popsicle & Klondike

• Initiated format launch across 4 brands estimated to contribute $100M in retail sales
• Collaborated with agencies to reposition Popsicle, including 2019+ communications roadmap
• Led innovation for Popsicle Canada & Klondike Canada (new products & claims through 2020)
• Ran point on nutrition & sustainability, ensuring that our growth was responsible
• Redesigned Popsicle.com (managed 4 external agency partners and cross functional teammates)

Senior Associate Brand Manager, Popsicle & Klondike Innovation

Resident expert on developed markets for the world’s largest hand washing program 

• International short term assignment in Mumbai, India
• Crafted strategy for launching Lifebuoy in new countries (i.e. white spaces) 
• Localized Lifebuoy’s interactive voice response (IVR) mother's program for Indonesia and Kenya
• Streamlined UX for reporting the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan’s (USLP) reach

Senior Associate Brand Manager, Lifebuoy Social Mission

Brand expert for sales teams & customer expert for the brand team

• Coordinated development of national sales strategy, incl. price & promotional guidelines
• Partnered with all major customer teams to set trade rates & sales targets
• Optimized trade spend by analyzing past events and vetting in-year funding requests
• Tracked all in-store merchandising to ensure flawless off-shelf product placement
• Set standards to prevent channel conflict between e-commerce and brick & mortar retailers
• Supported retail sell-in of Hellmann's Vegan (Carefully Crafted) and Organic Mayonnaise 
• Supported foodservice and retail sell-in of Hellmann's Stick Packets

Channel & Customer Development, Hellmann's/Best Foods

Business Manager with P&L responsibility for $200 million personal care brand 

• Led all cross-functional margin improvement & innovation projects
• Owned business operations for the brand, incl. P&L management, budgeting, and forecasting
• Managed external agency partners (PR, design, and social media) 
• Led digital marketing (incl. SEO, SEM, and e-commerce)
• Supported Unilever’s campus recruiting team and employee wellness business resource group
• Delivered Q-tips best-selling month ever (to-date): August 2015
• Recognized by AdWeek as the #8 Most Trusted CPG Brand for Women

Senior Assistant Brand Manager, Q-tips & Vaseline

Unilever’s boots on the ground in Minnesota for Walmart, Target, and the Grocery channel 

• Enhanced store-level execution of customer marketing programs 
• Piloted new share of shelf software & reported compliance vs. planograms 
• Built and maintained displays and other forms of in-store visibility (ISV)
• Influenced store managers to participate in marketing programs, improving display support

Retail Analyst

Data Analyst for Unilever’s 200+ Hair Care SKUs at Target

• Supported TRESemme, Nexxus, Dove, Suave, Clear, Axe, TIGI, TONI&GUY, Motions, Just for Me
• Optimized coupon drops to prevent layering & maximize ROI of brand/retailer trade spend
• Conducted ad-hoc analysis using Nielsen & RSi to refine category price & promo strategy 
• Developed data-driven consultative sales support material
• Partnered with Category Management & Customer Service to improve forecasting & in-stocks

Sales Analyst, Target Hair Care

Brand Management Intern for Vaseline – encouraged men to add skin care to grooming routines

• Developed launch plans for Men’s Spray Lotion with external agencies (PR, Design, and Media)
• Conducted competitive analysis of men’s lotion category using Nielsen Nitro and ad spend data
• Recommended growth opportunities in men’s grooming segments to marketing leadership

Brand Management Intern

Merrill Lynch Wealth Management

Marketing intern – helped a team of financial advisors find & serve high net worth individuals

• Developed full marketing plan for financial advisors to grow assets under management (AUM)
• Improved conversion with snowball sampling and referrals in place of cold calling 
• Worked with an advanced CRM system to generate warm leads (high net worth individuals)
• Partnered with compliance team to develop new, substantiated marketing claims 
• Recommended business development opportunities with large local businesses
• Recruited and trained my replacement to ensure a seamless transition

Marketing Intern

I'm an innovation strategist on a mission to create $500MM in healthy, sustainable food innovation by 2030 in support of the United Nations' SDGs.

It's a blend of food innovation, brand strategy, consumer insights, and environmental & social impact work.

➤ Who I Help:
✓ Entrepreneurs: 
co-founders | bootstrapped startups | investor-backed scaleups

✓ Intrapreneurs:
purpose-driven brands in the food & beverage and CPG industry


➤ Where I Started:
✓ In-house brand management / strategic marketing for...
✓ Unilever (Popsicle, Klondike, Hellmann's, Best Foods)
✓ Yum! Brands (KFC)
✓ Wells Enterprises (Blue Bunny)


➤ What I Do:
✓ Food Innovation:
product-market fit | category extension | category creation | brand stretch | whitespace mapping | platform innovation | portfolio architecture | competitive landscaping | innovation process design | concept writing

✓ Consumer Insights:
concept testing | consumption data analysis | qualitative research | focus groups | interviews | ethnography | consumer journey mapping | workshop facilitation | research vendor referrals

✓ Brand Strategy:
value proposition | brand positioning | brand purpose | social mission | vision | values | brand personality | brand archetypes | distinctive attributes | functional benefits | emotional benefits | brand key


➤ Why I Do It:
1) We need to accelerate our transition to a more sustainable food system. Today, global food production accounts for ~35% of emissions and ~50% of habitable land use, yet ~1/3 of the food we produce goes to waste. By 2050, there will be 10 billion people on this planet. They will need to eat.

2) We need to encourage people to make healthier choices with food. 1/3 of Americans are obese. Another 1/3 of Americans are overweight. Plant-based diets reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and stroke, and simultaneously improve our quality of life while we're here.

3) If the core skills of a marketer are behavior change & demand generation, and if the core function of innovation is to solve human problems, I can think of no better use of my time & talents than helping people make better choices with food -- both for themselves and for the planet we all inhabit.


➤ How I Do It:
✓ Values: growth, truth, freedom
✓ Strengths: learner, focus, achiever, analytical, significance
✓ Archetypes: creator, explorer, sage
✓ Enneagram: 5 (investigator), 1 (reformer), 8 (challenger)
✓ MBTI: INTJ (architect)


If you're a founder, entrepreneur, investor, innovator, or strategist working to make the food world a better place...
🌍 read more: FlavorFwd.com
👍 let's connect!

Nick Budden

88-93% of Americans don’t eat enough plants.
Those are real numbers. From the CDC.
Specifically…

12.3% of Americans eat their daily fruit.
10.0% of Americans eat their daily vegetables.
<10% of Americans eat their daily whole grains.
7% of Americans -- just 7% -- eat their daily fiber.

That means you’re outnumbered.
By about 10:1

If you want to eat well, get comfortable being different.

Fortunately, small changes compound fast. 
Start with 1 more serving -- *today* -- and grow from there.

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