Data Science & AI

Dynamic, intelligent solutions powered by leading AI/ML technologies.
More than a trend or an afterthought, INSIGHT has been a practitioner of AI/ML technologies for over ten years to discover data insights, optimize outcomes, and experiment with alternatives.
Our AI/ML methods are core to delivering EBITDA growth outcomes across hundreds of client engagements and dozens of industries.
Beyond just generative AI, INSIGHT brings a combination of pricing and profitability expertise and in-house data science capabilities to implement impactful solutions across a business’s growth journey. Our data science and AI capabilities deliver outcomes such as:
- Key Profit Drivers
- Customer and Product Micro-Segmentation
- AI-Informed to AI-Powered Price Modeling
- Churn Management
- Forecasting
- Price Testing
- Product Recommendations
- Statistical Tuning
As partners, we understand that each of our clients face a unique set of challenges and growth goals. We don’t get caught up in the academic theory of AI/ML or force a cookie-cutter approach. Instead, we leverage the best available frameworks in the marketplace to solve your specific business challenges and produce desired outcomes. Some of the methodologies we leverage with our clients include:
- Gradient-boosted tree-based machine learning algorithms, including XGBoost and Microsoft LightGBM
- Randomized controlled trials (“A/B Testing”)
- Clustering algorithms such as affinity propagation and k-means
- Optimization algorithms such as simplex and mixed integer programming
Common Challenges
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Value Drivers of Price
Surface historical patterns beyond intuition to understand what customer and product attributes and other mechanisms your business uses to drive pricing—inadvertently or not. Then, leverage that new knowledge to optimize your pricing model.
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Customer & Product Segmentation
Create groups of customers or products with similar behaviors or characteristics to segment these cohorts for robust, differentiated, and optimal intervention.
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Margin Management & Customer Retention
Understand where and why customer behavior has changed and how margins are affected. Then, algorithms are configured to alert and inform intervention strategies.
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Highly Transactional Businesses
Fully capture the nuances of market pricing where a rich set of customer and product attributes may contribute to valuable micro-segments that drive further price optimization.
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Forecasting, Supply Chain & Inventory
Gain a clearer understanding of demand trends and a reliable methodology to predict the amount of inventory needed at any point in time to meet current demand and optimize inventory costs.
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Semi-Transparent Pricing or Competition
Understand price vs. volume trade-offs, their impact on margin or other growth goals, and strategies to manage competitive matching where applicable.
Meet Our Experts
With over 250 dedicated pricing strategy experts, our team helps businesses achieve profit and EBITDA growth through our process proven on over 800 engagements since our founding in 2006.
Grant Trainer
Grant is a Data Science Manager at INSIGHT2PROFIT. Grant has over 7 years of experience in both data science and strategy consulting and has successfully led teams in developing and implementing innovative data-driven solutions that have generated significant value for clients.
Examples of Grant’s experience include:
- Managed over 20 engagements leveraging AI/ML across various industries and applications such as pricing, customer churn, cost imputation, and win probability estimation
- Development and ongoing improvement of a real-time ML price engine that delivers optimized pricing for a $4B metals distributor with 50k+ weekly quotes
- Designed, implemented, and measured of countless AB Tests leading to better understanding of the client’s business and industry, ultimately resulting in increased profitability
Grant earned his B.S. in Business Administration in Finance from The Ohio State University.
Joe Bogner
Joe is the Chief Data Scientist at INSIGHT2PROFIT. He has 15 years of experience at INSIGHT and over 24 years in total spanning Consulting, Technology, and Data Science. Joe leads the strategy and application of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) practice. In his prior roles at INSIGHT, he was involved in the strategy and execution of client engagements, creation of the INSIGHT2PROFIT DRIVE platform, launching custom tools for clients, and modeling and analytics.
Prior to INSIGHT, Joe held various roles in financial software development at Ohio Savings Bank and in consulting software development at Avanade, a provider of innovative digital, cloud and advisory services, industry solutions and design-led experiences across the Microsoft ecosystem.
Examples of Joe’s experience include:
- Directed over 80 engagements leveraging AI/ML across dozens of industries and applications including pricing, demand forecasting, deal scoring, and predictive attrition
- Delivered integrated, real-time machine learning engines including a solution for a $4B metals distributor to eliminate 2 days from the quotation process by estimating the cost of infrequently purchased materials instead of sourcing an actual cost from vendors
- Drove growth at a large food distributor by mining 25M transactions to identify over 4 million cross-sell and up-sell opportunities
Joe earned his M.S. in Data Analytics from Western Governors University and his BBA from Cleveland State University.
Jonathan Durkee
Jonathan brings over 20 years of experience in the B2B software industry primarily in product and general management to his role as Chief Operating Officer at INSIGHT2PROFIT.
Prior to joining INSIGHT, Jonathan was with Verizon Connect where he served as General Manager for a business unit focused on expansion into a new product category while also serving as Vice President of Product Management for the large and rapidly growing core GPS vehicle tracking segment. Jonathan has experience serving customers of all sizes, with companies at all stages of growth as well as experience working in and across multiple functions.
Jonathan earned his B.A. in Mass Communications from Miami University.
Justin Seefeldt
Justin is a Managing Principal at INSIGHT2PROFIT and brings 15 years of experience as a management consultant focused on pricing, sales and marketing strategy. Over the past decade, Justin has spearheaded over 70 engagements across various industries concentrating on pricing and profit strategy, resulting in delivering clients more than $1B of value creation.
Prior to joining INSIGHT, he spent several years at a Fortune 500 wholesale distributor, focusing on strategic pricing, private brand management, and commercial analytics.
Examples of Justin’s experience include:
- Collaborated with an industrial holding company to develop a scalable pricing structure and process across more than 40 individual businesses, yielding over $30M of EBITDA impact and 500 basis points margin improvement
- Achieved over $10M of EBITDA impact for an omni-channel building products manufacturer by developing a gross-to-net waterfall that identified key areas of profit leakage and creating corresponding strategies to mitigate them
- Served as a centralized pricing function for a Fortune 500 multinational specialty manufacturer to coordinate pricing strategy and action plans across businesses, executing a $400M pricing action against downward margin pressures
Justin earned his MBA in Corporate Finance and Marketing Strategy & Planning from DePaul Driehaus College of Business, Kellstadt Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Consumer Economics & Finance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Patrick Shinn
Patrick is a Data Science Manager at INSIGHT2PROFIT with more than 7 years of strategic consulting and data science experience. He is passionate about leveraging modeling and analytics to deliver data driven solutions to clients. Patrick has been involved in more than 40 engagements across dozens of industries in his tenure.
Examples of Patrick’s experience include:
- Design and Implementation of controlled experiments through A|B testing in multiple industries, to help answer questions around pricing sensitivity and promotional effectiveness
- Led numerous engagements leveraging AI and ML capabilities to solve various business problems around pricing and profit optimization, customer churn, inventory management, demand forecasting and win probability estimation
- Connected data driven solutions to custom business applications for clients to be a part of the analytical process
Patrick earned his M.S. in Business Data Analytics from West Virginia University and his BBA from Ohio University.
Ryan Kane
Ryan is a Vice President of Private Equity at INSIGHT2PROFIT, leveraging over 15 years of experience as a seasoned business leader. He consistently drives measurable positive margin impact through strategic development and the implementation/execution of pricing and other margin-enhancing initiatives.
Ryan has led over 75 engagements globally, demonstrating expertise in commercial pricing structures, analytics, modeling, and price measurement and execution. His proficiency extends to working knowledge of Business Intelligence (BI), Margin Management, Contract Strategy, Market Assessment, Competitive Assessment, Communications, Strategy, Business Development, and R Studio.
Prior to joining INSIGHT, Ryan spent a decade at Booz Allen as a Management Consultant working in strategy and design as well as in a “price to win” capacity within their business operations practice.
Ryan earned his MBA in Change Management and a B.S. in Marketing/Marketing Management from North Central College. He completed advanced coursework in Advanced Business Analytics from Indiana University, Kelly School of Business.
How Are You Growing Margin Outside of Price?
We identified $10-15M in gross margin opportunity via cross- and up-selling for this consumer products distributor through a dynamic machine-learning model.
Our Insights
Discover how market basket analysis can help your business have a competitive edge that drives revenue growth and customer retention.
Price optimization strategies have been used across countless industries—retail, hospitality, manufacturing—to maximize profits and identify advancement opportunities.
Price optimization is an essential technique that enables companies to make profitable pricing decisions.
Setting price is just the beginning of maximizing profit margins. Elevate your pricing strategy with these proven sales effectiveness techniques.
Unexpected or unpredictable changes in cost affect the overall margin of the product or service you provide. There are a few things you can do now to mitigate risk and take your dynamic pricing strategy to the next level.
Welcome back to INSIGHT2PROFIT’s 2019 Pricing Challenge! Let’s think about target price and how to optimize it through differentiation and segmentation.