Mircea Neagovici — Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and ML

Mircea Neagovici — Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and ML

Author: Lukas Biewald April 21, 2022 Duration: 46:22

Mircea Neagovici is VP, AI and Research at UiPath, where his team works on task mining and other ways of combining robotic process automation (RPA) with machine learning for their B2B products.

Mircea and Lukas talk about the challenges of allowing customers to fine-tune their models, the trade-offs between traditional ML and more complex deep learning models, and how Mircea transitioned from a more traditional software engineering role to running a machine learning organization.

Show notes (transcript and links): http://wandb.me/gd-mircea-neagovici

---

⏳ Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

1:05 Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

4:20 RPA and machine learning at UiPath

8:20 Fine-tuning & PyTorch vs TensorFlow

14:50 Monitoring models in production

16:33 Task mining

22:37 Trade-offs in ML models

29:45 Transitioning from software engineering to ML

34:02 ML teams vs engineering teams

40:41 Spending more time on data

43:55 The organizational machinery behind ML models

45:57 Outro

---

Connect with Mircea:

📍 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirceaneagovici/

📍 Careers at UiPath: https://www.uipath.com/company/careers

---

💬 Host: Lukas Biewald

📹 Producers: Cayla Sharp, Angelica Pan, Sanyam Bhutani, Lavanya Shukla


Lukas Biewald hosts Gradient Dissent: Conversations on AI, a series that moves beyond theoretical discussions to examine how artificial intelligence is actually built and deployed. Each episode features a direct, unscripted talk with a leading practitioner-you’ll hear from engineers and researchers at places like NVIDIA, Meta, Google, Lyft, and OpenAI. The focus is on the tangible challenges and breakthroughs they encounter, from initial research to the complex reality of putting models into production. This isn't about abstract futures; it's a grounded look at the decisions shaping the field right now. Biewald, bringing his perspective from Weights & Biases, steers conversations toward the practical trade-offs and collaborative efforts that define modern AI work. For anyone in technology or business who wants to understand the mechanics behind the headlines, this podcast offers a rare, candid window into the process. You’ll come away with a clearer sense of how ideas become functional systems and what it really takes to operate at the cutting edge.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Gradient Dissent: Conversations on AI
Podcast Episodes
Inside Cursor: The future of AI coding with Co-founder Sualeh Asif [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:36
In this episode of Gradient Dissent, host Lukas Biewald talks with Sualeh Asif, the CPO and co-founder of Cursor, one of the fastest-growing and most loved AI-powered coding platforms. Sualeh shares the story behind Curs…
The rise of AI agents [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:09
In this episode of Gradient Dissent, host Lukas Biewald sits down with João Moura, CEO & Founder of CrewAI, one of the leading platforms enabling AI agents for enterprise applications. Joe shares insights into how AI age…