Dreaming in Data: A Women’s History Month Conversation with Tessa Burg

This Women’s History Month, we sat down with Tessa Burg, Mod Op CTO, to talk about the leadership lessons she’s collected across her career, from building her first website at 16 to the ups and downs of co-owning a strategic marketing agency during a global pandemic, and now guiding AI and Innovation strategy at Mod Op. 

You host Mod Op’s Leader Generation podcast, which is focused on leadership and growth. What have you learned from guests that shaped how you think about women in leadership? 

We launched it right as the world shut down in 2020. Within days, every business saw clients pause or cut budgets, and everyone was suddenly navigating the same uncertainty. The Leader Generation podcast became a space for shared learning, a way to talk openly about leadership, personal journeys, and what it really means to support other people. 

Our first guest was Linda Owens from Nestlé Professional, who talked about managing and elevating your career. She’s now Head of Global Digital Marketing at Sherwin-Williams. What struck me about her, and so many guests since, is how many women have had to build their own path without a clear roadmap. Nobody handed them a playbook. They figured it out and then turned around and shared what they learned with others.  

A lot of meaningful relationships grew out of those early episodes, and because it inspired everyone involved, we’ve kept it going. 

That theme of navigating without a roadmap comes up a lot in your own story too. How do you lead with confidence when the answers aren’t always clear? 

My grandmother used to say: “If you speak to people like adults, they’ll act like adults.” I think about that a lot. Being transparent about what you don’t know isn’t a weakness. It’s what builds trust. None of us knows exactly what the next two or three years will look like, but we have to imagine it together. That requires involving people with different perspectives, including ones we don’t always agree with. 

There are also hard truths worth naming: Across our industry, many entry-level and mid-level roles, as they exist today, will be eliminated by advancements in technology. That’s not the same as saying people will be eliminated, but it does mean we have to define the work of the future and invest in getting there. Asking questions and listening is far more important than having the answer. 

You mention the importance of involving people with different perspectives and investing in their futures. Was there someone in your career who did that for you at a critical moment? 

So many times. It makes me want to tear up, honestly. I’ve been given so many opportunities and pushed, and I’m just so grateful. 

The first one was when I was 16. I wasn’t exactly well-behaved and didn’t go to school a lot. I loved desktop computer games: King’s Quest, AOL chat rooms. My uncle’s company needed a better web presence, and he told me he thought I could help his team build a website and get them more business. That was the first time anyone ever thought I could really do anything. 

I took community college classes, and was able to successfully contribute to launching the site. Later I started my own company where we implemented one of the first e-commerce engines, before Google existed. From there, because I had those skills, I got an internship at a Fortune 500 company. I was the only female in internal IT, which at the time just meant they knew their team needed to be more representative of the population. I got to work with teams in India, and my first boss was based in Bangalore. He became my reference for my next five jobs because of how much of an impact he had on me. 

After that, I actually met someone in a mall who got me into a branding and advertising agency as an account coordinator. I’d never taken a marketing class in my life. And in everything that followed, someone would open a door, put up a really big challenge, and tell me they believed in me. I try so hard to do that for people on my team now. If you’re looking for your next big leap, find out what the big challenge is and ask for that opportunity. 

You’ve taken that same spirit of opening doors and giving people big challenges into your leadership at Mod Op. How do you balance that drive for innovation with enablement and operational stability?  

My answer has changed a lot over the last four years. Early on, we pushed hard to integrate AI into our work — and it didn’t land the way we expected. The harder we pushed, the slower things moved. What actually worked was building confidence internally, one person at a time. We announced a pledge to invest $10 million in AI, but it was really a $10 million investment in our people. 

Today, we think about innovation in two tracks: 

Productivity, which makes us faster and smarter 

Possibility, which is about extending those capabilities to create better, more personalized experiences for the brands we work with.  

With about half the company now through our internal AI transformation program, our teams are showing up to conversations with CMOs and brand leaders from a place of genuine experience, not just theory. That authenticity is what builds real partnerships, and it’s proving to be the fastest path to doing meaningful work together. 

As Mod Op’s CTO you oversee AI and ML adoption, governance and innovation. With the insight from your role. Do you think we’ve hit peak AI, and what’s your biggest prediction for the year ahead?  

Oh no. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what is possible with AI. Currently, AI ranks around issue number 35 in terms of public concern in this country. That’s way too low. In change management, the pain of not changing has to be higher than the pain of changing. Most people haven’t hit that point yet, and that’s concerning because there are no real controls on AI right now. 

The AI landscape is still largely shaped by a handful of major players. Schools are behind, and some don’t even allow AI tools. Everyone should be channeling their anxiety into upskilling and pushing for schools to build curricula for the jobs of the future. When you look at LinkedIn, there are a lot of job postings and not enough people who meet the requirements. Addressing that gap is the real issue. 

What specific AI skills should people be developing right now? 

I think everybody should have basic data science skills. I know that sounds controversial, but understanding the fundamentals of statistics, machine learning, and feature selection helps you unlock what AI tools are actually doing so much faster. Back in 2014, I dragged our now-VP of Transformation to a week-long data science bootcamp. She had to learn Python first. She was not happy at first but saw the benefit afterward. Those foundations matter. 

The other thing I’d add, and this might sound even more surprising, is philosophy. You have to be able to dream. If you can’t theorize about what problems are going to emerge and why, no amount of technical skill will help you build solutions for the future.  

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During Women’s History Month, Tessa reminds us that innovation isn’t defined by tools or trends but by the people willing to dream boldly and support one another along the way. As AI reshapes industries, her leadership shows how curiosity, and inclusion can guide us through uncertainty and toward a future where more people get to participate in building what’s possible.