Pittsburgh Innovation: Techstra Solutions’ Mitch Kwiatkowski Talks Data-Driven Digital Transformation

On September 21, 2025, Techstra Solutions Executive Vice President of Data, Mitch Kwiatkowski, was interviewed by Jonathan Kersting for Pittsburgh Technology Council’s TechVibe Radio. The transcript follows.

Jonathan Kersting, Host of Pittsburgh Technology Council’s TechVibe Radio (JK): This is your front row seat Pittsburgh’s technology and innovation ecosystem, and I am Jonathan Kersting with the Pittsburgh Technology Council. I get to have so much fun talking to the absolute coolest people in Pittsburgh’s tech scene…and today we have a guest talking about the company that has been so fun to watch just really grow by leaps and bounds over the past few years, a company called Techstra Solutions. If you don’t know Techstra Solutions, they provide technology and talent solutions to large organizations that are undergoing digital transformation at its absolute finest. Their client-focused services include things like strategy and innovation in the cloud, lots of data, lots of digital, and all sorts of automation.

And today we’re talking to Mitch Kwiatkowski, who’s the Executive Vice President of Data… so you’re the data at Techstra there. Really glad to have you here today. Your background is amazing! You’ve done some really cool projects over the years with big results on some. We’re talking about $250 million worth of results! That’s a chunk of change, right? Man, to have you stop by here talk about what you do with Techstra and really talk about digital transformation. What’s going on especially with data, data, data…it’s fun stuff!

Mitch Kwiatkowski, Executive Vice President of Data, Techstra Solutions (MK): It is! I appreciate being here and I’m always excited to talk about data.

JK: Yeah, all right! I like talking data too, so it is a match made in heaven. Today, I’m very excited. I want our listeners to kind of hang out to the end, because I’m starting a new series today. It’s our TechVibe “Signature Questions,” which I’m very excited about. You know, I get to talk to literally, I think, some of the smartest people in the world that have done really cool stuff around business and technology. I want to get takeaways from them that we can all kind of use to guide our business, even our lives a little bit. If you hang out to the end, you get to hear from Mitch, and Mitch, you’re my first one to do this so I appreciate you humoring me with my experiment.

MK: Looking forward to it!

JK: Awesome, dude. So first off, [give us] your background real fast. You’ve worked with some pretty cool companies, and you’re working with Techstra, which [is] one of my favorite companies here at the Tech Council. [I] just love what Jennifer and Larry (Honig) are doing…an amazing company. Tell us about yourself.

MK: Yeah. So, I’ve been in data, technology, analytic roles for about the last 25 years, almost all of that [time] in healthcare. I’ve known Larry and Jennifer for…getting close to eight or 10 years now, being a customer in the past. I always had a great respect for the work that they’ve done. I have held a number of roles — leadership roles — in different companies (the most recent, prior to Techstra, was as a Chief Data and Analytic Officer). This was an opportunity in my career to start to get down a path of consulting, [get] a little more variety in things. There’s an opportunity to push boundaries and have maybe a more expansive influence and impact…in health care. And I love healthcare. I’ve worked with other industries as well. But when I think [about Techstra]…what they have done, where they’re going…[I love] the approach that they take. [It is] let’s meet companies where they are, let’s co-create, let’s be hands on. And I’ve always been hands on, even as a leader. So those are things that that I enjoy, and it was a great opportunity to join their team.

JK: I knew they were excited to have you. When they were mentioning it to me, I was like, “We gotta get this guy on the show talk and about what he’s up to” because it’s fantastic stuff without a doubt. I mean, first off, the idea that you have led data and AI initiatives that have delivered over $250 million in measurable value, especially in a day and age when people are wondering, “What am I really getting from my AI investments?” There are some reports out there [about] how many projects just fail, but you know how to make this stuff work, which I think is so cool. And the fact that you can do this across all types of industries with Techstra, I think, is really exciting. How do you make that work? What’s the secret?

MK: It’s not something that I always knew how to do. If I go back to early in my health care career, I spent a number of years implementing electronic health records (EHR) here in the Pittsburgh area for primary care physicians. I learned very quickly that it wasn’t about technology, and you really have to understand what the business is looking for, what’s driving them, what are they trying to get out of technology in the healthcare space. It’s about patients, right? It’s about healthcare. It’s about communities. So, the work that we do in the data space, the AI space, or whatever it may be, it always has to be about: What value are we giving back? What difference is it making to patients?

JK: I love what you said. It’s not necessarily the technology but it’s really getting behind the business problem that’s at hand. Because you can throw technology at the wall, all over the place, and it’s cool technology, [but] if you’re just hitting a wall with it, then what’s the point? Right?

MK: Right. And there are so many different solutions out there for different things. With Techstra, that’s a lot of it…the approach to how do you make change? How do you create this transformation, regardless of the technology, and pulling the other levers that make that successful?

JK: Especially with how fast technology changes as well too. Obviously, everyone’s talking about AI now. I mean, AI’s been in the making since the early 80s, and even before that, you know. It’s in the past two years [that] things have gotten hot. But more technologies are going to come, and AI is going to continue to change. So at the end of the day, I think your philosophy is right. You look at the problem to solve; look at the toolkit that’s in front of you now, in order to solve those problems. That’s a good way to do business, I think.

MK: Yeah.

JK: Tell me about some of the clients that Techstra works with. You work with some of the biggest companies in the world.

MK: We’re in the healthcare sector, finance, energy, some of the largest companies in those industries. Transformations are tough. At any company, regardless of the size and regardless of the revenue, there are always challenges. A lot of what we do is we go in and if something’s stalling, if it’s hit barriers, if there’s just challenges with that transformation – where we really excel (and I love doing this) is — how do you help get over those obstacles? How do you remove them? How do you help with those changes and get that transformation done? We like to move at a pretty good pace. And in some companies, we’ve even been told to slow down. But, you know, again, we understand that and it’s not disruption for the sake of disruption. We try to make sure that everyone understands what we’re doing. And why.

JK: How do you balance that, that speed of innovation, you know? Because, I mean, that is the thing where, obviously, you got to move fast, but at the same time, you got to make sure things are safe and locked down. There’s that balance. How do you keep[it]? Because I know it’s got to be very exciting when you’re able to deploy these solutions [and] you see some results…so it’s kind of like, keep pushing on that accelerator.

MK: AI is one of those big ones, and I’ve heard probably the big, you know, I do a lot in the data and AI governance space, right? And that’s got a (probably) bad reputation in a lot of organizations. It’s a fair one in some cases. But I think with AI, a lot of what I’ve heard is we have to move fast. We have to innovate, because we’ve got to be competitive. If we don’t do it, someone else will. The reality is you have to be aware of what you’re doing. If you look at a lot of the AI projects, like you said, a lot of them are either failing or they’re not delivering the results that people thought. And in some cases, they’re finding that maybe there are adverse impacts: Patients are getting harmed, there’s bias, there’s all sorts of things that maybe weren’t intended. You have to be aware of those things. I think [there is a way to innovate] in a relatively speedy way…to be agile and flexible…[but] do the right things with the cool, new technologies.

JK: I love it. I’m having so much fun talking to you. In case you just joined us, we are talking to Mitch Kwiatkowski from Techstra Solutions. If you go to www.techstrasolutions.com you can check them out. Go to pghtech.org and check us out. Now, we love helping tech companies succeed. If you stick around for the second half, got more about what Mitch has done over the years around AI and data transformation, what he’s doing with Techstra Solutions, plus we’re getting to my TechVibe signature questions today! Mitch, I’m very excited about this, so it’s coming at you real quick. We’re taking a break. We’ll be right back.

JK: So glad you’re hanging out with me…I’m giving you that front row seat to the Pittsburgh technology ecosystem, and I am Jonathan Kersting with the Pittsburgh Technology Council. I always say, I get to have the best conversations with the coolest people in Pittsburgh. And Mitch, you’re living up to it so far. I’m loving it, man, you’re passing the test!

MK: I’m glad. Thank you!

JK: In case you just joined us, we are talking to Mitch Kwiatkowski of Techstra Solutions. Go to techstrasolutions.com. When it comes to digital transformation, they’re making it happen for really big companies solving really tough problems. And Mitch, when did you join up with Techstra?

MK: It was earlier this year, yeah, so I’ve been there about six months now.

JK: Yeah. And you’ve got decades of experience with large healthcare organizations, helping them solve really tough problems with their data and analytics. And you were talking about managing health records. Can’t think of more sensitive, important stuff than that, where it requires special care. The minute the folks from Techstra mentioned to me that you were joining the company to do some consulting, I was like, “That’s cool, let’s get him on the show.” And so here you are. So glad to have you here, man.

MK: Thanks!

JK: Yeah! So, we’re seeing so much hype around AI right now, right? I mean, sometimes I can’t even talk about it because it’s just so prevalent, but we can’t ignore it. And obviously [what is going on is] just so important. What is your approach here? The first thing you can tell anyone who’s just thinking about it because…so many companies, when they go through projects … I forgot the study…but they said it was like 90 percent of projects just don’t return the investment, the way they thought. I can’t remember the exact study, but it’s a staggering amount. Now, you’ve had the inverse of that, thank God, over your career, which is really cool. And [what] you mentioned earlier…that I really liked is the fact that it’s not just the technology, but it’s looking at the business approach. Can we continue that thread about what it means to have a really successful implementation of AI? Because…I’ve seen so many folks [that want] to do AI just to say they’re doing something with AI, [and] that doesn’t seem like the right approach.

MK: Yeah. I mean, there has to be a business challenge or business problem or question, right? If you go back to ChatGPT coming out, you know, a few years ago, everybody jumped on it. In healthcare, [it] might have been a little bit slower, because, as you mentioned, there’s that sensitivity around the data and regulation and so on. But everyone recognized the impact that AI could have in healthcare and still will have in healthcare. The approach that I’ve taken with companies is…we’ve got to have those business problems that we want to solve. We want to make sure that there’s something that we’re going to get out of…the investment, time, money, and so on. But I always like that spirit of innovation. Most of the companies that I’ve worked for or with are very innovative, and they like to push the envelope in some fashion. So, we would always have our little skunkworks or fail fast group trying to test out new things in ways that weren’t going to necessarily go out into production…if it worked great, if it didn’t, not a big deal, let’s move on, but these were really quick things. [That said], a lot of companies are risk averse. You have a lot of regulatory [and] compliance factors in there. If anything, I’ve seen probably the privacy / regulatory groups maybe be a little too stringent, or more stringent on [innovation]. And I think that just butts heads with your research institutes and your innovation labs that really want to push that. So, I think there’s absolutely a happy medium, and that’s where I’ve spent a lot of time over the last couple years around AI governance. The goal isn’t to necessarily govern and control, which is how a lot of people view it, but it’s how do we make sure that it’s responsible? How do we make sure that we know what data is getting used? How’s it getting used? Who’s it getting used by? Who’s using it? And again, make sure that we’re doing things for the right reason. All of that has to go back to whatever that business use case was, whatever the business drivers are, it has to be actionable outcomes, and there has to be value attached to that.

JK: I like that approach a lot, because I feel like, once again, you’re solving something with the business challenge, and as you’re doing this, you’re also able to kind of look back at each step to see where something slipped. You could then pinpoint it and then correct it without being too concerned [that] you’re gonna blow the whole thing up (for lack of a better term). I have to assume you probably have just this baked in sense of security with your healthcare background. The idea of security and privacy is always top of mind no matter what you’re doing in your projects.

MK: Yeah, I was a HIPAA privacy and security officer in a past life, and I’ve spent a lot of time in the compliance and privacy space, a lot of regulatory things. So yes, it’s there. The first people I make friends with when I go into an organization is that legal /compliance/ risk management group, which is usually where a lot of people shy away from. But again, a lot of my role has been to translate, to make people feel at ease, and understand the different sides — business, tech, data — so they can all [understand] and [I can] be a liaison between them.

JK: Without a doubt. I tell you what, I’m just so stoked for you. I’m very stoked for Techstra Solutions. I think you guys coming together, I mean, it’s just gonna help solve a lot of problems for companies that are doing big things out there. And you need to have a lot of fun while doing it.

MK: I do get to have a lot of fun. I do.

JK: We want to keep you happy and having fun there, Mitch. Simple as that.

MK: Having fun is important.

JK: I agree with you 100 percent.

Okay, so we’re gonna move over to my big thing here. I’ve been alluding to this, it’s my TechVibe signature questions right now: What was like the moment or project or insight that maybe first convinced you that technology could just transform your industry?

MK: So, I go back to implementing electronic health records (EHR). I came out of tech education, tech certifications, and to me, at the time (very early in that stage of my career) I thought everything was about “you’re using a computer, how difficult could it be?”

I had the opportunity (as uncomfortable as it was sometimes) to be in exam rooms as I was helping physicians use the electronic records while they were with patients. There was a time when one of our physicians was with a patient, and he was using a chronic disease management tool that I had built in the EHR, and he was asking some questions about how certain things worked, and so on. I walked through it and showed [him and] the patient was watching [and] was amazed at what that system could do. Now, EHR implementations aren’t painless. They were actually pretty tough to do, but this was an opportunity [where] patients actually saw firsthand on the computer screen — here are my lab results, here’s the risk score for my diabetes, here’s, you know, those types of things. It was at that point that I really connected that what we do on the technology side has to connect to patients in healthcare. And I always took that with me and [shared it with] all the teams [with which] I’ve worked. It’s always what’s best for the patients. It was very transformative.

JK: That’s a great story! You’re taking about human lives being impacted there, I’d be pretty stoked for myself there, too.

Okay, so from your vantage point today, what is the single biggest change you see coming that most leaders maybe aren’t ready for?

MK: I think we have a big challenge coming with workforce, and it’s something that I worry about, I have kids. We have seasoned veterans out there from the tech industry…Goldman Sachs, IMF, [and] others are predicting, you know, that 60 plus percent of jobs are either going to be impacted by AI or replaced by AI. Everybody’s rushing to try to cut jobs and cut time, but we don’t really know what that means yet. One of the things that we’re seeing is a lot of the positions that are getting eliminated are entry level. Things around contract analysis or fraud detection in the finance industry. Coding and software development now can be done by these AI tools. Debugging. In the arts…music, writing. It’s hard for people coming out of school. [They say], okay, what am I going to do? What’s the job I’m going to have? How should I be trained? I think for us, we have to figure out how do we rescale or upskill and redeploy our current staff? How do we help [the] future workforce be prepared for whatever they’re going to go into?

JK: Final question, we’ve got less than a minute left…if you could leave our audience with just one practical action that they can take this week to move their organization closer to digital transformation, what would that be?

MK: I always go back to connecting what you’re doing, and the outcomes and value, to the business problem. Even something as simple as taking a look at all of the projects, all of the initiatives that are out there, and really looking and seeing: Do these connect back to the business? What are we getting? Is this just something somebody asked for? Is it a pet project? Is it a nice-to-have? I think, really being able to quantify and put a number somehow, ideally, a dollar [figure]. I know that’s tough, but there’s got to be something that gets connected there and [to] make sure that these are the right things to be working on. Again, I think that approach [is] where the data and AI space, the analytic space, is going. A lot of leaders are being challenged to [explain] what’s the value of this? No longer are we in a space where we say, you know, we did this data quality initiative, and it’s soft and squishy ROI. You have to show what that means. So, I think starting with what you’re working on is a good place and figuring out how to grow from there.

JK: Perfect. You passed the test. I love it! I’ll tell Larry and Jen that Mitch passed the test. Mitch, thank you for hanging out here. What a pleasure! So happy to talk to you today. I learned so much. I know our listeners did too.

MK: (laughs) Thanks!

Listen to Mitch’s Interview on TechVibe Radio.