Ian Ruffle, head of data and insight at the RAC, says the key to exploiting data assets is twofold – understanding the business problem and having a great team that’s capable of finding the right technological solutions.
“I need people who are empowered, keen, enthusiastic and willing to share knowledge,” he says, outlining the importance of talent to the effective deployment of data-hungry systems and services in the digital age. Rather than finding a suitable challenge for a technology that’s already been procured, Ruffle wants his team to engage with their functional peers.
“As a data leader in business, success is all about people coming to us and saying, ‘We’ve got a problem. Can you find the solution?’” he says.
“I can then go to my team and say, ‘Has anyone got a solution?’ It’s their job to be aware of the capabilities. So, it’s a problem-led approach, but you need to make sure you’ve got the answers up your sleeve, which, for me, is all about the people.”
It’s an approach to technology implementation that Ruffle has refined during his career. He’s been with the motoring services provider since February 2013. Having cut his teeth in a range of marketing roles, he joined the organisation as customer relationship management (CRM) capability manager. In this role, he managed the company’s core marketing technology, working closely with the campaign team and the firm’s analysts.
As Ruffle proved his capabilities, he took on elevated roles, becoming head of marketing technology before assuming his current role as head of data and insight, where he reports to the RAC’s marketing chief, Alex Heath. Ruffle says it is a fast-paced role, and the speed of change suits him well.
“People say you get the absolute most out of me when time is tight,” he says. “Working at the RAC isn’t for everyone, because it’s fast-paced. We move very quickly. We make decisions quickly. It’s all about failing fast to be able to move on and make changes. The aim is to come up with a proof of concept and embed it.”
Working at the RAC is fast-paced. We move very quickly. We make decisions quickly. It’s all about failing fast to be able to move on and make changes. The aim is to come up with a proof of concept and embed it Ian Ruffle, RAC
Ruffle says his team’s ability to deliver data projects has transformed over the past five years. “We’re looking at using data and insight to drive and change the organisation,” he says. “And that focus, alongside my more senior roles, is exciting. I’m rubbing shoulders with some incredibly talented people.”
Transforming front-end systems
While Ruffle has always ensured his technical capabilities are up to date, he recognises that the pace of digital and data innovation has quickened over the past few years.
It’s a tough challenge for any individual to keep abreast of all the changes in the IT industry, let alone someone who’s spent a big proportion of their working life in marketing. Ruffle’s answer is to lean on trusted lieutenants in his team.
“It’s important to get the right people around you,” he says. “As a modern data leader, you need to be encouraging people to be learning and growing and empowering them to do a great job. I can’t do everything across a broad breadth of disciplines.”
Ruffle says being a great boss and attracting the right talent is the way forward. “You want staff to be motivated and encouraged to feel like they can drive the agenda,” he says.
“It’s important to get the right people around you. As a modern data leader, you need to be encouraging people to be learning and growing, and empowering them to do a great job. I can’t do everything across a broad breadth of disciplines”
Ian Ruffle, RAC
“I love working with my people. If you’ve got an idea, you can sow the seed in someone, and then they come back and play their theory back, and you can say, ‘Yeah, we’ll do that’.”
One of the team’s priority projects is a transformation of the RAC’s front-end marketing technology. The company uses a legacy system with a relational data model.
“It’s very batch-based,” he says. “There are some real-time use cases associated with the system, but it’s become prohibitive from a cost perspective to do everything that we need to do.”
Ruffle says the transformation process involves moving to a new supplier called Bloomreach. This agentic personalisation technology will sit on top of the RAC’s existing Snowflake AI Data Cloud platform. His organisation will be working with technology specialist Caci to deploy the Bloomreach technology over the next nine months. The result of this work should be a modern system that offers real-time and AI capabilities.
“That is quite a major project for us,” says Ruffle. “We’re consolidating four different suppliers in total, and probably six pieces of technology across those suppliers, into one central solution. The back end will be Snowflake, and Bloomreach will be dealing with a lot of the front-end stuff, which should mean the seamless integration of data is so much easier.”
Creating great experiences
Another important area of work is boosting operational efficiency. Many of these efforts are focused on two of the biggest cost areas of the business – the call centre and traffic patrols.
A large proportion of the organisation’s enterprise information is now held in Snowflake, using a robust data model. Ruffle says in-house developed application programming interfaces (APIs) stream data on real-time use cases back to the platform and the people in the call centre.
“It’s about the ability to know someone’s broken down at the roadside and to send them a real-time communication, with more accurate updates than we were ever capable of before. We’ve revolutionised the whole dispatch process on the other side of the call centre,” he says.
“We’ve built a single screen for users, powered by the data in Snowflake and via various web services to make the call centre experience seamless, rather than having three or four different operational systems.”
Ruffle says the joined-up approach makes it much easier for operational staff dealing with customers to answer important questions, such as whether an individual at the roadside has RAC cover. Before bringing data together, staff had to log in to different systems to confirm a customer was covered. Now, staff benefit from the single-screen approach.
We’ve got a platform powered by modern technology. The focus on technology and data driving change in the call centre and at roadside operations has been immense, and it’s been the backbone to the last few years of evolution at the RAC Ian Ruffle, RAC
“We’ve got a platform powered by modern technology,” he says. “So the focus on technology and data driving change in the call centre and at roadside operations has been immense, and it’s been the backbone to the last few years of evolution at the RAC.”
Managing complex scenarios
After evaluating potential solutions, the organisation deployed its first Snowflake platform for the marketing department in early 2020.
Ruffle says the AI Data Cloud’s scalability and its integration with the company’s existing Microsoft Azure architecture were important success factors. Since 2020, the RAC has expanded its use of the Snowflake platform beyond the marketing department.
Now, in addition to providing a single source of truth for the business, the company uses the Snowflake Marketplace, which is an online platform where users can access third-party data to augment their own insights. Ruffle explains how his organisation uses this data to enrich its own insights and decision-making processes.
“There’s a whole bunch of events data that we get, which includes things as simple as bank holidays, but also includes things like Glastonbury and other events where you might see gatherings of people in specific areas,” he says.
“Having easy access to information that’s comprehensive and maintained is great, because trying to gather that data manually is almost impossible, and to get the level of detail around the scale of the event is transformational.”
The RAC has also developed its own unified insights platform. This pane-of-glass application, known as Mavis, uses Snowflake’s Cortex AI tool to summarise data insights. Agents working in the RAC’s operations hub can use Mavis to find important customer information, such as cover entitlements.
“We’ve got all the information in one place now, which is easy, so the application will help you find the customer and fully understand their entitlement, which is more complicated than you’d think. There are a lot of nuances to the cover that people are entitled to,” says Ruffle.
“It’s about being able to get that level of detail and having accurate information at your fingertips. When you get to the much more complex scenarios, we’re helping an agent to make decisions. Our agents can see the recommendations and make decisions. That type of recommendation wasn’t possible just a few years ago.”
Being an empathetic organisation
While AI is already impacting customer service, Ruffle says breakdown specialists like the RAC must keep humans in the loop. People contact his organisation at moments of need, and technology should be an adjunct rather than a replacement for human assistance.
“People can be quite panicked, they can be unsure, and I don’t think we’d ever want to take away the humanity of dealing with people at that moment of need,” he says. “Technology plays a significant part in being operationally efficient, but we need to be really sensitive about our service being authentic and human.”
For example, customers stranded at the roadside will be looking for an estimated time of arrival (ETA) for the RAC patrol team. Ruffle says his team will continue using AI and data science to hone the accuracy of ETAs. However, great assistance is also about emotion and engagement, such as prioritising service for people who are pregnant or disabled.
“The digital evolution for us will be about leveraging technology. Data science and AI are improving, and, in the future, I think technology will be front and centre for us when making choices. However, it’s crucial that our agents can manage situations effectively and be a human face to the organisation,” he says.
“Our approach should be data-led in the background when making decisions. Automation is great, but there always needs to be an ability to manage the things you can’t predict and to manage scenarios where you really need to be an empathetic organisation.”
Though most people associate the beginning of March with the hopefulness of spring and the indignities of daylight saving time, there’s another important event taking place yards all over the country: hummingbird season.
While many species of hummingbirds can be seen in regions year-round, others are migratory, and this time typically marks their return from wintering grounds in Central and South America. These tiny birds can lose up to 40 percent of their body weight by the time they arrive here after having flown thousands of miles, and since many flowers haven’t bloomed yet, nectar feeders can be a source of essential fuel.
Though I test smart bird feeders year-round, I don’t use hummingbird feeders as often as I should, as it’s imperative that they be cleaned and refilled with new nectar every two or three days (a ratio of 1:4 granulated sugar to water is best, and avoid any dyes or additives) to prevent deadly bacteria and mold, and I don’t always have the time.
But if you are going to invest the energy in maintaining a hummingbird feeder, right now is the best time, as you have a chance to see migratory species you might not otherwise encounter, such as black-chinned hummingbirds. A smart feeder helps you ID them, whether they’re stopping at your feeder on their way north or arriving at their final destination.
Birdbuddy’s Pro is the smart hummingbird feeder I recommend and use myself when I’m not actively testing. The app is easy to navigate and sends cleaning reminders, the built-in solar roof keeps the battery charged, and, unlike other feeders, only the shallow bottom screws off for refilling. No having to pour sticky nectar through a narrow opening, or turn a giant cylinder upside down and risk spilling.
Note that it’s not perfect; the sensor is inconsistent and doesn’t capture every hummingbird that visits, but for the camera quality (5 MP photos, 2K video with slow-motion, 122-degree field of view) and ease of use, it’s a foible I’m willing to put up with. If you already have another Birdbuddy feeder, the hummingbird feeder images and videos will integrate seamlessly into your app feed.
Birdbuddy
Pro Smart Solar Hummingbird Feeder
Right now, the feeder is 37 percent off on Birdbuddy’s website—a deal I usually don’t see outside of shopping events like Black Friday or Amazon Prime Day. Note that the feeder only runs on 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, and while it is fully functional without a subscription, a Birdbuddy Premium subscription will let you add friends and family members to your account so they can see the birds as well. That’s $99 a year through the app.
President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post on Thursday that Noem would be replaced by senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, a staunch Trump ally and immigration hardliner. “The current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere we are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida,” Trump wrote. “I thank Kristi for her service at ‘Homeland.’”
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Speculation has swirled around Noem’s departure for months. Critics have assailed DHS’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics, while Noem and figures like White House border czar Tom Homan have reportedly been at odds over how to execute the administration’s mass deportation agenda, with Noem and senior adviser Corey Lewandowski said to have emphasized sheer numbers of arrests and deportations above other considerations.
The relationship between Noem and Lewandowski has itself been a subject of controversy, with CNN reporting that a September meeting between the two and president Donald Trump grew “contentious.” Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Lewandowski attempted to fire a pilot during a flight for failing to bring Noem’s blanket from one plane to another during a transfer.
The ousted secretary faced mounting scrutiny over the deaths of US citizens during federal operations in Minneapolis, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents under Noem’s employ. In both cases, Noem publicly labeled the deceased “domestic terrorists,” framing echoed by Trump and other key administration officials. Video evidence, witness testimony, and an independent autopsy contradicted the agency’s claims, including early assertions that Pretti brandished a firearm.
Scrutiny of Noem’s tenure extends beyond the fatal shootings in Minneapolis to a broader pattern of aggressive enforcement tactics, warrantless raids, and mass detention camps. A secretive policy directive issued in May 2025, first reported by the Associated Press, authorized ICE agents to forcibly enter private residences without a judicial warrant. The memo, signed by acting ICE director Todd Lyons, instructed agents to rely solely on an administrative removal document to bypass Fourth Amendment requirements. The policy led to multiple documented instances of federal agents entering the wrong homes, including a January raid in Minnesota where agents removed a US citizen at gunpoint with no legitimate reason.
A record 53 people died in ICE or CBP custody last year, according to House Democrats on the Committee on Homeland Security. Concurrently, Noem has initiated a $38 billion procurement effort to buy and refurbish up to 24 warehouses across the country, aimed at converting them into mass detention camps for people awaiting deportation.
Noem’s tenure has led to controversy at other DHS agencies as well. Her insistence on approving any contracts or grants over $100,000 at the department have caused particular strain at FEMA, which has experienced a massive backlog of funding that has slowed normal processes at the agency. A report issued from Senate Democrats Wednesday found that Noem’s vetting process at FEMA has caused more than 1,000 contracts, grants, and awards to be held up. Multiple FEMA employees have told WIRED that this process has made the agency less ready to respond to disasters and threats.
HOKA’s max-stacked Rocket X Trail combines road race shoe energy with boosted grip from a 3-mm lugged outsole. If you’re looking for a fast shoe to go on the attack, this is it. It’s also fantastic for all round comfort. In testing, I laced up the Rocket X Trail and ran 3 hours (just short of 19 miles) fresh out of the box, across roads, forest gravel trails, some grass and through some serious water. It delivered efficiency and energy whether I was moving at marathon pace or with heavier, tired, ragged footfalls in the latter miles.
The rockered, supercritical midsole uses HOKA’s liveliest foam, similar to those you find in its race-ready road shoes, along with a carbon plate. That combines for a really fun ride that’s smooth, springy and fast and really consistent. It’s also highly cushioned, so you will sacrifice a lot of ground feel for that big stack springy softness. It’s also less stable over very lumpy terrain. But on open, flat, runnable mixed terrain, it’s excellent.
The lightweight uppers have a race-shoe-ready feel and after running through ankle-deep flooded sections, they shed water really quickly. This is a pricey road-to-trail shoe, it’s versatile and there’s plenty of winter road potential, too.
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