While working as a tech consultant for a large health care system in 2023, Alex Northington was surprised to get a call from a recruiter about a data management job opening at an unlikely place: M.S. Rau , the 113-year-old French Quarter-based purveyor of high-end jewelry, fine art and antiques.

After his initial confusion evolved into curiosity, Northington decided to make the career switch and, two years later, he is leading the gallery's full-scale data mining operation as its first-ever director of artificial intelligence.

In partnership with Tulane University’s computer science program, Northington leads a team of three AI specialists who help the store's curators search collections and auctions worldwide for valuable and interesting items, such as the original Winston Churchill

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