Ai: Irl

The way we're engaging with our consumers is changing. People are talking about how to engage customers in the current environment, and a big part of that dialog centers around digital life. How can you get closer than ever to your customer through digital engagement? On this episode of CXNext, I interview Paolo Fabrizio, who holds 25 years of customer service experience primarily in the Italian market. We discussed how companies can provide effective and consistent support through social media, chat, or messaging apps. What we talked about: Cultural hurdles to embracing digital customer service The two main pillars of an effective digital customer service plan Using social media to create a positive outcome that becomes a driver for more positive outcomes ...and how COVID-19 may affect digital brand engagement. If you want to hear more AI episodes like this one, check us out on Apple Podcasts here. If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, you can find every episode here.

Two years ago, I started a podcast called AI:IRL because I kept getting so many questions about artificial intelligence as a way to drive digital transformation.  After 50 great conversations, I finally realized something critical: technology is only one leg of the customer experience stool. With that in mind, I decided to broaden the conversation. Now, I'm refocusing our podcast on questions about customer experience. What's the full potential of CX? How can we take advantage of uncertain times to help our people? And how can we engage with our customers to deliver better outcomes at a lower cost and in a way that really delights them? My focus has changed, but my goal hasn't. I'll still bring you stories that help you live exciting and passionate lives and that redefine what engagement looks like for your organization. Join me on the new journey!   If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, you can find every episode here.

Responding to high-quality leads who raise their hand and are ready to buy is the icing on the sales cake. But the actual cake is made up of mid-funnel prospects who have some level of interest, but aren’t ready to talk with a sales rep … and this part of the cake is thick with leads. Ilan Kasan (Founder of Exceed.ai) came on this episode of AI: IRL to share how he’s helping customers use AI to respond to thousands of mid-funnel leads, feed info back into the CRM, and then pass off communications to sales reps when the buyer is ready.  What we talked about: The problem: determining intent without soaking up sales reps’ time How Exceed.ai responds to customers Secondary benefits of AI email responses: 1) Ensure you add qualification questions to automated responses 2) Push data to your CRM 3) Analytics This discussion with Ilan Kasan was taken from our AI: In Real Life podcast. If you want to hear more AI episodes like this one, check us out on Apple Podcasts. If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, you can fi

Twenty years of Google and Wikipedia, but information is still not at our fingertips.  What if we could automate the collection of information using both AI and humans? And what if we could do it by indexing and creating a better entity map? On this episode, I interview Jude Gomila, Founder and CEO of Golden, the world's first self-constructing knowledge database built by artificial and human intelligence, about how to think about, compile, and organize knowledge. What we talked about: Building an index of human readable information and machine readable information How to automate the collection of information Getting good at topic prediction ...and how humans can fill the gaps left by AI. This discussion with Jude Gomila was taken from our AI: In Real Life. If you want to hear more AI episodes like this one, check us out on Apple Podcasts here. If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, you can find every episode here.

The White House recently released 10 principles to guide the future of AI in the US. Did they go far enough? In this episode, Ryan Lester discussed his 3 takeaways on the AI principles, and what they could mean for the future of AI with the US and around the globe.  Ryan Lester is the Sr. Director of Product Marketing at LogMeIn. What we talked about: The US government involvement gave us a platform to discuss AI At least 2 areas of AI need further exploration (eliminating bias and demystifying AI)  The US government can be a catalyst for the private sector This discussion with Ryan Lester was taken from our AI: In Real Life podcast. If you want to hear more AI episodes like this one, check us out on Apple Podcasts. If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, you can also find every episode here.

This week's episode is just me — Ryan Lester — looking back at 2019 and reflecting on what we've seen this year. I've done about 50 podcasts, so I had a lot of great conversations with my guests as well as with my clients and with many of you who listen in. Here's what I learned: Tech titans such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft invested heavily in tools that make AI more accessible and easier to use All this investment is still the exception, not the norm These non-traditional people who should be coming to your table ...and why you should be cautious about making tech your scapegoat This conversation was taken from our AI: In Real Life. If you want to hear more AI episodes like this one, check us out on Apple Podcasts here. If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, you can find every episode here.

Authentication used to be an easy process.  It all started with the king.  The king would require a wax seal around any form of parchment or communication that was produced, verifying that it was actually coming from the person that it was supposed to be coming from. If it wasn’t sealed with the king’s seal, it wasn't legitimate communication.  It’s become a little more complicated since then.  On the most recent episode of AI:IRL, we sat down with John Baird, Founder at CEO at Vouched for a talk about: The challenges we face with authentication. How to eliminate the friction present in identify verification.  What AI can do to make those challenges less of a burden. 

Manufacturing has long had robots carrying out certain tasks — but those robots require a high amount of inputs on the front end. Then, once those inputs are created, the robots are “stuck” in that position. Throw off the temperature of the manufacturing floor, the orientation of an object, or any other small detail, and that robot has very little ability to respond. But now, with advanced robotics, at least one company is trying to create more aware robots that can respond to their environment. On this episode, Costas Boulis joined us to share how Bright Machines is reinventing manufacturing with advanced robotics Costas is the Chief Scientist at Bright Machines, and was previously an Applied Scientist at Amazon and a Data Scientist for Microsoft, among other advanced science positions. He has a PhD in Electrical Engineering, and received scholar positions at both John Hopkins and Stanford. What we talked about: Industrial manufacturing IIOT AI, robotics, and the future of industrial manufacturing This di

Typically, we feed our AI invented datasets that don't represent real life situations and scenarios. These models are preparing AI for an unrealistic environment that doesn’t work IRL. But James Dean is changing models at his company, SenSat. They’re using breakthroughs in camera and inexpensive drone technology to capture real geographies. They layer these geographies with everyday obstacles — like people, temperature, lighting — to develop models that replicate real life geographies, creating what James calls “digital twins.” James came on this episode of AI:IRL to tell us all about how he’s creating “a SimCity of the real world.” What we talked about: AI models 3D Geographies 3D Geometries  Digital twins LIDAR Large datasets How AI is impacting the construction industry AI in the infrastructure industry This discussion with James Dean was taken from our AI: In Real Life podcast. If you want to hear more AI episodes like this one, check us out on Apple Podcasts here.  

A picture’s worth a thousand words. So, why wouldn’t retailers want shoppers using an image search instead of a keyword search? The thing is… they do. And one company called ViSenze is making it possible. On the latest episode of AI: IRL, I speak with Oliver Tan, co-founder and CEO of ViSenze. We discuss: How an image search engine can work for apparel shopping Data on how shoppers have responded to AI visuals Digital experiences that transcend online shopping   Resources: Visual Search - Why Retailers Should Care   To listen to our other episodes, check us out on Apple Podcasts. Or if you don’t use Apple Podcasts, you can also find every episode here.

It's that time of year — getting ready for 2020. By checking your AI for biases. We think we’re getting better insights out of AI, but in reality biases are lurking behind the scenes. On this episode, I interview Vasco Pedro, CEO and Co-Founder at Unbabel, about what organizations can do to recognize biases in AI. What we talked about: Understanding the origin of bias (biased data from biased humans) Mitigating the risk of bias with 3 strategies Questions you need to ask to get ready for 2020 ...and why 2025 is a big deadline   This discussion with Vasco Pedro was taken from our AI: In Real Life. If you want to hear more AI episodes like this one, check us out on Apple Podcasts here. If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, you can find every episode here.

At first blush, you may think that AI doesn’t have many cultural aspects, that it’s all technology, whereas AI is directly informed by our familial, regional, national, and historical cultures.   On this episode, I got to talk with Davar Ardalan, Founder at IVOW AI, about AI-driven cultural content and why it’s such a relevant issue.   What we talked about: The opportunity for culturally intelligent AI Why AIs need cultural intelligence and how to give it to them. The need for diverse AI designers and diverse AI data Using AI to tell cultural stories   Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast: Aprajita Mathur at the Test Masters Academy leadership congress The Plug and Play Tech Center playbook   This discussion with Davar Ardalan was taken from our AI: In Real Life. If you want to hear more AI episodes like this one, check us out on Apple Podcasts here.   If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, you can find every episode here.

In the discussion of AI, we don’t talk about taking a user-centric approach nearly enough. We need to be asking: Are we delivering a better user experience through AI? On this episode, I interview Chris Butler, Chief Product Architect at IPsoft: What we talked about: The right way to approach design Getting more people involved in the design conversation User-centric design questions How AI helps identify biases for better decision making This discussion with Chris Butler was taken from our AI: In Real Life. If you want to hear more AI episodes like this one, check us out on Apple Podcasts here. If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, you can also find every episode here.

There always seems to be a fear with A.I. that somehow the world will become too automated and mechanistic. That somehow we will forget what it means to be a human being in all the mess of technology and innovation we’re seeing. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth! On this week’s episode we talk with Neil Sahota, Lecturer at the University of California Irvine, about the incredible social effects that A.I. and machine learning are having. A.I. is allowing for customization of individual user experience at a massive scale, which will make the world more personal than it’s ever been before. We cover: A.I. Is Becoming Your Best Friend and Personal Shopper A.I. Is Learning How to Motivate You A.I. Is Freeing You to Spend More Time Investing in Relationships Checkout these resources we mentioned during the podcast: “Own the A.I. Revolution: Unlock Your Artificial Intelligence Strategy to Disrupt Your Competition”. Neil Sahota www.neilsahota.com This discussion with Neil Sahota was taken from our

Any industrial operation’s success comes down to efficiency. If manufacturers or contractors can get more efficient, then they can increase production while maintaining cost to the consumer, therefore driving up profit margins! Today we’re looking at some exciting ways that A.I. is changing the way companies are approaching machine learning and manufacturing. My guest today was Nikunj Mehta, PHd. He is the founder and CEO of Falkonry.  On this episode, we discussed how Falkonry is using A.I. to increase an industrial operations company’s profitability: They are making manufacturers more efficient. They are helping companies apply machine learning. They are making A.I. accessible to domain experts. Checkout these resources: Nikunj Mehta Bold 360 Blog

When it comes to AI, one space that's not really talked about enough is the world of consumer science.  So, on this episode of AI:IRL, we’re joined by Dr. John Ennis. As a market research consultant focused on sensory and consumer science, Dr. Ennis has a really great perspective to share on how we can leverage AI to really benefit the consumer science space. What we talked about: The world of consumer science How they’re using AI to create better consumer experiences The benefits of using AI over humans to generate these results Resources we talked about: John’s LinkedIn Aigora To listen to our other episodes, check us out on Apple Podcasts. Or if you don’t use Apple Podcasts, you can also find every episode here.

I’ve always been an advocate of time management. It’s the best way to make sure you actually get things done.  Well, today’s AI:IRL guest co-founded a startup, TimeHero, that’s taking time management to the next level. Scott Brooks joined me on the show to talk about how he's bringing AI to the world of calendar management. What we talked about: The problem we’re facing with time management today How TimeHero is attacking this problem How they’re leveraging AI to do it Resources we talked about: Scott’s LinkedIn TimeHero

The world of customer conversion is complex. It has a lot of data inputs, a lot of unknowns. But there’s a lot of interest in using AI to drive customer conversion and there are some really exciting use cases out there.  So, I’m excited for today’s episode of AI:IRL, where Stephanie Plunkett, Senior Principal Scientist at Altria, joined me to talk about how AI can really transform customer conversion within your business. What we talked about: How AI can help drive customer conversion How leveraging AI helped Altria increase conversion rates The benefits of using AI in this way Resources we talked about: Stephanie’s LinkedIn Altria

People get excited about AI. But a lot of times, they get lost in the hype. So, on this episode of AI:IRl, Guy Zipori joined me to talk through what’s hype and what’s reality. He also talked about some things we need to keep in mind when it comes to AI and how you can determine if AI is right for your business. Guy is a serial entrepreneur on his third startup, Skyline AI. And with a background in tech, he’s been living in this world of big data, machine learning, and AI, through a number of generations of this tech.  What we talked about: AI vs. the A-Try Why we’re not asking the right questions when it comes to leveraging AI How to determine whether AI is right for your company   Resources we talked about: Guy’s LinkedIn Skyline AI

When people think about AI, there's often a lot of fear, uncertainty, and doubt that comes up. We wonder whether the technology will replace human jobs or what’s our role in the development of AI. But we don’t really talk about these things. That’s why I’m so excited about this episode of AI:IRL. Prayag Narula joined me to flesh out the human role in the development, management, and utilization of AI. We also talked about the impact AI will have on humans — will it really take over our jobs?  Prayag is the Founder of LeadGenius, a demand generation automation company that uses a combination of data mining, tech, and crowdsourcing to automation and accelerate outbound sales and marketing.