Between Worlds

I met Tiffani a number of years ago when we were both speaking to an audience of business leaders focused on digital transformation. I was struck by her pragmatic message around navigating the difficult choices that surround achieving sustainable growth, and was keen to interview her for my show. Tiffani is the Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce. Prior to that she spent ten years at Gartner as a distinguished analyst and research fellow. Catching up with her in Los Angeles recently, we spoke about her latest book, ‘Growth IQ’, and what leaders need to be thinking about today as they plan their next smart move.

Mark Pesce has been living in the future for longer than just about anyone I know. He was one of the original pioneers of virtual reality, having invented VRML, the standard for 3D on the Web and a core component of MPEG-4. He is the author of 6 books, including "VRML: Browsing and Building Cyberspace", "The Playful World", and, most recently, "The Last Days of Reality". We caught up recently in Sydney where he now lives, to talk about the coming age of algorithms and the perils and pleasures of what it will be like to live in the AI-haunted world of the near future.

For retailers, being data-driven in the 21st century is not a luxury but a matter of survival. Everything is measurable: from engagement to purchase patterns, and that creates the need for leaders who are capable of being both creative and analytical when it comes to integrating data into their decision-making process. To explore this challenge, I spoke with Kshira Saagar, Head of Analytics and Data Sciences at The Iconic, one of Australia’s leading online retailers. Previously at Datalicious and Fairfax, Saagar was responsible for institutionalizing data-driven analytics across the company’s core competencies and building next-generation analytical products for his organization.

We are at a pivotal moment in our society where the forces of accelerating technology are starting to collide with our personal values, social priorities and legal systems. With the rise of AI and automation, knowing how to identify what is right or good in any given situation is becoming both more complex, and more essential. To get to the bottom of some of these challenging issues, I caught up with Dr Simon Longstaff, Executive Director of The Ethics Centre. Longstaff, who has been named as one of AFR Boss’ True Leaders for the 21st century, recently released a fascinating report entitled ‘Ethical By Design: Principles For Good Technology’ - that provides a framework that unifies centuries of philosophical thought, with today’s data-driven dilemmas.

To kick off a new season of Between Worlds, I’m turning the camera and the microphone on myself! What you are about to hear is the first chapter of my brand new audiobook, ‘The Algorithmic Leader: How to be smart, when machines are smarter than you.’ In this book, you will meet many of the leaders, pioneers, and scientists that regular listeners to this show will recognize from previous episodes. What will happen to jobs in a time of accelerating automation? How does the availability of real-time data change the way we need to think and solve problems? What will it take to be an effective leader in a world changed by AI? What are the secrets to successful digital transformation? I’ve synthesized years of research into a set of 10 principles about what it takes to succeed in the algorithmic age. My book is out in early March, but if you enjoy this sample, please download the entire audiobook at Audible (https://mikewal.sh/2DhTobe) or iTunes (https://mikewal.sh/2sAehYP).

The algorithmic age raises new difficult questions about truth and objectivity. For leaders of companies and countries alike, reconciling accountability and transparency, with freedom and privacy have never been more difficult. To debate these issues, I sat down with Andreas Ekström, a Swedish philosopher and author of seven books, known for his writing and lectures on life in the digital age. His TEDx talk on the false objectivity of search results has been viewed over a million times.

I met Aleksandro Grabulov almost a decade ago, when he invited me to speak to the global innovation team at Philips in Amsterdam. Back then, Philips was at a turning point. Shortly after I spoke to the group, they divested a number of their consumer appliance divisions, to focus on opportunities in data-driven health tech and connected devices. Grabulov now leads Philips digital and connected products teams in the US, and was responsible for ground-breaking work around their connected toothbrush product line. We spoke about the future of health tech in the algorithmic age, and what it takes to unleash the forces of disruptive innovation, in the context of traditional organizations.

Sherif Elsayed-Ali leads Amnesty International's global technology and human rights program. Sherif previously established Amnesty’s technology and human rights program and the organization’s artificial intelligence and human rights initiative. We met up in London to talk about the impact of algorithms, automation and AI on freedom, identity and privacy. Given the encroaching power of states and global corporations to collect and analyze data on their citizens and customers, there has never been a more important time for leaders to ask themselves, what is the right moral compass for the algorithmic age?

When AI platforms are not busy beating us at Go or showing us how to drive cars properly, they are also changing the way that companies spend and track money. Talking with Manish Singh, an EVP at Oversight Systems, I learned how machine learning is both automating financial operations, and transforming the way we mitigate risk. Although Manish and I had fun talking about some of my favorite geeky AI topics (probabilistic thinking and the influence of Thomas Bayes), what you may find really interesting, is our discussion on how clerical jobs in the company of the future will not be simply automated, but elevated into something altogether new with very different skills and outcomes.

Steve Cronan started out as the digital asset manager on the Matrix movies in the early 2000s. The experience inspired him to start a company that helped Hollywood Studios and global brands manage vast amounts of content and digital assets across processes, workflows and global markets. If you watched the latest Avengers movie, you would seen Cronan’s company, 5thKind in the credits. Catching up in LA, we spoke about the lessons that studios like Marvel can teach other organizations about digital transformation, and how we are just at the beginning of a new renaissance in AI-powered creativity.

For big organizations, the biggest roadblock to transformation is not technology but culture. How do you design an environment conducive to rapid, constant and often disruptive change? Katz Kiely has spend her career working on such questions. She built the world’s first open innovation platform for HP, re-architected the way a UN agency did business and delivered a ground-breaking project with Intel that connected mobiles, big screens and data to change behaviour. We caught up in London to discuss how leaders and companies can adapt to the new algorithmic era.

One of the most interesting and controversial topics today is the potential impact of AI on employment, economics and politics. Calum Chace has written a number of bestselling books on these topics including ‘Surviving AI’ and ‘The Economic Singularity’. We met up in London to talk about the broader social consequences of superintelligence, the merits of a Universal Basic Income, and how the concept of work and employment might radically change in the future.

The platforms and devices provided by Big Tech pervade every aspect of our private and public lives. They promise a more efficient, social and entertaining world, but how far should we trust this new algorithmic oligarchy with our future? Author and futurist Lucie Greene has spent the last few years studying this question for her book, ‘Silicon States’. I caught up with her in New York to discuss what drives these organizations, and what might happen when they move beyond social media and search, to reinventing other sectors like space travel, education, finance or the housing market.

Geoffrey Hinton, one of the world’s most renowned computer scientists has argued that ‘we should stop training radiologists right now’, and that as a result of AI, most would be out of a job within 5 years. But is this really true? Dr Hugh Harvey has a unique perspective on this question, having worked both sides of the fence - both as consultant radiologist, and also as leader in the AI space first at Babylon Health, and currently as the Clinical Lead at Kheiron Medical. Catching up with Hugh in London, I was keen to find out about the impact of algorithms on employment in the healthcare, and what it might mean to be a radiologist in the 21st century.

Martin Raymond is one of the world’s most respected consumer forecasters. He is the co-founder of The Future Laboratory, is editor-in-chief of Viewpoint magazine and LS:N Global, the online lifestyle news and consumer insight portal. Author of a number of books including ‘The Tomorrow People’ and ‘The Trend Forecaster’s Handbook’, he has a unique perspective on the skills required to anticipate future consumer behavior. Visiting him in their London headquarters, and provisioned with a very English cup of tea, we spoke about the evolution of the ‘business of the future’, and how the algorithmic age is creating new challenges for understanding and building trust with customers.