GenAI, a Scanniversary Celebration, Remote Work and More – Digital CxO Podcast EP81

Hello and welcome to the Digital six. SO podcast. I'm Amanda Ani, and with me today is Mike Beard.

How are you doing? I'm doing great. How are you?

Doing well. We have a lot to cover today in the digital CXO world, and we're gonna start with generative ai. Our first article says to continue to help drive digital transformation, 97% of enterprise IT and operations leaders say they're increasing their AI spending at least through 2025.

But to succeed much more work needs to be done. Can you fill us in on that? Yeah.

We're really driving now on the whole issue of how are we gonna operationalize ai? And a lot of that will come around in these digital processes. And there's a couple other stories on Techstrong AI that kinda go back to that same theme.

There's an outfit called Pref Fact that has extended their, um, orchestration platform for managing data workflows to include AI agents. And I think we're at this crossing point now where we're gonna see, there's a lot of interest in, you know, how AI technology works, but the use cases are gonna start to become the bigger conversation, the bigger issue. And how do we kinda wrap our arms around that?

There's also another story up on textural ai, which has a just a little, you know, how to get started with your digital transformation project with AI in mind. And those three things together are kind of, you know, showing us that there, there's a trend where people are getting the point now where it's not so much I need to understand what it is that AI is doing. I think that was important, but we're now moving to the next phase where people are trying to say, all right, well what does a workflow look like that's made up of a bunch of AI agents with humans together?

And what's the handoffs and who does that? What when? Um, I kind of have likened in the past towards, uh, in the future there'll be, uh, AI agents will be like Downton Abbey.

There'll be one for every little function in the house and maybe a Chief Butler will manage them all. Uh, we're still sort of written all that out, but um, it's gonna be an interesting time, but I think we're moving to the, from a business perspective, maybe the fun part of the conversation. Yeah, absolutely.

It, it's a big issue and all the business leaders are, are focused on it big time. So next this is about having better alignment. There's a report published by NTT data that finds only roughly half 51% of organizations have fully aligned their technology approaches to their business strategy needs.

With another 39% reporting. They are partially aligned. Can you fill us in on the details?

This has been an ongoing topic forever in a day, but I feel like the glass is half full, which is better than it used to be. Um, the fact that half are aligned is probably progress. Um, at the other end of it, there's another 39% that are at least thinking about it.

So maybe, you know, they'll get more aligned as we go along. But I think AI is gonna force this issue. I think one of the things about AI is it's a forcing function for aligning the business to n it together.

And um, too often we tend to think about these things in separate sentences and separate silos, but most businesses today are highly dependent upon its, some people would even go so far as to say it is the business. Um, I think we're gonna get there. It's just a question of how soon at this point, but boy, it's been a long time coming.

Yeah. And the key you said there is breaking down the silos. All the departments need to work together and communicate effectively.

Yeah, but you know, that's part of the issue is that we communicate, we just don't speak the same language. Yes, exactly. And this is a, this is kind of a fun one, the scan anniversary.

So this is honoring the barcode turns 50, um, and it was the far, the first barcode was on June 26th, 1974 when a cashier scanned a pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit Gum at a Marsh supermarket in Ohio. So that's a pretty fun article over on Digital cx. So of course now, uh, it talks about how this is, um, turning into QR codes is is the next version of this.

So can you share a little bit more? Well, it's been a long time coming, actually, you know, I was talking to some folks, we have another podcast or video cast on Textron Gang and we were talking about this, uh, as well. And one of our attendees, Steven Foskett knew about it that, you know, the barcode goes longer than 50 years.

It's just the first time I was used in retail. But the technology itself is maybe 75, 80 years old. Uh, it's just amazing how long it takes for something to become ubiquitous.

Right. Um, I can remember, uh, the pre barcode days. I mean, you know, I was working in the supermarket and I was the price changer kid and walked around with my little, uh, price changer thing and metal thing and I forgot what it was called in, uh, in my back pocket.

And every seven day I'd walk around and change prices and I'm sure they don't do that anymore. But, um, it's interesting. Now we're talking about the arrival of QR codes.

And I'm not clear to me that QR codes replace barcodes. I don't know, maybe, I guess the QR code has all the information that the barcode has and it can be scanned. Uh, what looks to me like barcodes are easier, QR codes are still a work in progress.

Some people are worried about, there's too much information in the QR code and the QR code gets stolen and misused and abused much like anything else in it these days. Um, and I also find that, you know, the apps associated with QR code, they're not great. You scan one of those things and it takes you to some website somewhere and that website is most often difficult to use.

It's just not a lot of fun. I was at a, uh, movie theater that was using this to do their ordering process and you know, the QR code worked just fine, but everything behind the QR code was just too painful to use. And I think it took me 10 minutes to learn how to use the app.

Now of course, you know, I might go to that movie theater again someday, and it probably only take me two minutes. So that may be part of the life skill training as it were. But I know for certain that my stepfather who lives with us, you know, he goes into a restaurant and sees a QR code and lets that a little grown.

So, Uh, I'm probably right there with him on restaurants. I, I think there's a place for QR codes and it doesn't seem to me customer friendly when they have those. I know it's for efficiency, like in airports and stuff, I get it, but it, it's still a little bit of a pain.

However, there, there are um, times and places where I thought the QR code was very helpful. You know, if you were, um, watching a commercial for example, and they've started having the QR codes on commercials and you can just lift up your phone and scan it real quick and go straight to that information. I like that.

It's great. I think it's a great marketing, um, tactic for sure. And you know, when you're, uh, sometimes instead of a business card, if you can scan a QR code and get all that information so you don't have to, you know, stuff that business card away and then you usually lose it.

So yeah, On the plus side you can now scan a QR code, embed it in a television show. If you really like what somebody's wearing, you can go shopping for whatever that is. They're your favorite star.

If you want to emulate them on the negative, the bad guys are sending people QR codes that take 'em to fake websites and steal all their credentials and money and all, everything else they can get their hands on because well, it's a little too easy and sometimes, you know, there seems to be a correlation between the easier to remake it, the more abuse that gets my bad guys. Yeah, this is true. A lot of, uh, cyber professionals do not like Q QR codes.

Still some glitches to work out there. As with everything. Next we're gonna talk about a lawsuit on behalf of thousands of union workers opposing a return to office edict by Philadelphia Mayor Sherell Parker.

This month it's, but the latest flashpoint in a post pandemic workforce. This is by a writer, John. And uh, it's very interesting if you read that article on digital CXO, you know, business leaders, they tend to want people coming back to the office, but the actual workers who are used to working remotely are saying absolutely not.

Yeah. It's just getting to be a complex thing. And the, the union is saying that the uh, right to work from home was kind of embedded into the last contract negotiation.

And you can't change that without renewing the contract. So they're basically saying, you know, the mayor is beyond the bounce. Um, I feel most people are now negotiating this, right?

It is become, uh, you know, you hire somebody and you, they either you do hiring them and you're just hiring them remotely. We do it all the time. I mean, you're in Texas, John who wrote the articles in California and our entire company is highly distributed.

And there are even those companies that don't even have, uh, formal headquarters, they're just kind of all virtual. Um, depending on what you're doing and the people you have that can work. Other folks, uh, they like to have the people in the office, they claim that there is more, uh, innovation because people are standing around talking to each other and there's more problem solving.

'cause everybody's kind of in the same space. Yes and no. Um, let's be honest, sometimes, uh, not everybody in the office is, you know, focused and they are, um, walking around talking to people at the most inopportune moments when they're trying to get stuff done.

And so it doesn't always work out that it's better that they're at home. I think ultimately as a society we need to come to terms with, uh, a mixture. Everybody's gonna be something of a digital known bad going forward and uh, let's not be absolutist about it one way or the other.

Yeah, you're right. I mean you can look at it from both angles when you're in the office. Absolutely.

There are a lot more distractions sometimes when you're in the office and a lot more chatting and um, you know, maybe a little bit less efficiency. A lot of remote workers say they're more efficient working from home, they're focused, they get their work done in a timely manner. Um, and then they feel they have that work-life balance.

So they're, they're happier and they're more productive, you know, when they're working. Um, and but you know, on the business leader side, another issue entirely aside from the work is these buildings. So they're looking at the, uh, rate of in, you know, the return on investment for these big buildings that cost a lot of money and they want people coming back because why they have them otherwise.

So I see that too And I'm sure the mayor of Philadelphia is calculating that, you know, they need the lead by example. 'cause they want people to come into the heart of Philadelphia, not in the suburbs to go spend money in their local cafes and the restaurants and all the places that they collect taxes from. So it's not like the mayor is an impartial observer here.

Um, the other side of this thing though is um, I know there's a lot of execs that feel like, you know, well if there's an issue we can get it resolved faster 'cause everybody's in the same building. Well, I don't know. I've worked in those buildings and typically, um, if I worked on the 14th floor and there were other people working on the 15th, 16th or 17th, I probably saw those people hardly ever except maybe occasionally on the elevator on the way in and out.

So it wasn't like we had a big, you know, sense of comradery once we started worked on multiple floors. So it has to be really somebody, you know, in my immediate group. And then that said, I think that the managers feel some sense of satisfaction because when there's an issue they think that, you know, everybody's in the room and they've gotten everybody together to go execute the fix.

It is not clear to me that the fix is being executed any faster though because people are in the room. Uh, you may get closer to meantime to agreement to what the fix is gonna be. Yes.

But you're not gonna get the fix any faster because there's just time in physics and issues that have nothing to do with where people are the moment. Yeah. And generally most people are at the end of the day, whether they're in a building, you know, maybe they're all there in the building together, everybody's working alone on their computers doing their jobs.

So there, there's just gotta be maybe some understanding that this is the way moving forward, there's gonna be a lot of remote workers. There you go. It's just a fact of life.

And if you can't manage in this age, you know, trying to get everybody back in the office because that makes the way you comfortable as a manager means you're gonna be an obsolete manager. Yep, exactly. So, uh, the last article we wanna highlight today, this is by Carol and it's about digital Earth.

Africa has recently announced major advancements in the observation and monitoring of Africa's water bodies. The water bodies monitoring service identifies more than 700,000 unique water bodies across Africa, incorporating 40 years of satellite observation technology and data analysis. So we're seeing a lot can be done with the, with especially with AI connected to these satellite systems and 5G and data analytics automation.

We're seeing a lot of environmental articles. Can you share a little bit more about this? Hey, climate change is here and we've just seen it with this hurricane that landed in Texas and we're gonna see it all the time.

There's gonna be rising waters on the coast and it's just gonna be everywhere. Uh, I don't know if you've seen the movie, uh, the remake of Twisters, but you know, there's a whole tech aspect to that where they wanna like shove uh, some tech up into the twister to hopefully dis disrupt it. It's an interesting theory.

Who knows, maybe that'll come to be, uh, but I'm sure somebody's working on that 'cause um, no one in Hollywood ever had an original idea. They just kind of steal it from somewhere else that they saw it. But, um, as I digress on that thing though, we need to monitor the climate much more closely.

It's gonna have massive impacts in Africa. You may see, I don't know, two to three, four degree temperature change on a regular basis with shift, uh, a million people or so north or south. The implications of that are on the economy and the way we live would be phenomenal.

Uh, so that which kind of once felt like, you know, cool little science project on the side is now becoming, uh, crucial, critical. And we all should be paying a lot more attention to this stuff. Definitely.

I mean the technology is advancing so rapidly. We should definitely see if we can harness it for the good of the environment and a smaller carbon footprint. Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what we're gonna do about all that.

Some people advocate for, uh, capturing carbon somewhere and hiding them or shoving them in the ground somewhere. I mean, I don't know if that will work at scale or not. Uh, but I know one thing we need to at least be aware of the impact of these things and hopefully we can engineer our way out of it.

'cause I'm getting the sneaking suspicion that actually, you know, reducing the amount of carbon might be, we might be a little bit too late for that one. Well, we'll leave that to the scientist and, and the technologists to work together and hopefully we'll, we'll see some solutions moving forward. But that brings us to the end of our articles today.

So what are your final thoughts? Hey, digital CXOs, you know, it's a lot more going on in the world besides, you know, your little process. So maybe take a minute and say, Hey, how am I impacting the world at large?

What can be done with, you know, my space and uh, maybe, you know, it's about a manufacturing thing that you're making more efficient. But if you can think it through in a way that also, I don't know, reduces the amount of carbon created, that would be a good thing. So be good global citizens.

I agree. And thank you for staying tuned into our show. If you miss last week's, it's there, you can catch up And again, let us know what you're most interested in reading about.

Have a wonderful week.