386: Akamai CEO Tom Leighton details the private and public sector’s growing security concerns, which has led to the company’s pivot from its traditional internet offerings to a fast-growing security business. Today, there are billions of devices in homes and offices that are not adequately secured. Bad actors have the ability to wipe out any cloud data center, which can isolate many countries from the rest of the world. Tom believes that this damage is a fraction of what could be done in future attacks, and the only way to stop these attacks is to absorb it out at the edge. We also discuss Akamai’s founding story, how the company survived the difficult times following the dot.com crash, why Tom believes the firewall’s time has passed, among other topics.
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From detailed homework review to back office automation, progress in artificial intelligence will continue to explode in the year ahead. In 2018, Metis Strategy interviewed nearly 40 CIOs, CDOs and CTOs of companies with over $1 billion in revenue as part of our Technovation podcast and column. When asked to identify the emerging technologies that are of growing interest or are making their way onto their 2019 roadmap, 75 percent of the technology leaders highlighted artificial intelligence, while 40 percent said blockchain and 13 percent cited the Internet of Things.
AI, an umbrella term for technologies that enable machines to accomplish tasks that previously required human intelligence, could rapidly upend the competitive landscape across industries. While many companies continue to explore AI business cases, seek executive support, and mature their foundational IT and data capabilities, a growing number of enterprises are deploying the technology at scale.
Walmart, the world’s largest company by revenue, has deployed more than 500 bots into its internal environment to automate processes and drive efficiencies, . Early use cases focused on automating processes such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, and compensation and benefits. More recently, robotic process automation (RPA) has been applied to Walmart’s Shared Services organization, where it automates ERP exception handling such as matching purchase orders to invoices.
As expectations rise for technology to unlock business value, Clay is looking to scale AI across the company. Having recently adopted a product model and end-to-end ownership, the company is well positioned to apply machine learning to everything from merchandising operations, which coordinates supplier-relation interactions and affects the in-store displays across more than 5,000 US stores, to improving the productivity of the world’s largest private workforce.
For more insight from Clay, listen to the .
One of the biggest expenses in hard drive manufacturing can be test equipment, so for $19 billion Western Digital, optimizing the test environment can save hundreds of millions of dollars in CapEx. Given the foresight with which the company has developed its AI and big data strategy, it’s no surprise that among its most advanced AI use cases is optimizing that test environment. “We’re using advanced machine learning and convolutional neural networks to improve our wafer yield management,”. “And we’re using those same algorithms to start identifying and optimizing our test processes, which can help us save hundreds of millions of dollars in capital.”
With a global workforce of 68,000, Western Digital has built a big data and analytics platform that supports a variety of workloads, architectures, and technologies to deliver value to business users of all skill levels. While entry-level analysts can leverage the platform to visualize data in Tableau or perform ad-hoc queries in RStudio, data scientists can make use of advanced techniques to monitor and optimize manufacturing and operations capabilities.
As Western Digital finds increasingly advanced AI use cases in 2019, its flexible platform ensures that the organization continues realizing value while its analytics capabilities mature.
For more insight from Steve, listen to the .
As companies race to develop and deploy increasingly powerful AI systems, there’s a growing recognition of the responsibility companies have to mitigate unintended consequences.andhave noted that engineers often don’t have the capacity to fully imagine the implications of the technology they develop. That’s one reason why Bank of America (BoA) Chief Operations and Technology Officer Cathy Bessantwith Harvard Kennedy School to create the Council on the Responsible Use of AI.
While BoA’s most visible application of AI may be Erica, its virtual banking assistant, the Fortune 25 company is increasingly exploring how AI can be applied to fraud detection and anti-money laundering. As proponent ofCathy recognizes that the bank must maintain transparency into the decision-making models and ensure that outcomes are unbiased. Further, as employees begin to question how AI might impact their jobs, Cathy is thinking proactively about how to guide career transformation and development in the age of AI. To explore these critical questions, the Council on the Responsible Use of AI will convene leaders from government, business, academia, and civil society, including Bessant, to discuss emerging legal, moral, and policy implications of AI.
“If you’re a company where your business strategy can be described by the two words, ‘responsible growth,’ then the concept of responsible AI is not a stretch,” says Cathy. “In fact, it is the tough soul of who we are.”
For more insight from Cathy, listen to the.
7-Eleven defined convenience for a generation, but today, the most convenient storefront is the one in consumer’s pockets. In a 2018 interview, how the company uses new technologies to reduce friction for customers and improve their overall experience.
7-Eleven thinks about technology in two broad categories: proven technologies that are ready to scale, and emerging technologies. For emerging technologies, the company has adopted a fast follower approach, which Gurmeet describes as “watch closely and actively experiment.” In addition to operating several global R&D labs, Gurmeet has tasked the company’s CTO with testing new technologies and conducting proof-of-concept tests. Already, 7-Eleven has deployed a Facebook Messenger chatbot that allows users to sign up for the 7Rewards® loyalty program, find a store location, learn about the latest discount offers, and more. The bot, which was developed through a partnership with the tech firm Conversable, is part of Gurmeet’s strategy to redefine the customer experience through technology.
In 2019, 7-Eleven’s technology organization will leverage open-sourced AI libraries such as TensorFlow to explore how AI can streamline back-office processes such as merchandising and operations. They’ll also look to apply voice interfaces to redefine the customer experience.
For more insight from Gurmeet, listen to the.
Albert Hitchcock is the CIO turned COO and CTO of 174-year-old education company Pearson, where he oversees not just IT and digital transformation, but also product development, procurement, supply chain, customer service, and more. Given his broad purview, Hitchcock is well positioned to apply AI across the business. “AI is not five years out. It’s real and it’s happening today,” . “We’re looking at how we transform all spokes of our business using AI, from how we transform customer call centers using chatbots to how we bring AI, learning design, pedagogy, and insights into brain functions to create a personalized learning experience.”
Machine learning is at the heart of many of Pearson’s most recent product innovations, from authentic assessments and automated essay scoring to adaptive learning and intelligent tutoring. To accelerate the infusion of AI into current and future products and services, the company has hired Intel veteran Milena Marinovaas its first SVP, AI Products and Solutions. While Marinova’s initial focus is updating Pearson’s math homework tool to provide more detailed feedback, the vision to to create omniscient virtual tutors personalized for every student. “[Education] is different for every human and therefore you can potentially accelerate learning and delivery, improve outcomes, and help everyone progress in their lives of learning,” notes Hitchcock. “AI is at the center of that thinking.”
For more insight from Albert, listen to the.
376: Ocado CTO Paul Clarke has guided the company to differentiate itself by focusing not on how fast they can innovate, but on how fast they can innovate their system for innovation. Paul discusses the broad and deep technology estate that has enabled Ocado’s online grocery business to operate with scale, sustainability, and profitability. Through a focused but balanced approach to innovation, the company has developed a unique end-to-end operating solution for online grocery retail that includes massive automated warehouses and an e-commerce, fulfillment, and logistics platform. In a strategy that resembles Amazon’s AWS, Ocado is now making its technology available to other retailers through the B2B-focused Ocado Solutions arm. We also discuss Ocado’s roadmap for a frictionless customer experience, the advantages of its business model, its culture of disruptive innovation, among other topics.
Paul is the Chief Technology Officer of Ocado, the world’s largest online-only grocery retailer. In this role, Paul heads up Ocado Technology, whose 950+ engineers develop the cutting-edge technology that power Ocado’s operations and the Ocado Smart Platform. Given its vision of “powering the future of retail through sustained disruptive technology innovation,” Paul has guided Ocado to differentiate itself by focusing not on how fast they can innovate, but on how fast they can innovate their system for innovation. Before becoming CTO, Paul was Head of Routing, Simulations, Mobile, and Robotics. Paul has a Masters of Arts in Psychics from the University of Oxford.
374: Equinix CIO Milind Milind stresses the importance of creating a positive customer experience. Equinix’s core value is to put the customer at the center of everything that they do, and the company has laid out a recipe for customer focus and success consisting of five major components. These components are treating their customers like assets, looking at the entire life cycle of customers, building a customer listening system to receive feedback, using a prioritization system to interpret that feedback, and delivering that feedback to the entire organization. We also discuss how Equinix’s annual revenue grew from $1 billion to $5 billion over an eight year period, the importance of culture in a digital transformation, and Milind’s view on artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Milind is the CIO of Equinix, a global platform company focused on enabling the world’s leading businesses to directly connect with their customers, clouds, employees, and partners through their interconnection offering. As CIO, Milind has set five priorities, the most important of which is centered around information security and ensuring that Equinix’s IT infrastructure operations run smoothly. Prior to Equinix, Milind was the Director of Global IT Applications at Verisign.
370: John Chambers, the former CEO of Cisco, reflects on his 25 years at Cisco, from his greatest professional regret, to the key factors behind Cisco’s massively successful acquisition strategy, to the critical importance of culture. We also discussed his work with the leaders of France and India to digitize their countries, what he looks for when evaluating companies to invest in, insights from his new book, Connecting The Dots: Lessons For Leadership In A Startup World, among other topics.
Art is the Senior Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer of Lenovo, a Chinese multinational technology company with headquarters in Beijing, China. As CIO, Art manages teams in both the US and China, and is responsible for the overall delivery of information services, digital technology, and business transformation. Prior to Lenovo, Art spent over eight years as a consultant at McKinsey.
In this interview, Art asserts that as digital disruption accelerates, CIOs must lead the way in showing the organization how technology can be embedded into the business, and how technology can create new opportunity for companies and their customers. We also discuss Lenovo’s IT roadmap, the commonalities and differences between working in the US and China, the three intersecting elements of a business transformation, among other topics.
Bask is the EVP Dell Digital and Chief Information and Digital Officer Dell and VMware. In those roles, he oversees the critical technology systems supporting some of the world’s largest global business and commerce operations. He is also responsible for driving Dell and VMware’s digital transformation to accelerate outcomes; deliver world-class experiences; and share the team’s best practices using technologies, services and solutions from both companies.
Prior to working at Dell and VMware, Bask was the Group Senior Vice President of Business Operations and the Chief Information Officer of Juniper Networks. Before Juniper Networks, Bask was the Group Chief Information Officer of Honeywell. Prior to Honeywell, Bask was a divisional Chief Information Officer of GlaxoSmithKline.
Bask received his Bachelors of Science in Engineering from Annamalai University as well as his Masters of Science in Computer Science from the Florida Institute of Technology.
Kim is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Data Center Infrastructure at Lenovo, a multinational technology giant with $45 billion in revenue. In this role, Kim leads Lenovo’s data center infrastructure segment, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence segment, software-defined infrastructure segment, and the new IoT segment.
Prior to joining Lenovo, Kim was Chief Operating Officer of the Client, IoT, and Systems Architecture Group at Intel. Before that, she held several other senior executive positions at Intel including Corporate Vice President and CIO, and Vice President and General Manager of IT Operations and Services before that. Prior to joining Intel, Kim was Vice President and General Manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise where she served customers in the Communications, Media and Entertainment industry. Before HPE, Kim was a Vice President at EDS. Kim spent the first two decades of her career at IBM.
Kim received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Business Management from Northeastern University, and an MBA from Cornell University.
Kim is a member of the board of directors for Boston Private, and previously sat on the boards of Cloudera, Riverbed Technology, among other companies.
Stephen is the co-founder and CEO of Chronicle, a cybersecurity company born out of Alphabet’s Moonshot factory X (formerly Google X) that aims to “10X the speed and impact of security teams by making it easier, faster, and more cost-effective for them to capture and analyze security signals that have previously been too difficult and expensive to find.” As CEO, Stephen is building the team, setting the vision and strategy, and developing relationships with potential customers.
Prior to founding Chronicle, Stephen was a senior leader and advisor at X. While at X, Stephen explored the potential for a cybersecurity moonshot and developed the concept for Chronicle. Stephen’s collaboration with X grew out of his position as Executive in Residence at GV (formerly Google Ventures), where he was a resource and mentor to the entrepreneurs of the fund’s portfolio companies. Prior to joining Alphabet, Stephen was the Chief Operating Officer of Symantec. Prior to Symantec, Stephen was the President of Digital, Marketing, and Operations at Best Buy. Before Best Buy, Stephen was the Chief Information Officer and GM of Digital Ventures at Starbucks. Prior to Starbucks, Stephen held a number of IT leadership roles at Corbis, Yahoo!, CNET and Sun Microsystems.
Stephen received a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from the University of Oregon, and an MBA from San Francisco State University.
