804: Vijay Sankaran discusses the future of work, the growing impact of AI, and its downstream effects on real estate. Vijay explains the critical role the digital customer experience plays in real estate, the way workspaces have evolved in recent years, and technology’s impact on how companies leverage their physical workspaces. He also reviews the company’s acquisitions in recent years and the effort to bring digital capabilities like cyber, data, AI, and more in-house. Finally, Vijay covers the generational differences in perspectives on hybrid and remote work environments, looks ahead at other trends in technology that he has on his radar, and reflects on the major keys to success from across his career.
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803: Moti joins our host Peter High in a conversation about creating a world-class supply chain and developing a digital customer and employee experience at the company. He explains how his global team is organized and the ways he collaborates with the broadly distributed executive team. Moti talks about the transformation of the 150-year-old company, the responsibility he holds in supply chain management, and his perspective on the future of work and its impact on real estate. Finally, Moti looks ahead at the trends in 6G and other technologies on the horizon and reflects on the secrets to his career success.
802: Thomas Benjamin; EVP, CTO, and Head of Platform & Analytics R&D at National Instruments (NI); discusses the innovation he is leading at the company focused on what he calls ‘Horizon 3’ technologies and the preparation needed to take advantage of these technologies down the road. He shares how his team is organized across the diverse segments that are a part of the broader business and the ways in which these segments interact and collaborate with the IT organization. Thomas also gives an in-depth overview of the innovation labs he leads, the potential value that generative AI can bring to NI, and the skills that will be necessary to leverage these emerging technologies. Finally, he reflects on the lessons he has learned across his diversified career path, explains the benefit of being a hands-on leader, and looks ahead at the trends in technology that he believes will change the game.
801: Srini talks about the transformation he is leading within the company and the art of change management behind the transformation. He discusses his unique title and why it made sense to blend strategy with the CIO’s responsibilities and sheds light on the strategic planning that takes place within the large-scale insurance organization. Srini delves into the innovative use of digital and data in assessing property risks coming from climate as well as other areas and expands on that use of data with a background on the company’s experimentation with generative AI. Additionally, Srini elaborates on the importance of developing his team’s skill set to prepare for the future, being a force for change management, and using the lessons from his experience in human resources to drive this talent strategy. Finally, he reflects on the secrets to his success and looks ahead at trends in InsureTech, AI, and more.
800: Mustafa Suleyman discusses his career journey, the future of artificial intelligence, and his latest book; The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the 21st Century’s Greatest Dilemma. Mustafa describes his entrepreneurial background as a pioneer of the AI and Deep Learning space from studying philosophy at Oxford to his eventual founding of DeepMind and subsequently Inflection AI. He recounts the inception of groundbreaking AI concepts, Google’s acquisition of DeepMind, and the importance of ethics in AI. In his book, Mustafa proposes the idea of a modern Turing Test to mitigate the spread of misinformation, AI’s paradoxical impact on productivity and stability, and the vision of a fully digital ‘Chief of Staff’ called Pi.
The Coming Wave was released on September 5th and can be found here: https://www.the-coming-wave.com/
799: Nitin discusses the customer-facing technology that he oversees and how his team remains innovative and up-to-date on trends despite the company’s massive size. He emphasizes the company’s push towards automation and personalization when it comes to the digital customer experience and how he drives cross-functional collaboration to align this experience with the overall business strategy. Nitin talks about his “fast follower” approach to experimenting and piloting emerging technologies, the cybersecurity implications that must be considered, and how he views the business from the customer’s perspective. Finally, Nitin explains the culture that brought him to the company, the secrets to success over the course of his career, and the technology trends that are on his radar for the future.
798: Shubham discusses how he is developing a digital, technology, and associate strategy based on a modular architecture approach that is focused on microservices, API-driven, Cloud-native, and Headless. Discover how Shubham builds an ecosystem of talent internally and externally, applies data and AI to differentiate the business, and embraces design thinking and collaboration across the firm all with the aim of developing a digital customer experience to enhance the traditional tactile experience. Shubham also talks more broadly about how he pushes his team to learn from experiences regardless of their success and approach challenges with what notes as a comp[any-wide collective confidence. This translates more specifically to how his team is experimenting with generative AI and the other technology trends that are on his radar. Finally, Shubham describes the mental models he has applied in his role and recommends a few critical readings that he has found helpful in his career.
Recommended Readings:
Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith
Build by Tony Fadell
797: Josh discusses the company’s tremendous growth throughout his tenure and the areas he has focused on to achieve that growth. He explains the pivotal role the CIO plays in shaping the digital customer experience and dives deep into the progress of the company’s overall modernization journey. Following the company’s acquisition of CareOregon, Josh explains the process behind integrating acquisitions from a digital and technology perspective and how this helps to grow the company in addition to the organic growth and expansion efforts. Josh also talks about the strong technology culture at SCAN, facets of its data strategy, and the Emerging Technology Operating Model he developed to address the emergence of artificial intelligence and find its use cases. Finally, Josh looks ahead at the trends in technology on his radar and reflects on his career path including his pivot to the not-for-profit space and the keys to his career success.
796: Professor Daron Acemoglu joins the broadcast to speak about his latest book, Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, and his perspective on techno-optimism in the era of artificial intelligence. Daron issues a warning about blind optimism during this pivotal moment in technology and draws on the key themes of power dynamics, techno-optimism, and effective regulation strategies from his book to explain the balance between power and progress and ways to counteract the accrual of power to a select few. He explains the three countervailing forces of democracy, worker voice, and regulation; the two key problems with regulations surrounding generative artificial intelligence; and what this future of AI regulation means on a global scale. Finally, as a writer himself, Daron talks about the ongoing Writer’s Strike as a defense against Generative AI, the potential benefits generative AI will have for writers of the future, and why he is optimistic about generative AI being a “job helper”.
795: Alina discusses the future of innovation, cybersecurity, and IT. With over three years of experience as CIO, Alina delves into the company’s strategy around artificial intelligence, its robust and unique approach to cybersecurity, and its commitment to data protection. Regarding innovation, she speaks to the partnership with R&D for groundbreaking initiatives and areas to revolutionize while introducing continuous improvement and automation to a field of R&D. Alina also talks about the implementation of training and upskilling policies around cybersecurity. Finally, Alina looks ahead at the latest trends in technology and reflects on the key drivers of her career success.
