AI and the Future of Work: Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace, Business, Ethics, HR, and IT for AI Enthusiasts, Leaders

Send us Fan MailGary Bolles, entrepreneur, venture advisor, and best-selling author, is a deep thinker who established roots in Silicon Valley in the 80s to pursue his joint passions for technology and exploring what he calls the three boxes of life - learning, work, and leisure. He’s the author of The Next Rules of Work which was published August 31. He’s also the chair for the Future of Work at Singularity University and the founder of eParachute among other companies. Oh, and his LinkedIn courses have helped train more than 800,000 students. Listen and learn...How the son of a laid off minister became one of the foremost authorities on the future of workWhat opportunities are being created by "The Great Reset"How technology is redefining work... and redefining our identity as humansWhat it means that we're moving from a "workforce" to a "worknet"About the $10 million exercise... and why it's the best way to find your passionWhy living the acronym "PACE" is the best way to ensure future career successReferences in today's episode...Gary's siteSingularity UniversityAI and the Future of Work with Charlene Li

Send us Fan MailDerek Steer cut his teeth as a data analyst at Facebook and Yammer more than a decade ago. He co-founded Mode in 2013 to make it easier to ask questions about data and get better answers faster. Mode has since raised four rounds of funding including a recent $33M round from an exceptional group of investors. 52% of Fortune 500 companies use Mode and Derek has grown the team to more than 300 employees. Derek's vision: "drive the time to do analysis down to zero." He's well on his way!Listen and learn...What Mode's doing to "unlock the power of human reasoning"What Derek learned about tools for data analysts from Facebook and YammerWhy there will always be a need for analytics frontends even amid competition from data warehouses like SnowflakeThe future of work for data analystsThe biggest tragedy in BI todayReferences in this episode:Benn Stancil's "season without bats"FivetranThoughtSpotTrifactaTiernan Ray on AI and the Future of Work

Send us Fan MailJeff Meyerson, entrepreneur, musician, technologist, and author of the acclaimed "Move Fast: How Facebook Builds Software", discusses the stranglehold Big Tech has on developer tools and how the future of software development may be quite different from the present.Listen and learn...What Jeff learned about sales from playing pokerHow Facebook builds software... and how it can avoid being evil Why React is the "Linux of the frontend of the web"The development tools Jeff's most excited aboutWhy Zuck's not a good leaderWhat Jeff will tell Zuck when they finally meet References in this episode..."Move Fast: How Facebook Builds Software" on AmazonJeff on TwitterSoftware Engineering DailyJanelle Shane's great book

Send us Fan MailKrishna Gade was an engineering leader at Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook before realizing AI is eating software... and responsible AI is essential. He turned a passion for "trustworthy AI" into a company that recently raised $32M to make AI explainable.Listen and learn...Why AI explainability matters... and how to instrument it in AI modelsWhat developers need to know to ensure AI models don't make bad decisionsWhat legislators need to know when creating frameworks to regulate "responsible" use of AIHow Apple fumbled AI explainability when issuing credit cards through Goldman SachsKrishna's top lesson learned as a first-time CEO References in this episode:AI and The Future of Work with Dr. Mark van RijmenamAI and The Future of Work with Tiernan RayThe Algorithmic Accountability ActFiddler.ai

Send us Fan MailNeelima Parasker started coding at a young age. Inspired by her entrepreneur mother, she studied Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering before eventually starting SnapIT Solutions. Neelima's passion for investing in unproven talent has guided her as a leader. She's an active entrepreneur coach and is involved in many civic organizations in and around the Kansas City area.Listen and learn...The single most important lesson for parents looking to cultivate a love of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math in their kids.How Neelima has built a culture around her belief that we should "use technology to grow people, not the other way around."How glass ceilings for women and under-represented minorities can be shattered.How governments should take responsibility for improving access to STEM education.Why Neelima isn't afraid of bots taking jobs because "our faults make us human."References in today's episode...SnapIT SolutionsJoe Rehmann from Victory Farms on AI and the Future of WorkFilip Dousek on AI and the Future of Work

Send us Fan MailRachel Chalmers aspired to be an English professor before being inspired by a technology journal to relocate from Ireland to San Francisco. She has since covered over 1,000 startups as an industry analyst and invested in many more as an investor. Rachel is passionate about representing the under-represented and encouraging all those who have been told they can't live their dreams. This is a must-listen for entrepreneurs who have ever felt disadvantaged by circumstances out of their control. It's also the episode in which I volunteer to chair the Chalmers 2024 campaign.Listen and learn...The burn rate rule of thumb for startupsWhy "venture capital wants to perpetuate itself"The origins of the Silicon Valley myth that "all talent is concentrated in white males"How to eliminate institutional biases that constrain women and under-represented minorities when raising money and building companiesHow Rachel is defining the future workplace where humans and machines collaborateReferences in this episode:Ravi Belani and the Alchemist AcceleratorThe Innovators Inside podcast by AlchemistXCharity Majors and HoneycombEdith Harbaugh and LaunchDarklyCiro and Jacopo from Tooso on AI and the Future of WorkFilip Dousek from Workday on AI and the Future of WorkProject IncludeArlan HamiltonKate Crawford's Atlas of AISeeing Like a State by James C. Scott

Send us Fan MailDr. Cataltepe is an accomplished scientist and entrepreneur... with a social conscience. She has published more than 100 academic papers and is a three-time recipient of the "Women Entrepreneur of the Year" award. Dr. Cataltepe and her team believe building and managing AI models should be something anyone can do... even her 70 year old mother who is a farmer in Turkey :). Tazi's vision is to make AI explainable, accessible, and configurable for "mere mortals".Listen and learn...What's required to deploy AI that is easy to understand, monitor, and update by business people without data science or computer science backgroundsHow to apply micro-segmentation to detect and eliminate bias in data and modelsWhy "bring your own model" may solve critical issues related to data privacy and data biasHow reducing the complexity of AI also will limit its environmental footprintHow insurance companies are using AI trained with telematic data to determine driver risk and premiumsWhy the Turkish saying "even the snake eats the earth one bite at a time" represents Dr. Cataltepe's vision for the future of AIThanks to the Alchemist Accelerator team for the introduction to Dr. Cataltepe!

Send us Fan MailKen Gonzalez has spent the better part of 35 years as an IT practitioner, CIO advisor, and industry analyst. He has fielded more than 2,500 inquiry calls and contributed to some of the most impactful IT trends. Ken's advisory work focuses on IT metrics and organizational change. Hear Ken share the one workplace technology shift that all organizations must make to remain competitive in the next decade.Listen and learn... What it means for IT to adopt a "product management mindset"How Ken helped a client save $750,000Why most enterprise IT teams "overestimate their process maturity"The role AI will play in defining IT strategy (hint: it's not what you think)Jargon alert: "KTLO" = "keep the lights on"References in this episode...Ken's virtual home on the internetColin Fletcher on AI and the Future of WorkDion Hinchcliffe on AI and the Future of Work

Send us Fan MailDan O'Connell, former founder and CEO of TalkIQ which was acquired by Dialpad, discusses the future of cloud communications. Dan's vision for helping teams sell more with less churn led to Dialpad becoming a unicorn last year having raised $100M at a $1.2B pre-money valuation. Exceptional investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures are betting on Dialpad's ability to convert legacy telephony infrastructure into cloud-native, SaaS systems using AI to analyze voice transcripts.Listen and learn...Dan's entrepreneurial journey from incubator to launch to fundraising to acquisition.Why TalkIQ was really three startups in one... and how Dan navigated his team through the process of finding one big customer problem to fix.Why voice will soon be the primary computing interface.The challenges of developing NLP technology for voice transcription and AI-based analytics.What Dan learned from nearly a decade at Google... and, more important, what he learned not to do.References in the episode...AI and the Future of Work with Rory O'DriscollDialpad raises $100M at a $1.2B valuationWesley Chan from Felicis Ventures

Send us Fan MailDion Hinchcliffe has been reporting on and prognosticating about the future of work for more than 20 years. He speaks with 100s of global CIOs annually about how to use technology to deliver great employee experiences. In this discussion, Dion shares mind-boggling stats about IT spending patterns and provocative thoughts about how to fix what's broken in the workplace.Listen and learn...The real definition of "digital transformation"Why CIOs have the shortest tenure in the C-suiteWho spends more on IT... than IT!What % of IT budgets go to innovation... and why that number is pathetically low. How the technology in your pocket will be very different in a decade.Resources mentioned in this episode:AI and the Future of Work with Mark SettleDion's perspective on the "New CIO Mindset" Dion's websiteDion on TwitterDion's Hierarchy of Digital Employee Experience NeedsAntWorks RPA

Send us Fan MailJohn Whaley has been programming since age five. He has been a lecturer at Stanford in Computer Science, a founding CTO, and a founding CEO. John raised a large series A in 2017 and has sold two companies. Oh, and he's out to save the world from passwords. UnifyID is a pioneer in the use of biometric data stored on mobile devices to authenticate users.Listen and learn...How John's personal journey led to the founding and successful acquisition of UnifyID by Prove.About the ethical implications of giving Big Tech access to your biometric data.Why "being yourself should provide enough information to uniquely identify you."What John means when he says "data isn't the new oil... it's the new kryptonite."John's bold prediction for when passwords will no longer be the predominant form of authentication (spoiler alert: it's sooner than you think).Thanks to Vinay Prabhu for the introduction to John.

Send us Fan MailFilip Dousek is a successful entrepreneur having sold his last company to Workday. He's also the author of Flock Without Birds, a two-part novel that challenges how the whole relates to its parts. Stories, Filip's company, is solving the problem of extracting insights about people from massive datasets to be able to answer questions about diversity, organizational behavior, and skills gaps. He also discusses the challenges of growing a startup in Prague.Listen and learn...Why enterprises don't use the data they generate to make better decisionsThe hard technical challenge of extracting insights about people and teams from large datasetsWhat it means to "look at data through the prism of graphs and relationships"Why founding Stories in Prague created an opportunity for talent arbitrageAbout our defensible advantages as humans vs. AIReferenced in this episode:Alchemist AcceleratorWorkdayFlock Without Birds

Send us Fan MailJason Wojahn has been building companies and helping enterprises use technology for nearly 30 years. He learned a few things before launching Thirdera, the largest pure-play ServiceNow partner, earlier this year. Jason shares his perspectives on the right ways to introduce innovation to clients... and also the right way to reward innovation within his own team. Thirdera has created a brand that is fun and a culture that empowers everyone to do their best work.Listen and learn...Why there's still room to disrupt in the crowded ServiceNow partner ecosystemHow Thirdera works with clients to define their innovation agendaWhat Jason means by "being e-lingual is as important as being bilingual" Why "we’re in the early innings of cloud... and we haven’t even dressed for the field yet in AI." Oh, and listen to our discussion with Marc Talluto from 2019 for insight into the story behind Thirdera.

Send us Fan MailTiernan Ray is an accomplished journalist who has written extensively for publications like ZDNet, the New York Times, Barron’s, CNN Money, Fortune, and Bloomberg. He famously launched coverage of machine learning for Barron’s back in 2015 with a cover story called “The Cloud Chip”.In this wide-ranging discussion, Tiernan shares how the principles of ethics should be applied to AI based on his thorough analysis of current research.Listen and learn...Why the field of AI ethics requires "those with authority to also have responsibility" for outcomes.How to instrument explainability into automated decisions made by algorithms and why explainability is like the paradox of Schrodinger's cat.How AI ethics is challenging because we're reducing topics like justice and fairness to algorithms whose behavior is dictated by objective functions.What Tiernan means when he says AI regulators can't be trusted to "grade their own homework".Why your personal data may soon be managed on a blockchain as a new layer of the traditional OSI stack.Resources referenced in this episode...Tiernan's treatise on ethical AI... and its companion pieceThe Technology LetterFiddler.ai

Send us Fan MailBryan Talebi learned the value of education after fleeing Iran and living in a Turkish refugee camp. He worked for NASA at age 16 and, after helping lead many successful startups, started Ahura to disrupt the education system "which hasn't changed in 150 years". Bryan realized the millions of workers being displaced by automation need a way to more rapidly prepare for careers in the labor market of the future.Listen and learn...What skills are required to succeed in the new labor marketWhat impact a single robot can have on an entire factory of skilled laborersHow biometric data can be used to optimize the learning processWhat employers are doing to up-skill rather than replace current employeesWhy "AQ" is replacing IQ and EQ as the way to find 10x talentContact Bryan and Ahura AI for more information:[email protected]@bryantalebi3D

Send us Fan MailMilin Desai was an executive at VMware before taking the CEO role at Sentry last year. Since then, he led a $60M funding round that valued the company at $1B. An exceptional group of investors including Accel and NEA as well as new investor BOND participated. In this discussion with Dan Turchin, Milin openly shares the challenges of growing a startup and where there's room for innovation in the crowded monitoring space.Listen and learn...What all other monitoring vendors are missing that created an opportunity for SentryWhat Sentry does better than the legacy APM vendorsThe dirty secret of DevOpsWhy NoOps won't replace DevOps any time soonThe one non-technical skill that has helped Milin most in his careerThanks to Banjot Chanana for the introduction to Milin!

Send us Fan MailSlater Victoroff is a machine learning expert and science fiction writer who is never shy when sharing opinions about AI and the future of technology. His passion for giving unstructured content meaning led to the founding and success of Indico. The company has since raised $36M from an impressive set of investors including Jump Capital and Sandbox Ventures. In this discussion, hear how Slater went from dorm room programmer to entrepreneur.Listen and learn...How Indico was launched by pineapple and onion pizza consumed from 5:00 PM to 5:00 AM on Sunday nights. What it was like to found the company as CEO then later hire a replacement to become CTO. How Slater defends his 2012 comment that "the war is over... deep learning lost."How NLP is being used to unlock value trapped in unstructured data.Why every knowledge worker "needs a bionic arm".Why Slater says AGI, artificial general intelligence, doesn't exist as a concept.Follow Slater @sl8rv on Twitter.

Send us Fan MailA first on the show this week... we meet a guest whose digital twin has its own YouTube channel. Dr. Mark van Rijmenam is a futurist, best-selling author, and entrepreneur. He is a popular keynote speaker about issues related to how we co-exist with technology in an increasingly digital world.Listen and learn....Why it is we're living in "exponential times"How future societies will be organized by "digitalism" instead of "liberalism" based on who can access and control dataWhy blockchains as a technology are currently about at the maturity level of the internet in 1997What Dr. Mark means when he says "...be prepared to reinvent yourself every five to ten years"Resources mentioned in the episode:The Future is Faster Than You Think by Peter DiamandisCoded Bias, the documentaryWeapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'NeilCharlene Li on AI and the Future of WorkBill Davidow on AI and the Future of Work

Send us Fan MailZi Wang, Timeless founder and CEO, learned a lot at Google in eight and a half years. Enough that he was inspired to turn his Google-esque bold vision for the future of time management into a company. Timeless isn't solving the calendar app problem - Zi and his team are solving the problem of how to get the most out of what little time we have.Listen and learn...The founding vision of TimelessAbout the future of time managementThe value of a "marketplace for time" Why data privacy is a 21st century human rightHow time graphs will be used to optimize your calendar Resources mentioned on the show:Zi's manifesto on timeThe Timeless visionWalt Mossberg and "The Disappearing Computer"

Send us Fan MailMost of us won't learn as much in a career about DevOps as Banjot Chanana forgets in an afternoon. Having built teams and products that have given rise to DevOps over a 20-year career as a product leader, Banjot is qualified to have strong opinions about the right ways to develop and deploy software. The best part? He's as enthusiastic as ever about what's ahead.Listen and learn...Where there are opportunities to innovate in and around DevOps.Where VMs failed and created an opportunity for containers.What ephemeral infrastructure means for the future of CI/CD.What attributes are common across companies with great product cultures.Companies and projects referenced:Open TelemetryBackstageSentryCloudPhysics

Send us Fan MailIt's tough being entrepreneurs in Belgium and Italy. Our appetite for risk and access to capital in the U.S. is an unfair advantage. Ciro and Jacopo moved to Silicon Valley to pursue their dream and, in the process, learned why entrepreneurship is a full-contact sport. Their journey from MIT to startup to successful exit is a classic tale of grit and determination.Listen and learn...What's unique about Silicon Valley for founders.How to turn a technology into a product.What distinguishes human cognition from machine intelligence.Why NLP is so hard.How product interfaces can introduce bias.What we can (and can't) expect from AI.People and organizations mentioned:The Alchemist AcceleratorCoveoNoam ChomskyMarvin MinskyJosh Tenenbaum

Send us Fan MailKordel France taught himself to code to automate his Calculus homework. He was inspired by seeing robot tractors on the family farm. Not the conventional background for a high-tech CEO. Kordel and Seekar have turned a passion for AI and machine learning into novel applications in fields as diverse as medicine, law, and professional sports. The best parts of this conversation are when Kordel describes what it means to practice responsible AI. A heads up for investor-types: Seekar is a hot company in a hot space and will soon be raising a series A. Contact Kordel for details.Listen and learn...How to instrument explainability into AI algorithms and create a culture where algorithm developers are required to explain how their algorithms workBest practices for monitoring AI model accuracy to know when re-training is requiredThe challenges and opportunities of putting AI models at the edge of the networkHow AI is making radiologists better at detecting medical conditions like COVID... and why AI won't replace human experts any time soonEpisodes and companies mentioned:Philippe Cases, Topic Networks CEO, on AI and the Future of WorkDeryk van Brunt, CredibleMind CEO, on AI and the Future of WorkSeekar Technologies

Send us Fan MailTwo firsts this week on the podcast: first time we’ve had a two-guest interview and first time we’ve had guests who aren’t native to the tech industry. Rishon Blumberg and Michael Solomon are pioneers in the talent management space having worked with A-list celebrities like Bruce Springsteen and John Mayer. A decade ago they set out to bring what they learned in entertainment to the tech talent economy.They’ve since published the popular book Game Changer: How to be 10x in the Talent Economy and have been busy helping the tech community find gigs.Listen and learn...What it takes to be 10x better at everything.The unique personal attributes that separate "10xers" from everyone else.What the guys learned managing Bruce Springsteen.How one 10xer changed the world...starting with energy bars.Why managing rock stars is a lot like managing tech talent.The guys advice for entrepreneurs: "...when hustling fails grit is what gets you back to hustling again."References in the show:Rishon's TED talk10x ManagementMusicians On CallEthos Water and Charity Water

Send us Fan MailThis week's guest has been called “America’s Best Leader” by U.S. News and “The Entrepreneur Whisperer” by ABC, Fox, and NPR. Linda Rottenberg is the Co-founder and CEO of Endeavor, the world's leading community of high-impact entrepreneurs. She's also an accomplished author, speaker, investor, and mentor for global entrepreneurs. Linda's a mom of twins, a compassionate leader, and a force of nature having overseen the creation of more than four million jobs and 27 billion in revenue from Endeavor companies.Listen and learn:About inspirational entrepreneurs like Wences Casare from Argentina and Vu Van from Vietnam. Why "...chaos is the friend of the entrepreneur."Why "...the days when we thought entrepreneurs were boys in hoodies in Silicon Valley will soon be an ancient relic."How personal tragedy made Linda a better leader.About Linda's advice to a younger version of herself: "be less super and more human."Why you should take the #MindsetChallenge from Endeavor and Masters of Scale.Entrepreneurs and companies mentioned in the episode:MercadoLibreVu Van from ElsaLateefa Alwaalan from YatooqReid Hoffman and Masters of ScaleMelanie Perkins from CanvaWhitney Wolfe Herd from Bumble

Send us Fan MailDenis Jacquet is concerned that automation is causing traditional jobs to mutate... and governments around the world are mismanaging the opportunity to prepare citizens for the new labor market. He has written extensively on how regulation is stifling innovation. Denis is a serial entrepreneur having started and sold multiple successful companies including EduFactory in the e-learning space. He's also an accomplished author and frequent TV and radio contributor in France on the future labor market.Listen and learn...Why many events will remain virtual long after the pandemic... even though humans have a fundamental need for direct contact.What Europe can learn from countries like Israel and Korea about how to embrace innovation to stimulate company creation.Why companies like FoxConn are preparing to replace a million low-paying jobs with robots in the next decade.Why so many entrepreneurs sacrifice family for career.Thanks to Philippe Cases, Topio Networks CEO, for the introduction to Denis.References in this episode:AI Superpowers by Dr. Kai-Fu LeeJoe Rehmann, CEO of Victory Farms KenyaFoxConnMcKinsey & Company

Send us Fan MailJoe Rehmann went from investment banking to fish farming. His passion for solving the protein problem in Eastern Africa led to one of the most successful aquaculture farms in the world. Joe's story should inspire entrepreneurs everywhere. No problem is too big to solve. Technology we take for granted can be used in ways we can't imagine... until leaders like Joe redefine what's possible.Listen and learn...What inspired Joe to start Victory FarmsHow Victory Farms used mobile phones to solve the tilapia cold chain problemWhat the western world doesn't understand about building a business in KenyaHow fish guts and market ladies may be part of the next great technology success storyCompanies and organizations mentioned on the show:Endeavor, the world's leading community of high-impact entrepreneursVictory Farms

Send us Fan MailPhilippe Cases has been an entrepreneur and investor in Silicon Valley for more than 25 years. Most recently, he founded Topio Networks to automate the process of generating business insights in tech markets like edge computing, IoT, and blockchain. Philippe has strong opinions about everything from autonomous driving to augmented reality and is paid to influence how they evolve.Listen and learn...How an engineer growing up in France and Germany came to be a Silicon Valley success story.Why we may never "fully automate the process of generating business insights".What technology is limiting mainstream use of edge computing for AI tasks.Of truck drivers, stock brokers, and real estate agents, which will be made obsolete first by AI.What needs to change about Silicon Valley.Also mentioned on the show:Accelerators including YC and AlchemistWaymo and Mobileye for autonomous drivingTinyML low-power machine learning for edge computingThanks to Erin McMahon for the introduction to Philippe!

Send us Fan MailTim Crawford, accomplished CIO, CIO advisor, and influencer, distinguishes transformational CIOs from the rest. For more than 20 years, he has been coaching CIOs about embracing new technologies by first identifying how they'll solve business problems. Tim is a frequent contributor to publications like The Wall Street Journal, CIO.com, Forbes, SiliconAngle and TechTarget. Thanks to Steve Kaplan from Nutanix for the introduction.Listen and learn...How three distinct types of AI help businesses in different waysThe single biggest way AI could help employees todayA strategy for helping CIOs adopt AIHow and when AI should be regulatedWhich jobs are at risk of being complemented... or eliminated by AIWhy "companies and countries will ultimately be measured based on how well they leverage technology and data"Episodes and podcasts mentioned on the show:AI and the Future of Work with Colin FletcherCIO in the Know podcast

Send us Fan MailRory O'Driscoll has been investing in startups since founding Scale Venture Partners 27 years ago. He and his team have invested in transcendent companies like Box, DocuSign, Omniture, Bill.com, HubSpot, and others. Listen to this one multiple times. You'll learn something new each one.Hear Rory's insights on AI and venture investing..."The venture business is more a decision business and less an action business.""The purpose of AI is to make better, more cost-effective decisions.""It’s extraordinarily hard to replace people with AI.""It’s hard to regulate what you don’t understand."How software is eating into traditional spending on telco and banking.Why successful startups must pick one of three strategies: "fight, focus, or fly" Previous episodes and companies mentioned on the podcast:Bill Davidow on AI and the Future of WorkDave Kellogg on AI and the Future of WorkForterDialpadZoom

Send us Fan MailThis week, Wendy Pfeiffer, Nutanix CIO and former CIO at GoPro, shares her journey to becoming a public company exec and how she has grown as a technologist and leader. Hear about Wendy's proudest accomplishment at Nutanix and what she's learned from an eclectic group of role models.Listen and learn...What it means to "lead with grace".Why the future of enterprise tech will look more like consumer tech.How to empower girls to pursue STEM careers.How Wendy and her team have used NLP technology to help employees and consistently achieve 90+ NPS scores.Resources mentioned in the episode:NutanixGoProrandomfrankp on YouTubeThe John Madden RV

Send us Fan MailRak Garg recently shifted from Product Management at companies like Atlassian and Redfin to investing at OpenView Venture Partners, the iconic firm behind companies like Datadog, ExactTarget, Instructure, and others. He shares the playbook for enterprise software startups looking to disrupt incumbents like Splunk and Atlassian. His thesis on SIEM (security event management) and log analytics spawned an excellent blog post on how startups are unbundling Splunk and defining new categories in the process. Follow Rak at rak_garg on twitter.Listen and learn...Why investing is harder than being a Product ManagerWhere Splunk and Atlassian are vulnerable to disruption from startupsRak's perspective on what must change about Silicon Valley cultureThe importance of "don't F&*%$ the customer" as a core component of company cultureCompanies mentioned in this episode:NotionLinearFigmaAsanaSnowflake

Send us Fan MailGlenn Solomon has discovered and invested in many iconic companies like Slack, Zendesk, and Square. In this episode, he shares his investing philosophy and how he became great at what he does. This one's worth a listen just to hear Glenn share stories from when he first met the founders of Airbnb and HashiCorp.Listen and learn...Why the stock of Domino’s Pizza has outperformed Google over the past decade.How Opendoor stumbled… before eventually going public and reaching a $20B valuation.Why Nike employs more software engineers than shoe designers. What technology will define the next "Zoom" moment.Companies, episodes, and people mentioned in this episode:Barr Moses from Monte CarloUnravel DataTonicEvangelos Simoudis from Synapse PartnersHaixun Wang from Instacart

Send us Fan MailElaine Zelby is an investor at SignalFire, a blogger, podcaster, and former Product Marketer at Capriza and Slack. She shares her perspective on the proliferation of SaaS tools, what's sexy about unsexy markets, and what companies she's ready to fund.Listen and learn...Why entrepreneurs describe SignalFire as the "kind" VCThe one technology that will change work most in 2025What Elaine learned as an operator that has helped her as an investorWhy the exodus from big cities may not be a thing after allThanks to Ilya from SignalFire for the introduction to Elaine. Episodes and companies mentioned on the show:Deborah Hanus from SparrowTestbox

Send us Fan MailThe future of cities, work, and transit all rely on technological advances in the field of autonomous vehicles. On this week's episode, Evangelos Simoudis, acclaimed author, futurist, and investor, discusses the present and future of everything from robo-taxis to urban planning.Listen and learn...-How ethical implications and regulatory frameworks pose as big a threat to adoption of autonomous vehicles as technology-Why a combination of knowledge-driven and ontological approaches are often required to optimize the accuracy of AI-Why the classic trolley problem from a 1970s philosophy paper is more relevant than ever-The pros and cons of using neural nets to train autonomous vehicles-Why Evangelos attributes his success to a history of systems thinking

Send us Fan MailAshu Garg is a General Partner at Foundation Capital, one of the most iconic venture firms in Silicon Valley. Ashu was first an entrepreneur before becoming an investor and discovering amazing companies like TubeMogul, Cohesity, Eightfold, and Databricks.Listen and learn...How Ashu translated his unique brand of hustle into finding and backing amazing entrepreneursWhy Ashu feels, as an entrepreneur, it’s worse to be too early than too lateThe challenges and opportunities of applying NLP to enterprise software What emerging technology will most impact work in 2031 How the ability to automate routine tasks creates an opportunity to change the world Companies mentioned on the show:Foundation CapitalEightfoldTuringArizeTubeMogulCohesityDatabricks

Send us Fan MailGreat episode to kick off 2021. Dr. Haixun Wang has been at the forefront of introducing AI-based innovation to the world's leading technology companies including IBM, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon. He's the current VP Engineering and Distinguished Scientist at Instacart where he focuses on improving the grocery delivery experience with AI.Listen and learn...Why knowledge graphs may be the solution to improve today’s e-commerce search experience. Why it’s hard to create an algorithm to help shoppers pick items from store shelves.What defines a “technology” company.Why it’s difficult to “make the physical world smart”. What happens when you search “insomnia" on Amazon.Haixun’s proudest accomplishment.Resources mentioned in the discussion with Dr. Wang:Our episodes with...Bill DavidowAlex from Josh.aiDarius from MeratasCharlene LiTiernan RayDave KelloggHaixun's quarantine reading: In Search of Lost Time by Marcel ProustHaixun's blog

Send us Fan MailDarius Goldman, CEO and Founder of Meratas, discusses the future of education and how income share agreements (ISAs) are making college and trade school more accessible. Meratas partners with educational institutions to offer a financing option to students who can attend courses for free up front and pay later with a portion of future income. Meratas is off to a fast start with 30 education partners and 3,100 students.Listen and learn...How ISAs create opportunities for students who couldn’t otherwise afford higher educationDarius’ perspective on the future of education: “It’s a luxury to get educated for the sake of enrichment"How a waitress working three low-paying jobs is now selling software thanks to a Meratas-backed ISA What Darius will be most proud of when Meratas transforms the education marketH/t to Jason Calacanis (@Jason) whose great interview with Darius led to this week’s podcast.Episodes and organizations referenced:Tess Posner, CEO of AI4ALL Charlene Li, best-selling author of The Disruption MindsetPatty Hatter, SVP Palo Alto NetworksPrehiredLambda SchoolCourseraKhan Academy

Send us Fan MailOn this week’s podcast, Michael Shepherd, Distinguished Engineer at Dell Technologies focused on AI, describes the present and future of intelligent software. Fascinating discussion about using AI for good… and what could happen if we lose control. Worth listening to hear when Michael thinks we’ll achieve AGI (artificial general intelligence), where bots are indistinguishable from humans. Listen and learn… About Michael’s vision for “analytics at the speed of thought”. How Michael describes the “three Vs of big data”. Why laptops may soon not need charging cables. Why knowing the answer will be less important in the future. Research referenced in this episode: Imagine a world without wiresGoogle’s DeepMind beats doctors at breast cancer detectionThe ethics of AI

Send us Fan MailIn this special episode with Dr. Helen Gu, author or co-author of 80+ academic papers on distributed computing and AI for systems management, we discuss the past, present, and future of AI for IT Operations.Listen and learn...How and why the technology behind common problems like image recognition fails when applied to machine dataWhere Helen and her team were nine years ahead of AmazonWhy unsupervised machine learning is required to predict and prevent system downtimeWhy machine learning is well-suited to anomaly detection for machine dataThe next technology breakthrough that will eliminate sleepless nights for developersResearch papers referenced on today's episode:Helen's 10-year Symposium on Cloud Computing award about elastic resource scalingFixing the hang bug problem

Send us Fan MailChris Curtin has been on a journey over the past twenty plus years to modernize iconic brands like Disney, HP, and Visa. He has been at the forefront of new payment technologies, consumer channels, and business models. We discussed the future of everything with Chris. Listen and learn...Why it will soon be as easy to send money to Botswana as it is to send photos or emoji.How Chris defines "brand".What it was like negotiating Visa's Olympic Games partnership.The best leadership advice Chris has received.How Coldplay (and the Pope) just may show up in your living room soon.Companies and episodes mentioned:MicrosoftShopifyVisaDisneyHPOur episode with Alex Capecelatro, Josh.ai CEO and FounderThanks to Lister Delgado from IDEA Fund Partners for the introduction!

Send us Fan MailThis week, we had a fascinating discussion that unveiled the dirty secret of AI and machine learning: algorithm performance is only as good as data quality... and data pipelines break frequently. Data Scientists spend most of their time wrangling data. Barr Moses, CEO and Founder of Monte Carlo, explains how the problem is getting solved and what that means for the future of technology. Plus, learn… The five pillars of data health How to quantify the impact of data downtime How Barr thinks about being intentional when establishing company culture and values Barr’s advice for female and under-represented minority entrepreneurs raising venture capital Shark populations off the coast of South Africa? Well, just listen :). Companies and people mentioned in the episode: GainsightThe Great RBGKamala Harris

Send us Fan MailThis week's special episode of AI and the Future of Work features execs discussing how they use AI to reduce downtime. More important, they share how, as leaders, they're navigating the complicated relationship between humans and machines.Listen and learn from some of the best:Joel Eagle on how McDonald's thinks about managing data at scale to improve the guest experience.Mark Settle, seven-time CIO and best-selling author of Truth from the Valley, on how the shift to cloud-based apps has changed user behavior.Ray Lippig, Program Manager at J.B. Hunt, on how anomaly detection is changing the logistics business.Sean Barker, CEO of cloudEQ, on how AI means we can architect cloud solutions designed for resilience.Plus, hear three predictions for how AI will change work in the next 18 months.For the first time, we also published a video version of this week's podcast on YouTube. Enjoy!

Send us Fan MailOn this week’s episode of AI and the Future of Work, Colin Fletcher shares insights including... What he meant by “AIOps” when he coined the term and what has happened since then.How the most mature organizations adopt DevOps.How AIOps will change in the next three years. The new definition of automation everyone in IT will soon be talking about. ...And of course, the not-so-secret recipe for earth's best fried chicken. People mentioned in this episode: Patrick Debois, Bridget Kromhaut, Charity Majors. Companies mentioned in this episode: GitLab, ServiceNow, Splunk, New Relic, AppDynamics, BigPanda, Gartner.

Send us Fan MailWelcome to this week's "best of" episode of AI and the Future Work. Today, we’re opening the vault and re-introducing you to Dave Kellogg, serial high-tech CEO, board member, and of course Dead Head discussing SaaS metrics earlier this year. I’m proud to share that the podcast just crossed 100,000 downloads so I’m taking this opportunity to thank you for listening. If you enjoy the show, please rate us wherever you get your podcasts to demonstrate your support for independent media and help more listeners discover our amazing guests. It’s a week before the election and we’re all political scientists and data junkies for the next eight days. Dave is the original SaaS scientist. Listen as he puts on a master class about the metrics that matter plus offers coaching for entrepreneurs about how to tell stories with data. If you don’t know your CAC from your LTV or how to calculate the true sales cycle, listen up. Metrics matter not just to pitch your company but to run your business, validate your hiring plan, groom your product backlog, and define your marketing strategy. The future of work may be AI but even the best AI won’t replace the kind of decision-making that only comes from really understanding how to analyze your customer's journey. Oh, and if you're not already subscribed to Dave's great Kellblog, you're missing the best SaaS content. Subscribe now!

Send us Fan MailPatty Hatter, former CIO, COO, and current SVP Customer Services at Palo Alto Networks, shares advice for women about how to break the glass ceiling in Silicon Valley. Hear how Patty went from engineering grad student to global exec by cultivating an authentic leadership style.Listen and learn:How six months in Europe shaped Patty's career.The advice Patty says served her best when leaving Bell LabsWhy Patty says "being a CIO is the best role to have had in the past."Tips for dealing with unconscious bias in the workplace.Patty's advice to women convinced they can't accomplish what men can in high-tech.Here's a link to the great episode with Mark Settle referenced in the show.

Send us Fan MailThis week's discussion is about the pandemic, AI, and mental health. Deryk Van Brunt is a serial entrepreneur, trained epidemiologist, and Professor at the U.C. Berkeley School of Public Health.CredibleMind uses AI to improve access to mental health resources. What once was relegated to the shadows of healthcare is now mainstream. Anxiety and stress have spiked due to social isolation and the increased burden of elder and childcare. Like all fields being disrupted by AI, the fear of biased training data is real. Who owns your mental health data? Who is responsible for monitoring the performance of AI algorithms? Deryk introduces us to the future of holistic medicine. Listen and learn… The current state of mental health. Did you know over half of the U.S. population has a diagnosable mental health condition over the course of a lifetime?How the pandemic has exacerbated the mental health problem.How to mitigate the impact of biased training data.How virtual healthcare providers like Woebot are giving new meaning to the term “the therapist can see you now".Here’s a link to the CDC article referenced in the show. Deryk can be reached at Deryk @ CredibleMind dot com or via the CredibleMind website.

Send us Fan MailNew format this week: a special panel discussion with Justin Fitzhugh from Snowflake, Liz Holland from Dell, and Luca Blanzuoli from Credit Suisse...Learn insights about the future of AI in IT Operations from the pros:"We couldn't keep the environment available without AI technology.” -Liz from Dell“It’s time to switch paradigms. It’s not ok to have outages with the same root cause twice. We should have no outages.” -Luca from Credit Suisse “AI is like having a PhD on the team transferred from generation to generation... without having to earn the degree.” -Luca from Credit Suisse"We can't keep up with the growth of our business without AI and automation. As a data management platform, the business expects us to continuously innovate." -Justin from SnowflakePlus...We coin a new IT acronym. You'll soon replace "KTLO" with "KTTPOTS". We discuss what you need to know to start a new DevOps or SRE team.We learn how Dell was able to migrate 140,000 global employees to home offices...over a weekend!Thanks to our wonderful panelists for a fun conversation. Enjoy!

Send us Fan MailThis week's guest deserves credit for helping transform Intuit into an iconic technology brand with a reputation for great company culture and values-driven leadership.We get a unique look into the secrets that have made Cassie and Intuit successful and, more important, what Cassie's doing to define the post-pandemic future of work for self-employed entrepreneurs. Listen and learn...Why Scott Cook, Intuit founder, advised employees to "love the problem not the solution."How Cassie has changed her leadership style to support remote teams.What "customer obsession" means at Intuit.Why Cassie says "there's no prosperity without equality."What Intuit is doing to narrow the pay gap.What Cassie learned from Clay Christensen.Episodes mentioned:Charlene Li shares lessons for disruptors.Deborah Hanus shares how Sparrow is fixing company leave policies.

Send us Fan MailSpecial guest Gareth Rushgrove, editor of the popular DevOps Weekly newsletter (since its inception ten years ago!) and former product lead at Docker and Puppet, joined the podcast this week for a wide-ranging discussion about the culture of IT operations, security and software development, and the future of application monitoring.Listen and learn:Why Gareth thinks teaching developers to write secure code is a "socio-technical" problemWhy the perceived "go fast vs. be secure" perceived tradeoff is wrongWhat Gareth has been doing to support the Open Policy Agent and accelerate adoption of infrastructure as codeWhat's ahead for Kubernetes and container managementWhat advice Gareth "newsletter iron man" has for listeners... and the one mistake he made when launching DevOps Weekly

Send us Fan MailEver wonder what "knocker-uppers" did in Britain when alarm clocks were invented? Curious what scribes did after the printing press? Loom operators after the cotton gin? Throughout history, those on the right side of innovation thrive.In this crossover episode, host Dan Turchin is interviewed by Service Desk Institute Chief Value and Innovation Officer David Wright. Hear how technology is changing customer service... and improving the lives of customer service agents while forcing them to upskill and re-skill.Listen and learn:What skills won't be replaced by AIHow the service desk is being transformed by automationWhy "augmented intelligence" is improving employee serviceWhat's happening now to mitigate the impact of bias in training data