New systems can learn autonomously and make complex judgments. Leaders need to understand these “autosapient” agents and how to work with them. Summary. AI has been subtly influencing us for years, but a new generation of vastly more capable technology is now emerging. These systems, the authors write, aren’t just tools. They’re actors that increasingly...

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A framework for navigating the worst of what AI, quantum computing, and other new technologies could create. Summary: Next-generation technologies are poised to cause society-shaking shifts at unprecedented speed and scale. Generative AI, quantum computing, blockchain, and other technologies present novel ethical problems that “business as usual” just can’t handle. To meet these challenges, leaders...

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CEOs globally recognize the potential of artificial intelligence (AI), but most are encountering significant challenges in formulating and operationalizing related strategies. While over two-thirds see the need to act quickly on GenAI, a similar proportion also report being stymied by uncertainty in this space, making it challenging to respond at speed. While the vast majority...

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Why it Matters: Synthetic data — which resembles real data sets but doesn’t compromise privacy — allows companies to share data and create algorithms more easily. Companies committed to data-based decision-making share common concerns about privacy, data integrity, and a lack of sufficient data. Synthetic data aims to solve those problems by giving software developers...

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As artificial intelligence informs more decisions, companies’ AI systems must be understood by users and those affected by AI use. Actions in two areas can maximize AI’s benefits and minimize risk. Businesses increasingly rely on artificial intelligence (AI) systems to make decisions that can significantly affect individual rights, human safety, and critical business operations. But...

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Generative AI and other foundation models are changing the AI game, taking assistive technology to a new level, reducing application development time, and bringing powerful capabilities to nontechnical users. In the spirit of this article’s topic, we asked ChatGPT—a generative AI language model that can create original content in response to a user prompt—how it would...

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The case for—and against—digital employees Summary. All companies want to provide their customers with richer and more engaging experiences. The challenge is how to scale the experiences in a way that does not depersonalize or commodify them. Enter the digital human. Rapid progress in computer graphics, coupled with advances in AI, is putting humanlike faces...

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to significantly impact the field of continuous improvement by providing organizations with new tools and techniques to identify and eliminate waste and improve performance.  Some ways that AI can be used in continuous improvement include: It is worth mentioning that AI is not a silver bullet, the success of...

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What technology companies need to do to create an agile operating model in today’s unpredictable world. Questions to ask Can your operating model stand up in an unpredictable world? Will your operating model propel you into the future? Is your operating model agile enough? The recent rise in global trade-related risks and technology nationalism has...

This post How do you stay on course when the direction keeps changing? appeared first on Operational Excellence Society.

Like many consultants, I travel quite a bit and spend a fair bit of time at airports as a result.  And since I live in Germany and my clients are (mostly) in Europe and in the States, my most popular route (once a month on average) is flying United Airlines between Frankfurt (FRA) and Newark...

This post Don’t Be Arrogant; You Need Your Customers More Than They Need You. appeared first on Operational Excellence Society.

What’s on Elon Musk’s mind? In conversation with head of TED Chris Anderson, Musk details how the radical new innovations he’s working on — Tesla’s intelligent humanoid robot Optimus, SpaceX’s otherworldly Starship and Neuralink’s brain-machine interfaces, among others — could help maximize the lifespan of humanity and create a world where goods and services are...

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Introduction Did you ever look at a video clip, or a sound bite, or a picture and it made you uneasy; but you couldn’t quite put your finger on it?  Chances are that it made you uneasy because it wasn’t real.  Rather, it was intended to make you believe it was real; to fool you. ...

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For me Digital Transformation (DX) is the integration of digital technologies and data to create new or modify existing customer experiences, business processes and culture to meet changing society, markets demands and business requirements. An important aspect of driving this DX is to continually reimagine your own business in the digital age. But how do...

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Earlier this year I shared a tale of woe.  One of my long-term clients had suffered a ransomware attack due mostly to the negligence of the business leadership to be respectful of the need to maintain their information technology infrastructure and be vigilant against external threats from bad actors (along with internal threats from system...

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Agile supply chains deliver a seamless experience Customers now expect more from their purchasing experience. Exceeding these expectations could require an agile supply value chain—one made possible through digital supply networks. BEFORE the advent of digital technologies, fulfillment was largely an exercise in “sell and replenish” for companies. Now, Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies such as artificial...

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Enter third-wave economics; How the pandemic reshaped the dismal science As part of his plan for socialism in the early 1970s, Salvador Allende created Project Cybersyn. The Chilean president’s idea was to offer bureaucrats unprecedented insight into the country’s economy. Managers would feed information from factories and fields into a central database. In an operations room...

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Summary.    Summary: These are unprecedented times in the world of cybersecurity, with ransomware attacks up 150% in 2020 and growing even faster in 2021. Most audit committees and senior management who have to make decisions around cyberattack say they never imagined they’d be in a discussion on whether and how much ransom to pay to...

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COVID-19 has exposed long-standing weaknesses in how we make and sell goods. The solution is digitization and automation, in four steps. In brief; the global supply chain, in its current form, is incapable of withstanding the disruptive forces of tomorrow. Fast-changing consumer preference, environmental disruptions and intrinsic changes to the global order are key drivers...

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Today, artificial intelligence helps doctors diagnose patients, pilots fly commercial aircraft, and city planners predict traffic. These AIs are often self-taught, working off a simple set of instructions to create a unique array of rules and strategies. So how exactly does a machine learn? Briana Brownell digs into the three basic ways machines investigate, negotiate,...

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I recently landed at Newark Airport and when I turned my mobile phone on, it caught on fire.  Not the kind of fire with flames and sparks shooting out of it.  Rather, one of my clients got infected by ransomware whilst I was in the air – and there was panic in the dozens of...

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In this episode, JP shares his experience with the “mandated” COVID test to come back to the States from Germany; apparently, it is on the “honor system” because nobody actually wanted to see the results. From there, we discuss the need for good “computer hygiene” after one of JP’s clients caught a “ransomware virus” –...

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It’s January 2020.  I have just made a pitch to the corporate big-wigs for a way to reduce their real-estate costs (premises including rent and utilities), their corporate travel costs, even their carbon footprint using the latest telephony and collaborative applications.  I postulate that they will even see an increase in productivity while improving their...

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The effects of the global pandemic have been transformative on a scale and in a way not seen in most people’s lifetimes.  Perhaps the most dramatic transformation is how quickly society, as a whole, has moved from engaging in close proximity to one another to being more distant; heavily relying on telephony and digitalization in...

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The digital revolution is forcing the rapid transformation of IT departments and compelling them to do more than take care of infrastructure and basic services. Today’s IT organizations must be strategic partners with business leaders to help them execute digital strategies and capitalize on emerging technologies in order to generate entrepreneurial opportunities and disruptive ideas....

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“Glocalization” is a portmanteau, or blending, of “globalization” and “localization”.  It is the idea of acting with global intent but with local adaptations; the notion of “think globally, but act locally.”  The glocalization of your business will result in a standardization of the various processes and procedures under which your business operates – and they...

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Technology is everywhere; pervasive and inescapable.  Intended to make lives and work easier, less boring, and safer, while simultaneously accelerating the ways we interact with one another and doing business.  But as with the introduction of anything “new”, there is a level of anxiety that is felt by the people the technology will touch.  It’s...

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Have you ever wondered how they design those tiny microrobots, no bigger than the size of a single cell? Paul McEuen and Marc Miskin explain how this is done and reveal some of the many fascinating uses for these remarkable creations from crop disease control to understanding the human brain. Read more… 

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As working from home become part of a new normal and social distancing is something the world has to learn to practice, virtual meetings are replacing physical meetings in every business of every kind. It could be said that virtual meetings can be painfully boring but, at as Andy Molinsky, writing the Harvard Business Review...

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Chances are, when we were growing up, our parents would express their being thankful for a “Guardian Angel” and keeping us safe from harm and generally looking out for our well-being.  Certainly, some Guardian Angels seemed to have to work much harder than others. Today, we rely far less on poltergeists, apparitions, and the spirit...

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Assumptions lead to the mother all F@!$ ups. We are overwhelmed by data and using it correctly is essential. Your customers and brands can be hurt and damaged due to bad data and AI systems that have not been thought through. This represents a new and very real challenge for businesses to address. Everything from...

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