Future of Tech

Like it or not, the younger generation is an important demographic for every industry to pay attention to. Millennials and Gen Z currently have buying power and influence, and the decisions they make now, and the tech and brands they become loyal to today will impact the winners and losers of the future. So the question becomes, how do you get the attention of these young people and engage with them long-term? 

Clint Runge is the CEO & Founder of Archrival, a youth culture agency that reinvents how brands win the hearts and minds of young adults. Clint is helping to build back trust in brands among the upcoming generation, and he’s using technology and new platforms to make that happen. On this episode of Future of Tech, Clint dives into the state of marketing today and how brands need to be thinking about reaching younger audiences. This is important because, according to Clint, if you understand what drives that generation, you can identify broader trends that will set your business up for success in other areas. To achieve this success, Clint details exactly how and why it’s necessary to start blending the digital world and the “real world” — rather than pushing old school marketing techniques through new technology, Clint discusses how brands can use the new technology as a tool to innovate and blend real-life engagement with digital platforms. Plus, he talks about where companies will be gathering the most data from in the future, and why you should start embracing the technology that scares you the most. Enjoy this episode!

 Main Takeaways:

• Cultural Differences: Globally, the youth have embraced a more borderless world. They interact, transact, and communicate with people all over the world constantly, which means that there are certain things that permeate throughout the population regardless of culture or geography. For example, the mentality behind why someone buys something will likely transcend across the board, the difference will come in how the purchase is made. 
• Who Do You Trust?: The concept of trust has radically changed in recent years. Whether it’s governments, business leaders or the media, there is an environment of mistrust built up among the general population toward those entities. And advertising falls into that sphere of mistrust as well. Brands need to find trusted sources to place in front of their target consumers in order to build back the trust and give them reasons to buy. The most trusted source is other human beings who are similar to the target audience and who can meet that audience in the places they spend time — streaming, on video game platforms, social media, etc.
• Dive Into Data: Despite claiming that they care more about data and privacy than any other generation, the youth actually give up more information about themselves than most. But, just because a brand has access to the data doesn’t mean it can be misused. Brands need to be transparent about how they are using the data they collect so that 1) the younger generation will still release it to them for use to further marketing and personalization tactics, and 2) because if brands collect and use data in ways not disclosed, the consumers will very quickly lose trust in the brand and it will be nearly impossible to rebuild.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

To say that Yariv Bash has always aimed high would be a little bit too on the nose. Yariv is currently the co-founder and CEO of Flytrex Aviation, but he was also the first CEO of SpaceIL, a $100M Israeli non-profit organization that attempted to land the first private interplanetary robotic mission on the moon.  

On this episode of Future of Tech, Yariv tells the story of the many obstacles he faced and “no’s” he heard on the way to building that rocket to the moon and he discusses what he sees for the future of space travel and inspiring the next generation of young engineers. Plus, he dives into the work he’s doing now with Flytrex and how drone technology is shaping up to change the way we live, have things delivered within a matter of minutes via drone, and much more. There are challenges, though, including how drones will be regulated and what kind of safety and security needs to be put in place before they can fly over saturated cities. But Flytrex is already hard at work on those challenges, and Yariv gives some clues about where we’ll see drones overhead next and when. Enjoy this episode!

Main Takeaways:

• Big Risk, Big Reward: Despite the many “no’s” Yariv and his team received when building on their project to get to the moon, taking a big risk and going for it anyway proved to be the right move. They succeeded in a number of parameters and helped advance not just the Israli space program, but in inspiring a new generation of young people who will now pursue a career in science, engineering and technology.
• The Weight of It All: Drone technology is already being used to deliver things in many parts of the world. One of the key factors in improving and expanding drone delivery technology, though, is the weight of the packages being delivered. Drones are designed to be lightweight and easy to maneuver, so delivering heavy objects is currently out of the question. And that’s just one of the challenges Flytrex is working on. Others include regulations, delivery destinations in major cities and skyscrapers, and safety and security.
• It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane!: Looking overhead you might start to see drones in more unexpected places, including in the world of agriculture. Automated drone technology iis perfect for fertilizing or spraying fields in order to keep the crops healthy. Drones can and have also been used for things like firefighting and reconnaissance.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Many people believe that RPA, or Robotic Process Automation, is one of the fastest-growing categories in enterprise software at the moment. But what exactly is RPA and how is it going to change the way we work? On this episode of Future of Tech, we invited Guy Kirkwood, the Chief Evangelist at UiPath to give us the inside scoop.

As it turns out, the widespread fear that robots will eliminate jobs for millions of people is actually backward thinking. In fact, Guy explains that as RPA continues to evolve, the technology will ultimately be a net job promoter. Why is that? Because RPA isn’t actually about robots at all. RPA is simply software that runs other software, eliminating repetitive tasks and freeing up humans to innovate, create and work on more complicated work. Despite those facts, though, RPA adoption is still an ongoing process. Where are we on the adoption timeline and how close are we to a future when everyone has their own RPA robot working for them? Find out that, and more, on this episode!

Main Takeaways:

• Robot Takeover?: Although it has long been feared that robots and A.I. will lead to the loss of jobs for humans, in fact the opposite might be true. Just like in previous industrial revolutions, certain jobs will be eliminated, but new ones will be created in different fields. And, more than likely, the net number of jobs created will be greater than those that were eliminated due to automation. 
• An Automated Future: Throughout the tech industry, automation is a buzzword that many are excited about. The reason is because the automation that is evolving right now is intelligent in nature. Automation technology is getting better and better, and the bugs are being worked out now so that when something goes wrong later, the automated software can actually fix itself.
• Incoming ISVs: The RPA market is continuing to evolve, and the next stage will see more ISVs adopting the technology. IBM, SAP and Microsoft have already made the plunge into the world of RPA, and the prediction is companies like Amazon, Salesforce and Google are not going to be far behind.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Last week we welcomed Ronen Nir to the podcast for Part 1 of a deep dive into the world of venture capital. On this second and final part of the conversation, Ronen, a General Partner at Viola Ventures, picks up the discussion by explaining how profit and loss statements are looked at in SaaS-model companies. And later in the episode, he details the way the VC world was up-ended due to COVID-19, and how maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Ronen also explains which markets he thinks are ready to be disrupted, but why traditional start-ups might be the ones doing the disrupting. Enjoy Part 2! 

Main Takeaways:

• Doing It Digitally: In the very recent past, investments were often only made after a long, drawn-out process of multiple meetings, vetting sessions, travel and research into the people and company making the pitch. As the world was forced to shift to a virtual-only meeting environment, this process was actually sped up. Without needing to factor in travel and other outside circumstances, the interviewing, vetting and decision-making process can move much faster.
• Amazon the Start-up?: AWS is a giant of the tech world, but it began as a simple start-up looking to disrupt the cloud services market. Today, there are many markets that are ripe for disruption, but where are the start-ups that will be making waves? For the first time in 50 years, it’s actually the more mature companies that are bringing disruptions to the market.
• Know your Finances: When companies are looking for funding, too often they present VCs with innovative technology and diagrams and architecture plans, but they forget to dig into the financial side of what it all costs. VCs want to know how much you need and where exactly that money will go, so make time to really understand that side of your business.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Start-ups and entrepreneurs have been around since the beginning of time. But it was only in the last several decades that venture capitalists became key players in the world of business and investing. Ronen Nir is a General Partner at Viola Ventures, and on this special two-part episode of Future of Tech, he lets us in on what it really means to be a VC today. On Part 1, Ronen gives an overview of the history of venture capital, and he explains how the world of tech innovation and entrepreneurship was what gave birth to the venture capitalist. He also divulges exactly how VCs make decisions on who and what to invest in and explains why AAR is the key metric to look at when predicting the health of a high-growth company. Enjoy Part 1!

Main Takeaways:

• Not All VCs are The Same: There are a number of factors that differentiate one VC from another. The criteria most people look at to find those differences are: size, geographical focus, the stage of the companies they invest in, and the various areas of interest or industries they invest in.
• How to Invest: In order to make a good investment, two things are critical: access and judgment. Access means you know and understand the company and the entrepreneurs and have a chance to do the due diligence necessary to figure out the nuts and bolts of the company inside and out. Judgment means having a long-term vision and being able to see a future for the company.
• Tell Me More About AAR: For investors today, you have to make decisions on different kinds of metrics and KPIs. One of those is AAR, which many VCs have concluded is one of the best predictors of the health and future success for a high-growth company.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Even though Josh Bressers says that security itself is meant to be boring, there are no dull moments when discussing the evolution of the world of cybersecurity, especially because security is truly a never-ending journey. 

Josh leads the Product Security Group at Elastic, and in his previous role at Red Hat he was a Cybersecurity Strategist & Product Manager, leading the security strategy in Red Hat's Platform Business Unit. On this episode of Future of Tech, Josh dives into every corner of the cybersecurity world, including how working in open source has finally emerged as the winner in the world of tech and what that means from a security standpoint. He also discusses how artificial intelligence is taking on a more important role in security operations, especially as more and more people are working from home. Plus, a look at the history of DevSecOps and where that part of the industry is headed in a more digitally-connected world and the inside scoop on how hackers are attacking businesses today and what to do to turn them away. Enjoy this episode!

 Main Takeaways:

• Good and Bored: Ideally, security within businesses should be boring. When cybersecurity is done correctly, no one should know about what is happening and operations should run smoothly.
• Bring in the Bots: Although A.I. has been somewhat of a white whale in the world of technology, in terms of security, there are actual application and use cases that prove A.I. is a beneficial tool. Especially as more people have moved to working from home, having bots scan through the security protocols, logins and other logs to flag suspicious activity has become more important than ever, and it is a job only a bot can do effectively.
• Grab and Go: Hackers today are much more opportunistic than they were in the past. When hackers attack today, they go big and try to get as much data as they can in one fell swoop. Crime is becoming a business, and companies need to protect against widespread data hacks more today than ever before.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

In technology, everything is getting faster, and the pace of change is more blistering than ever. As a result, technologists are in a constant state of optimization and trying to find the best ways to make their websites, apps, and backend systems work 24/7. One of the ways they are doing that is through the use of low-code. 

Gone are the days of complicated legacy systems and custom code throughout every layer of your business. Instead, developers are leaning into the more efficient process of using low-code solutions to do everything from operating mobile apps to accomplishing legacy migrations and doing process automation. 

On this episode of Future of Tech, Paulo Rosado, the CEO of OutSystems, discusses what those low-code solutions look like, and how they are being implemented in the real world. Plus, he explains how artificial intelligence and machine learning will be useful to developers in the future, and how A.I. might actually be doing some code-writing on its own. And, he predicts the future of low-code and how much more penetration the low-code movement will have in the tech industry. 

Main Takeaways:

• Where to Use Low-Code: There are a few areas of business that benefit greatly from implementing low-code solutions because these are areas that need to be updated and iterated on and adapted quickly — and often as a reaction to customer needs. Some of these areas include portals, mobile apps, PWAs, process automation and business optimization, and legacy migrations.

• No Time For That: One of the reasons low-code is being adopted is because the timeframe in which it can be implemented and/or changes is vastly shorter than any other kind of legacy system or code. Certain systems and codes take three to six years to replace or update. Because the industry and technology changes so fast, that timeline does not work anymore because by the time you’ve finished, you’ll need to start updating all over again.
• Upgraded Security: Using open source and low-code, all the companies that use the same code for their platforms are able to bug and pen test the system to find areas of weakness. If there are certain noncompliance issues or weaknesses on the platform, a simple patch can be made and the entire code is now better off and your whole system is updated rather than needed to go into specific apps or systems to correct code line by line.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

JJ Caffey believes that work is fundamentally broken. People are spending more of their waking hours working than ever before, many of them spent alone and behind a screen. According to JJ, the way the average person works is no longer productive, and, in fact, our work habits are leaving many of us more burnt out and lonely than ever before. 

When it comes to millennials and Gen Z, who represent the future workforce, it’s more important than ever before to find a better way to bring productivity to our time on the clock. JJ thinks she has a way to do that. 

JJ is the founder of Order In, a remote-productivity membership club providing accountability, community, and structure to young remote workers, and an elite network of leaders imagining "the future of work" for remote & distributed teams.

On this episode of Future of Tech, JJ breaks down exactly what is wrong with work as we know it, and she prescribes some solutions that could make a world of difference. For example, JJ believes that A.I. and automation can and should be utilized more to help eliminate tasks from our day-to-day responsibilities and give us more time to do deep work and collaborate in ways that only humans can. Additionally, JJ explains that as Gen Z starts to enter the workforce, companies need to focus on what is important to them and implement policies and offer opportunities that will make that generation eager to work and effective when they do. 

What are those policies? How should companies be evaluating employees who have moved to working from home? And how are we going to see A.I. enter our work lives more? Find out on this episode. Enjoy!

Main Takeaways:

• How Do You Feel?: The future of work is constantly changing, but recent trends indicate that more people than ever before will be working from home some or all of the time. There are positives and negatives to this shift, and it is important to understand that some of the negatives include an impact on how people feel mentally. Addressing feelings of isolation and loneliness should be areas of focus for all businesses, and there are technological tools available now and on the way that will offer support.   

• Work is Broken: According to numerous studies, in the U.S. the workday is getting longer and more and more people are doing work outside of normal working hours. However, even if a person works for nine hours a day, they are actually only productive for a fraction of that time. There needs to be a revolution in the way we work that combines technology, automation, and productivity tools to help future generations create the most efficient and productive organizations possible. With A.I. and automation, we could shorten the work day by automating many of our tasks so that we can focus our energy into being productive in high-touch areas that require human skills and interactions.

• Focusing on Everything From A to Gen Z: As the next generation begins to enter the workforce, more data about what they care about is being gathered. Companies that want to get the most out of Gez Z need to focus on committing to a mission, maintaining a good company culture, and implementing ethical policies from a human and environmental standpoint.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

When Eoghan McCabe started frequenting one specific coffee shop, he noticed something. Not the quality of the coffee, rather, he became friendly with the owner of the shop, and saw that this man was truly engaged with all of his customers. He knew their names, their preferences, he and that familiarity kept customers coming back, even if he wasn’t offering the best deal in the neighborhood. Eoghan looked at his own company and found that his relationship with his customers was nothing like that. How it was doing outreach was so impersonal and rote, the messages and marketing even bordered on spammy. Eoghan knew there must be a better way. From there, Intercom was born, with a mission to make internet business personal, and create a seamless, direct line between a business and its customers.

Intercom’s key solution was a business messenger tool that allowed companies to connect with customers through their apps and other digital properties. It was a game-changer. But soon enough, the innovation needed to take the next step. On this episode of Future of Tech, Eoghan, the Chairman and co-founder of Intercom, explains how his team at Intercom overcame its initial hesitancy to get into the world of automation and bots in order to level up the company while staying true to its mission. Plus, he discusses how customers are using Intercom technology to find new ways to connect with their consumers, and why he thinks that in the next 10 years we will see widespread adoption of automation and conversational technology.

Main Takeaways:

• Personalized Communication is Key: As consumers are presented with more options than ever in every marketplace, the only way that companies can stand out is through customer experience. If your messaging and communication is standardized, spammy, or otherwise impersonal, customers will notice, and they will choose a company that has invested in more personalized tools. 
• Listen for Solutions: When you are building products or services, it’s important to listen to your customers and get to know exactly what they need. But not every customer will tell you what they need directly or in the same way every time, so you need to create various forums in which customers can provide feedback.
• Adoption Takes Time: We are still so early in the digital revolution that sometimes it can be frustrating to those in the industry who want to see solutions adopted more universally. People need to become familiar and built trust with the technology and the companies offering it before they fully commit, and that takes time.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Rick Rioboli says that when you are trying to transform a platform or product space, sometimes you have to forget everything you know and start from nothing to build something truly innovative. And as someone who did in fact transform an entire platform and product category, Rick would know that from experience. Rick is the Senior Vice President & CIO at Comcast and during his time with the company he was instrumental in leading the team that built the X1 platform, which has won numerous awards, including an Emmy Award for Technology and Engineering.

On Part 2 of this episode of Future of Tech with Rick, he describes what it was like building the X1 platform, and he explains where he thinks the next wave of innovation is going to come from as it relates to IoT. Rick advises that people take risks and not be afraid to start completely from scratch because that’s where new ideas truly come from. And he gives us an inside look at what makes him tick and gives tips for CIOs and CEOs of the future. Hear why he thinks that and how he put that idea into practice on this episode. Enjoy!

Main Takeaways:

• Started From the Bottom Now We Here: Sometimes in order to build something completely new, you have to forget everything you already know and scrap all of the technology and platforms that already exist. When you are starting from nothing, you have more of a change to build something truly innovative. 
• More Than the Basics: Most companies have only done basic digitization of their companies or processes. What is coming next is a more fully-fledged digitization of the entire customer and internal journey. In order to do that, though, there needs to be a much deeper understanding of the data that lives in your enterprise.
• It’s All About Utility: When it comes to adopting more aspects of the IoT, everyday people are going to lean more toward technology that is actually useful in their life or solves a problem.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.