Transform NOW

On this podcast, Brad Hairston talks with Tony McCandless, Managing Director of the UK/Ireland/Benelux region at SS&C Blue Prism, who explains how CIOs need to shift their thinking around intelligent automation in their tech stack as well as broaden the value of RPA through intelligent skills and combining it with Business Process Management (BPM).

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Here’s what we talked with Tony about: 

*What Tony's background taught him about the role of automation in environmental sustainability

*How CIOs should think of intelligent automation and position it in their technology stack design

*How IT leaders typically categorize automation platforms

*A common misperception of intelligent automation among CIOs

*Roles/skills needed in the IT function in order to drive intelligent automation

*The rise of machine-in-the-loop

*Does RPA automate UIs or APIs?

*The impact of the continuing labor shortage

*A new intelligent automation trend Tony expects to see in 2023

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On this podcast, Brad Hairston uses actual responses to several questions he posed online to ChatGPT to craft a pseudo-conversation with the technology. It's all in the name of fun, but hopefully it proves to be educational along the way!

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Here’s what we talked with ChatGPT about:

*What makes ChatGPT so powerful

*What the future of AI looks like and should humans be scared about it

*How ChatGPT will impact RPA & intelligent automation

*ChatGPT’s thoughts on movies, travel, poetry, humor, literature and science

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In this episode, host Michael Marchuk speaks with Vincent Lassalle, a leader within the Demos Helsinki global think-tank.  Corporations tend to think of their strategic planning with a 3-5 year target, but Vincent helps refocus the way companies and governments can achieve both commercial success as well as beneficial societal impact over a much longer time horizon using their Skopegy methodology.  Join us as we talk about how organizations can engage in digital transformation while helping to shape the world around them for the better.

Here’s what we talked with Vincent about: 

- Why looking towards future trends may actually lead you astray

- How commercial organizations can benefit from building longer-term strategic plans

- How government and commercial entities can work together to build a stronger society while benefitting financially 

Link to one of the papers discussed in this episode: https://digitaltransformation.demoshelsinki.fi/

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In this episode, host Michael Marchuk chats with long-time industry expert, Ian Barkin about the evolution of the automation industry and how RPA and AI are transforming organizations and their people.  Ian discusses how digital transformation is not just a set of technology, but a mindset to alter how work gets done.  

Here’s what we talked with Ian about: 

- Where organizations are making the most headway leveraging intelligent automation to support their customers' experiences

- How the concept of digital transformation has evolved over the past decade

- Why organizations have to see digital transformation in light of changing the skills that employees will need to support this new way of working

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On this podcast, Brad Hairston talks with Alex Ratner, Co-founder and CEO at Snorkel AI, who explains how his company is helping companies tackle what he believes is the biggest obstacle to AI, the labeling of data used to train machine learning models.

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Here’s what we talked with Alex about:

*The Snorkel AI value proposition

*How the Stanford AI lab and Snorkel AI isolated the data labeling problem

*An overview of foundation models

*Differentiating generative AI from predictive AI

*How generative AI will impact companies’ adoption of AI

*How generative AI presents some challenges for intelligent automation

*The impact of data labeling at scale on the global AI race

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On this podcast, Brad Hairston talks with Damian Lewandowski, an expert on automation and AI at McKinsey & Company, who provides his perspective on how/where generative AI can be used to transform companies.

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Here’s what we talked with Damian about:

*Why generative AI is such a hot topic

*The prospect of generative AI becoming the dominant form of AI in the years to come

*The potential impact of generative AI on human creativity and higher-level thinking

*Detecting AI-generated content

*Potential use cases for generative AI

*How generative AI may impact intelligent automation

*Cautions about generative AI that companies should take into consideration

*How companies should approach this new capability

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In this episode, host Michael Marchuk talks with Nirav Patel, CEO of Bristlecone - a supply chain services organization - about the power of introducing AI solutions within a corporate supply-chain function.  Nirav discusses how there isn't a technology gap, but a talent gap that organizations need to address with people who are not just supply-chain savvy, but also data savvy to support the systems that are running modern supply-chain functions.

Here’s what we talked with Nirav about: 

- The differences in applying AI to the planning activities on the demand-side and the supply-side

- How to overcome the "black box" view of the AI decision-making process

- What mid-market organizations can do to adopt the same types of AI technologies that the largest organizations have enjoyed

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On this podcast, Brad Hairston talks with returning guest Dr. Stefan Gstettner, partner and director at BCG, who explains how companies can leverage AI in the most effective manner in order to transform their supply chain and achieve sustainable results.

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Here’s what we talked with Stefan about:

*The state of supply chain performance over the past 5-10 years

*How companies have historically attempted to solve their supply chain performance issues

*The success rate of supply chain transformations in the AI era

*How to fully achieve the promise of an AI-powered autonomous supply chain

*What an AI-powered learning system in the supply chain looks like

*Specific steps companies can take to realize the vision of an integrated learning system in their supply chain

*Thoughts on how the 2023 business climate will drive companies to reimagine their supply chains

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Article referenced in the podcast: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2022/benefits-of-ai-driven-supply-chain 

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In this episode, host Michael Marchuk talks with Maureen Burns about her book "Winning with Purpose" that was co-authored with Fred Reichheld and Darci Darnell. We'll be exploring how the primary purpose of a business should be to enrich the lives of its customers which leads generating good profits.  This enrichment is directly linked to the digital transformation efforts that organizations are using to reach their customers in a more personalized way.

Here’s what we talked with Maureen about:

To read more on this subject, check out Maureen's book, Winning with Purpose: https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Purpose-Unbeatable-Strategy-Customers/dp/1647821789

To listen to our first podcast with Maureen, "Will the Bots Love Your Customers": https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/102-will-the-bots-love-your-customers/id1500724425?i=1000531643044

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On this podcast, Brad Hairston is joined by Mike Bechtel, Chief Futurist of Deloitte Consulting, who breaks down six key tech trends in 2023 impacting innovation and foundational business areas.

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Here’s what we talked with Mike about:

*The role of the Chief Futurist at Deloitte Consulting

*Macro-technology forces that are the backbone of information technology

*The top 2023 tech trends that align with all of these forces

*How innovation is as much about cross pollination as it is about creativity

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Link to Deloitte’s Tech Trends 2023 report discussed in this podcast:  https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/tech-trends.html

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