People are buying from people again given the chance and customer service and customer experience – that’s CX to the professionals – is leaving technology behind. That’s if you can afford it. Virna Sekuj of research organisation GlobalWebIndex speaks to #nearfuturist Guy Clapperton to discuss why people are coming back to the centre at a cost, where privacy is going a, why we’re becoming cashless nd a great deal more.

A 20 minute podcast, and the penultimate episode of the year!

If you like what you hear, feel free to leave a review. Thank you!

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Near Futurist Guy Clapperton talks to Berndt Greifeneder, founder of Dynatrace, on the nature of artificial intelligence – what do we mean by it, what should we mean and how many businesses or public sector entities actually ask for it?

Greifeneder also has reservations connected to AI’s use in airports, in autonomous vehicles and elsewhere. Even as a practitioner, he has serious misgivings which he discusses openly in this latest edition.

Have you enjoyed the Near Futurist? It would be great if you could rate it or review it wherever you download from – it will help add to the thousands who already listen. Thank you!

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The #nearfuturist podcast is a year old this week! But is that who it sounds like congratulating us at the beginning of this episode? Guy Clapperton talks to Matthew Aylett of Cereproc, who finally comes clean about where the name came from but more importantly talks identity, identity theft and how the voice control market is in danger of leaving people behind.

Synthesised voices are in use for many applications including late night radio presenters and airport announcers, and of course there are medical applications if someone is likely to lose the ability to speak permanently. But what are the downsides?

I hope you’ll enjoy this episode – and whether you’ve been with me throughout my first year or just joining me for this one, welcome! If you like what you hear, why not leave a review on the iTunes Store or wherever you get your podcasts from?

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Smart Cities are becoming a thing, and Simon Kenny of Hoptroff believes he knows what will make them work – super-accurate timing.

But there will also be massive data storage and who’s going to pay for that – and what will they want in return? Guy Clapperton discusses the ethical as well as technical issues in this 20 minute programme.

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Nation states may be attacking our water supplies and other basic utilities but there are steps we can take. Galina Antova, co-founder of Claroty, talks near futurist Guy Clapperton through the issues.

And yes, she does clarify how certain she is when accusing nation states of crimes!

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Do you own a business and base its value on your intellectual property? This may be a bad move if Ross Mason of Mulesoft is right in his conversation with Near Futurist Guy Clapperton. He sees a future in which we build value from components and from data.

He also looks into AI and ethics and is cautious about the effect it’s all having on the world – politics, elections, everything, and it’s being left to the tech companies to police themselves.

If you enjoy what you hear, please feel free to leave a review on the iTunes Store or wherever you download from.

The producer has a new computer and there’s something odd about the sound setup – don’t adjust your own system, the slight distortion is an effect at this end.

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Can you be humble but confident? Ambitious but human? Alison Maitland of Lane4 thinks it’s going to be essential in the next evolution of management thinking. She talks to Near Futurist Guy Clapperton about where management thinking is going and why she thinks this – and why it’s not just another passing fad (which was of course one of the things I asked).

And yes thanks, I had a very nice month off – back to the usual fortnightly schedule now!

 

If you like this show please recommend it to friends and visit the website at nearfuturist.net

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The robots are coming and they will make low-grade, tedious jobs redundant, that’s a given by now. Guy Clapperton’s interviewees this week, James Ewing of Digital Workforce and Oleg Rogynsky of People.ai, welcome the prospect – but they are concerned there needs to be regulations and at this stage the nearest we have come from Isaac Asimov (which is fine and people keep quoting it but as Guy points out, that’s actually a work of fiction).

This episode looks at ethics, regulation and just how intelligent robotic process automation (RPA) is becoming.

 

If you enjoy the episode, please do leave a review somewhere – and please note I’m taking a summer break like the rest of the world, the Near Futurist podcast will return on 30 August. 

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It’s 50 years ago this week that Neil Armstrong first stepped out of Apollo 11 and onto the moon’s surface, followed by Buzz Aldrin (and don’t you feel sorry for Michael Collins, who had to stay in the capsule for the duration). Cooped up, uncomfortable – and of course we’re still travelling in space, to the International Space Station and back.

So who looks after the comfort of the modern astronauts, how do they get the data and how do they process it? Near Futurist Guy Clapperton had a chat with David Meza, knowledge architect at NASA, about how the process of gradual learning and improvement works.

Like the show? Why not leave a review wherever you pick it up from, or have a look at the website at nearfuturist.co.uk to subscribe or pick up more episodes?

The Near Futurist was recently listed in the Top 10 Futurist Podcasts – my thanks to Anuj and the team for its inclusion.

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Have you heard the one about the toothbrush that uses artificial intelligence to tell you to brush harder? Morey Haber of BeyondTrust has and it annoys him intensely. He’s seen a company sued because it claimed basic pattern recognition was AI and it just wasn’t – and he’s had enough.

In this episode of the Near Futurist, he explains his view to Guy Clapperton – and how marketers calling everything AI are ultimately over-valuing their companies and their assets, against everyone’s interests but their own.Near 

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