Skip to main content

Speaking AI (artifical intelligence)


You're talking but I can't hear you.  Everyone can certainly understand this condition; the "Peanuts" parents who sounded exactly like your own, your significant other while you watch your favorite game on TV, or most importantly a work colleague or partner which you are attempting to communicate a thought or vision.  All of these, and many other examples, have plagued our organizations long past the childhood game of telephone (passing your words to another, and on to another, etc.). 



So what?  What has changed?  Besides the velocity of products hitting the market, the requirements that we have for our business now needs to be interpreted by data scientists, yet another abstraction layer from the field conditions.  Think about this example;

  • TODAY:  we often think in binary terms, if "x" happens do "y" …  take a sales person seeking potential leads by searching a system for the last time we made contact
  • TOMMORROW:  consider variables that you may have discounted due to the complexity of obtaining and correlating the information.. In contrast to our sales scenario above, proactively feed leads to a sales person in real time using algorithms designed to increase the odds of closing a sale, looking at email sentiment, appointments, breaking news or social trends.



After several opportunities to work with data scientists on projects over the last few years, I believe that one of the most effective forms of communicating thoughts is via "storytelling".  Consider this approach and put down, on one page, your thoughts related to what a machine learning algorithm can and should do for you.  Sections may include a goal, impact, before, driving the point, conclusion, after.  Dare to dream, think about all of the factors which impact intelligent decisions.  If you were to replicate your thought process and reflect on what you would do different given "x" results in the future, you are on your way to "speaking AI"



The time is now to start building strong AI capabilities as these take time to perfect and farm useful data (to be used for predictive and prescriptive modeling) in the future. 



-----

Next post:  in the "people" business can you really measure performance?

Questions?  feel free to leave replies or direct message me

See all of the "last mile worker" posts here:  http://lastmileworker.com

-----

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

suggesting is NOT selling

People and companies want to buy from people that they trust.   The individual which possesses the broadest set of knowledge will gain the most credibility and as a result yield high levels of trust.   When I was in the field I definitely had the ear of the customer and for the most part discussed areas that needed improvement or replacement. At no moment was I ever, at least in my mind, selling. Instead, as I think back on those days, I believe I was simply "suggesting". Take an immediate need, add in a trusted advisor and a credible suggestion, you will most likely get a sale. However, this is not selling. From my non-salesman perspective I would sum up the following related to the sales process; sales is not a single event but instead a sequence of connection points which create a positive experience that leads to a purchase . Over the years I've been fortunate to have known many different types of salespeople in different industries and I believe that they a...

In$pired

As the steam from Avid Andy's coffee fogged his glasses on this crisp January morning, he reflected on last year and thought enthusiastically about the year ahead.   Sometimes the noise of business is deafening, we rarely take the time to contemplate our moves, instead are often thrown one direction or another.   Hey, face it, if you are reading posts to gain perspective you fall in the group of folks who pride themselves as obsequious hoop-jumpers.   We live to help others and expect that all of those around us feel the same way.   I just love Influential Irene.   Okay, it is out in the open, she is an inspiration for me and so many others.   Irene reminds folks every year, without fail, these three statements which she fondly refers to as "the punchline" (although this is no joke).   Businesses, of any size, will be successful if they remember that it is people that make a company.   Put this advice into practice, today: Sincerity |...

focus on your annuity base, come on man..

Stick with what you know and repeat often. When I think about maintenance, regardless of type of contract, I think about consistency, consistency, consistency. The motivation behind writing this post is to encourage you to either build or bolster your existing maintenance base, here are some things to consider: most maintenance contracts should yield between 5% and 7% additional revenue above and beyond the contract value.   Building trust between you and your clients organization will result in additional service activity. Full risk contracts, or those where you were charging one flat amount and taking all of the financial risk, can be profitable.   Watch out for the age of the equipment, service call track record, and customer disposition pull-through opportunities can be constrained with full risk contracts unless the scope of work is very specific. This can be a bit of a slippery slope. The perception of a...