Everyday AI Podcast – An AI and ChatGPT Podcast - EP 23: Using AI in the C-Suite for Human Connectivity

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is the Everyday AI Show, the Everyday Podcast where we simplify AI and bring its power to your fingertips. Listen daily for practical advice to boost your career, business, and everyday life. Meet Firefly AI Assistant, now live in Adobe Firefly, the All In One Creative AI Studio. Just describe what you want to create and the assistant handles the rest, orchestrating multi-step workflows across Photoshop, Premiere Express, and more in one conversational interface. You direct the outcome. The assistant accelerates execution. Are AI companies going to be having too much impact on the stock market?

Starting point is 00:00:52 So that's one of the things that we're going to be talking about today on everyday AI, your daily live stream podcast and newsletter helping everyday people like you and me and so many of us out there, not just understand what's going on in the world of AI, but to actually use it. So one special guest today helping us all do that is, George Alafragis, the executive board member from the Cybersecurity Global Alliance. George, good morning. Welcome to the show. Good morning, Jordan.

Starting point is 00:01:21 Thank you so much for inviting me. Yeah, excited to get into it. So before we talk a little bit about George's unique background and how AI is going to be impacting kind of the C-suite in general, let's go over what's happening today in AI. So kind of what we opened there with is, is AI companies having too much impact on the stock market? you know, kind of impacts all of our daily lives, whether we realize it or not. So, InVIDIA yesterday, which is one of the main companies creating these GPU chips, that power generative AI, they said, hey, we're going to be producing a ton more of these chips.

Starting point is 00:01:56 And what happened is all of these AI-related companies saw a cumulative $300 billion added in market cap after that announcement. Wild. George, what's your thoughts? You know, even just seeing how you know one or two companies like this can have such an impact on the on on on the market yeah absolutely i think it's it's more than well um it's unprecedented i do think it's a little bit over estimated over exaggerated at this point um i don't get me wrong i think there's tremendous potential um and i'm really excited to see concretely how um companies commercialize Gen. AI and really advanced different sectors. I will say it's going to, without a doubt, disrupt every single industry. So with that, there's a ton of opportunity. There's also a ton of

Starting point is 00:02:50 downside, but I think it's very early on to just kind of estimate that it's going to have this type of impact on the economy especially. Yeah. So speaking of disruption, George, one company trying to disrupt Open AI and ChatGPT, kind of our second news piece of, the day is Anthropic. So Anthropic is the parent company to Cloud. We haven't talked about cloud on the show a lot, but it's another large language model similar to GPT. So Anthropic announced yesterday that they raised $450 million, so almost half a billion to compete with OpenAI and chat GPT. One important thing to note to the everyday listener out there who maybe doesn't follow large language models as closely as we do here at everyday AI.

Starting point is 00:03:39 So so many of these AI chats are based off of GPT. So Anthropics Cloud is one of the only ones that's not. Aside from Google Bard, it is the only large one to be on its own kind of language model. George, how do you see this affecting, you know, the everyday person or do you see it affecting? It's a good question. I don't think it'll have a near-term impact. right away. What's incredible with Chad GPT is they are definitely the frontrunners and the category leaders, right? So if we look at history, if you're a category leader, you are the one

Starting point is 00:04:16 who has already captured, I would say, the majority of the mind share. And because it's so accessible and it's democratized genetic reality so well, folks are continuously kind of gravitating towards going back to chat GPT. Right. It's exciting, though, because there are so many large language models out there, and we're not only going to see destruction and innovation in terms of how companies leverage this technology or embedded within their existing offerings, create new offerings, but we're also going to see competition amongst these players, right? So that's going to actually further accelerate the pace of innovation.

Starting point is 00:04:57 And if we take a step back and look at it through either a data science lens or really the foundation, the foundational components of how this technology is built, I'm even more excited about how they're going to complement one another, and once you actually bring them all together, the level of sophistication, I think, is beyond what we've seen before. Yeah, it's great, great points, and excited to dive into that more a little bit later in the show. Kind of another news piece of the day to get your take on real quick here, George.

Starting point is 00:05:31 So Opera, the browser, Maybe you've used it, maybe you haven't, but they're kind of, you know, maybe number four, number five in the browser wars. So they announced, yeah, so they announced yesterday, you know, in one of the busiest days in AI news in a very long time. So they kind of announced that they are releasing an update or a huge refresh to their browser that essentially bakes in chat GPT into their sidebar, allowing you to chat with any web page that you're on. George, is this going to affect your plans at all? Are you going to go download opera after this call? No. If I'm being really honestly, I will.

Starting point is 00:06:11 Yeah, I know. It's hard, too, because I think Microsoft Bing, you know, they kind of released this functionality a month or so ago. And I think people who wanted to have that functionality probably flocked to, you know, Microsoft Bing, you know, or sorry, Microsoft Edge is their browser. So, all right. So kind of... And it's interesting, just kind of quickly there.

Starting point is 00:06:33 I mean, we can't forget that we're also managing change, right? And behavioral change. So it's not because Bing released this feature that all of a sudden, all of the market share of Google is going to, you know, automatically kind of go over to Bing. I think a lot of us tried it. But how many of us are still using it, right? So that's really where we're going to continuously monitor an adoption curve. And it's not going to be as easy as let me just, you know, integrate this type of technology and then imagine that I'm going to go from fourth to third just because of that.

Starting point is 00:07:08 Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. I think a lot of companies just think they can, you know, throw some AI products into their offering and it's going to, you know, catapult them. So here's, as we transition, George, a little bit into your background, another kind of piece to focus on. So a company in your space, InfoSys announced Topaz. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. I'm not sure if I am. So this is working with enterprise companies. They are emphasis is wrapping up all of these deep learning models, machine learning, generative AI.

Starting point is 00:07:44 It was hard to get details because it was just a lot of, you know, pre-packaged things. So, George, as we kind of get into your background, you know, what do you make of this emphasis news? and how do you see this moving forward in the future with, you know, larger companies that work with enterprise clients, you know, kind of packaging up, you know, these AI offerings? So, good question. I think we're going to see a lot of it coming up.

Starting point is 00:08:13 Actually, I saw different news with Telos International, which is also in the space and now in something really similar. So quite frankly, you already hit the nail on the head. It's repackaging. It's more repackaging of, existing offerings that have been there before because truthfully, a lot of the foundational blocks are the same, right? And companies like InfoSys, IBM, Cognizant, TELUS International, there are quite a few. And then there's a ton of more boutique firms or more vertically aligned firms that are, and within that space,

Starting point is 00:08:47 are really well positioned to help enterprise clients advance across this journey just because of those foundational components and blocks that we've already leveraged so much either in product development, and system integration. So I think they're going to be well positioned. Is it early? Yes and no. So I think there's going to be a lot more, I think there's going to be a huge focus on proofs of concepts more so than anything else. And that's the right approach. I mean, McKinsey as well will be there in that space, Deloitte, all of the digital arms of the big consulting firms also. So my concern already is how much of that will actually be different and unique in terms of really assisting, you know, the large enterprises and then enabling them across that journey. So it'll be interesting to see how all that evolves and how those organizations also create differentiation within their offerings and then true impact.

Starting point is 00:09:46 But I think it's going to be a huge focus on proofs of concepts to start, which is why. Yeah. So, you know, now as we kind of, you know, talk a little bit about your background, George, talk a little bit kind of, you know, what you're doing in the day to day, but then also how AI, you know, so far has kind of been used or leverage in your industry. Adobe just introduced an entirely new way to create, bringing the power and precision of its creative suite into one conversational experience. Meet Firefly AI Assistant, now live in the Adobe Firefly app, the All In One Creative AI Studio. Powered by Adobe's Creative Agent, Firefly AI Assistant lets you start with your vision,

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Starting point is 00:11:28 So good question. So I'm fortunate where I live and serve a few industries. So high tech being one of them, former CEO of SRIES. So we actually were just acquired by Orion Innovation. And there is a ton of internal experimentation going on within that space. We have to keep in mind that there are very few inventors of generaer and we are adopting the technology as we go, right? So we are already though, because of how the technology was built, we are able to

Starting point is 00:12:05 start creating new offerings really, really quickly. So within that space, I would say the component that's most leverage is actually co-pilot. So enabling it across our development teams to develop faster and smarter. So that, I would say, is a huge area of prioritization and focus and one that's been adopted very quickly and one that's really valuable, right? Because again, what I've seen in terms of offerings is there's a lot of buzz, there's a lot of excitement, and it's fair, and it's the right type of excitement to have. But then as you go deeper into actually trying it, experimenting and then asking yourself, how much will this really impact my day-to-day, it doesn't always hit the mark, right and it kind of stays at that surface level whereas co-pilot is definitely one that is

Starting point is 00:13:00 helping us advance our development and then respective innovation really quickly so that's one of the ones that we've leveraged quite a bit and then I think a lot of organizations who are deploying these new technologies are actually leveraging as well because they're they're enabling their developers to develop at light speed at this point sure no yeah it's It's speed is the name of the game, right? Being able to do things in minutes or hours that used to take, you know, days or weeks, I think is the name of the game. Yeah, yeah, months. Great, great point.

Starting point is 00:13:35 George, I think you'll do this better than I can. You know, can you kind of explain to the everyday person, just kind of what your role actually entails. You know, I'm keeping up with it, but, you know, for, I think you'll just be able to say it better. So kind of like, what does your day-to-day look like from a high level so we can dig a little bit deeper? Yeah, of course. So like I said, former CEO, but the day-to-day life was really focused on helping drive the entire business forward. So looking at all the various teams across the organization. Sorrius was a global organization. So we had various delivery centers across the world. My main focus has been go-to-market. So that's really where I'm able to bring a concrete value.

Starting point is 00:14:20 And within the go-to-market teams, it's really where. sales, marketing, partnerships, customer success all come together and go to market to support new endeavors, new projects, growth, and also support existing clients and projects. So it's making sure that all of that is running extremely smoothly, that there's a right level of structure, governance, the right teams in place, the right operating models. And that's, you know, we're looking at existing and what's important for. for this year, but also responsible to look at what's important for the organization in the next two, three to five years. So doing that more longer term strategic planning and at the Cybersecurity

Starting point is 00:15:03 Global Alliance, it's so I'm part of the executive board and that's where we look at strategic priorities. We look at the roadmap. We look at the key initiatives that are that are underway. We're providing guidance on those. We're signing off on them and there's obviously a a significant level of governance around making sure that we are, you know, making the right decisions and that we're also, you know, challenging ourselves to do better and to do differently. Yeah. You know, one question, you know, I'm curious, you know, you say as you're planning out the next, you know, years, I think that at least even for me, and I'm sure a lot of people, that can seem daunting in the age of AI, right, when there's so many new advancements. Yeah, so how do you handle that, you know, creating actual plans or potential infrastructure

Starting point is 00:15:58 for large teams? How do you handle that when you're looking years in the future when sometimes it seems like it's hard to keep up with, you know, all of these advancements on a day-to-day basis? It's a good question. It's actually never been harder because of those advancements, right? So what's interesting with, you know, this new technology is really it's reinventing our playground almost on a daily or it has the potential to, right? So now it is to your point, actually, and it's a great point, even harder to be able to plan for the future. That being said, it provides a different mindset and framework in terms of the possibilities, how.

Starting point is 00:16:47 how endless and how that possibility looks so different. So you still need to come together as a team and ask yourself, okay, where do we need to be now in this age of, you know, infinite innovation and disruption? Where do we need to be next year? Where do we need to be in three years? How are we going to now reinvent our playground? And what does that actually mean given this new environment?

Starting point is 00:17:15 are we staying within that playground? Are we actually reinventing ourselves completely? So again, these are questions that we wouldn't traditionally ask ourselves as often before, whereas now it's top of mind, right? And you also need to be very close to your clients and the different industries you serve to understand like how are those industries going to get disrupted because that's really going to be at the heart of a lot of this innovation right and a lot of a lot of this evolution so so so we're also looking at it through an industry lens because although you may feel or you may think as an organization

Starting point is 00:18:00 that you either don't need to reinvent as much or you have a thesis that you want to start experimenting and deploying and working towards you also need to take a step back and look at it from an industry level, how is that industry going to potentially evolve and what is it going to look like? You know, even, that's a great point. So even when you're looking at, you know, change across industries, a lot of times that change is driven by the leaders, by people in the C-suite. You know, how do you see that working, you know, but so in my head, right, I think, oh, if the C-suite is pushing AI, and using that as part of a long-term strategic vision, you're potentially losing that human connectivity, right?

Starting point is 00:18:49 So how do you see that happening on AI, pushing organizational change, but still maintaining that human connectivity in leadership? Or is it possible, or is that one of the biggest challenges? Like, how do you see that playing out? Great question. I'm not seeing enough of it. So I'm definitely concerned on that front.

Starting point is 00:19:13 The reason I say that is we are over-indexing and making it all about the technology and not making it enough about the people because we have to keep in mind that it's human beings who built this technology, right? And we are still going to remain the pioneers and innovators behind this technology, although there's debate around, you know, AI and its capacity to start doing a lot of things on its own. So that being said, I think there has to be an even greater focus on the people. I think as Genovii emerges, the conversation needs to shift a lot more towards responsible, purpose-driven technology that truthfully empowers evolution, but also focuses on accelerating human

Starting point is 00:19:58 achievement. So it's really reframing it around human augmentation and that being at the core. why like and why it's, you know, it's normal that we're seeing co-pilot grow so quickly or being adopted so quickly is even as how it's branded. It's, you know, we should be viewing AI as a co-pilot to all of different functions, right? So I see HR, business leaders, CXOs, and IT, and if you, you know, are fortunate to have chief transformation officers all come together. and one of the priorities that I think needs to be discussed and really solidified is how are we going to upscale our workforce? How are we going to create the next generation of impactful roles?

Starting point is 00:20:44 With that, then you're setting yourself up for success to continue to stay ahead of the game and to think through different scenarios and different potential futures that you didn't necessarily think about before because it's a completely different playground right now. So it's really embracing AI automation, emerging technologies, but doing that through a cultural lens and bringing your people together, not creating actually too much kind of scare tactics in terms of what it means in terms of eliminating my role, but more so how is it going to augment that role? And then yes, there's going to be productivity gains across that.

Starting point is 00:21:25 And yes, there will be financial gains from that as well, but the focus needs to be on really human achievement. And then with that human achievement comes the organizational achievement. Yeah. You bring up a fascinating point that I haven't even thought about a lot, even the naming of the AI, right? And what that says about, you know, companies who are using it on a day-to-day basis and implementing it, you know, co-pilot. It's like, oh, that makes sense. You know, so they want their AI to actually be viewed. as bringing humans together and co-piloting something and, you know, Google duet.

Starting point is 00:22:00 So same thing. So interesting point. Thanks for bringing that up. So I know we already went a little bit over George, but I have to ask you one last question. So as you, you know, as someone working with large teams, you know, I think there's a lot of listeners who can are helping drive those teams. So, you know, small business CEOs or, you know, maybe people out there leading departments. So what's your maybe piece of advice or maybe one thing that you've learned so far in your experience leveraging AI? You know, what's kind of that one takeaway or one piece of advice that you can give to the everyday person to actually use AI to create something positive on the back end?

Starting point is 00:22:47 It's a great question. I guess two things come to mind really building off what I shared, which is focusing on how are we going to accelerate human achievement, how are we going to augment our human capital, our team members. I think that's what's extremely important. Where I would start is, and this model actually, because we're all learning as well as we go, and this model came from one of McKinsey's conversations is the two by two model, which is simple but impactful and those are the models I love the most.

Starting point is 00:23:25 So the two by two model is basically approaching. it in a way where you tackle two use cases within your organization that don't require a lot of change management. So we spoke about change management earlier, right? We can't forget that that remains a huge enabler or disabling innovation if you don't approach that properly. We've been talking about digital transformation for more than a decade. Yet a lot of organizations still struggle within at the core of it is because of the lack of change management. So I would say first and foremost, the two-by-two model is really interesting because you start with two-use cases. that are simple don't require law of change management but still bring value to your employee

Starting point is 00:24:02 experience. So make it about the employee experience first and then look at two more sophisticated use cases that will require a lot more innovation and change management and focus those on your customer experience. So how are you creating a creative value for your customers? So by looking at it through that lens, you have a framework that you can work within and you've already created some parameters that are actionable and meaningful for both your employees and your customers. Wow. A lot, a lot to digest in a very short amount of time. George, that was very insightful. So thank you so much for joining the Everyday AI show. I appreciate it. Likewise. Thanks so much for having me.

Starting point is 00:24:45 All right. So thank you for watching, listening. Make sure to go to Your EverydayAI.com. Check out former episodes or previous episodes of the podcast. Also subscribe to the newsletter. So a lot of the things that George talked about, we're going to have more resources. We'll send some more information about the two-by-two model that he referenced as well.

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Everyday AI Podcast – An AI and ChatGPT Podcast - EP 23: Using AI in the C-Suite for Human Connectivity

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