Have you noticed the shift in focus of the evolving digital expert? We have… The Gapingvoid team and I have collaborated on many projects over the last decade. Our work has focused on prodding executives and entrepreneurs to think differently in their approaches to digital Darwinism and disruption. Whether we’re speaking to startups about the next big thing, attempting to humanize corporate culture and innovation or exploring ways to engage audiences in more meaningful ways, art and story carry our…
AI, Chatbots and Designing the Next Generation of Automated Customer Engagement
No matter how much sweetness or spin you add to it, early incarnations of AI-powered chatbots are the call centers of this generation. They’re cool. They’re scalable. They’re relatively inexpensive compared to human agents. Yes, chatbots scale engagement through new, popular messaging channels and introduce conversational commerce capabilities that carry the potential to deliver incredible experiences. But here’s the thing…most of the interactions are basic, seeking to replicate existing transactions and experiences that only seem to wow those designing not…
If we don’t disrupt ourselves, it will be a gift given to us by someone else
We all talk of change. But it’s a much different story when the need to change becomes our reflection in the mirror. It’s not easy. But if we are to affect any change around us, we must begin with ourselves. Disruption is a give given by you or to you. It’s a choice. Let’s go. We’re in this together. Brian Solis Brian Solis is principal analyst and futurist at Altimeter, the digital analyst group at Prophet, Brian is world renowned keynote speaker and…
Innovation Begins with a Shift in Perspective; It’s Personal
The team at Ode Management asked me to introductory video for their audience of event planners, speaker bureaus and agents. The topic was innovation and my mission was to keep it casual and brief, with a target length of two minutes. I guess I was too excited. On my first take, I overshot that goal by 10 minutes and needed to re-record it. However, I couldn’t bring myself to delete this though! Instead, I wanted to share it with you here. This video was meant…
Why Disruptive Technology is Hijacking Your Customers
Disruptive technology is not just a commodity anymore; it has become a necessity. I recently met with Rilke Thomsen of Sleeknote to talk about how disruptive technology is shaping customer behaviors, preferences and expectations. Our conversation turned into a short but interesting three-part audio series that I wanted to share with you here. What is disruptive technology? Disruptive technology is something that comes along early on and has the potential to disrupt markets, behavior, and processes models. According to Brian, there are three…
Why tech companies are uniting to fight Trump’s immigration ban
In February 2017, My good friend Matt Kapko of CIO asked a few tech pundits, “Why tech companies are uniting to fight Trump’s immigration ban?” The result was published here. A group of 127 technology companies, including Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Snap and Twitter, filed an amicus brief (official friend-of-the-court brief) in the pending lawsuits opposing the administration’s executive order. Per the filing, the heavy hitting tech consortium attested that immigration is core to technology innovation. “Immigrants make many…
Uber’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad String Of Events
Uber is en route to a massive IPO. As the company gets closer to its destination, its once 5-star rating is rapidly diminishing. As a result, the company’s president, Jeff Jones, opened the Uber door and jumped out after only six months on the job. The list of recent offenses, not all incidents since its launch, just some of the events over the last several weeks, have been very public and damning. To name a few… Uber CEO Travis Kalanick joined…
Techonomics: Disruptive Technologies and The Effect on Business and Humanity
My friend Jason Middleton hosts a fascinating program on KGO 810 in San Francisco/Silicon Valley…Techonomics. On the show, he interviews some of the most interesting minds in tech to explore the latest trends and what’s on the horizon. Jason recently invited me to join the program and I jumped at the chance. I wanted to share our conversation with you here… In 9 action-packed minutes we discuss: – The need for changemakers and rainmakers – The importance of digital anthropology…
Level Up: An Introduction to the 5 Different Levels of Self-Driving Cars
With all of the talk about self-driving cars, you’d think that they were already on our streets. Well, technically in some states such as California, Nevada and Pennsylvania, automakers and technology vendors are already publicly testing autonomous vehicles¾with human drivers and engineers onboard. You might have also heard about the Tesla’s driving around town in “Autopilot” mode where drivers are doing everything but driving. Not all autonomous cars are the same. While engineers are striving for full self-driving mode one…
Google’s Autonomous Driving Group Spins Out as Waymo; Becomes the Android of Self-Driving Cars
This week, Google surprised the technology and automotive industries by announcing that it would spin-out its self-driving vehicle group as a formal business unit under the Alphabet umbrella. What does Waymo mean? Waymo CEO John Krafcik explained at its press conference that the company name stands for, “Way forward in Mobility.” After years of speculation as to whether or not Google (now Waymo) would introduce its own fleet of self-driving cars, its now clear that the company will become an enabling partner…
