Monday, March 18, 2024

Can Generative AI Teach Us to Be Kinder?

Kinder is the sixth song on the album (see below), which encourages us to focus on being kinder. The harmonies in this song illustrate the collaboration needed to make it through life. We asked AI to show happy people in a pretty park who were gathered together in a loving way. Next, we asked AI to show people how loving and kind people are to animals. After that segment, we asked AI to show people being kind to older folks who are in need of help. Then we asked AI to show friendly folks at a food pantry that were welcoming and warm. AI finishes with a walk down a path, waving a greeting to all who pass by. AI can show us kindness with a bit of scripting and prompting from humans. Click here for the short Generative AI Video




“Ready or Not” is the name of my second album, which is about being a better human being, which we all struggle with on a daily basis. Ethan Foxx is my co-writer/creative producer/guitar/drums, and Jimmy (CAT) Caterine is our creative engineer and lead guitarist, both of whom are my mentors on my musical journey. Our team was assisted by Pete Crane, with great bass playing. Wonderful strings by Cathie King. Great keyboard boosts and a terrific trumpet solo from Eric Barker. A lovely harmonica outro by Robert Vincent. A steaming blues lead guitar and solo by the talented Don Supplee. Lead vocals by me. If you want to be notified when the album starts streaming, send me your email at jim.sinur@gmail.com. If you want in on a CD when they arrive, add your snail mail address, and I’ll take care of the rest of the pre-order process. Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy the music.


Additional AI Videos

Forgive 

Spiritual Treasure

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Operationalize AI Effectively with Processes

AI and processes go together very well, and the risk of trying AI in processes is pretty low, as process resources can all benefit from being more competent and reacting faster to changing conditions. AI is typically aimed at traditional/everyday processes. Still, organizations are also looking at more game-changing impacts related to new products where innovative business models can be trialed with processes and data. AI also aims to address emerging business changes that show new opportunities and threats. It’s not just pure automation and optimization, though there continue to be benefit pools there. Processes are often the basis of organizational actions that cross internal and external boundaries. These processes often employ resources that could benefit from AI’s assistance, especially where knowledge, decision-making, and agile optimization based on changing or emerging goals are required. I was asked to write a white paper on operationalizing AI in and around processes. This paper is available for free from a processes vendor called Agilepoint. 






There are a number of blog posts on AI here, as well as processes. here are some exciting posts on AI

AI Posts




Sunday, March 10, 2024

Another Assist From Genereative AI

Spiritual Treasure is the second song on the album(see below) that speaks about some of the distractions that take us all away from being the true spiritual creatures we are under the veneer of our carbon-based presence. We asked AI to show a busy city where many of us hustle for our existence as the opening of this video. Next, AI helped depict people seeking attention online to expand their digital presence. AI depicts the spiritual aspects of us represented by a cathedral and the family tribe in various activities of love and community. Click here for a short video generated by AI for our song.





“Ready or Not” is the name of my second album, which is about being a better human being, which we all struggle with on a daily basis. Ethan Foxx is my co-writer/creative producer/guitar/drums, and Jimmy (CAT) Caterine is our creative engineer and lead guitarist, both of whom are my mentors on my musical journey. Our team was assisted by Pete Crane, with great bass playing. Lead vocals by me. If you want to be notified when the album starts streaming, send me your email at jim.sinur@gmail.com. If you want in on a CD when they arrive, add your snail mail address, and I’ll take care of the rest of the pre-order process. Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy the music.

Additional AI Videos

Forgive 

Monday, March 4, 2024

Generative AI and Music

Sitting in the middle of arts mixed with science, I get to have fun with the mixology of some of the ingredients. In the past, I've published posts about art and AI and written white papers on AI and processes. This time the mixology includes generative AI and Music where AI matches my music with a script I've written. The Script lays the basic storyline, and AI fills in the details, creating marketing music videos. I have one link below pointing to one of my experiments. I hope you like it. Comments are welcome.

Click here for a short AI-generated video designed to match the music. 

“Ready or Not” is the name of my second album, which is about being a better human being, which we all struggle with on a daily basis. Ethan Foxx is my co-writer/creative producer/guitar/drums, and Jimmy (CAT) Caterine is our creative engineer and lead guitarist, both of whom are my mentors on my musical journey. Our team was ably assisted with great bass playing by Pete Crane. Wonderful strings by Cathie King. Lead vocals by me. If you want to be notified when the album starts streaming, send me your email at jim.sinur@gmail.com. If you want in on a CD when they arrive, add your snail mail address, and I’ll take care of the rest of the pre-order process. Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy the music.

Forgive is the third song on the album that speaks about the weight of unforgiveness that plagues the forgiver until they let go. The stones in the video represent the unforgiveness in this AI-generated video. Click here for a short AI-generated video designed to match the music. 


Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Top 5 Technology Trends for 2024


Last week, I published the Top 5 Business Trends for 2024 (click here), and this week, I narrowed down several technology trends to my top 5 that organizations need to start responding to intensely in 2024.

Harnessing Usable AI

Most organizations will probably have some form of the many types of AI in progress. Progress could range from experimentation to production-enabled and active in several business and technology domains. Since organizations do not fear another AI Winter because of broad-based data-driven successes, they are looking to take advantage of various kinds of AI (click here for AI Tributaries and Types for 2024). Significant efforts in and around Natural Language Processing (NLP) will allow for human understanding and appropriate responses like generating human-like interfaces in chatbots and language translation services, for example. There will be more virtual assistants that will supercharge customers and employees to be more effective even beyond their inherent knowledge and skill levels. It will expand AI to voice, image, and video analysis to create a more inclusive context for decisions and actions for carbon-based participants and robotic assistants. There will be an emphasis on emotion recognition to deal with the human factors of doing business. This new capability and power will need to be protected, so intelligent cybersecurity will get a boost to detect and prevent threats leveraging AI. Expect organizations to use AI until governance issues become the focus.




Leveraging Intelligent Customer Experiences and Processes/Applications

Organizations will likely start switching from flow-directed approaches to goal-directed ones where the flow is based on the changing goals of a customer journey or process. Savvy organizations will include their goals with the goals of customers, partners, and employees in the goal-directed approaches and balance seemingly conflicting objectives in a balanced approach. Personalization will now consider goals and measure feedback through real-time observation and analysis. Of course, better user experiences and omni-channel experiences will continue as table stakes, but more will be demanded. User-centered design employing more gamification components will play a role as AI and algorithms will expand their reach to customers, employees, and partners to advance Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Human/ tech collaboration will get a fresh look, including new forms of augmented reality over time. Continuous improvement and aggressive automation will continue in times of stability; however, changing conditions may unhinge current optimization patterns. Intelligence will be used to adapt processes and user experiences more acceleratedly. Organizations will leverage predictive methods and more aggressive scenario management and monitoring. It will be a necessity with supply chain shifts and optimization particularly.

Moving to Convergent Business and Technology Platforms

While individual technology stacks bring benefits, costs, and challenges, organizations will eagerly watch for the convergence of focused functionality into platforms that more easily integrate technology functions to enable faster and cheaper business results. Desire will force broader technology options at a more affordable cost and potential mergers and buyouts. Convergence will create aggregated specialty platforms and generalized digital business platforms. The effect is fewer vendors to manage for organizations and more integrated business/technical functionality. Examples include generalized Digital Business Platforms (DBP), Business Application/Package Platforms, Sales/Customer Platforms, Process Platforms, Collaboration Platforms, Data Science/Analytic Platforms, Automation Platforms, Lowcode Platforms, Cloud Platforms, Data Mesh Platforms, and Security Platforms. For a quick overview of the players, click here. I expect AI platforms to emerge as success is experienced and integration becomes necessary.

Building on Intelligent Infrastructure

As all business-driven intelligence and agility become a competitive weapon, the need for intelligent infrastructure will emerge quickly. It means that the infrastructure players that leverage AI and analytics in either a reactive or proactive manner will flourish. It will create a race to intelligence under the covers of processes, systems, and applications. Edge computing and IoT integration are perfect examples of where putting intelligence at the edge or even outside of a business process will be necessary. First, it will be monitored soon after there will be recognition of the need for decisions close to the edge and intelligent actions to deal with the changing conditions. Eventually, AI-driven intelligent bots or agents will be brokering response patterns at the edge. Examples of success today would include Smart Cities infrastructure. Digital twins will flourish in intelligent infrastructure, leveraging clever hybrid and multi-cloud along with smart data meshes. All of this will require smart security that is blockchain-enabled. In the future, quantum computing exploration will keep a watchful eye on the swarms of agile AI bots responding to infrastructure and business needs.

Living with Governed Leverage with Sustainability

Like it or not, organizations will have to balance their business results with the trail of impact their business activities create. There will be the emergence of renewable energy integration where it makes sense. Recycling or recreation will be more emphasized in 2024, along with eco-friendly packaging solutions. Smart buildings that leverage AI for energy efficiency optimize energy consumption in many aspects of an organization's activities. Remote work will play a role in the delicate balance of progress and preservation. Technology will be essential in an organization's ability to measure, monitor, and reduce its carbon footprint over its complete operation as and its supply chain. Water management is becoming a vital resource to monitor and optimize, leveraging tech and advanced waste management technology and techniques.

Monday, February 19, 2024

Top 5 Business Trends for 2024

Adapting to Dynamic Business Conditions

The first trend is around businesses staying dynamically adaptive to change. Organizations must go beyond scenario planning exercises that sit on the shelf. While the planning exercises are proactive and sound, they also allow businesses to develop strategies for the various likely and unlikely scenarios. Savvy organizations will test the most likely scenarios, making an organization better prepared to adapt when change occurs. This means organizations must cultivate a culture of innovation that builds on leveraging agile methodologies and employee training/development. Cross-functional teams with individuals who embrace technologies by staying abreast of technological advancements will often develop solutions that support executive goals within alternative scenarios. Strategic partners will also help craft solutional alternatives, including backup partnerships. Remember that organizations are moving to real-time data/event-driven decisions that will adjust processes and applications. Careful planning will help legacy platforms and packages remain in a changing business environment. Managing change is essential in a world that is speeding up to new rates of change. This is not a "one-and-done" exercise, as adaptability is an ongoing process that needs regular reassessment.


 
Augmenting Your Customers

While most organizations think they are creating and refining user-friendly interfaces, the reality from the customer side is another thing. Customers find most interfaces are designed from the inside out, leveraging existing software and support teams. While multi-channel engagement and responsive customer service go a long way to helping the customer reach your organization's goals, the reality is that the customer journey is rarely just about your transactional efficiency when working with them. Think about how organizations had outsourced the keystrokes to the customer and the dumb chatbots they must deal with daily. To add insult to injury, the surveys are designed to get managers their rewards, not the customers' perspective. It's time to think "outside-in" from the customer's goals through the interaction with your organization and its legacy systems. This will give organizations new insights to personalize the experience, including smarter chatbots that recognize feedback in voice or visual cues to include sentiment, both positive and negative responses, in real-time with transparency. Let's assist our customers in their journeys, not just optimize costs for organizational goals based only on transactions your organization controls. Let's shift from reactive cost containment to proactive customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Augmenting Your Employees and Partners

Often, employees become the shock absorbers between your organization and other constituents. This means that they deal with the lack of integration across internal stovepipes that live with conflicting internal and external goals. What employees want is better job satisfaction, recognition/rewards, flexible work arrangements, and mostly career growth opportunities. They are driven by the need to keep up with ever-rising costs in their life situations. While some of these needs can be managed with a change in management tactics, employees need help. They need a better collaborative work environment with effective communication that helps them develop and learn to augment their career growth. Why not remove their "dirty work" with automation and let them become more knowledgeable workers through AI augmentation and reward-driven employee empowerment? Giving employees more autonomy and decision-making authority within their roles or across stovepipes with collaboration with others and AI bots is desirable. The best suggestions for continuous improvement will come from happy employees. All organizations need the table stakes of wellness programs, diversity, and workplace perks, but augmentation for advancement will be a key theme as we advance.

Managing Elusive and Shifting Costs

While the traditional methods of cost analysis, budgeting, expense monitoring, and control will still deliver savings for organizations, there are additional issues to consider. Negotiating with suppliers and partners to seek better deals, discounts, and more favorable payment terms is a great place to find incremental savings. Some big numbers in process optimization employ cost-reduction technologies that are now smarter than those of previous generations. Process mining and AI monitoring are good places to find nuggets of opportunity. Organizations may have to invest in technologies that streamline processes, automate repetitive tasks, and improve efficiency. It can lead to long-term cost savings and increased productivity. Cross-training and workforce optimization can help leverage existing employees or bots to handle various types of tasks and responsibilities. It creates excellent leverage and flexibility when experiencing peaks that typically require hiring additional staff. Telecommuting and remote work is a great cost-cutting trend for office costs. Ensure cost cutting is not arbitrary to meet numbers only to hurt long-term trends. Often, overzealous cost-cutting on minutia sometimes backfires with unexpected behaviors.

Providing Secure Digital Commerce

Ensuring secure digital commerce is crucial to protecting your business and customers from potential security threats. While customer education on best security practices, adherence to payment standards, and continuous fraud detection in real-time to mitigate suspicious activity leveraging machine learning are table stakes, there are additional efforts to take for organizations. Two-factor authentication is a must for user accounts. It adds a layer of security by requiring users to verify their identity. Regular backups of critical data combined with comprehensive data plans are essential in the event of a security incident. Encryption of all stored data protects data in case of a breach. Organizations are encouraged to choose secure hosting providers and cloud services that prioritize data security. Hosting environments should have robust security measures, including firewalls, intrusion, and detections. All your infrastructure and business software needs to be updated by patching and updating your systems. Regular software updates can close vulnerabilities and protect against known security threats. Above all, conduct regular security audits and vulnerability assessments of your e-commerce platform. Identify and address potential weaknesses in your systems to stay ahead of emerging threats. Remember that this is a war with bad actors.







Tuesday, January 9, 2024

What Have People Been Reading in 2023?

 Another year of posting blogs for me. Though the frequency of posting new blogs has gone down, the activity has been ramping up. The number of hits is north of 900K; I expect to hit nearly a million this year.  As you might guess, AI is getting a lot of attention as well as Customer Journeys. The surprises were previously popular topics, such as digital business platforms (DBP).  The one topic that shows maturity in applying digital is the interest in coping with legacy while progressing with digital and now AI. The interest in RPA tanked, and the interest in processes resurged. The topic of ransomware also came on strong as the vulnerabilities that more digital brings interest to the bad actors. There has been a shift in offshore interest to Asia and Northern Europe. It will be fun in 2024 to predict business and technical trends. I will take a shot at that in February. Meanwhile, here are a couple of graphs to help you see what happened last year and the last quarter. Enjoy. Click on the graphic if you want to see a bigger version. If there is a topic you think I should address, please post a comment or hit me up on LinkedIn.