Allison has spent over a decade pioneering the of future of work as an employee, investor, and author. Her book, Breaking into Venture, offers a human perspective on succeeding in venture capital. As a General Partner at Semper Virens, she invests in technology transforming workforce, healthcare, and financial services. Allison contributes to Forbes, lectures at Columbia Business School and UC Berkeley Haas, and has a rich background including roles at Goldman Sachs, General Assembly, Fresco Capital, and Trinity Ventures. She holds a BA in Economics with honors and a minor in Film Studies from Harvard.

In this episode, you will learn how

• Allison grew up in the Midwest, witnessing her parents’ jobs being disrupted by technology, which influenced her dedication to understanding the future of work.
• After the financial crisis and seeing algorithmic job replacement at Goldman Sachs, she decided to focus her career on technology and innovation.
• Working at General Assembly introduced her to venture capital, where she saw the influence VCs have on startups, leading her to co-found Fresco Capital and later join Semper Virens.
• She emphasizes the importance of creating a unique value add in venture capital, highlighting the significance of building and activating a powerful network.
• Allison believes AI will augment jobs by taking over specific tasks rather than replacing entire jobs, advocating for a responsible AI implementation process to mitigate risks.
• Keys to picking a career that won’t be automated by a bot.

Resources

Connect with Allison

AI fun fact article

An episode you might like about limiting AI’s adverse effects

Jonathan Siddharth is the visionary leader behind Turing, the unicorn AI juggernaut that powers technical recruiting for more than 900 companies, including Pepsi, Dell, Disney, Red Bull, and many others.

Turing is the world’s most successful AI-powered tech services company. Turing has reimagined tech services from the ground up with AI by providing enterprises with AI-vetted and matched talent, AI-accelerated application delivery, and access to AI transformation experts who built the technologies behind the most successful Silicon Valley companies.

Founded in 2018, the company has experienced tremendous growth with over three million global developers on its talent network and 1,000+ clients. Turing has received numerous awards, including Forbes’s “One of America’s Best Startup Employers,” #1 on The Information’s annual list of “Most Promising B2B Companies,” and Fast Company’s annual list of the “World’s Most Innovative Companies.” Turing’s most recent private fundraising round was oversubscribed and valued the company at $1.1 billion. Subsequent oversubscribed SAFEs were completed on a $4 billion valuation cap.

In this episode, you will:

• Uncover what it takes to build a big business.
• Discover how Jonathan’s early fascination with AI led to groundbreaking projects and innovations that transformed his career and the tech industry.
• Learn about Jonathan’s journey from AI researcher to successful entrepreneur, founding companies that achieved significant exits and rapid growth.
• Gain insights into the strategies for building a high-performance organization, including market analysis, team development, and continuous self-improvement.
• Understand how Turing leverages AI to disrupt the tech services market, offering superior talent sourcing and project delivery compared to traditional firms.
• Hear actionable advice on fostering a sense of urgency, prioritizing customer needs, and creating a culture of rigorous decision-making to drive business success.
• And much more…

Resource

Connect with Jonathan here

AGI Icons speaker event

AI fun fact article

An episode you might like about limiting AI’s adverse effects

Florin Rotar is the pioneering Chief AI Officer known for leading Avanade’s AI strategy. Avanade is a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft with 50,000 employees worldwide, established in 2000 to drive innovation on the Microsoft platform.

Previously serving as Avanade’s CTO, Florin has played a pivotal role in shaping the organization’s AI vision and strategy since his early days as a consultant. A seasoned speaker and thought leader in AI, he passionately advocates for AI’s potential to empower humanity.

Florin’s global outlook stems from his experience living in 10 countries across three continents. He frequently shares his insights on AI through blogging, offering a valuable resource on AI-related topics. His commitment to leveraging AI for positive impact is evident, as echoed by my own encounter with him during a panel discussion last year.

In this episode, we discuss

• How Florin became Chief AI Officer and why it’s an important role
• How to deploy more responsible AI practices
• The role importance of accountability in tech and how to ensure it’s baked into the creation of new products
• 2025 predictions about the evolution of AI
• What it will take for people to start trusting and collaborating with AI rather than seeing it as competition
• Much more

Resources

Florin’s LinkedIn
Fun fact article
Bruce Feiler discusses the future of relationships on AI and the Future of Work

Naomi Ionita and Derek Xiao are investors at Menlo Ventures, one of Silicon Valley’s most successful and storied venture capital funds. Menlo has backed over 80 public companies, manages over $5 billion in assets, and has been a pillar of the VC community for an astonishing 47 years. You likely know many of Menlo’s recent high-profile investments in companies like Anthropic, Chime, and Harness and historical investments such as 3Com, Hotmail, and Roku. Naomi and Derek recently led the firm’s publication of a 3,500-word report chronicling the state of generative AI in the enterprise.

In this episode, we discuss

• How they decide what to invest in
• The tripling of budgets for AI projects by 2025, according to a report from ISG and Glean
• Enterprise leaders face challenges in proving ROI and building trust in AI solutions.
• The top use cases for AI investment include customer service and enterprise search
• Menlo Ventures’ perspective on the current state of VC and the opportunities in AI investing.
• Insights from Menlo Ventures’ report on generative AI in the enterprise, including barriers to adoption and the potential for transformation
• The broader societal impacts and considerations of AI adoption in business and technology.

Resources

Ashu Garg from Foundation Capital on AI and the Future of Work

Menlo Ventures website

Fun fact article 

Steve Truitt is an award-winning science fiction author, actor, producer, and musician. He received the prestigious Golden Eagle Award for his documentary series on Discovery. Steve’s a space enthusiast and NASA history buff. He holds the unique record of having met five moonwalkers. Beyond his creative endeavors, Steve is also a coach and motivational speaker, recognized for his impactful work with the Best Motivational Book of the Year award for “Stop Waiting for Permission”. Steve brings a wealth of experience and insight to discussions on AI and the future of work.

In this conversation, we discuss 

• How Steve got started in media and entertainment before branching out to other industries
• Industries being most impacted by AI
• The tricky ethics of AI and how to harness it as a tool that does more good than harm
• Why humanity is so fickle and prone to conflict
• How leaders can stop the spread of misinformation with AI and what prevents them from doing so
• Much more

Chris Herringshaw is the Chief Technology Officer at Janus Henderson Investors, overseeing all technology aspects and serving on the Executive Committee. With over 15 years at Citadel Investment Group, he led Global Infrastructure Technology as Managing Director. Chris founded Quova, now part of NuStar, and held roles including Vice President of Engineering and CTO. He holds a BS in computer systems engineering from the University of Michigan, and actively contributes to shaping technology’s future through advisory roles and industry forums.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Venturing from entrepreneur to working for an established company.
• Chris Herringshaw’s background in technology, including his experience at Janus Henderson Investors and as a CTO at venture-backed startups.
• How Fin-Tech companies leverage the power of AI while mitigating risks associated with its unpredictable nature .
• Why human decision making still trumps AI and algorithmic based trading decisions in certain contexts.
• Predictions on where AI is headed in the next 12 months.
• The role of AI governance in ensuring the responsible and effective use of artificial intelligence.

Resource

Previous episode about an AI app platform that’s growing faster than OpenAI 

Learn more about Janus Henderson 

AI fun fact article

Dmitry Shapiro  is a serial entrepreneur who most recently founded and is the CEO of YouAi and the popular AI app-builder MindStudio. He has a bold vision to help you index your mind which we unpack in today’s conversation. Previously, Dmitry founded and led GoMeta and  created the video sharing site Veoh in 2005 which  launched a few months after YouTube. Dmitry served as the CTO at MySpace before moving on to Google where was a Group Product Manager working on social graph, identity, and content discovery. Dmitry received his BS in EE from Georgia Tech.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• The New York Times versus OpenAI and Microsoft copyright lawsuit and its implications for AI.
• The challenges and stakes for publishers when facing AI applications using copyrighted material.
• Dmitry Shapiro’s entrepreneurial journey and the vision behind MindStudio.
• The impact of generative AI on computing and its potential for revolutionizing work and home environments.
• Legal and ethical considerations surrounding AI, copyright, and fair use.
• The intersection of technology, venture capital, and innovation in shaping the future of AI applications.

As the Chief Product Officer at Alteryx, Suresh leads the product, engineering, design, and development teams that deliver innovative and scalable solutions for data science and analytics. He is also responsible for product pricing, packaging, and PLG strategies. Over the past 3 years, Alteryx has transformed into an analytics platform with market-leading end-to-end analytics solutions, covering the entire gamut of users from analysts to data engineers, developers, and data scientists.

With over 20 years of experience in the SaaS industry, Suresh has a proven track record of driving growth, customer satisfaction, and market leadership for cloud-based platforms and products.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• The ongoing debate between AI guardrails and user autonomy, referencing Mark Gamine’s “spicy mayo problem” as a case study.
• Suresh Vittal’s background, journey through analytics and AI, and his role as Chief Product Officer at Alteryx.
• Alteryx’s mission of “analytics for all” and their focus on empowering users across technical and non-technical roles in data analytics.
• The integration of generative AI features into Alteryx’s platform to simplify complex workflows and enhance collaboration among data professionals.
• Insights into AI-first data management strategies and the evolving landscape of AI-driven tools in the future of work.
• The importance of governance and transparency in AI-powered analytics, ensuring clarity and understanding across complex data workflows for improved decision-making.

Additional resources:

Suresh’s LinkedIn page

Related episode you might enjoy about responsible AI use

AI fun fact article in the Atlantic 

Ben Kus is the chief technology officer at Box, where he’s responsible for developing Box’s technology vision and strategy.  Previously, Ben was the VP of product management at Box. Before joining Box, he was the co founder and CTO of Subspace, an enterprise security solution that was acquired by Box.

Ben’s held various leadership positions, including chief architect for IBM and senior director of technology for BigFix.

What we discuss:

• The role of generative AI in enhancing productivity and unlocking new use cases within enterprises, focusing on content management.
• Ben shares insights into Box’s innovative culture and compares it to other companies like IBM, highlighting the company’s approach to technology and innovation.
• The discussion touches on responsible AI use, regulatory considerations, and Box’s commitment to transparency and compliance.
• Ben addresses concerns about AI’s impact on jobs, emphasizing AI’s role in augmenting productivity rather than replacing human jobs.
• Future trends in AI, including personalized AI assistance and potential advancements in AI capabilities, are explored.
• The conversation ends with a fun anecdote about Box’s CEO, Aaron Levy, known for his magic tricks and the company’s unique culture of bringing your own self to work.

Additional resources

• Ben’s LinkedIn 
• Other episodes you might enjoy about the future of Media & AI
• Fun fact article

Neil Mandt is a Hollywood entrepreneur, a five-time Emmy winner, and producer of the 2022 Golden Globes.  A pioneer in AR and VR technology, and a pro sports owner, since getting his start in Hollywood at age 10, there’s almost no award he hasn’t received, and almost no new form of media he hasn’t tested and improved.

What we cover

• In this conversation, Neil shares insights into the evolving landscape of Hollywood and the role of AI in content creation and consumption.
• Neil discusses the potential of AI to democratize content creation, enabling individuals to produce high-quality movies and TV series with minimal resources.
• We delve into the challenges and opportunities presented by AI in the entertainment industry, including the gamification of user engagement and personalized content experiences.
• Neil emphasizes the importance of embracing AI tools for content creators to stay competitive and adapt to changing consumer preferences.
• Neil highlights the transformative potential of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies in enhancing the content consumption experience.
• Neil provides valuable insights into the skills required for content producers to thrive in a future where AI-driven, interactive storytelling becomes the norm.
• And much more.

Additional resources

• Neil’s site — Neilmandt.com
• Course on making it in media and entertainment — https://neilmandt.com/course
• Other episodes you might enjoy — https://aiandthefutureofwork.buzzsprout.com/520474/14689727-babak-hodjat-cto-of-ai-at-cognizant-on-creating-siri-and-the-evolution-of-ai

Babak is the CTO of AI at Cognizant, the 34 billion market cap provider of tech services with more than 350, 000 global employees. He’s the former co-founder and CEO of Sentient, a business responsible for the core technology behind the world’s largest distributed artificial intelligence system. Before co-founding Sentient, Babak co-founded and was the CTO and a board member of Dejima where he developed the foundational technology that ultimately became Apple’s Siri.

He’s the primary inventor of Dejima’s patented technology. Babak has 31 granted or pending patents, is a published author, and is one of the most respected thought leaders in AI.  He holds a PhD in machine intelligence from Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan.

In our conversation, we discuss: 

• The recent executive order on AI regulation issued by the Biden administration, exploring its key themes such as the development of a national registry for foundational large language models and safety test result sharing by vendors.
• Babak shares insights into the challenges and engineering intricacies involved in developing and scaling AI systems, emphasizing the importance of understanding the fundamental differences between large language models and human intelligence.
• The concept of responsible AI and the urgent need for defining unambiguous ethical standards, with Babak expressing concerns about AI potentially being used for destructive or malicious purposes in the wrong hands.
• Babak’s experience as a pioneer in developing foundational technologies for Siri
• The limitations and expectations surrounding large language models shed light on the challenges of fine-tuning and reinforcing these models, as well as the misconceptions related to their learning capabilities during interactions.
• The concept of active ontology and its role in the early development of Siri, highlights the revolutionary approach that focused on modeling functionality and ontology first, offering insights into the evolution of natural language technology over the past 25 years.

Matt Martin is on a mission to help the world make time for what matters. He founded Clockwise in 2016 to fix the time problem.

Since then, he and the team have raised 76 million from exceptional investors, including Greylock, Coatue, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, and a common investor, the Slack Fund.  More than 15, 000 organizations run Clockwise. Matt was also an engineering leader at Relate IQ before Salesforce acquired it for $390 million in 2014.

In our conversation, we discuss: 

• Interesting ways to improve your productivity
• New developments in GPT-4 supporting productivity
• Challenges of time management and the impact of AI in reshaping scheduling practices, emphasizing the importance of tools like Clockwise in optimizing work schedules
• Lesson in entrepreneurship from Matt
• How AI can be leveraged to make your work more fulfilling
• Much more

Atif has blazed trails in Silicon Valley and the Fortune 500 for over 25 years. After rising through digital native companies like Amazon, Yahoo!, and AOL, Atif held C-suite roles at McDonald’s, Volvo, and MGM Resorts. He oversaw thousands of employees as a global P&L, transformation, and innovation leader.

Rafiq was the first Chief Digital Officer in the history of the Fortune 500, a pioneering role he held at McDonalds, and he rose to the President level in the Fortune 300. While leading business units, teams, and growth for companies, Atif has built a large following as one of today’s top management thinkers. Over 500,000 people follow his ideas about management and leadership on LinkedIn, where he is a Top Voice, and his newsletter Re:wire has over 100,000 subscribers. Atif has also been nominated

Atif is passionate about helping companies push boldly into the future. He accomplishes this through Ritual, a software app revolutionizing how teams innovate and problem-solve, and through his work as keynote speaker, Board member, and CEO advisor.

Listen and learn

• What’s broken about the decision-making process in large companies
• What is the decision sprint process
• How will team formation/team structure change as a result of AI?
• How do we measure the quality of the output of a decision sprint?
• What are the smartest ways to engage generative AI in the decision sprint process?
• How do you reasonably deal with the fear of AI replacing your job?
• Much more

Resources

— Buy the book — https://www.decisionsprint.com/

— Ritual — https://www.ritual.work/

Dr. Eric Siegel is a leading consultant and former Columbia University professor who helps companies deploy machine learning. He is the founder of the long-running Machine Learning Week conference series and its new sister, Generative AI World, the instructor of the acclaimed online course “Machine Learning Leadership and Practice – End-to-End Mastery,” executive editor of The Machine Learning Times, and a frequent keynote speaker. He wrote the bestselling “Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die,” which has been used in courses at hundreds of universities, as well as “The AI Playbook: Mastering the Rare Art of Machine Learning Deployment.”

Eric’s interdisciplinary work bridges the stubborn technology/business gap. At Columbia, he won the Distinguished Faculty award when teaching the graduate *computer science* courses in ML and AI. Later, he served as a *business school* professor at UVA Darden. Eric has appeared on numerous media channels, including Bloomberg, National Geographic, and NPR, and has published in Newsweek, HBR, SciAm blog, WaPo, WSJ, and more.

Listen and learn

• How he’s progressed in the field of machine learning over 30 years
• 6-step process to usher in machine learning programs from conception to deployment
• What 3 things non-technical people in business should know about how machine learning works & delivers value
• How to know when to use classical machine learning vs generative AI to solve a data problem
• How to mitigate the impact of human bias in shaping AI

Juliette Powell is the founder and managing partner of Kleiner Powell International [KPI], a New York City-based consultancy. As a consultant at the intersection of responsible technology and business, she has advised large companies and governments on how to deal with the accelerating change underway due to AI-enabled technological innovation coupled with shifting social dynamics and heightened global competition. She’s also on the faculty at New York University and teaches in the Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Art Kleiner is a writer, lecturer, and consultant with a background in management, interactive media, corporate environmentalism, scenario planning, and organizational learning. He is a co-author (with Pete Senge et al.) of the best-selling Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, The Dance of Change, and Schools That Learn; and author of Who Really Matters: The Core Group Theory of Power, Privilege, and Success. Since 1986, he has taught in New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Juliette and Art co-authored a new book, The AI Dilemma: 7 Principles for Responsible Technology.

Listen and learn

• How Juliette and Art started their careers
• The Principles of Responsible Technology
• What could happen if AI became sentient?
• How can we prevent AI from reinforcing negative biases and discrimination?
• How people and organizations can practice better ethics when leveraging AI?
• What will it take to engrain more ethical, equity-oriented thinking into business education?
• Much more

Dave Kellogg is an advisor, director, consultant, angel investor, and blogger focused on enterprise software startups.  He’s the executive-in-residence (EIR) at Balderton Capital and the principal of his own eponymous consulting business.

He brings an uncommon perspective to startup challenges having 10 years’ experience at each of the CEO, CMO, and independent director levels across 10+ companies ranging in size from zero to over $1B in revenues.

Dave also authors the Kellblog which covers topics related to starting, leading, and scaling enterprise software startups including strategy, marketing, positioning, messaging, management, go-to-market, SaaS metrics, and venture capital financing.

Listen and learn

• How Dave did with last year’s predictions
• What’s ahead for the venture capital ecosystem in a post ZIRP environment
• How CIOs are investing in automation
• What to expect from the big LLM vendors
• What’s ahead for AI and copyright protection in 2024
• And much more…

References in this episode…

• Kellblog — https://kellblog.com/
• Amr Awadallah, Vectara CEO, on AI and the Future of Work

Navrina Singh is the Founder and CEO of Credo AI, a Governance SaaS platform empowering enterprises to deliver Responsible AI. A technology leader with over 18+ years of experience in Enterprise SaaS, AI and Mobile, Navrina has held multiple product and business leadership roles at Microsoft and Qualcomm.

Navrina and the team have been on a mission to help organizations create AI that adheres to the most ethical standards since March 2020. Credo has raised over $13 million from an impressive list of investors that includes Decibel Partners, Sands Capital Ventures, and the AI Fund, among others. Navrina is a member of the national AI advisory committee and is a world Economic Forum global leader. Prepare to be inspired.

Adam Wenchel is the CEO of Arthur, a company with a platform that gives you an immediate comprehensive AI performance solution across LLMs, Computer Vision, Tabular Data, and NLP.

Adam and the team have been making AI observable for almost 5 years with Arthur. Arthur has raised over $60 million from a legendary group of investors including Index Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Work-Bench, and others. An equal list of impressive customers they’ve served includes Humana and Plaid, among others.