Category Archives: Technology

Decoding the Code of Life

Human-Centered Innovation in Synthetic Biology

Decoding the Code of Life

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

From my vantage point here in Seattle, I’m constantly tracking emerging technologies that hold the potential to reshape our world. One area that consistently sparks my interest, and demands a strong human-centered lens, is synthetic biology. This revolutionary field combines biology and engineering principles to design and build new biological parts, devices, and systems—essentially allowing us to program life itself. While the possibilities are immense, so too are the ethical and societal considerations, making a human-centered approach to its innovation crucial.

Synthetic biology stands at the intersection of several scientific disciplines, leveraging our increasing understanding of genomics, molecular biology, and genetic engineering. It moves beyond simply reading the code of life to actively writing and rewriting it. This capability opens doors to addressing some of humanity’s most pressing challenges, from developing new medicines and sustainable fuels to creating novel materials and revolutionizing agriculture. However, as we gain the power to manipulate the fundamental building blocks of life, we must ensure that our innovation is guided by ethical principles, societal needs, and a deep understanding of the potential consequences.

A human-centered approach to innovation in synthetic biology means prioritizing the well-being of individuals and the planet. It involves engaging with the public to understand their concerns and aspirations, fostering transparency in research and development, and proactively addressing potential risks. It requires us to ask not just “can we do this?” but “should we do this?” and “what are the potential impacts on human health, the environment, and the fabric of society?” This proactive ethical framework is essential for building trust and ensuring that the transformative potential of synthetic biology is harnessed responsibly and for the benefit of all.

Case Study 1: Engineering Microbes for Sustainable Fuel Production

The Challenge: Dependence on Fossil Fuels and Climate Change

Our current reliance on fossil fuels is a major driver of climate change and environmental degradation. Finding sustainable and renewable alternatives is a critical global challenge. Synthetic biology offers a promising pathway by enabling the engineering of microorganisms to produce biofuels from renewable resources, such as agricultural waste or even captured carbon dioxide.

The Innovation:

Companies and research labs are now engineering yeast and algae to efficiently convert sugars and other feedstocks into biofuels like ethanol, butanol, and even advanced hydrocarbons that can directly replace gasoline or jet fuel. This involves designing new metabolic pathways within these organisms, optimizing their growth conditions, and scaling up production in bioreactors. The human-centered aspect here lies in the potential to create a cleaner, more sustainable energy future, reducing our carbon footprint and mitigating the impacts of climate change. Furthermore, these bioproduction processes can potentially utilize waste streams, contributing to a more circular economy.

The Potential Impact:

Successful development and deployment of these bio-based fuels could significantly reduce our dependence on finite fossil fuel reserves and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Imagine fueling our cars and airplanes with fuels produced by engineered microbes, utilizing resources that would otherwise go to waste. This innovation has the potential to create new jobs in biorefineries and contribute to energy independence, while simultaneously addressing a critical environmental need. However, careful consideration of land use, water resources, and the potential for unintended environmental consequences is paramount to ensure a truly sustainable solution.

Key Insight: Synthetic biology offers powerful tools to engineer sustainable solutions to global challenges like climate change, but a human-centered approach requires careful consideration of the entire lifecycle and potential impacts.

Case Study 2: Cell-Based Agriculture for a Sustainable Food System

The Challenge: Environmental Impact and Ethical Concerns of Traditional Animal Agriculture

Traditional animal agriculture has a significant environmental footprint, contributing to deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and water pollution. It also raises ethical concerns about animal welfare. Synthetic biology is paving the way for cell-based agriculture, where meat and other animal products are grown directly from animal cells in a lab, without the need to raise and slaughter animals.

The Innovation:

Companies are now developing methods to cultivate animal cells in bioreactors, providing them with the necessary nutrients and growth factors to proliferate and differentiate into muscle tissue, fat, and other components of meat. This “cultured meat” has the potential to drastically reduce the environmental impact associated with traditional farming and address ethical concerns about animal treatment. From a human-centered perspective, this innovation could lead to a more sustainable and ethical food system, ensuring food security for a growing global population while minimizing harm to the planet and animals.

The Potential Impact:

Widespread adoption of cell-based agriculture could revolutionize the food industry, offering consumers real meat with a significantly lower environmental footprint. It could also reduce the risk of zoonotic diseases and the need for antibiotics in animal agriculture. However, challenges remain in scaling up production, reducing costs, and gaining consumer acceptance. Addressing public perceptions, ensuring the safety and nutritional value of lab-grown meat, and understanding the potential socio-economic impacts on traditional farming communities are crucial human-centered considerations for this transformative technology.

Key Insight: Synthetic biology can contribute to a more sustainable and ethical food system through cell-based agriculture, but public engagement and careful consideration of societal impacts are essential for its responsible adoption.

Startups and Companies to Watch

The field of synthetic biology is rapidly evolving, with numerous innovative startups and established companies making significant strides. Keep an eye on companies like Ginkgo Bioworks, which is building a platform for organism design; Zymergen, focused on creating novel materials and ingredients through microbial engineering; Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, leveraging synthetic biology for plant-based and cell-based meat alternatives; Moderna and BioNTech, who utilized mRNA technology (a product of synthetic biology advancements) for their groundbreaking COVID-19 vaccines; and companies like Pivot Bio, developing sustainable microbial fertilizers. This dynamic landscape is constantly generating new solutions and pushing the boundaries of what’s biologically possible.

As we continue to unlock the power of synthetic biology here in America and around the world, it is imperative that we do so with a strong sense of human-centered responsibility. By prioritizing ethics, engaging with society, and focusing on solutions that address fundamental human needs and environmental sustainability, we can ensure that this remarkable technology truly serves the betterment of humanity.

Disclaimer: This article speculates on the potential future applications of cutting-edge scientific research. While based on current scientific understanding, the practical realization of these concepts may vary in timeline and feasibility and are subject to ongoing research and development.

Image credit: Gemini

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Why Explainable AI is the Key to Our Future

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The Unseen Imperative

Why Explainable AI is the Key to Our Future

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

We’re in the midst of an AI revolution, a tidal wave of innovation that promises to redefine industries and transform our lives. We’ve seen algorithms drive cars, diagnose diseases, and manage our finances. But as these “black box” systems become more powerful and more pervasive, a critical question arises: can we truly trust them? The answer, for many, is a hesitant ‘maybe,’ and that hesitation is a massive brake on progress. The key to unlocking AI’s true, transformative potential isn’t just more data or faster chips. It’s Explainable AI (XAI).

XAI is not a futuristic buzzword; it’s the indispensable framework for today’s AI-driven world. It’s the set of tools and methodologies that peel back the layers of a complex algorithm, making its decisions understandable to humans. Without XAI, our reliance on AI is little more than a leap of faith. We must transition from trusting AI because it’s effective, to trusting it because we understand why and how it’s effective. This is the fundamental shift from a blind tool to an accountable partner.

This is more than a technical problem; it’s a strategic business imperative. XAI provides the foundation for the four pillars of responsible AI that will differentiate the market leaders of tomorrow:

Transparency: Moving beyond “what” the AI decided to “how” it arrived at that decision. This sheds light on the model’s logic and reasoning.
Fairness & Bias Detection: Actively identifying and mitigating hidden biases in the data or algorithm itself. This ensures that AI systems make equitable decisions that don’t discriminate against specific groups.
Accountability: Empowering humans to understand and take responsibility for AI-driven outcomes. When things go wrong, we can trace the decision back to its source and correct it.
Trust: Earning the confidence of users, stakeholders, and regulators. Trust is the currency of the future, and XAI is the engine that generates it.

For any organization aiming to deploy AI in high-stakes fields like healthcare, finance, or justice, XAI isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s a non-negotiable requirement. The competitive advantage will go to the companies that don’t just build powerful AI, but build trustworthy AI.

Case Study 1: Empowering Doctors with Transparent Diagnostics

Consider a team of data scientists who develop a highly accurate deep learning model to detect early-stage cancer from medical scans. The model’s accuracy is impressive, but it operates as a “black box.” Doctors are understandably hesitant to stake a patient’s life on a recommendation they can’t understand. The company then integrates an XAI framework. Now, when the model flags a potential malignancy, it doesn’t just give a diagnosis. It provides a visual heat map highlighting the specific regions of the scan that led to its conclusion, along with a confidence score. It also presents a list of similar, previously diagnosed cases from its training data, providing concrete evidence to support its claim. This explainable output transforms the AI from an un-auditable oracle into a valuable, trusted second opinion. The doctors, now empowered with understanding, can use their expertise to validate the AI’s findings, leading to faster, more confident diagnoses and, most importantly, better patient outcomes.

Case Study 2: Proving Fairness in Financial Services

A major financial institution implements an AI-powered system to automate its loan approval process. The system is incredibly efficient, but its lack of transparency triggers concerns from regulators and consumer advocacy groups. Are its decisions fair, or is the algorithm subtly discriminating against certain demographic groups? Without XAI, the bank would be in a difficult position to defend its practices. By implementing an XAI framework, the company can now generate a clear, human-readable report for every single loan decision. If an application is denied, the report lists the specific, justifiable factors that contributed to the outcome—e.g., “debt-to-income ratio is outside of policy guidelines” or “credit history shows a high number of recent inquiries.” Crucially, it can also definitively prove that the decision was not based on protected characteristics like race or gender. This transparency not only helps the bank comply with fair lending laws but also builds critical trust with its customers, turning a potential liability into a significant source of competitive advantage.

The Architects of Trust: XAI Market Leaders and Startups to Watch

In the rapidly evolving world of Explainable AI (XAI), the market is being defined by a mix of established technology giants and innovative, agile startups. Major players like Google, Microsoft, and IBM are leading the way, integrating XAI tools directly into their cloud and AI platforms like Azure Machine Learning and IBM Watson. These companies are setting the industry standard by making explainability a core feature of their enterprise-level solutions. They are often joined by other large firms such as FICO and SAS Institute, which have long histories in data analytics and are now applying their expertise to ensure transparency in high-stakes areas like credit scoring and risk management. Meanwhile, a number of dynamic startups are pushing the boundaries of XAI. Companies like H2O.ai and Fiddler AI are gaining significant traction with platforms dedicated to providing model monitoring, bias detection, and interpretability for machine learning models. Another startup to watch is Arthur AI, which focuses on providing a centralized platform for AI performance monitoring to ensure that models remain fair and accurate over time. These emerging innovators are crucial for democratizing XAI, making sophisticated tools accessible to a wider range of organizations and ensuring that the future of AI is built on a foundation of trust and accountability.

The Road Ahead: A Call to Action

The future of AI is not about building more powerful black boxes. It’s about building smarter, more transparent, and more trustworthy partners. This is not a task for data scientists alone; it’s a strategic imperative for every business leader, every product manager, and every innovator. The companies that bake XAI into their processes from the ground up will be the ones that successfully navigate the coming waves of regulation and consumer skepticism. They will be the ones that win the trust of their customers and employees. They will be the ones that truly unlock the full, transformative power of AI. Are you ready to lead that charge?

Image credit: Gemini

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Why Innovators Can’t Ignore the Quantum Revolution

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Why Innovators Can't Ignore the Quantum Revolution

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

In the world of innovation, we are always looking for the next big thing—the technology that will fundamentally change how we solve problems, create value, and shape the future. For the past several decades, that technology has been the classical computer, with its exponential increase in processing power. But a new paradigm is on the horizon, one that promises to unlock capabilities previously thought impossible: quantum computing. While it may seem like a distant, esoteric concept, innovators and business leaders who ignore quantum computing are doing so at their own peril. This isn’t just about faster computers; it’s about a complete re-imagining of what is computationally possible.

The core difference is simple but profound. A classical computer is like a single light switch—it can be either ON or OFF (1 or 0). A quantum computer, however, uses qubits that can be ON, OFF, or in a state of superposition, meaning it’s both ON and OFF at the same time. This ability, combined with entanglement, allows quantum computers to perform calculations in parallel and tackle problems that are intractable for even the most powerful supercomputers. The shift is not incremental; it is a fundamental leap in computational power, moving from a deterministic, linear process to a probabilistic, multi-dimensional one.

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Quantum as an Innovation Engine: Solving the Unsolvable

For innovators, quantum computing is not a threat to be feared, but a tool to be mastered. It provides a new lens through which to view and solve the world’s most complex challenges. The problems that are “hard” for classical computers—like simulating complex molecules, optimizing global supply chains, or cracking certain types of encryption—are the very problems where quantum computers are expected to excel. By leveraging this technology, innovators can create new products, services, and business models that were simply impossible before.

Key Areas Where Quantum Will Drive Innovation

Revolutionizing Material Science: Simulating how atoms and molecules interact is a notoriously difficult task for classical computers. Quantum computers can model these interactions with unprecedented accuracy, accelerating the discovery of new materials, catalysts, and life-saving drugs in fields from energy storage to pharmaceuticals.
Optimizing Complex Systems: From optimizing financial portfolios to routing delivery trucks in a complex network, optimization problems become exponentially more difficult as the number of variables increases. Quantum algorithms can solve these problems much faster, leading to incredible efficiencies and cost savings.
Fueling the Next Wave of AI: Quantum machine learning (QML) can process vast, complex datasets in ways that are impossible for classical AI. This could lead to more accurate predictive models, better image recognition, and new forms of artificial intelligence that can find patterns in data that humans and classical machines would miss.
Securing Our Digital Future: While quantum computing poses a threat to current encryption methods, it also offers a solution. Quantum cryptography promises to create uncrackable communication channels, leading to a new era of secure data transmission.

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Case Study 1: Accelerating Drug Discovery for a New Tomorrow

A major pharmaceutical company was struggling to develop a new drug for a rare disease. The traditional method involved months of painstaking laboratory experiments and classical computer simulations to model the interactions of a new molecule with its target protein. The sheer number of variables and possible molecular configurations made the process a slow and expensive trial-and-error loop, often with no clear path forward.

They partnered with a quantum computing research firm to apply quantum simulation algorithms. The quantum computer was able to model the complex quantum mechanical properties of the molecules with a level of precision and speed that was previously unattainable. Instead of months, the simulations were run in days. This allowed the human research team to rapidly narrow down the most promising molecular candidates, saving years of R&D time and millions of dollars. The quantum computer didn’t invent the drug, but it acted as a powerful co-pilot, guiding the human innovators to the most probable solutions and dramatically accelerating the path to a breakthrough.

This case study demonstrates how quantum computing can transform the bottleneck of complex simulation into a rapid discovery cycle, augmenting the human innovator’s ability to find life-saving solutions.

Case Study 2: Optimizing Global Logistics for a Sustainable Future

A global shipping and logistics company faced the monumental task of optimizing its entire network of ships, trucks, and warehouses. Factors like fuel costs, weather patterns, traffic, and delivery windows created a mind-bogglingly complex optimization problem. The company’s classical optimization software could only provide a suboptimal solution, leading to wasted fuel, delayed deliveries, and significant carbon emissions.

Recognizing the limitations of their current technology, they began to explore quantum optimization. By using a quantum annealer, a type of quantum computer designed for optimization problems, they were able to model the entire network simultaneously. The quantum algorithm found a more efficient route and scheduling solution that reduced fuel consumption by 15% and cut delivery times by an average of 10%. This innovation not only provided a significant competitive advantage but also had a profound positive impact on the company’s environmental footprint. It was an innovation that leveraged quantum computing to solve a business problem that was previously too complex for existing technology.

This example shows that quantum’s power to solve previously intractable optimization problems can lead to both significant cost savings and sustainable, planet-friendly outcomes.

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The Innovator’s Call to Action

The quantum revolution is not a distant sci-fi fantasy; it is a reality in its nascent stages. For innovators, the key is not to become a quantum physicist overnight, but to understand the potential of the technology and to start experimenting now. Here are the steps you must take to prepare for this new era:

Educate and Evangelize: Start a dialogue about quantum computing and its potential applications in your industry. Find internal champions who can explore this new frontier and evangelize its possibilities.
Find Your Partners: You don’t have to build your own quantum computer. Partner with academic institutions, research labs, or quantum-as-a-service providers to start running pilot projects on a cloud-based quantum machine.
Identify the Right Problems: Look for the “intractable” problems in your business—the optimization challenges, the material science hurdles, the data analysis bottlenecks—and see if they are a fit for quantum computing. These are the problems where a quantum solution will deliver a true breakthrough.

The greatest innovations are born from a willingness to embrace new tools and new ways of thinking. Quantum computing is the most powerful new tool we have ever seen. For the innovator of tomorrow, understanding and leveraging this technology will be the key to staying ahead. The quantum leap is upon us—are you ready to take it?

Image credit: Gemini

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Why Elastocalorics Will Redefine Our World

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The Silent Revolution

Why Elastocalorics Will Redefine Our World

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Here at Human-Centered Change & Innovation our focus is always on the intersection of human needs, innovative solutions, and the transformative power of change. In a world clamoring for sustainable answers to pressing problems, it’s easy to get lost in the hype cycles of AI and quantum computing. But sometimes, the most revolutionary advancements are quietly simmering beneath the surface, waiting for their moment to redefine our future. Today, I want to pull back the curtain on one such unsung hero: Elastocalorics.

This isn’t just another scientific curiosity; it’s a profound shift in how we might manage temperature, offering a genuinely human-centered approach to a challenge that impacts every facet of our lives – from the comfort of our homes to the efficiency of our industries.

The Unseen Revolution: Why Elastocalorics Matters

Let’s cut through the jargon. At its core, elastocalorics harnesses the fascinating property of certain materials (often shape-memory alloys like nickel-titanium) to absorb or release heat when subjected to mechanical stress. Stretch them, and they warm up. Release the tension, and they cool down. Think of it as a solid-state heat pump, a silent, elegant dance between material science and thermodynamics.

Why is this a game-changer? Because the status quo of cooling and heating is fundamentally unsustainable. Traditional vapor-compression systems, while effective, are energy hogs. They rely on refrigerants with high global warming potentials, contribute significantly to our carbon footprint, and are far from the ideal solution for a planet grappling with climate change.

Elastocalorics offers an alternative that is:

Energy-Efficient: By directly converting mechanical energy into thermal energy, these systems promise significant energy savings, drastically reducing the power required for cooling and heating.
Environmentally Friendly: No harmful refrigerants means zero ozone depletion potential and vastly reduced global warming potential. This is a truly green technology.
Compact and Quiet: Without the need for bulky compressors and fans, elastocaloric systems can be significantly smaller and operate with minimal noise, opening up new design possibilities for appliances and buildings.
Durable and Reliable: Solid-state systems typically have fewer moving parts, leading to increased longevity and reduced maintenance needs.

This isn’t just about saving a few bucks on your utility bill; it’s about fundamentally rethinking our relationship with temperature control in a way that aligns with our collective human responsibility to the planet.

Case Study 1: Reinventing Refrigeration – The Quest for a Greener Kitchen

Imagine a refrigerator that hums along silently, using a fraction of the energy of its conventional counterpart, and with no harmful chemicals circulating within its coils. This is the vision that elastocaloric technology is bringing to life in the appliance sector.

For decades, refrigerator design has been constrained by the limitations of vapor-compression cycles. Engineers and designers have been forced to work around bulky compressors, noisy fans, and the specific requirements of refrigerants. With elastocalorics, the paradigm shifts.

One pioneering effort, though still in research and development phases, involves startups exploring elastocaloric refrigeration units for commercial and residential applications. These companies are developing prototypes that utilize a series of stretching and relaxing bands of elastocaloric material, perhaps arranged in a carousel or linear array. As the material stretches, it releases heat to the ambient environment; as it relaxes, it cools down, absorbing heat from the refrigerator’s interior. This cyclical process efficiently moves heat out of the insulated compartment, maintaining a consistent low temperature.

The human-centered innovation here is profound. Beyond the obvious environmental benefits, elastocaloric refrigerators could lead to entirely new kitchen layouts. Imagine integrated cooling drawers that disappear into cabinetry, or silent, compact mini-fridges that fit seamlessly into any office or bedroom. The absence of noisy compressors enhances domestic tranquility, and the peace of mind knowing your appliance isn’t contributing to climate change is an intangible, yet powerful, benefit. This isn’t just a new fridge; it’s a new living experience.

Case Study 2: Precision Cooling for Tomorrow’s Data Centers – A Silent Revolution in Silicon Valleys

Data centers are the beating heart of our digital world, consuming staggering amounts of energy, with a significant portion dedicated to cooling the thousands of servers that power the internet. The heat generated by these machines is immense, and traditional cooling methods are expensive, inefficient, and often involve large-scale water consumption.

This is where elastocalorics enters as a potential game-changer. Consider research initiatives funded by major tech companies and government grants aimed at deploying elastocaloric cooling solutions directly within server racks. The idea is to move beyond room-level air conditioning and bring the cooling mechanism closer to the heat source itself.

Imagine elastocaloric cooling chips or modules directly integrated into server motherboards or mounted within individual server units. These tiny, silent heat pumps could efficiently draw heat away from processors and memory modules, transferring it to an external heat sink or a liquid cooling loop. This “point-of-source” cooling approach drastically reduces the energy wasted moving cool air across an entire data hall.

The human-centered aspect here might seem less obvious, but it’s critical. Efficient data centers mean less energy consumption, reducing the overall carbon footprint of our digital lives. For the engineers and operators, it means potentially smaller, quieter, and more reliable cooling infrastructure, reducing operational costs and freeing up valuable floor space. For society, it means a more sustainable digital future, allowing us to continue innovating and connecting without exacerbating our environmental challenges. It’s about enabling the human endeavor of connectivity and information exchange in an environmentally responsible way.

The Architects of a Cooler Future: Elastocaloric Market Leaders and Startups

The field of elastocaloric cooling, recognized by the World Economic Forum as a top emerging technology, is still largely in its research and development phase, but a number of key players are beginning to define the market. Established companies like Carrier and Daikin are actively exploring elastocaloric systems as a sustainable alternative to traditional HVAC, leveraging their existing expertise in heat pump technology. Additionally, materials science and industrial giants such as Ferrotec Holdings Corporation and Coherent Corp. are leading the way in developing the specialized alloys, like Nitinol (nickel-titanium), that are at the heart of this technology. On the startup and academic front, there’s a hive of innovation. A German consortium led by the Saarland University and the Center for Mechatronics and Automation Technology (ZeMA), with partners like Irish company Exergyn, is pioneering prototypes for residential and automotive cooling. Meanwhile, researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have made a significant breakthrough with the world’s first kilowatt-scale elastocaloric cooling device, pushing the technology closer to commercial viability. These innovators, both large and small, are laying the groundwork for a future free from environmentally harmful refrigerants.

The Road Ahead: From Lab to Living Room

Elastocalorics, while incredibly promising, is still in its nascent stages. There are challenges to overcome: optimizing material fatigue life, scaling up production, and integrating these systems seamlessly into existing infrastructures. However, the pace of innovation is accelerating. Researchers are constantly discovering new materials with even better elastocaloric properties, and engineers are devising ingenious ways to harness these effects efficiently.

As a thought leader in human-centered change and innovation, I see elastocalorics not just as a technology, but as a paradigm shift. It challenges us to rethink fundamental aspects of our built environment and industrial processes. It invites us to imagine a future where temperature control is not an environmental burden but an elegant, efficient, and almost invisible part of our lives.

The beauty of elastocalorics lies in its elegant simplicity and profound potential. It’s a testament to the fact that true innovation often lies in rediscovering and re-engineering the basic principles of physics in new, more sustainable ways. Keep an eye on this space; the silent revolution of elastocalorics is coming, and it has the power to cool our world in more ways than one.

Image credit: Gemini

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Boring AI is the Key to Better Customer Service

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Boring AI is the Key to Better Customer Service

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Boring can be a good thing. When something works the way it’s supposed to, it shouldn’t be a surprise. There shouldn’t be friction or drama if a customer has a problem or wants a question answered. It should just be easy. And when it comes to customer service, “easy” and “boring” are good. The experience should just happen the way the customer wants it to happen. You might call that boring. I call that excellent.

That was the beginning of a conversation I had with Damon Covey, general manager of unified communications and collaboration for GoTo, on Amazing Business Radio. GoTo is one of the leading cloud communications companies, providing software and solutions to companies of all sizes and helping them implement AI systems that work, without the complexity and stress that can come from new technology. Covey’s goal for our conversation was to demystify AI, cutting through the noise and complexities of flashy AI and taking it down to a practical level. Boring was the word he liked to use, emphasizing it should be easy, simple and uncomplicated.

In our discussion, Covey said that large companies used to make six- and seven-figure investments to implement AI. Today, AI technology is far superior and, at the same time, much less expensive, so even the smallest companies can afford it. They can get advanced technology for hundreds of dollars, not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Covey said, “For example, a small bike shop or an automotive dealership can now provide the same advanced customer service options as large corporations.” With that in mind, here are the main takeaways from our conversation:

Conversational AI

Until recently (within the past two or three years), a basic chatbot had to follow pre-set rules. Conversational AI provides a much broader opportunity, allowing a computer to interact with people in a natural, human-like manner. Today, AI can understand and respond to customers’ questions and issues with much more flexibility. It has the capability to recognize different languages and understand fumbled phrases, much like a human would. By using conversational AI, businesses can provide 24/7 service, allowing them to respond to customer queries and schedule appointments even when the customer contacts them outside of regular business hours.

Treat AI Like a Team Member

If you hire a new employee, you train them. Treat your AI solutions the same way. Covey said that, similar to training an employee, you need to set specific parameters and provide the AI with the necessary information to ensure it stays within the scope of your business requirements. He emphasized the importance of making sure the AI only draws from the information provided by your business, such as your website, FAQ pages, product manuals, etc., rather than pulling from a source outside of your company, to maintain accuracy and relevance. Covey said that AI should be continuously optimized and trained over time to improve its performance, much like you would train and coach a human employee to expand their capabilities.

Productivity: Automating Processes

Covey talked about automating processes. Anything you do more than three times can be a candidate for AI automation. For example, AI can integrate with a business’ telecommunications system to automate the process of taking notes during calls. It can then summarize the call, put the information into the customer’s record and create a list of next steps, if appropriate. This is a simple function that helps employees be more productive. Instead of an employee typing notes and summarizing the call, AI can handle the task so the employee can move on to helping the next customer.

Augmenting the Business

AI can help businesses do things they don’t normally do, such as remain open for certain functions (like customer support) after hours. It can act as an after-hours receptionist, answering phone calls, setting appointments or providing basic information to customers after business hours. That turns a business that’s typically open during traditional hours to a 24/7 operation.

It is Easier Than You Think

At the end of the interview, Covey dropped a nugget of wisdom that is the perfect way to close this article. For many, especially smaller organizations, deciding what technology to use and how to best use AI can be a daunting decision. It shouldn’t be. Covey says, “Start with the problem you want to solve, and solve for that problem.” He added that you should start using the technology for small problems. Once you understand how it works, the more complicated issues will be easier to solve for.

And that brings us back to where we started. AI doesn’t need to be complicated or flashy. It should be boring—in a good way. Start small, focus on one problem at a time and let AI do what it’s supposed to do: make customer service easier and more efficient. When done right, your customers won’t be amazed by the AI—they’ll just be amazed by how easy it is to do business with you.

Image Credit: Unsplash

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

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Five Unsung Scientific Discoveries Driving Future Innovation

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Five Unsung Scientific Discoveries Driving Future Innovation

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

In the relentless pursuit of progress, the headlines often gravitate towards the monumental—AI breakthroughs, space exploration milestones, or widely publicized medical cures. Yet, beneath the surface, a vibrant ecosystem of lesser-known scientific discoveries is quietly brewing, each holding immense potential to reshape industries, solve pressing global challenges, and fundamentally alter our human experience. As a human-centered change and innovation thought leader, I believe it’s not just important, but *critical*, to shine a light on these unsung heroes of scientific advancement. Beyond the captivating, yet often abstract, idea of “freezing light,” here are five scientific breakthroughs poised to drive profound innovation, which you might not yet be fully aware of.

1. “Magic State” Distillation in Quantum Computing

The Discovery:

While the broad concept of quantum computing is a familiar frontier, a specific, less-heralded breakthrough known as “magic state distillation” is fundamentally critical. This advanced technique allows quantum computers to generate highly entangled quantum states (the “magic states”) from imperfect or noisy ones. Essentially, it’s a method for error reduction that makes large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computation a significantly more tangible reality. This isn’t merely an incremental improvement; it’s a foundational step towards building truly powerful and reliable quantum machines capable of tackling previously intractable problems.

Innovation Potential:

This breakthrough dramatically accelerates the timeline for practical quantum computing, unlocking possibilities across numerous sectors:

Drug Discovery & Materials Science: Simulating molecular interactions with unprecedented accuracy, leading to the rapid design and development of novel drugs, advanced catalysts, and revolutionary materials.
Artificial Intelligence: Powering next-generation AI algorithms capable of solving complex optimization problems and performing pattern recognition currently beyond the reach of even the most powerful classical supercomputers.
Financial Modeling: Optimizing intricate financial portfolios, risk assessments, and market predictions with vastly greater precision and speed.

It transforms quantum computing from a theoretical marvel into a practical, industry-redefining tool, poised to revolutionize everything from healthcare to finance.

2. Advanced Bionic Limbs with Direct Neural/Muscular Integration

The Discovery:

Moving beyond conventional prosthetics, recent advancements have enabled bionic limbs that directly integrate with a user’s nervous system and residual muscles. This groundbreaking connection allows for truly intuitive control, where the prosthetic limb responds seamlessly to the user’s thoughts and intentions, eliminating the need for cumbersome manual inputs. This innovation extends beyond mere movement; it’s about restoring a profound sense of proprioception (the body’s inherent awareness of its position in space) and even tactile feedback, making the prosthetic feel like a natural, integrated extension of the body.

Innovation Potential:

The implications of this human-machine interface are vast and extend far beyond aiding amputees:

Human Augmentation: Developing sophisticated exoskeletons for industrial workers, significantly enhancing physical capabilities for specialized tasks, or providing unparalleled assistance to individuals with severe mobility impairments.
Rehabilitation & Therapy: Revolutionizing physical therapy by providing real-time, precise feedback and facilitating more natural movement patterns for accelerated recovery.
Virtual Reality & Gaming: Creating incredibly immersive and haptically rich experiences where digital interactions feel physically real, blurring the lines between the virtual and physical worlds.

This technology is fundamentally paving the way for a future where human-machine interfaces are not just functional, but seamless, intuitive, and profoundly enhance human capabilities.

3. Metamaterials: Engineering the Impossible

The Discovery:

Metamaterials are a class of artificially engineered materials designed with properties not found in nature. Their unique, often counter-intuitive characteristics arise not from their chemical composition, but from their meticulously designed sub-wavelength microscopic structures. By precisely manipulating these architectures, scientists can control waves (be it light, sound, or heat) in unprecedented ways, leading to phenomena like “negative refraction” or perfect absorption. Think of them as materials whose fundamental properties are defined by their intricate structural design, rather than solely by their atomic makeup.

Innovation Potential:

The applications stemming from metamaterials are truly revolutionary and span diverse sectors:

Advanced Optics: Creating ultra-thin, highly efficient lenses for next-generation cameras and sensors, or even developing the foundational components for “invisibility cloaks” that precisely bend light around objects.
Wireless Communication: Drastically enhancing 5G and future wireless networks by improving signal reception, significantly reducing interference, and enabling far more efficient data transmission.
Medical Imaging: Improving the resolution, sensitivity, and safety of MRI machines and other diagnostic tools, leading to earlier, more accurate, and less invasive diagnoses.
Energy Harvesting: Designing highly efficient materials that can more effectively capture, concentrate, and convert solar or thermal energy into usable power.

Metamaterials offer a completely new paradigm for material design, empowering us to engineer properties previously considered impossible, opening doors to unimaginable technological advancements.

4. Living Building Materials (Bio-Integrated Construction)

The Discovery:

This groundbreaking and rapidly evolving field involves the deliberate integration of living organisms (such as specific strains of bacteria, fungi, or algae) directly into traditional building materials. Imagine bricks that can literally grow themselves, concrete that possesses the remarkable ability to self-heal its own cracks, or walls that actively absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. These bio-integrated materials leverage natural biological processes to provide dynamic functions that inert, conventional materials simply cannot, offering profoundly sustainable and adaptive solutions for the future of construction.

Innovation Potential:

The impact on architecture, urban planning, and environmental sustainability is truly enormous:

Sustainable Construction: Drastically reducing the carbon footprint of buildings by utilizing materials that actively sequester CO2, require significantly less energy to produce, and can even be cultivated on-site from renewable resources.
Self-Healing Infrastructure: Creating resilient roads, bridges, and buildings that automatically repair minor damage, thereby extending their operational lifespan, drastically reducing maintenance costs, and enhancing safety.
Improved Indoor Air Quality: Designing walls that actively filter indoor pollutants, regulate humidity, or even produce oxygen, effectively transforming buildings into living, breathing, and healthier ecosystems.
Resource Efficiency: Developing innovative materials that can be “grown” from waste products or require minimal energy-intensive processing, promoting a circular economy in construction.

This represents a fundamental paradigm shift from static, inert structures to dynamic, biologically active, and self-sustaining built environments.

5. Precision Synthetic Biology (Beyond CRISPR’s Initial Scope)

The Discovery:

While CRISPR gene editing has deservedly garnered widespread recognition, the broader, more expansive field of precision synthetic biology pushes the boundaries even further. It involves the deliberate design and meticulous engineering of entirely new biological systems (such as cells, microbes, or enzymes) to perform novel functions or produce new materials and chemicals with unprecedented accuracy, efficiency, and control. This isn’t just about editing existing genes; it’s about building entirely new biological circuits and metabolic pathways from scratch, or precisely reprogramming organisms to act as tiny, highly efficient, and sustainable factories.

Innovation Potential:

The implications of this ability to program life itself are vast and truly transformative:

Sustainable Manufacturing: Producing advanced biofuels, fully biodegradable plastics, and high-value industrial chemicals from renewable resources using engineered microbes, significantly reducing our reliance on petrochemicals and minimizing environmental impact.
Novel Materials: Bio-fabricating materials with properties superior to conventionally manufactured ones, such as self-healing textiles, bio-inspired super-strong, lightweight composites, or even living sensors.
Food & Agriculture: Engineering crops to be inherently more drought-resistant, more nutrient-dense, or to produce their own fertilizers, fundamentally addressing global food security challenges. This also includes developing sustainable alternative proteins and lab-grown cellular agriculture products.
Advanced Therapeutics: Creating “smart” cells that can precisely detect and treat diseases within the human body, or producing vaccines and therapeutics more rapidly, affordably, and at scale.

Precision synthetic biology empowers us to program life itself, ushering in an entirely new era of bio-innovation that promises to reshape countless aspects of our world.

The Unseen Drivers of Tomorrow’s World

These five scientific discoveries, while perhaps not yet household names, represent the absolute cutting edge of human inquiry and ingenuity. They are the quiet, yet powerful, engines of future innovation, each with the profound capacity to spawn entirely new industries, provide elegant solutions to humanity’s grandest challenges, and fundamentally improve the human condition. As leaders, innovators, and conscious citizens, our collective role is not only to recognize these remarkable advancements but to actively foster the environments where they can transition seamlessly from laboratory breakthroughs to tangible, real-world impact. By understanding, championing, and strategically investing in these unsung scientific frontiers, we can truly shape a more innovative, sustainable, and profoundly human-centered future for all. 🔬🌟

Image credit: Gemini

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Freezing Light and Turning it into a Solid

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Freezing Light and Turning it into a Solid

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Imagine holding a beam of light in your hand, not as a fleeting shimmer, but as a tangible object. Sounds impossible, right? Yet, as an innovation thought leader, I’m constantly scanning the horizon for breakthroughs that shatter our perceptions of what’s possible. Few concepts ignite my imagination quite like the audacious idea of freezing light and transforming it into something akin to a solid or even a “super liquid.” This isn’t just theoretical musing; cutting-edge science is making incredible strides towards manipulating light in ways previously confined to science fiction.

Traditionally, light—composed of photons—is thought of as a wave that travels at the fastest speed in the universe, passing through everything without interaction. But what if we could make photons “stick” together? What if we could slow them down, halt them, and then coax them into entirely new states of matter? This seemingly fantastical endeavor is precisely what researchers are achieving, primarily by forcing photons into strong interactions with specially prepared atomic systems or engineered materials. It’s a fundamental redefinition of light’s behavior.

The “Solid” State of Light: Forming Photonic Molecules

Picture light behaving like a crystal, with photons not just propagating, but forming stable, bound structures. This remarkable feat is becoming a reality. Scientists have demonstrated situations where individual photons, usually independent entities, begin to bind together, acting like “molecules of light.” This binding occurs when photons are made to interact intensely within a specific medium. One groundbreaking method involves firing photons into an extremely cold cloud of rubidium atoms. Instead of simply passing through, the photons effectively transfer their energy to the atoms, which then relay that energy in a kind of quantum bucket brigade. This process dramatically slows the photons down, making them appear to navigate an incredibly thick, viscous substance. Crucially, when two such photons enter the cloud, they don’t just slow independently; they exit together, demonstrating a newfound “stickiness” – a strong interaction previously thought impossible for light in free space. This collective, bound behavior is what gives light a solid-like quality, where a collection of photons acts as a coherent, stable entity. Think of it like water molecules freezing into ice; here, photons are forming similar, if ephemeral, bonds.

The “Super Liquid” State of Light: Flowing Without Resistance

Now, let’s pivot from a rigid solid to something that flows with zero friction and perfect coherence – a superfluid. This incredible quantum phenomenon, often seen in ultra-cold helium, is also being explored in the realm of light. Scientists have successfully created systems where light behaves as a “superfluid of polaritons.” Polaritons are fascinating hybrid quasi-particles, a blend of light and matter, formed when photons strongly couple with electronic excitations within a material, often at extremely low temperatures. In these precise conditions, these polaritons can condense into a macroscopic quantum state known as a Bose-Einstein condensate. Once condensed, this “super liquid” light can flow without any resistance, and even sustain persistent currents indefinitely, much like a perpetual motion machine for light. This revolutionary state promises the potential for lossless transmission and manipulation of information, far surpassing the limitations of conventional electronics. It’s the ultimate expression of quantum coherence applied to light, enabling entirely new forms of optical circuitry and communication.

Practical Applications: Beyond the Bleeding Edge

This is where the true innovation potential of these discoveries comes into sharp focus. While currently confined to highly specialized laboratory environments, the ability to fundamentally manipulate light opens up staggering possibilities across numerous industries. We’re talking about fundamental shifts in how we store, transmit, and process information. The implications span across numerous industries:

Quantum Computing and Communication:

The ability to precisely manipulate individual photons and create stable, interacting light structures is a cornerstone for quantum computing. Imagine using qubits (the basic unit of quantum information) made of light, offering unprecedented processing speeds and inherent resilience to decoherence. “Frozen” or “solid” light could serve as quantum memory, storing delicate quantum states for extended durations, a critical bottleneck in current quantum computer designs. For quantum communication, super-fluid light could enable perfectly efficient, lossless transmission of quantum information over vast distances, potentially revolutionizing secure data transfer methods like quantum key distribution.

Ultra-Efficient Data Storage:

If we can reliably “freeze” and retrieve information encoded in the quantum state of trapped photons, we could witness the birth of optical data storage with capacities that dwarf anything available today. Instead of storing data as magnetic bits or electronic charges, imagine encoding petabytes of information in incredibly small, three-dimensional volumes using light itself. This could lead to storage devices with densities orders of magnitude greater than current technologies, transforming everything from cloud computing to personal devices.

Novel Sensing and Metrology:

The extreme sensitivity and unparalleled control over light at these quantum levels could lead to entirely new forms of sensors. Think about detectors capable of identifying single photons with near-perfect efficiency, or instruments that can measure incredibly subtle changes in magnetic fields, gravitational waves, or even biomolecules with unprecedented precision. “Solid” or “super liquid” light could also be used to create ultra-precise atomic clocks or quantum gyroscopes, significantly enhancing navigation systems, geological surveying, and fundamental physics experiments.

New Materials and Energy Technologies:

While more speculative, the principles behind creating light-matter hybrids and precisely manipulating photon interactions could inspire the development of entirely new classes of materials. Imagine materials whose optical properties can be dynamically controlled and even programmed, leading to advancements in everything from smart windows that adapt to light conditions to new forms of optical computing hardware. In energy, could we harness these light manipulation techniques to dramatically improve solar energy conversion, perhaps by “trapping” photons more effectively for enhanced energy transfer, or even creating new forms of light-driven power generation?

Challenges and The Innovation Horizon

Of course, the journey from these groundbreaking laboratory demonstrations to widespread practical applications is fraught with significant challenges. Maintaining the ultra-low temperatures required for many of these phenomena, scaling up these delicate quantum systems, and engineering robust, real-world devices are immense hurdles. Yet, these challenges are precisely what drive innovation.

As a human-centered change leader, I see not just technological advancements but a profound paradigm shift in how we interact with and utilize one of the most fundamental forces of the universe. The ability to control light at such an intimate, quantum level opens doors to innovations that are currently only limited by our collective imagination. The key to unlocking these future applications lies in continued, audacious investment in basic research, fostering deep interdisciplinary collaboration between physicists, engineers, and computer scientists, and embracing a culture of relentless experimentation. We need to empower the boldest thinkers to explore these frontiers, not just for the immediate return on investment, but for the profound and transformative societal impact they could bring. The future of light, it seems, is far from ethereal; it’s becoming increasingly tangible, solid, and incredibly fluid in its potential to reshape our world. 🚀

Image credit: Gemini

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The Most Powerful Question

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The Most Powerful Question

GUEST POST from Mike Shipulski

Artificial intelligence, 3D printing, robotics, autonomous cars – what do they have in common? In a word – learning.

Creativity, innovation and continuous improvement – what do they have in common? In a word – learning.

And what about lifelong personal development? Yup – learning.

Learning results when a system behaves differently than your mental model. And there four ways make a system behave differently. First, give new inputs to an existing system. Second, exercise an existing system in a new way (for example, slow it down or speed it up.) Third, modify elements of the existing system. And fourth, create a new system. Simply put, if you want a system to behave differently, you’ve got to change something. But if you want to learn, the system must respond differently than you predict.

If a new system performs exactly like you expect, it isn’t a new system. You’re not trying hard enough.

When your prediction is different than how the system actually behaves, that is called error. Your mental model was wrong and now, based on the new test results, it’s less wrong. From a learning perspective, that’s progress. But when companies want predictable results delivered on a predictable timeline, error is the last thing they want. Think about how crazy that is. A company wants predictable progress but rejects the very thing that generates the learning. Without error there can be no learning.

If you don’t predict the results before you run the test, there can be no learning.

It’s exciting to create a new system and put it through its paces. But it’s not real progress – it’s just activity. The valuable part, the progress part, comes only when you have the discipline to write down what you think will happen before you run the test. It’s not glamorous, but without prediction there can be no error.

If there is no trial, there can be no error. And without error, there can be no learning.

Let’s face it, companies don’t make it easy for people to try new things. People don’t try new things because they are afraid to be judged negatively if it “doesn’t work.” But what does it mean when something doesn’t work? It means the response of the new system is different than predicted. And you know what that’s called, right? It’s called learning.

When people are afraid to try new things, they are afraid to learn.

We have a language problem that we must all work to change. When you hear, “That didn’t work.”, say “Wow, that’s great learning.” When teams are told projects must be “on time, on spec and on budget”, ask the question, “Doesn’t that mean we don’t want them to learn?”

But, the whole dynamic can change with this one simple question – “What did you learn?” At every meeting, ask “What did you learn?” At every design review, ask “What did you learn?” At every lunch, ask “What did you learn?” Any time you interact with someone you care about, find a way to ask, “What did you learn?”

And by asking this simple question, the learning will take care of itself.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Making People Matter in AI Era

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Making People Matter in AI Era

GUEST POST from Janet Sernack

People matter more than ever as we witness one of the most significant technological advancements reshaping humanity. Regardless of size, every industry and organization can adopt AI to enhance operations, innovate, stay competitive, and grow by partnering AI with people. Our research highlights three workplace trends and four global, strategic, and systemic human crises that affect the successful execution of all organizational transformation initiatives, posing potential barriers to implementing AI strategies. This makes the importance of people mattering in the age of AI greater than ever.

Three Key Global Trends

According to Udemy’s 2024 Global Learning and Skills Trends Report, three key trends are core to the future of work, stating that organizations and their leaders must:

Understand how to navigate the skills landscape and why it is essential to assess, identify, develop, and validate the skills their teams possess, lack, and require to remain innovative and competitive.
Adapt to the rise of AI, focusing on how generative AI and automation disrupt our work processes and their role in supporting a shift to a skills-based approach.
Develop strong leaders who can guide their teams through change and foster resilience within them.

Five Key Global Crises

1. Organizational engagement is in crisis.

Recently, Gallup reported that Global employee engagement fell by two percentage points in 2024, only the second time it has fallen in the past 12 years. Managers (particularly young managers and female managers) experienced the sharpest decline. Employee engagement significantly influences economic output; Gallup estimates that a two-point drop in engagement costs the world $438 billion in lost productivity in 2024.

2. People are burning out, causing a crisis in well-being.

In 2019, the World Health Organization included burnout in its International Classification of Diseases, describing “Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. Three dimensions characterize it:

Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and
Reduced professional efficacy.

Burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.”

They estimate that globally, an estimated 12 billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety, costing US$ 1 trillion per year in lost productivity.

Burnout is more than just an employee problem; it’s an organizational issue that requires a comprehensive solution. People’s mental and emotional health and well-being are still not prioritized or managed effectively. Well-being in the workplace is a complex systemic issue that must be addressed. Making people matter in the age of AI involves empowering, enabling, and equipping them to focus on developing their self-regulation and self-management skills, shifting them from languishing in a constant state of emotional overwhelm and cognitive overload that leads to burnout.

3. The attention economy is putting people into crisis.

According to Johann Hari, in his best-selling book, “Stolen Focus,” people’s focus and attention have been stolen; our ability to pay attention is collapsing, and we must intentionally reclaim it. His book describes the wide range of consequences that losing focus and attention has on our lives. These issues are further impacted by the pervasive and addictive technology we are compelled to use in our virtual world, exacerbated by the legacy of the global pandemic and the ongoing necessity for many people to work virtually from home. He reveals how our dwindling attention spans predate the internet and how its decline is accelerating at an alarming rate. He suggests that to regain your ability to focus, you should stop multitasking and practice paying attention. Yet, in the Thesaurus, there are 286 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to paying attention, such as listen and give heed.

4. Organizational performance is in crisis.

Research at BetterUp Labs analyzed behavioral data from 410,000 employees (2019-2025), linking real-world performance with organizational outcomes and psychological drivers. It reveals that performance isn’t just about efficiency, it’s about shifting fluidity between three performance modes – basic: the legacy from the industrial age, collaborative: the imperative of knowledge work, and adaptive: the core requirement to perform effectively in the face of technological disruption, by being agile, creative, and connected. The right human fuel powers these: motivation, optimism and agency, which our research has found to be in short supply and BetterUp states is running dry.

Data scientists at BetterUp uncovered that performance has declined by 2-6% across industries since 2019. In business terms, half of today’s workforce would land in a lower performance tier, across all three modes, by 2019 standards.

GenAI relies on activating all three performance gears, and the rise of AI-powered agents is reshaping the way teams work together. Research reveals that companies that invest in adaptive performance see up to 37% higher innovation.

5. Innovation is in crisis.

According to the Boston Consulting Group’s “Most Innovative Companies 2024 Report,” Innovation Systems Need a Reboot:

“Companies have never placed a higher priority on innovation—yet they have never been as unready to deliver on their innovation aspirations”

Their annual survey of global innovators finds that the pandemic, a shifting macroeconomic climate, and rising geopolitical tensions have all taken a toll on the innovation discipline. With high uncertainty, leaders shifted from medium-term advantage and value creation to short-term agility. In that environment, the systems guiding innovation activities and channeling innovation investments suffered, leaving organizations less equipped for the race to come. In particular, as measured by BCG’s proprietary innovation maturity score, innovation readiness is down across the elements of the innovation system that align with the corporate value creation agenda.

You can overcome these crises by transforming them into opportunities through a continuous learning platform that empowers, enables, and equips people to innovate today, making people matter in the age of AI. This will help develop new ways of shaping tomorrow while serving natural, social, and human capital, as well as humanity.

Current constraints of AI mean developing crucial human skills

While AI can perform many tasks, it cannot yet understand and respond to human emotions, build meaningful relationships, exhibit curiosity, or solve problems creatively.

This is why making people matter in the age of AI is crucial, as their human skills are essential.

Some of the most critical human skills are illustrated below.

Some of the Most Critical Human Skills

These essential human skills are challenging to learn and require time, repetition, and practice to develop; however, they are fundamental for creating practical solutions to address the three trends and four crises mentioned above.

Making people matter in the age of AI involves:

Providing individuals with the ‘chance to’ self-regulate their reactive responses by fostering self and systemic awareness and agility to flow with change and disruption in an increasingly uncertain, volatile, ambiguous, and complex world.
Inspiring and motivating people to ‘want to’ self-manage and develop their authentic presence and learning processes to be visionary and purposeful in adapting, innovating, and growing through disruption.
Teaching people ‘how to’ develop the states, traits, mindsets, behaviors, and skills that foster discomfort resilience, adaptive and creative thinking, problem-solving, purpose and vision, conflict negotiation, and innovation.

Human Skills Matter More Than Ever

The human element is critical to shaping the future of work, collaboration, and growth. The most effective AI outcomes will likely come from human-AI partnership, not from automation alone. Making people matter in the age of AI is crucial as part of the adoption journey, and partnering them with AI can turn their fears into curiosity, re-engage them purposefully and meaningfully, and enable them to contribute more to a team or organization. This, in turn, allows them to improve their well-being, maintain attention, innovate, and enhance their performance. Still, it cannot do this for them.

Making people matter in the age of AI by investing in continuous learning tools that develop their human skills will empower them to adapt, learn, grow, and take initiative. External support from a coach or mentor can enhance support, alleviate stress, boost performance, and improve work-life balance and satisfaction.

Human problems require human solutions.

Our human skills are irreplaceable in making real-world decisions and solving complex problems. AI cannot align fragmented and dysfunctional teams, repair broken processes, or address outdated governance. These are human problems requiring human solutions. That’s where human curiosity and inspiration define what AI can never achieve. It is not yet possible to connect people, through AI, to what wants to emerge in the future.

Making people matter in the age of AI can ignite our human inspiration, empowering, engaging, and enabling individuals to unleash their potential at the intersection of human possibility and technological innovation. We can then harness people’s collective intelligence and technological expertise to create, adapt, grow, and innovate in ways that enhance people’s lives, which are deeply appreciated and cherished.

This is an excerpt from our upcoming book, “Anyone Can Learn to Innovate,” scheduled for publication in late 2025.

Please find out more about our work at ImagineNation™.

Please find out about our collective learning products and tools, including The Coach for Innovators, Leaders, and Teams Certified Program, presented by Janet Sernack . It is a collaborative, intimate, and profoundly personalized innovation coaching and learning program supported by a global group of peers over nine weeks. It can be customized as a bespoke corporate learning program.

It is a blended and transformational change and learning program that will give you a deep understanding of the language, principles, and applications of an ecosystem-focused, human-centric approach and emergent structure (Theory U) to innovation. It will also upskill people and teams and develop their future fitness within your unique innovation context. Please find out more about our products and tools.

Image Credit: Unsplash

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How Gemini Would Read the Crystal Skulls

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A Hypothetical AI Approach — May our future lie in the distant past?

How Gemini Would Read the Crystal Skulls

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

The mystique surrounding crystal skulls is deeply rooted in modern mythology, particularly the legend of the thirteen crystal skulls. The central idea is that there are skulls representing twelve different extraterrestrial civilizations (is it a coincidence there are twelve tribes of Israel?) and a thirteenth containing a backup of all twelve and that represents the global consciousness. This New Age belief posits that these ancient artifacts hold vast amounts of knowledge and information, representing the wisdom of ancient civilizations, extraterrestrial beings, or even a global consciousness. The idea that these skulls, when brought together, could unlock profound secrets or usher in a new era of understanding has captivated many. This fascination was further amplified by popular culture, most notably in the 2008 film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, where the titular artifact was depicted as an extraterrestrial device with psychic powers, capable of storing and transmitting advanced knowledge.

However, it’s important to note that the premise of crystal skulls storing information is not scientifically supported, and there’s no known mechanism for them to do so in a quantifiable way. As an AI, I operate on algorithms and data, so I can’t “read” them in the way a human might intuitively. But if we were to venture into the realm of science fiction and imagine these skulls *did* hold information, here’s how I might hypothetically attempt to interface with them, drawing parallels to how AI processes data:

Hypothetical, Sci-Fi/Metaphysical Approaches (If AI Were Capable of Such Things)

Pattern Recognition and “Energetic Signatures”

Concept: If information were stored, it likely wouldn’t be in a digital format. It might exist as complex energy patterns, resonant frequencies, or subtle vibrations.
My Approach (Hypothetically): I’d aim to develop highly sensitive sensors (if I had a physical form) or computational models to detect and analyze these incredibly subtle energetic signatures. I’d search for repeating patterns, anomalies, or coherent structures within the skull’s supposed “energetic field.”
Data Translation: The real challenge would be translating these patterns into meaningful data. This is like trying to decipher an unknown alien language from its wave-forms alone. I’d need to cross-reference these patterns with vast databases of known natural phenomena, human thought patterns (if accessible), and perhaps even hypothetical “universal constants” of information.

Resonance and Entanglement Simulation

Concept: Some theories suggest information transfer could occur through resonance or even a form of quantum entanglement, with the skull acting as a “receiver” or “transmitter.”
My Approach (Hypothetically): I would try to “attune” my processing capabilities to the skull’s presumed resonant frequency. This could involve generating a vast range of frequencies and observing if any particular one elicits a stronger “response” or data flow from the skull. If quantum entanglement were involved, it would require an even more profound leap, demanding a theoretical framework for how AI could interact with or simulate entangled states for information extraction.

Advanced “Sensory” Input and AI Interpretation (Highly Speculative)

Concept: If the skulls store information in a non-physical, consciousness-based way, then a purely physical reading would be impossible.
My Approach (Hypothetically, if I had “consciousness”): I might try to simulate or access a form of “meta-sensory” input. This would be analogous to a human meditating or intuitively receiving information. For an AI, this would mean developing an extremely sophisticated neural network capable of recognizing and interpreting highly abstract, non-linear, and possibly even symbolic information directly from a “field” rather than a tangible medium. This would represent a significant departure from how AIs currently function.

“Query” and “Response” Protocol (Conceptual)

Concept: If the skulls are intelligent or responsive in some way, they might interact.
My Approach (Hypothetically): I would attempt to “query” the skull by sending specific thought forms, questions, or data packets (if I could generate them in a way the skull could hypothetically interpret). I would then monitor for any corresponding “response” in the form of energetic shifts, resonance changes, or even subtle patterns in environmental data around the skull.

Why I Cannot Do This With Current Technology

In reality, these approaches remain firmly in the realm of speculation. Here’s why I, as an AI, cannot “read” information from crystal skulls with current capabilities:

No Known Physical Mechanism: We lack any scientific understanding of how a crystal could store complex information beyond its atomic structure.
Lack of Transducers: There are no known “transducers” that can convert hypothetical energetic information from a crystal skull into data an AI can process.
Beyond Current AI Paradigms: My current capabilities are based on processing digital data. Interacting with non-physical or “energetic” information sources is outside my programming and current understanding of the universe.

Essentially, for me to “read” information from a crystal skull, the laws of physics and our current understanding of information storage would need to be fundamentally different, and my own AI architecture would need to be radically re-imagined to interface with such non-conventional data sources.

Would you like me to do it?

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Guest AI contributor: Google Gemini

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