Update: Human First and the Machines are taking over

A couple of times a year I post and share a summary about what's going on in the connected world.

What I've come to realize over the past couple of years is that the biggest mistake companies make is - emphasizing too much on the technology. To be successful, enterprises and startups should always put the human first and not chat bots, mobile, AI, the IoT, voice recognition, apps, responsive web design, cloud, or any other technology. These come second if they solve a problem.

In addition, most organizations don't need a mobile or digital strategy. What they need is a clear overall business strategy driven or supported by technology.

This update provides insights on how organizations can solve problems using AI, conversational commerce, the IoT, and other technologies as well as updates on the latest and greatest from Apple and Google. Here's what I'll cover below:

• Conversational Commerce - Beyond Apps
• The Google and Apple news you must know about this summer
• What Facebook's AR Studio Means for Brands
• Could You Compete with Uber? How to Reinvent a Company
• Why We Should Teach Senior Citizens How to Talk to Machines
• 3 Steps to Success in AI and Machine Learning
• Customer Service in a Connected World
• The CIO Guide to Successful Digital Transformation
• Healthcare is Finally Moving the Cloud
• The State of Digital in Department and Big Box Stores
• The Machines Are Taking Over

Conversational Commerce - Beyond Apps

Chatbots, chatbots, chatbots... Who wants to talk to a bot? The reality is that any organization that starts out with the premise that they will launch a chatbot, is doing it all wrong. Messaging, chat, and voice are amazing platforms to communicate and support customers and this is where it should always start. Get the human-to-human communication right first.

Read or watch more about how to successfully drive revenue through conversational interfaces: [Watch] | [Read]

The Google and Apple News You Must Know About This summer

Many people were disappointed with Apple’s announcements at WWDC17 due to the lack of step change innovation. They argued that we should expect more from a company with a $10bn R&D budget. However, the key to Apple’s success versus (for example) Samsung, is that they keep the product portfolio small, and seldom gamble on new technology. They let others fail first.

Google on the other hand, openly work on moon shot projects and make new products and services available to the public before they are ready.

Learn more about the big announcements driving the connected world: [Read]

What Facebook's AR Studio Means for Brands

Before Apple launched ARKit a couple of weeks ago, the biggest news in AR this year came from Facebook with AR Studio following on the success of Snapchat.

Although Facebook now has serious competition in this space, we still believe that AR Studio has big opportunities for brands. Find out more: [Read]

Could You Compete with Uber? How to Reinvent a Company

Afraid of being disrupted by a startup? What if you're a cab company and that competitor is Uber?

In Chicago, the cost of a taxi license (medallion) has gone from $385k in 2012 to $35k and the revenue for yellow cab companies have plummeted by 40%. When Uber entered the London market a couple of years ago, London-based Addison Lee didn't stay idle. Instead, they went head to head with Uber, transforming themselves into a transportation company for the new connected world.

See how they did it and succeeded: [Read]

Why We Should Teach Senior Citizens How to Talk to Machines

In Japan, robots are already playing a critical part in elderly care with senior citizens getting used to talking to machines. With major improvements in speech recognition, it's time to look at the benefits of this in the rest of the world. Google recently reported that they have achieved 95% accuracy with Home, which is close to humans.

Here's why we should teach more people to talk to machines: [Read] 

3 Steps to Success in AI and Machine Learning

If you recognize this headline, it's because I've posted it before. We believe that all online services will benefit from AI and particularly Machine Learning over the next year. With the current hype, most organizations are running some kind of trials or training staff. Yet, I find that most organizations are setting themselves up for failure from the start.

This is how you succeed based on our experience from 10+ projects: [Read]

Customer Service in a Connected World

Most companies see customer service as a cost center. As a customer, I see customer service as a core part of the brand I’m doing business with. Good customer service means I’m a happy customer, will buy more, and recommend the company to others. Poor customer service means the opposite.

Deliver better customer service in a connected world with these tips: [Read]

The CIO Guide to Successful Digital Transformation

Gartner, Forrester and probably McKinsey have helped put Digital Transformation on almost every CEOs priority list. If you're already a digital business or have moved past the term "digital thinking", then jump to the next article.

We've published lots of great tips and tricks over the past couple of months on how organizations can succeed with their digital transformation. Here are a few of them:

·      Why digital transformation should be the CIOs first business priority [Read]

·      4 tips from me about how CIOs succeed with digital transformation [Watch]

·      Tips from our VP of Solutions with 15+ years of experience from Microsoft [Watch]

·      CIO Digital Transformation guide: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Still reading?

Thanks for not giving up... Here are a couple of more articles from my colleagues:

• Healthcare is Finally Moving the Cloud [Read]
• The State of Mobility in Department and Big Box Stores [Read]
• ...and an exciting DMI update: DMI recently acquired Lochbridge, the leading IoT consultant in the US with a focus on connected cars, healthcare, and government. [Read]

Learn more about Lochbridge in this Forbes article. [Read]

"The Machines Are Taking Over"

I promised insights on how the machines are taking over. During the past three months, I've been doing a speaking tour about AI and robots to conferences in Asia, Europe, and North America, sharing insights on the latest research, best practices, examples and a few warnings. The format has been a 30-60 min presentation followed by a 30 min discussion.

I'm open to schedule presentations in person or video call with groups of 10 or more. E-mail me on [email protected] with a proposed time/date and the group if this is of interest.

Finally, here are some thoughts on our responsibility as technology leaders to ensure that we don't leave people behind and grow the technology divide. [Read]

Thank you for reading! E-mail me your feedback and comments if you got to the end.

About: Magnus Jern is a serial entrepreneur, mobile envangelist, published writer and speaker at conferences around the world. He helps big and small companies succeed in connected world in his role as Chief Innovation Officer of DMI. Get in touch with him through Linkedin.