What will tomorrow look like? Today the vision of Leo Mart, co-founder WiseVoice

Instead of introduction:

We live in a world with rules and norms, some of them established before we’ve even been born and more then often we tend to consider them as being unchangeable. This is the status quo we're living in. Just think about this example: cars using fossil fuels, this is the norm. Even if electric cars are more and more available, because their price might be higher and the number of charging stations still low, there is a reluctance to mass adoption, regardless of the fact that the solution is there, and anyone could choose to help in its own way fighting climate change. I will end speaking in general terms, and I will describe my actions and re-actions until now on the climate change topic.

I’ve heard about climate change, I even felt its effects, but somehow, I didn’t consider it as being in my responsibility to act. I’ve always thought that someone else should do it and come with a solution and impose it as a norm. Following are my exact thoughts related to events in the last years:  

- the melting of polar ice caps: I’m not going to go in any polar expedition, so that’s not my problem. Maybe I should be concerned when the sea level will rise, and seaside towns will start to be flooded. But not now, maybe later. Anyway, I don’t leave at the seaside.

- the bushfire crisis in Australia: it’s opposite to Europe, so no need to think about it. When I’ll travel to the southern hemisphere, everything is going to be back to normal.

- the fires near Athens from 2018: Athens is closer to Bucharest, my hometown, and I usually go to Greece during summer, so this crisis had an impact on me as I’ve driven last year through the sea-side towns burned down in 2018. Being there, the view had a clear impact on me. I’ve started to think that my holidays might be affected by it.

- empty ski resorts: more ski resorts in Europe and beyond reported the second year without snow. This is again affecting our winter holidays.

- illegal timber trade in Romania: hundreds of hectares of woods have been cut in Romania in the last years. Climate change started to be visible in Romania where mountains are emptied of their forests.

- COVID-19: It started in Wuhan, China, so again, too far from Bucharest. I won’t go too soon there, so no need to worry. But this time, it came closer to us…

I don’t know if the incidence of COVID-19 is linked directly to climate change, but I cannot see that the current stop in industrial production and transportation had, as a result, the biggest drop in CO2 emissions since WWII. Why am I talking now about climate change? Because this Saturday I’ve stayed with my dear ones and looked for TV shows for the entire family. My kids challenged us to choose one from our childhood. Both I and my wife answered almost instantly: The Fresh Prince of Bell-Air starring Will Smith. To my amazement the first episode had a clear reference to the fight of climate change: Will’s cousin participated along with Bruce and Demi (Moore) to a “protest” intended to raise awareness against climate change. Her action was more of a snobbism act back then and raised laughers in the episode. 

But today I’ve come upon Darren Hardy’s definition of the Compound Effect: “It's the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices. Success is earned at the moment to moment decisions that in themselves make no visible difference whatsoever, but the accumulated compounding effect is profound.” According to Darren, it takes around 30 years to talk about significant change. Coming back to the Fresh Prince of Bell-Air Episode 101, it was first launched in 1990. This might have been the first time I came across the climate change topic, and just now, after 30 years, I must confess, I am REALLY concerned about it. The Compound Effect was right in my case. 

So, what will tomorrow look like? I now observe that no magic solutions will appear and that leaders around the globe can’t solve the current crisis on their own. I think that tomorrow is what every one of us individually and as part of together will do. So, act now, tomorrow is what you are dreaming about if you work hard with ethics and responsibility. Question the current status quo and analyze it with new eyes according to values that really count, and I think in the last days our scale of values changed and became clearer which one has priority. 

Every action counts, as stated before it takes around 30 years to talk about significant change, but now we are living the exception when a crisis that can accelerate this change in the economy. I’ve said in an earlier article, that we are now in the epicenter of the industrial revolution 4.0. I am also thinking that this is the time when values like ethics, responsibility, integrity will have priority in front of the maximization of the profit. Just think of the Green & Circular Economy; it’s all making sense, right?

For those that are late like me, it is time to act, regarding those that worked before in this direction, it is time to pause a little and give them all the credit for their past years of effort and show them all our support to bring to life innovations that are now relevant to addressing some of the COVID-19 health, societal or economic challenges. And I am not talking about the avalanche of so-called Anti-COVID-19 solutions that appeared in the last weeks in the public space, but about projects that have been built on values like integrity, social fairness, green economy. In the following days, I will present some of these visionary entrepreneurs that I had the chance to personally work with and showcase their projects that might shape in better our tomorrow. Some addresses the climate change, others the effects of COVID-19, but all use technology for a greater good. They deserve our full appreciation!

WiseVoice

Today I will talk about Leo Mart, Co-founder of WiseVoice and InnovX Alumni in 2019. Leo was somehow the Maverick of the InnovX BCR Startups Cohort in 2019, he said from the beginning that he is dedicated to using his technology for a broader social good and not only for maximizing profits. His vision was right, “MagicBot – The Therapeutic AI virtual assistants for patients with cancer”, was the project developed during the InnovX Program that was awarded The Seal of Excellence from the European Commission last fall. WiseVoice developed an AI therapeutical assistant that combines the know-how of therapists and the power of artificial intelligence in order to help people with cancer in fighting with trauma. The assistant is available 24/7 on chat platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp or the dedicated chat window on a website. As a recognition of its efforts, last year, Leo Mart was invited by Ionut Stanimir, as a speaker at Romania Tech Nation alongside Sergiu Manea, CEO of BCR, Alin Iftemy, Head of Modex and Klaus Iohannis, President of Romania.

These days, it was obvious for him to adapt the awarded innovation for addressing the COVID-19 challenge. In the context of the current pandemic, Leo Mart had the initiative to propose to the Government of Romania together with the Romanian Health Observatory, a project that uses WiseVoice virtual assistants for the remote monitoring of the elderly. Their solution will monitor by telephone the medical emergencies, the symptoms triggered by COVID-19, the treatment of the chronic patients, the different types of assistance needed (food or medicines). I have to mention that the procedural specifications and the content of the project are coordinated and validated by Vlad Mixich from the Romanian Health Observatory. In only two weeks, by working day and night, the WiseVoice team has developed and continues to do so, the portal, the technical platform, and all the technical architecture for connecting with servers and SIP telephone lines. During the project, WiseVoice will license pro-bono the enterprise platform worth 50,000 EUR for the benefit of thousands of seniors needing assistance. With this aim, Microsoft already partnered by providing the Azure infrastructure required to run WiseVoice services and PwC provided pro-bono support in the legal field and the quality management of the project implementation. 

As time is of the essence in such scenarios, WiseVoice is looking for additional partners to help implement in a timely manner the solution addressing the COVID-19 challenges. For any info on how to help implement this project please contact Leo Mart directly at leonard.mart@gmailcom or at [email protected]

Here you can watch my interview in Romanian with Leo Mart, on the 6th of April 2020 @ InnovX BCR Talks powered by Microsoft.