Futures in Focus Podcast

Was linked to this podcast through it's mention of correspondent Michael Schrage of the Media Lab.   Just starting to examine, will pass along things of interest.

Futures In Focus Podcast - A Look Inside Our World 10 Years From Now That Only 19% Of Us Think About
Thought Leaders
Michael Gale   WSJ bestseller, A.I. influencer, podcast host about the world in 2030.

Welcome to Forbes Insight’s Futures in Focus podcast, where we explore the world of AI, travel, entertainment, 3D printing, sports experiences in to 2030, healthcare developments, the environment, digital transformation, the nature of good, animal cloning, and many other advancements that have the potential to change what life, business, and society could be like in ten years.  We even tap into the mindset of growth hacking to see if major corporations can grab one of the secrets of startups with the CEO of Growth Hacking and best selling author Sean Ellis and the world of precision medicine with Professor Sah-Shen Orr and David Harel of Cyto Reason.

These and our many other guests give us their best ideas, years of thinking, and a sense of the possible futures in store for us all of which is extremely exciting.  I ask some tough questions about potential choices into the future that guests like Bruno Sarda, the US CEO of CDP who is charged with measuring carbon footprints around the world, and he gave us some incredibly enlightened answers.  Even the sustainability officer for Campbell's soup talks about sustainable food design. In just about thirty minutes, whether you are on your commute, eating lunch, or some other down moment, Forbes Futures in Focus is designed to give you a peek through the window into the futures we could be part of.  ... "

Levels of Customer Engagement with Retail IOT

I see that Intel Director Jon Stine, who we worked with at innovation centers, comments on Amazon Go and IoT in retail.

IoT Is Building Higher Levels Of Customer Engagement

Forbes Insights With Intel IoT Connecting The Unconnected  

 Insights Team Insights Team , Forbes Insights

Bestselling author Shep Hypken—the “Chief Amazement Officer” at Shephard Presentations—makes a rock-solid case for why customer experience has advanced to the level of 21st-century table stakes: “New research proves that consumers are expecting, if not demanding, highly personalized experiences,” Hypken writes in Forbes. “And the good news for those businesses that can deliver is that customers are typically willing to spend more when they receive such custom-tailored service.”
Enter the Internet of Things (IoT), which through interconnected devices and strong data analytics makes an entirely new level of customer surprise, delight and convenience possible. What’s more, the IoT brings relevant experiences and information to consumers, whether to facilitate the operation of smart homes or to provide relevant health and wellness data that can be shared with medical professionals.

Here are three examples of how IoT and advanced high-tech are building unprecedented levels of consumer connection and engagement today.

Checking Out Stores Without Checkout Lines

Amazon is testing a new concept in brick-and-mortar shopping that aims to eradicate the bane of every shopper’s existence: the checkout line. The Amazon Go store in Seattle combines machine vision, IoT sensors and a mobile app swiped at the store entrance to create what it calls “just walk out technology.” The system tallies items as the customer places them in a shopping bag (or subtracts them when returned to the shelves) and charges their linked Amazon account accordingly.

This frees the customer to simply leave the store when done shopping, while Amazon in the process collects data to analyze and leverage for further insights. The potential exists to send out personalized coupons for future shopping runs, or guide shoppers via their mobile device to where they can find their favorite products. Eventually, such systems will also analyze shopping lists and alert customers when items are out of stock or going on sale.

Jon Stine, global director retail sales at Intel, says the Amazon Go stores are true game changers because “these are not pilots built to prove technology’s value. Hardly. Understand them as first deployments—soon to be followed by second, third, fourth and thousandth deployments.”
Computer vision also comes into play where smart retail stores are concerned. Founded as a brick-and-mortar retailer in 1998, JD.com has moved from strength to strength, first as an online merchant and most recently with its stores that employ optimized image processing and computer vision technologies. In an unmanned store in the lobby of JD.com’s Beijing headquarters, customers can look up at a camera and, in that instant, pay for the products they walk out with. The cameras can even identify members of the store’s “Jindong PLUS” loyalty program, while smart shelving offers personalized discounts.   .... " 

Kroger and Embedded Machine Learning Analytics

Good to see how much work Kroger is doing in advanced analytics, congrats to my friends there, we worked with them in the innovation area, always following them for leading tech.  This is a leading direction, good to see Kroger leading the way in making the business needs known and investing in solutions.

84.51° Builds a Machine Learning Machine for Kroger
By Tom Davenport , Forbes Contributor

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Machine learning is a great way to extract maximum predictive or categorization value from a large volume of structured data. The idea (at least for “supervised learning,” by far the most common type in business) is to train a model on a one set of labeled data and then use the resulting models to make predictions or classifications on data where we don’t know the outcome. The approach works well in concept, but it can be labor-intensive to develop and deploy the models.

One company, however, is rapidly developing a “machine learning machine” that can build and deploy very large numbers of models with relatively little human intervention. You may have heard of dunnhumby, a UK-based analytics company that’s owned by the big retailer Tesco. dunnhumby had a US joint venture with Kroger named dunnhumbyUSA. In 2015 Kroger purchased dunnhumbyUSA and named it 84.51°. The name coincides with the location of its Cincinnati headquarters and is a tribute to the longitudinal analytics the company employs. But 84.51° also analyzes data like a finely-tuned machine.  .... "   

 (read the rest for details of the embedding)

Kroger and Boxed

Still speculation, but other possible buyers also lining up.  A response to Amazon's supply chain wins.

Kroger may acquire digital bulk retailer Boxed  In Cincinnati Enquirer

" ... Kroger is considering acquiring online wholesaler Boxed as traditional retailers look to beef up their digital capabilities, according to multiple news reports.

The New York-based startup is considering selling itself to several potential suitors. Aldi, Costco, Target are others mentioned as possible buyers, according to Forbes and Reuters, citing unnamed sources.

Supermarkets and big-box retailers are scrambling to ramp up their e-commerce and delivery abilities after digital juggernaut Amazon acquired Whole Foods last year. The deal threatened to further dilute an already saturated market by a deep-pocketed competitor who would use lower priced food to drive customer traffic. ... " 

(Update) Discussion in Retailwire.

Oracle's Adaptive Intelligence for CX

Oracle is calling it adaptive intelligence, and is pushing it for better customer experience.

Oracle OpenWorld: Got Customers? Better Get AI For The Best Customer Experience    Linda Currey Post , Oracle in Forbes.

Better customer experiences will be a central topic at Oracle OpenWorld 2017, which takes place October 1 to 5 in San Francisco. Oracle experts, customers, and industry thought leaders will share how artificial intelligence (AI) technology is enhancing customer acquisition, retention, and loyalty by offering consumers the best possible interactions across all channels.

Oracle’s approach to AI, known as Adaptive Intelligence, combines several technologies, including data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. AI-powered systems can recognize images, understand language, learn from data, and emulate human intelligence.  Oracle’s recently introduced suite of Adaptive Intelligent applications is focused first on applying customer insights derived from AI to the transformation of customer experience, and will soon span the enterprise to include applications for finance, human resources, and supply chain management.   .... " 

Baidu and China Machine Learning

How Chinese Internet Giant Baidu Uses AI And Machine Learning - Forbes.  By Bernard Marr.

"  .... Chinese firms such as Baudu and Alibaba, on the other hand – as well as a monopoly on gathering personal data in their home market - can collect data of US and EU consumers in the overseas markets in which they operate. Given China’s huge population, it’s clear that Baidu is in an advantageous position here, when it comes to Big Data projects involving huge scale behavioural datasets. On top of this, China’s rules and regulations around transferring and selling personal data are generally considered to be less robust than those of the US or EU. This means huge amounts of “grey market” data is available to Chinese countries for very little cost. .... " 

Blockchain Reinventing Organizations

When I first read about these methods, was not expecting that  Blockchain Will Transform And Reinvent Organizations, Ecosystems And Economies - in Forbes  By Shanker Ramamurthy, IBM. Is there anything they won't do?  Read the tag link below.

Future of Retailing Technology is Now

Forbes article.  Generally put, but good piece:

The Future Of Retailing: The Technology Revolution Is Now
by Walter Loeb ,   Contributor

I believe that retailing is undergoing a revolutionary change. Merchants are no longer the driving force for retailers. This is a major change that will be hard to swallow. In the past merchants interacted with customers. They talked to them as a market. Now these same customers are demanding products and services that match their specific needs. In other words, the customer is now in charge.   ....  " 

Forbes on Voice

In Forbes:   On voice interpretation.  Voice to text.  And its use for devices and online.  Not everywhere, since we don't always want to be heard.  They say: " ...  It won’t be long before you wonder how you ever typed much of anything longer than an emoji into your phone–or how, as recently as 2015, your microwave or your clock radio couldn’t understand you. ... ".   In my own case this has been brought up in my experiments with Amazon Echo.  I am now much more willing to speak to a device than I ever was.

Forbes Sells Majority Stake to International Investors

This was of interest because I had a very small connection to Forbes.   'To accelerate growth they say ... '.  I liked their coverage of technical and management issues.  How this will change it is unclear.

 ' ... Forbes Family Welcomes Significant Investment by Investor Group  –

–    Investors Are Committed to Forbes’ Brand, Strategy, Values and Management  –

–    Forbes Family Will Retain Significant Interest; Current Management Team Will Remain in Place; Steve Forbes Will Continue as Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Mike Perlis as President and CEO  –

–        Forbes Media will remain a privately-held, independent company headquartered in the U.S.; Company’s Asian business will continue to be led by Forbes Media CEO/Asia Will Adamopoulos – ....' 

Company Initiative Overload

Have seen it. There can even be be overload in figuring out which initiatives to work on. Ao how should we address this?   Some good embedded ideas, in Forbes:  " .... If you work for a large company, you may be suffering from a common ailment: initiative overload. You don’t have enough time to do anything well. You don’t have the bandwidth to absorb what you need to absorb. Fortunately, the ailment isn’t fatal. You may not escape initiative overload, but you can learn to manage it. Here are four guidelines to prevent it when possible and mitigate its effects when not. ... "  

Free Analytics Handbook, Part III

As I mentioned, this is less a handbook, and more a set of informative interviews of practitioners and promoters of the topic.   Now Tristan Tao writes:

" We are excited to share with you the final edition of The Data Analytics Handbook! It includes interviews with Hal Varian, the Chief Economist at Google, Tom Davenport, ranked by Forbes as one of the top 10 Masters of the New Economy, and many more!

Download it for free at www.analyticshandbook.com!
Also if you want to learn data science skills, checkout www.teamleada.com.

Thanks!
Tristan, Brian, & Elizabeth ... " 

Visualization of Telecommuting Data

A good data visualization of information about US telecommuting, with a strong ability to interact with the data.  In the Tableau Public site.  Much better than an infographic in display and adaptability for further study.  Answering the question:   " ... Is Telecommuting the Wave of the Future? ... Working from home may be the way of the future, as shown by Peter Kim in this viz published by Drew Hendricks of Forbes. Use the drop down filter to investigate different characteristics of the US population.  ... " 

Data Visualization as the Future

Short comment piece in Forbes.  Worth a look.  Several comments.  It's not a new thing, it's the convenience to the analyst and the ability to make it interactive that is new.   Access to more and new kinds of data is growing.  Also the integration of other kinds of analytics with visualization is more convenient than ever.  Finally the awareness by decision makers that it is available and useful without millions of dollars and teams of deep specialists is the most valuable change of all.

Targeting with Mobile: Coupons are Moving

In Forbes:  Good overall view of how promotion couponing is moving to mobile:

" ... Those coupons that used to be available from red dispensers on grocery store shelves and have moved more recently to offers printed at checkout, are increasingly moving to mobile phones. That’s courtesy of Catalina, a marketing company which helps retailers and grocery chains understand what individual customers want and then goes to work encouraging them to buy.

The challenge is staggering enough to make you wonder why anybody goes into the grocery business. All those long aisles with thousands of food and health products are widely ignored by shoppers who typically buy less than one percent of the Universal Product Codes (UPCs) in a grocery store. ... " 

More Privacy Implications of Google Glass

In Forbes. Creepier yet?  Or just a natural extension of technology into many parts of or lives.  The power of a single blink.   " .... Google Glass is on a roll. … The newest update to Glass, however, includes…a photo app that lets you take a photo with just a blink ... You wink with your right eye and Google Glass takes a photo. … If you’re just trying to flirt with someone…you might end up taking a series of photos of someone without their permission, getting once more into privacy concerns. ... " 

Presence Zones

Smarter and more personalized promotions in what are being called 'presence zones' in retail.  In Forbes.  Will this transform the in-store experience?   Or clutter it further?

Rogue IT and Strong Standards

In Forbes:   Something we dealt with frequently.  In a large enterprise it is necessary to set standards.  But less easy to enforce standards broadly.   Exceptions are often made for what seemed like legitimate reasons.  We were often left with many examples of alternate software dealing with a many solutions dealing with single classes of problems.  That often led to huge expenses later on. The shadows of these choices are often long ones.

Big Data v Spreadsheets v Visualization

From the very beginning I have been involved in leveraging data for value.  If you examine what companies have done over the years, starting with the invention of the spreadsheet, many companies today are doing analytics.  Simple to complex.   I see spreadsheets every time I examine what companies are doing today.   How will Big Data influence this?

In Forbes.  As the article suggests data visualization is always a good place to start.  Confusion does exist because the ability of packages like Excel to do data visualization has improved greatly in the last few years.  So you can patch your legacy spreadsheets in this way.  But this is not a good idea, data visualization packages still have a great edge to leverage data, big and small.

Step by Step ROI Innovation

Doing it step by step is key:   In Forbes: " .... Do you have a great idea for improving your industry? For most people, inventing a new product is foreign territory. There are multiple steps (and costs!) involved in bringing an idea to life—like market research, product design and prototyping, patent and legal fees, and marketing, just to name a few. .... "