In this episode, Avishai sits down with AI pioneer Yoav Shoham. Yoav was a professor of computer science at Stanford for 28 years, where he was the director of the AI Lab. He is also a serial entrepreneur and has founded various companies across industries. Most recently, he co-founded AI21 labs. AI21 Labs aims to take AI to the next level and builds LLMs for enterprises that make machines thought partners. Join him and Avishai for a great discussion, and hear why Yoav doesn't believe Gen AI truly exists, AI21’s mission, and his vision for the future. 

The AI winter is over. AI is at the top of everyone’s mind today, but it has existed for decades. Yoav experienced the ‘AI Winter,’ a period during the 1990s when interest and funding in AI dropped. Yoav says that the effects of the winter have worn off, and that the learnings and changes from the period and beyond have helped us reach the AI boom of today. 

Lots of experiments, little deployment. Yoav says that while there is mass experimentation with AI, there is much less deployment of the technology. Proving the ROI of AI is something companies like AI21 must do to encourage uptake from large enterprises. 

Trust is key. Yoav identifies that reliability, predictability and explainability are key for LLMs. These models often don’t know when or why they are wrong. Ensuring that we can trust these models is key to their progression and adoption. 

Interested in further exploring the impact of GenAI? Tune in to Your Career: Is it Choice or Chance? Podcast for insightful discussions within the workplace domain.

The journey through GenAI continues! In this episdoe, Avishai enjoys talking to Dr. Sharon Zhou, founder and CEO of Lamini. Sharon's PhD in GenAI from Stanford along with her business career made the dialog intriguing. Sharon studied both classics and computer science at Harvard, and she has risen to be a pioneer in the GenAI space, having recently been named an MIT Tech Review 35 under 35.

Building on our recent episode with NVIDIA’s CTO, this discussion will immerse listeners deeper into Large Language Learning Models.

Key Takeaways

Fine-tuning is key. As the competition in LLMs heats up, Sharon says that standing out is about taking your LLM from elementary school to PhD level through fine-tuning and strategically teaching models all the expertise they need to level up. 

Gen AI should be accessible. One of Sharon and the team at Lamini’s missions is to ensure that enterprises of all levels have access to Gen AI solutions, not simply those with huge budgets. 

Gen AI is the new calculator. Sharon points to how scared the education industry was when calculators first entered the markets and compare it to the current anxieties about Gen AI. Educational systems will have to adapt, and ultimately Gen AI and LLMs will help transform the education space. 

Interested in further exploring the impact of GenAI? Tune in to Your Career: Is it Choice or Chance? Podcast for insightful discussions within the workplace domain.

Intro:

The odds of an entrepreneurial venture succeeding are, statistically speaking, not stacked in the founder’s favor. This is something that Asaf Peled, Founder and CEO of Minute Media, was well aware of when he left his career as a tech investor to found his own tech startup. Today, Minute Media owns 6 major media brands, is considered the third largest online sports publisher in the world, and serves over 350 million fans. 

On the podcast today, Asaf dives into the work that he does at Minute Media and the evolution of the company. He also shares his personal entrepreneurial journey, outlining the mistakes and tough moments along the way. 

Tune in to hear his thoughts on leading a tech company, culture, talent retention and more. 

 Main Takeaways:

• The Evolution of Minute Media: Asaf describes the unique combination of tech and content work that is done at Minute Media, sharing the initial idea, how they have evolved over time, and what the company looks like now. 

• Asaf’s Entrepreneurial Journey: Asaf shares his background and decision to move from investing into entrepreneurship. He dives into some of the tougher moments in the journey, talking about the struggle to get funding in early days and the mistakes that he has learned from along the way. 

• Three Tips for Aspiring Entrepreneurs: Asaf says that it is essential to have an inherent passion for the work that you are doing and for your idea. He also stresses the benefits of taking a unique technology angle that is not being used by traditional competitors in your space and advises finding a founding team that will stay for the long run.

• Asaf’s Thoughts on Company Culture: Asaf discusses the competition for talent and the company culture at Minute Media. He explains that his focus on culture stems from his belief that it is the reason for their high retention rates and is what will set Minute Media apart in the long run. 

Key Quotes:

(16:48) “...people is key and your partners when you're starting is really key. I think the one thing we really focused on from day one, we realized our secret sauce was the passion for sports combined with technology. So in addition to building a strong kind of tech team, we made sure we were hiring a significant team of global, passionate fans.”

(32:01) “I actually feel comfortable, more and more over time, to use my intuition and gut feeling. If it's only me at the end of the day who has to make that kind of lonely decision, I'm trying to reach out to the less rational parts in me and listen to them, as well.” 

(35:22) “I would say the first couple of years were really tough because we’re very enthusiastic about the idea, but then as we’re trying to build a business, we realized it's actually a tough space. Not too many companies are able to raise money. VCs were not too enthusiastic investing in our space in the first few years...really raising money and establishing credibility and gaining traction with investors the first couple of years was tough because the space was nonexistent….And we were not sure we were going to survive it.”

(37:04) “We can always pay more and throw more parties, but I feel that there is one thing that's quite unique about Minute Media, which is we have, I feel, a very colorful, engaging and sticky culture. We have many, many, many people who have been with us for many, many years. It probably has to do with the initial passion for what we do. So I think there is something special about that, which to me is the number one reason for the very high retention rates.”

(39:05) “…it's been so difficult to get to where we are right now, but it can also shift, shift and change very quickly, very rapidly, and can change tomorrow, right? If anything, it probably taught me not to take anything for granted because it looks very shiny from the outside, but there's so much work and effort and rollercoaster and ups and downs put into it.”

Cybersecurity has become increasingly complicated with the rise of the Internet of Things. How do we protect critical data as it transfers from 1st party to 3rd party devices and services? What are the challenges of modern-day cybersecurity? How can they be addressed?

On this episode of Future in Tech, Nadir Izrael, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Armis, discusses how their platform helps enterprises mitigate risks within the current threat landscape.

He also shares his experiences as a founder, some of the tougher moments throughout the journey and his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. Enjoy this episode!

 Main Takeaways:

• Founding a Company: Nadir shares his personal experience cofounding Armis, as well as some of the tougher moments in his entrepreneurial journey and his advice for aspiring founders.
• Mapping Devices and Assets: Armis was founded when Nadir and his cofounder realized that many enterprises didn’t even know what devices and assets they had, let alone how to map them to mitigate security risk. He shares how the company has evolved to serve as the “Google maps of an organization”.
• Addressing Challenges in IOT Security: Nadir outlines the challenges he sees in IOT security and how Armis addresses those challenges. This discussion covers topics like network complexity, agentless security, outdated operating systems, supply chain issues and more.
• Maintaining Team Enthusiasm: Nadir discusses building a passionate team as a startup grows and argues that transparency is key to maintaining a strong company culture.

Key Quotes:

(09:28) “These days, we understand that the real problem organizations have is just scale. Networks are the largest they've ever been by several orders of magnitude compared to a few years ago. There's no longer even a network; there's no longer even a perimeter…. all these different changes, still manifest in the very same question from before of what do I have? What do I need to know about it? How do I manage and secure it?”

(40:19) “I think that we had a really, really great executive team in the beginning, but very few of them are with us today. I think that we've had to, as the company grew and matured, change different personas, figure out who's the right person for a job at any given point in time. And this is difficult. When you start as a startup, you start as a real family. People create bonds. These are not just people you work with. These are people that are family and having to make changes like that is difficult.”

(41:57) “I think most founders when they start companies, they think about the idea 90 percent of the time and other aspects of the company they give very little thought to in the beginning. It's exciting to think about ideas. It's exciting to think about what you could build and what you could do, but the reality is that the team, especially the founding team, is so, so, so much more important than the idea.”

(43:12) “…founding a company is all about listening. Listening to investors, listening to other people in the company, listening to clients, listening to partners, just basically listening all the time and trying to apply that knowledge and not your own convictions about the world, at least until a certain point in the company.”

(48:28) “The thing that I think we noticed the most is the way to maintain enthusiasm and the way to maintain the inclusiveness or that feeling of being a part of something big and important, is to be super transparent. If you are transparent with people about things, even the most basic things, they feel like it's a two way street. They feel like you're giving them all the information they need; you trust them. And so they're part of that same journey.”

Intro:

Business leaders can reasonably feel overwhelmed, at times, with the volume of software solutions in the world that may or may not be helpful to their companies.

On this episode of Future of Tech, Godard Abel, the Co-founder and CEO of G2, explains how G2 has created a marketplace where business leaders can check out useful software reviews.

Godard also shares lessons he learned along his entrepreneurial path, including learning a practice to increase his consciousness and to allow himself to feel and process his emotions.

Enjoy this episode!

 Main Takeaways:

• G2’s Place in the Market: Godard describes G2: “At G2, we’re aiming to build the place you go for software. When we founded the company in 2012, we called it a Yelp for business software.” G2’s goal is to create a space for credible, helpful reviews of software solutions. Godard chats about how this service helps efficiently crowdsource software reviews and that this ends up being constructive for B2B software sellers and buyers.
• Working on Multiple Projects: It’s easy to marvel at how entrepreneurs like Godard can work on multiple projects simultaneously. Godard demystifies his ability to do so. He talks about how he does not manage every project; in truth, he is part of a team of entrepreneurs who take on different roles on projects.
• Becoming a Better Leader: Born from overcoming earlier business stresses, Godard shares how he sought out a coach that helped teach him consciousness and mindfulness techniques and how to experience and process his feelings. He has found that these strategies have helped him manage stress and become a better leader.
• Advice for Entrepreneurs: Godard offers that budding entrepreneurs should hone in on their intention rather than going overly broad. He also points to the power of passion for seeing one through inevitable challenges that come with building a new business.

Key Quotes:

[00:30] “At G2, we’re aiming to build the place you go for software. When we founded the company in 2012, we called it a Yelp for business software. And the idea is as software is eating the world, G2 is a buffet where you can find over a hundred thousand different business apps. And I think the amazing thing about our industry [is that] there's been so much innovation, but, entrepreneurs, software entrepreneurs have built purpose-built applications for every business function [and] every industry, and G2 is the one place you can go to find all those apps.”

[12:03] “I think we focus on our culture and [at] G2 we've defined our ‘peak culture’ and ‘PEAK’ is a mnemonic that stands for ‘performance, entrepreneurship, authenticity, and kindness.’ And so we really want to have a ‘peak culture.’”

[30:49] “And I think what I advise startups is to go very narrow at the beginning. And I think a lot of startup pitches are like, ‘Oh, I have a huge TAM. I'm going to sell to everybody.’ I actually think that's exactly the wrong answer. Pick up very much a niche, because there's already a hundred thousand software apps. So I think pick one use case, one industry, [and] do that better than anyone. And just at the beginning, just focus — Make sure your first five, 10 customers are really successful [by] solving that one problem better than anyone else and then scale from there.”

[34:22] “I don't think you can control your emotions. I think… more, it's like, feel your emotions [and} accept them. So for me, it's more accepting what is, and actually becoming more aware of your feelings.”

[41:19] “I do think all the great entrepreneurs, they have some greater purpose and greater vision that they're kind of metaphorically willing to die for. And so I think that that's really important is that you have that for your vision for your company, so that you will keep going [and] you will persevere. And I do believe with that, ultimately you can usually find a way to succeed.”

How essential is technology to the success of a business? How can CDOs and CTOs best enable digital transformation in their organizations? 

Marcus East, Chief Digital Officer at T-Mobile, has been fascinated with technology ever since a teacher provided him with access to a computer when he was eight years old. This led him to work in technology for major brands including Apple, Google, National Geographic, and now T-Mobile.

On this episode of Future in Tech, Marcus shares his passion for using technology to transform businesses. Tune in to hear the lessons he has learned throughout his career, his advice for entrepreneurs and CIOs, and more. Enjoy this episode!

 Main Takeaways:

• Technology enables digital transformation: Mark explains that while many companies have a clear vision and understand what they would like their customers to experience, the execution is very important. He argues that “the most important aspect of a digital transformation is the enabling technologies that allow you to bring it to life.” 

• The importance of a diverse workforce: Mark explains why having a workforce that reflects the society that you live in is “good business” and how important it is to get the best person for the job regardless of their background, gender, etc. 

• Guidance for young entrepreneurs: Mark provides three pieces of advice for young entrepreneurs. He explains how essential it is to seek out guidance , to think about the business model in addition to the product and the importance of a strong team.
  
  
• Advice for CIOs and CDOs: Mark provides three pieces of advice for CIOs and CDOs. He dives into the importance of “building relationships” and “stakeholder management,” establishing a “clear vision” and becoming a great “people leader.” 

Key Quotes:

[02:52] “The most important aspect of a digital transformation is the enabling technologies that allow you to bring it to life.” 

[05:33] “... In some organizations, technology isn't necessarily given a seat at the table. And so strategic decisions are being made without really having a deep appreciation or understanding for technology. And sometimes technologists allow themselves to become order takers. Now this is something I have a strong adversity to…Technology is enabling transformation. It's enabling businesses to innovate in a way they couldn't do before. And so for businesses to be successful, they have to make sure that technology is represented at the top table.”

[20:58] “Diversity, equity, and inclusion are incredibly important for a couple of reasons. One of them… is this idea that in the digital space you are building products and experiences for your customers and your customers look different. They have different values. You can't just build products for one particular cohort or one particular segment. So I think it's important for the teams that are building those products and designing those products to basically represent the society that you're operating within… So [it] is just good business.” 

[31:52] “I would advise any CIO, CDO, CTO, make sure you build those relationships with your stakeholders because it's a tough job… There are very few people in the organization that will have the same level of skill and experience that you have, but you are so critical to the success of your organization that there'll be times when, if you don't have the strong, personal relationship with all of your stakeholders, it's going to  go wrong.” 

[48:37] “When I was at National Geographic… one of the jokes there was that most initiatives, products, [and] programs started on the whiteboard in my office because the environment and the culture that we built there was that if somebody had an idea, they would poke their head in my door and say, ‘Hey, can I just test something with you?’ We'd go onto the whiteboard. We would test it. And it's my belief that as a leader, if I'm not able to do that, then my team loses some of the value of my leadership. So being there for my team is probably my number one priority” 

This week we have a special episode of Future of Tech!

Avishai recently got a chance to sit down with Eric Boyer, The EVP of Customer Technology Platforms at AT&T to discuss how current and future innovations are going to have massive ripple effects into the businesses of tomorrow. 

The world is more connected than ever because of the internet, and this interconnectedness will only increase. How will all this interconnection empower individuals and businesses?

Today’s guest Eric Boyer, the EVP of Customer Technology Platforms at AT&T, is an ideal person to speak about technology’s ability to connect people and ideas, and talk about how technology is being utilized strategically in business.

On this episode of Future of Tech, Eric shares his thoughts about the potential force artificial intelligence and 5G may have in changing our world.

He also gives some guidance on how business leaders can approach digitally transforming their own companies. Enjoy the episode.

 Main Takeaways:

• A Culture of Digital Transformation: For Eric, digital transformation begins with culture. According to him, “it starts with people.” He suggests that after getting one’s people bought into the goal, “the easy part is picking the technologies.” Eric also describes how ATT is transforming to make sure that customers can shift smoothly between multiple products and channels.

• The Importance of Communication: Eric explains how communication is an essential part of leadership to get a team moving in the desired direction. He also suggests that clearly communicating the company’s goal may help to retain talent.

• The Impact of AI and 5G: Regarding AI, Eric makes the point that sometimes people get caught in the hype. That said, he offers that: “AI is not going to solve all the world’s problems today. It will, if used correctly, I believe, solve a lot of problems tomorrow.” Concerning 5G, Eric sees the amazing potential of 5G but muses how many of its life-changing applications may be beyond current notions of the impact that it will have.

Key Quotes:

[37:41] “And the place that we’re in, and what I tell my team today is, historically… technology has almost been viewed as a cost center. And now, it is a strategic partner that plays a critical role at the decision making table — where we need a business strategy and… before the ink is dry on the business strategy, you have to have a technology strategy that immediately aligns for the execution of that business strategy. That’s the place that we are today in our evolution. I think tomorrow the technology strategy and the business strategy are being done together by the same people.”

[07:29] “We have a business that is largely built on a technology stack that is a bit dated. And we made major investments to build a very modern microservices based set of technologies to interconnect with those platforms to help us bring e-commerce to our customers and help significantly ease the ability of our customers… to do business with us.”

[09:13] “I think it starts with people. And then… I think it becomes culture. And I think the technology change is almost easy once you’ve aligned your people around a mission and you’ve created the culture that you need. The easy part is picking the technologies. The hard part is getting people aligned to build those technologies out to meet the purposes that you’re trying to achieve.”

[21:09] “I believe we do retain more people if they feel like they’re involved and they’re part of the cause. But as importantly is, I think, we’re able to get more done as a team. I think people are able to contribute more if they really feel bought in and they understand the purpose of what we’re trying to do and why we’re trying to do it. I think we tend to get more done as a team when everybody’s on board and a part of the solution.”

[25:58] “I think it’s a fool’s game to sort of get sucked into, ‘Okay… everything is going to be answered because we’re connected to this AI solution.’ With that said, I think AI is extremely powerful… You have to be thoughtful about your architecture and how your data is being managed. And if you are, then I think you can smartly deploy AI throughout your architecture, and you can iterate your way to very positive outcomes. And so, AI is not going to solve all the world’s problems today. It will, if used correctly, I believe, solve a lot of problems tomorrow. And it will grow into those solutions over time.”

[46:21] “I would say, absolutely, that one should invest in a technology career and invest in education in technology. But I think you need to think broadly about that because even if you want to spend the majority of your career in technology, you'll be so much more effective if you have appreciation for the other parts of business that work together with technology to achieve the outcomes that we all hope to achieve.” 

Databases are exciting! Matt Cain, the CEO of Couchbase, contends that databases are right in the middle of digital transformation and that this reality provides great meaning to Couchbase’s work. Tune in to learn about Matt’s position that leaders must first look inside themselves to uncover the best way for them to lead.

 Main Takeaways:

• Technology in the Family: Matt shares how his parents and grandmother worked at HP for many years, and he mentions the great culture at HP. He talks in more detail about how he learned valuable business lessons from his father’s leadership experience at HP.
  
  
• The Tesla of Databases: Matt explains how Couchbase views its work via an apt metaphor: “We think about our approach to databases like Tesla approached cars.” He describes how just like Tesla builds cars, Couchbase builds its database. But he then goes further to explain how Couchbase has innovated databases in a similar manner that Tesla has innovated cars. According to him, Tesla’s cars and Couchbase’s database may look like other cars and databases, respectively, but their capabilities may be quite different from other traditional products.

• Becoming a Great Leader: Does learning about leadership come more from external sources or a person’s self-knowledge? Matt believes that a process of self-discovery is the best way to grow as a leader. It’s a strong position but holds true. Without self-awareness, acting on constructive external information will be difficult. With self-awareness, necessary leadership adjustments can be understood and implemented.
  
• Self Care: Leaders can only be effective if their own well-being is maintained. Matt describes how he takes care of himself by exercising and having supportive peers to lean on. He shares how there can be a level of what he describes as “loneliness” connected to being a leader and how it has been helpful to discuss the difficulties that come with leadership and life with close peers. 

• Being in the Middle of Digital Transformation: Data is everywhere and an intrinsic part of digital transformation. Matt describes databases as a central aspect of this change. This puts Couchbase in an ideal position to make a substantial impact with their work.

Key Quotes:

[26:32] “My vision is a coach. We take the field together. If we're bought into a common vision and we all play our roles, great things can happen.”

[12:28] “We think about our approach to databases like Tesla approached cars. If you think about Tesla, what did they do? Well, there's still a gas pedal and a brake pedal and a steering wheel, and then the car still needs to go forward and backward and left and right, but under the hood it's a completely different approach. Couchbase is very similar [in] that under the hood of our database, our engine or our data model has a very flexible schema and command of structured and unstructured information that allows these applications to perform. And no longer is it these large monolithic applications, but it's this microservice based personalized applications at scale, where instead of managing terabytes of information, you've got petabytes of information that are constantly changing and accessed by thousands of different users.” 

[27:28] “And what I would encourage people to do is say, ‘Where have I been successful in my life? And what led to that success?’ That's the person I am. You don't have to be someone else. So I would say put down the book that says, ‘Here's how you need to do it.’ And instead spend some time inside and reflect on where have you been successful and why, and use that and be who you are. And that is how I think you're going to get the most out of your leadership.” 

[32:18] “People often ask, ‘How do you describe the CEO job?’ And I say, ‘It's Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Culture Officer, and Chief Worry Officer.’ And no one talks about the third… There is a loneliness that comes with it that at the end of the day, most decisions after all the input that you've taken to the world come down to a person making a call.” 

[37:35] “We think we are in the very early innings of digital transformation… Think about how we shop, how we travel, how we entertain ourselves, [and] how we receive healthcare. It's going to be fundamentally different. And we're only getting started on how technology is going to shape those industries… The critical path of enabling all that is databases. And so if you look at the 60 plus billion dollars that are spent on databases, that does not include the adjacent areas like what's happening at the edge and analytics and other technologies that make that happen. The makeup of that spend and what it's going to enable is going to be fundamentally different. And so to be a player in that at scale that can continue to innovate and shape the future, I mean, that's the gift that not many people get to be a part of, and we at Couchbase take that very seriously.”

[45:30] “I'm a big believer that if you stay committed to something and you work hard and you apply the gifts that you've been given, you can shape your life in the direction you want to — understanding what that passion is and the impact of the decisions you're making. Just be conscious about the life that you're choosing. And if you're aligned with that and the outcome is what you expect it to be and based on what drives [you], you're going to be fulfilled. Fulfillment should be the measure of success.”

With the increase of cyberthreats, how are backup and recovery techniques rising to the challenge?

Today’s guest is W. Curtis Preston, the Chief Technical Evangelist at the data protection and management provider Druva. Also known in the industry as “Mr. Backup,” Curtis’ nearly 30 years of experience working in backup and recovery make him one of the foremost experts in the field.

On this episode of Future of Tech, Curtis talks in depth about the evolution of backup technology over the years and sheds light on what new challenges have arisen in the era of virtualization.

He also offers some candid advice to anyone interested in entering the backup industry, and it may not be what you’d expect. Enjoy the episode.

 Main Takeaways:

• The History of Backup: Drawing from nearly 30 years of experience, Curtis outlines the evolution of backup technology – from “tape” to the cloud – and the challenges that have arisen along the way. Though the industry has changed over the course of his career, he suggests that the challenging nature of the work has always been consistent. 
• The New Cyberattack Threat: Curtis describes that before the cloud, the damage to data centers was caused by temporary threats like fires, floods, and hurricanes. He explains that with the advent of the cloud came a new industry foe: cyberattackers. He asserts that containing cyber threats can be difficult because they persist throughout the recovery process. Despite cyber threats, Curtis insists that “virtualization and cloud both have allowed us to make all compute much more available [and] much more resilient in general than it was when I joined the industry.” 

• The Future of the Backup Business: According to Curtis, advancements in backup technology and design have lowered the demand for specialists in the field. He suggests that those interested in entering the industry should aim their attention toward “the cybersecurity element” which, he claims, “is going to be nothing but a growth industry.”

Key Quotes:

[07:31] “The problem the last year or two has been cyberattacks specifically against backups. Historically, ‘backups’ was in the corner and nobody really thought about it, and certainly neither did the cyberattacker. Cyberattackers are not new, but the idea of someone in the cyberspace directly targeting your backups to either use them to steal data, to exfiltrate data and use it to attack your company, to hold your data for ransom in that way, or to encrypt them in the same way that they encrypt the primary so that you then have to pay the ransom [is].”

[21:04] “The idea that you could have an RTO – a recovery time objective – of 20 minutes for thousands of VMs is, I think, phenomenal… When you go back… I was at a bank with, I'm going to say, we had like four or five hundred servers. The idea of recovering those four or five hundred servers in anything less than a couple of weeks would be unheard of. Now, if all those servers are virtualized using the cloud and advanced technology, you can recover your entire environment in 15 to 20 minutes and only lose about an hour's worth of data.”

[23:25] “Let's go back to... [the year] 2000… I'd been in IT for seven years at this point. What we thought about was hurricanes and floods and earthquakes and fires. What all of those have in common is [that] when the event has destroyed your data center, the thing that destroyed your data center is now gone. The fire has been put out, the flood has receded, the hurricane has moved on, et cetera. With a cyber recovery, that isn't the case. You need to recover your data center in the middle of the hurricane. The hurricane is still hitting your data center, meaning… the cyber attack is ongoing.”

[26:38] “I will take the security of the average cloud vendor or the average SaaS vendor over the security of the average data center any day of the week. I'm not saying you can't have better security or good security in a data center. I'm just saying that for the cloud it's do-or-die. If they don't have a solid cybersecurity plan, they basically go out of business.”

[40:29] “What has driven the backup design, I'd say more than anything, is that the things that we're backing up keep changing… So, that's why I'm saying VMware messed it up, the cloud, messed it up, [and] the latest thing to mess things up has been Kubernetes and containers… That again turned backup on its head and everybody's playing catch-up.”

On this episode of Future of Tech, Eynat also gives straightforward takes concerning difficulties and successes in her entrepreneurial career and offers advice to those who may wish to follow in her footsteps. Additionally, Eynat shares her passion for supporting women on their career journeys and for having diversity in the workforce. Enjoy this episode!

 Main Takeaways:

• Overcoming Regulations: Of course, some regulations are necessary, but they can become burdensome to companies managing an international workforce and payroll across a variety of countries. Eynat explains how even the terminology can be different among certain nations, and, therefore, confusing for taking care of payroll, etc. She describes how Papaya’s platform can handle this complexity for companies while automating procedures.

• Entrepreneurial Lessons: Pivotal lessons can be learned through hard times and successes too. Eynat gives direct takes on some of the difficulties she’s had as well as the successes, and the lessons she’s learned from all her experiences. Every experience has something to teach if one is willing to accept the lesson.
• Giving Back and Promoting Diversity: When a person has success, it’s good to support others on their journeys too. Eynat demonstrates this mentality as she strives to lift up young women in their careers through mentorship. She also speaks passionately about the need for diversity at companies and the benefits of having a truly diverse workforce.

Key Quotes:

[23:19] “First, I think that, in general, when you are building a company, you are always starting with a very small team and you don't know what you don't know. You have this idea in mind and so on, and if you keep the same people in the room — the one that looks like you [and] thinks like you, that eventually you all [have] exactly the same opinion…You're probably going to miss tons of stuff. You're gonna miss a lot of stuff in thinking about the market. You're going to miss a lot of stuff of how you build things. You're going to miss a lot of stuff in communication. So diversity is a key in general. Second, I think that men and women — we are different creatures in many aspects. And eventually, when you are keeping [an] equal gender environment or trying to keep [an] equal gender environment, it just allows people to be their better self and to respect others better.”

[29:21] “So I'm a very detailed person. So I normally [am] very, very much involved on the bits and the bite of the organization [and] probably too much, but this is my way to gain confidence and to understand how to take [a] business decision. And the second thing that I think that every CEO should do is invest 20 or 30% from his time or her time in strategy; not on the here and now, but of where this company needs to be in a year time, two years time, three years time, and what we need to do currently in order to make it happen. Because if you don't invest in the future, you won't get there.”

[32:40] “What to try and avoid is, eventually, not keeping your focus because you will always have those distractions; other business ideas, some compelling offers, some business development, some great things that you think that, ‘Yeah, we should do this and this and this and that.’ And eventually focus is the one main thing that you need to keep. Not being on focus, is the one thing that you need to avoid because we all know that eventually there is as much as we can complete. You can't do everything.” 

[33:55] “You need to avoid staying in places where you know you made mistakes. I mean, as quick as possible. We all have this way…or desire to try and correct things. We know that they're not going to the right way, but we give them another chance and we say, ‘Okay, let's see.’ Eventually, you know best. if you understand that you did a mistake, it can be [a] hiring mistake. It can be a commercial mistake. It can be a product mistake. Just fix that. Just throw everything to the garbage as quickly [as possible] and eventually start over because every day that you're going to spend on designing the wrong product is the day that you did spend designing the right product.”

[37:22] “So we are currently designing or renovating a new office for Papaya, and I've been asked, ‘How do I see this office?’ And I say, ‘It's not an office any longer. This is a space where people come because they want to have a nice place to work.’ They want to hang out with people. They need to attend meetings, but I don’t see it as this is my desk [or] this is my chair. I'm going to sit here and work. I think that you are going to come to the office when you have an intent to do things in the office, or when you have intent to meet people, both socially and both for…work purposes. But I think this is not going backwards any longer. I think we already kind of changed the way that we work in this aspect.”

Across industries, empowering creatives tends to lead to great results because they are the engine of whatever is being created. This is true for developers just as it would be for any sort of creative. As technology becomes more advanced and the world more interconnected, security concerns also become more pronounced too. Therefore, builders must consider security as they make their products and help operate them too. Guy Podjarny, the Co-Founder and President of Snyk, understands that security practices and platforms must focus on developers. On this episode of Future of Tech, Guy discusses how the security industry has moved to a DevSecOps mentality where developers are brought into the security process. He chats about the importance of empathizing with users when creating products. Guy shares his motivations for his podcast, “The Secure Developer,” as well as for writing books. He also offers up some great advice for future entrepreneurs. Enjoy this episode! 

 Main Takeaways:

The importance of Empathy When Creating a Product: Empathy is a quality that improves relationships between people. It’s also, according to Guy, essential when building any product, including a product for developers like Snyk. People do not need to have someone else’s experience to interact with them or even to serve them, but they do need to attempt to deeply understand their experiences and needs.

Creating Community and Clarifying Ideas: It’s fascinating to hear why someone continues to put effort into creative projects over time. Concerning his podcast, Guy shares he appreciates the chats and how it’s beneficial to the greater security industry as well. Guy is also a prolific author of books and shares that he writes them, in part, because it helps him to clarify his ideas.   

Being Prepared for the Ride: The entrepreneurial journey is not for the faint at heart. Guy compares the experience of being involved in a startup to a ”roller coaster.” He suggests that an awareness of this reality is helpful knowledge for a person who is about to go on this… ride. With this knowledge, he explains, one could assess other areas outside their work life to see if they are ready to dive into the start-up world.  

Having Good Boundaries: Having strong boundaries helps to care for, and protect, key areas of life. Guy shares how he has developed clear rules between his work and family life, so that he is able to honor his family time. Certainly, it’s not easy to place limitations on work, especially in a world that is so interconnected and where work is often so accessible. Even though that may be the case and work is important, so too is everything outside of work, especially one’s family.

Key Quotes: 

(11:05)

“The light bulb moment that we had was that if you want developers to embrace security, you have to think about developers first. You have to not take an auditor practice and just think about how do you plug it into a development environment but the other way around — think about how do you build a developer tool that would tackle security? 

(08:06) 

“DevSecOps is really fundamentally around doing to security what has happened to ops and bringing security into that fold. And so transforming security from that sort of central organization that is off to the side to something that is embedded into the regular practices of developing and operating and securing software end-to-end and changing how security is done to go from auditing and local services…to platform builders. And focusing on empowering the application teams — the teams that are actually building and operating the software to ensure that it's secure.

(15:03)

“I think more important than sort of saying ‘Developers are the only ones to build for developers’ is to ensure that whatever it is that you're building, you invest in empathy [and] you invest in talking to customers and not just to the buyers, but to the users of the product.”

(41:54)

“Because we are a developer-first company, we are a depth-first company. So what we do is we build deep solutions and all of our products started as narrow, but deep products that were excellent for a specific stack or a specific use case in need. And then once we feel like we've nailed the experience, we expand to support additional stacks.”

(48:45)

“Startups are hard and what they do is – they're a roller coaster. So the highs are very high and the lows are very low, and you can have a dozen of them in a given day. And they're not necessarily proportional to the success or the failure. You could not have a customer succeed, or even just say the wrong thing and you can be in a pretty low situation. But the highs are really high and you can equally be super thrilled and high on it. So I think you want to know that you are ready for something like that. For example, what other roller coasters are happening in your life at the moment? Is it the right time for you to do it or not?

 Main Takeaways:

• Giving Back to Other Entrepreneurs and to Country: A passion for service can be a very strong motivation. Gigi explains that he is driven by a desire to help entrepreneurs. He also refers to his passion for supporting Israel and its economy. He believes that “Israeli high tech is the new Zionism.” In both cases, Gigi is passionate about giving back.
• Local Leaders Versus Global Leaders: Gigi draws a distinction between companies that are focused on becoming a local leader, in a particular country, for instance, and those with the intention of becoming a worldwide leader. From an investment perspective, he reveals that NFX is focused on supporting those businesses that are striving for global leadership.
• Different Patterns for Success: When trying to discover unicorns, there can be a reasonable tendency to look for particular patterns. Gigi suggests that the path for success can be very different, however. He points to the Facebook model of moving very quickly even if something is not perfect as opposed to the Instagram model of waiting until everything is just right before releasing something. It’s inarguable that both companies had success yet their approaches were fundamentally different.

Advice for Future Unicorns: The path to becoming a unicorn for a founder is not easy. There is an intensity to the work that one cannot avoid. Gigi describes how working a lot is necessary for success but that it can take a toll on personal commitments. He suggests that founders must surround themselves with supportive people.

In this exciting episode, Avashai is joined by Michael Kagan, CTO of NVIDIA. He and Avishai dive into the challenges and opportunities faced by organizations when it comes to the explosion of Gen AI. Michael has been at the forefront of the tech space and is passionate about the potential implications of AI, and has said that we are experiencing AI's ‘iPhone moment.’ Don’t miss the exciting conversation to learn more about the future of Gen AI, as well as the exciting things happening at NVIDIA.

Key Takeaways: 

Gen AI takes physical infrastructure. Michael mentions that many people overlook that the physical space, hardware and CPU needed to run Gen AI models is huge. This has implications for organizations as well as the environment that cannot be ignored. 

Gen AI will improve human collaboration. Michael emphasizes that he is excited about the potential of Gen AI when it comes to improving human collaboration. He believes Gen AI will help humans overcome language and cultural barriers that can impede effective collaboration. 

The world is exponential. Michael says that the world is exponential, and this includes Gen AI growth. He believes this new tech will come to impact all industries, and ultimately will allow humans to become more efficient and better at their jobs. 

Interested in further exploring the impact of GenAI? Tune in to Your Career: Is it Choice or Chance? Podcast for insightful discussions within the workplace domain.

Main Takeaways:

• The Importance of Resiliency and Passion: According to Livne, resilience is an essential quality for an entrepreneur. Though he first learned this value in the military, it has served him well throughout his entrepreneurial career. Additionally, he points to passion as another key ingredient for an entrepreneur and believes having it helps to see a person through when difficulties arise.

• A.I. and the Human Touch: In part due to regulations that require 100% accuracy, Livne believes that the human touch will always be required to supplement A.I. Verbit utilizes A.I. along with freelancers to transcribe efficiently and accurately. Livne shares how hiring freelancers, and learning how their experience working with Verbit has empowered their lives, is very satisfying. 
• Customization is Key: Though there are large tech companies with speech recognition tools, Livne contends that Verbit has a particular corner of the market. He makes the point that these companies use A.I. but do not have the human component to help them achieve the high level of accuracy required by regulations. Furthermore, he explains how Verbit is able to customize transcriptions as required by each of its customers given the unique needs in their different industries.
• Customer Consolidation: Verbit has undertaken a strategy to take over other more traditional transcription companies to bring in their customers. He describes the communication between Verbit and these companies in an effort to bring them on board. He also shares that this strategy has enabled investors to have a clear sense of Verbit’s path for growth.

Key Quotes:

[00:31]

“So, I've been in the Special Forces of the paratrooper. [and am] still doing the reserve. And I think as an entrepreneur, one of the most important thing is resilience. So I really think that the army service help with that.” 

[14:54]

“Instead of doing everything manually, we said, ‘Okay, let's do most of it by technology.’ And then the last mile editing the technology, we know that it's not able to get it, we will put the human [in] and kind of give them the tools to make their job more efficient.” 

[25:02]

“So as long as our customer base is growing, it means we'll need to have more freelancer. It means we're creating more jobs from people to work from home. And we have a lot of our freelancers from third world countries, and we are getting emails, ‘because of Verbit we have the ability to feed our family [and] take care [of] our kids.’ Once you see that you say, ‘Wow, because of my hard work, I'm creating a lot of jobs for more people around the globe.’ So, it's another great mission to be part of.” 

[35:03]

Today, in the venture world, there's what they call magic numbers. So, how much you invest in sales and marketing, [and] how much new revenue it's bringing. They want to see [a] ratio of one-to-one. And then we really saw that those manual transcription companies they're flat. They're not growing. And they have much lower gross margin because they do it all manually. So we come [up] with this thesis that we can acquire their book of business and then migrate their customers to our platform and to make the whole process much more efficient and literally to grow this way.” 

[37:50]

“So first of all, and foremost, you need to do something you're passionate about, right? So, for me, the founder-market fit was as a frustrated customer. This is how I actually thought about this problem…When I'm trying to be more generic, I would say, look for problem that have high friction and low efficiency where you think that the technology come and shift it around.” 

 Main Takeaways:

• Looking at the Cloud With Fresh Eyes: The cloud is a different type of technology than what previously existed, and, therefore, the old methods of on-prem security do not necessarily apply. Ami makes the case that the cloud must be considered as an entirely new entity that security be developed around and applied to directly.
• Three Cloud Security Considerations: Since the cloud is unique, Ami contends that “people, process, and technology” are three areas that must adapt in order to promote security. According to him, those in security must learn new skills. In addition, he points out that the development process is now different because of the volume of developers. He also suggests that the technology must evolve to reveal all aspects of a complex cloud and potential vulnerabilities.
• FInding Exposures in Totality: One issue with cloud security is that typically it’s been a challenge to scan all databases for exposure. Ami suggests a single tool, without relying on agents, is essential to scan for all possible issues. Wiz’s platform, for instance, has the ability to scan VMs, containers, and servers.
• Creating With Scale and a Great Team: Ami explains that he and his fellow co-founders of Wiz learned two helpful lessons during their experience developing the company Adallom, and then working at Microsoft after Microsoft acquired it. The first was to build with scale in mind from the very beginning of the creative process. The second aspect was to build a product that can be used across multiple platforms. Ami expresses that these lessons were then applied to creating Wiz. Whether making a security platform, or any other sort of product, this mentality will serve developers well. Additionally, Ami offers that the foundational component in any startup is a great team.

Mickey Boodaei, the CEO and Co-Founder of Transmit Security discusses how the world can move on from passwords. Mickey also explains what he’s learned about attracting and retaining talent, and he offers some guidance to the next generation of entrepreneurs.

One of the great identity security concerns for consumers and businesses is the vulnerability of passwords. The security solution to password breaches by bad actors so far has been to increase the amount and complexity of passwords. At this rate, the future of identity security could be a world where people are totally overwhelmed by the passwords in their lives. Perhaps the world is already at that place? Alternatively, Mickey Boodaei, the CEO and Co-Founder of Transmit Security, has a different vision — a future without passwords that is more secure but with better useability that benefits consumers and businesses. On this episode of Future of Tech, Mickey chats about how biometric data held securely on a personal device combined with the implementation of corresponding cryptographic keys can be used to verify identity rather than using passwords. He also passes on information he’s learned about finding and retaining top talent, and offers advice to the next generation of entrepreneurs. Enjoy this episode!

 Main Takeaways:

• Getting Rid of Passwords: Until this point, the lack of security regarding passwords has mostly resulted in more complex passwords. Now, however, advances in biometric data have proved game changing. Mickey suggested that technology involving biometric data secured on individual devices and then connected to verifiable cryptographic keys has the ability to make passwords a thing of the past.
• Competing for Talent: Mickey explained how the competition for engineering talent has become more fierce all over the world. He revealed how this latest huge amount of funding Transmit Security received has helped tell the story of Transmit more broadly, and how this has been an asset in attracting talent.
• Advice for the Next Generation: Mickey suggested that those just starting out in their careers have lots of opportunity to either work for established companies or begin a more entrepreneurial journey. He made the point that having a passion for entrepreneurship is of utmost importance for those choosing to walk down that path. In reflecting on lessons he’s learned in his tech security career, which spans two decades, Mickey advised that honoring family time is highly valuable.

So you want to build a unicorn. Learn from tech leaders and investors that have accomplished this feat, this upcoming season on Future of Tech.

Host of The Future of Tech, Avishai Sharlin recaps previous episodes and shares his lessons learned as he chats with guest host, Albert Chou. In this episode, it’s Avishai’s turn to answer questions about his own career journey and interesting areas of focus that he’s gleaned from hosting The Future of Tech shows. Avishai also teases upcoming episodes that focus on entrepreneurship and unicorns. 

Jim Jackson, a passionate marketing leader, unveils many of his strategies behind effective marketing powered by data and told through story. On this episode, he discusses his journey in the field, what is exciting about marketing today, and gives advice to aspiring young marketers based on his 23 years of experience.

Excelling in the competitive world of marketing requires advanced data and analytics. The evolution of marketing data, tools, and channels has increased the ability for marketers to connect more personally with their audiences. 

Jim Jackson has been in the game for more than two decades, and he is now the EVP and CMO at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. His passion for the industry comes from a love for creative storytelling. He’s excited about the work he and his team get to do with everything from demand gen, product marketing, and ABM. On this episode of Future of Tech, Jim explains how he has reworked the digital advertising strategy at HPE, and why he is focused on engagement and partnerships. Plus, Jim talks about how marketing can be a catalyst for change inside of your organization and he encourages aspiring marketers to find what it is that they love about marketing and chase that. Enjoy this episode. 

Main Takeaways:

• Translating Data into Insight and Insight into Action: Having the numbers, aka the data, on what your customer is doing is great, but not helpful unless you have the context or story behind those numbers. A good marketer brings insight to those graphs and tables that you need to then make an informed decision about what to do to take action.  
• Story is everything: A good story does more than draw you in, at least according to Jackson. There’s also an emotional connection that helps people relate. That level of connection is powerful. Pair that ability to communicate, with a product or service that is solving problems and you’ve got an ideal situation as a marketer. 

Goal-Setting Strategies: An important piece to finding the right path is setting clear goals for yourself and setting a timeline for those goals. Without these two key pieces, you might just be talking or dreaming about your goals. Jackson recommends setting benchmarks at the one, three, and five-year marks to check-in and see how you’re moving toward those goals or not.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Lots of kids look to the stars and think to themselves that someday they’d like to be among them. When asked about their dream career, many enthusiastically offer up, “I want to be an astronaut.” But few actually pursue this path and even less get close to achieving it. Then for those that nearly reach that goal as adults but don’t end up as astronauts, it’s more rare for those few to take that passion and find another way to channel it toward working in the space industry. At five years old, Luca Rossettini began pursuing his passion and he’s never stopped. Today, he is CEO and Founder of D-Orbit, and his company provides space logistics and orbital transportation. On this episode of Future of Tech, Luca shares how his childhood passion has led to his current career and offers encouragement to the next generation. He discusses why the conditions are right for a rapid increase in the amount of space satellites, and he reveals that the future involves building logistical infrastructure in space. Enjoy this episode!

Main Takeaways:

• Going up To Bring Data Back: There’s a tremendous amount of data in space that can help life on Earth. All this data is a lurer for organizations to want to have satellites in space. As satellites have become more affordable and cloud technology has allowed for much greater data storage, businesses now have the ability to receive that data and bring it back to Earth
• Space Scalability: In an obvious way, space has a great deal of untapped potential. It’s vast and ripe for exploration and opportunity. But another way to look at it is about how  a satellite presence in space can assist companies scale on Earth. For instance, satellites can help companies broaden their reach from a localized region to the entire world. 
• A Constellation of Satellites: Traditional satellites were huge, expensive, and only governments had the capacity to develop them, launch them, and then transport them exactly where they needed to be. Now, satellites are much smaller, relatively less expensive, and companies are able to get them to space. In terms of development, deployment, and maintenance, it’s more accurate to consider the current state of satellites as constellations made up of many smallers stars rather than just a few supergiants.
• Space Infrastructure: Currently, space logistics occur mostly in the space to Earth arena. This makes sense because a majority of the infrastructure is on Earth. Eventually, logistics will evolve to be more of a space to space operation. When space infrastructure is further developed, manufacturing and recycling can then happen in space.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Many of us have probably caught ourselves talking to the computer; perhaps, sometimes, even yelling at it. Now the computer can talk back. At first, that may seem daunting or even worrisome. But overall, it’s a good thing because it’s going to make our lives easier. Conversational A.I. has made great strides over the last ten years. As proof, look no further than the applications in commerce where many companies are already using chatbots. Despite these advancements, though, there’s still a long way to go to really get computers and people communicating effectively.  

On this episode of Future of Tech, Joe Bradley, Chief Scientist at LivePerson, discusses the current state of conversational A.I., where the technology is heading, and the steps that need to be taken to get there. Joe explains how advances are being made in A.I. understanding language as well as in dialogue management. He also shares how there’s a lot of work to be done on the goal-oriented dialogue side of the technology and making sure bias is checked as systems are built. So what’s the future of computers and people communicating? Find out on this episode! 

Main Takeaways:

• Conversational A.I. Right Now: Conversational A.I. involves both understanding natural language and dialogue management. In terms of A.I., or machine learning, understanding language has come very far. Developing dialogue that supports effective communication between computers and people still has a ways to go.
• The Future of Conversational A.I.: Conversational A.I. has to improve between computers and people. The computer, of course, needs to get better at understanding complex aspects of human language. It also needs to be able to learn if its dialogue is achieving the desired goal. The other component to good communication is that people need to be educated on how to speak to computers.
• Language at Play: In our digital world, language is still very important. Perhaps it’s more important than ever to communicate effectively because of all available information at our fingertips. We don’t need to fear emojis taking over language. They are shorthand symbols that can augment language. Language evolves, and that’s how it’s supposed to be.
• Being Well-Rounded Pays Off: Being someone who is very specific and focused comes with creating technology. But having diverse interests is only an asset. Passion in areas outside a person’s primary work demonstrates a mental fluidity and a posture of openness.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Establishing trust between people and institutions is extremely important. But there are pitfalls to the current methods we all use to establish trust. Many people lack trust in huge centralized systems given their size, subsequent power, and lack of transparency. On the other hand, decentralized systems with democratizing ideas intended to build trust are often difficult to execute at scale, especially at the pace required to keep up with technological acceleration.

On this episode of Future of Tech, Eli Ben Sasson (@elibensasson), Co-Founder, President & Chairman of the Board at StarkWare (@starkwareltd), discusses his alternative approach, which involves using math in order to build trust. A math proof, he explains, can offer broad verification across a great amount of data between parties by checking the computation at specific points. In layman’s terms, that means the issue of scalability is solved while also reducing cost. And these zero-knowledge proofs also provide the added benefit of privacy since there is no information shared about any of the parties involved beyond the computation. Most importantly, since the math is objective, correct, and verifiable trust among all parties increases. So what does this all mean for the future of trust in business and tech? Find out on this episode! 

Main Takeaways:

• Magical Math: Math proofs are magical because a computation checked only in certain places can verify that an overall relationship, potentially including many parties, is working as intended. This allows for a tremendous amount of transactions at great speed while also providing verifiable certainty that everything is functioning according to plan.  
• Zero-Knowledge is Good: Zero-Knowledge may sound bad to the layperson but it’s really an under-valued solution to major problems. The zero-knowledge proof gives certainty in the computation by only analyzing particular points in a system. As an added benefit, It offers no additional information about any entity involved in the computation. This ensures certainty and privacy.
• Theoretical Beauty Meets Practicality: The theoretical world can be intellectually stimulating. Doing work that has tangible real-world results is also meaningful. In one’s work, connecting the theoretical with practical applications can provide deep satisfaction.
• Making Meaning via Passion and Optimism: Passion is when someone does what is most meaningful to them. Optimism allows a person to stretch and try something new despite the potential for failure. In fact, optimism increases one’s chances of finding a solution to a problem. Both passion and optimism play vital roles in creating new meaning for the individual and, potentially, for the world.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Alex Howland is not a software developer, he’s not particularly interested in gaming, and his background in tech is, well, nonexistent. So how then did Alex find himself co-founding Virbela and working on the cutting edge of virtual reality?

On this episode of Future of Tech we’ll find out as Alex takes us through his journey from organizational psychologist into the tech world, and he’ll let us in on the secrets of how experiential learning is playing a role in what the future of virtual reality will look like. So what will it look like? Will we all be wearing VR headsets in the years to come? Alex has the answers and the explanations. He talks about the rise of gamified VR and how it’s being used in military settings to train soldiers, and he dives into how virtual worlds and experiences are now being used across enterprise companies and in the education system to bring a sense of togetherness to an increasingly work-from-home focused world. Enjoy this episode! 

Main Takeaways:

• Virtual Water Cooler: With the rise of remote work, people are still craving some of the old features of the in-person office experience. Virtual workspaces are being created to simulate those water-cooler-type moments and give people a way to connect in meaningful ways even without being together in person.
• Beyond The Hype: A few years ago, the hype around VR was at a fever pitch, and the anticipation surrounding the technology becoming ubiquitous was palpable. That didn’t happen as quickly as everyone expected, but the VR industry has been making steady steps forward. Rather than get hopped up on the hype cycle, companies that have taken a slow and steady approach to developing their VR technology have been more successful than those that turned out to just be flashes in the pan.
• Physical Things, Virtual World: The future of VR will be built on how companies can sell or recreate physical things in a virtual world. Certain companies are already doing this, particularly in real estate, where VR walk-throughs are being used to sell real, physical properties all over the world.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Welcome back to Future of Tech! In this special season, Avishai sits down with some of the leading thinkers in Generative AI. In this episode, he is joined by Charles Lamanna, Corporate Vice President, Business Apps & Platforms at Microsoft. He and Avishai discuss what Microsoft is doing to educate their workforce about Gen AI, the impacts of Gen AI on large enterprises like Microsoft, and what he sees coming down the pipeline. 

Key Takeaways:

Charles is an AI optimist. Charles says he focuses on the fact that the majority of Gen AI use cases are human-directed. He believes humans will be able to leverage Gen AI to make their processes more efficient and productive, not replace them entirely.  Gen AI will be adopted across industries. Charles believes that AI will be harnessed by all industries, not just tech. He believes it will allow organizations to grow without compromising service.  Enterprises need to invest in employee learning. Charles stresses that in order to harness the power of Gen AI, enterprises should invest the time and money to properly train their workforce on how to use Gen AI, and how to do so securely. 

Interested in further exploring the impact of GenAI? Tune in to Your Career: Is it Choice or Chance? Podcast for insightful discussions within the workplace domain.

You may have noticed that you’re hearing more about cybersecurity in the news than you have in the past. That’s because cyberattacks are growing in scope and frequency, and organizations large and small are beginning to understand exactly what is at risk when you have a vulnerable system. 

Christian Espinosa has been aware of these risks for years, and he has been sounding the alarm to anyone who would listen. Christian has a background as a cybersecurity consultant, founded his own cybersecurity company, Alpine Security, and wrote a best-selling book about cybersecurity, and he shared his perspective on the subject with us on this episode of Future of Tech. Christian says that one of the major problems with cybersecurity today is that, in terms of defense, IT functions in the same way it has for a decade. So as cybercriminals get more sophisticated, the backend of many systems has remained stagnant, leaving organizations vulnerable to all manner of bad actors. But Christian also offers solutions, including bringing a more hands-on approach to your organization, changing the way we all communicate about cybersecurity and the risks of leaving our technology vulnerable, and how to structure your departments and prioritize hiring to ensure that cybersecurity stands alone. Enjoy this episode.  

Main Takeaways:

• Time To Think Differently: From a defense perspective, the way IT functions has not changed significantly over the last 10 years, which means the fundamental challenges still apply. Attackers are still entering systems through the same vulnerable spots as they always have in the past and their attacks are evolving. It’s time to start getting great at the basic things, like vulnerability management, phishing training, and configuring systems in a more secure way.
• Hands-On: The companies that have had the most success with cybersecurity have made cybersecurity a hands-on issue that everyone in the organization is involved with and responsible for. Show everyone in the organization exactly what is at stake and how easy it is to be hacked, and then invest in giving them the tools and training they need to prevent attacks.
• Separation of Church and State: Cybersecurity should be a separate department and fall under the purview of a CISO rather than a CIO or CTO. The CISO should also report directly to the CEO. When the department is completely separate from IT, security will be enabled in a way that takes only cyber into account, and the head of department will not have other stakeholders or business problems to worry about.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

A childhood inspiration doesn’t always lead to an adult dream-come-true. But for James Gwertzman, an early fascination about the technology behind the art of games and movies was what led him on the path to a career in tech. And where he wound up in his career would probably make a younger James do a double-take. Today, James is the General Manager for Gaming Cloud at Microsoft, where he builds the best possible cloud platform for video game developers that allows them to keep creating the worlds that had him transfixed as a kid. On this episode of Future of Tech, James discusses how he got to this dream job, and he explains how technology has made it possible for more kids just like him to get into game creation easier than ever before. Plus, James takes us behind the scenes of the technology that has made gaming the massive industry it is today, including the creation of cloud-based solutions that allow creators to focus more on the creative aspects of game building and worry less about the backend infrastructure. Enjoy this episode!

 Main Takeaways:

• More Than A Game: The world of gaming has come a long way from the days of Pong. Today, gaming is more about community building and content creation. Gamers can connect with other gamers via streaming platforms and they can build their own games or build aspects within games more than ever before.
• Free To Play. Hard To Build: Free-to-play games have become all the rage, and they have democratized the gaming industry. But creating those games is more difficult than it seems. As the gaming industry has evolved, the expectations of games have been set higher, which means that all games — free or otherwise — are expected to have an entire ecosystem and story behind them. This requires a sophisticated backend system and well-designed infrastructure. New cloud-based technologies are making this easier, though.
• A 5G-Filled Future: Thanks to 5G, mobile gaming will likely become as intricate and well-connected as PC gaming. Multiplayer functionality will improve and innovative, connected experiences will begin to enter the mainstream.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Very few things have accelerated the need for digital transformation within business as much as the adoption of the public cloud. With so much happening in the public cloud or in hybrid clouds, and considering the innovation and applications that are being built specifically for cloud, it would be foolish for a business to ignore that movement or not optimize its processes to work in a cloud environment. But digital transformation is not easy.

On this episode of Future of Tech, Lakshmi Sharma, the Director Product Management, Network Experience, Performance, Reliability & Solutions, Google Cloud, breaks down exactly what digital transformation looks like today, and how Google Cloud is being put to use in the process. Lakshmi explains the definition of digitization today and she discusses where A.I. and the edge can be built into the process. Plus, she predicts the future of building business infrastructure and explains why we need to start thinking about IT infrastructure the same way we think about running water and electricity. Enjoy this episode! 

Main Takeaways:

• Defining Digitization: When a company goes through a digital transformation, it means they are digitizing the organization. But what does that actually mean? Today’s definition of digitization is making it possible to access your services and business from anywhere. So whether you are an employee, a customer or some other stakeholder, your business must be set up in a way that everything is connected so that you can operate at scale from anywhere. 
• Sharing Is Caring: Google deliberately creates cohorts of organizations and CIOs, CTOs, CISOs and other C-suite members to share knowledge. Regardless of whether Google built a specific platform or application, that technology can always be shared and improved upon, which happens much easier when you have multiple smart folks from all different ends of the spectrum joining together.
• Updated Infrastructure: What is needed right now is more people to help create easily implemented and scalable infrastructure. Businesses need infrastructure like people need running water and electricity, but we are not yet at a point where IT infrastructure can be turned on and off like a faucet. That is the future.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Tendayi Viki likes to say that innovation is just about management, but it’s a different kind of management than business leaders are probably used to, which is why many of them need help with the process. That’s why they call Tendayi, an Associate Partner at Strategyzer and the author of the book Pirates In The Navy, The Corporate Startup and The Lean Product Lifecycle and his specialty is helping large companies innovate for the future. 

On this episode of Future of Tech, Tendayi breaks down what the future of innovation looks like and he explains why innovation starts at the top with a leader who is willing to do things a little differently. Tendayi says that leaders who want to bring innovation into their organization need to be comfortable not knowing which bets will be the winners and instead find a way to create an environment where winning ideas can emerge on their own and prove themselves as worthy of investment. Tendayi also gives a warning about intrapreneurship and explains why the No. 1 thing you have to look for in an intrapreneur is not how creative or brilliant they are, but how well they can form relationships. And,  he reveals the four key questions that innovation needs to be asking if they want to have any chance of success. Enjoy this episode!

Main Takeaways:

• It Starts At The Top: More often than not, the biggest problem with driving innovation comes from a lack of leadership. When leaders lean on the same tools, behaviors and metrics they use to run their business in order to drive innovation, they will fail because innovation takes a different kind of approach to get right. Leaders have to set forth an innovation strategy that fosters creativity and encourages employees to think and work differently.
• Small Bets: When you are looking to foster innovation, you have to make a lot of small bets not knowing which ones will pay off. Give a lot of people a lot of runway to experiment and prove their ideas, and then when one or two emerge as real contenders with measurable impact and ROI, invest big in those and cut your losses on the others. Then start the process again.
• The Core Four: Innovation teams need to focus on four key areas: desirability, feasibility, viability, and adaptability. They need to constantly ask, does anyone want this? Do we have the capability of making this? Can we make this in a profitable way? Can this idea scale?

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Data is like gold in today’s world, and for James Phillips, the President of Business Applications at Microsoft, data is the one true north he will follow until the end. At Microsoft, James leads a global team of thousands of developers who are using data to build all of Microsoft’s business operations and then operate the infrastructure underneath them. And the applications that the Microsoft team has built have helped some of the largest companies in the world put the pedal to the metal when it comes to digital transformation. On this episode of Future of Tech, James details how the Microsoft Dynamics 365 family of products was built to operate together, and what kind of agility and options the Power Platform gives app developers to turn their business applications into key components of the company.  James also defines what a modern application is to a business today, and he explains why data is the foundation upon which all business decisions and applications should be built. Enjoy! 

Main Takeaways:

• The Modern Application: People ask what is a modern application? The answer is something driven by data that a company uses to automate a process or workflow. Sometimes these applications are built internally, and sometimes they are an out-of-the-box solution, but either way, a modern application is built with data at the forefront, and with the ability to take in and scale according to new data.
• It’s Physics: Just like matter, data accumulates and the more you have the more you know. But the just like when matter accumulates, it creates more gravitational pull on other matter. Data does the same thing, and the more data you have, the more it compounds. So while you are learning more from everything you gather, you are also creating a problem of needing to store and access all of the data you accumulate, which is why developing an agile and effective platform is one of the most important things IT leaders are focused on.
• Takes One To Know One: The best technology leaders often wind up being technologists themselves. Understanding what’s under the hood is critical to leading a team of people who are tasked with turning technology and ideas into products and services. From there, you can identify the other technologists who are qualified to lead teams of their own and scale infinitely from there.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

In today’s professional world, longevity is rare. Switching from one company to another, or even one industry or skillset to a new one is commonplace. So hearing that Joe Atkinson has been with PwC for nearly 30 years should give you pause. He’s a unicorn in his own right, and through almost three decades with one company, he has seen how digital disruption happens, what innovation means, and how a company can survive if it leans into the ways the world and technology changes around it. Joe is now the Vice Chair, Chief Products and Technology Officer at PwC and on this episode of Future of Tech, he explains that innovation needs to be fostered and encouraged, and that it is a company’s job to incentivize employees to grow and advance their skills in order to lift up the entire organization. But how do you do that? And how do you measure your success and the ROI of digitally enabling employees? 

Joe answers those questions and more, including how automation will play a role in future digital transformations, and why he believes that A.I. will have the greatest impact on the future of work. Enjoy this episode!

Main Takeaways:

• Defining Digitization: Going through a digital transformation means different things to different companies, but ultimately for most organizations when you digitize a process, you change the way work gets done. Automation, data analyzation and tech enablement of processes all empower employees to work differently and unlock creativity because they are spending less time on tedious tasks and more time on work with greater impact. 
• It’s Not Battle Bots: Despite what many people believe, bots are not going to steal jobs from humans. Bots have already been implemented in thousands of organizations to supplement the work done by employees, and the bots will continue to be trained and optimized in order to elevate the performance and output of employees.
• Broaden Your Scope: Rather than trying to target your digital transformation investment in one particular area or department, open the transformation to all branches and employees in the organization. Just as data is a valuable resource, digitally-equipped and trained employees are also a valuable and important resource that your company can build from.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

If you want to know about Kubernetes, you should probably talk to the guy who built, pitched and then implemented K8 at Google. So that’s who we called for this episode of Future of Tech. 

Joe Beda is one of the fathers of Kubernetes and on this episode he takes us behind the scenes of developing K8, including why they decided to open-source the technology to level the playing field of app deployment. Today, Joe is a principal engineer at VMware, and he’s still making waves in tech, particularly in the world of open source. Joe explains that working on open source projects fosters a sense of community and leads to more win-win scenarios that include integrated solutions that work for every vendor. Plus, Joe explains the future of edge computing and how service mesh and edge will work together. And, he talks about the future of Kubernetes and why the ultimate goal is to have Kubernetes become boring. Enjoy this episode!

Main Takeaways:

• Problem Solver: One of the reasons Kubernetes is so popular is because it solves many problems at the same time. Using K8, you can efficiently use an entire set of machines dynamically across the whole company, and you can improve workflow with a set of APIs that app developers can access virtually anywhere.
• Getting to Win-Win: The key for a successful open source project is to find win-win scenarios where multiple developers across vendors can agree on a vision and integrate solutions from every corner of the project to create something that is greater than the sum of its parts and that every vendor can benefit from. Open source fosters a sense of community in this way and allows for all different types of developers to contribute even if they aren’t necessarily directly involved with the problem at hand. 
• Getting Edgy: Moving forward, there will be a greater need to have more computing power in more locations in order to keep operations moving fast. Edge is one solution to this, but managing and scaling edge compute to make it more accessible to enterprises is one of the main challenges for IT leaders today.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Not long ago, telephone companies had a monopoly on all forms of voice communication. But, just as it has done to most aspects of daily life, the internet changed everything. Thanks to the internet, people could connect over IP from all corners of the world. And now that the technology has improved, the connections have become stronger and the systems have been built to support high-speed connection, the VoIP industry is becoming more important than ever for businesses.

Craig Walker is the Founder and CEO at Dialpad, a company he started after working for Google, where he led strategy, execution, launch and product direction for Google Voice. 

On this episode of Future of Tech, Craig explains how VoIP is being used in every industry, and he discusses why the unified system of communication that Dialpad offers will lead to a more automated workforce. Plus, he details how artificial intelligence is now being implemented into all forms of communication, and why that will be a game-changer for how companies operate and train employees moving forward. Enjoy this episode. 

Main Takeaways:

• Leveling the Playing Field: Voice over IP has given regular people and technologists a foot in the door in the voice communication industry. Previously, telephone companies had massive monopolies and control over how people around the world communicated, but thanks to the internet and the structures and connections built by the VoIP innovators, everyone has an equal opportunity to connect with voice.
• Bringing A.I. Into The Conversation: With new integrations, companies are able to use artificial intelligence to automatically transcribe VoIP conversations and then, with either a human or machine learning, a salesperson or customer service rep can get real-time help in answering customer questions or responding to needs based on the conversation.
• Integrating the Future: Unifying systems of communication will help to automate the workforce in a new way. When everything is truly connected rather than siloed, you can implement A.I. throughout your communication tools that will be able to gather accurate data, which can then be used to solve problems, train employees, and create better systems and workflows that are less dependant on humans tracking and recording things like phone calls and video conferences in manual logs.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

On the last episode of Future of Tech, we introduced you to Dr. David Passig, a renowned futurist, who explained that future studies is less about predicting the future, and more about understanding the present in order to avoid negative outcomes and enhance positive ones. Today, in Part 2 of our discussion with Dr. Passig, we continue the conversation about how technology will continue to shape the future of our world. Dr. Passig dives into the negative impacts of all technology, and gives an insight into the future of social media, plus, he details the stages of evolution and artificial intelligence, and how close we are to truly humanizing our artifacts in a meaningful way, including the sharing of social knowledge between technology. And, Dr. Passig explains why he is optimistic about the future, despite the inherent dangers of technology, and why he believes that the more we look ahead, the more we can prepare and unify humanity. Enjoy this episode! 

Main Takeaways:

• Pluses and Minuses: There has never been a technology that only brought positive impacts. Every technology also had negative aspects to it, which needed to be sussed out and refined over time. This is an ongoing process that happens constantly throughout centuries.
• Incoming IoT: The IoT will be much more important than people currently believe. Through the IoT, our artifacts will be able to begin sharing knowledge that we as humans are not necessarily aware.
• Optimistic Mindset: Although there are dangers to every technology and the future is never certain, we can prepare ourselves and use the knowledge we have gained in order to unify the human species.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Those who do future studies know that there are an infinite number of possible futures. With infinity as a baseline, how does one prepare for what’s to come or predict what will come next? On this two-part episode of Future of Tech, Dr. David Passig, a renowned futurist, explains that future studies is less about predicting the future, and more about understanding the present in order to avoid negative outcomes and enhance positive ones. Here in part one, Dr. Passig explains the basics of hunting for patterns that might help to predict the future, and he explains exactly why and how humans are built to use technology as a way to break free of the prisons of time and space that currently confine us all. Plus, he gives a prediction about how we might start thinking about gravity a little bit differently not too long from now. Enjoy and tune in for part two next week!

Main Takeaways:

• Back To The Future: Future studies isn’t about predicting the future, it’s about studying the present and the past in order to find ways to bring about more positive outcomes. 
• Pattern Matching: By identifying recurring patterns, you can begin to predict what will occur in the future or, at least make educated guesses as to where certain systems or events will lead.
• Population Problems: One of the driving forces of humanity is productivity, but a human’s productive years are very limited. As more people go from having many children to having fewer children, that will deplete the amount of total productive capacity of the population overall. As such, there is a drive to create more technology to fill in the productivity gaps.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

This week, lace up your boots and be sure to stretch, because we have an exciting new Future of Tech to share with you!

Avishai had a chance to sit down with Jonathan Lee, the Senior Director of Sports Performance Technology for Intel. If you never connected Intel and sports technology before, you certainly will after this conversation. 

In this lively conversation, Jonathan dives deep into how Intel’s AI is benefiting all facets of sports, from player performance to fan experience, and even advanced athlete scouting in underserved areas. Throughout the episode, he shares countless ways in which Intel’s technology is affecting the world of athletics for elite professionals and weekend warriors alike, highlighting the myriad ways these innovations will impact sports on every level. 

Enjoy the episode!

Main Takeaways:
Creating Scalable Athletic Solutions: Jonathan shares how AI solutions can scale to serve multiple types of athletes, from elite professionals to casual players, as well as benefiting the health and wellness space.

AI and How It Will Redefine Athlete Scouting: Intel’s AI Scout is changing the way player performance is evaluated, using 3D analysis to objectively gauge an athlete’s potential against a growing field of competitors.

Bringing Athletic Opportunities to Underserved Areas: Jonathan shares an inspiring story of how AI Scout made it possible for two unknown prospects from a remote village to be discovered and considered for an organized football program.

Key Quotes: 

(16:29)“For sports, there are many applications that involve, how do we get athletes to perform better. Or how do we enhance a broadcast so that a fan feels more engaged with the action?  And we're at an exciting place right now in technology where we have things that really bridged the gap between the athlete and the fan.”
(18:19)“A lot of the things that we work on are meant to democratize and allow technology to be not just by the very elite athletes, but all the athletes on the team, and not just all the athletes on a pro or elite team, but actually down through your weekend warrior, your consumer, even in the health space as well.”
(22:37): “We use computer vision to extract 25 or more key points from the body, and then whether you use one camera or multiple cameras, we can create a 3D model of the athlete. And then from there, we can calculate biomechanics, kinematics, and provide that to a developer, or in some cases, we've built our own applications on top of that. Again, this is without the use of any sensors or suits. It's just AI.
(34:28): “Last year as a team, Purdue [baseball team] stole 48 bases. That put them at 130 first out of all the teams in the country. This year they stole 116, which ranked them number 10, right? And they had a great season. We're really at the cusp here on how to use tech to actually improve performance, right? And it's being demonstrated.” 
(54:35): “Being able to, to provide that information in, in real-time or near real-time would be something that would, that, that, um, would make the gym experience a bit more compelling as well as safe.”

Like it or not, the younger generation is an important demographic for every industry to pay attention to. Millennials and Gen Z currently have buying power and influence, and the decisions they make now, and the tech and brands they become loyal to today will impact the winners and losers of the future. So the question becomes, how do you get the attention of these young people and engage with them long-term? 

Clint Runge is the CEO & Founder of Archrival, a youth culture agency that reinvents how brands win the hearts and minds of young adults. Clint is helping to build back trust in brands among the upcoming generation, and he’s using technology and new platforms to make that happen. On this episode of Future of Tech, Clint dives into the state of marketing today and how brands need to be thinking about reaching younger audiences. This is important because, according to Clint, if you understand what drives that generation, you can identify broader trends that will set your business up for success in other areas. To achieve this success, Clint details exactly how and why it’s necessary to start blending the digital world and the “real world” — rather than pushing old school marketing techniques through new technology, Clint discusses how brands can use the new technology as a tool to innovate and blend real-life engagement with digital platforms. Plus, he talks about where companies will be gathering the most data from in the future, and why you should start embracing the technology that scares you the most. Enjoy this episode!

 Main Takeaways:

• Cultural Differences: Globally, the youth have embraced a more borderless world. They interact, transact, and communicate with people all over the world constantly, which means that there are certain things that permeate throughout the population regardless of culture or geography. For example, the mentality behind why someone buys something will likely transcend across the board, the difference will come in how the purchase is made. 
• Who Do You Trust?: The concept of trust has radically changed in recent years. Whether it’s governments, business leaders or the media, there is an environment of mistrust built up among the general population toward those entities. And advertising falls into that sphere of mistrust as well. Brands need to find trusted sources to place in front of their target consumers in order to build back the trust and give them reasons to buy. The most trusted source is other human beings who are similar to the target audience and who can meet that audience in the places they spend time — streaming, on video game platforms, social media, etc.
• Dive Into Data: Despite claiming that they care more about data and privacy than any other generation, the youth actually give up more information about themselves than most. But, just because a brand has access to the data doesn’t mean it can be misused. Brands need to be transparent about how they are using the data they collect so that 1) the younger generation will still release it to them for use to further marketing and personalization tactics, and 2) because if brands collect and use data in ways not disclosed, the consumers will very quickly lose trust in the brand and it will be nearly impossible to rebuild.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

To say that Yariv Bash has always aimed high would be a little bit too on the nose. Yariv is currently the co-founder and CEO of Flytrex Aviation, but he was also the first CEO of SpaceIL, a $100M Israeli non-profit organization that attempted to land the first private interplanetary robotic mission on the moon.  

On this episode of Future of Tech, Yariv tells the story of the many obstacles he faced and “no’s” he heard on the way to building that rocket to the moon and he discusses what he sees for the future of space travel and inspiring the next generation of young engineers. Plus, he dives into the work he’s doing now with Flytrex and how drone technology is shaping up to change the way we live, have things delivered within a matter of minutes via drone, and much more. There are challenges, though, including how drones will be regulated and what kind of safety and security needs to be put in place before they can fly over saturated cities. But Flytrex is already hard at work on those challenges, and Yariv gives some clues about where we’ll see drones overhead next and when. Enjoy this episode!

Main Takeaways:

• Big Risk, Big Reward: Despite the many “no’s” Yariv and his team received when building on their project to get to the moon, taking a big risk and going for it anyway proved to be the right move. They succeeded in a number of parameters and helped advance not just the Israli space program, but in inspiring a new generation of young people who will now pursue a career in science, engineering and technology.
• The Weight of It All: Drone technology is already being used to deliver things in many parts of the world. One of the key factors in improving and expanding drone delivery technology, though, is the weight of the packages being delivered. Drones are designed to be lightweight and easy to maneuver, so delivering heavy objects is currently out of the question. And that’s just one of the challenges Flytrex is working on. Others include regulations, delivery destinations in major cities and skyscrapers, and safety and security.
• It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane!: Looking overhead you might start to see drones in more unexpected places, including in the world of agriculture. Automated drone technology iis perfect for fertilizing or spraying fields in order to keep the crops healthy. Drones can and have also been used for things like firefighting and reconnaissance.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Many people believe that RPA, or Robotic Process Automation, is one of the fastest-growing categories in enterprise software at the moment. But what exactly is RPA and how is it going to change the way we work? On this episode of Future of Tech, we invited Guy Kirkwood, the Chief Evangelist at UiPath to give us the inside scoop.

As it turns out, the widespread fear that robots will eliminate jobs for millions of people is actually backward thinking. In fact, Guy explains that as RPA continues to evolve, the technology will ultimately be a net job promoter. Why is that? Because RPA isn’t actually about robots at all. RPA is simply software that runs other software, eliminating repetitive tasks and freeing up humans to innovate, create and work on more complicated work. Despite those facts, though, RPA adoption is still an ongoing process. Where are we on the adoption timeline and how close are we to a future when everyone has their own RPA robot working for them? Find out that, and more, on this episode!

Main Takeaways:

• Robot Takeover?: Although it has long been feared that robots and A.I. will lead to the loss of jobs for humans, in fact the opposite might be true. Just like in previous industrial revolutions, certain jobs will be eliminated, but new ones will be created in different fields. And, more than likely, the net number of jobs created will be greater than those that were eliminated due to automation. 
• An Automated Future: Throughout the tech industry, automation is a buzzword that many are excited about. The reason is because the automation that is evolving right now is intelligent in nature. Automation technology is getting better and better, and the bugs are being worked out now so that when something goes wrong later, the automated software can actually fix itself.
• Incoming ISVs: The RPA market is continuing to evolve, and the next stage will see more ISVs adopting the technology. IBM, SAP and Microsoft have already made the plunge into the world of RPA, and the prediction is companies like Amazon, Salesforce and Google are not going to be far behind.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Last week we welcomed Ronen Nir to the podcast for Part 1 of a deep dive into the world of venture capital. On this second and final part of the conversation, Ronen, a General Partner at Viola Ventures, picks up the discussion by explaining how profit and loss statements are looked at in SaaS-model companies. And later in the episode, he details the way the VC world was up-ended due to COVID-19, and how maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Ronen also explains which markets he thinks are ready to be disrupted, but why traditional start-ups might be the ones doing the disrupting. Enjoy Part 2! 

Main Takeaways:

• Doing It Digitally: In the very recent past, investments were often only made after a long, drawn-out process of multiple meetings, vetting sessions, travel and research into the people and company making the pitch. As the world was forced to shift to a virtual-only meeting environment, this process was actually sped up. Without needing to factor in travel and other outside circumstances, the interviewing, vetting and decision-making process can move much faster.
• Amazon the Start-up?: AWS is a giant of the tech world, but it began as a simple start-up looking to disrupt the cloud services market. Today, there are many markets that are ripe for disruption, but where are the start-ups that will be making waves? For the first time in 50 years, it’s actually the more mature companies that are bringing disruptions to the market.
• Know your Finances: When companies are looking for funding, too often they present VCs with innovative technology and diagrams and architecture plans, but they forget to dig into the financial side of what it all costs. VCs want to know how much you need and where exactly that money will go, so make time to really understand that side of your business.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Start-ups and entrepreneurs have been around since the beginning of time. But it was only in the last several decades that venture capitalists became key players in the world of business and investing. Ronen Nir is a General Partner at Viola Ventures, and on this special two-part episode of Future of Tech, he lets us in on what it really means to be a VC today. On Part 1, Ronen gives an overview of the history of venture capital, and he explains how the world of tech innovation and entrepreneurship was what gave birth to the venture capitalist. He also divulges exactly how VCs make decisions on who and what to invest in and explains why AAR is the key metric to look at when predicting the health of a high-growth company. Enjoy Part 1!

Main Takeaways:

• Not All VCs are The Same: There are a number of factors that differentiate one VC from another. The criteria most people look at to find those differences are: size, geographical focus, the stage of the companies they invest in, and the various areas of interest or industries they invest in.
• How to Invest: In order to make a good investment, two things are critical: access and judgment. Access means you know and understand the company and the entrepreneurs and have a chance to do the due diligence necessary to figure out the nuts and bolts of the company inside and out. Judgment means having a long-term vision and being able to see a future for the company.
• Tell Me More About AAR: For investors today, you have to make decisions on different kinds of metrics and KPIs. One of those is AAR, which many VCs have concluded is one of the best predictors of the health and future success for a high-growth company.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Even though Josh Bressers says that security itself is meant to be boring, there are no dull moments when discussing the evolution of the world of cybersecurity, especially because security is truly a never-ending journey. 

Josh leads the Product Security Group at Elastic, and in his previous role at Red Hat he was a Cybersecurity Strategist & Product Manager, leading the security strategy in Red Hat's Platform Business Unit. On this episode of Future of Tech, Josh dives into every corner of the cybersecurity world, including how working in open source has finally emerged as the winner in the world of tech and what that means from a security standpoint. He also discusses how artificial intelligence is taking on a more important role in security operations, especially as more and more people are working from home. Plus, a look at the history of DevSecOps and where that part of the industry is headed in a more digitally-connected world and the inside scoop on how hackers are attacking businesses today and what to do to turn them away. Enjoy this episode!

 Main Takeaways:

• Good and Bored: Ideally, security within businesses should be boring. When cybersecurity is done correctly, no one should know about what is happening and operations should run smoothly.
• Bring in the Bots: Although A.I. has been somewhat of a white whale in the world of technology, in terms of security, there are actual application and use cases that prove A.I. is a beneficial tool. Especially as more people have moved to working from home, having bots scan through the security protocols, logins and other logs to flag suspicious activity has become more important than ever, and it is a job only a bot can do effectively.
• Grab and Go: Hackers today are much more opportunistic than they were in the past. When hackers attack today, they go big and try to get as much data as they can in one fell swoop. Crime is becoming a business, and companies need to protect against widespread data hacks more today than ever before.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

In technology, everything is getting faster, and the pace of change is more blistering than ever. As a result, technologists are in a constant state of optimization and trying to find the best ways to make their websites, apps, and backend systems work 24/7. One of the ways they are doing that is through the use of low-code. 

Gone are the days of complicated legacy systems and custom code throughout every layer of your business. Instead, developers are leaning into the more efficient process of using low-code solutions to do everything from operating mobile apps to accomplishing legacy migrations and doing process automation. 

On this episode of Future of Tech, Paulo Rosado, the CEO of OutSystems, discusses what those low-code solutions look like, and how they are being implemented in the real world. Plus, he explains how artificial intelligence and machine learning will be useful to developers in the future, and how A.I. might actually be doing some code-writing on its own. And, he predicts the future of low-code and how much more penetration the low-code movement will have in the tech industry. 

Main Takeaways:

• Where to Use Low-Code: There are a few areas of business that benefit greatly from implementing low-code solutions because these are areas that need to be updated and iterated on and adapted quickly — and often as a reaction to customer needs. Some of these areas include portals, mobile apps, PWAs, process automation and business optimization, and legacy migrations.

• No Time For That: One of the reasons low-code is being adopted is because the timeframe in which it can be implemented and/or changes is vastly shorter than any other kind of legacy system or code. Certain systems and codes take three to six years to replace or update. Because the industry and technology changes so fast, that timeline does not work anymore because by the time you’ve finished, you’ll need to start updating all over again.
• Upgraded Security: Using open source and low-code, all the companies that use the same code for their platforms are able to bug and pen test the system to find areas of weakness. If there are certain noncompliance issues or weaknesses on the platform, a simple patch can be made and the entire code is now better off and your whole system is updated rather than needed to go into specific apps or systems to correct code line by line.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

JJ Caffey believes that work is fundamentally broken. People are spending more of their waking hours working than ever before, many of them spent alone and behind a screen. According to JJ, the way the average person works is no longer productive, and, in fact, our work habits are leaving many of us more burnt out and lonely than ever before. 

When it comes to millennials and Gen Z, who represent the future workforce, it’s more important than ever before to find a better way to bring productivity to our time on the clock. JJ thinks she has a way to do that. 

JJ is the founder of Order In, a remote-productivity membership club providing accountability, community, and structure to young remote workers, and an elite network of leaders imagining "the future of work" for remote & distributed teams.

On this episode of Future of Tech, JJ breaks down exactly what is wrong with work as we know it, and she prescribes some solutions that could make a world of difference. For example, JJ believes that A.I. and automation can and should be utilized more to help eliminate tasks from our day-to-day responsibilities and give us more time to do deep work and collaborate in ways that only humans can. Additionally, JJ explains that as Gen Z starts to enter the workforce, companies need to focus on what is important to them and implement policies and offer opportunities that will make that generation eager to work and effective when they do. 

What are those policies? How should companies be evaluating employees who have moved to working from home? And how are we going to see A.I. enter our work lives more? Find out on this episode. Enjoy!

Main Takeaways:

• How Do You Feel?: The future of work is constantly changing, but recent trends indicate that more people than ever before will be working from home some or all of the time. There are positives and negatives to this shift, and it is important to understand that some of the negatives include an impact on how people feel mentally. Addressing feelings of isolation and loneliness should be areas of focus for all businesses, and there are technological tools available now and on the way that will offer support.   

• Work is Broken: According to numerous studies, in the U.S. the workday is getting longer and more and more people are doing work outside of normal working hours. However, even if a person works for nine hours a day, they are actually only productive for a fraction of that time. There needs to be a revolution in the way we work that combines technology, automation, and productivity tools to help future generations create the most efficient and productive organizations possible. With A.I. and automation, we could shorten the work day by automating many of our tasks so that we can focus our energy into being productive in high-touch areas that require human skills and interactions.

• Focusing on Everything From A to Gen Z: As the next generation begins to enter the workforce, more data about what they care about is being gathered. Companies that want to get the most out of Gez Z need to focus on committing to a mission, maintaining a good company culture, and implementing ethical policies from a human and environmental standpoint.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

When Eoghan McCabe started frequenting one specific coffee shop, he noticed something. Not the quality of the coffee, rather, he became friendly with the owner of the shop, and saw that this man was truly engaged with all of his customers. He knew their names, their preferences, he and that familiarity kept customers coming back, even if he wasn’t offering the best deal in the neighborhood. Eoghan looked at his own company and found that his relationship with his customers was nothing like that. How it was doing outreach was so impersonal and rote, the messages and marketing even bordered on spammy. Eoghan knew there must be a better way. From there, Intercom was born, with a mission to make internet business personal, and create a seamless, direct line between a business and its customers.

Intercom’s key solution was a business messenger tool that allowed companies to connect with customers through their apps and other digital properties. It was a game-changer. But soon enough, the innovation needed to take the next step. On this episode of Future of Tech, Eoghan, the Chairman and co-founder of Intercom, explains how his team at Intercom overcame its initial hesitancy to get into the world of automation and bots in order to level up the company while staying true to its mission. Plus, he discusses how customers are using Intercom technology to find new ways to connect with their consumers, and why he thinks that in the next 10 years we will see widespread adoption of automation and conversational technology.

Main Takeaways:

• Personalized Communication is Key: As consumers are presented with more options than ever in every marketplace, the only way that companies can stand out is through customer experience. If your messaging and communication is standardized, spammy, or otherwise impersonal, customers will notice, and they will choose a company that has invested in more personalized tools. 
• Listen for Solutions: When you are building products or services, it’s important to listen to your customers and get to know exactly what they need. But not every customer will tell you what they need directly or in the same way every time, so you need to create various forums in which customers can provide feedback.
• Adoption Takes Time: We are still so early in the digital revolution that sometimes it can be frustrating to those in the industry who want to see solutions adopted more universally. People need to become familiar and built trust with the technology and the companies offering it before they fully commit, and that takes time.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Rick Rioboli says that when you are trying to transform a platform or product space, sometimes you have to forget everything you know and start from nothing to build something truly innovative. And as someone who did in fact transform an entire platform and product category, Rick would know that from experience. Rick is the Senior Vice President & CIO at Comcast and during his time with the company he was instrumental in leading the team that built the X1 platform, which has won numerous awards, including an Emmy Award for Technology and Engineering.

On Part 2 of this episode of Future of Tech with Rick, he describes what it was like building the X1 platform, and he explains where he thinks the next wave of innovation is going to come from as it relates to IoT. Rick advises that people take risks and not be afraid to start completely from scratch because that’s where new ideas truly come from. And he gives us an inside look at what makes him tick and gives tips for CIOs and CEOs of the future. Hear why he thinks that and how he put that idea into practice on this episode. Enjoy!

Main Takeaways:

• Started From the Bottom Now We Here: Sometimes in order to build something completely new, you have to forget everything you already know and scrap all of the technology and platforms that already exist. When you are starting from nothing, you have more of a change to build something truly innovative. 
• More Than the Basics: Most companies have only done basic digitization of their companies or processes. What is coming next is a more fully-fledged digitization of the entire customer and internal journey. In order to do that, though, there needs to be a much deeper understanding of the data that lives in your enterprise.
• It’s All About Utility: When it comes to adopting more aspects of the IoT, everyday people are going to lean more toward technology that is actually useful in their life or solves a problem.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

We can be so passionate about tech that we can get caught up in its concepts and capabilities. But what is at the core of all technology?

Our guest today, Mark Potter, the Chief Information Officer at Optus, says “that great technology is a result of people.”

Mark’s fascinating career evolved from studying civil engineering to eventually working in the banking and telecommunications industries. The throughline for him has always been a desire to come up with solutions to challenges.

Tune in for more of Mark’s story and learn how he keeps perspective on what he values the most. Enjoy this episode!

Main Takeaways:
Humanity is the Foundation: Mark reminds us that humanity is behind impressive tech. He also points out how a company with “purpose” attracts employees who are seeking the same. His view is that engineers want to be a part of performing meaningful work.
Building a Career: In advice to up-and-coming talent, Mark advises that people focus more on attaining an employment situation with “career” potential rather than narrowly looking for a “job.” Leaning into a longer-term mindset is sage advice to build one’s career and life.
The Future at Optus: In envisioning the future of Optus, Mark imagines a business that moves rapidly with simplified processes and where there is a great deal of interconnection. His vision is a beautiful one that’s hopefully realized in many companies.
Maintaining Perspective: Shouldn’t we assess our values just as rigorously as our work data? Mark describes a process he’s undertaken to map out his priorities and then contemplate if he’s been focusing his attention on these values.

Key Quotes:
[05:58] “As a CIO, I think that great technology is a result of people. The paradox is great Technology is all about the people, and that's absolutely true across banking and telecommunications.”

[09:03 - this is the correct timestamp. If I try to hyperlink, it goes to a different section] “And typically what I find is that great engineers want to solve real problems and get beyond tech for tech’s sake and get into tech for some sort of higher order purpose. And so our purpose is really key to the way that we attract and retain people and [it’s about] creating the opportunities for teams to have that real impact.”

16:49) “I'd love to see technology as just part of the product and product management. So you can imagine moving from a project management bias that we have at the moment into product management and then the technology is embedded [and] embraced within the product itself. So, the distance between a business stakeholder and an IT colleague is a lot more blurred than what it has been historically.”

[29:57] “So I think platforms as an economy have kind of broken the economic paradigm of a traditional value chain.”

[39:58] “I think organizations where there's a meritocracy rather than a bureaucracy is important where talent can be elevated based on merit. And then maybe, last but not least, organizations, that have got a culture where failure is okay. Learning through getting things a bit wrong is a great way to learn.”

Rick Rioboli says that when you are trying to transform a platform or product space, sometimes you have to forget everything you know and start from nothing to build something truly innovative. And as someone who did in fact transform an entire platform and product category, Rick Rioboli would know that from experience. Rick is the Senior Vice President & CIO at Comcast and during his time with the company he was instrumental in leading the team that built the X1 platform from the ground up, which has won numerous awards, including an Emmy Award for Technology and Engineering.

 On Part 1 of this two-part episode of Future of Tech with Rick, he describes the journey to building that platform, what it meant to adapt to the new work environments when COVID-19 hit, and the importance of the customer experience. According to Rick, the full digitization of companies and customer experiences is on the horizon, but success or failure in that digital transformation will come down to your understanding of your data. And he explains why tech companies need to lead, and not follow, and be open to change. Learn about all of that and more — including what it means to be a good CIO — on this episode and tune into Part 2 next week for more about the X1 platform. Enjoy!

Main Takeaways:

• Adapt and Overcome: In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, just about every company had to adapt to a new type of working environment. With most, if not all staff shifting toward a work-from-home situation, it was important to make sure that employees had the resources they needed,  but also that they were taking care to not overwork themselves now that the boundary between work and home were blurred.
• Building the Best Experience: When building a good customer experience, you have to start by visualizing what the ideal customer experience looks like and then work your way backward from there. And as a tech leader, you have to figure out a way to ensure that your technology can enable that ideal experience. 
• There’s An App for That: As more customers were forced to stay at home during the pandemic, new technology emerged to fill in the gaps left by the removal of in-person interactions.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

Technology is an enabler of all kinds of activity. But how does a person actually change their behavior to use a piece of tech or buy a product or incorporate some sort of automated process? There are mental hurdles involved as well as technical ones, and Zoe Clelland has made it her mission to understand and facilitate those technological behavior changes.

Zoe has both a Master’s and a PhD in Human Factors and Experimental Technology, and today she serves as the Vice President, Product & Experience at Nintex, a company that helps businesses around the world automate some of their most sophisticated processes. On this episode of Future of Tech, Zoe dives into the world of mental models and why they are critical to consider when building, introducing, and helping customers adopt new technology like low-code, no-code, RPA, or anything else. Technology like low- and no-code are all about bringing solutions to the table, and when you know to design the product and the adoption process to highlight that idea, Zoe says you are more likely to succeed in your pursuits. She explains all of that, and more, including the rise of RPA, A.I. and M.L., and she highlights the areas CIOs should focus on when they are embarking on a digital transformation process. Enjoy this episode!

Main Takeaways:

• Mind Over Matter: You could make the most beautiful, efficient, and expertly-designed website or piece of tech, but if you don’t know what is driving your customer to the product in the first place, you will never have success. You need to understand the mental models involved in bringing a consumer to the table and design around that.
• Solving For X: Having a solution to a problem is one of the most important selling points for anything. If you are offering a low-code no-code tool kit, or an automation process, or various forms of A.I. or M.L., selling the merits of the tools is less effective than selling the solutions they offer overall.
• CIO Playbook: When embarking on a new job as a CIO or into a digital transformation, don’t try to do too much, too fast. Pick some of the low-hanging fruit to work on first in order to build trust with the departments you work with, and then assure them that their voices are being heard.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

We have been told that we are currently in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution. Technology is reshaping how we live and work, but we are only in the first wave of feeling the impact technology has had. In the next few years, many believe that technology will see even greater innovations, which will have a huge amount of influence on just about everything in our lives. Toby Eduardo Redshaw is one of the folks who believe that is true, and as the SVP of Enterprise Innovation and 5G Solutions at Verizon, he’s had a front-row seat to some of the exciting technological innovations that will soon be widespread. 

Toby believes that we are in the middle of a critical time of change, experimentation, innovation and advancement. On this two-part episode of Future of Tech, he takes us through some of the areas that he sees as ripe to make the biggest impact on our lives and work moving forward. In Part 2 of this discussion, Toby explains how big tech companies need to come together to form partnerships, what it means to innovate with an impact, and the need for even more trust and transparency in the future. Enjoy!

Main Takeaways:

• Just the Beginning: We are still at the beginning of the timeline of the fourth industrial revolution. In the next few years, expect to see even greater technological shifts than what we have experienced in the last decade-plus.
• Howdy, Partner: There is more overlap in tech than ever before. As such, the giants of the industry will likely find more opportunities than ever to partner with their counterparts, but it will take a bit of adjustment.
• Do You Trust Me?: Today’s consumers demand honesty and transparency from the companies they engage with. Customers need to trust that a company is doing exactly what it says and that it is operating with the best intentions. Those that break that trust will be doomed to fail.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.

As we move further into the fourth industrial revolution, the technology that is coming around the corner is sure to continue to reshape the way we live and work. Toby Eduardo Redshaw is one of the folks who believe that is true, and as the SVP of Enterprise Innovation and 5G Solutions at Verizon, he’s had a front-row seat to some of the exciting technological innovations that will soon be widespread. 

Toby believes that we are in the middle of a critical time of change, experimentation, innovation and advancement. On this two-part episode of Future of Tech, he takes us through some of the areas that he sees as ripe to make the biggest impact on our lives and work moving forward. From IoT to NextGen Cloud Computing to A.I. and 5G, there are big shifts happening in the tech industry, and Toby shares that we will be seeing quite a lot of exciting digital transformations in the years to come. What is ahead for smart A.I. at the edge? How will AR and VR begin to help people with on-the-spot, real-time field training and assistance? Toby answers all of that and more, here on Part  1. Enjoy!

Main Takeaways:

• Leave a Mark: Innovating is all about having an impact. You can experiment and test as much as you want, but at the end of the day, a company is only successful if it brings something to the table that will actually help, change, or make better a part of a person’s life.
• Danger Ahead: As with any industrial revolution, there will be companies that are unable or unwilling to adapt. Those will eventually fail, while the ones that are able to innovate in practical ways will leap ahead.
• Investing in 5G: The appetite for 5G is widespread. Not only do businesses want the technology, but banks and investment firms are looking to put money into companies that are taking the move to 5G seriously. If you cannot show that you are investing in 5G, you cannot prove to investors that you are preparing for the future.

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Future of Tech is brought to you by Amdocs Tech. Amdocs Tech is Amdocs’s R&D and technology center, paving the way to a better-connected future by creating open, innovative, best-in-class products and continuously evolving the way we work, learn and live. To learn more about Amdocs Tech, visit the Amdocs Technology page on LinkedIn.