WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

WHY IT MATTERS: warning! this article is not about your typical "robots will rule retail" or "everything has to be AI driven unless you die". Well, in some parts it is.

The reality check that retailers - and their technology vendors - must make is: retail is difficult, focused on the bottom line, with no appetite for innovation with short term results. Retail innovators must find a way to experiment while staying focussed on the bottom line.

Best quote: "‘I think the majority of the problems come from the unwillingness, perhaps the fear, of investing in something that
doesn’t automatically bring a load of cash onto your balance sheet."

WHY IT MATTERS: order fulfillment and delivery is the last remaining hurdle to eCommerce. Loblaws in Canada will pilot a micro-fulfillment solution from TakeOff that impressed me last year at Shoptalk. In short, they create an automated back-store where eCommerce orders are prepared with a huge amount of automation. The question remains whether the economics is better for micro-fulfillment or if centralized warehouse fulfillment with hub-and-spoke delivery is better suited for high volume / low margin eCommerce that grocery is about. Thus this "test" by Loblaws. Note that Sobeys has decided in favor of more centralized ocado-driven automated warehouse and Metro remains with the more traditional decentralized (and manual) store-based pick-pack-deliver process. Given the low volume of orders for online grocery in Canada I remain partisan of a store-based manual approach but the economics I got from TakeOff was promising. Below additional links if you want to read more about takeoff and ocado.

- http://fmcs.digital/blog/a-new-store-experience-windowless-automated-micro-warehouse-with-hyperlocal-presence-may-be-the-future-of-grocery-shopping-takeoff-solution-suggests-this-may-be-the-case-robots-ai/

- http://fmcs.digital/blog/video-of-the-inside-of-ocados-robotic-warehouse-where-thousands-of-robots-pack-groceries-retail-robots/

- https://www.takeoff.com/why-takeoff

WHY IT MATTERS: technology is tackling manpower shortage in retail. Here an example of how cameras, robots and drones are leveraged to perform out-of-stock detection on store shelves. When you realize that certain store may have 25000 or more products, the time required to identify out-of-stocks for replenishment and the lost sales makes those technologies useful and cost effective.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a big deal because the Boston Dynamics robots appear to be the advanced and versatile. The fact that they are made commercially available is significant after years of being research project. You have to be in the market for an early device with lots of limitations but, looking down the road a few years, one has to start planning for robots to start making their way into practical use cases in construction, etc. Plus the videos are just fun to watch!

WHY IT MATTERS: reminds me of the joke: "Only one man and one dog are needed in a warehouse of the future. The dog is there to keep humans away from the place. The human is there to feed the dog." 

WHY IT MATTERS: the report is not available for free but the 42 slide summary is a great overview of key trends that are presented with observations and outcome.

WHY IT MATTERS: being able to control devices without your hand - using eyes or voice - is still being explored. I find this a great example of merging new technologies - drone, eye gazing, AI - to expand digital transformation beyond the current scope envisioned today.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI is useful for more than making recommendations of Netflix movies to watch. Here it is applied to the issue of robot hand grasping and the video shows amazing result with robots able to close an amazon shipping box container. wow!

WHY IT MATTERS: A good summary of potential use cases and applications for key digital technologies that revolutionize business.

WHY IT MATTERS : the video provides a great review of the state of technology when it comes to robots and robotics today from one of the leading researcher in the field. The talk is peppered with short videos of actual robots so you get a good sense of what's possible today. But remember that we live in an exponential growth era, so things improve very fast.

WHY IT MATTERS: a short 15min video to listen to this weekend and bring very good conversation topics for Sunday dinner with the kids...

WHY IT MATTERS: robots will soon replace humans in Amazon warehouses, as there are already 45000 kiva robots and growing. Moreover, the tasks that robots can perform is expanding and Amazon is pushing the limits of what's possible with this annual robotics challenge. 

Also see

- Economist story http://econ.st/2yO8n90 

- projections that US manufacturing jobs will continue decline while robots growth at an accelerated pace http://bit.ly/2yOFhWO 

- PWC estimates that robots will replace pretty every human worker in every industry https://pwc.to/2yQ270n 

WHY IT MATTERS: forecasts are that robots will outnumber human workers in Amazon warehouses by 2020. This trial from GAP goes along in that direction: remotely-controlled robots with AI help prepare orders in the warehouse. This tech should be on everyone's strategic plan for distribution and logistics in the coming years.

WHY IT MATTERS

McKinsey study finds that new digital technologies will transform the job market gradually and explores where these changes may occur first.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Investment firms tend to be very traditional in their approach. This one appears to be embracing the digital transformation and making very insightful research that - from what they claim - guides their investments. Great idea. Now we'll see if their assumptions prove right and generate more returns than other investment guidance. I have a feeling it will.

Topics covered: 3D printing, additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence, automation, autonomous taxis, autonomous vehicles, bitcoin, blockchain, CRISPR, cryptocurrency, deep learning, dna sequencing, fintech, genomics, machine learning, mobile, robotics, shared autonomous vehicles

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I usually repost those things around new years, with all the predictions etc. but this list seemed to me so appropriate and so true that I wanted to share now.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Are we on the eve of an era where the Fortune 500 is replaced by the "AI 100"?

This may be more realistic than you think if the current predictions regarding the future of work push humans to service each other and let all the "work" be done by machines - robots and AI.

We are not there yet and this list merely reports 100 startups that are very active in the field AI. Nevertheless, it is interesting to consider what impact AI may have and adjust our digital strategies accordingly...

Fortune magazine has also created a very interesting infographics from this mountain of data: http://fortune.com/2017/02/23/artificial-intelligence-companies/ 

One important stat from The Future of Jobs report is that the top trend that will drive change in work is new technology and innovation.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

All jobs will be affected by technology and thus every good digital transformation should include the human disruption and its impact on current and future employees. Too often, we implement digital change and fail to consider people impact.

Look at UBER taxis: their model is to plow ahead and disrupt the market but they have failed to accompany the taxi drivers that are impacted. Because of it they are facing huge head winds from governments and established corporations.

On the other hand, Teo Taxi (Montreal-based) has recognized the people impact and embraced human transformation of the cab drivers which results in much better relationships and less confrontation. Same technology, same process, different human approach.

Article describes how a 3D printing company uses AI to look at the 3D print and adjust it throughout. What is most impressive is the video of the creation of a very large 3D structure that is happening over many days.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We have been used to see 3D printers as desktop devices. With this we now see that robots equipped with 3D printing heads can now become production machines able to spit out  - almost literally - very large structures. This has an impact on any manufacturing company as they look into the digitization fo their manufacturing plant.

With the introduction of robots, the fear is that humans will loose their jobs. In the short term at least, it may only transform work.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Any strategic plan should include a chapter on robotics and the replacement of human labour with robots (and possible AI as well). The article shed some insights on historical perspective - farmers have not disappeared with introduction of mechanical devices but they have become much more productive - as well as raises some interesting ideas about our cohabitation with robots in the near future.

A detailed how-to article on how to build a chat bot using Zapier, a popular online programming automation tool.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Robots or "bots" will become more and more common in the near future as they integrate seamlessly into our most common chat programs such as Facebook messenger. They will become popular because they allow any company to have a presence inside popular mobile apps and do not require any installation from users: they just type in requests and get responses in return. Directions, orders, and information will be streamed by those autonomous programs to help you fulfill daily tasks. This article highlights an important aspect of bot programming: they will become easier and easier to create, especially for common and recurring problems.