WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a positive news about new technologies. However we must brace ourselves because many people will loose their jobs and not have the skills - or the willingness - to adapt. This will certainly create turmoil in companies - and possible whole countries. Prepare.

WHY IT MATTERS: watch out for AI to revolutionize the retail industry - and many others.

WHY IT MATTERS: taking the human out of the equation seems to be the future of warfare, with countries quest for AI dominance the most probable cause to trigger WW3 in the coming years. 

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: we've heard that robots will replace humans for so many years now that we tend to dismiss such claims. This demonstration shows that this may change in the near future with huge impact on manufacturing of course but also in autonomous vehicles, delivery drones and maybe personal robots. And this would be something very significant given the difficulty that employers have finding workers for certain low skills jobs such as truck drivers https://www.forbes.com/pictures/lmh45edlmk/2017-30-under-30-the-st/#28c4963119b4 

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: I shy away from these projections but here it comes from scholars at Oxford and Yale so I give more value. Moreover it tracks with the projections I have read from the Singularity is Near and other books on the matter. Moreover I like the visualization because it shows concrete tasks that we can all relate to. And look at the timeline, remembering that 2026 is less than 10 years from now...

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 are everywhere and PWC projections from 2014 shows growth in many areas outside manufacturing.

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.

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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 appreciate the thought leadership of Capgemini around digital disruption and find this year they have tapped into an important concept: the parallel digital universe. Can't wait to dive into the different papers in this report.

Moreover, the concept of having digital twins is one that I have written about in the past as well: http://fmcs.digital/blog/digital-twin/ 

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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.

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Mind control is the last frontier. We are not there yet but initiatives like this show the potential.

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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.

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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.

1- First, look at the video at the end of the article.

2- Then, read the article to understand what Tesla is doing

3- Then, listen to this other video to understand that self-driving will be part of every new Tesla vehicle but will operate in "shadow mode".

https://www.wired.com/video/2016/10/nasa-s-pumpkin-carving-contest/ 

New Teslas will be self-driving and comparing their driving to what the human drivers did (and presumably learning from them). They will collect huge amounts of data, which will demonstrate that self-driving is safer than human driving.

4- Then, dive into this more complete description of the technology. 

https://www.wired.com/2016/10/teslas-self-driving-car-plan-seems-insane-just-might-work/ 

5- Then, look into this video of a self-driving delivery 18-wheeler that drove 200 miles without human intervention.

https://www.wired.com/2016/10/ubers-self-driving-truck-makes-first-delivery-50000-beers/

6- Realize this is not fiction but 2016 reality.

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Self driving must find its way into every major corporation strategic plan. It will impact how retailers receive their products from factories and distribution centers. It will make eCommerce easier with lower cost delivery (which still accounts for 15 to 25% of the online total) and will enable same-day delivery. It will transform travel between large cities, and school bus for our kids. It will change the way ships carry their loads.

Self-driving will create a shockwave in human resources department and unions, which will fear the replacement of human drivers by machines. It will require appropriate communication, retraining, and investments to ensure a smooth transition into the new reality.

Don't worry this will not affect your 2017 bottom line. It won't even affect 2020's bottom line. So if you manage with a short term vision, life is good, stay the course, and forget everything I just said.

Others, call me!

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.

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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.