Technology Revolution: The Future of Now

The buzz: "The future is not what it used to be" (Laura Riding & Robert Graves, 1937). If you're hoping to gaze into a crystal ball to see what 2020 holds for your company, your industry and the world, we've got the next best thing. Live today, December 4, 2019, and December 11 and 18, and January 8 and 15, 2020 – we're bringing you predictions from 60 thought leaders covering the exciting technologies, strategies, and trends that can help you grow and compete better in 2020 and beyond. Pour a cup of Joe, Earl, or Dom, and join us for Technology Revolution: The Future of Now – 2020 Crystal Ball Predictions – Part 1 live. Together, let's make 2020 our best year ever!

Today's Buzz: Auto makers look into their crystal balls – and their shops – to get an idea as to what's fueling the car of 2025. Most car makers agree: The next 10 years will see more change in the auto business than the last 20. theglobeandmail.com Self-driving cars…once found only in science fiction, are about to become a reality. (Goldman Sachs, 2016). When you think of a flying car one might think of The Jetsons. The company Terrafugia is working to get its flying car off the ground by 2025. (Business Insider, 2016). infogram.com In any major city in the world, you'll find smog…mostly from cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks. But things are about to get better…the car won't disappear, it will just be powered by different energies, and in some cases, take on new shapes. thoughtco.com. We'll ask the experts for their take: Meg Divitto, Divitto Design Group; Bill Newman & Mike Lackey, SAP; José Negron, AVANTI Technologies. Join us for Fasten Your Seatbelt: Ready for Your Future Ride?

Here's today buzz: "Technology has changed how we listen to music…and the way music is made…and created new genres" (www.ronaldshannonjackson.com). The Internet has changed the music industry drastically…early issues like illegal downloading and music sharing sites (like the now-defunct Napster) to current disputes over music streaming services and how much the artists/labels should be paid in royalties" (www.recordingconnection.com). In our era of instant access, streaming has become 'ground zero' for new music (musicfirstcoalition.org). UK music revenues grew by 9.6% in 2017…Brits spent £577m on streaming subscriptions in 2017, up 41.9% from 2016 (www.telegraph.co.uk). We'll ask 5 experts for their take: Michéal Castaldo, Tenor, Producer, Songwriter; Karen Willough, World Artist, Vocalist; Sandy Gennaro, Professional Touring Musician, Drummer, Speaker; Darwin Deano and Abby Samargya, Deloitte Consulting. Join us as we explore "Music and Technology: Sweet vs Sour Notes."

Today's Buzz: "I connected as many of my appliances and belongings as I could to the internet: an Amazon Echo, my lights, my coffee maker…baby monitor…my bed…to find out whether it would betray me" gizmodo.com. "In a world where we're all paranoid about devices spying on us (and rightfully so), perhaps no other devices receive more scrutiny than smarthome products. But is that scrutiny warranted?" howtogeek.com "Just about every smart device, that is connected to the internet and offers personalized services is spying on you" lifewire.com. "Kashmir Hill…turned her one-bedroom apartment into a smart home and was measuring how much data was being collected by the firms that made the devices…like living in a 'commercial, surveillance state' bbc.com. We'll ask experts for their take: Ashwin Krishnan, UberKnowledge; Kristina Podnar, The Power of Digital Policy; Jessica Groopman, Kaleido Insights; Fiona McEvoy, YouTheData.com. Join us for Is Your Smart Home Spying On You & Is It OK?"

Today's Buzz: clickz.com reports that 44% of shoppers indicated they would become repeat buyers after a personalized experience, and adoption of AI by marketers is expected to increase by over 250% over the next two years. According to smartdatacollective.com, "Retailers are saying goodbye to intuitive guessing based on old-school data-gathering methods to convert customers. Welcome to the age of machine learning in retail." howtotoken.com reports "Artificial intelligence and big data are being applied in new ways across the entire retail product and service cycle – from assembly to post-sale customer service interactions. According to Gartner, by 2020, AI chatbots will manage 85% of customer interactions in retail. We'll ask five experts for their take: Gray Scott, Futuristic Now; Kashif Rahamatullah and Chip Kleinheksel, Deloitte; Roger Roney, SAP; Brian Kilcourse, Retail Systems Research. Join us as explore "AI Goes Shopping: Humanizing the Retail Customer Experience."

Today's Buzz: "As the concept of "New Retail" spreads globally, many Fortune Global 500 retail companies are implementing AI technologies such as computer vision and NLP in unmanned stores and warehouses or virtual stores and are accelerating supply chain upgrades to better position themselves for the future of shopping" (medium.com). "Retailers often feel understandably reluctant to give emerging technologies a try unless they feel extremely confident in the eventual payoff. A Capgemini Research Institute study…showed that if retailers branched out and deployed AI across their operations, they could save more than $340 billion by 2022" (www.mytotalretail.com). We'll ask four experts for their take: Brian Kilcourse, Retail Systems Research; Praful Karanth, SAP; Matt Laukaitis, SAP; Roger Roney, SAP. Join us for "Truth or Dare: Is AI the Future of Retail?"

Today's Buzz: "It's hard to believe that only a few generations ago, women had three career options: teacher, secretary or a nurse. Fast forward to 2017 and women have blurred the lines of traditional gender roles. … women and millennials disrupting the workplace and changing the business world as we know it" (forbes.com). "Unlike previous generations who may have either looked at self-investment as self-indulgence or who simply didn't have the resources or technology available to make supplementary investments in themselves, today's badass millennial women are unapologetic about their desire to invest in their own success and well-being…She-conomy 2.0" (techcrunch.com). We'll ask four millennials for their take: Cait Scudder, Business Coach & Success Catalyst; Reena B. Patel, Parenting Expert & Behavior Analyst; Sharron Clear, Style, Beauty, and Lifestyle Influencer; Emilia Taneva, Bubbly Moments Blog & Orthodontist. Join us for Millennial Women Taking Charge: Badass Superstars.

The Buzz: "Despite the intrinsic contradiction, it's clear that artificial intelligence and machine learning are primed to play a leading role in HCM's future.…AI's ability to consume and analyze massive quantities of data, manipulate variables and discover patterns makes it ideal for candidate sourcing" (Adam Rogers). "The future of HR is both digital and human as HR leaders focus on optimizing the combination of human and automated work. This is driving a new priority for HR: one which requires leaders and teams to develop a fluency in artificial intelligence while they re-imagine HR to be more personal, human and intuitive…it's the combination of AI and human intelligence that will transform work and workers as we know it" (Jeanne Meister). We'll ask 4 experts for their take: Dr. Steven Hunt, SAP Innovation Office; Dr. Charles Handler, Rocket-Hire; Kevin Wheeler, The Future of Talent Institute; Ben Taylor, Ziff.ai. Join us for "HR Human vs AI: Who Will Be Hiring and Firing You?"

Here's today's Buzz: "If you spend more on coffee than on IT security, you will be hacked…you deserve to be hacked" (Richard Clarke). "People are doing things on free Wi-Fi that are really alarming" (Doug Shadel). "As the world is increasingly interconnected, everyone shares the responsibility of securing cyberspace." (newton lee). "Hackers find more success with organizations where employees are under appreciated, over worked and under paid" (James Scott). "…the idea that security starts and ends with the purchase of a prepackaged firewall is simply misguided" (Art Wittman). "If security were all that mattered, computers would never be turned on, let alone hooked into a network with literally millions of potential intruders" (Dan Farmer). We'll ask four experts about the future of Cybersecurity: George Rettas, Task Force 7 Radio; Dan Lohrmann, Security Mentor; Tom Pageler, BitGo; Andy Bonillo, Task Force 7 and Ciena. Join us for CyberSecurity Wars: Will Tech Help YOU or THEM?

Here's today's Buzz: In a Kantar Retail study, only 2% of US food and alcohol sales are made online. 84% of respondents in a 2017 Morgan Stanley study prefer to grocery shop in person. But change is coming to grocery! Supermarket chain Kroger plans to partner with Nuro on a driverless food delivery service. The futuristic grocery, kickstarted in 2016 by Amazon Go, offers a connected grocery store with no checkouts using deep learning, computer vision, and sensor fusion. Microsoft and Kroger announced data-driven connected grocery stores in Ohio and Washington. At Food Lion, Marty the Robot clean-sweeps the store a dozen times daily, scans shelves for out-of-stocks and ensures shelf pricing is aligned with front-end registers. We'll ask four experts if legacy grocery stores have an expiration date: Bill Bishop, Brick Meets Click; John Lert, Alert Innovation; Scott DeGraeve, Locai Solutions; Will Treasure, Javelin Group. Please join us for Grocery Expiration Date: Automate or Die?