AI and the Future of Work: Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace, Business, Ethics, HR, and IT for AI Enthusiasts, Leaders and Academics

Greg Poirier understands what it’s like to carry the pager. He started as a systems engineer and has since spent a career developing products that help systems engineers sleep at night. In this episode, Greg explains the past, present, and future of IT operations. He also shares techniques for surviving the quarantine as a geek and an artist.Hear from the master… What is observability and why is it more important during the pandemic? What do great product teams do better than everyone else? Will we ever achieve NoOps? Is that even the right vision? Pets? Cattle? Discuss. Is monitoring dead? 

Brent Knipfer started from humble beginnings having taken an oath of poverty in the Peace Corps. He's now one of the leading authorities in the IT community on the topic of designing AI-first, data-driven strategies.Listen and learn...Why the secret to great AI is having great humans first clean your dataHow to optimize your CMDB for AIWhy service agents that accept recommendations from AI have the lowest MTTRWhy Brent's mantra is "leap to the future"How Brent has made it through the quarantine... including a preview of outrageous outfits he's been designing for his debut on the runway post-COVID

Barclay Rae, co-author of the ITIL v4 guides and ITSM consultant, and Sanjeev NC, AI enthusiast and former Product Marketing lead at Freshworks, join host Dan Turchin to discuss where AI is helping organizations and why fears of job elimination are unfounded.Listen and learn...Why "artificial" is a better description of today's AI technology than "intelligent"How AI is helping reduce training time for help desk agentsKey metrics you should be using to make sure your AI project is successfulThe skills you need to lead your organization's first AI projectWhat gamification has in common with AI

Deborah Hanus, Sparrow founder and CEO, joins Dan Turchin to discuss how improving the complicated maternity, paternity, and medical leave process makes life better for employees. Deborah shares her vision for the company, why the problem exists, and what it was like raising two rounds of funding as a solo founder.Listen and learn:What inspired Deborah to start SparrowWhy leave policies are so complicated and how COVID-19 has made the situation worseHow leave policies create gender bias and how Deborah recommends companies fix the problemWhy leave is tightly connected to job satisfaction and quality of lifeThe world Deborah hopes exists when Sparrow is wildly successful

Tiernan Ray has published articles in every major tech and business publication over his 25-year career. This week, he joined Dan Turchin on the podcast to discuss what it means to practice responsible journalism at a time when audiences and advertisers are fickle and we're contending with a pandemic, social unrest, political turmoil, and backlash against social media for promoting hate.Listen and learn...Why journalistic integrity matters even as fact-checking departments at organizations like Barron's are being eliminated.How the pandemic has created opportunities to tell stories about scientific topics that weren't previously exposed to mainstream audiences.Why it's important for writers to not allow their social media brands to influence their presentation of facts.How leaders like former Cisco CEO John Chambers, Applied Materials CEO Gary Dickerson, and Five9 CEO Rowan Trollope are managing company culture as "serendipitous moments for collaboration" go away.Follow Tiernan on Twitter.

This week, we discuss the future of smart homes with Alex Capecelatro, CEO of Josh.ai. Working from home has made smart home assistants business essential. They save us time researching, play mood-appropriate music, and help us meditate when quarantine life has an off day. Alex and Josh.ai are navigating the new world of work like all of us. But unlike most of us, they’re doing it while being scrutinized for collecting personal data, trying to maintain international supply chains, and competing with pandemic stalwarts Amazon and Google. Listen and learn why Josh.ai just had its best quarter ever and raised a new round of funding. Hear how Alex is creating a culture well-suited for growth in uncertain times. Topics discussed… What is the future of the smart home? How is Josh.ai addressing the problem of data privacy? Why did his team develop a “Snapchat” feature? What is Alex’s leadership style and how has it changed as the company has grown? What would Alex do differently if he started over today? How was Alex able to close a round of funding in the middle of a pandemic? What is it like being David slinging stones at Goliaths Amazon and Google? 

Kenn So is on the investment team at Shasta Ventures, one of the most respected enterprise software investors in Silicon Valley. He evaluates AI-first companies every day and has a few opinions about what's working and how to get your AI company funded.On this week's episode, Ken shares his perspective on venture capital, AI, and what the best pitches have in common.Listen and learn...   How the best SaaS companies are evolving their operating plans in lean times.Why AI explainability matters. What is AI bias and what are innovative companies doing to address it.Why it's ok that AI innovation is slowing down while AI accountability is catching up.The biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when managing in a crisis.How diversity in the VC community directly impacts innovation.The pitch that made Kenn say "wow!"What Kenn learned backpacking around the U.S. before starting his venture career.

Bill Davidow is an icon in the venture capital world having made his first $5,000 venture investment in the 1960s before starting Mohr Davidow in 1985. This week’s episode of AI and the Future of Work is a fascinating discussion with Bill about his new book "The Autonomous Revolution: Reclaiming the Lives We’ve Sold to Machines”. This is a rare opportunity to learn secrets from one of the greats who helped launch the 8086 chip at Intel before planting the seeds that became today's venture capital industry.Bill on how today's autonomous revolution relates to the previous agricultural and industrial revolutions: "If we could figure out a way to adjust in an era of scarcity we should be able to adjust in an era of abundance." Listen and learn…What Silicon Valley was like in the 80s and how it has changed. The future of labor and why we’re measuring productivity the wrong way. What Bill means when he says we’ve locked ourselves in algorithmic prisons. How Bill proposes we mitigate the impact of AI bias. What are the attributes of the best entrepreneurs Bill has coached. This is a special one. Enjoy!

On this week’s podcast, we interview Shannon Burns, internal developer tools manager from Slack. Shannon’s been adjusting to a new style of management during the quarantine. Let’s just say the pace hasn’t slowed down for her and her team but she’s adapted her leadership style to help everyone stay productive while also acknowledging how the pandemic has affected them personally.Listen and learn...What makes Slack’s culture unique that might surprise you.Why a manager's new role is helping team members work less hard… and how Shannon does that.How Shannon’s team gathers requirements in lieu of traditional whiteboard sessions with developers.Shannon’s favorite Slack features (that you’re probably not using).How Shannon has been hobbying her way through the quarantine to stay sane.

How AI and Humans Will Work Together to Build a More Human Future of WorkIn this turnaround format, Leeza McKeown and Dan King interview Dan Turchin!  Hear...-- Dan's backstory - starting PeopleReign.io to help augment the human experience.  (What are his goals?)-- The benefits of AI for a frontline call center agent.  (Timely.... 600% increase in need for employee IT support for home workers.)-- How to think about optimizing your "digital labor" resources.  (There is a class for business leaders who want to master this.)-- What is the first question Dan asks in each virtual meeting & who does he look up to as leaders in the time of COVID-19.-- Why "building back better" is a realistic goal, because we were built for this.