Every January, to help combat the winter blues, we host a special event. The afternoon offers our clients and wider network an opportunity to learn something new and enjoy a bit of post-Christmas hospitality – it’s our way of giving something back.
Our criteria for choosing the subject of each event is simple; it has to be interesting, topical and relevant to all our clients, whatever industry they may work in.
Given the continued media exposure for business automation (a topic back in the headlines this week), the ongoing march of smart technology and changes to the way consumers interact with the world around them, there was only one subject we could possibly pick this year. Artificial Intelligence.
We invited respected futurist Dr Simon Moores to share his expertise, predictions for the future and advice for business leaders on all things AI.
His recommendations? Be agile, adaptive and flexible. To stay relevant in an ‘AI world’ – a world we cannot possibly yet predict due to the pace of change – he advised that our clients, and all businesses, need to be clear on:
- their true value proposition to customers,
- core competencies as a business,
- what Generation Alpha (those born after 2010) will expect of their business,
- what skills their workforce already has; and
- any new skills that will need to be brought in.
AI is inevitable. What will be possible five years from now is unpredictable. What is achievable now is planning for change; knowing it will happen and working out how to work with that truth.
Dr Simon Moores is a disruptive technologist and security futurist. A Vice President of the Conservative Technology Forum and Director of the open market policy think tank, Aediles. Formerly a UK ‘Technology Ambassador’ during the Government of Tony Blair, he was also a co-author of the Conservative ‘Digital Plan for Britain’ and author of ‘March of the Spiders’ a consultative publication on evolving copyright challenges for the European Parliament. He advises government and businesses on the evolution and development of new technology.