#What is the Foundation of AI? How does artificial intelligence influence digital marketing? AI-driven systems

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Decoding Gazettedupmu: A New Trend in Horse Racing Bets

Horse racing, often referred to as the sport of kings, has a rich and storied history that spans centuries. With a foundation built on speed, skill, and strategy, it continues to captivate fans and gamblers alike. While traditional betting systems have long dominated the scene, modern technological advancements and innovative trends are reshaping how enthusiasts engage with the sport. One such development is the emergence of Gazettedupmu, a term that has quickly gained traction in the horse racing community. In this article, we delve into the intricacies of Gazettedupmu, exploring its rise, impact, and potential future in the world of horse racing bets.

The Evolution of Horse Racing Betting

To understand the significance of Gazettedupmu, it is crucial to first appreciate the evolution of horse racing betting. Historically, wagering on horse races was relatively straightforward. Bettors would place their money on a horse they believed would win, and if they were correct, they would receive a payout based on fixed odds. Over time, various types of bets, such as place and show, exactas, trifectas, and daily doubles, were introduced, allowing for more nuanced strategies and larger payouts.

With the advent of online platforms, the horse racing betting landscape underwent a profound transformation. Digitalization brought convenience, enabling people to place bets from the comfort of their homes. It also facilitated the development of complex betting algorithms, predictive models, and advanced statistics, offering bettors deeper insights into races. In this context of digital innovation, Gazettedupmu emerged as a groundbreaking new trend.

What is Gazettedupmu?

The term Gazettedupmu is a portmanteau that reflects a fusion of modern data-driven betting strategies with traditional handicapping methods. It is an emerging trend that leverages advanced algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI), and real-time data analysis to provide bettors with a more informed perspective on races. At its core, Gazettedupmu seeks to optimize the decision-making process by considering a myriad of factors that can influence race outcomes.

Unlike conventional betting systems, which often rely on static odds set by bookmakers, Gazettedupmu uses dynamic models that continuously update as new information becomes available. These models account for variables such as horse form, jockey performance, track conditions, weather, and historical data to produce real-time predictions. Bettors who use Gazettedupmu are essentially tapping into an ever-evolving stream of data that helps them make smarter, more informed wagers.

How Does Gazettedupmu Work?

The mechanics behind Gazettedupmu are rooted in the sophisticated analysis of large datasets. A typical Gazettedupmu platform pulls information from various sources, such as past race results, biometric data from horses, and even social media sentiment about upcoming races. This data is then fed into AI models that process it and produce predictive outcomes.

For instance, if a particular horse has shown consistent improvement in its training times, Gazettedupmu would flag this as a key factor in the horse’s likelihood of winning. Additionally, Gazettedupmu algorithms might take into account the performance of a specific jockey on a particular track, identifying patterns that the average bettor might overlook. This multi-faceted approach offers a more comprehensive view of race dynamics, providing users with an edge over traditional handicapping methods.

Furthermore, Gazettedupmu integrates real-time betting markets into its algorithms. As odds fluctuate based on the volume of bets placed, the AI model recalculates probabilities, helping bettors find value in underpriced or overpriced horses. This continuous feedback loop makes Gazettedupmu a powerful tool for both novice and experienced bettors who are looking to gain an edge in the competitive world of horse racing betting.

The Benefits of Using Gazettedupmu

One of the main advantages of using Gazettedupmu is its ability to simplify the complex decision-making process associated with horse racing bets. For many casual bettors, the sheer volume of information that needs to be processed before making a wager can be overwhelming. Gazettedupmu streamlines this process by providing users with clear, actionable insights derived from vast amounts of data.

Another significant benefit is the potential for higher returns. Since Gazettedupmu leverages AI to identify value in the market, bettors are more likely to find lucrative betting opportunities. Whether it’s spotting a long shot with improving form or identifying a favorite that is being overhyped, Gazettedupmu helps users make more informed bets, which can lead to better outcomes.

Additionally, Gazettedupmu levels the playing field between casual bettors and professional handicappers. In the past, seasoned bettors had a distinct advantage due to their years of experience and deep knowledge of the sport. With Gazettedupmu, even newcomers can benefit from the same level of expertise, as the AI models do much of the heavy lifting.

Challenges and Criticisms

Despite its growing popularity, Gazettedupmu is not without its challenges and criticisms. One concern is the reliance on AI and data-driven models, which may not always account for unpredictable elements of horse racing. Factors such as last-minute injuries, unexpected changes in weather, or even the mood of a horse on race day can dramatically affect outcomes, and these are difficult to quantify in a purely algorithmic model.

Additionally, some traditionalists argue that Gazettedupmu takes the human element out of betting. Horse racing, for many, is as much about intuition and experience as it is about numbers and statistics. The introduction of AI-driven models could, in their view, reduce the sport to a purely analytical exercise, stripping away some of its inherent excitement.

Another concern is accessibility. While Gazettedupmu platforms are becoming more widespread, they often require a certain level of technical proficiency to use effectively. This could create a barrier for older bettors or those who are less familiar with technology, potentially alienating a segment of the horse racing community.

The Future of Gazettedupmu in Horse Racing

As the popularity of Gazettedupmu continues to grow, it is likely that we will see further advancements in the technology behind it. With ongoing improvements in AI and machine learning, the accuracy of Gazettedupmu models will likely increase, offering even more precise predictions. Additionally, as more data becomes available, these models will become better at identifying subtle trends and patterns that can influence race outcomes.

Another potential development is the integration of blockchain technology into Gazettedupmu platforms. Blockchain could add a layer of transparency and security to the betting process, ensuring that odds are fair and that payouts are accurately distributed. This could further enhance the appeal of Gazettedupmu, particularly among bettors who are concerned about the integrity of traditional betting systems.

Moreover, we may see Gazettedupmu expand beyond horse racing and into other sports where predictive models can be applied. The underlying principles of Gazettedupmu—data analysis, AI, and real-time updates—are not limited to horse racing and could easily be adapted to sports such as football, basketball, or tennis.

Conclusion

Gazettedupmu represents a new frontier in horse racing bets, offering bettors a data-driven, AI-powered approach to making more informed wagers. While it is still in its early stages, the potential for Gazettedupmu to revolutionize the betting landscape is immense. By combining advanced technology with traditional handicapping methods, Gazettedupmu provides users with a powerful tool that can enhance their betting experience and increase their chances of success.

As with any new trend, there are challenges and criticisms, but the benefits of Gazettedupmu—particularly its ability to simplify complex betting decisions and identify value in the market—make it a promising development in the world of horse racing. Whether you're a seasoned bettor or a newcomer to the sport, Gazettedupmu is a trend worth watching closely as it continues to evolve and shape the future of horse racing bets.

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State of Enterprise AI In India 2019 | Analytics India Magazine & BRIDGEi2i

"A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God"- Alan Perlis, early computer science pioneer It's futile to deny it, but Artificial Intelligence(AI) is no longer the buzzword of tomorrow, it's a striking reality of today, and the enterprise landscape of AI has never looked more promising than it does today!  By 2022, the global business value created by AI will touch a whopping $3.9 trillion, and spending on AI systems is expected to reach $79.2 billion1. Forecasts estimate that AI technologies will pervade every software product2 next year, and AI software revenue is expected to grow to 118.6 billion by 20253. All these are tantamount to the fact that AI is no longer just a differentiator but a core part of business functions! In India, the enterprise AI market is heading towards much wider adoption. An industry expert associates the Indian Enterprise Market for AI to be estimated to be $100 million, growing at 200-250% CAGR. Futuristic growth of this sort clearly underscores the potential in the big revolution that business leaders should prepare for! AI is increasingly being used by software vendors and AI solution providers as embedded products and services to deliver more value across a host of business problems. This journey has roots in core business applications like ERP & CRM, but today, almost every sector is using AI in their auxiliary processes as well, such as customer support, recruitments sales, or marketing. For example, a majority of banks and insurance companies in India have AI-driven chatbots that are fast becoming the first point of customer interactions. While the scale and complexity of these implementations may vary, it's soon becoming the norm in the market.  C-suite executives have gone beyond committing ‘digital experimentation’ to hardcore Digital Transformation. This has led to a surge in demand for enterprise-ready AI services, applications, and tools across organizations. There are plenty of forerunners in the market: Enterprise AI solutions like the IBM Watson platform, which is portable across any cloud, is used by customers to manage multiple customer service touchpoints like chatbots, email or phone, forecast inventory and demand, or improve customer care. Salesforce Einstein empowers sales and support while Google's latest offering — Contact Center AI provides the best of Google's AI and machine learning solutions with software that allows businesses to improve customer experiences and operational efficiency at the same time.  As the industry evolves, certain sub-sectors that are creating disruption have risen to prominence; Enterprise AI has made inroads in areas like diagnostics (healthcare), salesforce automation (CRM), automated trading (financial services) and anomaly detections (oil & gas, utilities). We believe as the adoption grows, AI will become increasingly interdependent on core business functions.

"It's not just AI, but AI+X that is going to be the game-changer, X being your core business function. The future is about AI being tightly coupled with all our everyday tools until it becomes an integral part of existing tools and processes" Ramprakash Ramamoorthy, Product Manager, Zoho Labs As companies look for additional capabilities to turbocharge innovation — we believe large-scale AI consultancies will play a critical role in bringing in pre-built customizable solutions that can drastically reduce the time-to-market and speed up innovation. With deep domain expertise and trained workforce, AI consultancies are better positioned to educate customers, offer pilots, and scale up the use cases.  According to our  2017 report on the State Of Analytics In Domestic Firms In India4, captives account for 75% of the Indian analytics market, while service providers account for 5% market share. With the adoption of AI solutions increasing, we foresee rapid expansion in the number of use cases tailored for specific business functions creating an opportunity for AI consultancies to bring deeper relationships and in-depth domain knowledge to the table. 

"Unlike earlier technology cycles, we see India being at par with the rest of the developed countries concerning technologies such as AI, ML, and others. Indian companies have mandated their CIOs for effective adoption of cognitive just as much as the focus is on the cloud" Anil Bhasker, Business Unit Leader Analytics and Big Data, India/South Asia, IBM India

"We are seeing some of India's largest IT firms utilizing AI extensively internally or with consulting companies. With the potential to revolutionize both the services offered by consulting firms to their clients and how consultants work, AI is imperative" Hemal Shah, Senior Vice President & Regional CIO, Asia Pacific, Dell Technologies

"We'll continue to see increasing adoption of enterprise AI solutions as organizations further optimize their IT infrastructure, striving for faster digital product and service development. There will be continued adoption of end-to-end enterprise data management to serve as the foundation for enterprise AI and build an ecosystem of change across analytics and business processes. Also, the growth of digital platforms, which is making it easier for organizations to develop AI applications, will drive business model innovation and optimize the use of Big Data, AI, and IoT" Ronald Van Loon, Digital Transformation Influencer The Re-envision of Digital Transformation is responsible for the flutter in global markets. We need to take a moment to comprehend that digitization isn't merely changing business models or creating new businesses, but it's about keeping up with faster and better techniques of accessing, utilizing, and getting value out of the existing tonnes of data. The speed with which enterprises are getting onto the digital bandwagon speaks of the critical urgency in which transformation initiatives are being carried out by organizations.  But despite the buzz, organizations aren't able to fully seize the opportunity presented by AI and turn it into actionable results. IT leaders across sectors face tremendous challenges at the start of their AI journey. While we often hear about AI PoCs advancing from the project stage, success is limited as deployments often fail to turn into actionable items. In addition to this, there is no established playbook for enterprise leaders to follow.  Most organizations are very early in this paradigm shift, and while CXOs know there's value in AI, they are nervous about making bets. The reason is that to unlock real value from AI, there has to be a perceived tangible return on investment (ROI), or the technology has to be assessed against the key performance indicators. Another hurdle is that most companies lack the AI-specific skills to 'do it alone' and lack the resources to launch test-and-learn cycles. In addition to this, leaders are also looking to embrace AI because they don't want to fall behind in the AI journey.  Against this backdrop, our report' State of Artificial Intelligence in India 2019' with BRIDGEi2i takes stock of the enterprise AI market in India, the AI player landscape, low-risk, revenue-generating PoCs that organizations can get started with and the rise of AI-as-a-service economy.  What Does the Report Cover?  Large-scale advancements in AI over the last five years have presented tremendous opportunities for companies to transform the customer experience, automate business functions, and broaden their product offerings. To provide a more informed view of the Enterprise AI market in India, we decided to perform our own research into how users are adopting AI technologies. The report also offers a snapshot of the current state of the rapidly changing AI industry, looking through the lenses of suppliers and consumers.  The report looks at the scale of opportunity in AI for large-scale organizations that are driving the AI ecosystem in India and how the C-suite can take advantage of PoCs that can deliver the best ROI. It is crucial for business leaders to have a thorough understanding of the AI ecosystem and to target the right PoCs, which can provide the maximum ROI.  The report answers questions around  How AI/ML is finally getting real for enterprisesHigh-value use cases enterprises can get started withHow to measure tangible results of AI deploymentWhy India is Poised for Growth in the AI Market / India’s Contribution to the Global AI Industries Who Should Read This Report?  This report is aimed at Executive Leaders, IT Decision Makers, senior managers, data science heads, and investors tasked with the responsibilities of driving digital transformation, innovation heads, or enthusiasts building delivery capabilities and CoEs. Key Market Dynamics  According to a PwC report, “The business opportunity that AI provides is so vast that by 2030, the global GDP is estimated to 14% higher standing at $15.7 trillion just as a direct result of AI. This will be augmented by organizations trying to develop an array of AI-based services that can scale across a wide spectrum of software development, different industrial applications, and use cases.”  The Indian AI sector has seen a total investment of$150 million5 in more than 400 companies over the past five years.Industry body NASSCOM6 indicates over 1,200 new advanced technology startups got added to the ecosystem in 2018, with data analytics being the most significant contributor.Due to its sheer size, BFSI is the largest adopter of AI followed by Healthcare and Logistics. There is an increase in demand for products and services which can attract more investment towards the R&D in the AI sector.With conglomerates and enterprises having a big share in India’s market, there is huge scope for AI-based enterprise solutions in the country. Key Takeaways  C-suite executives can gain an overview of Enterprise AI landscape and key playersOverview of AI Service Delivery models and why AI as a service economy will drive the market forward Top use cases with high re-usability & ROI Key criteria AI Service firms must meet  Enterprise AI landscape in India 

For many Indian organizations, the rapid rise of AI has become a top corporate agenda with organizations deeming it a critical part of their organizational strategy. IT Decision Makers and Business Leaders want to take advantage of the exponential growth in data and cloud computing. The news cycle is abuzz with Indian conglomerates and new-age companies who are adopting AI technology at large scale and making strategic investments in technical infrastructure and in building the right talent. 

"In a nutshell, several factors can be attributed to be pushing the growth of AI in India, including the availability of massively organized and cleansed data sets, the growing sophistication of machine learning and self-improving algorithms and the emergence of hardware" Prithvijit Roy, CEO, and Co-Founder of BRIDGEi2i a) Market Size As per a report7, the AI market was valued at $21.5 billion in 2018 and is likely to reach $190.6 billion by 2025. Meanwhile, the global enterprise AI market is valued at $796.38 million and is expected to reach $9880.4 million by 2023. Research by Accenture9 insists that AI has the potential to add US$957 billion to India's economy in 2035 if the AI Revolution receives the right support among enterprises, business leaders, and policymakers. India's AI startup ecosystem is booming with a number of startups working in the domain of machine learning, computer vision and NLP. More than 50 percent of firms in India are working on advanced analytics and computer-vision based AI technologies. India is contributing significantly to the data labelling market, which is where humans teach machines to recognize familiar human patterns, and this business is expected to reach $1.2 billion by 2023, according to the research firm Cognilytica. b) Investment India has stepped up the AI game and saw an investment of $73 million10 in 2017. As per our research in 2018, startups with operations in India and globally raised approximately USD$ 529.52 million in funding rounds, and this data includes startups with investment at varying stages of development, from pre-seed to well-funded companies. As per Gartner, the global business value derived from artificial AI is estimated to be $1.2 trillion in 2018, a 70 percent increase from 2017.  c) Adoption by Industry AI In Finance:  As per our report, the size of the analytics industry in the financial sector is currently estimated to be $1.2 billion (annual) in revenue. Financial institutions have achieved exponential growth and are driving innovation in the industry by building an enterprise-wide analytics capability that is now woven into the key business processes throughout the organization.  Banks and FIs are now investing in several vital dimensions – technology infrastructure, strengthening processes, and people to build sophisticated analytics capability. Some of the top players in this segment are HSBC, American Express, ICICI Bank, Moody's Analytics Knowledge Services, Citi, JPMorgan Chase & Co., HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Paytm and PhonePe among others.  IBM and HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company, India's third-largest non-life insurance provider in the private sector, are collaborating to co-create new AI-based solutions on IBM Cloud, that will redefine customer experience in India. Leveraging IBM Garage11, teams from HDFC ERGO and IBM Services work together to develop and test new solutions that will help to address customer inquiries better, ensure faster turnaround time and draw deeper customer insights for a better omnichannel experience.  AI In Healthcare: The adoption of AI is reshaping the Indian healthcare market significantly. AI-enabled healthcare12 services like automated analysis of medical tests, predictive healthcare diagnosis, automation of healthcare diagnosis with the help of monitoring equipment, and wearable sensor-based medical devices are expected to revolutionize medical treatment processes in the country. The applications of AI in the healthcare space will be worth INR ~431.97 billion by 2021, expanding at a rate of 40%.  Top players in this segment are Niramai, Sigtuple, Qure.ai, Tricog Health.  Bengaluru-based startup Niramai’s diagnostic platform is now using thermal image processing and machine learning algorithms to enable accurate breast cancer screening. Hospitals are now spending only one-tenth the cost on Niramai hardware compared to mammography machines that cost around ₹1 crore.  AI In E-commerce: The E-commerce market in India is well-placed. One of the fastest-growing markets in the Asia Pacific driven by innovations in personalization, social media analytics, omnichannel service and sharing economy business models. In 2018, e-commerce and consumer internet companies raised over US$7 billion in private equity and venture capital in 2018, EY report13 indicated.  The interplay of technologies — analytics, AI, cloud, digital, mobility, social and virtualization are driving the industry forward. The innovation is driven by Amazon which committed $5 billion investment in India and Walmart-owned Flipkart which acquired Liv.ai in 2018 to reach the next million users. Some of the key areas where AI is leveraged in the e-commerce sector are recommendation engines, virtual assistants, predictive sales and warehouse automation.  Top players in this segment are Amazon, Flipkart, BigBasket and consumer internet majors Oyo, Swiggy, Zomato, Byjus that are disrupting the landscape.  India’s largest hotel chain Oyo has a Dynamic Room Pricing model that finds the optimum price point to maximize the overall yield – the combination of price and occupancy. The team watches out for hundreds of signals on the demand — from traffic patterns to conversions, upcoming events, data from offline sources and even historical occupancy rates to ensure no room goes vacant. Based on predictive occupancy, the demand exceeds significantly, thereby resulting in an increase in room prices. AI In Retail: India is Asia’s third-largest retail market and the world’s fourth-largest after the US, China and Japan. The adoption and use of AI in this sector is on a rise with a significant majority of retailers in India deploying AI or automation technology not just for decision-making but also as part of their operations. At the storefront and behind-the-scene in fulfilment centres, retailers are looking to save costs and boost revenues by deploying AI and automation. AI is deployed in customer-facing aspects and optimizing the supply chain backend to enable web-based sales.  While big retailers in India — Future Group, Shoppers Stop, Reliance Retail and Tata Group are still to hit the mature AI adoption curve, the adoption of technologies represents a big leap forward for the sector. Globally, AI represents a $300 billion+ opportunity for retail companies. Deploying and scaling AI should be the next big objective for these retail majors in India. Every season, a leading fashion brand launches thousands of products and expects them to get sold at full price. But in reality, they end up discounting all along with End of Season Sales accounting for almost 50% of the total sales. GoFrugal built an AI-based recommendation engine that suggests salesperson how much discount to offer as per the customer profile. By looking at the customer profile, their prior purchase pattern, the engagement with the store, salesperson and product (looks, touch, pick, try) — the ML algorithm can recommend an offer which has been created for just that one garment for that one customer and valid for just that moment. The solutions manage the problem of too much discounting or too less discounting.  Bestseller — the leading fashion company that owns brands like Jack & Jones, Vero Moda & others uses IBM Watson AI capability to predict the right merchandise for the consumer at the right time. With Watson mining deeply into big data, the retailer can determine the right assortment plan for each store, predict the next best product to incorporate into its mix, and improve the efficiency of its supply chain. They are working with IBM Watson AI to predict the next big trend and the most relevant styles, colours and size ratios. Higher relevance means a sharper, better-selling assortment, helping them meet consumer expectations while becoming more efficient. AI in CPG:

“The world is moving into new ways of doing businesses. Ecosystems of consumption have been formed. There are 4-5 ecosystems formed by Amazon, Alibaba and Tencent in America and China. We are building our own ecosystem with payments, wallet and insurance. In the future, there will be more consolidation in order to form the right ecosystems, he said. “We want to make our ecosystem strong with alliances and partnerships.” Kishore Biyani, Future Group CEO  The Consumer Packaged Goods market sees a promising growth in the use of AI both globally and at India level. With AI-powered decision-making systems and recommendation engines being developed on a large scale, the industry is ripe for transformation. Experts and decision-makers in the CPG companies can rely on competitive pricing, prevention of customer churn, and optimization of budget allocation in marketing to enhance their margins at the outset. A BCG report states that CPG Companies are leveraging advanced analytics and AI solutions for local assortments, personalized consumer services and experiences, optimized marketing and promotion ROI, and faster innovation cycles. While there are many brands in India who have adopted AI-powered solutions, Nestle India stands out for an interesting experiment. They introduced NINA, a virtual nutrition assistant in collaboration with an Indian chatbot service provider which could interact with users in a human-like manner and offer real-time, personalized advice on nutrition that is balanced, scientifically correct and customized to their unique needs. This was a huge hit – and a different campaign from the rest.  d) Partnership Ecosystem 

“We don’t see large enterprise customers going to specialised AI vendors, rather they will expect their current vendors to adopt/bring AI features to their existing solution stack. As compared to established IT companies and digital disruptors, AI Consultancies and service firms are better positioned to educate the customers, offer pilots and scale up the use cases.” Kumar Vembu, CEO and Co-Founder, GoFrugal Partnership ecosystems open a great window of opportunity for organizations around the globe to scale fast and seize the opportunity to drive revenue growth and develop innovative business models. Today, CIOs face incredibly high expectations not just to enable digital transformation, but to build sector-specific solutions/services that can leverage new digital technologies. These digital technologies — AI/ML are also enabling companies to move into adjacent markets and drive revenues. There is a huge scope of opportunity in traditional sectors like banking, insurance, retail and other industry verticals like manufacturing, automotive and logistics to move fast in order to sustain innovation. Large multinationals and companies are finally seeing the value in developing these partnerships to define their own digital strategy and build new business model innovation.  Digital has changed the rules of engagement:  We are seeing businesses pursue two distinct approaches to digital transformation — outside-in and inside-out. While an outside-in approach is largely driven by the market and demand for new digital services, an inside-out approach is about modernizing the core systems and architecting their business for change.  This outside-in approach results in an ecosystem expansion, leading to scope for partnerships with startups, subject matter experts, stakeholders to fill capability, domain expertise, talent gap and to improve the overall corporate strategy.   This presents a huge opportunity for AI consultancies and technology providers to capitalize on this trend by expanding their role in building partner ecosystems and collaborate with companies to create new revenue streams. In the context of AI, the ecosystem can be built for many things — deliver best-in-class products/services, engage diverse participants to build talent, strengthen relationships with peers and add to the diversity of industries. 

“You can’t drive Transformation alone. You need partners, co-innovation with customers, continuous re-skilling of talent”Tiger Tyagarajan, CEO, Genpact Organizations are leveraging partnership ecosystems by:  Focusing on creating new revenue streams, driving business growth through collaboration with AI Consultancies/Technology PartnersCollaborating with technology partners to plug the capability gap and kickstart business model innovation Leveraging partnerships to improve business efficiency internally and remove data silos  India’s third-largest bank — Axis Bank went a step ahead and launched Thought Factory, an Innovation Lab in Bengaluru to give Axis Bank a fintech advantage and a better understanding of today’s “technologies and better focus of tech solutions”. The innovation lab partners with fintech startups to deliver the much-needed agility to stay ahead of the curve. Note: This is the First Part of a three-part series of our study ‘State of Enterprise AI In India 2019’ brought to you in association with BRIDGEi2i. Stay tuned for Part II and Part III State-of-Enterprise-AI-in-India-2019Download Read the full article

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A Q&A with Deb Bubb

IBM is taking a multipronged approach to closing the skills gap and growing employees’ skills, using tactics that include the development of in-house academies and the launch of a high-tech apprenticeship coalition with the Consumer Technology Association.

The coalition is modeled in part on IBM’s own Department of Labor-registered apprenticeship program, begun two years ago.

[SHRM members-only toolkit: Using Government and Other Resources for Employment and Training Programs]

SHRM Online recently spoke with Deb Bubb, HR vice president and chief leadership, learning and inclusion officer at IBM, about the company’s learning and development initiatives.                   

She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Stanford University in 1989 and returned to college five years later, earning her master’s degree in social work from Smith College in Northampton, Mass. 

Bubb worked in HR for three years before moving into corporate HR as an organization development manager for Intel in Portland, Ore. She worked there for 15 years and was its vice president and director of global leadership and learning before joining IBM in 2016.

The following comments have been edited for brevity and clarity and to include additional information that IBM provided to SHRM Online after the interview.

SHRM Online: You said during a recent panel that IBM was “shifting [its] thinking about reskilling.” Please elaborate.

Bubb: We hire for learning agility, and we’re trying to move from episodic learning to a culture of continuous learning. We have personalized learning journeys that come through our Your Learning platform, an AI-driven digital learning experience that can include immersive experiences. Folks can identify “hot skills”—artificial intelligence, design thinking, security, blockchain, project management—they might like to build toward for a future career.

We have 45,000 employee users daily on Your Learning, and 98 percent of all IBM employees use it each quarter. The platform includes videos, webinars, online lectures and articles, and it offers recommendations to employees based on their role, experience level and interests. It also offers learning in “success skills,” such as leadership, mindfulness and business acumen.

We have a digital badge program. To date, more than 1 million badge certifications have been earned—many in AI.

IBM also has various academies. Last year, for example, we launched the AI Skills Academy for employees to help them learn new ways to interact with AI-enabled tech and business problems that range from creating marketing apps to making a supply chain more efficient. That academy also helps employees understand AI tech and how it impacts their careers and the company.

SHRM Online: In 2018, IBM offered a new onboarding process but learned that new employees were less than impressed with it. How did IBM respond, and what was HR’s role?

Bubb: Our big insight was to put the employee experience at the center of onboarding. It involves cross-functional work, IT resources, mobility experiences, legal and compliance. It’s a very integrated experience. If each of those groups is evaluated on success alone, they may find they are executing the process well, but the employees may have 10 different experiences from 10 different departments. By shifting our lens, we were able to see gaps in the onboarding experience that were not visible to us before. We learned that people don’t want to wait until they start the job to learn about the company. They want information as soon as they say yes to the job offer.

We try to create onboarding experiences as much in advance as possible so new employees are focused on building personal experiences. We rely on lots of direct observation, design thinking and an empathy map to understand the pain points of onboarding: What are they hearing? What are they feeling, thinking about their user experience?

“Good enough and getting better” is what we shoot for. Waiting until the process is perfect is too late. 

SHRM Online: I understand that IBM reached out to its employees to get their help in designing the learning processes and platforms. Please tell us how IBM did this. Did you use teams, surveys, other methods? 

Bubb: We engage with many constituencies. Among those we reached out to was our Millennial business resource group (BRG)—we have very rich BRGs—to provide feedback and test products and solutions. The same is true for our manager champions and sponsored users. We’ll engage with them, show them prototypes to help us get a product out the door and ask the question, “What’s the experience we’re trying to create?” Our entire learning platform was defined in this way.

SHRM Online: Is IBM involved with community colleges, universities and high schools in helping to create a skills curriculum, and does the curriculum use apprenticeship programs?

Bubb: IBM started P-Tech, a public-private partnership that will serve 125,000 students this year in 13 countries and across at least 10 states. It allows underserved students to earn, at no cost, an associate degree in six years in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.

We co-created the curriculum and have internships and mentorships for the students. The partnership has grown to more than 550 businesses that have joined us to design a new talent acquisition channel for different kinds of employees and to create more inclusion in technology.

We work with 19 community colleges, and that partnership includes IBM providing curriculum reviews and in-class subject matter experts. Apprenticeships have been a huge focus since we launched our registered program. We’re scaling it and have apprentices in 24 different roles, including HR, data science, software development and mainframe administration. These are roles that are critical to our business. Our apprentices are a mix of adults switching careers and people just out of school.

My mother has her own reskilling story. She spent the first part of her career in teaching and sales and went back to school to become a network engineer.

SHRM Online: Please tell us about how learning and development informed your own career progression and trajectory.

Bubb: My career was influenced by saying yes to opportunities and being very experience- driven, and it was complemented by my education and learning experiences.

After getting my undergraduate degree, I attended law school for one year then took a break from school and worked for a small startup, where I was an HR department of one.

I had great mentors and coaches and took a lot of certification programs at community colleges to learn the basics of HR. I used my social work background, which had an emphasis on team development, to serve as a consultant working with individuals and families. I also worked with employers on transforming their teams and creating healthy workplaces. 

I returned to HR, working in employee relations, and gained a good foundation and depth in that specialty. My social work experience helped me look systemically at where opportunities and challenges were for employees, and I partnered with leaders to build stronger organizations. Along the way I strengthened my organizational development background. I eventually took a rotational assignment in operational HR, working in customer care call centers for two years. At Intel, I helped build a leadership culture and worked on CEO succession planning and leadership development.

The solution to greater innovation, agility and full inclusion comes down to our ability to provide compelling learning that inspires lifelong skills. For HR and employers, this is our moment.

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(via Introduction: 2018 Global Human Capital Trends | Deloitte Insights)

Introduction: The Rise of the Social Enterprise 2018 — Global Human Capital Trends                                        

                                               By Dimple Agarwal,  Josh Bersin,  Gaurav Lahiri,  Jeff Schwartz, and Erica Volini            

            Organizations are no longer judged only for their financial performance, or even the quality of their products or services. Rather, they are being evaluated on the basis of their impact on society at large—transforming them from business enterprises into social enterprises.

The Growing Importance of Social Capital

Learn more:

- View 2018 Global Human Capital Trends or access the app

- Explore the infographic

- Watch the video

- Read the press release

- Download the full report or create a custom PDF.

The 2018 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report showcases a profound shift facing business leaders worldwide: The rapid rise of what we call the social enterprise. This shift reflects the growing importance of social capital in shaping an organization’s purpose, guiding its relationships with stakeholders, and influencing its ultimate success or failure.

In 2018, we are witnessing seismic changes in the workforce, the workplace, and the technologies used in the world of work. Based on this year’s global survey of more than 11,000 business and HR leaders, as well as interviews with executives from some of today’s leading organizations, we believe that a fundamental change is underway. Organizations are no longer assessed based only on traditional metrics such as financial performance, or even the quality of their products or services. Rather, organizations today are increasingly judged on the basis of their relationships with their workers, their customers, and their communities, as well as their impact on society at large—transforming them from business enterprises into social enterprises.

In many ways, social capital is achieving a newfound status next to financial and physical capital in value. In a recent survey, for instance, 65 percent of CEOs rated “inclusive growth” as a top-three strategic concern, more than three times greater than the proportion citing “shareholder value.”1 Today, successful businesses must incorporate external trends, perspectives, and voices by maintaining positive relationships, not just with customers and employees, but also with local communities, regulators, and a variety of other stakeholders. Building these relationships challenges business leaders to listen closely to constituents, act transparently with information, break down silos to enhance collaboration, and build trust, credibility, and consistency through their actions. This is not a matter of altruism: Doing so is critical to maintaining an organization’s reputation; to attracting, retaining, and engaging critical workers; and to cultivating loyalty among customers.

What Is a Social Enterprise?

A social enterprise is an organization whose mission combines revenue growth and profit-making with the need to respect and support its environment and stakeholder network. This includes listening to, investing in, and actively managing the trends that are shaping today’s world. It is an organization that shoulders its responsibility to be a good citizen (both inside and outside the organization), serving as a role model for its peers and promoting a high degree of collaboration at every level of the organization.

In past Global Human Capital Trends reports, we have noted the movement of many organizations toward a “network of teams” operating model that aims to enable greater collaboration and internal agility.2 Now, this movement has been joined by the growing shift from an internal, enterprise focus to an external, ecosystem one (figure 1). Organizations on the leading edge of both of these changes embody our concept of the social enterprise: an organization that is alert enough to sense, and responsive enough to accommodate, the gamut of stakeholder expectations and demands.

The Last Decade: Building toward Today’s Tipping Point

Why has this shift occurred? We believe that it is driven by social, economic, and political changes that have grown since the global financial crisis. Despite the economic recovery the world has seen since 2008, many people feel frustrated that financial gains have failed to improve individuals’ lives, address social problems, support political stability, or mitigate technology’s unintended consequences. People today have less trust in their political and social institutions than they have in years; many expect business leaders to fill the gap.

This point was made this year by BlackRock chief executive Laurence Fink. In his annual letter to CEOs, Fink noted that people are increasingly “turning to the private sector and asking that companies respond to broader societal challenges” and demanding that organizations “serve a social purpose.”3 Fink stated that shareholders, including BlackRock itself, are now evaluating companies based on this standard. A New York Times report suggested that the letter could be a “watershed moment on Wall Street” that raises questions about “the very nature of capitalism.”4

Among the many factors contributing to the rise of the social enterprise, we see three powerful macro forces driving the urgency of this change.

First, the power of the individual is growing, with millennials at the forefront. For the first time in mature markets, young people believe that their lives will be worse than their parents’—and they are actively questioning the core premises of corporate behavior and the economic and social principles that guide it.5 Among this group, social capital plays an outsized role in where they work and what they buy, and 86 percent of millennials think that business success should be measured in terms of more than just financial performance.6 Millennials comprise a majority of the workforce in many countries, and their power will likely grow over time.

This shift in power to the individual is being propelled by today’s hyper-connected world, which enables people to track information about companies and their products, express their opinions to a wide audience, and sign onto social movements, globally and in real time. Back in 2015, we called this trend toward greater transparency “the naked organization”;7 in 2018, the individuals know and expect even more from companies than they did three short years ago.

Second, businesses are being expected to fill a widening leadership vacuum in society. Across the globe, people trust business more than government. The 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer reported that people worldwide place 52 percent trust in business “to do what is right,” versus just 43 percent in government.8 In the United States, in particular, trust in government has hit a four-year low, at just 33 percent.9 There is a widespread perception that political systems are growing more and more polarized and less and less effective at meeting social challenges. Citizens are looking to business to fill the void on critical issues such as income inequality, health care, diversity, and cybersecurity to help make the world more equal and fair.

This expectation is placing immense pressure on companies, but it is also creating opportunities. Organizations that engage with people and demonstrate that they are worthy of trust are burnishing their reputation, winning allies, and influencing or supplanting traditional public policy mechanisms. CEOs such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff have an unprecedented ability to activate their companies for the good of society.10 Consider the organization jointly created by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JP Morgan Chase to lower health care costs for employees—tackling an issue that government cannot solve on its own, while also promising to deliver business benefits.11 On the other hand, companies that appear aloof, tone-deaf, or disengaged face harsh headlines, negative attention on social media, and tough questions from a range of stakeholders.

Third, technological change is having unforeseen impacts on society even as it creates massive opportunities to achieve sustainable, inclusive growth. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and new communications technologies are fundamentally changing how work gets done, who does it, and how it influences society.12 For instance, machine learning was not in the mainstream three years ago. Today, it is simultaneously one of IT’s hottest areas—and a source of tremendous anxiety about potential job losses. People increasingly realize that rapid technological change, while holding out the promise of valuable opportunities, also creates unforeseen impacts that can undermine social cohesion. Many stakeholders are alarmed, and they expect businesses to channel this force for the broader good.

The good news is that technological advances can open up new opportunities for businesses to have a positive impact on society. Reflecting this view, 87 percent of C-level executives say that Industry 4.0—the industrial revolution brought about by the combination of digital and physical technologies—will lead to more equality and stability, and 74 percent say business will have more influence than governments or other organizations to shape this future.13

Becoming a Social Enterprise

Foundational to behaving as a social enterprise is to listen carefully to the external as well as the internal environment—not just business partners and customers, but all parties in society that an organization influences and is influenced by. In today’s world, the listening opportunity is greater than ever if organizations truly take advantage of the people data they have at their fingertips. The increasingly hyper-connected nature of the workplace means that interactions between and among workers and the outside world can be a tremendous source for analysis if managed appropriately. Leaders need to take a proactive approach to managing this wealth of information and leveraging it to keep an eye on the trends both inside and outside of the workplace.

Being a social enterprise also means investing in the broader social ecosystem, starting with an organization’s own employees. It means treating all workers—on- and off-balance-sheet—in a fair, transparent, and unbiased way. Leaders should seek to provide a work environment that promotes longevity and well-being, not only in an individual’s career, but also in the physical, mental, and financial spheres. By doing this, an organization invests both in its own workforce and in the workforce ecosystem as a whole, which benefits both the organization and society at large.

Finally, a social enterprise seeks to actively manage its position in the social ecosystem by engaging with stakeholders and strategically determining and pursuing the kind of relationship it wants to maintain with each. This cannot be done in a siloed way. Hence, this year we have provided a set of actions that C-suite leaders can take related to each trend. Each area of focus requires strong collaboration amongst leaders both across the organization and outside of it. Leaders should form relationships with the governments and regulatory bodies that shape the “rules of the road,” work collaboratively with them to create and sustain a fair, just, and equitable marketplace, and partner with communities and educational institutions to help sustain a steady flow of talent with the right skills for the organization—and the broader economy—to thrive.

2018’s Ten Human Capital Trends: Importance and Respondent Readiness

Respondents generally agree that, while each of the following trends is important, most organizations are not yet ready to meet expectations.

Explore the data further in the Global Human Capital Trends app.

2018’s Ten Human Capital Trends

The 10 human capital trends we explore in this year’s report come together to create an integrated view of the social enterprise.

[See infographics above] From the top: The Symphonic C-suite Trend 1. The Symphonic C-suite: Teams Leading Teams

Behaving as a social enterprise and managing the external environment’s macro trends effectively demands an unprecedented level of cross-functional vision, connectivity, and collaboration from C-suite leaders. To do this, they must behave as what we call the “symphonic C-suite,” in which an organization’s top executives play together as a team while also leading their own functional teams, all in harmony. This approach enables the C-suite to understand the many impacts that external forces have on and within the organization—not just on single functions—and plot coordinated, agile responses.

The symphonic C-suite is the next stage in the ongoing evolution of leadership models. This new model is necessary to help leaders to understand, manage, and respond to the complex social capital issues that organizations face, enabling them to tap opportunities, manage risks, and build relationships with internal and external stakeholders. What’s more, the symphonic leadership model is vital for growth: Our survey finds that respondents who indicate their C-suite executives “regularly collaborate on long-term interdependent work” are a third more likely to expect their companies to grow at 10 percent or more during the next year than respondents whose CxOs operate independently.

The C-suite must lead an organization’s response to the other nine trends highlighted in this report. The pace and complexity of the changes involved, and the high stakes of success or failure, elevate these as C-level issues, which cannot be delegated or approached in silos. Only a symphonic C-suite team is sufficient for the scale and speed of the following nine trends. In our chapter on the symphonic C-suite, we call out specific actions executives can take to drive greater collaboration.

The power of the Individual

As the power of the individual grows, organizations are revamping their approaches to workforce management, rewards systems, and career models to better listen and respond. In particular, as workers and networks outside the organization grow in importance, companies are striving to build effective ongoing relationships with every segment of the workforce ecosystem. In this year’s report, we have included actions for the individual worker to consider in influencing and managing their personalization and career experiences. The challenge is to figure out how to appropriately address each individual’s preferences and priorities while engaging with a more diverse set of workers and workforce segments than ever before.

Trend 2. The workforce Ecosystem: Managing beyond the Enterprise

Business leaders and chief human resources officers (CHROs) recognize the need to actively and strategically manage relationships with workforce segments beyond the enterprise, which increasingly affect how an organization delivers services and interacts with customers. When asked to forecast the makeup of their workforce in 2020, 37 percent of survey respondents expected a rise in contractors, 33 percent foresaw an increase in freelancers, and 28 percent expected growth in gig workers. Organizations are finding ways to align their culture and management practices with these external talent segments—engaging the workforce ecosystem for mutual benefit.

Trend 3. New Rewards: Personalized, Agile, and Holistic

Leveraging their power as individuals, employees are asking for more personalized, agile, and holistic rewards, including a focus on fair and open pay. While companies recognize this overall shift, only 8 percent report that their rewards program is “very effective” at creating a personalized, flexible solution. Early experiments are exploring how to develop a holistic variety of rewards and match them to individual preferences, across diverse talent segments and on a continuous basis.

Trend 4. From Careers to Experiences: New Pathways

In a 21st-century career, the individual and his or her experiences take center stage. Instead of a steady progression along a job-based pathway, leading organizations are shifting toward a model that empowers individuals to acquire valuable experiences, explore new roles, and continually reinvent themselves. However, 59 percent of our survey respondents rate their organizations as not effective or only somewhat effective at empowering people to manage their own careers. Improvement in this area is essential to attract critical talent, especially as technology shifts the skills landscape.

Filling Society’s Leadership Vacuum

Leading companies are developing strategies that address societal concerns such as longevity and well-being—and doing so in ways that help improve productivity and performance. Those in this vanguard are finding rich opportunities to build social capital and become a leading voice on key societal issues.

Trend 5. The Longevity Dividend: Work in an Era of 100-year Lives

Forward-looking organizations see extended longevity and population aging as an opportunity. Twenty percent of this year’s survey respondents said that they are partnering with older workers to develop new career models. This longevity dividend enables companies to both address a pressing societal issue and tap into a proven, committed, and diverse set of workers. However, doing this requires innovative practices and policies to support extended careers, as well as collaboration between business leaders and workers, to tackle shared challenges such as age bias and pension shortfalls.

Trend 6. Citizenship and Social Impact: Society Holds the Mirror

An organization’s track record of corporate citizenship and social impact now has a direct bearing on its core identity and strategy. Engagement with other stakeholders on topics such as diversity, gender pay equity, income inequality, immigration, and climate change can lift financial performance and brand value, while failure to engage can destroy reputation and alienate key audiences. Many organizations are still catching up: 77 percent of our respondents say that citizenship is important, but only 18 percent say this issue is a top priority reflected in corporate strategy.

Trend 7. Well-being: A Strategy and a Responsibility

As the line between work and life blurs further, employees are demanding that organizations expand their benefits offerings to include a wide range of programs for physical, mental, financial, and spiritual health. In response, employers are investing in well-being programs as both a societal responsibility and a talent strategy. More than 50 percent of survey respondents view a variety of such programs as “valuable” or “highly valuable” to employees, but big gaps remain between what employees value and what companies are delivering.

Leveraging Technology for Sustainable Growth

Organizations are looking to capitalize on the benefits of a surge of new AI-based software, robotics, workplace connectivity tools, and people data applications, while also mitigating potential downsides and unforeseen effects. These tools and investments can help to redesign work architecture, lift productivity, and enhance people efforts, but organizations must also pay attention to and respect their impacts on the workforce as a whole.

Trend 8. AI, Robotics, and Automation: Put Humans in the Loop

The influx of AI, robotics, and automation into the workplace has dramatically accelerated in the last year, transforming in-demand roles and skills inside and outside organizations. Perhaps surprisingly, those roles and skills focus on the “uniquely human” rather than the purely technical: Survey respondents predict tremendous future demand for skills such as complex problem-solving (63 percent), cognitive abilities (55 percent), and social skills (52 percent). To be able to maximize the potential value of these technologies today and minimize the potential adverse impacts on the workforce tomorrow, organizations must put humans in the loop—reconstructing work, retraining people, and rearranging the organization. The greatest opportunity is not just to redesign jobs or automate routine work, but to fundamentally rethink “work architecture” to benefit organizations, teams, and individuals.

Trend 9. The Hyper-Connected Workplace: Will Productivity Reign?

New communications tools are rapidly entering the workplace. Seventy percent of respondents believe workers will spend more time on collaboration platforms in the future, 67 percent see growth in “work-based social media,” and 62 percent predict an increase in instant messaging. But as these tools migrate from personal life to the workplace, organizations must apply their expertise in team management, goal-setting, and employee development to ensure that they actually improve organizational, team, and individual performance and promote the necessary collaboration to truly become a social enterprise. Like the outside world, organizations are becoming hyper-connected; can they also become hyper-productive?

Trend 10. People Data: How Far is Too Far?

The rapid increase in data availability and the advent of powerful people analytics tools have generated rich opportunities for HR and organizations—but they are now also generating a variety of potential risks. While more than half of our survey respondents are actively managing the risk of employee perceptions of personal data use, and a similar proportion is managing the risk of legal liability, only a quarter are managing the impact on their consumer brand. Organizations face a tipping point: Develop a set of well-defined policies, security safeguards, transparency measures, and ongoing communication around the use of people data, or risk employee, customer, and societal backlash.

A Call to Action

The 2018 Global Human Capital Trends report sounds a wake-up call for organizations. The rise of the social enterprise requires a determined focus on building social capital by engaging with diverse stakeholders, accounting for external trends, creating a sense of mission and purpose throughout the organization, and devising strategies that manage new societal expectations. At stake is nothing less than an organization’s reputation, relationships, and, ultimately, success or failure.

In this new era, human capital is inextricably tied to social capital. This reality demands a fundamental pivot in how organizations do business today—and how they prepare for the human capital challenges of the future.

[Excerpt from the introductory post — click on the title link to read it with notes, appendix, all illustrations, and links to other relevant articles at Deloitte.com.]

***

At Creative Sage™, we love to connect corporate leaders and entrepreneurs with good causes, and help companies start genuine Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability, Social Entrepreneurship, Intrapreneurship, Impact Investing and/or philanthropy programs that are a win-win for all partners. We’re also researching new developments in the Sharing Economy that include new business models to increase profits, and also support social good.

Please do not hesitate to email us if you would like to discuss your situation and find out more about how we can help your organization move forward to a more innovative and profitable future, strengthening your branding and resonance with customers while helping to do good in the world through appropriate, authentic CSR partnerships with nonprofits, philanthropists, educational institutions and programs, or government agencies and community organizations.

We can also help you connect with celebrities and other notable people who can help amplify your message of social good, or headline entertainment events and concerts for good causes. You can call us at 1-510-845-5510 in San Francisco / Silicon Valley. We look forward to talking with you!

***

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Watch all 20 Accelerate Live! talks on demand

More than 140 architects, engineers, and contractors attended BD+C’s inaugural Accelerate Live! innovation conference, May 11 at Venue SIX10 in Chicago. The high-energy forum and networking event featured 20 talks from business and tech leaders from the nation’s largest AEC firms.

Each speaker had 15 minutes and up to 10 slides to present a radical idea, solution, project, or innovation related to the future of the AEC industry or the changing built environment. All 20 talks were live-streamed on BDCnetwork.com and live-tweeted at @BDCnetwork.

   Accelerate Live! was sponsored by:

       TRACK #1: AEC TECH INNOVATION

The Data-driven Future for AEC (13:55)

Nathan Miller Founder, Managing Partner Proving Ground We call him the "other Oracle of Omaha.” Hailing from the great state of Nebraska, Nathan Miller has no formal training or education in computer coding—but don’t let that fool you. In short order, Miller has earned wide acclaim as one of the industry’s bright minds and most trusted consultants in the areas of computational design and data-driven design. As Founder and Managing Director of the consulting practice, Proving Ground, he has helped some of the nation’s largest AEC firms overcome challenges in the technology landscape. In this talk, Miller presents his vision of a data-driven future for the business of design, where creativity is fueled by continuous improvement, and solutions are built on proof.

Applying Machine Learning to Building Design (12:04)

Daniel Davis, PhD Director of Product Research WeWork Daniel Davis joins us from New York, but he hails from New Zealand, so don’t dare call him an Aussie! Davis has a PhD in architecture and has spent the better part of the past 4.5 years researching and applying advanced technologies in building design and planning—from the use of sensors to reality capture to artificial intelligence. As Director of Product Research at WeWork, Davis leads a team of researchers that is using a range of computation and machine learning methods to improve WeWork’s co-working office spaces across the globe. In this talk, Davis offers a glimpse into the world at WeWork, and how his team is rethinking the workplace design with the help of machine learning tools.

Gaming Tech in Construction (15:30)

Lucas Richmond Senior Media Studio Manager Gilbane Building Company As the head of Gilbane Building Company's Multimedia Studio, Lucas Richmond is doing things differently when it comes to hiring. He is building a rock star team and solid foundation for future success by recruiting the best of the best in video game design for careers in the construction industry. Focusing on an artistic approach and innovation mindset, Richmond and his team are turning the industry upside down and issuing a new wave of thinking when it comes to traditional hiring practices. Learn more about his unconventional approach and the deliverables produced at Accelerate Live!

The Future of Computational Design (12:25)

Ben Juckes Associate  Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign Linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf proposed that the structure of a language determines, or at least influences, how we perceive and experience the world. Could this idea of linguistic relativism apply to computer languages as well? At the Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design scripting has become an every-project occurrence and, as a consequence, each designer regularly works with computational tools as part of his or her basic toolset. The frequency and extent of this usage is having a profound effect on the way the studio approaches problem solving as well as the design and documentation process. We will retrace this transformation with three examples of built or in-process projects where computation has helped shape outcomes or enable new possibilities. Some observations on how this immersion has impacted the way we look at documentation and a possible future for project delivery beyond the current BIM model will close out the presentation.

Sponsor Talk: FARO Technologies 3D LASER SCANNING FOR THE PROJECT LIFECYCLE (12:40)

Brent Slawnikowski Account Manager, Construction BIM-CIM  FARO Technologies, Inc.

Jennifer Suerth, LEED AP  Vice President, Technical Services Pepper Construction The Project Lifecycle has become more complex and challenging over the last decade. Logistics planning, schedules, limited working space, coordination of BIM models and so many other factors affect how our projects are completed. Since the introduction of laser scanning to the AEC industry, significant changes have come to the way we handle each stage of the project lifecycle. In this talk, Brent and Jennifer will discuss different ways that 3D laser scanning can be applied throughout the project lifecycle and how implementation of laser scanning technology has helped Pepper Construction become more successful in the completion of their projects.

TRACK #2: AEC BUSINESS INNOVATION

Learning From Silicon Valley: Using SaaS to Automate AEC (13:50)

Sean Parham VP of Product Marketing and Management Aditazz Straight from Silicon Valley, Sean Parham has spent nearly his entire career in the tech and telecom worlds, from Motorola to Cisco to launching his own startups. Last July, he joined the executive team of one of the AEC industry’s hottest tech-focused startups: Aditazz. As VP of Product Marketing and Management, Parham is leading the firm’s charge in shaking up the traditional design and construction approaches. The firm’s goal is to simplify and improve what is an inherently complex and messy process by adapting technologies and methodologies from the semiconductor and software development worlds. In this presentation, Parham takes us through the "Aditazz way” for automating traditional AEC practices.

The ROI of Innovation Culture (15:15)

Russ Sykes, PE, LEED AP Managing Partner, SVP SmithGroupJJR In the 1920s, a Fortune 500 company's lifecycle was 67 years. Today it's 15 years, as disruptive forces and technological advancements displace and create companies/products/services at a record pace. Firms that aren't poised to respond to evolving paradigms will not survive. SmithGroupJJR established a culture that ignites innovation and propels change, even in a disruptive world. Russ Sykes demonstrates how four mantras paved the way for new operational models, idea generation, and process improvements. They include creating a culture of engagement, nurturing "intrapreneurs," and building loyalty with unconventional rewards.

Learning By Making: How Maker Culture is Transforming a Design Practice (16:25)

Pablo Savid-Buteler, LEED AP Managing Principal Sasaki

Brad Prestbo, AIA Senior Associate Sasaki Boston-based design and planning firm Sasaki has been at the forefront of the maker movement in the AEC market. We’re not referring to designing maker spaces for their clients, although Sasaki does that, too. We’re talking about applying the principles and practices of the maker movement to the traditional design firm: using hands-on exercises, prototyping, and digital design to help extract the best solutions and ideas from everyone in the organization. Pablo Savid-Buteler and Brad Prestbo talk about how this movement is changing the way Sasaki goes to market, and how it is helping the firm win new business.

Incubating Innovation: R&D and Product Development (16:03)

Jonatan Schumacher Director of CORE Studio Thornton Tomasetti Over the course of the past decade, Thornton Tomasetti has morphed from a firm based on traditional engineering practices, to one centered on innovation through R&D and product development. As Director of the firm’s virtual incubator, CORE Studio, Jonatan Schumacher has helped to spearhead this companywide movement toward innovation. The firm’s inventions range from novel scripts and design tools to its custom TTX database that provides real-time collaboration across a multitude of software tools. Schumacher presents the firm’s business model for developing, incubating, and delivering cutting-edge tools and solutions for the firm, and the greater AEC market.

Sponsor Talk: NCI Building Systems Driving Value through Process Innovation (9:32)

Jonathan O'Leary Vice President, Building Solutions NCI Building Systems The old way of doing business is becoming increasingly burdensome and expensive for AECs. To drive profitable growth, they must rely on their partners to simplify the business process and minimize risk while serving as a trusted partner and thought leader.

TRACK #3: THE CHANGING BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Preparing for the AI Revolution (15:28)

Alan Robles Associate, Firmwide Creative Media Leader Gensler Alan Robles is not an architect, yet he rose through the ranks to become a leader and trusted innovator within the world’s largest architecture firm. Maybe it’s his beatboxing skills, or his racing talents, or maybe his flair for songwriting. No, we have a feeling it’s because of his creative abilities, especially designing experiential environments for Gensler’s clients. And for his gifts of seeing into the future and exploring how technologies will impact design and the built environment. In this talk, Robles shares how the AEC giant firm is preparing its project teams and clients for the coming artificial intelligence revolution.

Health-generating Buildings (15:10)

Marcene Kinney, AIA, LEED AP Principal GBBN Architects

Angela Mazzi, AIA, ACHA, EDAC Senior Associate GBBN Architects During the past 20 years, we’ve witnessed an evolution in building design, from high-performance and energy-efficient buildings, to sustainable and green buildings, and now to spaces that enhance performance and promote wellness and health. In this talk, Marcene Kinney and Angela Mazzi from Cincinnati-based GBBN Architects talk about their work in behavior change and health-generating design. Their predictive outcome modeling helps clients make strategic design investments that enhance user and building performance, while minimizing behaviors that can lead to more negative outcomes, such as injuries, poor health, or mistakes. They also share design hacks pinpointing specific aspects of the built environment that affect behavior, well-being, and performance to help clients get more success out of their spaces.

Next-Gen Materials for the Built Environment (13:56)

Blaine Brownell, AIA, LEED AP Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies University of Minnesota School of Architecture Virtually every revolution in architecture has been preceded by a revolution in materials: think iron, glass, steel, concrete, plastics, and composites. What is the next revolutionary material that will reshape the very nature of architecture? A solid that's lighter than air? Metal latticework so delicate it rests on a dandelion? Self-generating microbial glue that repairs cracks in concrete? Blaine Brownell, author of the Transmaterial series, reveals emerging trends and applications that are transforming the technological capacity, environmental performance, and design potential of architecture in Transmaterial Next.

The World's Smartest Buildings (12:07)

Derik Eckhardt, AIA The Miller Hull Partnership In the burgeoning area of smart and connected buildings, you’d be hard pressed to find an AEC professional who knows more about the newest and most-advanced projects than architect Derik Eckhardt. Last summer, Eckhardt traveled the globe to research and study the world’s smartest buildings, under a scholarship from AIA Seattle. Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Dubai, London, and Stuttgart were among his destinations. Consider Eckhardt the Anthony Bourdain of smart buildings. Eckhardt shares what he learned during his recent travels, and attempts to answer the question: What makes a building “smart”?

Sponsor Talk: SageGlass Work In Progress: How The Office Environment Drives Innovation (16:25)

Dr. Alan McLenaghan CEO SageGlass Workplaces that spur innovation challenge the conventions of the traditional office environment. They're designed to benefit the health and wellbeing of team members, above all us. During this presentation, SageGlass CEO Dr. Alan McLenaghan reviews how biophilic design and new technologies, such as dynamic glass, create a greater connection between the built and natural environments in the office. He details how this connection can enhance the creativity, cognitive thought, and productivity of team members—ultimately creating the foundation for innovation.

TRACK #4: PROJECT + PROCESS INNOVATION

Manufacturing the Future of Construction: From Job Site to Factory (15:23)

Tyler Goss Global Innovation Development Manager Turner Construction From prefabrication to predictive visual-data analytics. From RFID tagging to the use of drones and rovers on job site. Turner Construction has been at the forefront of smart job site movement. And the construction giant is just getting started. Through these measures and others, like Lean management and advanced BIM/VDC coordination, Turner has set an ambitious goal to transform the complex and messy process of commercial construction into a predictable—and therefore improvable—industrial process. In this talk, Tyler Goss, Turner’s Global Innovation Development Manager, presents the company’s “job site as a factory” initiative.

Finding the Money For Your Clients' Projects (15:05)

Paul Westlake, FAIA Global Culture+Performing Arts Leader, Senior Principal DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky As everyone in the AEC industry knows all too well, without money for a building project, there is no building project. During his decades-long career in architecture, Paul Westlake has become somewhat of a master for helping his clients—particularly in the cultural and performing arts sectors—find money for their projects. In some cases, these projects would not have happened without Westlake’s expertise. In other cases, he helped his clients fully realize their vision, with added funding for optional programming. Westlake shares some of his methods for adding value to projects on the financing end. These include tax credit equity financing, preservation tax incentives, and new markets tax credits.

A Case for Big Data in Construction (14:20)

Graham Cranston, PE, SE Senior Structural Engineer Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Our projects today are creating and using more data, from more sources, and across more disciplines, than ever before. From the Internet of Things, to swarms of sensors, to point clouds, to reality capture—we are drowning in data. Graham Cranston shares SGH’s efforts to take hold of its project data. This includes applying mathematical optimization techniques to leverage the Big Data generated by parametric analysis and presenting it all in an information-rich interactive visual graphics. 

Scaling change in a changing industry (15:21)

Chris Mayer Chief Innovation Officer Suffolk Construction In the GC community, Suffolk Construction was one of the first to not only recognize the potential of emerging technologies, like drones and reality capture, but to establish a formal process for vetting these tools. The firm established R&D teams across the organization to pilot technologies on actual projects. If the desired results were achieved, the team would then evaluate the scalability across the organization. It all sounds so simple, right? Well it’s not. Chris Mayer, Suffolk’s Chief Innovation Officer, presents the company’s proven framework for scaling change in a rapidly changing industry. 

Sponsor Talk: Bluebeam, Inc. Is the road to the future the path of least resistance? (18:30)

Sasha Reed VP of Strategic Development Bluebeam, Inc. The path of least resistance often leads you to the right destination, IF you focus on solving the right problems. But how can we be sure that todays "solution" isn't just a set up for tomorrow's headache? It's the innovator's dilemma. Do we evolve bit by bit over time by sustaining the benefits of experience, or do we adopt entirely new models and practice responsible, disruptive innovation? With the industry's need to generate efficiencies strong than ever, Sasha Reed, Bluebeam VP of Strategic Development, introduces the models and methods necessary to make the right changes to addresses the real challenges on your specific job site. Construction will not change unless we start responsibly breaking things. Interoperability is no longer a buzzword. Integrations are the new reality. Learn how to give your teams the permission to responsibly break things and create ecosystems of people, process and technology to truly evolve our industry.

Interesting read originally from BDC Network