Augmented Reality in Tourism, The Race to Provide GenAI Tools and More – Digital CxO Podcast – EP72

Hello and welcome to the digital CXO podcast. I'm Amanda Razani, and with me today is Mike Baard. How are you?

I'm doing great. Always happy to be here with you. 'cause you know, digital transformation, it never ends.

This is true. And with that, we're gonna go into our first, uh, information here, which is that as Atlassian has tapped into AI to automate software engineering workflows, and on top of that we also see AWS adding generative AI tools as well to automate tasks. So what are your thoughts about this?

So here's an interesting thing that seems to be going on. I mean, um, AWS kind of previewed this last year but didn't really explain how it works. And, and Atlassian is down the same path, and I suspect so is Microsoft and a few other folks.

And, and they're taking the, uh, knowledge graphs that they each have created. And, and those knowledge graphs kinda enable you to establish the relationships between various data sources that might exist in your organization. And then you can take that and feed that into a database that understands some sort of vector capability, which will then automatically expose that to a large language model to, um, enable you to launch queries against that in natural language.

And you'll get an output, uh, of a recommendation or a summary or whatever it is that you're looking for. The interesting thing about all this is it can now all be done without having to have a bunch of data engineers sitting in the middle of that process. So now I can just, um, tell the prompt that, uh, I want to use this data and, and all related data to be exposed to the LLM to create some sort of, uh, request and it will automatically come back.

And, and so that's kind of an interesting first piece of it. The second piece of it is that the LMS themselves are, uh, increasing the number of parameters they have. And as that increases, so does the reasoning capability.

So the LLMs are able to now, um, understand a series of related tasks and execute them. So if you go to them and say, build me a website, it can. And so this is kind of gonna radically accelerate what we think about digital transformation here.

'cause a lot of folks were under the impression that, um, in order to expose, uh, relevant data to the LLMI would have to go master all these, uh, so-called rag techniques and search engine techniques myself. And apparently that's not gonna be the case. And that will enable subject matter experts to automate all kinds of things without necessarily having to even get a lot of developers involved.

So, um, we're kind of on the cusp of a new era of digital transformation here. I think it will be unleashed in ways that, uh, a lot of folks aren't planning on and frankly might need some governance, but it's gonna be interesting times. Yeah, definitely.

It's opening doors to a lot more people able to use the, these different software programs without having to have as many skills. And I think it's also going to where it may eliminate some of those jobs. They'll just be overseeing the, maybe overseeing to make sure it comes out accurately and managing it.

So I think we'll see a shift in jobs, but ne not necessarily will they be without jobs. Yeah. And there'll still be a, a, a small tendency for the LLM to hallucinate, but it will get smaller over time.

Uh, I think the biggest problem with the LLMs is when they're fibbing, they're fib convincingly. So people believe it and they're, and it's hard to pick up on those little anomalies, but, um, the LLMs themselves are gonna be trained on a narrow range of data and they'll be smaller. And as a result, uh, it won't need petabytes to kind of implement this stuff.

I can run 'em in terabytes at the edge or wherever they're needed, and it, it will just significantly transform the way we think about managing these business processes. So, uh, I think every digital CXO out there needs to really wrap their heads around how all this stuff works. I mean, to your point, they will need to be supervised.

There will be governance requirements, but the days when we had so many people doing so many manual tasks that it took, you know, three months for a project to get launched, nevermind and completed, I think that's coming to an end Most definitely. Next we talk about cost control. This is of course a big concern of business leaders, how much it's gonna cost.

So, um, we have a great article up on digital CXO if you wanna read more, but it's about, um, managing costs when you're executing customer-centric digital transformations and, you know, customers are expecting more, um, their, their expectations are much higher now. And so business leaders need to consider hard and soft costs. It says, and when they're designing the customer-centric programs, they need to, um, improve the cultural readiness within, um, companies because that appears to be low at the moment.

Yeah, I think the first phase of digital transformation was all about the customer experience. And let's make sure that that is awesome because, uh, customers will simply buy more if they're happier, right? It's not, not rocket science in that regard, but in the last six to nine months, there's been a lot more pressure on digital CXOs to implement cost controls.

I mean, theoretically I can provide the greatest digital experience at any cost. I think the art of the thing is, can I do it in a way that doesn't bring the bank? And that is more challenging than it looks because there are so many things going on in the backend services that drive the digital experience on the front end that no one really has a good handle on what the cost and delivery for those things are.

We see organizations trying to figure out how to understand what their cloud consumption rates are. 'cause nobody knows how many workloads are running and what's driving what. And then a bill shows up at the end of the month and then the CFO gets that and yells the CIO and the CIO goes running into the chief digital officer and goes, what are you guys doing?

This is crazy. I think ultimately, uh, the digital CXO needs to take a little more ownership of this process here because, uh, you know, if you're the one enjoying the meal, you should pick up the check. Yeah.

And plus there are just so many tools and so many platforms available and so many different vendors, uh, vying for attention. So it, it's, it might be a little overwhelming to, to understand, uh, exactly what's needed and to kind of narrow it down to just what's needed and get that return on investment. Yeah.

And your point is well taken, uh, who knows how many actual backend services and APIs are being invoked to deliver any given digital service. Um, all those things have a cost and they're not free. So somebody needs to understand what that is and, and make some sort of ROI argument that the business can understand, because otherwise we're gonna have a backlash from the business side who's gonna say, you know, the cost of delivering these great digital experiences is far higher than it's worth.

So this is a problem. Yes. So next we are gonna talk about digital transformation coming to healthcare.

And, um, you know, we've seen this in FinTech already and now we have what's called health tech as, um, health facilities try to digitally transform their processes and offer virtual care and assistance. Uh, we're seeing that more and more. So what are you hearing out, uh, from business leaders when it comes to navigating the digital transformation in the healthcare world?

All right, well this is one of these, you know, from your ellipse to my Doctor Zeros. I sure hope that happens. Um, we've talked about this subject in the past, and digital healthcare progress is limited to be kind.

Um, a lot of it is just kind of, we, you know, slapped a mobile front end on a backend process that is governed by electronic medical records that are rigid and difficult to use and therefore don't lend themselves to a lot of agility. There's clearly a lot of reentering of data, and in my experience, uh, every time medical data is reentered, the probability that it's wrong is high. And then that leads to all kinds of unfortunate, uh, consequences from people wasting hours in a doctor's office to somebody potentially dying because the wrong thing was prescribed.

This is, honestly, it's a mess. And it, it's not necessarily the fault of our medical staff, it's just that the backend systems that were put in place to support them just don't do the job. I mean, I think we kind of need to take a giant step back and, and say, okay, well if healthcare is a priority and we a want to reduce the cost of healthcare, and, um, we also want everybody to have a better experience, all this stuff starts with a conversation around it and workflows and things that, uh, digital process managers should be all over.

And yet, you know, we're talking about, you know, quote unquote health tech. Like it's a new thing. We've been talking about healthcare in it for four or five decades.

I think the first one of the conference I ever went to in this sector is still running out there and everybody shows up. But I don't know, I just don't feel like enough progress is being made. Yeah, this is true for it to have been spoken about for this long.

And it seems to me like there would be more advancement then because I, for one, I still go to the same doctor's offices every year and have to continuously fill out this tablet. So it's like, okay, wow, it's digital because it's on a tablet, but I'm filling out all the same stuff over and over again on the tablet. It's not much less time than filling out paperwork.

So it's like, where's that digital transformation for me? The the customer. The patient.

Yeah. I, I wish that, you know, somebody sitting in the Oval Office would make this like a priority because it's the kind of thing where it touches everybody, everybody experiences and everybody goes home with the same kind of, uh, you know, muttering to be kind. And it just could be a, a better way of thinking about this, but maybe we need to make it a, a national priority 'cause it's not happening of its own accord.

Yep. So next, there's another really interesting article on digital CXO and it pinpoints one big factor that business leaders are not looking at and are neglecting, which is the content management system. And it, um, argues that having an excellent content management system in place is the weapon for business growth.

So what do you have to say? I totally agree with this article and I urge everybody to read it. 'cause so much of what we try to do around digital transformation is, you know, we're trying to mess around with systems of record and systems of collaboration, but at the end of the day, the most of what this is about has to do with digital media.

Now I'm gonna say content management system broadly, that includes, you know, all the stuff you used to manage your websites, it includes all those digital assets, it includes all the video, all the audio, all the social media stuff. And you can wrap that up into a single system to manage that experience on behalf of the end customer. And yet it's probably the thing we pay the least amount of attention to.

It's, and, but I would argue, I mean almost everything that we do at Techstrong revolves around that content management system we have. And these days people are creating quote unquote headless ones. So I can build an app that sits on top of the CMS and does all kinds of amazing things.

And the cool thing about it is all the assets, all the data and all the stuff that I already need is an API call away. So I'm kind of like, you know, part of my soul is just maybe I'm too close to it and, you know, I live inside of content management system, but I kind of baffled as to why the rest of the world is still having this conversation. Yeah, it is really interesting, especially when that makes it so much easier.

When the access is that much easier, everything speeds up and more efficient, better returns. Um, so it would seem like it would limit confusion and uh, reduce the amount of time. Yep.

Uh, you would be amazed how much progress can be made on a particular digital initiative just by kinda going back to the core systems and saying what exactly drives this and how can we tweak it? Because, um, there's a tendency to over-engineer sometimes we already have the core tools we need, we're just not using them properly. Definitely.

So last on the list, and this is really fun. I would love to go visit, but one time Square skyscraper has just gone next gen with, uh, they converted the entire building, which didn't actually have anything in it before. And now it's a big, um, augmented reality experience and you get a virtual tour and, um, we're seeing this a lot across, uh, in many different buildings around the world and it's really changing the travel and tourism industry.

I'm not sure where I feel about all this. So part of my soul is kinda like, well, part of the experience of going to something like, I don't know, the Grand Canyon was to see the natural thing as it was, and now if I'm gonna go see the augmented reality version of the thing, well do I really need to go there to do that? Or can I do that at home?

So I'm just kinda like, what exactly am I gonna go experience here that's different? And I get that it's a work in progress, but, uh, part of my, and maybe I'm just being a little old school era, I'm just kinda like, wait, wasn't there joy? And actually going there experience, the thing is it actually is versus augmenting it.

How, I mean, other folks may have a better idea than I do, and I, I, I'll be open to be a little more convinced, but my initial reaction is a little skeptical. So, um, I, you know, when I travel places and I see these really fun, um, virtual reality, augmented reality buildings, I tend to jump right in and do them multiple times and enjoy them. But I get what you're saying, I think where it comes in handy is for people who aren't able to travel, say maybe it's gonna be a while before you can travel overseas or, um, you know, maybe that that's not something you plan on ever being able to do.

So then, uh, or maybe you have a disability or something that prevents you, so now you can use virtual reality to travel and feel like you're there and, um, learn about and see all these different landmarks and historical, you know, monuments and different things that you wanna see that you might not ever be able to see. So I think that's where it's useful. I can give you an example where I think it might be pretty awesome, and I know that there's some folks probably working on this already, but so in theory, every, you know, people visit battlefields all the time.

It seems to be, you know, a thing in the Civil War set and you can go to Gettysburg and all these other places, but you know, you can't actually see the battle play out. You can kind of imagine it because you get, and the more you know about what happened there, the more you can do that. But imagine you had some augmented reality capability and you could actually have that battle play out while you were on the battlefield itself, so you could actually see where the land is and the, you know, and the various hills.

That could be interesting, but I don't even, again, I don't know if I need to go to Gettysburg to do that and if I have this thing or, or if this is just, uh, something on top of that. So it's gonna be, um, interesting times, but you know, who knows, maybe, you know, we'll all wind up going to Waterloo sometime and the whole thing will just play out in these goggles that we're wear it around. I like that idea.

That's really neat. I could see that being used, um, in like field trips. Uh, and, and I can also see the virtual virtual reality aspect being used in classrooms for, uh, learning about geography and things like that.

Are they teaching geography still? I hope so. I certainly hope so.

Well, that brings us to the end of our list today. Did you have any final thoughts, Mike? I think we're on the cusp of some really exciting stuff.

If you kinda look at the things we've talked about in the last few episodes, we have AI and humanoid robots and ar and all kinds of advancements coming down the pike and the pace of which is faster than ever. So, you know, I think, uh, there's a tendency to like, when you get into digital transformation and you get into the weeds, you get lost. But, um, remember the joy and the joy of this thing is to, you know, transform businesses and solve problems and do things in ways that, uh, were never imagined.

So I I, I feel like right now, maybe the biggest scarcest commodity that we have is a lack of imagination. Absolutely. I mean, I can't wait to see what's next with all this amazing technology that's out there.

So with that being said, thank y'all, the audience for tuning in and stay tuned next week we'll have more for you. See y'all later.