This is our 100th Fireside with Voxgig podcast. It seems relevant to talk to a futurist for the 100th episode of a podcast I could only have dreamed would reach 100 episodes when I started!
So, welcome back Andrew Grill! Andrew has a simple question for CEOs, and executive teams more broadly: Are you allocating enough time to think about what’s happening, trends and the future?
Andrew’s new book, coming out later this year, is titled Digital Curiosity. Yes we are at the top of the hype cycle on AI (Generative AI in particular) it is hype that is prompting and causing government action. This is now mainstream.
As a leadership team, you might have woken up to applying Generative AI to your offering a little late, but are you researching, spotting, investigating the relevance of the NEXT craze yet? Because there will be one - right? There’s always “a next thing”, so Andrew’s advice is to dedicate time in your organisation to digital curiosity, sampling and testing emerging technologies to perhaps create a lightbulb moment for you and your team.
And Andrew has a brilliant, brief and aha! Take on Apple’s Vision Pro. For SciFi fans, there are even attempts to seek answers for the future from great authors!
About Generative AI, Andrew doesn’t shy away from the risks and the needs for regulation, but does caution against hysteria. We are responsible, “we have a role” in where this goes.
This is both reassuring and thought provoking, and as usual with Andrew, he motivates us to get off the sidelines and engage with technology and digital opportunities for our own work, innovation and strategies. Leaders need to dedicate time to being digitally curious. There are costs to leaving this up to everyone else.
Enjoy this episode and whet your appetite for playing with and discovering new digital and technological opportunities for your business!
Dublin DevRel Meetup
Now that Andrew has encouraged you to explore technologies before they become mainstream - how is your CTO going to cope?
The CTO role is difficult and can be lonely - there’s an expectation that they know ALL the emerging technologies. So just dedicating time to talk about and explore use cases for new technologies with your CTO and tech leaders within your organisation is great - but make sure they’re supported.
Two ways that support can be provided?
Through a supportive community of CTOs like CTO Craft, and also internally, by creating a tech-respecting culture across the organisation.
For advice on this next important tool in the business success toolbox, check out the Dublin DevRel meetup (online) for June. Next Wednesday, we’ll have CTO Craft’s Megan Slater and Interledger Foundation’s CTO Alex Lakatos
Join the group & conversation here: https://www.meetup.com/dublin-devrel/events/294017081/
Location: ONLINE
Time & date: 18:00 Irish Time, 13:00 ET, this Wednesday, June 28th.