Michele Romanow

“Dragon”, CBC’s Dragons’ Den | Co-Founder and Executive Chair, Clearco

It is no longer sustainable to have a business model without artificial intelligence at the centre of it.

While we have yet to create a bot that will lay brick or build a house, we have created an incredible amount of automation to change the way we work. Leaders — all of us — should be viewing this as a positive not a negative.

AI will take away 20-30% of everyone’s job. This can be a scary number at first, but these are actually the worst tasks. With the help of AI, suddenly we can offload rout and routine tasks and free up people’s time to focus on what they actually like about their jobs. Automation leads to a happier workforce, we can use it as a tool of engagement.

On an external level, all of your competitors are going to automate and use AI to better market and sell themselves. Your competitor can now run better targeted Facebook ad campaigns using AI to create 15 different pieces of creative and copy instantly. If you aren’t doing the same, you’re falling behind.

Leaders today should be focusing on how they can empower their teams to use AI as a tool of efficiency, both internally and externally. You don’t need a giant tech integration; you can start small. For example, have your team use ChatGPT just as they use Google. The only way you and your team can learn about this new technology and understand how it’s changing the future of work is by playing with it today.

Tech titan Michele Romanow is a serial entrepreneur who started six companies before her 35th birthday. She is now the co-founder and executive chair of Clearco, the world’s largest e-commerce investor.

Michele equips audiences with the skills and strategies needed to embrace change, encourage disruption, and incentivize innovation in our tech-fueled world.

Estelle Métayer

Competitive and Strategic Intelligence Expert

As companies are madly rushing to adopt artificial tools, their progress is only limited by the availability and quality of the data they have access to. Treasure troves of “alternative data” are opening up, allowing all to bridge the gap.

Alternative data refers to any information or data that is not typically used in traditional analysis. This data also sometimes called “exhaust data”, includes a vast array of information that can be sourced from non-traditional sources, such as web scraping, social media, satellite imagery, mobile geolocation, sensors, and internet of things (IoT) devices.

Connecting those various sources of information can provide striking insights. For example, banks can inform lending strategies by tracking insights from telephone charging behaviour; retailers can track your every move within the store using beacons and the weather apps you downloaded; insurance companies can modify your premium based on your Facebook status, and the list goes on.

With machine learning and artificial intelligence, these insights can creatively inform critical business decisions, such as investment strategies, risk management, supply chain optimization, marketing campaigns, and much more. Developing alternative data collection and analysis is therefore becoming essential for businesses that want to remain competitive and stay ahead of the curve in today’s business landscape.

A former consultant with McKinsey & Company, Estelle Métayer is one of the world’s leading experts on competitive and strategic intelligence. 

In the age of smart machines — and as robotics are rapidly exceeding human capabilities — Estelle zeroes in on the challenges ahead, customizing her presentations for each audience and their industry.

Alfredo C. M. Tan

Customer Experience | Digital and Data Transformation | Change Management

With the changes we’ve seen in technology over the past decade, the competitive landscape is beginning to blur. What were once separate industries are now colliding, meaning your list of direct competitors is going to significantly broaden.

For example, pre-pandemic, platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams were never considered competitors to the business travel industry. But how much less business travel is happening today because of them? Suddenly, airlines are not just competing with other airlines, they’re competing with digital platforms.

Likewise, in the last five years, retailers around the world (some that have been around for 100 years) have built media technology organizations that have placed them in the same competitive landscape as the Googles and the Metas of the world.

And lastly, the biggest competitive blur of all comes from the consumer experience (CX). We used to compartmentalize experiences — retail, grocery, entertainment, sports, medical, travel, etc. But with so much of CX happening over the same digital channels, largely mobile devices, all companies are being held to the same high standards, regardless of industry.

With the advancement of tech comes the advancement of business opportunities. And if we thought the last 10 years was filled with rapid change, the pace of change and ensuing transformations brought on by AI are shocking even the computer scientists.

Business leaders today must be asking themselves how they can use tech to stay competitive and how they’re preparing their teams for the challenges ahead — because your future competition is already doing that.

A thought-leader, change agent, and impact-focused innovator, Alfredo C. M. Tan has led several storied companies through ever-changing digital landscapes, including Facebook Canada, WestJet, Rogers Sport & Media, and more.

Alfredo not only prepares audiences for what’s ahead but also how leaders can empower their teams through cultures of innovation to prosper in an exponential world.