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Technology Visionary Leonard Brody on Preparing for the AI Revolution

Technology Visionary Leonard Brody on Preparing for the AI Revolution

Called a “a leader of the new world order”, Leonard Brody draws on his considerable experience as an award-winning entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and business visionary to help audiences adapt to the rapid pace of change, innovation, and disruption facing us all and, most importantly, what to do about it.

With AI and digital disruption being one of our most requested topics, we recently chatted with Leonard, as part of our “Inside Our Boardroom” series, about the impact AI and new tech is having on business and what business leaders can do today to prepare for a drastically different tomorrow.

Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Strategizing in Unpredictable Times

Speakers Spotlight: Why can we only accurately predict the next 730 days, or two years?

Leonard Brody: I’m a firm believer that at the pace in which technology is moving, five- and six-year plans are somewhat useless. There’s so much unpredictability in the technological and geopolitical cycle that it’s pretty clear you can no longer predict or plan more than 730 days out. You can, but it’ll just be science fiction and you’ll rewrite it 15 times.

So, to me, two years is the window in which you can kind of get in the ring, fight, predict, and forecast what’s coming in a manageable way.

Preparing for the AI Revolution

SpSp: With AI evolving so rapidly, is our society on the edge of a big shift and should we be on edge about it?

LB: I partially joke that part of my job is being a seismographer. When these big bang events happen, they’re happening much closer together and they’re happening much more frequently. However, they all fit into a grander pattern, and I don’t think that grander historical pattern has yet to be broken. You can use this to your advantage to ensure that you are not looking at things too myopically and instead from the context of a historical lens that suits the era we live in.

So, no I’m not worried about AI. I’m worried about the ethical decisions that are being made in the context of how AI is interacted with and by whom. I worry about the questions that are surrounding the ethics of the data we use and produce, but I’m not worried about the machines themselves.

SpSp: Are we further behind than we should be on understanding the impact of AI?

LB: Yes, I think we are further away than we should be. But in the context historically, if you look at this against the rise of the internet, I would say governments and corporations are taking this much more seriously than they did then.

The quality of the advice governments are getting, the quality of regulatory insight that’s being looked at, is being taken much more seriously and being given by much better quality people than it was in the first iteration of the web.

So, while I still think we’re behind, it’s clear that it’s being taken quite seriously and that the godmothers and godfathers of AI are the ones actually leading these conversations. So the transparency between the people building a lot of the models and the people that are responsible for managing the ethics, that bridge, in my view, is much tighter than it was in the first iteration of the web.

AI Leaders to Watch

SpSp: What should companies be doing today to prepare for the next big shift and who should they be watching?

LB: The best thing you can do is just get in there and use them. Start to play with them in your personal time so you can understand what they mean. Start to build, create, draw, research — make sure you’re testing and learning the landscape so you can be conversant. You don’t have to be a linguist, but you do need to understand the language.

The industry you want to watch is the entertainment business. It is the cat of industries. It’s had nine lives. It constantly manages to get destroyed — look at the record labels and Spotify, cable television and Netflix — so watch how those industries are adopting AI today.

They to me are the pace horse because the financial communities are going to be active and they’re going to be engaged, but it’s very specific. Whereas in the creative industries, there’s much more of a relatability. So I would look very, very closely at the film and television business, the music business, and even the marketing industries. Wherever people are doing paid and creative work.

Hire Leonard Brody to Speak at Your Next Event

In his popular keynote, “The Next 730 Days: What to Expect in Technology, the Economy, and the Future of Work”, Leonard gives a clear, narrow-focused, and data-driven exploration of the forces shaping our near future and how leaders and organizations can better prepare for it.

Contact us to learn more about Leonard Brody and what he can bring to your next event.