TELLUS International

Every organization needs to evaluate how AI will impact its existing business model and whether AI will threaten it. Based on the industry writings, even management consulting/advisory firms will have to review their offerings and whether some of the ways of doing things have become obsolete. We regard ourselves as a boutique management consulting/advisory firm, which allows us to be nimble and react to market conditions based on customers' needs and where they need help. We at TELLUS International reviewed our workshop offerings to ensure that they included the impact of AI and that only one workshop model needed to be changed. We also partnered with an engineering and design firm, A-CX, to offer an organization the first steps in its AI journey. Part of this has been our webinar series "Approachable AI" which we created together with Mikko Peltola from A-CX. This webinar series is targeted specifically for decision-markers to educate our audience on what AI means, what to expect, and how to take the next steps. This also included discussions of how business models might change and how to use industry-standard frameworks to take the first steps. This newsletter explores and explains how the TELLUS workshop offerings had to change, which ones changed, and which ones did not have any impact. #ai #TELLUSInt #artificialintelligence #businessmodels #businessmodeltransformation #approachableAI

New roles within organizations are appearing. One of these is the Chief AI Officer (CAIO), who has a broader reach across the organization and overlooks things such as governance, security, compliance, legal, risk management, business, and line-of-business units that generally never get exposed to the other tech side. Each of us must ask whether our current role is still valid, whether our offering is still valid, or if we need to change what we are doing and dig deeper into topics such as AI and its impact on our business. I have done that and will expose it in an upcoming LinkedIn Newsletter. #AI #GenAI #TELLUSInt #CAIO #careerdevelopment #careerpath #selfimprovement TELLUS International

The interconnectedness of ecosystems is becoming interesting, especially within the AI era. Apple is having its developer conference this upcoming week (WWDC). The conference is expected to be one of the most critical for Apple, as the market consensus is that it is behind other players such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. The question that you might pose yourself is this. What does it matter to a regular user? The response is: It matters a lot. I am an iPhone user, and I assume that my device will evolve with AI and bring intelligence to the "edge" using small language models (like the new Surface Pro tablet with Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite X processor). I expect the independent software vendors to bring me experiences on my Apple device with all the cloud services that I use, for example, with our Office 365 Apps. I also assume that Apple exposes its APIs to ISVs so my Apple phone and its apps are seamlessly integrated and use the power of AI on the "edge." To be completely transparent, I have not been impressed with what Apple has brought to my phone experience for the past few cycles. I could care less about new emojis or similar small things that do not make a difference to me. I feel that Apple might have been "sleeping on the wheel," especially when it comes to AI, especially if you look at what Microsoft revealed at their latest developer conference a couple of weeks ago (Microsoft Build). Zdnet Jason Perlow brings an interesting view in his article by providing 6 things that Apple should bring to light at the WWDC conference, and they are as follows: 🎯Develop a clear on-device strategy for generative AI and invest in AI-driven development tools 🎯Leverage ethical AI and privacy as a competitive advantage 🎯Integrate seamlessly with third-party services and partner with multiple providers 🎯Deploy AI-accelerated appliances on the edge with dedicated cloud capacity 🎯Enhance proactive assistance and personalization 🎯Ensure AI shines across all products and services It will be interesting to see whether the "wishlist" above is what Apple will release next week. We know we can expect some kind of deal with OpenAI, but what else we can expect next week remains to be seen. #Apple #OpenAI #Microsoft #AI #artificialintelligence #futureofai #zdnet #TELLUSInt https://lnkd.in/dRme5qRr

I have mentioned in my LinkedIn shares and TELLUS International blog posts that using RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) with a Large Language Model (LLM) is an interesting opportunity for organizations to combine internal information with an LLM model. A typical example of this could be a Q&A database and its information used with an LLM. A recent article in ZDnet, RAG is the practice of "having an LLM respond ot a prompt by sending a request to some external data source, such as a vector database, and retrieve authoritative data". Furhermore, "the most common use of RAG is to reduce the propensity of LLMs to produce hallucinations, where a model assets falsehoods confidenty, states the Zdnet article." RAG does not come without its issues though and the article provides valuable insights of what current academic resarch has identified and how vendors are trying to circumvent the potential issues with the use of RAG. New research is suggesting LLM training methods to make RAG more reliable and avoid hallucinations or incorrect results. I recommend you to review the article from Zdnet (written by Tiernan Ray, Senior Contributing Writer). It is very valuable content. #RAG #AI #TELLUSInt #continouslearning #GenAI TELLUS International https://lnkd.in/ggR9ksAm

Some books have a greater impact on you than others. This time I wanted to review a book that I wish I had when I wrote two of my previous books. The book "The Power of Writing It Down" by Allison Fallon explains a lot of the emotions that I had when I worked on my own books, and I wish I had read this before. This book's target readers are people who want to learn more about how writing it down can be transformative, and this is backed by strong research. If you are in the midst of a change in your life, if you want to "unstuck" from the patterns that hold you back and claim your clarity, you should read the book. If you are an aspiring author (or already one), the book will give you some good ideas that I wish I had when I was working on mine. However, the book is not only for authors but for anybody who feels that writing could help to get some clarity in whatever you are dealing with. The book also explains how a daily writing practice can transform you and have an impact on you. #careerdevelopment #motivation #career #bookreviews #drsalonenbookreview #bookreview #selfimprovement #authormentoring #author #TELLUSInt TELLUS International https://lnkd.in/g_ZiHef7

It is not news that AI will have a fundamental impact on different industries. Rita McGrath shares an interesting newsletter in which she looks at the evolution of technology and how it has changed societies and different professions. Railroads changed how we transported goods, Ford Model T standardized production changed how cars were made, and some professions disappeared due to the manufacturing assembly line. What the article also highlights is how new technology led to de-skilling of certain kinds of tasks. In the old world, "new techniques meant that the output of craftsmen, machinists or factory workers could be performed more cheaply by people with less training and practice". This will be exactly what will happen when AI is infused into different professions. Some of the tasks that skilled people are doing today will be managed by AI, and this trend is inevitable. We have already seen this so many times in history when looking at how technology has changed the way we work and deliver goods and services. The article also mentions an industry that is going to change: professional services. Some of the tasks that these organizations have been able to charge for on an hourly basis will disappear, and the organizations will have to reinvent themselves. This is nothing new to these organizations, and there have already been a myriad of articles and opinions about this trend. Management consulting organizations will have to reinvent themselves by applying AI technology as part of their delivery platform. I encourage you to read the newsletter and spend some time reflecting on it like I did. #AI #technologytrends #agi #technology #innovation #strategy #obsolescence #jobs #consulting #AI https://lnkd.in/gZVUqq8E

If you wonder how education is impacted by AI, you might want to check out the interview with Khan Academy CEO Salman Khan on CNBC. Mr. Khan has also released a bestseller book "Brave New Words - How AI will Revolutionize Education (and why that is a good thing). The CNBC interview includes discussion of academy's partnership with Microsoft as well. #AI #education #artificialintelligence #TELLUSInt #continuouslearning #CNBC TELLUS International https://lnkd.in/gTKCR_aV

Interesting comment from Meta AI Chief Yann LeCun: Large Language Models Won't Achieve AGI. An AI model is only as "smart" as the data it's trained on and according to Mr. Yann, large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, or Meta's Llama won't ever reach human levels of intelligence according to the article. The concept of an AI model achieving human or superhuman intelligence is often called artificial general intelligence (AGI) and remains a hot topic among AI researchers and executives. Mr. Yann states that LLMs have a very limited understanding of logic and cannot, therefore, comprehend the physical world and don't have persistent memory. Mr. Yann goes as far as to say that AI models are not much smarter "than a house cat." I think we need to evaluate whether these LLMs will increase people's productivity, and it is unquestionable that they do. However, we still have to use our own judgment when using LLMs. For most of us, an LLM speeds things up and automates things that took more time in the past. There are lots of writeups about how scary the world has become and how close we are getting to AGI. I don't belong to that category. Looking at past history, we can't avoid the evolution of technology, and we just have to find ways to protect ourselves from people who are trying to cause harm by using AI. That has not been any different in the past if you think about viruses and other cyber-related vulnerabilities. We are living in very exciting times, and just looking at what Microsoft Build (Microsoft's development conference) last week revealed, we will see amazing AI implementations in the next 12 months. #AI #AGI #artificialintelligence #msn #TELLUSint #LLM https://lnkd.in/gZXSE2Ud

We all encounter different types of people in our lives and careers. There are givers, takers, and matches, and each of these personal traits has a different outcome. The book "Give and Take" by Wharton's youngest tenured professor, Adam Grant, is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, and he provides many empirical examples of each personal trait. I wanted to bring this book review because I feel that the topics in the book never get old, and it is important for us to learn how to deal with these three different personality types and recognize their characteristics when we meet them and what they could lead to. #careerdevelopment #career #bookreviews #drsalonenbookreview #bookreview #motivation #selfimprovement #TELLUSInt TELLUS International https://lnkd.in/gZ3PY-yc

As many of you might already be subscribing to my LinkedIn Newsletters (thank you), you can now also find all the book reviews I have made, the webinars, and events that we have been part of. These resources are in addition to the regular TELLUS blog where you will find topics around AI, business models, document management, Office 365, Azure, and many other things. The software and IT ecosystems are experiencing a radical change due to AI, and we are responsible for staying on top of things. One way I stay on top of things is to share information and write about it in my own words (not generating it using ChatGPT). Writing and thinking is still the way to go. I use ChatGPT and Microsoft 365 Copilot in my daily work, but when it comes to blogs and write-ups, I want to be authentic and use my own words. hashtag #TELLUSInt #AI #build #Microsoftbuild #continuouslearning #businessmodels #resources https://lnkd.in/g-bGP-S8