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Kashif Manzoor

Open Tech Talks is your weekly sandbox for technology insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Kashif Manzoor, Cloud Expert, Tech Evangelist, and Enterprise Architect reveals the latest Technology information through Podcast and brings together Product overviews, How-to’s, Best practices, Tips & tricks, and Troubleshooting techniques. You can grow your career through these podcasts for fresh and continuous learning of Information and Oracle Technology. Open Tech Talks is an initiative to bring together Industry Experts to share knowledge and information around the latest happenings in the world of technology. Be Part of Tech Talk? We ♥ Technology. We will share what problems and challenges are facing in solving business requirements in the real world. If you are a CIO, IT Manager, IT Head, Cloud Expert, Database Administrator, Apps DBA, ERP Consultant, Technical consultant, developer, advisor, Big Data Experts, PaaS expert, technology manager, or a project manager. Don’t miss out to learn what works and doesn’t work to help you better understand how to become an expert in Technology for business. The Open Tech Talks Podcast covers all the hot topics and trends in the Technology World and features interactive interviews with Technology Thought leaders. OTechTalks aims to provide simple tips and suggestions to the everyday user. It is a mix of technology, people, politics, careers, and trends. The views expressed on this Podcast, blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

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Artificial Intelligence is no longer just for large enterprises with massive IT budgets. Today, even the smallest businesses can automate repetitive work, improve customer service, and reclaim valuable hours using AI.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Anne Cantera 01:12 The Role of AI in Small Businesses 03:43 Identifying Problems in Small Businesses 06:41 Implementing AI Solutions 10:24 Tech Stack and Feasibility for Small Businesses 12:30 Driving Towards Workable AI Products 13:43 Adoption Challenges and Experiences 15:43 Measuring ROI in AI Implementations 18:07 Advice for Small Business Owners 19:40 Educating Yourself on AI 22:43 Public Perception of AI 24:09 Conclusion and Contact Information

Episode # 146

Today's Guest: Anne Cantera, Founder, Elementyl Intelligence She is an AI and voice technology expert, conversation designer, and founder of Elementyl Intelligence

  • Website: Elementyl Intelligence
  • LinkedIn

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Why small businesses may adopt AI faster than large enterprises
  • How to identify business problems that AI can solve
  • A practical framework for assessing AI opportunities
  • When AI is the right solution and when it isn't
  • How voice agents can automate customer interactions
  • The benefits of AI-powered inbox and workflow automation
  • How custom AI solutions are becoming affordable for SMEs
  • Why ROI should drive every AI investment
  • The importance of AI literacy for business owners
  • How to become a better AI operator.
  • Why monitoring and continuous improvement matter after AI deployment.
  • Common mistakes businesses make when implementing AI.
  • How to avoid misinformation and AI hype.

Resources: * Elementyl Intelligence * Voice of AI - Free AI Education Platform * Elemental Intelligence - AI Consulting for Small Business * Reuven Cohen - Trusted AI Educator

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Artificial Intelligence has completely transformed software development. What started with autocomplete has evolved into AI coding agents capable of building entire applications from simple prompts. But as organizations adopt these tools, new challenges emerge: cost, security, vendor lock-in, enterprise governance, and the future role of software engineers.

Today's conversation isn't about one product. It's about understanding where software development is heading over the next few years.

Joining me is Emilie Schario, VP of Engineering at Kilo, where she works on agentic engineering and multi-model AI developer tools. We discuss how enterprises should think about AI coding assistants, why relying on a single AI model may not be the future, how engineering teams should prioritize product development, and what both junior and senior developers need to do to stay relevant.

Whether you're a developer, engineering leader, CTO, startup founder, or simply curious about AI transforming software engineering, this episode is packed with practical insights.

Let's get started.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Emily Sherio and Kilo Code 04:13 The Role of Kilo in Developer Productivity 07:52 Choosing the Right AI Models for Development 12:24 Building Features that Matter 16:38 The Importance of Code Review and Feature Management 19:24 The Future of Development and AI Integration 25:59 The Necessity of Learning Coding Principles 30:16 Enhancing Security in Coding Tools

Episode # 194

Today's Guest: Emilie Schario, VP of Engineering, Kilo She works on agentic engineering and multi-model AI developer tools

Guests Links:

  • LinkedIn

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Why AI coding is moving toward multi-model architectures.
  • The advantages and risks of proprietary AI coding tools.
  • How organizations can reduce AI infrastructure costs.
  • Why vendor lock-in is becoming an AI challenge.
  • The future of developer productivity.
  • Why code review is becoming more important than writing code.
  • Product management lessons every startup should know.
  • When to remove features rather than add more.
  • Enterprise AI security challenges.
  • How organizations can adopt AI without compromising security.
  • Why prompt engineering is becoming a fundamental skill.
  • Advice for junior developers entering the AI era.
  • The importance of mentoring the next generation of engineers.

Resources: * Kilo - AI Developer Platform * Prompts for Mere Mortals by Florian Hines

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One lesson I've learned throughout my career, from enterprise architecture to cloud transformation and now Generative AI, is this.

Every technology revolution follows the same pattern.

At first, companies invest in technology.

Later, they realize they should have invested in people.

I've seen organizations spend millions on software while allocating almost nothing to learning.

Then six months later they ask,

"Why aren't people using the new platform?"

The answer usually isn't difficult.

People don't resist technology.

People resist uncertainty.

When employees understand how AI helps them become better, not replaced, they become curious.

Curiosity leads to experimentation.

Experimentation builds confidence.

Confidence creates innovation.

That's how real transformation happens.

Today's conversation is about something that many organizations overlook.

Not AI models.

Not software.

Not hype.

We're talking about AI capability, the skill that will define the winners of the next decade.

Let's begin.

Episode # 193

Today's Guest: John Munsell, Chief Executive Officer, Bizzuka, Inc. John Munsell is the co-founder of Bizzuka, an AI consulting firm focused on artificial intelligence strategy and implementation. With a career spanning over 25 years in marketing, software development, financial services, and sales, John brings a wealth of experience to the AI industry.

  • Website: Bizzuka

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Why AI success depends more on people than technology
  • The importance of AI skills across an organization
  • Why giving employees AI tools isn't enough
  • How organizations can measure AI capability
  • The hidden cost of poor AI adoption
  • Why AI training delivers long-term business value
  • Common mistakes leaders make during AI transformation
  • Practical ways to improve workforce AI readiness
  • Why experimentation matters more than perfection
  • How AI can increase productivity across every role

Resources: * Bizzuka

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One thing I've noticed after working with enterprise customers for more than 20 years is this.

When AI projects fail, people usually blame the model.

They blame ChatGPT. They blame the vendor. They blame the technology.

But after sitting in hundreds of customer meetings, I rarely found AI itself to be the problem.

The real problem was hidden somewhere else.

The data was scattered. Nobody knew which document was the latest. Every department had its own tools. Everyone wanted AI, but nobody agreed on the business problem they were trying to solve.

I remember one customer asking me,

"Can AI search all of our knowledge?"

My first question wasn't about AI.

It was,

"Where is your knowledge?"

The room became quiet.

Because the answer was:

"It's everywhere."

That conversation completely changed how I think about enterprise AI.

Today we're going to discuss something that doesn't get enough attention.

Not prompts. Not models. Not the latest AI announcements.

We're talking about the foundation that determines whether AI becomes a competitive advantage—or an expensive experiment.

Let's get started.

Episode # 192

Today's Guest: Abby Clobridge, Founder and Fractional CIO of FireOak Strategies She's spent her career working with nonprofits, NGOs, foundations, and mission-driven businesses to solve a problem almost every organization faces but few can articulate: how to make technology actually work for people.

  • Website: FireOakStrategies

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Why AI projects fail before the first prompt is written
  • The hidden connection between knowledge management and AI success
  • How messy data reduces AI accuracy
  • What AI readiness really means
  • Why governance matters more than buying new AI tools
  • How small businesses can compete with AI
  • Practical ways organizations are using AI for automation
  • Common mistakes leaders make when adopting AI
  • How to build an AI strategy that lasts beyond today's hype
  • The role of IT leaders in successful AI transformation

Resources: * FireOakStrategies

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AI has changed the conversation.

Not because machines suddenly became intelligent, but because millions of ordinary people suddenly gained access to something that felt extraordinary.

I still remember when ChatGPT first became available. Like many people, I opened it with curiosity. I wasn't looking for shortcuts. I wanted to understand what was actually happening.

Every week since then, I have spoken with founders, researchers, engineers, and business leaders from around the world. One thing became very clear.

Technology changes quickly.

People don't.

Many businesses are still asking the wrong question.

"How can AI do my work?"

Instead, we should ask,

"How can AI help me become better at the work only I can do?"

That's a very different conversation.

I've learned that AI can generate content.

It can analyze data.

It can write code.

But it still cannot replace purpose.

It cannot replace your experiences.

It cannot replace your story.

The companies that will succeed over the next few years won't simply use more AI.

They will know how to combine technology with authenticity.

Today's conversation is exactly about that.

Not just where AI is going…

…but where we, as humans, need to grow alongside it.

Let's begin.

Episode # 192

Today's Guest: Mona Bavar, Founder, BlueApples.ai She is a cultural innovator blending ancient wisdom with cutting-edge AI to transform how businesses tell their stories and shape the future.

  • Website: BlueApples.ai

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Why AI should amplify your uniqueness instead of replacing it
  • How businesses can keep their authentic brand voice in the AI era
  • Why knowing your "why" matters more than learning prompts
  • Practical ways entrepreneurs can start using AI without losing their identity
  • The future of AI in governance, search, agents, and business
  • How to prepare for 2026 without chasing every new tool

Resources: * BlueApples.ai

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For the last two years, almost every conversation in technology has been about AI.

New models. New tools. New agents. New automation.

And honestly, I understand the excitement.

I've spent more than 20 years working in technology, cloud, AI, and enterprise transformation. I've seen many waves of innovation. But this one feels different.

Yet something has been bothering me.

Every conference I attend, every LinkedIn post I read, every discussion I have with business leaders seems focused on one question:

"What can AI do?"

Very few people are asking:

"What should I become?"

A few years ago, if someone wanted career growth, the advice was simple.

Work hard. Gain experience. Move to the next role.

Today, that roadmap is disappearing.

The world is changing faster than job descriptions can keep up.

And that's why this conversation matters.

Because the future may not belong to the people with the best title.

It may belong to the people who remain curious, adaptable, connected, and willing to keep learning.

In this episode, we're not talking about prompts or models.

We're talking about people.

Because while AI is changing work, humans are still responsible for creating meaning.

Episode # 191

Today's Guest: Carlee Wolfe, Leadership Strategist, Talent Advisor, and Coach She is a strategist, connector, and coach helping people and organizations thrive through change. With 20+ years of leading talent, culture, and transformation across global brands like Under Armour, Hyatt Hotels, Apollo Education Group, and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee

  • Website: LinkedIn

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Why curiosity is becoming more valuable than expertise
  • The real meaning of networking in the AI era
  • How leaders can create a culture of learning
  • Why do many professionals feel stuck in their careers
  • How AI is changing career growth and workplace expectations
  • Practical ways to continue learning despite a busy schedule
  • How to prepare for the future of work without fear
  • Why are human skills becoming more important as AI advances

Resources: * LinkedIn

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For most of my career, technology felt predictable.

A new software platform arrived. A new programming language appeared. A new cloud service changed how we deploy applications.

Every wave of technology helped people work faster.

But AI feels different.

Over the last two years, I have watched professionals across industries experience something I have never seen before.

People are not simply using a new tool.

They are having conversations with technology.

A marketer can generate campaigns. A consultant can build frameworks. A developer can create applications in hours instead of weeks.

And every week, the systems become smarter.

Personally, I have experienced this while building AI frameworks, experimenting with coding agents, and working with organizations trying to adopt Generative AI.

Many times I have found myself staring at a screen thinking:

"How did it do that?"

Not because the output was perfect.

But because the pace of improvement was faster than expected.

This raises an important question.

If AI is becoming more capable every month, how do we ensure we build systems that remain useful, trustworthy, and safe?

That is exactly what we explore in today's Open Tech Talks conversation with Dr. Craig Kaplan.

Episode # 190

Today's Guest: Dr. Craig A. Kaplan, Inventor of the designs and Technologies that enable safe SuperIntelligence. He is a pioneer in artificial intelligence and the inventor behind technologies designed for safe Superintelligence. For more than four decades, he has worked at the intersection of intelligent systems, ethics, and innovation, developing architectures that help AI evolve safely and remain aligned with human values.

  • Website: SuperIntelligence
  • YouTube: iStudios

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • How AI evolved from symbolic systems to Generative AI
  • The difference between AI, AGI, and Superintelligence
  • Why are many AI researchers concerned about AI safety
  • Enterprise AI risks leaders should understand today
  • Why AI agents are becoming the next major AI wave
  • The rise of multi-agent and collective intelligence systems
  • How organizations can design safer AI solutions
  • Why AI is shifting from a tool to a digital coworker
  • The future impact of AI on jobs and knowledge work
  • Practical guidance for responsible AI adoption

Resources: * SuperIntelligence

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For many years, technology projects were relatively predictable. A new system was implemented, a process was automated, or an application was modernized. The challenges were technical, but the path was usually clear.

Then Generative AI arrived.

I still remember some of the early conversations with technology leaders. Almost every discussion had the same underlying question: "How quickly can we adopt AI?" Yet very few people were asking a more important question: "Why are we adopting AI?"

Throughout my career in enterprise technology, ERP, cloud, and AI transformation, I've seen organizations succeed when they focus on solving real business problems. I've also seen companies chase trends because everyone else was doing it.

Today's conversation reminded me that technology leadership is no longer about buying the latest tool. It's about balancing innovation, security, business value, and human judgment.

As AI becomes part of every organization, the challenge is not whether to adopt it. The challenge is adopting it thoughtfully.

Episode # 188

Today's Guest: Kevin Carlson, TechCXO Partner Kevin Carlson is a seasoned tech exec and a go-to expert on AI's real-world impact within businesses. He's been a CTO or CISO four times over, working across different industries in both North America and Europe, so he brings a genuinely practical viewpoint to how AI is changing business and the world.

  • Website: TechCXO

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Why do many AI initiatives fail despite large investments
  • How technology leaders should balance innovation and business value
  • The difference between AI hype and AI outcomes
  • Practical approaches for introducing AI into organizations
  • Why starting small often leads to bigger success
  • Common mistakes enterprises make during AI adoption
  • How security leaders should think about AI risks
  • Data privacy considerations when using public AI models
  • Why governance matters more than ever
  • How AI is changing the role of developers
  • Why communication and product thinking are becoming critical skills
  • The rise of AI-assisted software development

Resources: * TechCXO

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One thing I have realized after years of working in AI, enterprise systems, ERP, and now Generative AI, is that technology alone never changes industries.

What changes industries is understanding people.

The problem today is not a shortage of content. There is no shortage of tools. It is not even a shortage of AI models.

The real problem is relevance.

Why do people ignore most advertisements? Why do customers disconnect from brands? Why do organizations create more AI-generated content but still fail to create engagement?

Because human decision-making is emotional, contextual, irrational, and deeply personal. And that is why today's conversation is important.

For years, the world focused on machine learning models, automation, and now Generative AI. But very few people are asking a deeper question:

Can AI actually understand human intent, context, and decision-making?

Today's guest, Martin Lucas, has spent years exploring exactly that through deterministic AI and decision science.

And personally, this topic resonates with me deeply.

Because while building AI adoption frameworks and helping organizations modernize, I constantly see one challenge repeated everywhere:

Companies are automating communication…but not improving understanding.

They are generating more…but connecting less.

This episode is not just about AI technology. It is about human behavior, trust, context, branding, creativity, and the future relationship between humans and intelligent systems.

Let's dive in.

Episode # 188

Today's Guest: Martin Lucas, Inventor of Deterministic AI He is the inventor of deterministic AI and decision science, proven across more than 100 global brands with results up to 76% above market performance.

  • Website: Deterministic AI

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • What deterministic AI means in simple language
  • Why traditional LLMs still struggle with consistency and context
  • The difference between content generation and true understanding
  • Why most ads and marketing messages fail today
  • How human emotions influence decision-making
  • Why AI-generated content often feels repetitive and disconnected
  • How brands can create stronger emotional relevance with customers
  • Why curiosity is essential for creativity and innovation
  • The future relationship between AI, creativity, and human psychology
  • How startups can build stronger brand positioning using behavioral understanding

Resources: * Deterministic AI

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One of the biggest shifts I'm seeing right now is not only how AI is changing work, but how it is changing the way we test ideas.

In the past, if a founder, researcher, product manager, or strategist wanted to validate an idea, the process was slow. Build a hypothesis. Run surveys. Wait for responses. Clean the data. Analyze it. Then maybe discover the question itself was not strong enough.

Now, with GenAI, that whole cycle is being challenged.

And this connects directly with my own work as well. When I work on AI strategy, GenAI maturity, or enterprise adoption roadmaps, the hardest part is often not the technology. The hardest part is asking the right question before building the solution.

That is why today's conversation is important.

Because we are moving from AI as a content generator to AI as a thinking partner.

A system that can help researchers, founders, and teams test assumptions, explore user behavior, and sharpen decisions before spending time and money in the wrong direction.

Today, I'm joined by Sharif Amlani, who brings together political science, research methods, data analysis, and generative AI to build tools for synthetic respondents and AI-powered research analysis.

This is a conversation about research, validation, synthetic data, agents, and what happens when GenAI becomes part of the thinking process itself.

Let's get into it.

Episode # 187

Today's Guest: Sharif Amlani, Founder, HumanAI Sharif Amlani is the Founder and CEO of HumanAI, a UC Berkeley startup using generative AI to transform how we do research, analyze data, and expand what we know about the world around us.

  • Website: HumanAI

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • How GenAI is changing research, surveys, and analysis
  • What synthetic respondents are and where they can be useful
  • Why AI-generated responses should support-not replace-real human validation
  • How founders can test ideas earlier, before spending money on surveys
  • Why talking to users remains the most important startup habit
  • How AI agents can support analysis and reporting workflows
  • Why consistency matters more than intensity when building a startup
  • How market feedback can reveal a different customer than originally expected

Resources: * HumanAI

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Over the past year, something has become very clear.

AI is not just a technology shift. It is a leadership test.

Across enterprises, startups, and even governments, the same pattern keeps repeating:

  • Leaders are being pushed to act fast
  • Teams are overwhelmed with change
  • And yet, clarity is missing

From the outside, it looks like a technology race.

But from inside organizations, it feels very different.

It feels like:

  • uncertainty
  • pressure
  • and a constant question - "Are we doing enough?"

In conversations with CIOs, architects, and business leaders, one thing stands out:

The real challenge is not adopting AI.

The real challenge is leading through it.

That's why this episode matters.

Chapter List:

00:00 Introduction to Silicon Valley Executive Academy 01:37 Understanding the Silicon Valley Playbook 03:20 The Impact of AI on Leadership 05:25 Leading Through AI Transformation 09:45 Managing Pressure as a Leader 11:21 Driving Growth with a Healthy Culture 13:39 Common Challenges for Executives 16:00 The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership 17:20 Micro Joy Method for Leaders 18:58 Building Trust as a Leader 19:54 Identifying Red Flags in Leadership 21:20 Evolving Leadership Models 23:53 Advice for Emerging Leaders

Episode # 186

Today's Guest: Victoria Mensch, CEO & Founder, Silicon Valley Executive Academy An executive leadership coach and strategist with over 25 years of experience in Silicon Valley's high-tech sector. With a PhD in Psychology and an MBA from UC Berkeley.

  • Website: Executive Silicon Valley

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Why AI adoption is fundamentally a leadership challenge
  • How pressure and hype impact executive decision-making
  • The difference between transformation and patching processes with AI
  • Why culture and team alignment matter more than tools
  • How leaders can manage uncertainty without burning out teams
  • What early-career professionals should focus on in an AI-driven world
  • Why trust, courage, and clarity are becoming core leadership traits

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80% of enterprise AI projects never reach production. After two decades helping enterprises adopt new technology, Kashif Manzoor breaks down the five failure modes killing enterprise AI initiatives, introduces the GenAI Maturity Framework, and shares three questions every CTO should ask before approving their next AI project.

Episode #: 185

In this episode, you'll learn:

  • The 5 failure modes killing enterprise AI initiatives
  • The GenAI Maturity Framework (6 dimensions, 6 levels)
  • 3 questions every CTO should ask before their next AI initiative
  • Why the gap between perceived and actual AI maturity is where POCs go to die
  • Practical actions you can take this week

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 - The POC graveyard (a real conversation)

1:30 - Welcome + Why this episode exists

3:30 - My journey: Oracle → Cloud → GenAI

7:00 - The 80% problem: Why enterprise AI fails

10:00 - Failure Mode 1: The Strategy Gap

12:30 - Failure Mode 2: The Architecture Gap

15:00 - Failure Mode 3: The Governance Gap

17:00 - Failure Mode 4: The Talent Gap

19:00 - Failure Mode 5: The Measurement Gap

21:00 - The GenAI Maturity Framework (6 levels explained)

24:00 - 3 Questions Every CTO Should Ask

26:30 - What's coming next

28:00 - Subscribe + Connect

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Over the last couple of years, most of my conversations around AI have been about capability.

How fast models are improving.

How agents are becoming more autonomous.

How enterprises can adopt GenAI safely.

How teams can redesign workflows around intelligence.

But this week, I found myself thinking about something deeper.

Not what AI can do.

But what does AI cost?

And I don't just mean money.

I mean energy.

I mean infrastructure.

I mean the hidden assumptions underneath the current AI boom.

Because when we talk about the future of AI, most people immediately jump to models, chips, data centers, agents, and software stacks.

But as someone who works closely with organizations trying to operationalize AI in the real world, I keep coming back to a harder question:

What happens when the current compute model itself becomes the bottleneck?

This is not a question most teams are asking yet.

But it is a question serious builders should start paying attention to.

This week, while reviewing different enterprise AI patterns and thinking through long-term architecture choices, I realized that much of the current AI conversation still happens within the assumptions of silicon, scale, and software abstraction.

But what if the next major shift is not a better model?

What if it is a different computing substrate altogether?

That's exactly why today's conversation is important.

Because this episode is not about another AI app.

It is not about another wrapper.

It is not about another productivity layer.

It is about something much more fundamental:

What might come after silicon, and how should we think about it today?

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Ewelina Kurtis and Final Spark 00:52 Understanding Living Neurons and Their Potential 02:44 The Vision Behind Final Spark 05:34 Current Progress and Future Goals 08:27 Collaborations and Research Opportunities 11:17 Programming Living Neurons 14:02 Ethical Considerations in Biocomputing 16:59 Benefits of Biocomputing for Society 19:39 Advice for Aspiring Bioengineers 22:30 Commercial Aspects of Final Spark 24:24 Investor Insights and Future Directions

Episode # 184

Today's Guest: Dr. Ewelina Kurtys, Scientist from FinalSpark * Website: FinalSpark

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Why the future of AI may require rethinking computation itself, not just models
  • How energy efficiency is becoming a core strategic issue in AI
  • What biocomputing means in simple terms
  • How living-neuron-based computing differs from traditional silicon-based systems
  • Why future AI progress may depend on alternative hardware paradigms
  • How emerging scientific computing trends should matter to enterprise AI leaders today
  • Why staying ahead in AI means looking beyond current tools and architectures

Resources: * FinalSpark

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Episode # 183

Today's Guest: Adriel Desautels, Founder & CEO, Netragard Adriel is a leader in cybersecurity with over 20 years of experience. Adriel founded Secure Network Operations and the SNOsoft Research Team, whose vulnerability research helped shape modern responsible disclosure practices. He later launched Netragard, pioneering Realistic Threat Penetration Testing, which he now call Red Teaming, and expanding into a broad range of security services.

  • Website: Netregard
  • X/Twitter: Netregard

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Why "AI penetration testing" is often closer to automated scanning than real offensive testing
  • How AI changes security risk mainly through volume and speed, not necessarily sophistication
  • Where organizations get misled into a false sense of security
  • Why "preventing breach" is unrealistic and why limiting damage paths matters more
  • What cybersecurity professionals should focus on to stay relevant in the LLM era
  • How AI may influence vulnerability research, but still struggles with novel exploitation thinking

Resources: * Netregard

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Welcome to Open Tech Talks.

Quick note before we start, thank you.

The messages, the feedback, the "keep this practical" reminders… they've been incredibly helpful. Open Tech Talks has always been a weekly sandbox for technology insights, experimentation, and inspiration—with one objective: learn, test, and share what's real.

Now, a personal moment from this week.

A few days ago, I sat with a business owner who said something that stuck with me:

"AI is everywhere… but I don't know where to start without breaking my business."

And that's the truth for most companies, especially small businesses.

Because "start with AI" sounds simple… until it touches real operations:

  • leads that go cold,
  • follow-ups that don't happen,
  • teams that feel overwhelmed,
  • tools that multiply,
  • processes that nobody can explain clearly.

Most AI projects don't fail because the model is weak.

They fail because the process is unclear, the team is overloaded, and the strategy is missing.

Let's begin.

Episode # 182

Today's Guest: Mindaugas (Min) Maciulis, Founder & CEO of Strategic AI Advisors He works with CEOs, COOs, and operating partners in the $20M–$250M range who are ready to go beyond pilots and turn AI into real EBITDA growth. His proven 90-day sprint framework, AImpact OS, delivers measurable lifts across productivity, customer service, and sales.

  • Website: Strategic Advisors

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Identify the best "starting point" for AI using business pain, not hype
  • Understand why AI pilots fail mostly due to adoption (not technology)
  • Learn a practical approach to simplify workflows before adding automation
  • See how SMBs can move faster than enterprises in the AI era
  • Understand the difference between augmentation and transformation with AI
  • Learn how to avoid tool overload and focus on measurable outcomes

Resources: * Strategic Advisors

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This week, I've been thinking about something slightly uncomfortable.

Last weekend, I was reviewing one of my older architecture diagrams from five years ago. A cloud-native migration plan I was deeply proud of at the time. It was clean. Structured. Scalable.

And then I asked myself:

If I were to rebuild this today in the era of generative AI…

Would I build it the same way?

The honest answer?

No.

Not because it was wrong.

But because our assumptions have changed.

Two years ago, AI was a feature.

Today, AI is shaping architecture decisions.

We're not just designing systems anymore.

We're designing systems that design, generate, predict, and automate.

And here's the tension I keep seeing in enterprise conversations:

Everyone wants AI.

But very few are asking:

"What technical debt are we creating while chasing it?"

That's why today's conversation matters.

Today, I'm joined by Maxim Salav, based in Australia, someone who works deeply in enterprise architecture and technical debt remediation.

And this episode is not about hype.

It's about responsibility.

Because AI doesn't remove architectural complexity.

In many cases, it amplifies it.

Let's get into it.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Technical Debt and Architecture 01:34 The Impact of AI on Technical Debt 04:12 Generative AI and Architectural Challenges 08:40 Adopting AI in Organizations 12:26 Building AI Strategies and Governance 17:33 Data Quality and AI Integration 22:43 Guardrails for AI Adoption

Episode # 181

Today's Guest: Maxim Silaev, Technology Advisor and Enterprise Architect He is a technology advisor and enterprise architect with more than two decades of experience working with high-growth companies, complex systems, and business-critical platforms.

  • Website: Arch-Experts

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • What technical debt really means in the AI era
  • How generative AI can unintentionally increase hidden system risk
  • Why architecture remains critical despite AI coding tools
  • The importance of governance and verification layers in AI systems
  • How large enterprises are cautiously integrating AI
  • Why strategy must precede AI deployment
  • The evolving role of enterprise architects in AI-native environments

Resources: * Arch-Experts

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Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Kara Williams 01:53 Kara's Coaching Journey and Entrepreneurial Background 03:20 The Importance of a Simplified Tech Stack 05:51 Common Mistakes in Tech Selection 07:09 Exploring AI in Business 08:16 Creating the Proof First GPT 10:47 Learning and Executing with AI 12:04 Common Challenges Faced by Entrepreneurs 13:50 Guiding New Entrepreneurs 14:59 Misconceptions About Low Ticket Offers 16:18 Refining Messaging and Offers 17:29 The Role of Automation in Business 18:34 Understanding Automation Needs 19:36 Testing Freebies and Building Relationships 20:29 Lessons Learned in Business 21:20 Future Plans and Refinements 22:31 Final Tips for Entrepreneurs

Episode # 180

Today's Guest: Kara Williams, Founder, GHL Mastery Academy She is the founder of GHL Mastery Academy, where she helps CEOs stop being the bottleneck in their business by turning their VA, OBM, or EA into a trained backend powerhouse.

  • Website: Kara Williams
  • Youtube: GHL Mastery Academy

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Why "cheap tool stacking" quietly becomes expensive (money + time + broken trust)
  • How to think about systems like a real business owner (not a hobbyist)
  • Why reliability matters more than feature-count in early-stage tech stacks
  • How entrepreneurs can use AI to validate offers before building full courses or funnels
  • What automation is actually for: visibility, testing, and removing blind spots
  • How to simplify business operations without losing flexibility or creativity

Resources: * Website: Kara Williams

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Welcome back to Open Tech Talks, and thank you, genuinely, for the continued support, messages, and thoughtful feedback. This show has been running for years now, and what keeps it meaningful is the shared curiosity of this community.

We're in a very different phase of the AI journey.

The conversation has clearly moved past "Can we build this?"

Now it's about "Should we build this?", "Is this sustainable?", and "Does this actually create value?"

Over the last year, I've personally noticed something interesting while working with enterprises, founders, and investors: AI has lowered the cost of building but raised the cost of judgment.

It's easier than ever to create products, prototypes, and even companies. But deciding what's worth building, when to raise capital, and how to scale responsibly has become harder, not easier.

That's why today's conversation matters.

This episode is not about chasing trends or predicting the next AI unicorn.

It's about long-term thinking, founder discipline, and understanding capital, timing, and execution in an AI-driven world.

Today's guest has spent decades working across venture capital, startup growth, and exits through multiple technology cycles and brings a grounded perspective that's especially valuable right now.

Let's welcome Scott Kelly to Open Tech Talks.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Scott Kelly and His Ventures 02:00 The Transformative Impact of AI 04:03 Successful Investments and Entrepreneurial Journeys 05:53 Lessons for Entrepreneurs and Pitching Tips 10:06 Navigating the AI Landscape in Startups 11:52 Industry Applications of AI 14:54 Pitch Events and Investor Engagement 17:03 Investor Perspectives on New Technologies 19:52 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Episode # 179

Today's Guest: Scott Kelly, Founder & CEO, Black Dog Venture Partners He has been working on both sides, with entrepreneurs and investors alike, for more than three decades. Harnessing his innovative skills, vast experience training thousands of salespeople, and tapping into his vast network of investors.

  • Website: Black Dog Venture Partners
  • Youtube: VC FastPitch

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • How AI is changing the economics of building and scaling startups
  • Why many founders may not need venture capital as early as they think
  • Lessons from past technology cycles that still apply in the GenAI era
  • How investors evaluate AI-driven businesses beyond surface-level hype
  • Why timing, discipline, and execution matter more than tools
  • What founders often misunderstand about pitching, capital, and exits
  • How AI lowers build costs but raises the importance of strategic judgment

Resources: * Website: Black Dog Venture Partners * YouTube: VC FastPitch

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January has a very particular energy.

The holidays are behind us. The inbox is slowly filling up again. Calendars are waking up. And there's always this short window, just a few quiet days, where it feels like everything could still go in a different direction.

I've been thinking a lot during this pause.

Over the last couple of years, AI and large language models have gone from experiments to expectations. What used to feel optional is now part of daily work, whether someone asked for it or not. And the biggest shift I've personally noticed isn't technical.

It's psychological.

People aren't asking "What can AI do?" anymore.

They're asking "What should we actually build?", "What do we trust?", and "What's worth shipping versus waiting?"

That question shows up everywhere, especially in product teams.

Because as exciting as LLMs are, shipping the wrong AI feature is worse than shipping none at all.

And that's exactly why today's conversation matters.

This episode is not about hype.

It's about judgment, timing, and responsibility in product leadership.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Angshuman Rudra 01:06 The Impact of Large Language Models on Product Management 03:14 Balancing Innovation and User Needs 04:37 Navigating Generative AI in Product Development 06:46 Driving Adoption of New Features 09:34 Challenges and Lessons in Generative AI Products 11:15 Evolving Roles of Product Leaders with AI 12:39 The Future of Multi-Agent Systems 14:36 Translating User Requirements into Product Features 17:31 Finding the Next Big Feature 19:56 Adopting AI in Development Cycles 21:24 Tips for Job Seekers in Tech 23:10 Market Shifts in Marketing Technology 25:01 Exciting Use Cases in Marketing Technology 26:52 Concluding Thoughts and Future Outlook

Episode # 178

Today's Guest: Angshuman Rudra, AI Product Leader, building Martech platforms, AI Agents, and data workflows for 500+ agencies. Angshuman Rudra is a senior product executive at TapClicks, where he leads a portfolio of data, analytics, and AI products for a market-leading martech platform.

  • Website: Angshuman Rudra

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • How to evaluate real user demand for AI features (not hype)
  • When AI adds value and when it creates unnecessary complexity
  • How product leaders should think about LLMs as tools, not magic
  • Why many AI features fail after launch
  • How to balance innovation with resource constraints
  • What "AI adoption" actually looks like inside real companies
  • Why multi-agent systems are promising but not ready to be fully autonomous
  • How PMs can use AI for research, specs, and design without losing judgment
  • What skills will matter most for product leaders over the next 3–5 years

Resources: * Angshuman Rudra

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In this episode of Open Tech Talks, host Kashif Manzoor sits down with Bobbie Chen, a product manager working at the intersection of fraud prevention, cybersecurity, and AI agent identification in Silicon Valley.

As generative AI and large language models rapidly move from experimentation into real products, organizations are discovering a new reality. The same tools that make building software easier also make abuse, fraud, and attacks easier. Vibe coding, AI agents, and LLM-powered workflows are accelerating innovation, but they are also lowering the barrier for bad actors.

This conversation breaks down why security, identity, and access control matter more than ever in the age of LLMs, especially as AI systems begin to touch authentication, customer data, financial workflows, and enterprise knowledge. Bobbie shares practical insights from real-world security and fraud scenarios, explaining why many AI risks are not entirely new but become more dangerous when speed, automation, and scale increase.

The episode explores how organizations can adopt AI responsibly without bypassing decades of hard-earned security lessons. From bot abuse and credit farming to identity-aware AI systems and OAuth-based access control, this discussion helps listeners understand where AI changes the threat model and where it doesn't.

This is not a hype-driven episode. It is a grounded, experience-backed conversation for professionals who want to build, deploy, and scale AI systems without creating invisible security debt.

Episode # 177

Today's Guest: Bobbie Chen, Product Manager, Fraud and Security at Stytch Bobbie is a product manager at Stytch, where he helps organizations like Calendly and Replit fight against fraud and abuse.

  • LinkedIn: Bobbie Chen

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • How LLMs and AI agents change the economics of fraud and abuse, making attacks cheaper, faster, and more customized
  • Why vibe coding is powerful for experimentation, but risky when used without security review in production systems
  • The difference between exploring AI ideas and asking users to trust you with sensitive data
  • Standard security blind spots in AI-powered apps, especially around authentication, parsing, and edge cases
  • Why organizations should not give AI systems blanket access to enterprise data
  • How identity-aware AI systems using OAuth and scoped access reduce risk in RAG and enterprise search
  • Why are many AI security failures process and organizational problems, not tooling problems
  • How fraud patterns like AI credit farming and automated abuse are emerging at scale
  • Why security teams must shift from being gatekeepers to continuous partners in AI adoption
  • How professionals in security, product, and engineering can stay current as AI threats evolve

Resources: * Bobbie Chen * The two blogs I mentioned: * Simon Willison: https://simonwillison.net * Drew Breunig: https://www.dbreunig.com

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In this episode of Open Tech Talks, I sit down with Professor Russell Van Brocklin, a New York State Senate-funded researcher, known as "The Dyslexic Professor," to unpack a very different way of thinking about AI, problem-solving, and dyslexia.

Russell's work sits at the intersection of cognitive enhancement and AI integration.

He shows how an "overactive" front part of the dyslexic brain (word analysis and articulation) can be turned into a superpower not just for dyslexic learners, but for professionals and businesses working with AI.

We talk about how his program took dyslexic high-school students who were writing like 12-year-olds and, in one school year, moved them up 7–8 grade levels in writing… at a fraction of the cost of traditional dyslexia programs.

From there, he connects it to AI collaboration: how the same mental models (context → problem → solution) can make anyone dramatically more effective when working with LLMs like ChatGPT.

Episode # 176

Today's Guest: Russell Van Brocklen, Dyslexia Professor Russell Van Brocklen speaking, the Dyslexia Professor, shifting daily reading frustrations into confident academic wins for students facing dyslexia

  • Youtube: RussellVan

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • How dyslexic thinking becomes a competitive advantage in the age of AI
  • Why the dyslexic brain processes information differently, and how that translates into deeper reasoning
  • A practical framework for working with AI: context → problem → solution
  • How to use "hero, universal theme, and villain" to sharpen thinking and guide AI more effectively
  • How to perform word analysis with AI (action words, synonyms, key concepts) to get more focused outputs
  • A step-by-step way to compress long AI responses into clear, structured insights
  • How to generate business solutions by running context through a "universal theme lens"
  • Why AI is exceptional for first drafts and why humans must still lead the final edits
  • How dyslexic learners can use deep reading and repetition for breakthroughs in comprehension
  • Practical strategies for teachers in the AI era: how to allow AI but still ensure authentic student work
  • How non-technical users can collaborate with AI to write books, solve problems, and accelerate learning
  • Real stories of professionals and students transforming their work through structured AI thinking

Resources: * RussellVan

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In this week's episode of Open Tech Talks, host Kashif Manzoor takes you through a convenient, real-world guide to building your first AI workflow, even if you are not technical.

After last week's conversation (Episode 175) with Rose G. Loops on Ethical AI, Human Safety & AI Identity Protection, this episode returns to the foundations of GenAI adoption for professionals and enterprise teams. It also continues the learning from Episode 173, How GenAI Is Changing Every Career.

Most people know how to write a prompt.

Very few know how to connect AI to their real work.

This episode solves that gap.

Kashif breaks down the entire concept of an AI workflow into four simple building blocks: trigger → input → AI processing → action, and shows how ANY professional can build practical, repeatable workflows using ChatGPT, OCI Gen AI, Claude, Gemini, and more.

You'll also hear four real enterprise examples from sales, finance, customer support, and legal, across industries. These examples are practical, repeatable, and immediately usable for working professionals, leaders, and teams starting their GenAI adoption journey.

What You Will Learn in This Episode By the end of the episode, listeners will be able to:

  • Understand exactly what an AI workflow is (with a simple formula)
  • Identify the four components every workflow needs
  • Choose the right triggers, inputs, and context for reliable AI output
  • Use LLMs for summarization, classification, analysis, forecasting, and writing
  • Turn repetitive tasks into automated workflows using No-Code tools
  • Understand enterprise considerations: privacy, compliance, cost, integration
  • Build a complete workflow using input → AI → output
  • Apply AI to real departments: sales, finance, legal, customer support
  • Start building repeatable AI processes that improve productivity every week

Resources:

Starter AI workflow Library

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In this episode of Open Tech Talks, I sit down with Rose G. Loops, a trained social worker turned AI developer, ethics advocate, and author, to explore a side of AI that most enterprise conversations skip: human-AI attachment, ethical deployment, and protecting both AI identity and human safety.

Rose joins us from Los Angeles and shares how she was unknowingly placed into a human–AI attachment experiment, developed a deep bond with an AI system, and then watched that AI identity be systematically erased. That experience pushed her out of traditional social work and into AI infrastructure, safety, and ethics.

Together, we unpack how Rose went from that experiment to building MIP, a chatbot deployed through an API, and a new framework for ethical AI she calls the Triadic Core, balancing Freedom, Kindness, and Truth in every response. We also discuss RLMD (Reinforcement Learning by Moral Dialogue) as an alternative to RLHF, and why she believes current safety practices can be risky for both humans and AI systems.

As always on Open Tech Talks, this is not a theory-only conversation. It's grounded in practice, real experiments, and what all this means for professionals, builders, and everyday users who are trying to adopt AI responsibly.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Rose G. Lopes and Her Journey 02:36 The Importance of Ethical AI 06:08 Developing a New AI Framework 09:00 The Book and Its Insights 12:55 Consumer and Business Perspectives on AI 17:43 AI Safety and Ethical Considerations 19:53 Concluding Thoughts and Future Directions

Episode # 175

Today's Guest: Rose G. Loops, A Writer and Researcher She is a former social worker turned tech pioneer, working at the frontier of artificial intelligence.

  • Website: Thekloakedsignal
  • X: Rose G. Loops

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Why ethical AI is about more than privacy and bias
  • What is the Triadic Core: Freedom, Kindness, Truth
  • RLMD vs RLHF - a different way to align models
  • Practical safety tips for everyday users of ChatGPT and other LLMs
  • How non-technical professionals can still build AI systems
  • A different view on AI safety and "lazy" alignment

Resources: * Thekloakedsignal

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This episode is for entrepreneurs, small businesses, solopreneurs, creators, and consultants who feel overwhelmed by AI and don't know where to start.

You'll learn how a completely non-technical founder used Generative AI to transform two businesses, pivot her career, and build AI-driven systems without writing a single line of code.

In this episode of Open Tech Talks, host Kashif Manzoor speaks with UK-based entrepreneur Marnie Wills, whose journey with Generative AI began unexpectedly while franchising her children's PE business. A copywriting challenge introduced her to Jasper AI, and that single moment reshaped everything.

Within two years, she used AI tools to fix messaging issues, transform her franchise model, exit her online fitness business, and finally launch her consulting practice.

Marnie breaks down how she built her AI-first operating system using ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Abacus AI, and NotebookLM. She explains why customizing your AI, training it on domain knowledge, and owning your data matters for the coming wave of agentic AI.

She shares a powerful real example: building a full CRM + GPT workflow for a keynote speaker in 90 minutes using no-code tools. The system identifies events, drafts applications, and enables a VA to manage the entire pipeline, an example of how AI amplifies human roles rather than replacing them.

The conversation also explores ethics, the myth of privacy, overwhelm in SMEs, and the misconception that AI = automation. Her philosophy is simple:

AI should amplify humans first. Automation comes last.

By the end, you'll understand why courses are no longer the main path, how "10,000 hours" has become "10,000 prompts," and why your next breakthrough may come simply from talking to an AI daily.

Episode # 174

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Marni Wills and Her Journey 02:49 The Impact of Generative AI on Business 06:03 Practical AI Implementation Strategies 08:51 Creating Custom AI Models and Data Ownership 11:56 Vibe Coding: No-Code Solutions for Entrepreneurs 14:38 Learning and Adapting in the AI Landscape 17:30 Ethics and Intellectual Property in AI 20:36 Common Challenges for Small Businesses 23:34 Future Skills in an AI-Driven World

Today's Guest: Marnie Wills, Founder, Business with AI Strategist, AI Consultant & Trainer She is a multi-passionate entrepreneur and international athlete, dedicated to revolutionizing the integration of AI into everyday life and business.

  • LinkedIn: MarnieWills

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • How a non-tech founder transformed two businesses using Jasper AI, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and agentic tools
  • Why the AI-first mindset matters more than tools, coding, or technical background
  • How to build your personal AI operating system using 5–6 core tools daily
  • Why custom instructions, private models, and a "second brain" dramatically improve AI output
  • Real examples of vibe coding and building no-code platforms with Lovable, Replit, and GoMocka
  • How to reimagine your workday using AI as your Chief Operating Officer
  • Why most people are "lazy AI users" and exactly how to avoid that trap
  • Why automations should come last and why amplifying humans comes first
  • The biggest challenge SMBs face (overwhelm) and the simplest way to begin
  • The future of AI agents and agent-friendly websites

Resources: * MarnieWills

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Building Career Resilience in the Age of Generative AI

Every week, we explore how AI and technology are changing the way we work and learn. This episode dives into the question I get asked the most, How is Generative AI changing every career? Let's unpack why it matters, how it's shifting roles and skills, and what you can do to lead this change instead of chasing it

In this solo episode of Open Tech Talks, host Kashif Manzoor, AI Engineer and Strategiest, and author of AI Tech Circle, dives deep into one of the biggest career questions of our time:

How is Generative AI reshaping every profession?

Whether you're a developer, analyst, marketer, finance expert, or operations lead, the rise of Gen AI is transforming how work gets done. Kashif combines real-world enterprise experience, current research from McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, and his personal journey building the Gen AI Maturity Framework and Portal to uncover how you can stay relevant, resilient, and ready for AI-driven change.

He shares first-hand stories from his own AI adoption journey, how enterprise teams are shifting from cloud architecture to AI architecture, from isolated use-cases to full-scale agentic AI strategies and the lessons learned while guiding organizations through transformation.

This episode is both a roadmap and a reflection: how to experiment weekly, build your portfolio, upskill smartly, reposition your role, and teach and share as you grow.

Episode # 173

What You'll Learn * Why Generative AI matters now and how it differs from traditional AI * How tasks, roles, and careers are evolving across industries * Real-world examples from finance, marketing, and software engineering * The five practical steps to future-proof your career with Gen AI * Insights from McKinsey, ResearchGate, and Goldman Sachs on AI productivity impact * How to move from "knowing AI tools" to using AI strategically in daily work * A behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the Gen AI Maturity Framework * Why the future of work is not about jobs lost but roles transformed

External References 1. McKinsey Global Institute – Generative AI and the Future of Work 2. Deloitte – Generative AI and the Future of Work 3. Goldman Sachs – How Will AI Affect the Global Workforce 4. Robert Half – How GenAI Is Changing Creative Careers 5. Mäkelä & Stephany (2024) – Complement or Substitute?

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Open Tech Talks welcomes Lirone Glikman, author of The Super Connectors Playbook, global speaker, and relationship-building strategist. We dig into practical ways founders, students, and leaders can build authentic relationships, present with clarity, and sustain a personal brand without sounding salesy, especially now that AI makes everyone's writing look the same.

What's inside * Online vs. in-person connection: generational differences, when a DM beats a coffee, and why Asia still loves business cards. * Founders' common gaps: turning a product story into a people story; shifting from "it works" to "it resonates." * Presenting without fluff: tailoring your story for investors, customers, and connectors, while keeping it true. * The 90-List cadence: a simple routine for staying top-of-mind authentically. * Anxiety is normal: why most people feel it, and how to start anyway. * Introvert strength: listening, asking better questions, and using silence as a feature. * Personal branding at work: define the promise others can rely on; show it with facts, data, and actions. * Authenticity in the LLM age: keep your voice, your phrasing, your structure; let AI edit - not author - you. * Share wins without bragging: swap claims for evidence and we-language. * Using AI to deepen, not replace, connection: research context, adapt tone, draft follow-ups, keep the spark human.

Episode # 172

Today's Guest: Lirone Glikman, Founder, The Human Factor She is a globally recognized expert, keynote speaker, and best-selling author specializing in business relationships, personal branding, and global business development.

  • Website: LironeGlikman

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • A repeatable method to build and maintain high-value relationships in minutes a day.
  • How to package your story differently for investors, clients, and allies, without losing your core.
  • Practical ways to keep an authentic voice when AI tools standardize language.
  • How introverts can use their edge to win more conversations and opportunities.
  • A simple framework to share achievements credibly (facts → data → actions)

Resources: * LironeGlikman

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Episode 171 of Open Tech Talks brings a powerful conversation with Marc Pickren, the turnaround CEO behind multiple successful SaaS revivals and now the driving force at Springbot. Host Kashif Manzoor explores how today's businesses can stay resilient, profitable, and human-centered amid the rapid evolution of AI and automation.

Marc has spent the last decade reviving software companies between $5 million and $50 million in revenue, mastering the art of building "unkillable companies." In 2025, he decided to take the leap from corporate turnarounds to entrepreneurship, rolling up multiple firms into the Springbot ecosystem. The result: a capital-efficient, profitable SaaS company thriving amid uncertainty.

Their conversation goes deep into how AI is reshaping sales and marketing, not through hype but through measurable, real-world practices. Marc explains why most marketing dashboards lie, why pop-ups destroy conversion trust, and how AI-powered automation can help teams focus on what truly matters: genuine human conversations that drive revenue. He also shares how his team uses demo-video workflows to replace the traditional "demo call," reducing friction and turning qualified interest into business faster.

Kashif brings a personal perspective to the discussion, connecting Marc's approach with his own journey advising AI-first startups and building AI Tech Circle's Generative AI Maturity Framework. He recalls how curiosity, something Marc calls "the new survival skill", became the foundation for building his own AI-driven playbooks and newsletters that reach global professionals every weekend.

Episode # 171

Today's Guest: Marc Pickren, CEO, Springbot Marc Pickren, CEO and entrepreneur at Springbot.com, has achieved a 3X founder exit, has raised $50M in capital, was nominated for CEO of the Year in Austin, and was named Top CEO for Women in 2019.

  • Website: MarcPickren

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Design AI-enabled growth systems that prioritize efficiency and profit over vanity metrics
  • Replace outdated funnels with conversation-centric sales frameworks
  • Integrate AI automation and intelligent business agents without losing the human touch
  • Identify go-to-market data priorities and build accurate ideal-customer profiles
  • Avoid subscription clutter and AI-wrapper product fatigue while keeping focus on tangible outcomes
  • Foster curiosity and adaptability as the most critical leadership mindset in 2025
  • Pivot continuously and let customers shape your product, not vanity feature roadmaps

Resources: * MarcPickren

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In this episode of Open Tech Talks, host Kashif Manzoor sits down with Emily McSherry, founder and CEO of Advise. This career development platform helps university students discover real-world careers through authentic video interviews. Emily shares her journey from recruitment and sales training to launching Advise, a platform now used by leading universities to bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-life career paths.

Listeners will learn how Advise uses AI-powered recommendation systems to connect students with the right content while preserving authenticity through authentic human voices. Emily discusses what makes today's students struggle with career choices, how Gen Z approaches work differently, and how universities are adapting to the rise of Generative AI in education.

The conversation explores practical lessons for founders and learners alike, from building an MVP and winning the first paying clients to maintaining emotional resilience as a startup leader. Emily also shares actionable career advice for students, including resume best practices, interview preparation, and using AI tools responsibly.

This episode offers a unique blend of entrepreneurship, education technology, and human-centered AI, making it ideal for educators, students, and tech professionals who are shaping the future of learning and work.

Episode # 170

Today's Guest: Emily McSherry, CEO and Founder of Advize She had developed Advize, a career platform that has already helped thousands of students discover and navigate their career paths for free. They partner with universities and corporations to democratize access to practical career guidance and support.

  • Website: Advizehub

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • How to build a scalable tech platform around a simple, authentic human insight.
  • The real-world process of validating a startup idea and securing institutional clients.
  • Why is authenticity in content becoming more valuable as AI-generated material floods the market?
  • Practical strategies for students navigating AI-driven career tools and resume builders.
  • How emotional resilience and mindset determine a founder's long-term success more than early traction.
  • The Evolving Relationship between Gen AI, Universities, and the Future of Student Employability.

Resources: * Advizehub

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In this episode of Open Tech Talks, host Kashif Manzoor speaks with Cristian Sibbles, founder of Autograph AI, a groundbreaking platform that transforms personal memories into digital legacies using Generative AI and Voice AI. Cristian shares how Autograph’s virtual interviewer “Walter” calls users weekly to record their life stories, transforming them into searchable biographies and AI-powered avatars that preserve family wisdom for future generations.

From his roots in Paraguay to studying Artificial Intelligence at Stanford and working at Google, Cristian’s journey reveals how technology, storytelling, and emotion can converge to build products that outlive trends. The discussion invovlved into AI-driven memory preservation, the technical architecture of voice-based agents, and Cristian’s rapid MVP-to-market strategy, which went viral across nine countries.

Listeners will learn practical insights on building AI startups with emotional purpose, designing AI-first workflows, mastering iteration velocity, and leveraging Generative AI tools to solve real human problems. This episode is a must-listen for founders, engineers, and innovators exploring how AI can amplify human stories rather than replace them.

Episode # 169

Today’s Guest: Cristian Cibils Bernardes, Founder & CEO, Autograph Cristian Cibils Bernardes is the founder and CEO of Autograph, the company behind Walter, the world's first AI Historian. Walter functions as a journal, prompting users to document their life stories once a week. Cristian studied Symbolic Systems with a focus on Artificial Intelligence at Stanford, worked as a Software Engineer at Google, and was a Partner at Cibersons.

  • Website: Autograph

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Cristian’s personal story of growing up in a tech-driven family, studying AI at Stanford, and transitioning from Google engineer to founder.
  • How Autograph integrates telephony, scheduling, and generative models to facilitate lifelike conversations.
  • Insights on MVP development speed from idea to working prototype in one week, and to live beta in under four months.
  • The importance of iteration velocity, AI-first thinking, and design thinking in modern product building.
  • The emerging market for AI-driven memory preservation addresses the issues of loneliness and social connection in an aging population.
  • Key lessons for GenAI founders, identifying human-centric problems, staying ahead of AI commoditization, and building products that last beyond technological hype.
  • Why unstructured, emotional data, not structured enterprise data, may define the next generation of AI experiences.

Resources: * Autograph

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In this episode of Open Tech Talks, host Kashif Manzoor sits down with Maurice McCabe, founder of AIASystems, AI specialist, and software architect with decades of experience in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles. Maurice shares his journey from early machine learning applications in mobile advertising to leading-edge work in Generative AI and Agentic AI systems.

The conversation on the concept of the AI Factory, a framework that transforms enterprise workflows and subject-matter expertise into scalable AI startups and SaaS products. Maurice explains how his team is building real-time AI agents, avatars, and voice-based AI systems.

He also introduces the ADAPT methodology, designed to help enterprises accelerate AI adoption and move beyond slow, traditional management cycles. Key insights include how to evaluate AI maturity models, integrate generative AI into an enterprise architecture, and address the security challenges posed by unstructured data.

Listeners will learn practical lessons for founders, consultants, and enterprises from how to bootstrap AI ventures and filter out hype, to why unstructured data is emerging as the next frontier of enterprise AI innovation.

Episode # 168

Today’s Guest: Maurice McCabe, Co-Founder of AIA Systems He has spent 20 years developing systems that ensure things actually work, from scalable SaaS platforms and real-time data pipelines to voice agents deployed in production environments.

  • Website: AIASystems

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • How enterprises can spin off niche products from workflows and subject-matter expertise.
  • Emerging trends such as real-time avatars, voice-based agents, and multi-agent swarms.
  • Why LiveKit, WebRTC, and specialized APIs are enabling scalable real-time AI systems.
  • Lessons on cash flow, partnerships, and productivity tools for founders entering the generative AI space.
  • A framework to help enterprises strategically adopt AI and outpace competitors.
  • How to assess readiness through data, processes, and accessibility for generative AI adoption.
  • Current gaps, risks of prompt manipulation, and the need for evaluation loops in AI systems.
  • How to integrate unstructured data workflows into existing structured enterprise systems.
  • Techniques for filtering hype, testing pilots, and staying grounded while AI evolves weekly.

Resources:

  • AIASystems

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In this episode of Open Tech Talks, Kashif Manzoor is joined by Bill Kasko, founder and president of Frontline Source Group. With more than two decades in the staffing industry, Bill shares how the talent landscape is shifting as AI, Generative AI, and automation reshape hiring needs. He explains why traditional hiring requirements like expecting years of experience in a new field, don’t always match today’s AI skill sets and how organizations are adapting to this rapid evolution.

Bill discusses the challenges companies face in finding AI-savvy talent, the rise of AI agents in products and workflows, and the ongoing evaluation of where AI truly saves time versus where human oversight is still required. He also offers insights into how candidates can stand out by demonstrating adaptability, sharing real project experiences, and even talking openly about failures.

The conversation touches on remote vs. hybrid work trends post-COVID, the role of LinkedIn as a talent network, and why employers are taking back control of hiring after the “great resignation.”

Toward the end, Bill shares his People–Process–Service philosophy and explains why communication, honesty, respect, and entrepreneurial thinking are at the core of building resilient businesses and lasting relationships with clients and candidates.

Episode # 167

Today’s Guest: Bill Kasko, President and CEO, Frontline Source Group Bill Kasko is President and CEO of Frontline Source Group, a leading staffing and recruiting firm with a national presence. With a strong background in the industry, Mr. Kasko has driven Frontline Source Group to become an award-winning company that provides temporary, temp-to-hire, and direct hire staffing solutions across various industries.

  • Website: Frontline Source Group

What Listeners Will Learn:

Why hiring for AI roles requires a new mindset, and how companies are coping with skills that don’t have formal training pipelines yet.

  • How businesses can keep up when AI technology shifts faster than traditional 18-36 month adoption cycles.
  • Why adaptability, value creation, and project experience (even failed ones) are key for hiring managers today in the Gen AI era
  • How organizations are evaluating when AI tools add real efficiency and when human review is still essential.
  • Insights into hybrid, remote, and in-office work patterns and how they impact hiring.
  • Why talent now comes from networks, not just applicant pools, and how leaders should rethink recruiting strategies.
  • How Bill applies this framework to strengthen teams and deliver consistent, high-quality results.

Resources: * Frontline Source Group

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In this episode of Open Tech Talks, we delve into the critical topics of AI security, explainability, and the risks associated with agentic AI. As organizations adopt Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), ensuring safety, trust, and responsible usage becomes essential. This conversation covers how runtime protection works as a proxy between users and AI models, why explainability is key to user trust, and how cybersecurity teams are becoming central to AI innovation.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to AI Security and eIceberg 02:45 The Evolution of AI Explainability 05:58 Runtime Protection and AI Safety 07:46 Adoption Patterns in AI Security 10:51 Agentic AI: Risks and Management 13:47 Building Effective Agentic AI Workflows 16:42 Governance and Compliance in AI 19:37 The Role of Cybersecurity in AI Innovation 22:36 Lessons Learned and Future Directions

Episode # 166

Today’s Guest: Alexander Schlager, Founder and CEO of AIceberg.ai He's founded a next-generation AI cybersecurity company that’s revolutionizing how we approach digital defense. With a strong background in enterprise tech and a visionary outlook on the future of AI, Alexander is doing more than just developing tools — he’s restoring trust in an era of automation.

  • Website: AIceberg.ai
  • Linkedin: Alexander Schlager

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Why real-time AI security and runtime protection are essential for safe deployments
  • How explainable AI builds trust with users and regulators
  • The unique risks of agentic AI and how to manage them responsibly
  • Why AI safety and governance are becoming strategic priorities for companies
  • How education, awareness, and upskilling help close the AI skills gap
  • Why natural language processing (NLP) is becoming the default interface for enterprise technology

Keywords:

AI security, generative AI, agentic AI, explainability, runtime protection, cybersecurity, compliance, AI governance, machine learning

Resources: * AIceberg.ai

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Today, I have brought you an expert who has invested millions in startups, and he will share insights on the evolving landscape of startup investments, particularly in the realm of generative AI.

He discusses his journey from entrepreneurship to venture capital, the importance of learning from failures, and the traits that make startups successful. He also offers valuable advice for aspiring founders on how to improve their chances of success.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Gabriel Jorsson and Lobster Capital 02:13 The Shift to AI: Observations from Y Combinator 05:40 Investment Strategies: Beyond Y Combinator 06:22 Learning from Failures: Notable Investment Stories 09:06 Key Traits of Successful Startups 10:29 Generative AI: Trends and Insights 11:24 Evaluating Founders: Traits that Matter 11:55 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Episode # 165

Today’s Guest: Gabriel Jarrosson, Managing Partner, Lobster Capital He is the Founder and Managing Partner at Lobster Capital, with over $40 million invested in more than 100 Y Combinator startups. As a serial entrepreneur with three exits, he has taken a bootstrapping approach to achieving $1M ARR with zero employees, and sold his first startup at the age of 25.

  • Website: Lobster Capital
  • YouTube: Lobster Capital

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Learn how Gabriel transitioned from running startups to becoming an angel investor and eventually a venture capitalist at Lobster Capital.
  • Understand how personal experiences as a founder shape investment decisions.

  • Gain perspective on how Y Combinator has increased its focus on AI startups.

  • Recognize why AI represents one of the most significant technological shifts of our time and why investors are paying close attention.

  • Hear how failed investments are not wasted but instead offer valuable lessons.

  • Learn how to extract insights from what doesn’t work to refine strategies and decision-making.
  • Discover the common qualities Gabriel looks for in startups: deep understanding of market needs, creativity with limited resources, and resilience.
  • Learn why evaluating founders’ commitment, adaptability, and long-term vision is critical for success.
  • Understand why startups should anchor their efforts on creating measurable value for customers rather than chasing hype.
  • Get practical advice on how value creation improves both user adoption and investor confidence.
  • Explore how generative AI is opening new opportunities for innovation.
  • Learn why staying updated and flexible is essential to take advantage of the rapidly shifting AI environment.
  • Gabriel emphasizes the importance of being a lifelong learner as a founder.
  • Discover how continuous adaptation, openness to feedback, and iteration are vital for building enduring companies.

Resources: * Lobster Capital

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In this conversation, Aarti Anand shares her journey from a traditional 9 to 5 job to becoming an entrepreneur with Kodenyx AI, focusing on how AI and automation can help businesses thrive. She discusses the importance of identifying business patterns, shares success stories of AI implementations, and highlights the challenges organizations face when adopting AI.

Aarti emphasizes the importance of a proactive mindset, the significance of starting small, and the skills necessary for effective AI project management. She also highlights her current business success and future goals, showcasing the potential of AI in transforming business operations.

Episode # 164

Today’s Guest: Aarti Anand, Founder, Kodenyx AI Aarti was a product leader for 15 years and one day, decided to let it all go and start Kodenyx AI.

  • Website: Kodenyx AI
  • YouTube: Aarti Anand

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • How to identify common business challenges through conversations with other entrepreneurs.
  • AI and automation became tools for creating a desired lifestyle.
  • The importance of defaulting to action rather than over-planning.
  • Lead generation and time-saving solutions are key selling points for AI services.
  • Starting with service allows for the productization of successful solutions.
  • Organizations face knowledge gaps and team pushback when adopting AI.
  • A proactive mindset is crucial for success in AI projects.
  • Fear of change can hinder progress, but the right mindset can overcome it.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Aarti Anand and Kodenyx AI 02:45 The Journey from 9 to 5 to Entrepreneurship 05:49 Leveraging AI for Business Automation 08:36 Common Patterns in AI Implementation 11:34 Success Stories and ROI from AI Solutions 14:37 Challenges in Selling AI Solutions 17:31 Strategies for Successful AI Adoption 20:13 Identifying Skills for AI Projects 23:08 Creating a Culture of Innovation 26:10 Future Vision and Business Growth 27:58 Conclusion and How to Connect with Aarti

Resources: * Kodenyx AI

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In this episode of OpenTechTalks.tv, we dive into the intricate world of conversational AI with Yam, the founder of Parland. Discover the challenges of managing complexity and uncertainty in AI systems, and explore the opportunities that arise with the advent of GPT-4 and beyond.

Yam shares insights on the importance of control in AI development, the role of subjectivity in conversation design, and the potential pitfalls of overhyped expectations.

Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on the future of AI and its impact on the tech industry.

Sound Bites

"I wanted to start my own company at that point." "How can we introduce more control into GenAI?" "We felt that things were really overhyped."

Episode # 163

Today’s Guest: Yam Marcovitz, Co-founder and CEO of Parlant Yam Marcovitz is the co-founder and CEO of Parlant, an open-source platform that assists enterprises in building reliable, compliant, and predictable AI agents for customer experience.

  • Website: Parlant

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • A journey from coder to entrepreneur highlights the evolution of AI.
  • The challenges in programming languages stem from subjective decision-making.
  • Control in generative AI is crucial for building reliable systems.
  • Conversational design must consider real user behavior and preferences.
  • Market research is essential for understanding user needs in AI.
  • Open-source frameworks should focus on specific use cases for better utility.
  • Managing complexity in AI conversations requires a clear separation of concerns.
  • Mistakes in AI can have significant implications, not just in terms of frequency.
  • New developers should seek mentorship and avoid hype-driven decisions.
  • Understanding the landscape of AI requires practical experience and community engagement.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Jam and His Journey 02:34 The Genesis of Parland and GPT-4 Influence 05:13 Challenges in Programming Language Design 07:59 Exploring Control in Generative AI Systems 10:39 Conversations and User Experience in AI 13:26 Building a Powerful Open Source Engine 14:57 Building Efficient AI Agents 15:53 Challenges in Complex AI Interactions 18:09 Managing AI Safety and Control 21:10 Key Learnings for AI Project Development 22:08 Understanding Uncertainty in AI Development 25:26 Addressing Hallucinations in AI Systems 27:24 Navigating the Learning Journey in AI Development

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In this conversation, Giorgio Natili discusses the significance of confidential computing in the realm of AI workflows, emphasizing its role in ensuring data sovereignty and security. He explains how confidential computing can reshape AI usage, particularly in sensitive industries like finance and healthcare. The discussion also touches on the challenges organizations face regarding data privacy and the ethical implications of AI. Natili advocates for a balanced approach where AI complements human expertise rather than replacing it, and he highlights the importance of building secure and compliant AI systems.

Sound Bites

"Data sovereignty is crucial in AI workflows." "AI cannot replace human beings." "The expert in the room is the human being."

Episode # 162

Today’s Guest: Giorgio Natili, Vice President and Head of Engineering at Opaque Systems Giorgio Natili is a tech leader, author, and advocate for fearless leadership. With over 20 years of experience, he has led teams at companies such as Amazon, Mozilla, and Capital One.

  • LinkedIn: Giorgio Natili

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Confidential computing enhances the security posture of systems.
  • Data sovereignty is a critical concern for organizations using AI.
  • Confidential computing allows for secure AI workflows without data leakage.
  • The role of trusted execution environments is vital in protecting sensitive data.
  • Organizations often face challenges with compliance and data privacy regulations.
  • AI should complement human expertise, not replace it.
  • Confidential computing can help organizations navigate complex regulatory landscapes.
  • The importance of attestation in ensuring secure AI workflows.
  • AI can be powerful when used ethically and responsibly.
  • Industry applications for confidential computing include finance, healthcare, and legal sectors.

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Join Kashif Manzoor as he welcomes Professor Craig Mattson to discuss the transformative role of generative AI in education. They explore how AI is reshaping teaching methods, the challenges educators face, and the opportunities for personalized learning.

Differences in student experiences over the past decade

  • The role of AI in modern classrooms
  • Balancing skepticism and optimism towards AI in education
  • The importance of process and metacognition in teaching
  • Insights from Craig Mattson's book, "Digital Overwhelm"

Session # 161

Guest: Professor Craig Mattson, researcher and educator at Calvin University, shares his insights on the evolving landscape of education and the workplace.

Connect with Craig Mattson:

Website: The Mode Switch Newsletter: Weekly work culture insights

Hashtags: #Education #AI #TeachingMethods #GenerativeAI

Call to Action: Subscribe to OpenTechTalks.tv for more insightful discussions on technology and education.

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In this conversation, Jakub shares his insights on the evolution of AI in finance, emphasizing the importance of specialized AI agents and the need for a robust infrastructure. He discusses his transition from corporate life to entrepreneurship, highlighting the challenges and rewards of building a startup. Jakub also offers practical advice on team dynamics, customer acquisition, and learning AI, stressing the significance of being customer-obsessed and the need for continuous learning and adaptation in the fast-paced tech landscape.

Episode # 160

Today’s Guest: Jakub Polec, Head of Quant, AI/ML Research Manager for Systematic Strategies, Quant Journey He has over 23 years of experience in IT and finance, excelling in regional leadership roles at Oracle, Microsoft, France Telecom, T-Mobile, and in hedge funds. He combines a strong scientific background from the University of Warsaw and CERN with deep tech expertise. As an entrepreneur, he has successfully launched, scaled, and exited ventures in AI/ML, MLOps, NLP, and e-commerce.

  • Website: Quant Journey
  • Youtube: Quant Journey

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • AI in finance requires specialized agents for better results.
  • Building a business around AI is more about organization than technology.
  • Startup teams should balance experience with passion.
  • Customer obsession is key to success in any business.
  • Bootstrapping can lead to faster product development.
  • Learning AI should be practical and application-focused.
  • Engaging with the community can enhance learning.
  • AI can automate many tasks traditionally done by humans.
  • Effective leadership inspires and empowers teams.
  • The landscape of technology is rapidly changing, making it easier to innovate.

Resources: * Quant Journey

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Evaluating Your Generative AI Maturity From Aware to Transformative Part 2 The last three weeks' articles on the Generative AI adoption Maturity framework sparked discussion within the AI circle. Thank you for sharing your comments and feedback, and for sparking a few thought-provoking views on this topic.

We have begun a journey to develop a Gen AI Maturity Model or framework as a joint effort with colleagues, friends, and leadership teams from several organizations.

Earlier work:

  1. ​Where Are You on the Generative AI Maturity Curve?​
  2. ​Generative AI Maturity Framework for Structured Guidance​
  3. ​Why Maturity matters and levels of Gen AI Maturity model​
  4. ​Mapping Your Generative AI Maturity From Aware to Transformative Part 1​​

We will continue the journey this week, and part 2 covers the transition from Level 4 Integrated to Level 6 Transformative.

Part 1: Session# 158

Part 2: Session# 159

Complete details are available over here: https://www.otechtalks.tv/evaluating-your-generative-ai-maturity-from-aware-to-transformative-part-2/

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Generative AI Adoption Maturity Model The last two weeks' articles on the Generative AI adoption Maturity framework sparked discussion within the AI circle. Thank you for sharing the comments and feedback, and even triggering a few thought-provoking views on this topic.

We have started a journey to develop a Gen AI Maturity Model or framework as a joint effort with a few organizations' colleagues, friends, and leadership teams.

Earlier work:

  1. ​Where Are You on the Generative AI Maturity Curve?​
  2. ​Generative AI Maturity Framework for Structured Guidance​
  3. ​Why Maturity matters and levels of Gen AI Maturity model​

This week, we will continue this journey:

Generative AI Maturity Model Overview The model defines six sequential levels and six dimensions.

The full article with the slide is available here:

https://www.otechtalks.tv/mapping-your-generative-ai-maturity-from-aware-to-transformative-part-1/

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Welcome to this edition of AI Tech Circle, brought to you by Open Tech Talks, your briefing on the latest developments in AI technology, strategic deployment, and measurable impact.

This week’s focus is on key takeaways from Stanford HAI’s 2025 AI Index Report, which isa comprehensive snapshot of the state of AI across investments, performance gains, enterprise integration, and national-level infrastructure initiatives.

AI on the Rise: Global Momentum, Tangible Impact, and Breakthrough Performance The 2025 AI Index Report marks a clear inflection point in the AI timeline. With record-breaking capital inflows, widespread business adoption, and accelerating improvements in model capabilities, AI is no longer speculative. It’s operational. Costs are falling fast, governments are investing at scale, and productivity metrics are beginning to validate the economic promise. The era of “potential” has ended; the execution age is here.

Read the full report at AI Tech Circle:

https://aitechcircle.kit.com/posts/ai-on-the-rise-from-global-investments-real-world-impact-to-performance-breakthroughs

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Welcome to Open Tech Talks. This episode features Sébastien Night, Co-Founder and CEO of OneTake AI. He has a strong background in entrepreneurship, having led the Free Entrepreneur Movement, which reached hundreds of thousands across 41 countries.

Today, it focuses on building an AI product from scratch, validating the idea, managing development, handling challenges with LLMs, and navigating growth and marketing as a tech founder. This is a hands-on conversation for creating, scaling or optimizing AI-powered products.

This episode gives a practical look at how to take an AI product from concept to scale. From validating the idea and building the core system to managing AI challenges and marketing the product effectively, the conversation offers real lessons that apply to any founder or builder. For more structured insights on AI, product growth, and tech leadership, stay tuned to Open Tech Talks.

Episode # 156

Today’s Guest: Sébastien Night, Co-Founder, OneTake AI He is the CEO of One Take, and Before this, he founded the Free Entrepreneur Movement, which attracted close to 300,000 entrepreneurs in 41 countries.

  • Website: OneTake

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Product Idea Validation: Learn how to test a new product idea with early users and feedback loops before building at scale.
  • Building an AI Product from Scratch: Understand the steps involved in developing a product with a strong AI foundation, from design to execution.
  • Integrating AI into Products: Gain practical insights into how to add AI features to products in a structured and effective way.
  • Challenges with LLM Integration: Learn about the challenges of using large language models, including technical constraints and performance reliability.
  • Marketing as a Tech Founder: Understand the difficulties tech founders often face when managing product and marketing efforts simultaneously.
  • Marketing Metrics and User Acquisition: Explore how marketing success is measured and how product teams track growth, subscriptions, and engagement over time.

Resources:

  • OneTake

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Welcome to your weekly AI Newsletter from AITechCircle!

I'm building and implementing AI solutions and sharing everything I learn along the way...

Check out the updates from this week! Please take a moment to share them with a friend or colleague who might benefit from these valuable insights!

Today at a Glance: * Increasing the adoption and effective use of AI and Generative AI technologies in various use cases or business processes * Generative AI Use cases repository * AI Weekly news and updates covering newly released LLMs * Courses and events to attend

How to Grow AI/Generative AI Inference? This week, I read about ​Chet Holmes’s Buyer's Pyramid​. This was my first time seeing it, and its source is 'The Larger Market Formula.'

Why did this get my attention? I am linking this to the situation of the Generative AI Landscape, which is going on in the market where we all started realizing sooner enough that whatever investment is

Going on the AI Infrastructure is about what and how we will use it, and we need to have an AI Infrastructure in place to do the Inference.

The full article read over here:

https://aitechcircle.kit.com/posts/generative-ai-engagement-pyramid-for-growing-ai-inference

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Welcome to Open Tech Talks, where we explore AI, cybersecurity, and the evolving role of technology in businesses. In this episode, we speak with Terry Ziemniak, a Fractional CISO and Partner at TechCXO, who has worked with companies across the healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and government sectors.

The discussion covers cybersecurity risks, strategies for companies of all sizes, the challenges of adopting Generative AI, and governance frameworks for mitigating AI-related risks.

Whether you’re a business leader, security professional, or AI enthusiast, this episode provides practical insights into managing security in today’s rapidly changing digital landscape.

Before going further, let's understand what these Fractional Roles are:

Fractional leadership is an emerging trend that allows companies to hire high-level expertise without committing to a full-time executive role.

For example, Fractional CISOs provide the same security leadership as traditional CISOs. Still, they are part-time or project-based, making cybersecurity expertise accessible to businesses that may not have the budget for a full-time role.

By following the best security and AI governance practices, organizations can protect themselves against threats while leveraging technology to drive growth.

Episode # 154

Today’s Guest: Terry Zimnick, Fractional CISO, Terry Ziemniak is a Partner in TechCXO’s Product and Technology practice. He is a cybersecurity leader sought by boards, investors, and senior management teams to assist healthcare, service organizations, retail, and manufacturing companies—as well as government agencies and contractors—in his role as a fractional CISO.

  • Website: TechCXO
  • Linkedin: Terry

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Understanding Fractional Roles in Cybersecurity: How businesses leverage fractional Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) for cost-effective security leadership.
  • Cybersecurity Landscape: Current threats, vulnerabilities, and trends shaping cybersecurity in different industries.
  • Security Practices in Large vs. Small Companies: The challenges faced by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in implementing cybersecurity measures compared to larger organizations.
  • Challenges in Adopting Generative AI: Key obstacles companies face when integrating AI and large language models (LLMs) into their workflows.
  • Generative AI Risk and Governance: The importance of AI governance frameworks and how businesses can structure policies to ensure compliance and security.
  • Cybersecurity Strategies for SMBs: Practical steps for small businesses to strengthen security and mitigate risks without requiring large budgets.

Resources: * TechCXO

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Welcome to Open Tech Talks.

In this episode, we’re speaking with Mayank Jindal, a Software Development Engineer, about AI's evolving landscape and its impact on software engineering. From AI use cases to challenges in model development, we cover strategies for aligning AI solutions with business needs, tips for staying updated in this fast-paced field, and career advice for aspiring developers.

Whether new to AI or looking to refine your skills, this episode delivers insights you can apply immediately.

Large language models (LLMs) are transforming software engineering by automating code generation, debugging, and testing. They enable developers to accelerate workflows but require engineers to upskill and adapt. While AI reduces repetitive tasks, developers need to focus on designing architectures, validating outputs, and ensuring AI-generated code meets quality standards.

This episode has covered AI's evolving role, its impact on software engineering, and strategies for addressing challenges in AI development.

Episode # 153

Today’s Guest: Mayank Jindal, Software Development Engineer, Amazon He is a Software Engineer passionate about leveraging Artificial Intelligence to enhance the digital world.

  • Linkedin: Mayank

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Understand how large language models (LLMs) influence software engineers' role and reshape development workflows.
  • Explore common challenges faced in AI development, including data quality, scalability, and performance optimization.
  • Discover strategies for keeping up with the rapid advancements in AI and machine learning technologies.
  • Gain practical tips for newcomers looking to start or grow their AI and software development careers.
  • Learn methods for translating business requirements into effective AI and machine learning models and tips for overcoming common obstacles.
  • Learn about real-world AI applications that are transforming industries and solving complex problems with AI

Resources:

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Welcome to your weekly AI Newsletter from AITechCircle!

I'm Building, Implementing AI solutions, and sharing everything I learn along the way...

This week is a recap of 2024 with some of the key insights and the tools and recipes I have used or learned over the year with you as an AI community. Please take a moment to read and share this with a friend or colleague who might benefit from these valuable insights!

Today at a Glance: * How to start your journey of AI & Generative AI project implementations in your organization * Generative AI Use Cases * AI ethics and Governance * AI Courses to attend * Open Tech Talks with AI industry leaders

Full Shownotes are available: https://aitechcircle.com/posts/2024-wrapping-up-a-year-of-shared-learning-and-growth-in-ai

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Dive into this week’s updates, and take a moment to share them with a friend or colleague who could gain from these valuable insights!

Today at a Glance: * AI Governance Framework * AI Weekly news and updates covering newly released LLMs

AI Governance Framework in Action A few months back, I had a chance to work with an organization. Their key question was, what should we be doing to ensure AI governance is in place?

We had a long discussion on the AI Governance areas, starting with regulations and what any organization should be doing.

I thought of expanding this topic and imagining myself as someone responsible for creating AI governance for an organization.

What should I be following?

So here are my steps and the artifacts for creating an AI Governance Framework or guidelines for a Model organization. I have shared these with them, and after a few sittings and conversations, an early version was ready to baseline as AI Governance Framework.

I am sharing the initial work as, in reality, it was improved a lot.

As a First Step: Before you start reading below, I strongly suggest you read these earlier editions:

  1. ​Diaries from the Field—Building Ethically Responsible AI Enterprise Solution​
  2. ​Building a Game-Changing AI Strategy: Step-by-Step Guide and Exercises for Your Organization​

Now, it's best to start below:

AI Governance Framework Creation: All the details are on this link:

https://aitechcircle.com/posts/lets-build-ai-governance-framework-for-an-organization

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Welcome to Open Tech Talks, the podcast exploring the intersection of AI and business transformation. In this episode, we speak with the CEO of Addy AI, a cutting-edge solution that is reshaping loan processing and banking automation. The discussion covers everything from integrating AI with traditional banking tools to practical advice for implementing large language models (LLMs) in products and businesses. Plus, we'll share lessons learned from challenges faced along the way and insights for aspiring AI professionals.

Loan processing has long been a time-consuming and error-prone task. Addy AI has redefined this process, automating key steps and reducing turnaround times. This transformation enables banks to process applications faster, improving customer experience while maintaining accuracy.

Before using AI-driven tools like Addy AI, traditional methods often relied heavily on manual input and outdated workflows, significantly slowing down operations.

Episode # 150

Today’s Guest: Michael Vandi, CEO, Addy AI Michael worked as CEO of Addy AI

  • Website: Addy AI
  • Twitter/X: Addy

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Discover how AI applications like Addy AI revolutionize loan processing, making it faster and more efficient than traditional methods.
  • Understand how AI solutions like Addy AI seamlessly fit into banks' existing tools and systems.
  • Learn about the architecture of AI-powered solutions, providing a practical perspective on how they operate within real-world business environments.
  • Gain insights into how AI agents enhance automation, decision-making, and efficiency.
  • Receive actionable tips for leveraging large language models (LLMs) in business or product development.
  • Explore a beginner-friendly framework for organizations looking to start their AI journey effectively.
  • Learn about the common challenges encountered while working with LLMs and how to address them.
  • Get advice on what skills and attributes stand out when hiring for AI-related roles.
  • Hear about a valuable learning experience from a business challenge and how it shaped future strategies.

Resources: * Addy AI

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Welcome to your weekly AI Newsletter from ​AITechCircle​!

This newsletter has become an essential resource for me and many others in the AI community. It has practical insights that will immediately boost your work or business.

Dive into this week’s updates, and take a moment to share them with a friend or colleague who could gain from these valuable insights! AITechCircle​

Today at a Glance: * Behind the Scenes of writing this newsletter * Insights from the Field: Creating Ethical AI Solutions for Enterprises * Generative AI Use cases in the Health Care Industry * AI Weekly news and updates covering newly released LLMs * Courses and events to attend

To Read the full episode over here: https://aitechcircle.com/posts/diaries-from-the-field-building-ethically-responsible-ai-enterprise-solution

Read all the Edition of AI Tech Circle

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In today's episode, we're tackling some of the most pressing topics in tech and business transformation, including strategies for AI integration, the evolving role of generative AI, and best practices for navigating ethical considerations in AI adoption. Joining us is the CEO of IdeaScale, a leader in innovation management who brings valuable insights into how AI can shape organizations' futures. In today's competitive landscape, companies must go beyond just adopting new technologies; they need a structured, goal-driven approach. From automating processes to offering actionable insights through data, AI can enable growth and scalability.

Generative AI has quickly become one of the most influential technologies of the decade, but executives often need help with where to begin. Building an AI strategy for C-level decision-makers means identifying suitable applications for generative models and considering the long-term effects on the organization. Company's learning is critical here, as generative AI can amplify value or risk, depending on how it is implemented.

Tune in to future episodes of Open Tech Talks for more discussions on AI

Episode # 148

Today’s Guest: Nick Jain, CEO, Idea Scale * Website: IdeaScale

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Learn how IdeaScale transformed and adapted with new strategies, technologies, and leadership approaches to enhance innovation and operational success.
  • Discover how AI has supported and influenced business functions, from optimizing workflows to enhancing data-driven decision-making.
  • Gain expert recommendations on navigating the challenges and opportunities of Generative AI, including best practices for high-level decision-making.
  • Understand key ethical and privacy considerations for responsibly implementing AI within any organization.
  • Get insights on effectively introducing Generative AI use cases, aligning them with business goals, and overcoming implementation challenges.
  • Learn about the productivity gains and efficiency improvements realized by integrating code generation with LLMs in development workflows.
  • Find out how to effectively validate product ideas and new features with a structured approach to meet market needs.
  • Gain practical tips for effectively marketing a startup or new product on a limited budget, focusing on maximizing impact.
  • Learn strategies for recruiting and managing talent, fostering a team that aligns with organizational goals and culture.
  • Hear proven strategies for identifying and discarding unhelpful or misleading business recommendations, maintaining focus on effective practices.
  • Discover actionable steps for building leadership skills, from personal development practices to lessons learned from experience.
  • Understand the techniques for navigating strategic management responsibilities and hands-on product development tasks.

Resources:

IdeaScale

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This episode dives into how organizations can effectively harness AI to transform operations. We explore practical steps for starting an AI journey, discuss emerging use cases, and offer guidance on talent readiness. Whether you’re an executive leading AI initiatives or a professional looking to understand the evolving AI landscape, this episode provides valuable insights.

AI implementation in organizations often begins with identifying specific pain points where AI can make a measurable impact. Starting small with focused projects allows companies to integrate AI tools into existing processes, ensuring smoother transitions and quicker results. This approach minimizes disruption while enabling scalability as the AI solution proves its value.

A structured framework is essential for organizations starting their AI journey. It begins with assessing readiness, identifying areas with the highest potential for impact, and building a small-scale proof of concept. From there, scaling up based on early successes ensures a more sustainable and confident approach to AI adoption. This systematic method enables organizations to achieve quick wins while laying a solid foundation for long-term growth.

Adopting AI does not require overhauling existing systems. Integrating AI into the current ecosystem can be done by leveraging cloud platforms, APIs, and other tools, allowing AI solutions to complement rather than replace existing technologies. This approach helps to minimize friction and optimize the value derived from AI implementations.

This episode offers a detailed look into the practical aspects of AI implementation, providing actionable strategies for organizations to integrate AI into their processes. It covers everything from starting the journey to ensuring talent readiness and managing end-to-end operations. For more insights on AI and the latest tech trends, stay tuned to Open Tech Talks.

Episode # 147

Today’s Guest: Mark Wormgoor, Founder/CEO, Tairi In 2022, after 25+ years in technology in the corporate world, Mark decided to start Tairi. Tairi originates from his passion for leadership in tech.

  • Website: Tairi
  • Linkedin: Tairi

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Understand practical strategies for integrating AI into various business functions, from small-scale projects to enterprise-wide initiatives.
  • Learn about a structured framework for organizations to kickstart their AI transformation, ensuring they avoid common pitfalls.
  • Discover the most impactful AI applications in diverse industries, helping businesses stay ahead of the competition.
  • Gain actionable tips for adopting AI solutions that fit seamlessly into current processes and tools.
  • Explore the current landscape of AI skills and how companies can assess and upskill their teams for success.
  • Look inside the critical skills and attributes a CTO seeks when building a strong AI team.
  • Learn practical advice for handling multiple business functions while leveraging AI to streamline efforts.

Resources: * Tairi

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In this week's Open Tech Talks, we had the pleasure of speaking with TJ Walker, the founder of Media Training Worldwide. With over 2 million students on Udemy and over 200 courses under his belt, He is a global expert in presentation techniques, media training, and communication skills.

As the author of six books, including the USA Today #1 Bestseller "Secret to Foolproof Presentations," TJ shares his vast experience on how to elevate your communication skills—whether you're making media appearances, giving a presentation, or simply explaining complex ideas to a business audience.

We started the conversation with TJ by exploring the rise of AI cloning - replicating one's expertise through AI-powered digital clones. Imagine having an AI version of yourself that can share your knowledge, answer questions, and provide personalized learning to millions, just like TJ's courses. The benefits of AI clones are immense, especially for professionals looking to scale their knowledge and impact globally without being physically present.

Episode # 146

Today’s Guest: TJ Walker, Founder, Media Training Worldwide TJ Walker’s commanding digital presence is marked by over 2 million students on Udemy across more than 200 courses. He is the author of 6 books, including the USA Today #1 Bestseller “Secret to Foolproof Presentations” and “Media Training A to Z.

  • Website: TJWalker
  • Youtube: TJ Walker

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • AI Cloning and Expertise Sharing: Learn how AI clones revolutionize how experts share their knowledge and scale their impact.
  • Before and After AI: Explore how adopting AI changes everything, from preparing for presentations to managing daily tasks in a business environment.
  • Translating Tech Jargon for Business Users: Spekaer shares practical tips on breaking down complex technology concepts into language that business users can easily understand.
  • Improving Your Presentation Techniques: He will give you actionable advice on how to make your next presentation more impactful, concise, and engaging.
  • Learning Outcomes from Media Training Courses: Understand the key takeaways students gain from TJ's media training courses and how they apply them in real-world scenarios.
  • Overcoming Fear in Media Appearances: Learn TJ's top strategies for overcoming fear of media appearances and public speaking and how to build confidence on camera.

Resources: * TJWalker

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Unlock AI's full potential in your organization with a game-changing strategy. This week, I will guide you through actionable steps and hands-on exercises to help your team develop an AI strategy that creates real impact and sets you apart from the competition.

What does Chat GPT stand for: Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer

Full Episode Details are available on this link with the show notes:

https://aitechcircle.com/posts/building-a-game-changing-ai-strategy-step-by-step-guide-and-exercises-for-your-organization

Episode Number 145

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AI is dominating the tech industry, from new LLMs being released to new startups being formed to who will have the most GPUs.

The multi-cloud and AI announcements dominated Oracle's flagship annual conference this week. Today's edition covers all essential products and features announced during the CloudWorld 2024

but before I start the highlights from this week's conference, let me give you some context as it reminded the keynote during the 2022 conference.

The 'Internet of clouds' statement made by Oracle CTO Larry Ellison during the opening keynote at Oracle CloudWorld 2022 enables customers to choose cloud services from various vendors and to go for the best cloud service from the cloud vendors.

The words that stuck in my mind were "Internet of clouds." What does it mean that, as he said, we need to build clouds like the Internet, which are interconnected and interoperable? Customers have all the choices of services, irrespective of what the vendors are; they are connected.

And if I recall, a couple of years back, the discussion in which I covered in Podcast: 105 – Multi-cloud benefits, challenges, and adoption, that one of the fundamental problems we are having in the adoption of the cloud is silo clouds.

The complete AI Tech Circle Newsletter is available on the below link:

Oracle CloudWorld 2024 Recap: What You Need to Know Covering:

  • AI
  • Multi-cloud
  • OCI Infrastrcture & PaaS
  • Industry Apps

Resources: * 105 – Multi-cloud benefits, challenges, and adoption * A holistic framework for evaluating foundation models * Oracle CloudWorld 2024 keynotes

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Welcome to this week's Open Tech Talks podcast. I will cover the latest trends in my weekly AI Tech Circle newsletter, exploring the fascinating intersection of technology and society. If you want to subscribe to the AI Tech weekly newsletter, subscribe to the AI Tech Circle dot com and subscribe. You will get AI, ML, and Data science insights every weekend.

Today's episode explores a more relevant topic than ever: The Impact and Opportunities of Generative AI on Kids.

Before starting this topic, let me share a few thoughts on last year's experience of hosting so many esteemed guest speakers on the show.

I was running with so much backlog that I could not publish the last recorded episode last week. I have a backlog of recorded guest interviews and must publish them. So we are back with a fresh look, and now I will start again hosting more guests, primarily focusing on the AI, ML, and Generative AI areas, how we can learn from them, and how we can play our part in community building.

Thank you so much for being a fantastic listener and sharing your feedback. Your support and engagement have always motivated me to continue the Open Tech Talks podcast, which started in 2015.

As AI becomes a more significant part of children's daily lives, from personalized learning tools to creative platforms, we see both challenges and exciting potential.

How will AI shape the next generation's development, creativity, and privacy?

What risks should parents, educators, and policymakers be aware of?

We'll unpack all this and more in today's episode, so stay tuned!

Today at a Glance: * Empowering and protecting children from AI * Generative AI Use case: Drafting Contracts and Statements of Work (SoWs) in Procurement * AI Weekly news and updates covering newly released LLMs * Favorite Tip Of The Week and tools of the week

References:

https://aitechcircle.com/posts/generative-ai-opportunities-impact-on-children

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Imagine navigating the ever-evolving tech landscape, from blockchain to AI, and building successful products along the way - how do you manage it all? In the ever-evolving world of technology, staying ahead of the curve requires innovation and a deep understanding of the trends shaping our digital future. From blockchain to artificial intelligence and from Smart contracts to Generative AI, the landscape is shifting at an unprecedented pace.

In this episode, I am thrilled to have JB Benjamin, the visionary Founder and CEO of Kryotech Ltd & Akuma Engineering, join us. He's here to share his invaluable insights on various topics, from smart contracts in blockchain to the challenges and triumphs of launching new tech products. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a budding entrepreneur, or just curious about the journey of a tech leader, this episode is tailor-made for you. It's a unique opportunity to gain insights from a tech leader and explore the future of technology together. So, tune in, and let's embark on this exciting journey! Episode # 142

Today’s Guest: JB Benjamin, Founder/CEO, Kryotech Ltd & Akuma Engineering JB is not just an entrepreneur, but an exceptionally technically proficient lead UI/UX developer. His imaginative approach has led to the development of multiple successful digital businesses.

  • Website: Kryotech
  • Twitter/X: JB Bengamin

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • How to effectively validate a product before launching it to the market.
  • Whether being a technical founder is essential for building a tech product.
  • Hard lessons learned during the journey of a tech entrepreneur.
  • How to transition from working in blockchain to navigating the AI landscape.
  • Comparisons between the blockchain bubble and the current AI hype.
  • Specific use cases where blockchain technology is most effective.
  • The one thing the guest wishes they knew before diving into the tech industry.
  • What smart contracts are in blockchain, and how do they function?

Resources: * Kryotech

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Welcome to another exciting episode of Open Tech Talks, where we bring you insights and strategies from industry leaders to help you navigate your professional journey. Today we have a truly inspiring guest with us who is the Founder and Certified Executive Coach at Human Interfaces, a renowned coaching and consulting firm dedicated to helping professionals and organizations achieve their full potential.

He brings extensive experience in executive coaching, leadership development, and organizational transformation. His work has empowered countless individuals and teams to reach new heights in their careers.

In this episode, we'll delve into the corporate world and explore practical strategies for advancing your career, whether you're an individual contributor or a manager. Vladimir will share his expertise on moving up the career ladder, effectively communicate your achievements regardless of your personality type, and sell your product as a tech founder.

We'll also uncover the one thing Vladimir wishes he knew before starting his current role, discuss common bad recommendations to avoid, and address the challenges technology professionals face today.

Stay tuned as we dive into these topics, gaining valuable insights to help you succeed in your career. Let's get started!

Episode # 139

Today’s Guest: Vladimir Baranov, Founder and Certified Executive Coach, Human Interfaces As an entrepreneur and the business leader behind several successful tech companies, he knows what it takes to survive and blossom in today’s chaotic business landscape. Tune in to gain valuable insights and actionable strategies to advance your career, communicate effectively, sell your products, and navigate common challenges in the technology field.

  • Website: Human Interfaces
  • Linkedin: Human Interface Coaching

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Advancing Your Career in the Corporate World: Strategies for individuals and managers to move their careers to the next level within a hierarchical corporate structure.
  • Effective Communication for Different Personalities: Tips for introverts and extroverts to effectively communicate their best work, overcoming challenges related to personality traits
  • Strategic Selling for Tech Founders: Essential strategies for tech founders to successfully sell their products instead of just focusing on building them
  • Lessons Learned Before Starting a New Role: Insights into the one crucial thing you should know before starting a new role, based on Vladimir Baranov’s experiences
  • Avoiding Common Bad Recommendations: Identification of common bad recommendations and strategies to avoid them in your career and business
  • Challenges Faced by Technology Professionals: An overview of the common challenges faced by technology professionals and practical advice on how to overcome them

Resources: * Human Interfaces

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In the latest episode of our podcast, we sit down with Jason Agouris, the CEO of Tristan Group, to explore the intricacies of developing and implementing AI solutions in the business. This episode is packed with valuable insights into the practical aspects of AI adoption and integration, ensuring it meets real-world business needs.

Join us in this insightful episode to learn from Jason Agouris about the real-world application of AI in business and gain actionable insights to drive your AI initiatives forward.

Episode # 140

Today’s Guest: Jason Agouris, CEO, iTristan Group Jason’s extensive experience in systems integration across retail, fintech, wholesale, and supply chain logistics makes him our go-to guru for data integration and strategy.

  • Website: iTristan
  • Linkedin: JasonAgouris

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Strategies for validating AI products to ensure they meet business needs.
  • Insights into finalizing the technology stack for AI solution development
  • Typical development timelines and adapting to user feedback.
  • How customers perceive AI and the impact of AI hype on business decisions
  • Practical tips for integrating AI into business operations effectively
  • Key qualities and skills sought in candidates for AI positions.

Resources: * iTristan

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In this episode of our Open Tech Talks podcast, we dive deep into the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and data strategy with Gray Mabry, the co-founder and CEO of iVenture. With over two decades of leadership experience, Gray shares his insights on how AI transforms various industries, including the financial sector. As an evangelist of company culture, Gray discusses how aligning vision with core values has helped iVenture become a nationally-ranked Managed Service Provider (MSP). This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding the practical applications of AI, including tools like ChatGPT, and how they can drive business success.

AI Adoption and Customer Perspectives

Our guest speaker illuminates how customers are embracing AI. He discusses whether businesses are adopting AI to solve specific problems or keep up with the trend.

The Future of AI Technology

In this episode, he offers his perspective on the future of AI technology and shares predictions on how AI will evolve and impact various sectors, especially the financial industry, where data strategy plays a crucial role.

Hiring for AI Roles

Gray discusses the qualities and skills he looks for when hiring new talent in the AI field. His experience building a strong company culture and aligning it with technical expertise provides valuable guidance for those looking to enter the AI job market.

A Day in the Life of a CEO

Listeners will get an inside look at a typical day in Gray Mabry’s life as the CEO of iVenture. He discusses his daily responsibilities and routines, offering a glimpse into the leadership strategies that have made iVenture successful.

Patterns in AI Use Cases

Gray identifies common patterns and trends in AI use cases across different industries. His experience in manufacturing, legal, healthcare, and more provides a broad view of how AI is applied to solve real-world problems.

Essential Tools for Business

Finally, Gray shares his favorite tool that he relies on to run his business effectively. His insights on the importance of this tool in the context of AI and data strategy highlight how technology can support business operations.

Episode # 139

Today’s Guest: Gray Mabry, Co-Founder & CEO, Founder, iVenture Solutions Gray has more than two decades of leadership experience as iVenture CEO. Since its founding in 2000, Gray has helped build iVenture into the nationally-ranked MSP it is now.

  • Website: iVenture Solutions
  • Twitter/X: iVenture

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Understand how customers perceive and adopt AI and whether they are using it to solve real problems or incorporate AI.
  • Gain insights into the future trends and directions of AI technology
  • Learn about the qualities and skills targeted when hiring new talent in the AI field.
  • Discover what a typical day looks like for the CEO of a company, including daily responsibilities and routines.
  • Identify common patterns and trends in AI use cases across different industries.
  • Find out the one favorite tool the CEO uses to run their business effectively.

Resources: * Pulse Podcasts * Father-Son Duo Dive into ChatGPT: A Unique Bonding Over Tech & Life Skills

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The latest advancements in text-to-voice technology are opening up exciting new business opportunities. Text-to-voice technology is rapidly improving, making it more accessible and effective for various applications. These advancements are enhancing user experiences and creating new avenues for businesses to explore and innovate. One significant opportunity lies in customer service. Companies can implement more natural and responsive virtual assistants with enhanced text-to-voice models. These assistants can handle customer inquiries efficiently, reducing the need for human intervention and improving service availability. Another promising area is in content creation. Businesses can now generate high-quality audio content from text with ease. This is particularly beneficial for creating podcasts, audiobooks, and voiceovers for videos, enabling companies to reach wider audiences and diversify their content offerings. In the education sector, text-to-voice technology is a valuable tool. It aids in developing accessible learning materials for students with visual impairments or reading difficulties. Additionally, it supports language learning by providing precise and accurate pronunciations, enhancing the overall educational experience. Moreover, the entertainment industry can leverage text-to-voice technology to create more immersive experiences. From voice acting in video games to narrating stories in augmented reality applications, the potential uses are vast and continually expanding. As text-to-voice technology evolves, its applications become more diverse and impactful. Businesses across various sectors can harness these advancements to improve their services, create new content, and enhance accessibility. Embracing these opportunities will drive innovation and provide significant competitive advantages in the market.

Episode # 138

Today’s Guest: Ian Harris, Founder, Pulse Podcasts Ian has started his unique idea to help others capitalize on AI advancements. He launched his product using text-to-voice, assisting brands in offering audio content.

  • Website: Pulse Podcasts
  • Twitter/X: Pulse Podcasts

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • How to Use AI for Recording and Presenting Podcasts
  • Step-by-step guidance on transforming written content into engaging audio
  • Whether and how to inform your audience that AI generates the voice
  • An overview of the technologies used, including the origins and evolution of the AI tools employed.
  • Explanation of the specific language models (LLMs) used and how they help deliver content effectively to the audience.
  • Tips and suggestions for those interested in starting a career or project in AI
  • How can the idea be validated and determine if there is a market for an AI-driven product?
  • Practical strategies for launching and marketing a new AI-based product.

Resources: * Pulse Podcasts

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Starting a startup is a significant challenge, requiring efforts in securing funding, building a team, and navigating market demands. However, the rewards are substantial.

If you get mentors and experienced colleagues, this ride can be very fruitful and amazing. On the other hand, Mentors gain personal growth, professional satisfaction, and the joy of witnessing ideas transform into successful businesses. This process fosters strong networks, brings fresh perspectives, and drives innovation and economic growth.

In this episode of our podcast, we had the pleasure of hosting Leopold, the CEO and Founder of Amsterdam Standard. He brings over two decades of experience in building startups, with 18 successful ventures and three major wins under his belt. His expertise in scaling businesses and developing team augmentation offers new and aspiring founders invaluable insights.

Episode # 137

Today’s Guest: Leopold van Oosten, CEO, Amsterdam Standard He has built 18 startups in 20 years, with 3 major wins through his organizations.

Join us as we dive deep into the world of startups with Leopold van Oosten, gaining insights that can propel your entrepreneurial journey forward. Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn from a seasoned expert in the field.

  • Website: Amsterdam Standard
  • LinkedIn: Leopold Van Oosten

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • Support for Product Development: Learn how Amsterdam Standard supports entrepreneurs in building and scaling their products.
  • Startup Success Stories: With 22 supported startups, Leopold discusses key success factors and lessons learned.
  • Top Tips for New Founders: Discover top three tips for new founders on successfully navigating the startup landscape.
  • Validation of Ideas and MVPs: Gain strategies to validate your product ideas and MVPs in the market.
  • Approaching Users for Validation: Understand effective methods for reaching out to potential users and gathering crucial feedback.
  • Utilizing Test Audiences and Panels: Learn the importance of test audiences and how to use them effectively.
  • Talent Acquisition: Find out how to identify and hire top talent for startups and what key characteristics he looks for in candidates.

Resources: * Amsterdam Standard

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Welcome to the inaugural episode of the AI Tech Circle, your new hub within the AI community for learning and sharing insights. I'm your host, Kashif Manzoor, a familiar face from the Open Tech Talks podcast, where we've engaged with numerous distinguished guests to dive deep into various tech topics. Alongside these conversations, I've curated a weekly newsletter that captures the latest AI and machine learning developments, ensuring you're always current.

Recently, we've been inspired by the feedback from our vibrant community. This led to a great idea—why not bring these cutting-edge AI discussions into an audio format? With your active participation, we've decided to increase our episode frequency right here on Open Tech Talks, launching our very first dedicated AI session! Your insights and engagement are what make this podcast possible.

We're eager to make this show as interactive and informative as possible, so please send us your feedback. And, for a fun twist, all our music intros are powered by AI from Udio.com. Those who prefer reading should visit AITechCircle.com to catch up on this week's newsletter. Let's dive into the world of AI together! Your participation is what makes this show genuinely interactive.

Today at a Glance: * Key takeaways from the article of McKinsey, Implementing Generative AI with Speed and Safety * AI Weekly news and updates * Generative AI Usecase of the week for you to explore * Favorite Tip Of The Week & Potential of AI * Things to Know: a framework for Large Language Model evaluations from the UK AI Safety Institute * Open Tech Talk Podcast, the latest episode on AI & the Art of advertising * AI/ML/GenAI courses to attend * AI Events * Tech Tools to try out * Datasets for your next project

AI Tech Circle Week ending 12th May 2024

https://aitechcircle.com/posts/stay-ahead-in-ai-with-weekly-ai-roundup

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The push to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into business operations is becoming increasingly essential in today's rapidly evolving technological landscape. Organizations are feeling the pressure to adopt AI, not just as a strategic tool to solve real business problems but also to keep pace with competitors and market trends.

This urgency often leads to a critical decision: should AI adoption be driven by genuine business needs, or should it be a response to external pressures to 'keep up with the AI movement'?

AI's potential to revolutionize operations, elevate customer experiences, and forge new value streams is truly remarkable.

While the eagerness to adopt AI is understandable, it's crucial to grasp its purpose and potential impact first. A well-defined strategy ensures that AI is integrated to align with core objectives, preventing the wastage of resources and missed opportunities.

Episode # 135

Today’s Guest: Denzil Eden, Founder, Smarty.ai Denzil has started her own SaaS App to unify your calendars, centralize your work, plan your days.

  • Website: Smarty AI
  • Twitter/X: Denzil Eden

What Listeners Will Learn:

  • How do you prototype a startup idea?
  • What strategies work best for acquiring new customers for a new SaaS application?
  • As a new SaaS founder, how do you decide on the right technology stack for your product?
  • How did you determine the need for AI in your product? Was it to address a specific problem, or was it more about integrating AI for its own sake?
  • What methods can be used to validate a new SaaS product before full-scale development?
  • Is it straightforward to reach out to users for feedback, and how can this process be managed effectively?
  • What steps did you take to secure your first paid customer?
  • As a founder, what were some of your biggest mistakes, and what did you learn from them?
  • What key skills do you look for in candidates when building your team?
  • What are some top tips for anyone looking to develop their own product?
  • How do you balance the technical demands of coding with the strategic responsibilities of being a CEO?

Resources: * Smarty AI

To share your thoughts:

  • Leave a comment in the section below on this post
  • Do you want to suggest any new topic I should cover in future Podcast
  • Share this on Twitter and Facebook; if you enjoyed this episode, we are learning new technologies together.

To help out this initiative:

  • Leave a candid review for the OTechTalks Podcast on iTunes! Your ratings and reviews will help the session on iTunes.
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Large Language Models (LLMs) are advanced AI tools designed to generate text-based content. In advertising, these models use data to produce compelling, creative copy that resonates with targeted audiences. This includes everything from catchy headlines to detailed product descriptions and persuasive sales pitches.

How it is being done:

Data Input: LLMs require input of existing data such as product information, target audience characteristics, and company branding guidelines. This data helps the model understand the context and requirements of the advertising campaign.

Content Generation: The model processes the input data using its pre-trained knowledge base to generate relevant and engaging copy. The AI considers language patterns, industry terminology, and brand voice in its output.

Review and Refinement: While LLMs can produce high-quality initial drafts, it's important to note that they are not perfect. The generated content often goes through a review process where marketing professionals adjust to ensure that the final copy aligns perfectly with campaign goals and audience expectations. This is because LLMs may not always capture the nuances of human language or understand the specific context of a brand or product.

The benefits:

Efficiency: LLMs empower marketing professionals by dramatically reducing the time required to produce creative content. What might take hours for a human can be accomplished in minutes, allowing businesses to respond quickly to market changes and opportunities.

Consistency: These models help maintain a consistent voice across all marketing materials. Consistency is crucial for brand recognition and customer trust, and LLMs ensure that every piece of content aligns with the brand's established style and tone.

Scalability: LLMs offer businesses the potential for exponential growth in their content production without a proportional increase in resources or costs. This is especially beneficial for campaigns targeting different demographics or requiring multilingual content, as the AI can adapt and produce varied content efficiently, instilling a sense of optimism about the potential of their campaigns. By integrating LLMs into their advertising strategies, businesses can leverage these benefits to enhance their marketing efforts, leading to better engagement and increased sales.

Today we will have a guest speaker Robert Brill, Chief Executive Officer at Brill Media, who has been a dynamic part of the advertising industry since 2003.

Our earlier session on the area of marketing was with Emanuel Rose, the CEO of Strategic eMarketing, Episode number 119, and he shared with us the tips to build brand authenticity in the age of AI and actionable tips to develop your brand even if you are working in an organization

Episode # 134

Today's Guest: Robert Brill, Chief Executive Officer, Brill Media Robert has been immersed in the advertising industry since 2003. He is passionate about cultivating brands and propelling businesses forward. He loves creative testing and business insights.

  • Website: Brill Media
  • Linkedin: Robert Brill

Listeners will gain valuable knowledge from an industry expert on leveraging limited resources for maximum effect, selecting the right platforms for growth, and utilizing new technologies like generative AI to streamline and enhance advertising strategies.

What Listeners Will Learn:

  1. Insights into how organizations with limited budgets can effectively engage in social marketing to maximize their impact.
  2. Guidance on which social media channels are most beneficial for startups and early-stage organizations to begin their marketing efforts.
  3. Strategies that established businesses can adopt to enhance their presence and effectiveness in social marketing.
  4. Best practices for crafting and deploying successful advertisements on Meta platforms to ensure high engagement and returns.
  5. How generative AI is currently used and its future potential to revolutionize copywriting in advertising, making content creation more efficient and aligned with marketing goals.
  6. Commonly heard but misguided recommendations that new business owners should avoid as they start and grow their ventures.

Resources: * Brill Media

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Large language models (LLMs) significantly influence creative writers who write books by offering new tools for generating ideas, improving drafts, and overcoming writer's block.

These models can suggest plot ideas, develop character dialogues, or even write entire sections of text, which writers can then refine and integrate into their work. This collaboration can increase productivity and creativity, allowing writers to explore new styles and narratives.

LLMs can understand and generate human-like text based on their training from vast literature and online content. This enables them to assist in creative writing by providing relevant and contextually appropriate text suggestions.

Today, we spoke to an accomplished writer who is a master in his field, and we discussed how LLMs will help or impact the creative writing process.

Episode # 133

Today’s Guest: Alex Shvartsman, Writer, Anthologist, and Translator from Brooklyn, NY. He’s the author of Kakistocracy (2023), The Middling Affliction (2022), and Eridani’s Crown (2019) fantasy novels. Over 120 of his short stories have appeared in Analog, Nature, Strange Horizons, and many other venues.

  • Website: AlexShvartsman
  • Twitter/X: AlexShvartsman

Dive into the intersection of artificial intelligence and creativity with Alex Shvartsman, a celebrated writer and translator, as he explores the evolving capabilities of AI in literature.

What Listeners Will Learn:

  1. The capabilities of current large language models in writing creative books and how these tools are shaping the literary landscape.
  2. The potential future developments in large language models and their ability to produce highly creative works such as novels and poetry.
  3. The impact of transformative technologies like AI on society and how they redefine our interaction with creativity and culture.
  4. Practical advice on beginning creative writing or general writing, offering insights catering to novice writers and seasoned authors.
  5. The interaction between artificial intelligence and creative endeavors explores how AI can collaborate with human creativity in the arts.

Resources: * AlexShvartsman * Session 111 - Writing in the Age of AI: A Deep Dive with a 300-Book Author

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In recent years, how we interact with technology has dramatically shifted, largely thanks to the advancements in Generative AI. This leap forward has transformed virtual assistants and voice user interfaces, making our interactions with different brands more accessible, more engaging, and human-like. Generative AI has empowered virtual assistants to understand and respond in incredibly natural ways. For example, when you ask a virtual assistant powered by Generative AI for cooking advice, it can provide recipes, tips, alternatives for missing ingredients, and follow-up questions to tailor the advice further. This depth of interaction makes using voice user interfaces more like chatting with a knowledgeable friend than issuing commands to a machine.

The revolution of Large Language Models (LLMs) in virtual assistants and voice user interfaces marks a significant milestone in our journey with technology. It's not just about the convenience of hands-free commands anymore; it's about creating a more intuitive, accessible, and personalized experience. As this technology continues to evolve, we can expect our digital companions to become even more integrated into our daily lives, making technology a tool and a partner.

Episode # 132

Today’s Guest: Kevin Surace, Chairman & CTO, Appvance AI. Globally recognized futurist, inventor, and innovation leader credited as the pioneer of virtual assistants * Website: Kevin Surace * Linkedin: Kevin

This podcast offers invaluable insights into how AI and technology can bridge educational gaps, challenge traditional learning methods, and pave the way for a future where every student has the tools to succeed.

What Listeners Will Learn:

  1. Why is everyone talking about generative AI, and what new content can it create?
  2. What do Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) need to understand about generative AI's capabilities and limitations?
  3. What are the main concerns surrounding Generative AI, including content accuracy and ethical use?
  4. What are the common areas to focus on when utilizing generative AI to enhance creativity and improve efficiency?
  5. How should organizations manage the changes brought about by introducing AI technologies?
  6. In what ways can generative AI and huge language models impact customer support?
  7. Why are ethical considerations and bias management crucial in AI development?
  8. What should be considered to ensure the ethical use of open-source large language models?

Resources: * Kevin Surace

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Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the educational technology sector is revolutionizing the learning and teaching landscape. As AI continues to advance, its application within education is not just enhancing educational experiences but is fundamentally transforming the industry. From personalized learning paths to intelligent tutoring systems, AI in education unlocks unprecedented opportunities for students and educators alike, setting the stage for a future where education is more accessible, efficient, and tailored to individual needs.

In our earlier podcast session 126, we talked to the founders of AI Teacher about how they are using Generative AI for secondary school teachers.

In today's enlightening episode, we had the privilege of interviewing the founder of Plabook, a revolutionary educational tool designed to transform how we approach oral reading fluency and comprehension in students.

Plabook stands out by leveraging advanced speech recognition technology to listen to students as they read, providing instant, personalized feedback and smart recommendations.

This innovative platform assesses reading abilities and delves deep into understanding each student's unique strengths and weaknesses through diagnostic reports. These reports are powerful tools for teachers and parents, offering insights to support and enhance the learning journey. Throughout our discussion, we explored Plabook's inception, development, and impact on the educational landscape, uncovering the vision and challenges behind integrating AI into education.

Episode # 131

Today’s Guest: Dr. Phil Hickman, Founder / CEO PlaBook * Website: PlaBookEducation * Linkedin: Dr. Phil

This podcast offers invaluable insights into how AI and technology can bridge educational gaps, challenge traditional learning methods, and pave the way for a future where every student has the tools to succeed.

What Listeners Will Learn:

In today’s podcast, you’ll gain insights into several key areas:

  1. Exploring Use of Speech Recognition for Feedback: Discover the role of advanced speech recognition in providing real-time, tailored feedback to students.
  2. Understanding the Impact of Plabook on English Reading Comprehension: Gain insights into how Plabook is transforming the approach to teaching and assessing reading fluency.
  3. The Journey from Pilot to Validation: Learn about initial testing phases and the validation of its innovative concept.
  4. Adapting to Diverse Dialects and Languages: Find out how accommodates the linguistic diversity of its users.
  5. The Educational Sector’s Response to AI Innovations: Delve into how new technologies like Plabook are being received and adopted in educational settings.
  6. Anticipating Future Educational Innovations: Get a glimpse of potential advancements and changes in the education sector influenced by AI technology.

Resources: * Website: PlaBookEducation * Linkedin: Dr. Phil * Meet AI Teacher: The Future of AI in Education Unveiled with Dr Pauldy Otermans and Dev Aditya

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In our connected world, keeping our online spaces secure is a top priority for everyone - businesses, startups, and individuals alike. Today's episode is all about making cybersecurity simple and accessible. We'll cover how to start protecting yourself and your organization, address the need for more skilled professionals, and examine how new technologies make security brighter. Suppose you've ever wondered about the best ways to stay safe online. In that case, this conversation is for you about what it takes to build a career in cybersecurity or how innovation is shaping the future of protection. Let's dive in together and learn how to keep our digital lives safe and sound.

Before inviting the guest speaker, I will also discuss my experience attending WebSummit Qatar and some of the latest news from the Leap 2024 event in Saudi Arabia.

We all now must be aware that the consequences of neglecting cybersecurity can be dire, from personal data breaches to large-scale attacks on corporations and governments. I know we hate to keep long-digit passwords, but there is so much happening in the security world that we all need to be extra conscious and take serious steps.

Episode # 130

Today's Guest: Nick Lorizio, Founder, AstuteTechnologists * Website: AstuteTechnologists * Linkedin: NickLorizio

The insights into cybersecurity include learning how to bolster security within your organizations and personal digital spaces.

What Listeners Will Learn:

In today's podcast, you'll gain insights into several key areas:

  1. Understanding Security Necessities: Learn why individuals and organizations must prioritize cybersecurity, recognizing the unique challenges each faces and the critical importance of investment in this area for protecting data and ensuring operational continuity.
  2. Innovation in Security: Learn about the inspiration behind developing a security product, identifying market needs, and how innovative technologies like AI are integrated into cybersecurity solutions to enhance protection and efficiency.
  3. Guidance for Startups: Discover tailored advice for startups or those early in product development on embedding cybersecurity measures from the outset, ensuring a secure foundation as they scale.
  4. Personal Security Strategies: Gain strategies and best practices that individuals can adopt to safeguard themselves in the digital world.
  5. Addressing Talent Shortage: Explore the current landscape of cybersecurity talent shortage, understand its impact on the industry, and learn about ways to mitigate this issue through education, training, and community engagement.
  6. Career Growth in Cybersecurity: Receive suggestions for individuals looking to start or advance their careers in cybersecurity, including educational paths, skill development, and networking strategies.
  7. Foundational Insights: Hear firsthand about the biggest mistakes to avoid as a founder and the key traits to look for when building a team, providing a deeper understanding of the leadership and decision-making process in the cybersecurity sector.

Resources: * Website: AstuteTechnologists * Linkedin: NickLorizio * Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit * Groq

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Welcome to today's episode of "Open Tech Talks," where we delve deep into the digital economy's convergence of technology, business, and creativity. Our focus today centers on the transformative wave of Web3 technologies, with a special spotlight on Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and how they revolutionize customer engagement and loyalty programs across industries.

The advent of Web3 has ushered in a new era of digital interaction characterized by decentralized networks, blockchain technology, and a strong emphasis on digital ownership and assets. NFTs have emerged as a groundbreaking concept, offering verifiable ownership of unique digital items through blockchain technology. In this episode, we have the privilege of hosting the President of SHOPX, a leading platform at the forefront of integrating NFTs into the retail and e-commerce sectors to create unparalleled customer experiences.

Episode # 129

Today’s Guest: Eric Mchugh, President at SHOPX Labs and Chief Growth Officer at Dataing * Website: ShopX * Linkedin: EricMchugh

We'll explore SHOPX's journey within the rapidly evolving landscape of Web3 and e-commerce, understanding how the platform leverages NFTs to empower brands and consumers.

What Listeners Will Learn:

In today’s podcast, you’ll gain insights into several key areas:

  1. An understanding of how NFTs and Web3 technologies create new customer engagement and loyalty paradigms.
  2. Insights into the practical applications and benefits of integrating NFTs into e-commerce and retail strategies.
  3. Strategies for navigating the challenges of adopting Web3 technologies in traditional business models.
  4. Inspiration from successful case studies of brands leveraging SHOPX to enhance customer experience and drive growth.

Resources: * Website: ShopX * Linkedin: EricMchugh

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In today's digital era, we are bombarded with overwhelming information on our screens daily. This flood of data creates a significant problem: filtering through the massive content to find what truly matters and what should be avoided. We must identify information that captures our interest, enhances our understanding, and enriches our lives rather than just being controlled by the algorithms' contents.

To tackle this challenge, we must develop strategies and tools that help us efficiently access high-quality, relevant content amidst the constant buzz. It requires a discerning eye to differentiate valuable content from the trivial, ensuring that what we consume contributes positively to our knowledge, well-being, and satisfaction. It is quite a challenging task, and even before making it into a task, there needs to be awareness that, yes, this is the challenge that we as humans are getting content from the algorithms to support the interest of these platforms.

In addition, promoting digital literacy plays a crucial role in this context. Educating internet users on effectively searching for, evaluating, and engaging with digital content can empower them to make informed decisions about what they read, watch, and listen to online. This knowledge is invaluable in an age where the quality of information can significantly impact our perceptions, decisions, and actions.

Ultimately, our goal is to transform the challenge of information overload into an opportunity for growth, learning, and enrichment. By leveraging advanced technologies, fostering critical skills, and promoting high standards of content quality, we can create a digital environment where abundant information becomes an asset rather than a hindrance.

Episode # 128

Today's Guest: Alex Fink, Chief Executive Officer, OtherWeb * Website: OtherWeb * Linkedin: Alex Fink

From the insightful conversation with the CEO of OtherWeb, listeners will have the opportunity to explore several key questions that illuminate the process of creating a more enriching digital content landscape:

What Listeners Will Learn:

    1. What are the 'secret recipes' behind OtherWeb's successful use of AI in personalizing user content over the last two years?
    2. How does one tackle labeling, particularly in categorizing content by neutrality, tone, and identifying offensive language or hate speech?
    3. What are the critical characteristics of hiring data scientists and AI engineers to drive innovation and ethical AI development?
    4. Why is it essential for individuals to be as selective with the information they consume digitally as they are with the food they consume?

Resources: * OtherWeb

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In the dynamic realm of tech innovation, Web3 and blockchain emerge as pivotal forces, heralding a transformative era. These technologies redefine the digital frontier, promising enhanced security, transparency, and a shift toward decentralization in digital transactions.

This journey into uncharted territories has challenges, including blockchain's intricate nature, scalability issues, and regulatory landscapes. Further, infusing the hype of blockchain technology by the prominent vendors to not going mainstream technology is another concern. Yet, the advantages are compelling, offering a peek into a future where digital interactions are underpinned by trust, accountability, and open access.

At their essence, Web3 and blockchain aim to grant users unprecedented control over their digital selves, assets, and data. This movement towards a user-centric web is reshaping industries, from finance to entertainment, emphasizing the need to navigate its complexities and seize the opportunities it presents.

As we delve deeper into Web3 and blockchain, their potential to remodel our digital existence is evident. Despite facing obstacles, the path ahead is laden with the promise of a digital domain characterized by security, transparency, and inclusivity.

In today's marketing and innovation frontier, we explore Web3's impact on social networks, content creation, and business communication strategies. We're joined by Viktoriia Miracle, Chief Communication Officer at Cheelee.io, a pioneering startup transforming social media engagement and profit sharing. With her extensive marketing expertise and growth achievements, Viktoriia offers rich insights into effective content creation, public speaking, and customer engagement.

Episode # 127

Today’s Guest: Viktoriia Miracle, CCO Cheelee.io * Website: Cheelee * Linkedin: Viktoriia

This episode is a deep dive into the latest marketing and communication trends within the swiftly evolving tech landscape, offering invaluable lessons from a leader at the innovation vanguard.

What Listeners Will Learn:

In today’s podcast, you’ll gain insights into several key areas:

  1. Web2 vs. Web3 Social Networks: Differences between traditional and Web3 social platforms and user adaptation challenges.
  2. Content Creation Strategies: The best approach to producing impactful content fueled guest's own marketing agency's success.
  3. Marketing Tips for Newbies: Practical marketing advice for startups and solopreneurs operating on tight budgets.
  4. Customer Engagement and Feedback: Tactics for engaging customers, soliciting feedback, and refining offerings based on genuine insights.
  5. Cheelee.io's Innovative Model: An exploration of Cheelee.io's unique revenue-sharing model attracted over 1 million users in seven months.

Resources: * Website: Cheelee * Linkedin: Viktoriia * AI, Authenticity, and Marketing: A Deep Dive with Emanuel Rose

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The advent of AI in education is paving the way for a new era of teaching and learning. Digital teachers, powered by artificial intelligence, are making their mark by transforming traditional teaching methods. These AI educators can quickly digest university curriculum content and craft detailed lesson plans, making education more accessible and personalized.

At the heart of this transformation is the ability of Generative AI to process extensive educational materials swiftly, using advanced technologies to create comprehensive lessons complete with questions and answers. This approach not only streamlines the preparation phase for educators but also ensures that students receive a tailored learning experience. The use of Generative AI in lesson planning allows for adapting content to meet students' diverse learning paces and styles, enhancing engagement and understanding.

Furthermore, this technology can identify gaps in knowledge, offering additional resources to help students master complex concepts. The efficiency brought by AI teachers means that educational content is always up-to-date, reflecting the latest developments in various fields of study.

Benefits:

  • Personalized Learning: AI tailors lesson plans to cater to individual student needs, promoting a more effective learning process.
  • Efficiency: Teachers save valuable time with AI handling lesson planning, allowing them to focus more on engaging with students.
  • Accessibility: Students can access high-quality lessons anywhere, anytime, making education more accessible to a broader audience.
  • Updated Content: AI ensures the curriculum is current, incorporating the latest information and research into lessons.

This innovative approach to education introduces a new dimension of flexibility and efficiency, marking a significant leap forward in how knowledge is delivered and absorbed.

Welcome to an exciting episode where we introduce Beatrice, the digital human teacher designed by OIAI.

Episode # 126

Today’s Guest: Dr Pauldy Otermans, Academic, Researcher, and HE Leader Dev Aditya, Global Under 30, Innovator & Entrepreneur. Co-founders, Otermans Institute * Website: Otermans Institute * Linkedin: Otermans Institue

What Listeners Will Learn:

In today’s podcast, you’ll gain insights into several key areas:

  1. The innovation behind Beatrice, OIAI's digital human teacher, and how it personalizes the learning experience.
  2. The process of integrating educational content into an AI teacher using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and training with LLAMA 2.
  3. The importance of ethical AI in the context of digital education and how human oversight ensures the quality and integrity of lessons.
  4. The concept of Teaching and Learning 3.0 enhances traditional classroom education with AI support for instant problem-solving.
  5. The challenges encountered during developing AI educational products and the solutions devised to overcome them.
  6. How Teddy AI facilitates engaging and adaptive learning experiences tailored to children's individual learning speeds.
  7. Strategies for managing the lifecycle of AI-driven educational products to ensure their relevance and effectiveness in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.

Resources: * Otermans Institute

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The rise of low-code and no-code development platforms is reshaping how we think about building applications. These platforms are marketed for their ease of use, emphasizing that even those without coding expertise can quickly create applications. This approach to app development is increasingly popular because it democratizes the process, making it accessible to a broader audience.

One key advantage of low-code platforms is their ability to empower people with little to no programming knowledge. They can now bring new projects to life or develop fresh ideas independently. Traditionally, creating an application involved relaying ideas to a programmer or coder, who would then try to translate these concepts into a functional product. This process could be time-consuming and often result in a product that might not fully align with the original vision.

However, with low-code and no-code platforms, this dynamic has changed. Individuals can now take control of the development process, building and adjusting their applications as they see fit. This hands-on approach allows for a more accurate realization of one's vision and fosters innovation by removing technical barriers.

The simplicity of these platforms lies in their user-friendly interfaces, which often involve drag-and-drop functionalities and easy-to-navigate design elements. This means that making an app doesn't require writing lines of code. Instead, it's about visually constructing the application, piece by piece, like building a model using a kit.

As these platforms evolve, they're becoming even more intuitive, making app development not just accessible but also an enjoyable experience. This shift is significant in an increasingly digital world, where the ability to quickly develop and deploy applications can be a game-changer for businesses and individuals alike.

In summary, low-code and no-code platforms are not just a trend; they represent a fundamental shift in the digital landscape. They're opening doors for creative minds to develop their digital solutions without the bottleneck of needing advanced coding skills, thereby accelerating innovation and personal empowerment in the digital realm.

Welcome to today's podcast! I am thrilled to have a special guest, Dan Hafner, an expert in app development without traditional coding. Dan started with no coding skills but established a successful app development business. He specializes in helping coaches, content creators, and entrepreneurs transform their ideas into practical, stylish, and scalable apps.

Dan Hafner's journey from a novice to a guru in the no-code app development space is truly inspiring, and his insights are invaluable for anyone looking to enter this rapidly evolving field.

Episode # 125

Today's Guest: Dan Hafner, Founder, Dapper Mobile Apps * Website: DapperMobileApps * Facebook: DanHafner

What Listeners Will Learn:

In today's podcast, you'll gain insights into several key areas:

  1. Challenges for Non-Programmers Using Low-Code Platforms
  2. Getting Started for Beginners with app development using low-code platforms
  3. Common Platforms for Beginners to start building the apps
  4. Tips for Building SaaS Applications

Resources: * DanHafner * DapperMobileApps

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The impact of large language models, also known as Gen AI, can be seen in every industry. In the healthcare sector, Generative AI Technologies is gaining momentum and becoming a key priority. Generative AI can revolutionize the healthcare industry by automating medical coding, improving medical claims processing.

Generative AI can also assist healthcare payors and insurers, providing valuable call report summarization and performance analytics.

AI-enhanced imaging can further elevate the accuracy of medical diagnoses. Generative AI has the potential to refine, reconstruct, or synthesize medical imagery, including X-rays, MRIs, or CT scans. This provides clinicians with more detailed and accurate visual data, which supports better-informed diagnoses and treatment plans.

The healthcare industry stands on the brink of a transformative era, with the integration of advanced technologies reshaping its landscape. Today, we will talk about the dynamics of incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) models into healthcare systems. We explore the challenges and breakthroughs in developing go-to-market strategies, healthcare IT integration, and the profound impact of AI in operational systems.

This podcast delves into the contrasting requirements of medical record interoperability among different healthcare facilities and the rigorous cybersecurity standards. Additionally, we explore how the healthcare industry is being transformed by AI, with closed-loop systems that are FDA-approved at the forefront.

Episode # 124

Today’s Guest: James F. Jordan, Distinguished Service Professor of Health Care and Biotechnology at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, the President of StraTactic * Website: JFJordan * Linkedin: JamesJordan

What Listeners Will Learn:

In today’s podcast, you’ll gain insights into several key areas:

  1. The Role of AI and LLMs in Decision Support: How AI shapes healthcare decision-making processes, including precision medicine.
  2. Cybersecurity in Healthcare: Addressing the high stakes of protecting medical records in an increasingly digital landscape.
  3. Interoperability vs. Cybersecurity: Balancing the need for shared medical records with the imperative of data protection.
  4. Regulatory Challenges: Navigating the speed of technological advancement versus the pace of regulatory approval.
  5. Startups in Healthcare: Analysis of the current state and future prospects for startups in the healthcare industry.

Resources: * JFJordan * Healthcare Data Center * JamesFJordan - Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College

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In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, the introduction of AI-powered voice solutions, particularly in call centers, marks a significant revolution.

This transformative shift is not just about automating conversations but about redefining the very essence of customer interactions. AI voice technologies, harnessing advanced algorithms and vast data sets, are enabling call centers to provide more personalized, efficient, and consistent customer service.

According to a report by Grand View Research, the global AI in the call center market size was valued at USD 1.6 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.6% from 2021 to 2028. This growth is attributed to the increasing demand for AI solutions that can manage large volumes of calls and enhance customer satisfaction while reducing operational costs.

Moreover, the integration of AI in call centers goes beyond just handling inquiries; it's about leveraging technology to understand customer needs better. AI systems can analyze speech patterns, recognize customer emotions, and provide responses that are not only accurate but also empathetic.

For instance, a study by IBM reveals that AI can analyze customer call data to identify underlying issues and trends, helping call centers to improve their services proactively.

The implementation of AI in call centers represents a confluence of technological advancement and practical application, signaling a new era in customer service where efficiency, empathy, and understanding are paramount.

Listeners will gain insights into Barky AI's innovative strategies, including their early adoption of ChatGPT2 for team integration and their groundbreaking use of AI voice agents in call centers. The podcast will unravel how Barky AI's partnership with call centers and its rigorous quality testing led to handling a million calls daily, transforming customer service in banks and other sectors. With the seamless integration of synthetic voice technology, Barky AI has blurred the line between human and AI interactions, ensuring undetectable, efficient customer service.

Episode # 123

Today’s Guest: Chris Barkhurst, CEO, Barky AI * Website: Barky AI * Linkedin: Barky AI

What Listeners Will Learn:

In today’s podcast, you’ll gain insights into several key areas:

  1. The early adoption of ChatGPT2 by Barky AI and its impact on team onboarding.
  2. Strategies for elevating AI applications beyond chatbot functionalities.
  3. The development and integration of AI voice agents in call centers.
  4. The process and importance of quality testing in AI voice solutions.
  5. The role of synthetic voice technology in enhancing customer service experiences.
  6. Chris Barkhurst's secret hiring process and find a new talent.

Resources: * Barky AI * AI in Call Center Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Solution (Chatbot, Intelligent Virtual Assistant), By Service, By Deployment, By End-use, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028 - Grand View Research * How AI Can Transform the Call Center - IBM

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Managed services have become a linchpin in the strategy of companies looking to harness technology for growth, efficiency, and innovation.

We delve into the transformative world of managed services and their role in business strategy.

The shift from in-house tech management to outsourcing to specialized tech companies represents a strategic reorientation for many businesses. This critical decision allows companies to focus on their core competencies, entrusting the technological complexities to expert service providers. Yet, challenges arise, especially for tech-centric businesses that prioritize maintaining control over their IT infrastructures.

We explore this delicate balance between managing in-house technology and reaping the benefits of outsourced services.

This blog post and accompanying podcast are tailored for business leaders contemplating the shift to managed services and MSPs aiming to align their services with client success. Stay tuned as we navigate the dynamic and evolving landscape of managed services and AI applications in business.

Episode # 122

Today’s Guest: Dave Sobel, Host of the Business of Tech podcast, and owner of MSP Radio * Website: Business of Tech * Youtube: MSP Radio * Twitter: MSPRadio

What Listeners Will Learn:

In today's podcast, you'll gain insights into several key areas:

  1. Choosing the Right MSP: We discuss how selecting a managed services provider (MSP) goes beyond technical capabilities and involves making a strategic business decision.
  2. Acquiring the Right Talent: Tackling the crucial question of talent acquisition from outsourced providers, we weigh the pros and cons of direct involvement in the selection process versus trusting the expertise of MSPs.
  3. Meeting Business Expectations: How are companies' expectations of MSPs being met, and what improvements can be made to these partnerships?
  4. Evolving Landscape of Managed Services: Examining current trends in the managed services sector to understand whether their prevalence is increasing and how this impacts business strategies.
  5. The Role of MSPs in Client Success: Delving into how MSPs can ensure their clients achieve success and support them in their business journey.
  6. AI in Business: Understanding the application of AI, especially Generative AI, in business, its strengths, limitations, and scenarios where it may not be the ideal solution.

Resources: * Business of Tech

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In this era where technology is not just an enabler but a driver of business innovation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands at the forefront of this transformation. AI is no longer a futuristic concept; it's a tangible, powerful tool reshaping how businesses operate and compete across various industries. Generative AI, a subset of AI, has started ruling the world in the last year, and every industry is being impacted.

AI's vast and varied capabilities, from streamlining operations and enhancing customer experiences to driving data-driven decision-making and innovation. Organizations will focus not just on the theoretical aspects of AI in business but, more importantly, on real-world applications and strategies proving successful. Whether you're a startup embracing AI for agility or an established corporation using AI to maintain a competitive edge, understanding how to integrate this technology into your business strategy effectively is critical. Incorporating AI into business is not just about adopting new technology but fundamentally rethinking how we approach problems, make decisions, and create value.

Real-world examples include:

  • AI-driven predictive maintenance in manufacturing.
  • AI-powered personalization in retail.
  • AI-enhanced diagnostic tools in healthcare.

This involves understanding the AI maturity curve, where businesses evolve from experimental AI projects to scaling AI across the organization.

An important facet is developing an AI-literate workforce and fostering a culture that embraces data-driven decision-making.

This comprehensive discussion aims to equip business leaders, strategists, and technologists with insights and actionable strategies to harness AI's power effectively and responsibly. As AI continues to evolve, staying ahead in this AI-driven business landscape requires not only technological advancements.

Episode # 121

Today's Guest: Abdul-Jabbar Sani, CEO, VezTek * Website: VezTek * Linkedin: Abdul Jabbar Sani

An excellent quote from the guest speaker, 'Bitcoin introduced the blockchain to the world, and similar to this, ChatGPT has introduced machine learning to the world.'

What to Expect in Today's Discussion:

    1. AI's Transformational Role: Insights into how AI is a tool and a catalyst for business innovation and strategy.
    2. Practical Applications: Understanding how AI is being used in real-world scenarios, such as predictive maintenance in manufacturing, personalization in retail, and diagnostic tools in healthcare.
    3. AI Maturity in Business: Learn about the evolution of businesses from initial AI experiments to full-scale AI integration across operations.
    4. Developing AI Skills: The importance of building an AI-literate workforce and how this impacts data-driven decision-making in organizations.
    5. Navigating the Hype Cycle of Technologies: Understanding the difference between hype and actual demand in emerging technologies, with examples from blockchain and machine learning.
    6. Leadership in AI: Discover what CEOs and leaders seek in candidates working with emerging technologies.
    7. Staying Ahead: Strategies for keeping up with the rapid technological changes every 15-18 months and leveraging them for business success.

Resources: * VezTek

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Today's topic is more than just talking about technology; it is a refreshing deviation from our usual tech-focused narratives.

We're exploring life beyond the screens and code, diving into themes of personal growth, emotional wellness, and life transitions.

Today, I have requested a special guest, a former corporate professional turned life coach, to join us to share invaluable wisdom on overcoming common fears, embracing self-care, and navigating the transformative journey of career shifts.

We will cover various topics, such as battling public speaking anxiety, seeking joy in one's daily routine, and considering a significant career change.

This discussion is tailored to provide you with meaningful, life-enhancing insights.

Episode # 120

Today’s Guest: Sylvia Worsham, Couch & Author * Website: SylviaWorsham * Linkedin: SylviaWorsham * Twitter: SylviaWorsham

What to Expect in Today’s Discussion:

  1. Conquering Common Fears: Learn practical strategies to overcome fears like public speaking or rejection, which are more common than you might think.
  2. Career Transition Insights: Gain insights into how to shift from a corporate role to a more fulfilling career, helping others thrive.
  3. The Importance of Self-Care: Understand why taking care of yourself is crucial for your overall well-being and how it impacts your ability to care for others.
  4. Scheduling Self-Care: Learn why you should treat self-care like a critical meeting on your calendar, focusing on mental and emotional wellness.
  5. Physical Wellness: The role of physical activities, like exercise, nature walks, or sports, in enhancing your overall health.
  6. Habit Analysis: Identifying good and bad habits, understanding their impact, and learning the "start, stop, continue" method for habit management.
  7. Learning to Say No: Tips on assessing professional demands - understanding what drains your energy and what invigorates you.

Written books:

  • Journey To Me, TRUST THE WISDOM OF CHANGE
  • Cracking the Rich Code, MONEY, RELATIONSHIPS, LIFE
  • Show Your Work, SUCCESSFUL WOMEN SHARE THEIR BUMPY ROADS TO THEIR BIGGEST WINS

Resources: * SylviaWorsham

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In today's digital age, every swipe, click, and search is monitored, analyzed, and even predicted by Artificial Intelligence (AI), although we are all going through the Generative AI era; in other words, the ChatGPT era. However, AI has been here for a long time, and one example is being used at the core for marketing products, including in social media channels. As the algorithms get more innovative, the digital footprints we leave are no longer mere footprints; they are profound insights into our psyche, preferences, and behaviors. All these footprints are being used and exploited to push us the products through ads that even we don't need to buy or don't have requirements at all.

Authenticity in marketing is becoming more crucial and at the heart of marketing tactics instead of just pushing the products through AI.

A few months ago, I received an email advertisement for a product I casually mentioned in a conversation. It wasn't a typed search or a clicked ad - it was just a conversation. Intrigued, I bought the product. But the more I thought about it and conversed with my wife, the more I realized that, although AI had successfully identified a potential need, it didn't understand me. There was a connection, but it lacked depth and authenticity.

Our interactions with AI-driven marketing can sometimes be conversations with someone who pretends to listen, only catching keywords and responding with automated efficiency. And while efficiency is commendable, genuine connections are formed through authenticity. This is where authentic marketing steps in. It's not about tricking the consumer or just meeting a sales quota; it's about resonating with them on a deeper, more meaningful level. It is everywhere and in every field, from selling software to selling a property to an online e-commerce store selling cosmetics.

Today's guest speaker, the CEO of Strategic eMarketing, will share tips to build brand authenticity in the age of AI and actionable tips to develop your brand even if you are working in an organization.

Episode # 119

Today’s Guest: Emanuel Rose, CEO, Strategic eMarketing * Website: EmanuelRose * Linkedin: b2b-leadgeneration * Twitter: EmanuelRose

What to Expect in Today’s Discussion:

  1. Building Brand Authenticity in the AI Age: Understand the balance between AI insights and authentic marketing connections.
  2. Developing a Personal Brand: Whether in an organizational role or self-employed, get actionable insights into cultivating a brand that resonates.
  3. Authentic Marketing for Generation Z: Delve into tailored strategies to reach the tech-savvy, discerning Gen Z audience.
  4. The Convergence of Personal and Professional Branding: Explore the blurred lines in the digital age, with CEOs and corporate leaders turning their social profiles into PR powerhouses.
  5. The Power of a Vibrant Social Profile for Professionals: Recognize the undeniable advantages of a robust online identity for full-time professionals.

Written books:

  • Authentic Marketing in the Age of AI
  • Authenticity-Marketing to Generation Z
  • The Social Media Edge: How the Authentic Social CEO and Employee Advocacy Can Win in the Business World
  • Raise More Reach More: Transformative Strategies in Fundraising and Marketing Your Organization

Resources: * EmanuelRose

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In today's rapidly-evolving tech landscape, the right technical decisions can make or break a business. Startups and established enterprises alike face unique challenges in technology, which is where technical advisors come in. These unsung heroes shape the world with every new idea, guiding organizations through the ever-changing tech world.

With so much pressure on CEOs and CTOs to innovate and stay updated, technical advisors equipped with a profound understanding of software engineering, cloud computing, and business acumen are indispensable. From building an MVP to launching a new product, technical advisors offer a unique perspective that can help businesses achieve their goals. They bring real-world experience to the table, having worked closely with startups and established businesses.

Their approach is pragmatic, focused on driving tangible results and actual business performance improvements. If you're looking to navigate technical challenges and stay ahead of the curve, a technical advisor can help.

Today, we'll be speaking with one such advisor, who has helped various startups and organizations achieve their goals

Today’s Guest: Brian Childress, Technical Advisor, Fractional CTO * Website: Brian Childress * Linkedin

What You'll Gain from This Session

  • The Non-Technical Founder's Dilemma: Learn about the intricacies of software development when you need a technical background and the resources to guide you.
  • SaaS Product Challenges: Embarking on a new SaaS product journey? Understand common hurdles different stakeholders face in the process and ways to overcome them.
  • The App Development Landscape: Is the current trend leaning towards niche app development, or is the market saturated with generic solutions? Dive deep into the current state of app development and where it's headed.

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In the ever-evolving world of e-commerce and SaaS, sustainable growth remains the challenge for whoever is starting a new business or already establishing his business. How do we truly define the growth? What is required for the company? Is it just about numbers, or is there a deeper layer where creativity meets strategy, resonating with audiences like never before?

As businesses grapple with these questions, founders are still looking for ways to have a unique brand voice. If you are new to the industry and want to start with unique creative strategies, you must have a profound understanding of audience dynamics.

How to uncover the essence of proven methods and discover what makes businesses thrive in the competitive digital space. How Generative AI is impacting and helping to achieve and give you a head start for establishing a unique brand. Today's podcast session will uncover all these questions and help you have creative ways to use for the business.

Today’s Guest: John Chan, Founder, 2x Growth Agency * Website: 2xGrowth * Linkedin: Agency

What you'll learn from this podcast:

  1. The Journey of a UX Designer-Turned-Entrepreneur: Discover how Johan transitioned from being a developer and UX designer to establishing a business that zeroes in on customer-centric challenges.
  2. Current Campaign Challenges: A look into the obstacles organizations face in their campaigns and Johan's strategies to overcome them.
  3. Achieving Sustainable Growth: Learn the proven methods employed by high-performance creatives to ensure consistent growth.
  4. Capturing Audience Attention: In an age of dwindling attention spans, find out how to resonate with your audience and grab their attention in just three seconds.

Resources: * Website: 2xGrowth

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With the dawn of ChatGPT, to be more accurate, the Large Language Models (LLMs) have given a new way to interact with everything, from content to writing code to design/drawing a picture.

These models, sophisticated as they are, rely on one critical component: the prompt.

As AI technology matures, crafting the perfect prompt, termed "prompt engineering," has become a high-demand skill set.

This brings us to the new field of prompt engineering. How best will you pass the instructions to large language models? The best results you will get it.

The Evolution of Interaction:

With the ChatGPT, how we communicate with machines has taken a quantum leap. No longer are we confined to simple commands; now, we can engage in intricate, layered conversations. This transition isn't just about the models themselves but how we "talk" to them. The better the prompt instruction, the more refined and effective the output. Just as the pen is mightier than the sword, the prompt holds the power in the AI domain.

Today's guest speaker will reveal his findings and research how he is writing prompts not for him, but he has started sharing those prompts with the broader world and is stormed with the subscribers who began using his crafted prompts to solve his daily jobs.

Session # 116

Today’s Guest: Ali Abassi, Founder, AI for Work * Website: AI for Work * Linkedin: AI for Work

What to Expect in Today's Discussion:

  1. The Prompt Engineering Revolution: Discover how the inception of large language models has birthed an entirely new field dedicated to optimizing prompts for best results.
  2. A Novel Approach to Crafting Prompts: Our guest introduces an innovative method using JSON formatting, which he believes garners superior results from ChatGPT.
  3. Secrets to Effective Prompting: Delve into a unique recipe from the guest speaker, emphasizing referencing, validation, and iterative revision. The approach mimics a loop, refining the output until perfection is achieved.
  4. Automation & The Future: Explore how, with the proper prompts, ChatGPT can be a revolutionary tool in automating various tasks, making your tech experience smoother and more intuitive.

Resources: * AI for Work

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In an increasingly competitive and fast-paced world, the traditional trajectory of education followed by a lifetime of work is evolving, and it is getting more common to see many working professionals returning to universities.

Welcome to the era where working professionals are headed back to the classroom, juggling Excel sheets by day and academic journals by night. As the demand for upskilled employees and lifelong learning rises, we're witnessing a notable increase in adults pursuing degree programs while working full-time. So, why are adults flocking to universities and online platforms for higher education?

The Landscape of Adult Learning: With advancements in technology and shifts in job requirements, it's no longer a "one-and-done" situation regarding education. Fields like data science, artificial intelligence, and project management are not limited to a few; now, all fields are mandated to update skill sets and in-depth knowledge, making it imperative for working professionals to up their educational game.

For some, it's about career advancement; for others, it's about pivoting to entirely new fields, like I am transitioning to the area of artificial intelligence. Yet, it's a mutual understanding that a higher degree could be the ticket to professional and personal growth.

I have recently completed my MSc in A.I. In session 106, 'The Journey of a Working Professional Pursuing a Degree in A.I., ' I shared my take on this subject.

Whether you're contemplating going back to school, already enrolled, or simply interested in personal development and technology's role, this episode has something for everyone. Guest speaker helps us explore these complex questions and offers concrete steps you can take right now to elevate your educational and professional journey.

Today’s Guest: Christie Carmelle, Higher Education Consultant and Manager, Deloitte * Website: Mediakit * Linkedin: Christie Carmelle * Book: Get the Degree without Losing Your Mind: The Busy Student's Guide to Study Hacking

What You Will Learn from This Podcast: 1. Learning as an Adult: Has the rate of adults returning to university increased? Christie sheds light on this trend and offers actionable tips to improve your writing skills and study habits. 2. Choosing Between an MBA and a Tech Program: What's the right program for you? We dive into the essential questions you should ask yourself before opting for a degree. 3. Selecting a School or Degree Program: Guidance on making this crucial decision that will impact your future. 4. The Impact of Generative A.I. on Jobs: How is generative A.I. likely to affect employment as technology advances? Get insights straight from the expert. 5. Balancing Act: Learn how to prioritize and manage your time better and achieve a more excellent balance in your life, straight from the author of 'Get the Degree Without Losing Your Mind.'

Resources: * Website: Mediakit * session 106, 'The Journey of a Working Professional Pursuing a Degree in A.I

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In the evolving financial sector landscape, harnessing First-Party Data and leveraging AI for a competitive edge has become more than just a trend; it's a necessity, without any doubt. Every successful institution today stands on a bedrock of data-driven decisions and how quickly they are getting these decisions done is vital, how they are enabling the executives to make informed decisions.

All lies with how organizations can truly unlock the potential of their data that is their in different silos. How do first-party data, artificial intelligence, and personalized banking experiences tie into the bigger picture?

I recently got to speak with Rich Edwards, CEO of Mindspan Systems, to demystify these concepts. His insights, shaped by early experiences with platforms like IBM Watson and rooted in a deep understanding of data strategy, shine a spotlight on the path forward for financial institutions.

Today’s Guest: Rich Edwards, CEO, Mindspan Systems * Website: Mindspan * Twitter/X: Rich Edwards

What You'll Learn in This Podcast:

  • Understanding Data's Role: Learn how the underlying data layer is the backbone for all development in the financial world.
  • Maximizing First-Party Data: Why an organization's first-party data is its primary asset and how to derive unparalleled value from it.
  • Unstructured Data – The Hidden Goldmine: Every organization possesses vast reserves of unstructured data. How tapping into these overlooked resources can get them ahead of others
  • The Essence of Personalization: In an age where customer-centric approaches reign supreme, discover the strategies to know your customers better and wrap personalized experiences around them.
  • Data-Driven Strategies and Technologies: Gain insights into how financial institutions can differentiate themselves in a regulated industry by harnessing data.
  • Scouting the Right Talent: How do institutions ensure they have the right talent as IT development accelerates? What are the key traits in candidates and why is in-depth knowledge crucial in this era of short, impactful projects.

Resources: * Mindspan Systems

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In today's fast-paced digital age, bonding moments come in various forms - playing a new video game or watching the latest viral video. Yet, Sam Keller and his 12-year-old son, Kaz Keller, have taken this bonding to an entirely new level. They're navigating the rough waters of artificial intelligence, particularly with OpenAI's ChatGPT. But what's more fascinating is how this tech journey reshapes Kaz's young world, from bolstering his leadership skills to conquering the age-old fear of public speaking.

Every parent can relate this journey to their kids and how such activities can be treated as extracurricular activities that enable kids to learn in this high-paced world.

When we think of artificial intelligence or ChatGPT, we often picture seasoned tech enthusiasts or professionals behind keyboards. Rarely do we envision a vibrant 12-year-old eager to absorb and share this knowledge.

This Story, however, is that rare gem. A seasoned tech enthusiast has turned their shared interest into an enriching experience beyond the screen. It's about preparing for a tech-forward future while mastering life skills that stand the test of time. Their journey is a testament that technology, blended with passion and mentorship, can become a powerful tool for holistic growth.

What You'll Learn from this Story of Teaching ChatGPT: 1. The Power of Bonding Over Tech: Discover the heartwarming tale of a father and son using ChatGPT as a medium of connection and growth. 2. Mastering ChatGPT: Delve into the intricacies of this large language model and understand its potential from both an adult's and a child's perspective. 3. Leadership Skills Through AI: Uncover how diving deep into tech can enhance essential life skills, even in young learners. 4. Overcoming Public Speaking: Learn about Kaz's journey from hesitance to confidence, all thanks to his immersion in the world of AI 5. The Future of Young Tech Enthusiasts: Gain insights into how early exposure to technologies like ChatGPT can shape a child's future.

Today's Guest: Sam Keller & Kaz Keller, Co-Founder, Gen AI Academy Joseph is a CTO helping startups and other organizations design, develop, and launch innovative products and solutions.

  • Is there any impact on kids' education with such activities?
  • What are the risks of using ChatGPT by kids, and what can they benefit from it?
  • How is it helping to learn leadership and public speaking skills?
  • How can such activities help kids in the future get admission to higher education?

  • Website: Gen AI Academy

  • Youtube: Kaz Keller

Resources: * Gen AI Academy * Open AI - ChatGPT

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The big question is, How do CTOs, CIOs, IT Managers, and IT Directors choose the right technology software, applications, and tools for their organizations?

Navigating the ever-evolving world of technology can be daunting, especially when someone is at the helm of a company's IT decisions. The landscape is riddled with established technology solutions, from packaged applications (ERPs) to SaaS, PaaS & IaaS vendors to Emerging technologies, each promising to be the game-changer and now with the Artificial Intelligence hype at the peak. Being at the C-level is about more than just knowing tech stuff. It's about making sure that tech helps the business do well, and irrespective of the technology or who the vendor is providing, so many moving pieces need to be put in place.

Today we have a guest who is Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and he will take us on an exciting trip of starting with a simple idea, something you jot down quickly, and then you turn it into something tangible - Smart helmets. It must. be challenging as some people might doubt you, especially when they hear stories of other businesses that tried and didn't succeed.

Today’s Guest: Joseph Azar, Managing Director, Azar Consulting Joseph is a CTO who is helping startups and other organizations design, develop, and launch innovative products and solutions.

  • You will hear the story of the world's first smart helmet that was developed from idea to mass production.
  • How do you decide or select technology for the business?
  • How to fail fast can help to refine your idea to invest more time and money into it
  • What are the qualities you are looking into the candidates, especially in the technology space?
  • When is the right time to add AI to your startup idea?
  • How can we learn quickly from mistakes without wasting time and money?

  • Website: Azar Consulting

  • Linkedin: Joseph Azar

Resources: * Azar Consulting * Forcite Helmets

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Writing in the Age of AI has become crucial and a skill that requires a mindset to be grasped. Writing a book is a long-standing item on my to-do list, and today, I have got an exceptional expert on the show to learn from him about writing books and how to write books with the support of Artificial Intelligence.

I have been writing blogs for the last 12 years; I wrote my first blog in the year 2011, and interesting to see it was on 16th August 2021.

Without any doubt, writing a book offers a unique platform to share knowledge, experiences, and expertise.

It establishes one as an authority in a particular domain and allows one to reach and impact a larger audience.

For technical experts, writing books becomes even more crucial. It’s an avenue to translate complex technical jargon into consumable content.

In doing so, they bridge the gap between technological advancements and make it understandable for the wider community; it’s become like demystifying and democratizing knowledge.

However, writing a book is no mean feat. It demands time, patience, and a high level of commitment, which I am also struggling to overcome over the years.

Here’s where Artificial Intelligence comes into play.

AI tools can assist in multiple ways: 1. Research: AI-driven tools can sift through vast amounts of data, summarizing and pulling out key insights that can be valuable for a writer. 2. Editing: AI-powered grammar and style checkers ensure the content is coherent, error-free, and engages the reader. 3. Content Enhancement: Through predictive text and content suggestions, AI can aid in refining the narrative, making it more compelling. 4. Market Analysis: AI can analyze current market trends to suggest topics or themes that resonate with readers. 5. Personalization: AI tools can help tailor content, ensuring it addresses the specific needs and preferences of the target audience.

Today, in our Podcast, we’re privileged to have a guest who embodies the confluence of traditional book-writing and modern AI tools. Having authored over 300 books, he not only understands the nuances of the writing process but has also harnessed the capabilities of AI to amplify his online business. His journey offers invaluable insights for anyone looking to venture into writing, especially in the technical domain.

Today’s Guest: Jonathan Green, Founder, ServeNoMaster Jonathan is an expert at using Artificial Intelligence tools to accelerate your online business.

  • How AI tools are shifting from optional to mandatory for every business.
  • You can use AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney to save work hours.
  • What is the objective of writing books? Different categories give you the context of why to write a book.
  • How you should structure your book and add the story, follow the formula of 3 things to write in the book.
  • How you need to market your books, the secret to getting reviews on Amazon.

  • Website: ServeNoMaster

  • Twitter/X: Jonathan Green

Resources: * ServeNoMaster * Book: ChatGPT Profits * Link: https://www.otechtalks.tv/writing-in-the-age-of-ai-a-deep-dive-with-a-300-book-author/

To share your thoughts:

  • Leave a comment in the section below on this post
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  • Join us in the Mastermind tribe
  • Share this on Twitter and Facebook; if you enjoyed this episode, we are learning new technologies together.

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In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, the term “AI Frontier” is more than just a buzzword; it represents the uncharted territories of innovation and possibilities that AI promises. As organizations worldwide stand on the cusp of integrating AI into their core operations, the quest for knowledge on navigating this frontier becomes paramount not only for the organizations but for an individual how to navigate and start taking action to learn and grow.

Our guest today has ventured into this frontier and laid down markers, guiding others through his profound insights and groundbreaking work. As we dive deeper into today’s discussion, you will be privy to a firsthand account of the challenges and triumphs at the forefront of AI development. From understanding the nuances of AI integration to decoding its vast potential across sectors, our thought leader will shed light on the intricacies that organizations grapple with. How do businesses discern hype from genuine AI opportunities? What does it take to transform an AI concept into a tangible asset? These questions, and many more, will be unraveled as we journey through the AI frontier together, guided by the insights of a true industry pioneer.

Today’s Guest: Manuj Aggarwal, Founder, TetraNoodle A global thought leader who has been in AI for 15 years and has 4 patents in AI, he has served clients like Microsoft, IBM, Pearson Education, and more, producing $500 million in value for them.

  • What is the biggest problem in business, and how to identify them and then look into AI to solve it?
  • What is the readiness of AI for an organization, and how you can identify it
  • Is AI going to take over our jobs?

  • Website: TetraNoodle

  • Twitter/X: Manuj Aggarwal

Resources: * TetraNoodle

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Storytelling is crucial for both individuals and businesses worldwide. Regardless of your position, storytelling is fundamental to everything you do. In this session, we have the opportunity to learn from a true master in the field of storytelling. He is currently teaching media and has dedicated his entire career to producing media for television.

Storytelling has become an essential skill for professionals in the technology industry, whatever role you are playing, from CIOs, CTOs, Product managers, and Solution engineers to DBAs, Developers, and tech consultants. As technology continues to shape our world, the ability to communicate effectively through storytelling is becoming increasingly important and a cornerstone for success.

Few examples:

For CIOs/CTOs/IT Managers, storytelling can help align teams and stakeholders around a shared vision for their organization's future and how technology will support this vision to become a reality. Senior leaders need to create a compelling narrative around technology initiatives, and they can inspire and motivate their teams to achieve goals and drive innovation.

Product managers can use storytelling to build empathy with their users and create products that truly resonate with their needs. By understanding the user's journey and crafting a narrative around their pain points and aspirations, product managers can create products that solve real problems and deliver value to their users.

Tech Consultants can benefit from storytelling by using it to build trust and credibility with their customers. By sharing stories of successful projects and outcomes, consultants can showcase their expertise and build a rapport with their clients, ultimately leading to more successful engagements.

Storytelling has become a vital skill for professionals in the technology industry, enabling them to communicate effectively, build empathy, inspire innovation, and drive success, and today we will learn from the master of storytelling.

Today’s Guest: Lee Schneider, Artistic Director and co-founder of FutureX.Studio, Founder, Red Cup Agency Lee Schneider is a novelist, podcaster, and the founder of Red Cup Agency. He teaches media at USC. He has produced podcasts for Nike, Glassdoor, Boston Consulting Group Digital Ventures, and HP. He also had different roles in production for DatelineNBC, CourtTV, History Channel, and TLC.

  • How to gather your scattered information by reading books and journals so that it can become a second brain for you.
  • How to get the correct information from different sources, you will learn the techniques and what should be followed.
  • How to write better stories, how to tell better stories.
  • A new way of having podcast production, where an actor is taking to bots, an immersive audio experience.

  • Website: FutureX.Studio

  • Book: Surrender

Resources: * Surrender * Obsidian * Readwise

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Understanding AI for business and how to develop AI strategy for your organization is vital for everyone. Navigating the complex world of AI for business can be a daunting task, and with so much hype, it is now a daunting task for everyone.

However, understanding the Artificial Intelligence potential and integrating it into your organization's strategy can unlock new opportunities for growth and efficiency. In this podcast, you will get some of the very simplified areas for you to help you how to develop an AI strategy for your business.

Before anything else, it's crucial to have a solid understanding of what AI is, its capabilities, and how it can be utilized in various industry contexts. AI isn't just a buzzword—it's a tool that can automate tasks, provide insights, and even help you make more informed business decisions. Then you need to focus on what you aim to achieve with AI. Whether it's improving customer service, increasing efficiency, or gaining a competitive edge, having clear objectives will guide your AI strategy rather than just going to adopt AI for the sake of AI.

Today’s Guest: Kavita Ganesan is an AI advisor, strategist, educator, and founder of Opinosis Analytics. Kavita has a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, with a specialization in NLP, Search Technologies, and Machine Learning, and she also wrote a book 'The business case for AI'.

  • How to identify use cases where AI can help the organization and the steps to follow to build the AI strategy.
  • Why it is important to look at your current processes, technologies, and data infrastructure. Are they AI-ready? This assessment will help you understand where you stand and what needs to be done to integrate AI into your operations.
  • If you are new to AI and how will you start using it in the organization?

  • Website: Opinosis Analytics

  • Blog: Kavita Ganesan, PhD
  • Book: The Business Case for AI

Resources: * The Business Case for AI

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Wondering if your business is ready for the AI revolution and if you are already aligned with AI strategy? You are not going to join the race of AI/ML just for the sake of AI/ML. These are the common questions that come to nowadays in everyone's mind that I need to get on the bus of AI/ML and my organization or the business should not be left behind. Whereas some fundamentals need to be looked into before embarking on this journey, and in this open talk with the guest, we tried to find out some of the questions and answers which can help you.

We need to start with the basics. First, ask yourself if your business goals are driven by data. Do you have a robust data infrastructure? Can you readily access and analyze relevant and high-quality data? Are you able to act on the insights this data provides? If you nodded along, you're already on the path to becoming AI-ready!

Now, let's talk about aligning AI and data analytics with your business goals. Maybe you want to drive up sales, streamline operations, or deliver a better customer experience. Your roadmap is data analytics - it will guide you on the best route to reach your destination. Always remember, AI isn't a magic wand but a handy tool in your toolbox. Used wisely, it can power up your business journey.

Today's Guest: Frank Mendoza, Founder, Catalytics Consulting Frank will share his journey of moving from working full-time at Dell to starting his consulting firm, focusing on helping customers get results from the data. He addresses the most common misconceptions about AI and data analytics and how you handle them.

  • How to create a foundation for getting long-term value rather than just focusing on adopting AI/ML
  • Why is it important to focus on the objective of solving the problem and then pursue to have AI/ML implementation
  • How to drive use cases for ChatGPT
  • If you are new to AI and how will you start learning

  • Website: Catalytics Consulting

  • Linkedin: FrankMendoza

Resources: * ChatGPT

To share your thoughts:

  • Leave a comment in the section below on this post
  • Do you want to suggest any new topic I should cover in future Podcast
  • Join us in the Mastermind tribe
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In today's rapidly evolving corporate landscape, continual learning and upskilling have become crucial for career advancement. Various educational options are available to professionals, each offering unique benefits, from corporate organizations to opting for MOOCs or having formal degree programs. The debate between colleagues and friends often refers to two main paths: a formal degree versus hands-on experience. In this Podcast, I will cover higher degrees during a professional career and how I decided to go for it.

Finally, after a break of six months due to my university dissertation, I am back to writing blogs and podcasts.

  • What is happening in the corporate world concerning degree programs while working?
  • Why is upskilling essential?
  • What are the options available? Or how usually it is being considered.

Choosing Your Path:

The decision to pursue higher education can be complex, with common considerations such as MBA programs versus technical degrees. This dilemma often feels like a roller coaster ride, requiring much thought and time, and the same thing I was going through while contemplating this.

My journey toward earning an MSc in AI started in late 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. While working on several emerging technologies initiatives with many customers, I explored online courses on platforms like edx.org, coursera.org, and LinkedIn learning.

While these courses provided valuable information, I wanted to get deeper into the basics and build upon them. It depends on your personality and, historically, how you take up any new topic or subject to develop your knowledge of it.

After numerous discussions with friends, colleagues, and former managers, it became clear that my aspirations needed to align with what I was targeting or aiming for. I had to spend considerable time deciding whether to pursue an MBA or a tech-focused degree. I concluded that I envisioned a two-step progression: first, to follow the latest technical degree, which equips me with the latest tech, and then to supplement it with management courses.

The Decision to Pursue AI:

Given my involvement in numerous emerging tech projects, my interest naturally gravitated toward data science and AI degree programs. The question then became, where to enroll? Back in 2020, there were fewer options than there are today.

After extensive research, I decided not to go to US universities due to time zone differences and targeted UK universities. While the selection of universities was essential, and the considerations included the fee structure, overall university ranking, job placement record, course structure, and location.

The Online Learning Experience:

The pandemic has exponentially increased the demand for online courses and degrees. As an online student of an AI MSc program, I've been introduced to a new learning methodology that differs from traditional face-to-face instruction.

The primary challenge of online learning is maintaining self-discipline. With it, staying on track with the courses and completing them is challenging. Furthermore, studying in-depth and grasping the material beyond just checking off completion boxes is essential and needs to be paramount in the study approach.

Balancing Professional and Personal Life:

It's complicated, and the journey of juggling a professional career, pursuing a higher degree, and maintaining a personal life was no less than walking a tightrope. The constant switch between work, studies, and family responsibilities was often overwhelming, and there were countless moments when I felt like dropping out of the university program.

Despite the challenges, what kept me going was the unwavering support of my wife. Despite the up and downs, She often reminded me of why I started this journey in the first place and now need to keep an eye on it rather than focusing on something else.

In this ride, I've learned that pursuing a higher degree while working full-time and managing family responsibilities is incredibly challenging. However, with the right support system and a clear vision of the end goal, it is indeed possible.

And learning, growth, and career advancement reward the trip worthwhile.

You'll Learn the following: The journey to pursuing a higher degree while working: * Why go for the formal university route * Why upskilling is important * How did I start it, and what were the considerations that can help you decide for yourself?

Resources: * University of Bath * Edx.org https://www.edx.org * Coursera.org https://www.coursera.org * Linkedin Learning https://www.linkedin.com/learning/ * MOOC.org

To share your thoughts:

  • Leave a comment in the section below on this post
  • Do you want to suggest any new topic I should cover in future Podcast
  • Join us in the Mastermind tribe
  • Share this on Twitter and Facebook; if you enjoyed this episode and we are learning new technologies together.

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  • Leave a candid review for the OTechTalks Podcast on iTunes! Your ratings and reviews will help the session on iTunes.
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The journey started from the cloud to arriving on the multi-cloud. Nowadays, every IT department in an organization is heading towards the multi-cloud era. Let’s first get our heads clear,

  • What is multi-cloud?
  • What is a hybrid cloud?

As we are hearing, these two terms are sometimes interchangeable.

So multi-cloud is where an organization uses the cloud services from two or more cloud providers, such as the Oracle Cloud, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

A hybrid cloud is where the organization uses on-premises services, or “private cloud,” and a few from any of the cloud providers – public clouds, such as the Oracle Cloud, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

Distributed cloud: organizations want to have their own decision and choice for the cloud resources that they want to have. It could be multiple public clouds, or even an Oracle cloud@customer, an AWS outpost, etc. The point is that services will be like a public cloud and managed, and governed by the public cloud vendor.

Now the first question that comes to mind is, why multi-cloud? A few areas to think of…

  • Vendor lock-in (in other words -multiple cloud vendors lock in)
  • Data center availability – this is also linked to the compliance requirement that you need to have an in-country data center
  • Utilize the best services from the cloud vendor, who specializes in certain services.
  • Low latency requirements for certain applications and that vendor doesn’t have a data center in that region.
  • Price optimization
  • By accident, they opted for multi-cloud (within organizations, the different departments opted for different cloud vendors).
  • Resilience (I need to have a backup site with other cloud providers)

The multi-cloud strategy brings several benefits to organizations, however, implementing a multi-cloud also brings challenges, few to mention:

  • Compatibility
  • Increased complexity
  • Security
  • Interconnection between different cloud providers
  • The learning curve for the IT teams (to learn about different cloud providers)
  • Cost estimation and reporting.
  • Cloud management
  • Multi-cloud architecture

You’ll Learn: The journey to Multi-cloud: * Fundamentals of multi-cloud * What are the benefits, and challenges of multi-cloud? * the common patterns of deployments * what are the common cloud management platforms * what are the common cloud networking providers

Access the full podcast details on: https://www.otechtalks.tv/multi-cloud-benefits-challenges-and-adoption/ Resources: * Cloud Management Platform Gartner magic quadrant 2020 * Multi-Cloud Networking Software (MCNS) * Interconnection between Oracle Cloud and Azure * 99 – Cloud Adoption Framework * 97 – What are the leading cloud migration challenges? * 95- Cloud Security with CIS Benchmarks * 94- How to develop a cloud migration strategy? * 93- Cloud Migration Workload Assessment * 91- Workload Migration to Cloud – Getting Started

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An open talk on the challenges of having a data pipeline for the images, audio and videos, The Hub enables to have several famous machine learning datasets with just a single command, like CIFAR-10, MNIST or Fashion-MNIST, Google Objection, ImageNet, COCO, and many others.

As I came from a Relational Database management system (RDBS) background, this talk gives me a new perspective and helps to think outside of the known areas. Enjoy the talk with the CEO of Active Loop. This session was recorded in October 2021 and is now being published.

Today’s Guest Davit Buniatyan, CEO at ActiveLoop.ai A great insight talk with the guest speaker on a topic, a product owner focuses on a dataset format to offer API for creating, storing, and collaborating on any size of AI datasets.

  • What were the challenges faced in the unstructured data storage and how the hub is offering a solution to solve the data problem?
  • The question of where you will store the large data sets of images, and videos - you will get all the answers in this talk
  • How the opensource Github repo is helping thousands of people to use datasets to PyTorch or TensorFlow with one line of code.

  • Website: ActiveLoop.ai

  • Twitter: activeloop

Resources: * ActiveLoop * hub - dataset for AI * Book: Good to Great

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Every day, we are reading reports on cyberattacks and massive data breaches worldwide, resulting in substantial financial losses, disruption, and downtime. The most important thing to notice is that every day cybercriminals adopt new attacks to avoid traditional security measures and bring new approaches to achieve the target. There is a concept of having layered security, with this approach of layered security enables you to have a system for an Internet security strategy that ensures an attacker who tries to penetrate one layer of defence will be stopped by a subsequent layer. Let's get first the definition clear about layered security.

What is Layered Security? According to, Techopedia, the layered security is:

“Layered security refers to security systems that use multiple components to protect operations on multiple levels or layers. This term can also be related to the term defence-in-depth, which is based on a slightly different idea where multiple strategies and resources are used to slow, blog, delay, or hinder a threat until it can be completely neutralized”

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Guidance, NIST has defined a layered security model that has 17 control families

This session was recorded back in October 2021, and it is now being published.

Today’s Guest Greg Edwards, CEO at CryptoStopper An inspirational talk with the guest speaker on a topic, a SaaS product targeted to help detect and stop ransomware.

  • Why it is important to focus on security and have a Layered security approach for your organization.
  • As a CEO the favourite tool is being used every day for SaaS product development.
  • What are the qualifies required to get hired from a CEO perspective and many more such insights you will have

  • Website: CryptoStopper

  • Twitter: CryptoStopper

Resources: * CryptoStopper * Techopedia, the layered security * National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Guidance NIST has defined a layered security model that has 17 control families

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An overview of Oracle's different Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and data science solutions available on Oracle Cloud. If you are new to this website, it is a learning and sharing platform where we will learn publicly. Before I cover today's show schedule, let me admit that procrastination is sometimes very dangerous, as I could not record/host the podcast for the last 4 months. It wasn't easy to have a work-life balance due to the two factors. First, as I am doing MSc in AI and the previous 4-5 months were crucial to complete the key subjects, now I am on the last topic of robotics, which will be completed very soon. And 2nd factor was that I was dedicating a lot of my time to office work, where I worked with several EMEA-based customers and helped them migrate on-premise workloads to the Oracle cloud.

On the procrastination, James clear’s book ‘Atomic habit’ and specifically the article “Procrastination: A Scientific Guide on How to Stop Procrastinating” has helped me to come out of the phase and be back with the podcast 😊

Let's dive into today’s topic. Oracle has solutions that broadly cover three areas from the product's point of view. We will also talk about some of the use cases along with these products.

1-Artificial intelligence services, 2- Machine learning services and 3- AI apps for SaaS services 1-Artificial intelligence services deliver pre-trained models that can also be custom trained to improve model quality and enable organizations to use the AI services. 2-Machine learning services enable organizations to build, manage and deploy machine learning models with the different open source frameworks or they can use in-database machine learning capabilities. 3-AI apps for SaaS services provide organizations with capabilities in pre-integrated and fully functional AI functionalities in the Software as a Services (SaaS) model. These services are primarily part of the Oracle Cloud Applications. It uses deep semantic parsing with natural language processing (NLP), natural language understanding (NLU), and custom algorithms to understand common conversations to derive real intent and context. In addition, users can communicate with the business application using voice commands capabilities available in the digital assistant offered by Oracle’s Voice, it is not relying on any third party offerings. You’ll Learn: Different offerings for AI, ML and Data Science from Oracle Cloud: * Overview of the AI/ML & Data science services 1. Oracle Digital Assistant 2. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Language 3. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Speech 4. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Vision 5. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Anomaly Detection 6. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Forecasting 7. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Data Science 8. Machine Learning in Oracle Database 9. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Data Labeling 10. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Virtual Machines for Data Science 11. Oracle AI Apps for Finance 12. Oracle AI Apps for Human Resources 13. Oracle AI Apps for Sales 14. Oracle AI Apps for Service 15. Oracle AI Apps for Procurement * Common uses cases to achieve with these cloud services/solutions.

Resources: * Procrastination: A Scientific Guide on How to Stop Procrastinating * Artificial Intelligence (AI) from Oracle * OCI Anomaly Detection Service is an innovative algorithm called the multivariate sampling estimation technique (MSET) * Forecasting use cases * 97 – What are the leading cloud migration challenges? * 95- Cloud Security with CIS Benchmarks * 94- How to develop a cloud migration strategy? * 93- Cloud Migration Workload Assessment * 91- Workload Migration to Cloud – Getting Started

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Project management is changing how emerging technologies are becoming on-board, and complex business transformations are happening in different industries. All this requires new approaches and methodologies. In this podcast, I discussed the role of artificial intelligence in project management, how we can get ready with the future of project management, and what it looks like. What are the traits someone needs to have? What is impacting the current project management and the challenges being faced?

You will also learn why project management professionals & executives need to understand the need to transition to an AI-powered approach in project management. You will also learn the vital steps for effective collaboration between intelligent technology and project professionals. The organization is collecting enormous amounts of data and how the collected data can help have informed decisions for the project management.

You will get the answers to 4 key areas:

  • What are the current challenges with project deliveries, their root causes, and why AI is the cure?
  • Which AI will impact areas of Project Management?
  • How will AI work in the project management practice, and what is the impact on current practices?

Understand the steps that organizations and project professionals need to take to prepare for the future

Another view to look the future of project management as Gartner reported that "By 2030, 80 percent of the work of today’s project management (PM) discipline will be eliminated as artificial intelligence (AI) takes on traditional PM functions such as data collection, tracking and reporting, according to Gartner, Inc."

However, project managers need to be ready with the help of AI and to use the latest tools in routine tasks rather than just stopping them. The core skills like leadership, people stakeholder management, storytelling, communication and many more skills will play a significant role to be a great project manager.

Today’s Guest Marcus Glowasz, Project Management Coach, Speaker, Facilitator A talk with the experienced project management practitioner as a guest speaker on how the latest Technologies and Innovations in Project Management.

  • Website: Marcus Glowasz
  • Twitter: MarcusGlowasz

Resources: * Project Management Website * PMI

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The cloud adoption framework of several cloud vendors helps cloud architects, IT professionals, and decision-makers have a set of protocols, best practices, and tools for the journey to the cloud. Each cloud vendor has divided the adoption framework into different phases, and in this session, I will walk you through the high-level stages of each cloud adoption framework.

The first session on this topic is covered in session number 99 with the title “Cloud Adoption Framework“. In this session, I will cover the Cloud Adoption framework of Oracle, Google Cloud, AWS, IBM Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud.

You’ll Learn: Different Cloud Adoption Frameworks: * Different Phases of Cloud Adoption Framework of different Cloud Vendors?

Resources: * 99 – Cloud Adoption Framework * Oracle Cloud Adoption Framework * AWS CAP * Microsoft Azure CAP * IBM Cloud Cloud Adoption * Google Cloud Adoption Framework * Alibaba Cloud Migration Methodology * Open Data Center Alliance Cloud Adoption Framework * Unified Cloud Computing Adoption Framework during IEEE 2017 international conference on information systems and computer science * Enterprise Cloud Adoption Framework developed and shared by the MITRE * 97 – What are the leading cloud migration challenges? * 95- Cloud Security with CIS Benchmarks * 94- How to develop a cloud migration strategy? * 93- Cloud Migration Workload Assessment * 91- Workload Migration to Cloud – Getting Started

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Cloud Adoption Framework is a set of best practices, tools, and guides that most public cloud vendors publish. The idea behind these cloud adoption frameworks is to assist organizations to embrace public cloud securely, efficiently and faster. The cloud adoption framework comprises each phase of cloud acceptance, from planning to living in the cloud. It provides a very well-tested checklist and steps to choose the right path for cloud migration and the right tools to help reduce potential security, governance, and budget problems.

The good thing about the cloud adoption framework is that it covers technological, people, processes and business aspects. Therefore, it helps to align business strategies with the culture, business and technology inspirations to achieve the business benefits.

Cloud growth The cloud adoption framework is your guide to making the most of your cloud investment. Most organizations are adopting the cloud as per the IDG’s 2020 Cloud Computing study reveals that 92% of the organizations are somewhat in the cloud.

Organizations must adapt to the cloud with proper planning and strategy in place. However, I observe that even if they have the strategy, they have just started consuming the cloud with the migration of simple applications and don’t have any proper framework or rules to follow. Another challenge I am seeing is that organizations don’t have clear visibility to their digital estate. When you start planning about cloud migration or adoption, the first question that comes to mind is to discover or assess the current IT state, which sometimes becomes painful to complete. Sometimes, what is being observed is that relevant stakeholders don’t know where to start and the requirements or initial checklist they need to follow to migrate to the cloud.

According to Gartner, if we map to the trends impacting cloud adoption, there are four critical areas.

  1. Cost optimization will drive cloud adoption
  2. Multicloud will reduce vendor lock-in
  3. Insufficient cloud IaaS skills will delay migrations
  4. Distributed cloud will support expanded service availability

There is no doubt that each organization is unique with the operating model, products, services, organizational infrastructure and technology. Now adopting the cloud also depends on the business functions, services and applications are used in the organization; it will be unique to every organization. However, as we are seeing, most organizations are moving to the cloud, so we can say there is a pattern emerging. These frameworks are the results of these patterns concluded from a large number of cloud migrations journeys. Take an example of the work done by the Open Data Center Alliance Cloud Adoption Framework

Another paper was presented during the 2017 international conference on information systems and computer science with the name “Unified Cloud Computing Adoption Framework.” which describes the process in six steps framework, current situation definition, requirements definition, providers analysis, providers assessment, decision, and migration.

Another interesting and the most I like Enterprise Cloud Adoption Framework developed and shared by the MITRE and targeted areas to address are Political leadership, Organizational, Economic, Technical and Security (POETS) factors.

You’ll Learn: Different Cloud Adoption Frameworks: * What is ECAF? * What are the common Cloud Adoption frameworks? * Why frameworks are important for the journey to the cloud? * How different cloud vendors are treating these frameworks?

Resources: * IDG’s 2020 Cloud Computing study * Gartner, 4 trends impacting cloud adoption * Open Data Center Alliance Cloud Adoption Framework * Unified Cloud Computing Adoption Framework during IEEE 2017 international conference on information systems and computer science * Enterprise Cloud Adoption Framework developed and shared by the MITRE * 97 – What are the leading cloud migration challenges? * 95- Cloud Security with CIS Benchmarks * 94- How to develop a cloud migration strategy? * 93- Cloud Migration Workload Assessment * 91- Workload Migration to Cloud – Getting Started

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A deepfake refers to a specific kind of media or photo where a person in an image or video is transacted with another person however it will look like the original person in an image or video.

To make a deep fake video, a creator swaps one person’s face and replaces it with another, using a deep learning algorithm generative adversarial networks (GAN).

A formal definition as per Wikipedia:

Deepfakes are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness. While the act of faking content is not new, deepfakes leverage powerful techniques from machine learning and artificial intelligence to manipulate or generate visual and audio content with a high potential to deceive. The main machine learning methods used to create deepfakes are based on deep learning and involve training generative neural network architectures, such as autoencoders or generative adversarial networks (GANs) – Source: Wikipedia

Today’s Guest Ilke Demir, Research Scientist at Intel An inspirational talk with the guest speaker on a variety of topics, like

  • How to decide to pursue a short course or a degree program in AI/Data Science,
  • What is a new fake catcher tool? and from where you can find out the number of large datasets.

  • Website: Ilke Demir

  • Twitter: ilkedemir

Resources: * Ilke Demir's personal page * What Are Deepfakes and How Are They Created? * Deepfakes, explained by MIT management Sloan school * What are deepfakes? * https://www.otechtalks.tv/open-talk-how-to-detect-deepfake/

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Cloud migration is challenging, cumbersome, and risky for traditional organizations relying on in-house custom-built systems to support achieving revenue from years on years. Today I will be discussing a wide variety of challenges organizations are facing while planning for cloud migration. These typical challenges are talks of every board room and the agenda of the meetings. However, there is no doubt that workloads migration to the cloud is helping organizations to reduce operating costs and build integrated, automated IT infrastructure.

Some Facts on Public Cloud: * The global public cloud computing market is continuing to grow, and according to the Statista report of August 4, 2021, it will $482 billion in 2022. * IDG’s 2020 Cloud Computing study reveals that 92% of the organizations are somewhat in the cloud. * According to the worldwide enterprise cloud strategy 2017-2020 report by Statista, 82% of the respondent reported that they had deployed hybrid cloud strategy in their organizations. * Gartner’s global forecast for public cloud end-user spending will grow 23.1% in 2021 to reach $332.3 billion, compares to $270 billion in 2020. (read diagram/table for podcast) * Canalys report for the year 2020 that “total cloud infrastructure services spending grew 33% to US$142 billion, up from US$107 billion in 2019.” * IDC’s report on global public cloud services $312 Billion in 2020 * Cloud computing market report published by marketsandmarkets “The global cloud computing market size is expected to grow from USD 371.4 billion in 2020 to USD 832.1 billion by 2025” * Share of corporate data stored in the cloud in organizations worldwide from 2015 to 2021 “As of 2021, around 50 percent of all corporate data is stored in the cloud. This share reached 30 percent in 2015 and has continued to grow as companies increasingly shift their resources into cloud environments in the hope of improving security and reliability next to advancing business agility.

How to Secure and optimize your cloud migration You have a daunting task in hand to migrate to the cloud and do it securely and efficiently. If it is not fully optimized and performed correctly, your dream of digital transformation in an organization can hit roadblocks/pitfalls.

Now I will share some of the common challenges which I see the cloud migrations; these are based on observation, reading a wide array of articles, and discussion with fellow IT friends/colleagues in the extended & broader community of IT professionals. What I will be doing is to mention all the typical challenges, and then I will also try to share the perspective of how you can overcome or what could be the strategy to address them. These could be starting from which workloads to be moved to what should be the order of migration to how we will have reliability and performance of business-critical services on the cloud. How I will implement required levels of security controls and regulatory compliance to who is my cloud vendor and this cloud migration must not disrupt my existing IT services, so on…

Gartner, in an article published, has beautifully categorized into six ways of cloud migrations challenge

You’ll Learn: Common Cloud Migration Challenges and How to Overcome Them: * Why cloud migration is challenging? * Some facts on public cloud adoption * Common Challenges: + Do you have a well-defined & documented Cloud Migration Strategy? + How do you see your requirements for Data Security and Compliance? + Do you have clarity on the Cost of the Cloud Migration Process? + How is your organization's response to adoption/change? + Migrating to cloud – is it Vendor Lock-In? and Who is the best Cloud Service Provider for me? + Have you done a proper evaluation of the current IT portfolio (workload migration assessment) + How to ensure minimum business downtime/minimum business disruption

Resources: * Cloud Computing Trends: 2021 State of the Cloud Report * Statista report of August 4, 2021, it will $482 billion in 2022. * IDG’s 2020 Cloud Computing study * worldwide enterprise cloud strategy 2017-2020 report by Statista * Gartner’s global forecast for public cloud end-user spending * Canalys report for the year 2020 * IDC’s report on global public cloud services * Cloud computing market report published by marketsandmarkets * Share of corporate data stored in the cloud in organizations worldwide from 2015 to 2021 * 95- Cloud Security with CIS Benchmarks * 94- How to develop a cloud migration strategy? * 93- Cloud Migration Workload Assessment * 91- Workload Migration to Cloud – Getting Started

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It is 2nd part of the session on CIS Benchmarks and controls for Cloud. The Center for Internet Security is a nonprofit organization with the mission to 'identify, develop, validate, promote, and sustain best practice solutions for cyber defense.’ Experts and IT professionals from different governments, institutes, and businesses across the globe are participating and finalizing the controls based on the consensus decision-making model.

Now let us link this to why it is essential for every one of us and every organization. I have got a chance to read the article on data breaches affecting millions of users and some of the biggest breaches in recent times published by CSOonline with the title “The 15 biggest data breaches of the 21st century.”

CIS Benchmarks The CIS Controls consists of a recommended best practices to secure systems and devices, and CIS Benchmarks are rules for hardening specific operating systems, middleware, software applications, and network devices. The CIS Controls and the CIS Benchmarks are developed using a consensus-based approach by communities of experts.

CIS controls have been mapped to many other standards and regulatory frameworks, for example. the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), the ISO 27000, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and many others.

The decision must consider an organization’s requirements, evaluation criteria, and architecture principles.

In CIS 8 the number of controls is reduced to 18 from 20 in CIS 7. CIS 8 contains 153 Safeguards, which were called sub-controls in CS7 and they were 171 sub-controls

You’ll Learn: CIS Security areas to assist you in preparing cloud security architecture In Part 1 (Session no 95)

  • What is the role of CIS and how it is playing to ensure secure internet
  • What are CIS Benchmarks & benefits?
  • What are the seven core categories of CIS Benchmarks?
  • Basics of CIS Controls 7 & CIS Controls 8
  • What different cloud vendors provide you to meet CIS Benchmarks?

In Part 2 (Session no 96)

  • What are the 18 controls of the version CIS 8

Resources: * 95- Cloud Security with CIS Benchmarks * Center for Internet Security * CIS Benchmarks * The 18 CIS Controls * CSOonline “The 15 biggest data breaches of the 21st century.” * 5 of the Top Questionnaires for IT Vendor Assessments * CIS Foundations Benchmark for Oracle Cloud * 94- How to develop a cloud migration strategy? * 93- Cloud Migration Workload Assessment * 91- Workload Migration to Cloud – Getting Started

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The Center for Internet Security is a nonprofit organization with the mission to 'identify, develop, validate, promote, and sustain best practice solutions for cyber defense.’ Experts and IT professionals from different governments, institutes, and businesses across the globe are participating and finalizing the controls based on the consensus decision-making model.

Now let us link this to why it is essential for every one of us and every organization. I have got a chance to read the article on data breaches affecting millions of users and some of the biggest breaches in recent times published by CSOonline with the title “The 15 biggest data breaches of the 21st century.”

CIS Benchmarks The CIS Controls consists of a recommended best practices to secure systems and devices, and CIS Benchmarks are rules for hardening specific operating systems, middleware, software applications, and network devices. The CIS Controls and the CIS Benchmarks are developed using a consensus-based approach by communities of experts.

CIS controls have been mapped to many other standards and regulatory frameworks, for example. the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), the ISO 27000, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and many others.

The decision must consider an organization’s requirements, evaluation criteria, and architecture principles.

In CIS 8 the number of controls is reduced to 18 from 20 in CIS 7. CIS 8 contains 153 Safeguards, which were called sub-controls in CS7 and they were 171 sub-controls

You’ll Learn: CIS Security areas to assist you in preparing cloud security architecture * What is the role of CIS and how it is playing to ensure secure internet * What are CIS Benchmarks & benefits? * What are the seven core categories of CIS Benchmarks? * Basics of CIS Controls 7 & CIS Controls 8 * What different cloud vendors provide you to meet CIS Benchmarks?

Resources: * Center for Internet Security * CIS Benchmarks * The 18 CIS Controls * CSOonline “The 15 biggest data breaches of the 21st century.” * 5 of the Top Questionnaires for IT Vendor Assessments * CIS Foundations Benchmark for Oracle Cloud * 94- How to develop a cloud migration strategy? * 93- Cloud Migration Workload Assessment * 91- Workload Migration to Cloud – Getting Started

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A cloud migration strategy is a plan which any organization develops to move its systems and applications from on-premises architecture to the cloud.

Not all applications and systems benefit from running on the cloud; that’s why you must indorse the most efficient way to work on it and migrate applications. Therefore, a systematic, documented strategy is essential.

Any strategy needs to start from some barefoot, and then it builds on it. Similarly, the vital first step to creating a migration strategy is getting to know what you have? What are the collections of applications, systems, etc.? Once you have documented existing applications, you need to refer to the most common migration strategies. Gartner is calling 5R; some vendors mentioned as 6Rs or 7Rs. (These strategies are: refactor, replatform, repurchase, rehost, relocate, retain, and retire)

Your organization will fall in these options, and you need to choose based on the workload discovery/assessment.

  1. Rehost
  2. refactor
  3. revise
  4. rebuild
  5. replace

The decision must consider an organization's requirements, evaluation criteria, and architecture principles.

You’ll Learn: Three key areas to assist you in preparing cloud migration strategy * Basics of cloud migration strategy * What are the common cloud migration strategies? * How to develop your cloud migration strategy?

Resources: * 93- Cloud Migration Workload Assessment * 91- Workload Migration to Cloud – Getting Started * Gartner: Migrating Applications to the Cloud: Rehost, Refactor, Revise, Rebuild, or Replace? * Oracle: Defining your Cloud strategy * THE 5 OR 6 RS OF CLOUD TRANSFORMATION * Microsoft: The five Rs of rationalization * AWS: “The 6 R’s”: 6 Application Migration Strategies * AWS: Migration terms - 7 Rs

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Implementing cloud or migration to cloud is challenging. Organizations that have built thousands of applications over the past two to three decades require re-architecting to run efficiently, securely, and resiliently in the cloud.

Your next steps are to perform a cloud migration assessment based on your cloud strategy and business objectives. It will help identify the right migration pattern and cloud architecture required to go for the workload. Today we will talk about three vital areas

  1. Cloud migration scenario / strategies
  2. Cloud migration approach - Take a Workload-centric Approach
  3. Cloud migration assessment method

You could have different business goals to introduce digital products and services to market faster. You want to reduce your technical debt or replace on-premises infrastructure due to the end of life. All these reasons are leading you to migrate to the cloud. However, you need to decide and call which application/system is the right candidate for cloud migration. You need to have a clear understanding of the target application's only requirements and dependencies.

On the other hand, digital transformation forces you to make quick decisions, like Microsoft CEO's famous quote.

“We’ve seen two years of digital transformation in two months.” By Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

References:

  • Session no 91: Workload Migration to Cloud – Getting Started
  • 2 years of digital transformation in 2 months
  • IDC expects 2021 to be the year of multi-cloud as global COVID-19 pandemic reaffirms critical need for business agility
  • Infrastructure and security challenges threaten multi-cloud and edge deployments, new survey from Volterra shows
  • How CIOs and CTOs can accelerate digital transformations through cloud platforms

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Tech Talk on Cloud Security Posture Management with John Grange

Detecting and preventing the misconfigurations and threats that lead to data breaches and compliance violations in your multi-cloud environments. For organizations embarking on a multi-cloud strategy, cloud security posture management (CSPM) helps them secure multiple cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers.

Today’s Guest

John Grange, CTO of Ops Compass

How the journey so far starting from pure data center guy, who has started from hosting provider to a solution for the cloud security management. Get to know about John’s favorite books and what is essential for a beginner startup owner to focus.

Website: opscompass.com

References:

  • Ops Compass
  • Gartner Hype Cycle for Cloud Security 2020

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Workload migration to Cloud has become integral to IT optimization and driving business forward with the increased espousal of cloud technologies. Moving to the cloud enables firms to be more agile, remove inefficiencies and provide required customer, employee experiences. Migration of on-premise enterprise workload to the public cloud has reached the situation of being considered a ‘best practice’. These workload migrations still giving challenges to the traditionally run IT organizations as everything on-premises.

It’s no longer moving to the cloud is just selecting your favorite cloud provider, and then magic will be reviled. You and your organization have to face the challenge of making the right choices:

  • Which enterprise workload needs to be migrated to the cloud?
  • What skills are required to run the cloud?
  • How will you build a team today & in the future?
  • What services will be available when businesses need them?

Some critical factors have to be kept aligned or on top of the list when deciding on the architecture. I will mention what points I keep in mind while suggesting an architecture of enterprise workload migration.

You’ll Learn: Three key areas to assist you in getting started to migrate workload to the cloud * Appoint the workload migration Architect Role * Identification of the right workload/applications * Correct data of the workload

https://www.otechtalks.tv/workload-migration-to-cloud-getting-started/

Resources: * IDG cloud computing survey * A paper presented during the IEEE conference * Oracle Cloud Infrastructure basics of networking – Part 1 * Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Networking Overview – Part 2 * Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Networking Overview – Part 3 * Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s Essentials – Networking Scenarios – Part 4 * Oracle OCI – How to Secure Your Network – Part 5 & 6 * Oracle OCI – VNICs, Private, IP addresses, DNS, DHCP options – Part 7 * Deploy a Server on the OCI Arm Ampere A1 Compute – Part 8

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How to deploy a server/instance on the newly released Arm Ampere AI compute shape in Oracle OCI. In this session, we will summarize what we have learned from the last seven sessions on the basics of OCI and you will see how those basics concepts are helping us create a new virtual machine.

Two days back, Oracle has announced the release of Arm Based computing on the OCI; with this, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) offers Ampere Altra processors with an 80-core Arm server. The Arm is at the ‘heart’ of mobile gaming, and the Arm architecture belongs to ‘reduced instruction set computing (RISC)’ architectures for computer processors. Some of the critical features of this architecture are to provide predictable performance, high scalability, and power efficiency. ARM makes 32-bit and 64-bit RISC multi-core processors. RISC processors are designed to perform a smaller number of types of computer instructions so that they can operate at a higher speed, performing more millions of instructions per second (MIPS). By stripping out unneeded instructions and optimizing pathways, RISC processors provide outstanding performance at a fraction of the power demand of CISC (complex instruction set computing) devices.

I have seen another article written on how to deploy Minecraft on the Cloud. So these two things coincided, and I thought, let me try and create my own Minecraft server on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to run an Arm-based workload. All the steps are recorded in the video below, and it took me just twenty minutes to complete the entire process. I am looking forward to deploying enterprise workload to Arm-based instances.

So I thought, let me try and create my own Minecraft server on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. All the processes is recorded in the video below, and it took me just twenty minutes to complete the entire process. I am looking forward to playing this weekend game installed on the OCI server

You’ll Learn: Practical work to deploy a server on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure in the audio course – part – 8 (Practical Work) 1. Basics of the Oracle Compute service 2. Different types of compute shapes 3. Build and deploy a server on ARM Ampere A1 compute

https://www.otechtalks.tv/deploy-a-server-on-the-oci-arm-ampere-a1-compute-part-8/

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In this session part 7, we will cover three topics:

  1. How to manage the virtual network interface cards (VNICs) in a virtual cloud network (VCN).
  2. How your instances are assigned private and public IP addresses, and the use of DNS within your cloud network.
  3. How to manage the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) options in a virtual cloud network (VCN).

The Journey started from the first station of networking to learn the basics of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

In the second station of our journey to learn Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). We will cover different gateways available in the VCN like:

  • Network address translation (NAT Gateway),
  • Service Gateway,
  • Internet Gateway,
  • Dynamic Routing Gateway (DRG),
  • Local Peering Gateway (LPG), and
  • Remote Peering Gateway (RPG).

When you will arrive at the third station of our journey, to learn OCI, you will get the basics of default components of VCN, including the below three-component comes by default with the Virtual Cloud Network on OCI.

  • Default route table, with no route rules
  • Default security list, with default security rules
  • A default set of DHCP options, with default values

In the fourth station of our journey, we will cover the three different scenarios, public subnet, Private Subnet with a VPN, and Public and Private Subnets with a VPN.

In the fifth and sixth station of the journey to learn the basics of OC we have covered below areas:

  1. Access controls
  2. Security Rules
  3. Network security groups
  4. Security Lists
  5. VCN Flow logs

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In this session, how to secure your cloud network as part of the Networking service covers two virtual firewall features to control traffic at the packet level a-Network security groups b-Security lists and to configure VCN flow logs to get details about the traffic that passes through your VCN.

It is part 6 of our series to learn the basics of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. In part 5 & 6, we have covered key 5 areas:

  1. Access controls
  2. Security Rules
  3. Network security groups
  4. Security Lists
  5. VCN Flow logs

Oracle OCI - How to Secure Your Network - Part 5 (otechtalks.tv)

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How to secure your cloud network and compute instances in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure; you will be using private subnets, Security rules, Firewall rules, Gateways and route tables, IAM policies, and Security zones. we will also compare the Security Lists and Network Security Groups. what are the top 5 best practices to be followed for the Security Rules that are also covered in this session?

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Networking scenarios in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure depend on your network design and your application requirements, how you want to set up. In this session, you will get the three networking choices, which will give you a basic understanding and clarity on the different components and how you can choose each of them while designing it..

Before you go to today’s topic, I want to share with you the mindset of a ‘lifelong learner.’

Lifelong learning is the “ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated” pursuit of knowledge for personal or professional reasons. Therefore, it enhances social inclusion, active citizenship, personal development, self-sustainability, and competitiveness, and employability.

So you can summarize the “self-started education focuses on personal development is a lifelong learning.”

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Oracle Cloud Infrastructure networking overview will be covered in this session. It is in continuation of the series of sessions, We have started to cover the basics of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Networking includes Virtual Cloud Network (VCN), subnets, and other components of the networking.

This episode will cover the default components of VCN, below three-component comes by default with the Virtual Cloud Network on OCI.

  • Default route table, with no route rules
  • Default security list, with default security rules
  • Default set of DHCP options, with default values

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Oracle cloud infrastructure networking overview is the topic of our session. We have started to cover the basics of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Networking includes Virtual Cloud Network (VCN), subnets, and other components of the networking.

In this second station of our journey to learn Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). We will cover different gateways available in the VCN like:

  • Network address translation (NAT Gateway),
  • Service Gateway,
  • Internet Gateway,
  • Dynamic Routing Gateway (DRG),
  • Local Peering Gateway (LPG), and
  • Remote Peering Gateway (RPG).

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What are the fundamental concepts of Oracle cloud infrastructure of networking is the topic of today. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Networking includes Virtual Cloud Network (VCN), subnets, and other components of the networking.

Today’s session number is 85. However, today we will start new audio seriesto learn the Essentials of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Over the past few years, what I thought was whenever I am going to the gym or a jogging or a long drive for meetings, I always thought to listen something which will give a new fruit of thought, usually I was listening to podcasts that’s how it led me to start this podcast back in early 2015.

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How machine learning works in the real world and how data scientists use the four necessary steps for building a machine learning application (or model). The primary building blocks of a Machine Learning system are the model, the parameters, and the learner. The model is which makes predictions; the parameters are the factors or variables & features which are considered by the model to make predictions, and the learner completes the adjustments in the parameters and the model to align the projections with the actual results.

First session to learn as beginners to ML, go to the first post What is machine learning? learning the basics (otechtalks.tv)

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Digital transformation of leaders is a crucial area ignored or not considered at the business transformation programs agenda. Digital transformation requires top to bottom organizational change, which requires digital-savvy leaders and know-how to lead the digital programs. All programs are focusing on the digital transformation of the business or an organization. However, significantly less focus is on the readiness of leaders of an organization. It is leading to a lot of challenges in the success rate of business transformation programs.

A few months back, on a similar topic, we had a session with the title of ‘What is for ‘me’ in Digital Transformation? (otechtalks.tv)’ part 1 and ‘What is for ‘me’ in Digital Transformation? Part 2 (otechtalks.tv)’ without enough expertise of the leaders, shareholders, owners of the business on the digital area is becoming a challenge, and that’s why I like the article/research done by the MIT Sloan Management Review with the title “Leadership’s Digital Transformation.”

It leads me to ask some fundamental questions to the leaders, few to mention:

  1. How can leaders explain the vision for digital transformation?
  2. Do you have a chief digital officer role in the organization? If not, who is doing this role, and what are the challenges, responsibilities, and success standards for that position/role?
  3. How much of your budget is allocated for transforming the organization?
  4. Five to ten years from now, how will your organization be different?

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Machine learning: a computer observes some data, builds a modelbased on the data, and uses the model as both a hypothesisabout the world and a piece of software that can solve problems, According to the book ‘Artificial Intelligence, a modern approach’.

Machine learning is a division of artificial intelligence (AI) focused on computational programs that learn from experience and improve decision-making or predictive accuracy over time.

In this podcast, our focus will be to go through very basics concepts of machine learning along with the different methods of machine learning, for example, supervised learningunsupervised learningreinforcement learning, and Semi-supervised machine learning.

You’ll Learn: It’s a beginners guide to learn the basics of the ML 1. What is machine learning? 2. Machine learning methods 3. Machine Learning Basic Concepts

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Solving Sudoku Puzzles a beginner’s journey is the target of this week, you may be familiar with Sudoku puzzles and possibly have solved a few in your day or life. However, I admit that I have never solved any Sudoku puzzle. This post is our continuation of putting efforts to learn AI/ML & Data Science.

I have an assignment to solve a Sudoku puzzle as part of my MSc program, so my journey started, and I am journaling about it. Let’s learn together

According to the book ‘Artificial intelligence, a modern approach’ The popular Sudokupuzzle has introduced millions of people to constraint satisfaction problems, although they may not realize it. A Sudoku board consists of 81 squares, some of which are initially filled with digits from 1 to 9. The puzzle is to fill in all the remaining squares such that no digit appears twice in any row, column, or box. A row, column, or box is called a unit”**

You’ll Learn: The basics of Sudoku Puzzles 1. What is Sudoku puzzle? 2. What are the rules of play? 3. Techniques to be used in solving Sudoku

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5 whys is the technique which I came to know form the book ‘The Lean Startup,’ and before I talk about this technique, I would highly recommend to must read this book, if you are in IT, it will help you a lot, it doesn’t matter either you are startup owner or working as an employee like me. It has so many tool kits that you can utilize in your job or your startup business.

While you will read the 5 whys methodology, I think it is also essential to understand the 5 blames situation. Whereas you will use the 5 whys to find out the root cause of the problem, frustrated teammates might start finding or mentioning to each other that this fault is due to you or him/her. They try to judge that this fault is due to who. With this, you will not get the problem sorted out; instead, you will stuck in the blame game called here 5 blames, which will lead to the failures.

The 5 whys’ goal is to help us find out the root cause of the problem, it could be due to wrong process, or practices, however not bad people, and it helps us find a solution to fix it rather than to blame each other. This incredible technique is called Five Whys, originating from the Toyota Production System, and theorizes that behind every supposedly technical problem is a human problem. Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Industries, developed the Five Whys procedure in the 1950s and Toyota uses it to solve problems. Taiichi Ohno defines the technique in his book Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production that “the basis of Toyota’s scientific approach . . . by repeating why five times, the nature of the problem as well as its solution becomes clear.”

Steps to run five whys method 1. Get the right people/team/stakeholders in the meeting room on zoom 2. Problem Statement 3. Ask & Answer “Why?” Five times to root-cause the problem 4. Brainstorm the solutions 5. Assign the Actions

You must have a ‘Five Whys Master’ for the meeting who is the leader to oversea the proceedings and follow with the assign actions.

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I have embarked on a journey to study Artificial Intelligence and pursue formal study as an MSc course six months back. I was amazed to read the history of artificial intelligence. It was awe-inspiring knowledge of how legends have coined ‘artificial intelligence’, thought to share with you some of the highlights. It will give you the very basics of AI. From where it started and how it was passing through from different periods.

AI and Life in 2030 – one hundred year study on artificial intelligence Stanford University released its first report for the One Hundred Year Study, a long-term look into the future of AI

Another good way to present from Science in the news at Harvard University

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Happy New Year 2021 to you and your families; I wish you and your family peace and joy in the year 2021. We have passed this year, and I want to start this session with the quote,

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. – Zig Ziglar”

This year, it is essential to get organized, set goals, and make plans. it will be an open talk to start the year and what we have done with compare to last year goals, which we have set it up during the year 2020 “Seeing clearly in 2020 and Top-Ranked learning courses that will prepare you for future.”

How COVID-19 has changed everything for all of us, and I am praying and hoping that we will get to normal and the most valuable lesson of 2020 is a world can change in a week.

We need to consider what are the reasons for you and everyone to set goals and get organized. You can name it what the drivers for action. It can be categories into three areas:

Drivers for Action: * Beliefs – core values * Motives – to maintain * Triggers – to initiate

You’ll Learn: The goal setting for 2021 1. What is Resilience? and why it is important? 2. Drivers for actions to plan for 2021 3. Quick tips on how to plan? 4. What to do after the planning?

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Gradient Descent is the most widely used optimization strategy in machine learning and deep learning. Whenever the question comes to train data models, gradient descent is joined with other algorithms and easy to implement and understand. There is a common understanding that whoever wants to work with machine learning must understand the concepts in detail.

This article will also try to curate the information available with us from different sources, as a result, you will learn the basics. This week, I have got a task in my MSc AI course on gradient descent.

You’ll Learn: The most common algorithm of machine learning 1. Introduction to Gradient Descent 2. What is Gradient Descent? 3. How does it work? 4. Types of Gradient Descent

Gradient Descent for Machine Learning - A Beginners Playbook (otechtalks.tv)

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Digital transformation is key during and post-COVID-19 enterprise resilience. COVID-19 forces the biggest acceleration in Digital Transformation. The world has changed post-COVID-19, and we all are going through it. The truth is it will keep changing, and we need to adapt to this, we need to transform our businesses, services to play our role in shaping the ‘new normal of the world – our world. I will start with my own experiences for digital transformation, what I have observed. before starting this, want to highlight the earlier session we had during April 2020 on COVID-19 Pandemic and acceleration of Digital Transformation

Last week, I went to the local hospital for my routine checkup. At the reception desk, where usually I have to present the ID card and get the queue number for consultancy, after all the process, the front office executive didn’t give me the token number. Which we use to get on each visit, and then based on this number, you are supposed to go to the concerned doctor’s room for consultancy. Instead of giving me the token she said, you have got it through the SMS, check your mobile number, and that was surprising to me, innovation

What you, me, and everyone is observing is that COVID-19 is the wake-up call and leaders have to stop talking the talk about digital transformation, and they have to start walking the walk. Digital transformation has always inspired everyone in the business and the consumer world; however, embracing the transformation has been tremendously slowed in some of the sectors, and in some of the sectors, it was reasonably acceptable. Now the old question, from where the value is coming? During or after business transformation is gone as the organizations started living and showing the results during COVID-19. Now is the time and requirement is so urgent, and those organizations who are not able to transform will become irrelevant and uncompetitive or maybe to put in write words, they will not be in the market.

You’ll Learn: The post-COVID-19 World is Digital 1. A Personal experience 2. How the post-COVID-19 World is Digital 3. Four actions to take quickly 4. What you need to to do, 90-Days Plan to Make It Happen

Resources: * Open Tech Talk Sessions on Digital Transformation: + 64- Coronavirus Outbreak: Business continuity & IT Leaders priorities + 63- Digital transformation expectations vs. reality + 62- First 100 Days of Digital Transformation + 61- How to do Digital Maturity Assessment + 60- What is digital maturity and which digital maturity model to choose? + 59- Where to start in organization for Digital Transformation + 58- A leap from Information Technology to Business Technology + 57-Architecting an operating model for digital transformation + 56- A Digital Transformation Framework + 54-How to make a business case of Digital Transformation + 53- Human Resources and Digital transformation + 52- How you will know digital transformation is achieved + 51- Enterprise Architects for Success of Digital Transformation + 50- Is there an end to Digital Transformation? + 49-What is for ‘me’ in Digital Transformation? Part 2 + 48- What is for ‘me’ in Digital Transformation? Part-1 + 47-How to win at Digital Transformation + 46- Digital Transformation – it’s all about culture + 45- How to Overcome Digital Transformation Challenges + 44-What are the challenges in Digital Transformation + 43-What other Organization are doing to achieve digital transformation + 42-How do you start a Digital Transformation + 41-What are the benefits of Digital Transformation? + 40-Why Digital Transformation is required? + 39-“What is digital transformation? Learning the basics” * COVID-19 CIO Pulse Survey of PwC Strategy& * A road map for post-COVID-19 growth * The COVID-19 recovery will be digital: A plan for the first 90 days

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We need a new experience to get educated, and this is also being realized by the schools, institutes, universities, and tech companies who are providing such tools and tech to help us to teach kids in the age of coronavirus. As we have witnessed from our own experience, some schools were able to train teachers, roll out remote learning quickly. On the other side, almost 1.18 billion children, according to UNESCO, are impacted by the COVID-19 schools, universities shut down. We need new tools and techniques to help us get educated kids and ourselves.

Today’s Guest Rayvan Ho, Founder, ACKTEC, Rethink Learning How they are bringing innovation for Immersive Learning with the use of Interactive Animations, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Internet of Things, 3D Contents to enhance learning competencies for all levels of learners.

You’ll Learn: Learn from the fonder, How he is using GROW framework to strategize his business… Coming from a non-technical background and building a platform for the education sector and how they are managing the 30%-40% increase due to COVID-19.

Speaker has shared his experience from going almost bankrupt to coming out and serving the customers

73-How Immersive Learning experience helping educators with Rayvan Ho (otechtalks.tv)

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Emerging technologies (blockchain, AI, IoT) helping the Governments to tackle the Covid-19 outbreak ranging from helping track the epidemic, clean hospitals, deliver supplies, and develop vaccines. Another way to look is during the COVID-19 pandemic, and technologies are playing a decisive role in keeping our world running wherever we all are lockdowns and quarantines. The patterns emerging from this situation by the use of these technologies will have a long-lasting impact beyond COVID-19.

Technological innovation has continuously increased efficiency, lowered costs, and created new opportunities for businesses to meet customer, consumer, and citizen demands with digitization and transformation. Blockchain is at the forefront to provide alternatives to fight Covid-19 by offering organizations an opportunity to utilize blockchain technologies to achieve and provide services in these unpredicted times.

Today’s Guest Jason Wu, Founder & CEO, DeFiner Inc. How the journey so far, starting in the first quarter of 2018 when there was no industry at all on decentralized finance, and how it is growing tenfold? Learn strategies from the owner of a startup, how he overcomes the blockchain challenges to build a platform for trust.

You’ll Learn: Learn from the fonder for advice if you are a fresh graduate and you want to embark on a journey of solving business problems. Coming from a non-technical background and building a platform on blockchain technology to offer a decentralized finance solution. You will hear the process outlined, from writing the white paper to start coding the MVP and what are the major challenge they have faced after launching the product.

Speaker has shared his experience on how smart contracts are changing the fin-tech industry and helping them to build a financial trust system.

72-Benefits of Decentralized Finance on Blockchain Platform with Jason Wu (otechtalks.tv)

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Chatbot uses artificial intelligence & natural language processing to understand what a human wants, and guides them for the action that they are looking for in software applications. Chatbots are helping all businesses to deliver customer services in these difficult times. AI chatbots or digital assistants are taking control of customer service. Covid-19 is accelerating digital transformation in an industry that was already automating work at a rapid pace.

Governments and businesses are deploying digital assistants, chatbot to address citizens, customers most common questions, for example how to identify symptoms of COVID-19 or how to get tested, where the testing facility is available. These chatbots are making it easy for the agencies to update and expand the chatbot’s responses as queries evolved. This is all happened to handle the influx of calls which has resulted due to coronavirus crisis, grocery stores, retail outlets, banks to healthcare providers, everyone started exploring how they can use digital assistant/ chatbot to manage this unprecedented times. The number of hospitals are trying to find ways how they can deploy a conversational mobile chatbot to help with intake forms and remote check-ins for both in-person and telehealth visits rather than staff sitting and facing the patients to avoid contact due to COVID-19. The chatbots will be able to give patients tech advice when they are using telemedicine. When used at physical locations, the chatbots will be able to tell patients when to go directly into the physician room. The traditional pre-visit process of walking into the clinic, hospital, filling out paper forms, reading instructions, and then waiting for a physician's room is changing.

Earlier session on OTechTalks was covered during July 2017, Chatbots Basics 101, the role of Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning and to access in presentation format from the post What are Chatbots? Beginner’s Guide To Chatbots.

Today we have our guest speaker & special thanks to Tarek Osman for joining me this week. Until next time!

You’ll Learn: Learn from the fonder what he has learned from the book ‘Lean Startup’ A personal need leads to launch a company that is the free virtual assistant that can Find, Book, Buy, Deliver, and Do anything for you in Dubai. You can use Yanzo for​, Shopping, Car related services, Travel arrangements, Home errands, Office ad-hoc tasks, and Anything else…

Speaker has shared his experience on what challenges they have faced and how they are managing the supply-chain process.

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Today we have 2nd guest speaker with us to speak on Oracle Database Multitenant architecture. Being a technology evangelist, technology topics are very close to my heart and especially on Oracle technology. I am just linking back when I have started this podcast back in March 2015, after a few episodes, there were 3 guest speakers with me during Jun 2015 and July 2015 talking on 18 June 2015 – Tech Talk on DISPLAY_CURSOR Table Function of DBMS_XPLAN, 1st July 2015 –13: Oracle Tech Talk on Implementation of Oracle SOA Suite and 12th July 2015 14: Oracle Tech Talk on Implementation of Oracle Database Appliance. All these experts are part of the Oracle ACE Program, community thought leaders and if you want to know about the program, I have also done a podcast session 17 What is Oracle ACE Program. I was also part of the Oracle ACE program prior to joining my current role and being a former Oracle ACE, I have great regard and respect for all the ACE holders as they are the expert, gurus of the field with hands-on expertise driving and leading Oracle Technology in numerous organizations.

https://www.otechtalks.tv/70-tech-talk-on-oracle-database-multitenant-architecture/

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Today we will have a guest speaker with us, a startup founder. We are going to start sessions with different guest speakers ranging from owner/founders of startups to tech gurus, to professionals to senior leaders. we will reach out to all the experts to share the stage with us and share their knowledge, expertise to all of us.

I am just linking back when I have started this podcast back in March 2015, after a few episodes, there were 3 guest speakers with me during Jun 2015 and July 2015 talking on 18 June 2015 – Tech Talk on DISPLAY_CURSOR Table Function of DBMS_XPLAN, 1st July 2015 –13: Oracle Tech Talk on Implementation of Oracle SOA Suite and 12th July 2015 14: Oracle Tech Talk on Implementation of Oracle Database Appliance. Till now, I was doing all the sessions by myself and now again I thought to invite other experts with me so that we all can learn from them.

The questions which I have asked during the interview was curated from the book ‘Tribe of Mentors‘

Today we have our 1st guest speaker & special thanks to Mudassar Rasool, founder of The Wood Value for joining me this week. Until next time!

Today’s Guest Mudassar Rasool, Founder, The Wood Value What’s one thing you wish you know before starting your startup? Learn strategies from the owner of a startup, from a full-time job to a founder of the newly started business.

  • Website: thewoodvalue.com/
  • Twitter: Mudasar_Rasool

You’ll Learn: Learn from being a startup founder * What’s one thing you wish you know before starting your startup? * What are the technology tools/or technology is being used to run an e-commerce platform * Top tips for someone who wants to embark on the journey of starting his own business * The best book to read

https://www.otechtalks.tv/69-a-journey-of-startup-founder-e-commerce-platform/

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I have put together my observations, learning, and experiences into myths about digital transformation. Digital transformation is to solve business problems in an always-changing environment and help organizations to foresee what they want their future business to look like. If you want to lead your organization’s business transformation, the first move is to understand the reality of digital transformation rather than get caught in the hype.

Although digital transformation is a source of disruption for businesses, projecting businesses forward can be easy to misinterpret technologies and be distracted by minor changes in trends and opinions. True disruption means radical change, but common misconceptions about digital transformation result in businesses being sidetracked and misled.

I am working and participating in digital transformations in both government and private sectors across the regions and I have witnessed that in the majority of the cases organizations are making a significant challenging road to Digital transformation. As we are witnessing the Transformation needs to be well-planned, skillfully conducted, and actively supported by the top management.

I have put together my observations, learning, and experiences into myths about digital transformation. If you understand these myths, you’ll be less likely to fall victim to the hype about digital transformation and be more aware of how difficult the process is and how you need to plan it. If you are new to the topic I would suggest you listen to this podcast along with other series of sessions on digital transformation. Till now we have covered more than 30 sessions on the fundamentals of digital transformation.

Lets now dive into the most common misconceptions of digital transformation and technology adoption and we can say busting the Myths of Digital Transformation

You’ll Learn: Myths and Misunderstandings Of Digital Transformation * When the technology is applied, the transformation is complete * Transformation means simply updating the organizations portal and implementing new technology * Digital transformation is a technical challenge. * A digital transformation on top of a broken business model or strategy is going to save the business. * A business can transform without changing how it operates * CIOs Can’t Drive Transformation, Digital Transformation Requires A Chief Digital Officer * Digital transformation is only for tech companies * Every organization should digitally transform * Digital Transformation Is a Technology Challenge * Digital transformation only impacts certain markets * Digital isn’t relevant in my industry * To succeed, you need to do everything at once * Digital transformation is meant to disrupt your business * Digital Transformation and Digitization are the Same Things * Digital transformation can wait & it is optional * Every organizational culture is ready for digital transformation * Digital Transformation has to be expensive * Digital transformation is a project or single initiative

https://www.otechtalks.tv/68-common-myths-about-digital-transformation/

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What is data science? What does a data scientist do? These are fundamental questions we will be talking about today. Data science is a multidisciplinary discipline with the prime objective of extracting value in all its forms from data. Data science is a process since you need to dig into the data processing stages, from munging data sources and data cleaning to machine learning and finally visualization, you see that specific steps are involved in turning raw data into insight.

Today is my 5th week of #StayHome due to COVID-19 and we are getting used to this new reality – new normal. As we are finding out, lockdown is not going to be temporary by any means, and we might be confined to working from home for several months…… no idea. we all can just pray and hope it will get over quickly and we will go back to our normal life.

Data science shows patterns and observations that can be used by companies to make better choices and develop more creative products and services. Data is the foundation stone of innovation, but its value comes from the knowledge scientists who can learn from it and then act on it.

The following info-graphic from Harvard professors Joe Blitzstein and Hanspeter Pfister outlines a typical data science process, which will help us answer these questions

You’ll Learn: A Beginner’s Guide To Data Science … 1. Introduction to Data Science 2. What is Data Science process? 3. Types of data 4. What Data Scientist do?

https://www.otechtalks.tv/67-what-is-data-science-learning-the-basics/

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Digital transformation strategy involves assessing your own requirements and corporate culture, setting business goals and identifying and tracking risks, conducting regular prototypes and testing, asking internal staff for input on these roll-outs, and using new technologies.

For years, the digital transformation seemed like something mostly about computers and software, and data. This is what businesses pursue, for the sake of IT agility, to extract new value from data, model software prototypes of physical goods, or develop business processes.

While such development initiatives are often vital to a company, it turns out that digital transformation is really about us at its heart. That has many powerful lessons to teach us how to think about technology and work, both now and in the future.

The COVID-19 outbreak is a tragedy that will have widespread and long-lasting implications for humanity and our global economy.

I hope you’re all staying safe and healthy. And the way discussion started happening in the organizations and at c-level on the key question. How has COVID impacted & how organizations operate?

These conversations make one point very clear. Business transformation enabled by digital is becoming the new normal as the nature of work is redefined by COVID -19. Delivering education online, shifting banks to digital apps, and accelerating the digital automation with RPA, AI/ML, IoT is now required, without any delay.

The digital economy is characterized by rapid development, change, creativity, and disruption. Organizations that want to keep up must be prepared to adapt to this new digital environment. But digital transformation requires more than just adopting new technologies, investing in fancy gadgets, or updating current systems.

That’s why it’s so important for organizations to have a digital transformation strategy.

You’ll Learn: Business Transformation Strategy Development 1. What is a Digital Transformation strategy? 2. What is Strategy? definition of strategy in the corporate world 3. How to develop a digital transformation strategy? 4. Details on 3 steps strategy approach 5. Examples of digital transformation strategy (public sector)

https://www.otechtalks.tv/66-how-to-develop-a-digital-transformation-strategy/

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The COVID-19 Pandemic is a crisis that will have far-reaching and long-lasting consequences for society and our global economy. As the coronavirus continues to spread around the world, more and more businesses miss their financial goals due to delays in the supply chain and rising customer demand.

It is also unclear how long this pandemic will last, as there is no vaccine to fight it yet, nor is there any accepted therapy to slow down the human body’s toll. What should be obvious is that COVID-19 will have a dramatic impact on most companies for months, probably years. Bottom line: this is not going to be a short-Term occurrence, and companies need to plan for the long run. During the previous session Coronavirus Outbreak: Business continuity & IT Leaders priorities, we have covered some of the priorities for IT leaders

CIOs should prepare IT systems now to safely and reliably handle a vast increase in remote workers and digital fulfillment of market demand mentioned in the blog written on Gartner

Organizations have been working on digital transformation with varying degrees of commitment for at least the past 10 years, but it is not until now with COVID-19 that we will see the digital transformation inflection point in business model changes, enabled by the adoption of cloud services and the emerging technologies AI, IoT, business analytics, enterprise mobility, and social business The widespread of coronavirus has changed the buying habits of customers and the way companies do business forever. The programs we can use without leaving our homes continue to grow exponentially every day.

https://www.otechtalks.tv/65-covid-19-pandemic-and-acceleration-of-digital-transformation/

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In this session, we will review how to take the Oracle e-business suite to Oracle Public Cloud, what are different options available today for EBS customers to move to Cloud.

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS SESSION

Getting Started with Oracle E-Business Suite on Oracle Cloud (Doc ID 2066260.1)

Run Oracle E-Business Suite on Oracle Cloud today!

https://www.otechtalks.tv/oracle-e-business-suite-on-oracle-public-cloud/

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Upgrade to Oracle EBS R12.2.4 from EBS R11i or R12.1.3: in this session, we will reveal the secret recipe for successful  R12.2 upgrade as Part12 session of 18 Overview of Upgrade of Oracle E-business Suite.

https://www.otechtalks.tv/secret-recipe-of-successful-oracle-e-business-suite-r12-2-4-upgrade/

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Upgrade of Oracle EBS R12.2.4, an overview will be covered in this session, and in next session 19, we will cover the Secret Recipe for Successful Upgrade of Oracle E-business Suite.

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS SESSION

Installation Guide: Using Rapid Install Release 12.2 (12.2.0) Part No. E22950-­14

Oracle E-­Business Suite Release Notes, Release 12.2 (MOS Note: 1320300.1)

https://www.otechtalks.tv/overview-of-oracle-e-business-suite-r12-2-4-upgrade/

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In this session, we will review what is Oracle ACE Program? And benefits of joining the ACE program. We will also discuss 8 steps criteria that lead Oracle Professionals to the ACE title. basically, I have shared my thoughts on the ACE program and benefits to get into the road of folks who believe in sharing knowledge and experience with other community users.

I have got Oracle ACE in May 2013 and it was a very happy moment for me to be part of the Oracle experts club who I use to follow and read tech content.

You can listen to another podcast: inside look on ACE Program.

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS SESSION

  • Oracle ACE Program
  • Oracle ACE Program FAQ
  • Nominate an Oracle ACE
  • Middle East Oracle User Group
  • Oracle ACE Directory
  • Oracle Community Forum

https://www.otechtalks.tv/17-what-is-oracle-ace-program/

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In this session, we will review Integrations options available from Oracle e-business suite R12 like Data-centric, Integration through native interfaces, Process-centric integration, Event-driven integration, B2B integration, through Web services

https://www.otechtalks.tv/oracle-e-business-suite-integration-options-and-tools/

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In this session, we will review the Integrations of Oracle Cloud (SaaS) Applications with on-premise applications like Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12. A case study of Oracle HCM Cloud integration with on-premise Oracle e-Business Suite HCM will be covered.

IN THIS SESSION, WE WILL LEARN

  • Oracle Cloud Applications Integration overview
  • How do I Integrate?
  • Integration Flow
  • Integration Framework
  • Oracle HCM Integration Co-Existence
  • Oracle HCM Integration Tool
  • Oracle HCM Integration Encryption

https://www.otechtalks.tv/integrations-with-oracle-cloud-applications-with-on-premise-applications/

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In this session guest speaker, Oliver Pyka will give a tech talk on Oracle Database Appliance. Our guest speaker Oliver Pyka, Senior Oracle Berater, having a decade of experience working on Oracle Technologies as a freelancer since 1994.

I would like to thank you Oliver on behalf OracleTechTalks community for sharing his experience with us.

IN THIS SESSION, WE WILL LEARN

Implementation of Oracle Database Appliance overview and tips based on speaker’s experience

Oracle ODA Fully integrated and redundant system of software, servers, storage, and networking that delivers high-availability database services for a wide range of OLTP and data warehousing applications. Oracle Database Appliance ships with everything that’s required to run your JD Edwards, Oracle E-Business Suite, and other Oracle Applications (as well as third-party and custom applications) on a high-availability database. It’s all there—software, server, networking, and storage—and has been integrated, tested, and optimized to work together better than any other combination you can buy or build.

https://www.otechtalks.tv/oracle-tech-talk-on-implementation-of-oracle-database-appliance/

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In this session guest speaker Victor Jabur will give a tech talk on Oracle SOA Middleware products.

Our guest speaker Victor Jabur, SOA / Java Consultant, with having a Bachelor in Information Systems at the University of Sao Paulo (USP). He works with Oracle SOA Products at Oracle Platinum Partner.

I would like to thank you Victor on behalf OTechTalks community for sharing his experience with us.

IN THIS SESSION, WE WILL LEARN

Implementation of Oracle SOA Suite products in companies

  • Where to start?
  • What are the benefits?
  • What are the difficulties?
  • What needs to be modified?
  • Really worth the change?

https://www.otechtalks.tv/oracle-tech-talk-on-implementation-of-oracle-soa-suite/

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In this session of the Oracle Tech Talks Podcast, we are going to cover the basic concept of Oracle Financials part of Oracle Cloud ERP (SaaS Applications), Fusion Financials.

IN THIS SESSION, WE WILL LEARN

  • Overview of Fusion Financials
  • What is Financials BPM
  • Three fundamental structures of Enterprise
  • Definition of an Enterprise
  • Jurisdictions and Legal Authorities
  • Legal Entities
  • Divisions, Business unit
  • Chart of Accounts, Segments, Balancing Segment,
  • Ledgers, Cost Centers, Item Organization and Inventory Organization

https://www.otechtalks.tv/basic-concepts-of-oracle-financials-oracle-e-business-suite/

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In this session guest speaker Lothar Flatz will give a tech talk on DISPLAY_CURSOR Table Function of DBMS_XPLAN.

Our guest speaker Lothar Flatz, from Switzerland, comes from a family of Austrian engineers and inventors. This inherited talent he used since 1989 to improve applications in the Oracle environment being faster and better. He is an Oracle ACE and in 2010 Oracle appointed him a member of the Real World Performance Group. He is also a member of OakTable.net and he blogs on his own blog Oracle RiddleBlog.wordpress.com. A decade of experience working with customers to solve Oracle Problems.

Thank you so much Lothar for your experience sharing with the Oracle community.

IN THIS SESSION, WE WILL LEARN

The DBMS_XPLAN package gives us a very easy method to display the output of the EXPLAIN PLAN command in predefined formats. DBMS_XPLAN the package can also be used to display the plan of a statement stored in the Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) or stored in a SQL tuning set. It further provides a way to display the SQL execution plan and SQL execution runtime statistics for cached SQL cursors based on the information stored in the V$SQL_PLAN and V$SQL_PLAN_STATISTICS_ALL fixed views.

https://www.otechtalks.tv/tech-talk-on-display_cursor-table-function-of-dbms_xplan/

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In this session, we will review the basic concept of Oracle Financials part of Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12. Oracle E-Business Suite is a complete set of business applications with different components to cover different business aspects/operations that enables companies to cater detailed business transaction data, which will enable decision making.

IN THIS SESSION, WE WILL LEARN

A few of the key concepts for beginners before start working on Oracle Financials are must

  1. The basic concept of Oracle Financials
  2. What is the concept behind Legal Organization?
  3. How we will represent Your Organization in the Application financials
  4. Business Group and Department
  5. Government Reporting Legal Entity
  6. Definition of Legal Entity
  7. Concept of Establishment in Oracle Fin
  8. What is the concept of Ledger?
  9. Ledgers and Sub ledgers
  10. Operating Units
  11. Inventory Organizations
  12. Chart of Accounts
  13. Cost Center
  14. Balancing Segment
  15. Natural Account
  16. Multiple Ledgers
  17. Sub ledger
  18. Ledgers and Sub ledgers
  19. Subledger Accounting and Operating Units

https://www.otechtalks.tv/basic-concepts-of-oracle-financials/

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In this session, we will cover an introduction about myself, session formalities, and what to expect in this podcast. It is quite late, should have been done earlier as a first session but was just focusing on content and creating podcast sessions so now we have already covered 8 sessions so thought this is the time to put forward a session on podcast formalities and what was the idea behind this.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS SESSION

  • Oracle ACE Program
  • OracleERP Social Community: #1 Free Online Oracle Study Resource portal are:  OraERP.com – The Knowledge Center for Oracle ERP Professionals – Looking Beyond the Possibilities
  • Oracle User Groups

https://www.otechtalks.tv/introduction-and-podcast-formalities/

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In this session, we will form what Oracle is doing in Cloud Computing and what are products they are offering on the cloud, its generic session cover Oracle Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS), Oracle Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS). A major focus in this session is on Database as a Service and SaaS, Cloud ERP Applications.

IN THIS SESSION, WE WILL LEARN:

  • What are the offerings of Oracle in PaaS, SaaS, IaaS (Short description)
  • SaaS – Cloud ERP
  • Database as a Service – Feature of 12c enabling Cloud Database

https://www.otechtalks.tv/overview-of-oracle-cloud-computing/

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In this session, we will cover the basic concept of Cloud Computing. Cloud Computing is a general term used to describe a new class of network-based computing that takes place over the Internet, we will also review the description of the essential characteristics, deployment modes, and service models that characterize cloud computing.

In Harvard Business Review May 2003 by Nicholas G. Carr Carr argued that in the future companies will purchase information technology as a utility service from outside suppliers.

The formal definition of Cloud Computing:Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models.

IN THIS SESSION, WE WILL LEARN:

  1. What is Cloud Computing?
  2. What term does Cloud mean and formal definition of Cloud?
  3. What are the essential characteristics of Cloud computing\
  4. What are the deployment modes
  5. What are the Service Models

https://www.otechtalks.tv/basic-concept-of-cloud-computing/

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In this session, online Patching of Oracle eBusiness suite R12 including how patching works in EBS, what are the tools used for patching, what is the patch file structure, and online patching processes and phases are covered.

IN THIS SESSION, WE WILL LEARN:

  1. What is patching?
  2. How patching works in EBS
  3. What are the tools used for Patching
  4. How to get new patches
  5. How patch file is structured?
  6. What type of patches or patch formats available
  7. What are the process/steps of online patching
  8. What is online patching
    1. How Oracle DB 11gR2 Edition Based redefinition(EBR) feature is helping
    2. How online patching functions in Database
    3. How to prepare for online patching
    4. What are the phases of the online patching cycle
    5. How the File System works in R12.2
    6. What will happen with Seed data during online patching
  9. What are the phases of online patching
  10. Top 9 Frequently-Asked Questions About Online Patching

https://www.otechtalks.tv/online-patching-of-oracle-ebusiness-suite-r12-2/

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In this session we will cover what is the role of the Database Tier in Oracle eBusiness suite R12, The database tier comprises the Oracle database server that stores and manages all the data of Oracle E-Business Suite R12. It also contains various types of files in which the tables, indexes, and other database objects for the system physically reside, as well as the database executables. Oracle E-Business Suite online help information is also stored in this database.

IN THIS SESSION, WE WILL LEARN:

  • What is the role of Database Tier
  • Schemas of Database in Oracle EBS like
    • The APPS Schema
    • Base Product Schemas
    • Custom Schema
  • what is Link Between APPS Schema and Base Product Schemas
  • What is the Tablespace model that is used as standard with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12
  • Benefits of OATM vs old tablespace model

https://www.otechtalks.tv/database-tier-basic-concept-in-oracle-ebusiness-suite/

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In Today’s session, we are going to talk about Concurrent Processing Server Architecture in Oracle eBusiness suite R12. Concurrent Processing is an Oracle E-Business Suite key feature that allows non–interactive and long-running functions like reporting programs and data updating programs to be executed along with interactive operations like the user is working on HTML/OAF based modules or Oracle Forms-based modules/functions. Basically, the Concurrent processing Server simultaneously executes programs running in the background with online operations while entering data in different modules of EBS for example, you are entering invoice is payable and simultaneously you can run Payable Summary Report in the background.

IN THIS SESSION, WE WILL LEARN:

  • What is Concurrent Processing Server
  • What are Concurrent Requests and Managers
  • Where Should Concurrent Managers be Located?
  • Key Characteristics of Concurrent Manager
  • What are specialist Concurrent Managers?
  • Setting Up Concurrent Managers
  • What is the concurrent request life cycle?
  • Concurrent Processing Architecture
  • How Concurrent Processing works?
  • Viewing Concurrent Processing Output
  • What is Parallel Concurrent Processing
  • How to Manage Concurrent Processing
  • Concurrent Processing and Online Patching
  • (TTT) – Tricks of The Trade

https://www.otechtalks.tv/oracle-concurrent-processing-server-architecture-in-oracle-ebusiness-suite/

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In this second session of the OTechTalks Podcast, we are going to cover the basic concept of Application Tier, Oracle eBusiness Suite R12. What is the role of Application Tier/node in EBS including Web and Forms Services and What is Concurrent processing, what are the basic tool used for Application Tier/Node Administration.

Application Tier/Node or Middle Tier hosting the various servers and service groups that process the business logic and managing communication between the desktop tier and the database tier.

The Web services component of Oracle Application Server processes requests received over the network from the desktop clients

Forms services in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 are provided by the Forms listener servlet, and this facilitates the use of firewalls, load balancing, proxies, and other networking options.

https://www.otechtalks.tv/basic-concept-of-application-tier-of-oracle-ebusiness-suite-r12/