[00:00:00] Stephanie Wierwille: Welcome to the No Normal Show, brought to you by BPDA marketing services firm that delivers the future to healthcare’s leading brands. This show is where we leave all things status quo, traditional old school, and boring in the dust, and instead, we celebrate the new, the powerful, the innovative, the bold, all focused around the future of healthcare, marketing, and communications. I’m Stephanie Ell, and I’m joined here by Chris Bevelo. Hi Chris.
[00:00:25] Chris: Hey, how are you doing? How you feeling? I know you’re not like a hundred percent. I’m giving you license here to, to be stupid today ’cause you’re not feeling the best.
[00:00:34] Stephanie Wierwille: Oh, I love that. We love a, we love some license. Yeah. Hopefully my voice is not too raspy, but if it is, we’ll just call this the one with a raspy voice as a shout out to Phoebe from friends. Um, you know, when she played the guitar and she loved it.
[00:00:49] Chris: This will be the Marlboro episode because it’ll sound like smoking Mars
[00:00:53] Stephanie Wierwille: Oh, gross.
[00:00:55] Chris: 10 years. You don’t have a, you don’t have a cigarette voice, so you’re good.[00:01:00]
[00:01:00] Stephanie Wierwille: Okay. That’s good. I, okay. I, I prefer raspy guitar, voice to cigarette voice, but I’ll, I’ll take what I can get. Um, well, we have a lot to talk about there. It’s such, it’s been such a wild last 24 hours. Um, we have a couple headlines we’re gonna hit. We, we really had to be judicious with the headlines we chose been a lot going on.
So we’re gonna talk about AI generated work slot, which is the new term that everybody’s loving. Um, that came from a Harvard Business Review report. And then our main topic today is also on, around the line of ai. We’re gonna dig into some real world examples of how organizations are using AI across everything from marketing to customer service, to healthcare and beyond. Um, it’s, it’s a, it’s part of our ongoing series that we’re calling the Einstein Divide, where we’re talking about ways to use AI that go beyond the expected. So that’s our show. a few quick notes before we get started next month. The no normal show will be on the ground in Las Vegas at [00:02:00] Hlt H Health 2025.
Chris, maybe that’s where our cigarette voices will come in really handy in Vegas. Um, but, but we’ll be on the ground there at health and, uh, we will be recording live. So we want the, your POV on the future of healthcare. If you’re out there and you are attending and you wanna join us, we’ll be talking about. All the things happening in healthcare today, whether it is workforce challenges, or AI or technology, um, or B2B marketing and more. So, reach out to us at info@bpdhealthcare.com. And then Chris will be on the ground at Shushed in Dallas, uh, coming up very soon, and he’ll be leading a few, um, sessions centered around the future of the CMO one, specifically with healthcare leaders like Vic Bryce, uh, from UNC Healthcare Matt gov with Quick MD and Philip Giuliano from Brand Active.
Anything you wanna add on that, Chris?
[00:02:52] Chris: Gonna be great. Less than two weeks away from this recording, so I can’t believe it’s October. We’re recording this on [00:03:00] October one, by the way, for those listening. And um, September was the longest month since. April, 2020 for me. I don’t understand why, but it was, um, so I’m thrilled that it’s October, but it’s also startling that it’s already October.
So yes, that’s, that’s why it has nothing to do with bed, just it’s right around the corner.
[00:03:19] Stephanie Wierwille: Well, congratulations. You made it through September. I wish we were recording this on October 3rd. Then we could have started with it’s October 3rd
[00:03:28] Chris: Why?
[00:03:29] Stephanie Wierwille: mean Girls Day.
[00:03:31] Chris: Okay. Yeah. You just lost me.
[00:03:33] Stephanie Wierwille: Okay. Okay.
[00:03:34] Chris: out I’m a 50 something man. So.
[00:03:39] Stephanie Wierwille: Well, many, many people wait all year for October 3rd to be able to say it’s October 3rd. Um, but anyway, it’s October 1st. Um, so also right around the corner is the 2026 Joe Public Retreat, which is happening in February from February 18th to 20th, um, on South Beach in Miami. And the topic and theme is [00:04:00] the AI Dream. very much related to what we’re talking about today, but we’re gonna go. Far ahead of what we’re talking about today. We’re gonna go, uh, years in the future and come up with all the biggest, boldest ways to leverage AI for Marcom. And so you can join us there. let us know if you’d like to sign up. Things are filling up.
[00:04:19] Chris: Yes, they’re filling up. That seems like that’s a long, long way away. It’s really four months away and then you throw in the holidays. It’s only three months away. And then if you’re like me and you think ahead a month, it’s really only two months away. So really you have about a month, if I’m rounding up,
[00:04:36] Stephanie Wierwille: So what I’m hearing is it’s
[00:04:39] Chris: it’s February. Tomorrow is essentially,
[00:04:42] Stephanie Wierwille: Yeah. Happy Valentine’s Day.
[00:04:44] Chris: yes.
[00:04:46] Stephanie Wierwille: Um, so, okay, so actually time is flying. Time is moving fast. It’s, it’s, it’s really, really wild and, um, so much has happened in the last 24 hours that I don’t even know what day it is [00:05:00] anymore. Um, so I’m just gonna give a quick little rundown of all the things that have happened since we, we, we kind of planned some things to talk about for the show and then.
Literally 95 new things came out. So Chris, I’m just gonna give a little very fast rundown and, and we can play a game where you can say a couple words, maybe literally two, about whichever ones you choose. You ready?
[00:05:21] Chris: No, I’m gonna do it in one note. I’m gonna give one word response to each of your things and you can, you can res react to that whether it makes sense or you disagree, or you may be like, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Let’s try this. Let’s try it. Live
[00:05:35] Stephanie Wierwille: Okay.
[00:05:35] Chris: on the air.
[00:05:36] Stephanie Wierwille: Okay. So should I just, I’ll pause after each one and then you throw your word in. How about that?
[00:05:41] Chris: Okay. Sounds good.
[00:05:42] Stephanie Wierwille: So Bad Bunny was announced as the Super Bowl Halftime Show Performer.
[00:05:48] Chris: Who?
[00:05:51] Stephanie Wierwille: Okay.
[00:05:51] Chris: That’s my one more response.
[00:05:53] Stephanie Wierwille: uh, there is a new actress on the scene and she is not human. She’s fully ai and her name is Tilly Norwood. [00:06:00] Mm.
[00:06:00] Chris: Inevitable.
[00:06:02] Stephanie Wierwille: Yes.
[00:06:03] Chris: that’s not, I actually thought of that one ahead of time ’cause that was too quick of a response. But
[00:06:08] Stephanie Wierwille: That’s
[00:06:08] Chris: maybe we need to give a little more context. To what you’re talking about,
[00:06:12] Stephanie Wierwille: Yeah,
[00:06:13] Chris: Like
[00:06:14] Stephanie Wierwille: so, so I think everybody has the context about Bad Bunny. I don’t need to share anything else there
[00:06:18] Chris: no, you’re very excited. Wait. You’re just, why are you so excited about, and I know who he is, by the way. I just dunno anything about his music. So that’s why I said Who, but why are you so excited about Bad Bunny?
[00:06:29] Stephanie Wierwille: in more than one word. Um, because I, I think he’s in a really exciting choice. I saw this meme where it was like, bad Bunny’s gonna do more for America on Spanish language learning than the Rosetta Stone and Duolingo combined. That made me laugh, but I just think it’s really interesting with the NFL broadening to international audiences. Um, it’s gonna be a vibe and I’m, I’m ready to dance.
[00:06:53] Chris: Okay, well I’m looking forward to it, even though I don’t know any of his music, um, at all.
[00:06:58] Stephanie Wierwille: Okay. [00:07:00] Um, okay, so, uh, we will link the show in the show notes the news about this AI actress. It was fascinating. Essentially there is, there’s a new actress and Hollywood’s all up in arms. I don’t think I need to say more than that, but it is, yes, inevitable.
[00:07:15] Chris: Who was the who? Who was the woman who spoke for maybe the Screen Actor’s Guild? Was this a couple years ago? Um, I wanna say it was the oldest daughter in Family Ties, which dates me. I can’t, Mallory I think was her name on the show. I can’t think of her name. But anyway, she wrote a very, um, well articulated letter about the threat of this very thing, um, of basically like, Hey, we’re gonna have AI actors and people are gonna be able to create their own AI movies based on AI likenesses of.
Actors and where are the real people in all this. So, um, that’s why I said inevitable that she already, I think [00:08:00] that I could be confusing who wrote this letter, but I think it was her, could be wrong.
[00:08:04] Stephanie Wierwille: Okay. Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s gonna be an interesting thing to watch. Um, so one of, I think you are my both favorite brands. Peloton announced a new partnership. They came out with a whole slew of new products. Today. I bel Yes. That was today, Wednesday, October 1st. Um, and as part of that buried in it, they said they have a, they have a partnership with either a hospital or collection of hospitals around specialty therapy. So gimme your one word and then we’ll discuss it.
[00:08:34] Chris: Um, I’m gonna say lame. And the reason I say lame, uh, can I explain? I don’t know. I get lame because it, this was all wrapped in a, in a bundle of we’re increasing your monthly membership fee. So like the things that were listed there, I was just like, whatever. I’m like, I understand you gotta raise your fee.
Um, it has to happen over time, but I don’t know, I didn’t get too [00:09:00] excited about the things that were in there. That was just me.
[00:09:03] Stephanie Wierwille: I got most excited about the teaser. They po. They posted a teaser yesterday was stunning and I love a good teaser. I feel like. Teasers are hot right now. And then the news was sort of like a let down after the teaser was such a, you know, high passion thing.
[00:09:20] Chris: I did have an interesting conversation with somebody in the, um, at BPD here earlier about the, um, hospital for specialty surgery. Who paid whom for the right, for that partnership, or did they pay? Did anybody pay anybody? Like who benefits more? Peloton or the hospital for specialty surgery and, and it, I’m not sure in that case, normally I would say like Peloton, the national brand exposed away more people.
You’d have to pay for the right department with them. But
[00:09:55] Stephanie Wierwille: I
[00:09:55] Chris: anyway,
[00:09:56] Stephanie Wierwille: because they’ve done a lot of collabs and [00:10:00] partnerships. Um. Maybe we can read their earnings report when it comes out and find that out. That’d be really interesting.
[00:10:06] Chris: yeah.
[00:10:06] Stephanie Wierwille: know. Okay. Uh, next one. This is a fun one. Cracker Barrel. They’re, they’re back in the news. Um, after everything that happened, uh, it is now coming out that in the first 24 hours of the whole hullabaloo yes hullabaloo of, Cracker Barrel’s logo change, 40%, 44% of that conversation was actually driven by bots.
[00:10:32] Chris: Well, that’s easy. That’s dystopian. Also not surprising, but dystopian. It’s just like, we know this is happening, but the degree to which it drives the zeitgeist is scary. Like it’s just scary. People just get, get their, you know, things in a bunch driven by a bunch of bots probably from overseas that are just trying to stir things up.[00:11:00]
Try to, try to make us hate each other more. Like literally we’re hating each other over a Cracker Barrel logo. Like we are just suckers. We’re just suckers, all of us. And I’m in that mix. Like, I’m not casting stones that, you know, glass houses, all that stuff. Like, wow. We are just, I don’t know how we get out of this.
I’m, I’m really tempted to suggest a ban on social media. Like just ban it. Ban it, ban it, ban it. I really don’t think it’s, I think in the end of the day it could cost us this entire country. That’s a whole nother show. So we’re not, we’re not gonna go there. But dystopian people can like get up in arms about Cracker Barrel logo because bots are driving us and saying we are really in trouble.
[00:11:46] Stephanie Wierwille: Yes. Yes. And. There’s a new social media, uh, platform on the scene. Um, so our last little one in this roundup is OpenAI. Lots of news from OpenAI in the last day, three [00:12:00] days and meta as well. Um, first meta came out with vibes, which is their version of their video feed. I’m doing this ’cause that’s how I’m scrolling through it, uh, which is all AI generated video feed.
Then SOA or OpenAI had to, you know, not be outdone, so they launched theirs. Um, and theirs is called soa, which is named after their video model soa. Um, I’ll just leave it there. What’s your word for that, Chris?
[00:12:23] Chris: I mean, first of all, did Mark Zuckerberg announce this? Hi, I’m Mark Zuckerberg. I’d like to introduce Facebook’s vibes. We are. Cutting edge. Like just, it’s just, I can’t even, um, I, I guess I would say confused on soa. Confused. I, I, like, first of all, I love the idea that there might be a competitor to TikTok, um, but also like confused, like, why are you naming this thing the same thing as the video tool?
Like, I understand the video tool’s at the basis of [00:13:00] this, but just come on now.
[00:13:03] Stephanie Wierwille: Yeah,
[00:13:04] Chris: Don’t confuse me.
[00:13:06] Stephanie Wierwille: Um, I’ve been, I’ve been really enjoying it. I don’t know if it’ll stick, uh, you know, it’s very hard for something like that to stick, but in the last several hours. Day, several days, whatever. I’ve been scrolling through it and, uh, made some of my own videos. So it’s fun. It’s a lot of like Pikachu doing a SMR and you know, Harry Potter recreations and weird stuff, but it’s
[00:13:29] Chris: For you. For you again, mountain Head. Go watch Mountain Head. This is literally the, the theme in Mountain Head that drives the world to
[00:13:41] Stephanie Wierwille: Mm-hmm.
[00:13:42] Chris: like complete chaos, this very thing. Um, I don’t think Sora is going to do that, by the way, but I’ve already seen examples of people creating awful videos on it. Like, so I guess they could have done that anyway, but now they’re just gonna get a social media platform for that.
So, super, super. [00:14:00] Go back to Cracker Barrel and we’re all now, we’re just gonna add video bot video to all of the bot manipulation.
[00:14:09] Stephanie Wierwille: Oh, I don’t wanna put all those headlines together in one. That’s definitely dystopian. Um, so we we’re gonna dig into one of, I’ll throw one more headline out and we’re gonna actually dig into this one a little bit more. I, so I lied when I said that was it, but, um. You know, Sora and vibes are kind of, a lot of people call it slop, right?
This, the AI generated slop, the video lop that’s put out there, good or bad. And there’s a new term on the scene, um, and that is AI generated work, slop. So this came from a Harvard Business Report, uh, which cited an MIT study. And then every news outlet has been citing Harvard and it’s been all over LinkedIn.
Everyone’s talking about AI work Swap. So Work swap is AI generated content used in a professional setting. It looks really polished. It’s nicely formatted, but when you really get in there, it lacks depth. It lacks [00:15:00] context. It’s clearly AI generated it’s crap. and it’s. Predicted to lead to $9 million per year in loss productivity because of all the rework. Um, and that’s a, that’s a stat based on, know, math about if, if an organization has 10,000 workers and X amount of work stuff comes out and it requires, you know, this much rework to be done, then that’s gonna lead to 9 million per year in lost productivity. So I’ll just leave that there and see what you thought about the work slot piece.
[00:15:31] Chris: Um, I have two thoughts. First of all, a Harvard Business Review. How dare you go, Buzzfeed with your ridiculous headline. Uh, the headline of the article was, um, AI generated work swap is destroyed. Destroying productivity, it’s destroying it. Have you noticed, Stephanie, that all the grocery stores are empty?
Like the shelves are empty and you can’t get any products on Amazon and nobody’s hitting deliverables because productivity has been destroyed.
[00:15:59] Stephanie Wierwille: [00:16:00] Destroyed.
[00:16:01] Chris: let’s just calm down Harvard. The second thing is the, the, the finding. Let’s use, let’s take their finding their math. At face value, right? Let’s just say like, okay, what was the number that you gave?
How much in lost productivity?
[00:16:16] Stephanie Wierwille: 15 million. Nope. 9 million.
[00:16:18] Chris: 9 million per company.
[00:16:20] Stephanie Wierwille: misinforming myself. $9 million in lost productivity. If you take an organization the size of $10,000 and you assume that there’s 41%, uh, prevalence of work slot,
[00:16:32] Chris: 10,000 employees.
[00:16:33] Stephanie Wierwille: correct.
[00:16:35] Chris: Okay. So, um, all that is is like net of the productivity gain of ai. And I know this article’s making it like the MIT thing said like 95% of what is being done with AI is a failure. I’m pretty sure that’s not true, but whatever. Um, this again just reminds me of, um, oh my God. Driverless cars killed two people.
In [00:17:00] 2024. So we can’t have driver cars. They’re a failure. They’re a failure. Um, the idea of AI work slot is new to me, but the idea of work slop is as old as the first guy who tried to like carve a wheel out of stone and had, it was like a square, right? Like as cavemen had work slop, there’s been work slop forever.
Humans create work slop every second of every minute, of every hour, of every day, of every work place. So, um, I just feel like this is just honing in on like some negative thing again for clickbait like Harvard, what are you doing? Right? Put put it in the context of the gains. Put it in the context of this is still experimental for so many, so many companies.
Um, put in the context of how much work swap is there. That’s not ai. My guess is it dwarfs AI generated work swap? I don’t know, but I just kind of like file that in the whatever maybe. [00:18:00] Good. Hopefully. Hopefully people like competitors read that and they’re like, oh, this is, you know, AI’s just gonna generate work, swap, so we’re not gonna pursue it.
Good. Meanwhile, the people that understand how to put this stuff in perspective are gonna crush it. So there
[00:18:15] Stephanie Wierwille: I love that. I
[00:18:16] Chris: I.
[00:18:16] Stephanie Wierwille: and I, I like. I like the ai, you know, the autonomous car analogy, because recently I saw a report that I thought was just really well done now it was by Waymo and it was their pushback and it was a super smart pushback on this whole idea of driverless cars, you know, kill, kill people type of thing. But they had. I mean they, I guess they had done a study or someone had done a study, but it was a, it was, it was couched in if every human driver drove like Waymo, so then it showed like what percentage of human drivers drove like Waymo and then how many lives would be saved. And at the tip top was if a hundred percent of people drove like Waymo, we would have almost no deaths. And I was like, that’s such an interesting flip. And I feel like that’s kind of what you’re saying here is. [00:19:00] Okay, so AI creates work slot, but what is the context of, is it less work slot than human work slot? And you’ve gotta have this, this context around it. And then also, who’s the human that’s driving the LOP in the first place, and how did it get through and what did they ask for and how did they use the tool and all that stuff.
[00:19:16] Chris: I mean, a lot of this is just channeling. Paul rates are one of our faves, um, who talks about this all the time. And there’s reports that have been coming out. He’s been talking about his podcast the last couple of years of these companies who say like, we invested $20 million in rolling out AI to every employee, and it just hasn’t shown a return.
And he is like. Uh, whose fault is that? Like that’s not AI’s fault. Um, and same here, work SLAP is not AI’s fault work. SLAP is humans’, misapplication or wrong expectation, most likely, right? Um, if using ai you actually should be, you should be reducing or slo being more effective. Um, but if you’re not using it the [00:20:00] right way or people aren’t trained how to use it.
Or they’re forced to use it and they’re just like, fine, I’m just gonna throw this thing into, into AI and out it comes and I’m just gonna send it along. Hey, you reap what? You sew
[00:20:12] Stephanie Wierwille: Yes. Yes.
[00:20:14] Chris: a work slop crop you, you, you sew a work slop crop. How about that? A crop of work lop.
[00:20:22] Stephanie Wierwille: Oh man. Um, s so maybe, maybe that actually is a good pivot into our main topic. Uh, we’ll spend about 15 minutes on the main topic here. Um, but our main topic is all around real, real world examples of ai. And so we can decide are these slop or not? Um, we’re gonna kind of have a little wow meter, if you will, and, and I’m gonna read each of each, a few of these, not all of them. And Chris, your job is to say, are they great or are they not? Or are they just like where we are today? So just giving a little context, this is all part of our larger series as we build toward that AI dream. Um, Joe Public Workshop, um, in [00:21:00] February. And, uh, we’ve been talking about. Our concept around the Einstein Divide recently in the last few episodes.
So what we mean by that is we think that AI can actually be used in far more ways than it’s being currently used. Right now, a lot of AI applications are around improve efficiency, improve effectiveness, do things faster, better, um. You know, with less resources and all of that’s great and all of that’s important, but what we’re really excited about is the really innovative applications, the non slop. Um, and so we’re really excited about thinking about how can AI push the boundaries? How can it help organizations do things that have never been done before? So we thought we would see what are organizations doing today, and we don’t expect any of these to be truly what we call Einstein thinking, right?
Truly innovative. Um, in, in the sense of how it will be in five, 10 years. But we just wanted to kind of take a look and see like what’s being done across a wide variety of industries and where are we today. So anything you wanna add, Chris, to the context before I throw out the first [00:22:00] example?
[00:22:00] Chris: Yeah, and I think it is important to, to just. Qualify one thing you said there, which is why we don’t expect any of these to truly meet Einstein thinking, because Einstein thinking has built into it. The idea that you’re thinking about how things could change down the road with a, I’m not gonna say a complete, you know, application of AI or transformation of ai, but based on where AI is, AI is going.
So the very idea that you’re gonna come up with, so if we’re gonna use your, uh, analogy, Stephanie of Einstein versus Edison, Edison’s, you know, iterating on the light bulb and let’s say every day has got a better version of the light bulb. Um, Einstein kind of thinking about array of lights. What it would be like to sit on a ray of light when you’re traveling.
He didn’t like the next day, come up with equal mc square, like the three of relativity took years for him to come up with, right? So he thought big and then he is like, okay, how are we, how are we going to actually qualify this? Um, and [00:23:00] that took him a long time. So you can’t look out there now and really know how people are applying this because it would be almost impossible to see the application of it.
It doesn’t mean it’s not happening. It’s likely happening in labs and think tanks and, you know, big brains all over the place. Um, but we’re gonna see if we can see anything that comes close to it or at least is on the right path. How about that? So
[00:23:24] Stephanie Wierwille: Awesome.
[00:23:25] Chris: just qual That’s a man’s point. Sorry, that sounded like a man’s point, but I think just like qualifying, like that’s why we don’t expect to see it.
[00:23:33] Stephanie Wierwille: Yes.
[00:23:33] Chris: not valid.
[00:23:35] Stephanie Wierwille: Love it. Okay.
[00:23:36] Chris: Okay.
[00:23:37] Stephanie Wierwille: have time for. Maybe five if we can, but at least four. so I’m gonna start, I’ll start with, I’ll start with marketing, kind of close as close in as possible to marketing and advertising realm. And then I’ll work, we’ll work our way outside of that, um, as broad as we can. So I’m gonna start with Nike. We like to talk about Nike all the time. Um, really [00:24:00] amazing brand platform and everything that they do, you know, kind of ties back to that. So they created a pro program, I don’t know what the word is, um, an algorithm of sorts to line up to a broader campaign. They called Never Done Evolving, so this was using computer vision and machine learning, and they took Serena Williams playtime across her entire career and fed it to the. Algorithm and had it map out all of her plays and then basically recreate a Serena Williams version of herself. So then it pit the 30 5-year-old Serena against the 17-year-old Serena and created what they called an AI matchup of the ages. So this is sort of marketing advertising realm. Um, it was a campaign really, but using this idea of Serena against herself, um, I’ll leave it there.
[00:24:52] Chris: All right. I’m gonna, I, I’m gonna invent something. I’m gonna call it the Einstein. Meter do one of these things. [00:25:00] Um, I’m gonna give that like in the middle. Like this is, this is the best, this is lame. I’m gonna call it in the middle only because that to me does show the right kind of thinking. And by the way, I have not seen these, I think they’re in our notes, but I purposely did not look at them so I could react fresh.
Um, which is probably scary for everybody, including you, Stephanie, but the, the use of that. The way, like the way they’re thinking about it I think is great. It’s digital twinning. It’s when you start just taking that and applying it to anything else, and you could think about where that could go. Now, using the the means that means of an end to saying like, let’s pit 17-year-old Serial Williams against current day is kind of whatever, marketing-y it’s kind of.
It’s fun, but you could, I mean, what if she used it to train herself? What if she used it to create a training for people that went to her academy? What if it like, there’s just so many ways you could go with [00:26:00] that. Um, so it shows the potential. So I like it.
[00:26:05] Stephanie Wierwille: Yes. Yes.
[00:26:06] Chris: I’ll give it a three out of five.
[00:26:07] Stephanie Wierwille: Okay. Three outta five is good. I, I liked it too. And uh, you know, definitely watch the video. I know you wanted to come in fresh. Um, but for those listening too, go watch the video ’cause it’s really interesting to see how they did it. And I love your idea, Chris, of, you know, could they map, I’m thinking could they map all, you know, mul many athletes, could it be maybe a whole platform they launch where you can learn how to be your favorite athlete or whatever.
Or they could integrate it in so many ways. So that’d be really cool.
[00:26:34] Chris: Yes.
[00:26:34] Stephanie Wierwille: Okay. Um, I’m gonna stick with the marketing theme here for a second. Um, so this is a, um, it, it, I guess I’ll call it a campaign out of O2, which is a UK phone company and they call this the AI Granny. So the problem was that 70% of of Brits have been tar. Targeted by scammers in some way. Um, we all feel that in our day-to-day, day the phone scams are getting crazy. So the phone [00:27:00] company created an AI granny, and it’s an avatar just for the sake of, you know, us being able to watch it. But really it is a voice that’s trained. Sounds like a grandma. Um, answers the phone when scammers call you. And waste their time. So, you know, can, can really draw out the conversation and be like, oh, you know, yesterday I went to the grocery store. So, um, there was results that showed that it, you know, reduced scam phone calls, but also just was more for the sake of the marketing purposes. What do you think?
[00:27:31] Chris: Um, I’m, I give it like a two, two outta five. Um, just because I don’t really know that that’s dependent on ai. I suppose it could be, but really it’s just such a minimal use of ai and I’m trying to think like, how would you take that idea and expand it? Obviously we know we’re gonna go to a future where AI agents interact with each other.
Um, and I like the idea of like fighting fire with fire. Um, by the way, I’m going to share [00:28:00] this. Um, Stephanie, I already shared it with you. I received two of those tech scam messages today, but this was one of them. I’m at the coffee shop next to the children’s hospital. I grabbed a seat upstairs by the window like.
That whoever sent that had to know like what I do for a living and that I would actually like go, am I supposed to be meeting somebody today? Because that’s what I thought. I’m like, crap. Did I miss a coffee meeting? Um, that is some personalized scamming right there. Like, wow, that is creepy. So anyway, I’m giving this a two out of five, not to take us off track ’cause I think like That’s fine.
It’s fine. Whatever.
[00:28:39] Stephanie Wierwille: Yeah, I, I agreed. I thought it, I thought it wa it, it did win a can award. Um, I think it’s a, it’s a beautiful case study, but in terms of does it actually make a difference? I’m not sure, but yeah, it’s, it’s, I, I think I would rank it, rank it two or three. I was gonna say. Back on the dystopian topic, Chris, imagine if scammers [00:29:00] are using highly personalized data and AI to scam you in a really perfect way, and then you have to use your, whatever your AI tool is, and we’re basically just AI is fighting ai.
Like that’s my DYS dystopian future I think.
[00:29:14] Chris: Yeah, well, I mean, it’s obviously already stories about people being tricked into giving, giving money to who they think is their children, um, because the voice is copied. So like, it is pretty scary. But in terms of Einstein thinking, no, this is just like Pinky’s Peaky blinders. Like, we’re gonna improve the, we’re gonna improve on the scam of the day.
[00:29:39] Stephanie Wierwille: Yeah.
[00:29:40] Chris: It’s not like creating some, the granny thing is fine, whatever.
[00:29:44] Stephanie Wierwille: Okay. Okay.
[00:29:44] Chris: Let it when it can for advertising. It’s not a Einstein thinking.
[00:29:47] Stephanie Wierwille: Okay.
[00:29:48] Chris: five.
[00:29:48] Stephanie Wierwille: Um, we have at least three more. I really wanna get in four more. Um, okay. I’m gonna throw out a work, I’m putting this in the workforce category.
[00:29:56] Chris: Oh, okay.
[00:29:57] Stephanie Wierwille: okay. So this is not [00:30:00] the first organization to do this, but several organizations have gotten headlines for. What am I about to explain? Um, and one of them is Genius group and education company.
Uh, they appointed an AI bot as their chief AI officer and they modeled it based on Alan Turing. So they basically fed it Alan Turing’s personality, all of his work to advise on AI strategy. This executive AI executive sits in on management meetings. He gives advice on product and r and d decisions. And I will also say back to my note of it’s not the first company, um, a company in China named an AI program.
Its CEO. A European beverage firm named a robot as its CEO, and then there’s a board member, an AI board member out of the uh, United Arab Emirates.
[00:30:45] Chris: I’m sorry. Um. I don’t know. I guess that’s like a three or a four. The idea that you’re gonna replace people at that level with AI at right now seems laughable. ’cause I just [00:31:00] laugh. Like an AI board member makes me laugh. Right? Like, what, what is sitting there? Like a little Alexa thing on a board table and they go around and vote and I, I, I don’t know.
There’s something and you’re naming a CEO, an Ai CEO. That sounds like a. That just sounds like a gag. Like you’re just trying to get pr, like there’s no way. I, I just don’t think, um, it is intriguing to have an ai, a Chief AI officer’s ai, but um, that is a little bit of Einstein thinking, so that’s why I go over the three or four.
Um, but again, like, I don’t think that’s a, those are really practical in this day and age where we’re at now, but give it three years or five years. Why not Maybe way sooner. Maybe they are practical and I’m just an idiot. But I did laugh at the AI board member.
[00:31:49] Stephanie Wierwille: His name is Aiden, or I don’t know if they have a gender,
[00:31:52] Chris: Oh,
[00:31:52] Stephanie Wierwille: Aiden is the board
[00:31:54] Chris: clever. Do you get it?
[00:31:56] Stephanie Wierwille: Uhhuh. Yeah. Yeah. [00:32:00] Um, Mika is the name of the experimental CEO. So they all have names. It’s very cute. Alright, um, next one. I’ll, I’m putting this more in the societal category a little bit on the health side, not healthcare, but health. Uh, so this is a program platform called Be My Eyes and it is for people who have blindness or low vision and it is a, um, program so that they can see the world around them. So basically, I don’t know if this is an app or what, but it’s effectively. You walk around and it would describe what’s in front of you at any given time so you can experience and see the world around you.
[00:32:35] Chris: Um, uh, 2.5. I’ll give that a 2.5.
[00:32:39] Stephanie Wierwille: Okay?
[00:32:39] Chris: just think like you need to take the next step ’cause there’s already like scientific technology that allows people to move things with their mind, um, to communicate with their mind. So why wouldn’t you also figure out how to take that description and. Connect into the mind so you could, [00:33:00] you could actually see it.
You’re not just hearing a description of it, but you would be able to see it. Um, that feels like that’s, that’s really the next step. So they’re on the right path with that, but it feels like it’s far short of where it needs to be to be something super clever.
[00:33:19] Stephanie Wierwille: Okay. Okay. Two more. Um, I’ll keep these quick. Um, so this is in the customer experience category. So this is travel. So this came out, So Delta did their hundredth anniversary and they were at the sphere in Las Vegas and they launched their vision for the future of travel recently. And one of the things that they launched is called Delta Concierge. So it basically is an AI assistant that travels with you and it gives you the info you need at the exact moment you need it. So let’s say. need to order an Uber. Let’s say your, your, not just your flight is late ’cause they already have that kind of thing. Um, but it can tell you all manner of notifications based on where you’re walking in the airport based on your last [00:34:00] Starbucks order, based on your seat on the plane that give you recommendations for what’s on your screen, all that kind of stuff. So this is the concierge.
[00:34:09] Chris: Um, that’s a tough one. I’m gonna go with a, I’m gonna go with a three, maybe 3.5. Um, because you can see the minority report future that that kind of promises or everything all the time is that, and you’re just getting what you need whenever you need it as you walk along. Um, and that feels like it’s like.
They need to make a leap to my order report and they’re just iterating on what’s possible today, but at least it’s in the right direction.
[00:34:43] Stephanie Wierwille: Yeah. I like that one because they did wrap it with a whole broader vision for the future of travel, and I just, I think they’re definitely in the right direction. Okay. Last one and then we’ll wrap. We’ll summarize and wrap and you, we haven’t gone, I don’t think you’ve given anything a four yet. has been three ish. I.[00:35:00]
[00:35:00] Chris: I did a three four, but I don’t remember which one it was.
[00:35:03] Stephanie Wierwille: Maybe that was Nike. So the last one is a Brazilian beauty company called Naura. And they, the, the problem they needed to solve was that, um, they’re, you know. A lot of their stuff is sourced from the Amazon, but needs to be sourced sustainably. And there’s all these, of course, not just PR challenges around that, but production challenges, climate change, challenges, the whole, the whole situation. So they took drones and ai, computer vision, machine learning, and they. Flew them over the Amazon and mapped the entire Amazon Forest so that they, well not the entire, but a big portion so that they could identify specific tree canopies. And then they took that data and identified where to sustainably harvest, gave it to local communities, and then committed that if local communities could sustainably harvest it, then they would purchase the production. Um, and this became an example at the World Economic Forum, uh, as well. So kind of PR meets operations, [00:36:00] meets production in a way.
[00:36:03] Chris: Um, two. I mean, I don’t know what that has to do with ai.
[00:36:09] Stephanie Wierwille: it.
[00:36:10] Chris: Well, I mean, I don’t know what has to do with ai. Um, and also, like if you’re Einstein thinking, wouldn’t you end up with a solution, doesn’t require you to do anything with the Amazon rainforest? Like, I’m sorry. Like, you’re still, you’re still pulling resources from Amazon Rainforest, if I understand your story.
Right. So, uh, I mean, two is maybe generous.
[00:36:32] Stephanie Wierwille: Okay.
[00:36:33] Chris: not like a PR stuff. I mean, they’re trying, but like, come on, redesign your product so it doesn’t require the Amazon Rainforest and also use ai. This is, I know, what am I missing?
[00:36:45] Stephanie Wierwille: The AI is what maps the forest. The AI is what is determining that it is sustainable versus not. The AI is, it’s, it’s not just, there’s drones, but then it’s using computer vision and machine learning to identify these places. So I guess my, I had [00:37:00] a similar reaction that you did.
It’s kind of like, it felt like a PR. Situation, but I liked the fact that no one had ever mapped the forest in that way. It had never been done before. Um, it took a substantial amount of effort and it was ultimately trying to be for good. So
[00:37:15] Chris: Here’s what, here’s what I would, here’s what I would suggest for them. Um, do all that and then ask ai, how do we accomplish the same thing from everything you’ve seen and learned without tapping into the ai?
[00:37:28] Stephanie Wierwille: Yes.
[00:37:28] Chris: And then if you can deliver your product at the same price or less, now we’re talking. So there you go.
[00:37:36] Stephanie Wierwille: I like it. Okay. All right. Well that’s it. That’s our roundup. Um, I wish I was keeping track of the rankings, but I think we had a two mostly threes, some one that got into the for, and I believe that was the
[00:37:48] Chris: Yeah.
[00:37:49] Stephanie Wierwille: one, but
[00:37:50] Chris: I mean, it would have to, it would’ve to be incredible to be a five, which is fair. Five is like Einstein. Einstein. The theory of relativity doesn’t happen [00:38:00] very often, so, so there you go.
[00:38:02] Stephanie Wierwille: Well, there’s many more we could pull from. So if you’re listening and you’ve seen any that we didn’t mention, send us some. I mean, off the top of my head, we didn’t mention there’s some cool stuff from Starbucks. There’s some cool stuff from Heinz, from Nutella, Coca-Cola. Of course we didn’t, we, we tried to push past like the Advertisingy. Things. So there’s a lot of those, a really great case study from pods. Um, but anyway, this is where we are today, at least in what we can find of how organizations are using AI across a variety, variety of places. So our charge is to push beyond, to go beyond the no, no normal, um, and to never be satisfied with, you know, just a two
[00:38:39] Chris: With bots,
[00:38:40] Stephanie Wierwille: with
[00:38:40] Chris: be satisfied with bots.
[00:38:42] Stephanie Wierwille: or slop or AI work, slop,
[00:38:45] Chris: Bot slot, no bot.
[00:38:46] Stephanie Wierwille: Ooh. Okay. Yeah. Not satisfied with that.
[00:38:52] Chris: we need to end it immediately. We, we can just keep going. We’ve already gone so far over time.
[00:38:56] Stephanie Wierwille: Okay. All
[00:38:57] Chris: ma is like literally jumping in the background going [00:39:00] like time, time.
[00:39:02] Stephanie Wierwille: He is like these kids. we’ll talk to you next we