The AIX Factor

Episode 39: To Bot or Not to Bot: a Conversation with MeBeBot's Dawn Kovach

Dawn Kovach is VP of Business Development at MeBeBot.com,  an AI-powered assistant that delivers instant, accurate answers to employee and manager questions, improving communication and simplifying processes. MeBeBot is integrated into knowledge-based systems like SharePoint and your communications systems like Slack, MS Teams, and Web Chat, providing 24/7 access for HR, IT, Operational, and Sales Enablement questions, enabling HR and all units of the organization to spend more time focusing on more strategic business objectives.  As a bonus, we will also talk about Dawn’s parallel life as a writer, with a special interest in  Shakespeare - his work and his life - and how she balances her role with MeBeBot and her writing. We discuss:    1. The gap in the market that MeBeBot fills; how MeBeBot works, and what it takes to be fully functional within an organization.    2. As their technology integrates with an organization’s communications systems, how do they address privacy concerns?  3. The need for HR to adapt to the increasing role of AI in the organization, acknowledging that it may be challenging for HR to embrace this change; why HR must align their needs, concerns, and goals with other departments - IT, operations, and finance - to get buy-in.   4. What HR leaders need to know to evaluate AI Vendors.  5. Dawn’s parallel life as a writer: authors she most admires and books she’s written.

Episode 38: It’s the System, Stupid: A Conversation with Cybersecurity Expert and AI Ethicist Patrick Sullivan

Our conversation with Patrick Sullivan, VP of Strategy and Innovation at A-LIGN, a leading provider of cybersecurity and compliance solutions, was one of the more wide-ranging and provocative ones that we’ve had. Patrick brings over 25 years of experience in the IT security and compliance space, is a TEDx Speaker, a member of the Forbes Technology Council,  and is a self-described AI Ethicist. We discussed:  * “Systems thinking”:  how AI needs to be thought of in a broader social context in which everything is connected - change one thing and everything is affected, even if those things are not immediately visible.  * How organizations need to think about - and manage - change: how the four domains in organizational systems - people, process, technology, and the organization itself - need to interconnect;   the ADKAR model for implementing change, which involves creating awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement among employees.   * Carol Dweck's concept of fixed versus growth mindsets, with Patrick emphasizing the benefits of a growth mindset in business and personal development.  * Balancing compliance and innovation in the context of AI implementation.  * AIX is about raising your “AIQ,” which we define as knowing what questions to ask. Patrick discusses the one question he is not asked enough. * What it means to be an “AI ethicist” and the importance of ensuring that AI systems produce desired behaviors while maintaining individual agency in decision-making.  * ISO 56001, a structured framework for organizations to think about and consistently approach innovation (we need to have a pod exclusively on this).  * Patrick’s colorful - and apt! - NBA analogy in describing differences in how Europe views AI regulation and how we view it here in the US.  * Bag Check: Patrick shares his go-to AI tools, which may surprise you.

Episode 37: Bag Check with Vero AI Founder and CEO Eric Sydell

Eric discusses his go-to AI tools - he emphasizes the importance of scientific literacy and critical thinking when evaluating AI tools and marketing claims. He explains why he likes Perplexity for research, and an AI-driven OCR (optical character recognition) tool that works! (OCR tech has come a long way from the semi-legible text these tools used to produce). Vero AI is dedicated to helping companies understand AI and other algorithmic solutions. This episode of Bag Check was excerpted from a previous interview: Vero AI’s Instrumental Role in Delivering AI-Augmented Compliance.

Episode 36: Better Processes, Better Candidates, Better Hires: GoHire’s Jonathan Duarte Breaks it Down

“It’s not the lack of candidates that’s the problem, it’s a process problem.” On this week’s AIX Factor, we spoke with Jonathan Duarte, the Founder and CEO of GoHire, the leading provider of Apply-by-Text solutions that help companies hire high-volume, mobile-first frontline workers. For the last 25+ years, Jonathan has been building Recruitment and HR Technology focused on candidate acquisition, engagement, and recruitment marketing. He joined us from his HQ in San Francisco to discuss:  * How his BA in History directly relates to his HR work.   * His start as a financial analyst at Aspen Skiing Company, to doing ERP implementations for Gateway, to founding GoHire, and his early experiments with chatbot technology in 2016.   * Background on GoHire - how it works, gaps in the market that they  fill.   * The definition of “conversational recruiting.”  * “It’s not the lack of candidates that’s the problem, it’s a process problem.” How to use multi-channel messaging and AI agents to reach out to candidates more efficiently.  * Takeaways from HR.com’s HRWest event in Oakland - the response to his talk on” HR navigating evolving challenges and tech.”  * The importance of playing with AI tools creatively before using them professionally.  * Bag Check: Jonathan shares his go-to AI tools.

Episode 35: AI-First Business Transformation with Quantiv CEO Mark Wyatt

Mark Wyatt is the founder and CEO of Quantiv Group, a consulting company dedicated to helping other tech firms improve their sales and marketing processes using an agile approach. Mark is the “serial entrepreneur’s entrepreneur”, having founded six companies, two of which were acquired. We discuss:  * What drives someone to start six companies, the benefits of “failing fast,” and what he’s learned.  * What Quantiv does to improve their sales and marketing processes using an agile approach (making them repeatable, definable, and improvable with data analytics).  * How Quantiv integrates AI into its solutions.  * What “AI-first business transformation” means, and what it looks like.   * Comparing the pervasive nature of AI to the early days of the Internet prompts a nostalgic trip down memory lane - don’t worry, it’s brief.  * Bag Check: Mark shares his go-to AI tools.