business

Amazon rolls out Alexa-powered voice shopping experience in India [Singh ]

On 03/18/2020, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, human-computer interaction (HCI), India, mobile technologies, Natural Language Processing (NLP), platforms, vendors, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

Amazon rolls out Alexa-powered voice shopping experience in India — from techcrunch.com by Manish Singh

Excerpt:

Amazon [on 3/12/20] rolled out an Alexa-enabled voice-powered shopping feature in India as the e-commerce giant looks for new ways to engage with customers in one of its key overseas markets.

Customers will be able to use Alexa to search for items on the e-commerce platform, add them to the cart and proceed to checkout — by tapping the in-app mic icon and saying commands such as “Alexa, show me sarees,” “Alexa, add saree to my cart” and “Alexa, go to checkout.”

“Count your blessings.” You will, after reading even just the first few paragraphs of this article. [Christian]

On 03/18/2020, in biology, business, corporate / business world, health, hearts -- matters of the heart, policy, society, sociology, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

Six quick— but very important— points about Coronavirus and poverty in the US –– from commondreams.org by Bill Quigley; with thanks to a colleague at WMU-Cooley Law School for her message on this.
The most vulnerable among us simply do not have the same options as the most privileged.

Excerpts:

In the United States, tens of millions of people are at a much greater risk of getting sick from the coronavirus than others. The most vulnerable among us do not have the option to comply with suggestions to stay home from work or work remotely. Most low wage workers do not have any paid sick days and cannot do their work from home. The over two million people in jails and prisons each night do not have these options nor do the half a million homeless people.

One. Thirty-four million workers do not have a single day of paid sick leave. Even though most of the developed world gives its workers paid sick leave there is no federal law requiring it for workers.

Two. Low wage workers and people without a paid sick day have to continue to work to survive.

Three. About 30 million people in the US do not have health insurance, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Four. Staying home is not an option for the homeless.

Five. Nearly 2.2 million people are in jails and prisons every day, the highest rate in the world.

Six. Solutions? [The article lists several.]

Especially for students: “10 ways to make your LinkedIn stand out to recruiters” [Fielding]

On 03/10/2020, in business, career development, corporate / business world, Microsoft, parents/guardians, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, student-related, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

10 ways to make your LinkedIn stand out to recruiters — from fortune.com by Sarah Fielding

Excerpt:

According to the 2018 Jobvite Recruiter Nation Study, 77 percent of recruiters regularly use LinkedIn to find candidates, making it the most popular social media used for this purpose. So, if that job description is out of date or your photo is the one you took way back in your college dorms, you should definitely be serious about updating your profile. To ensure it stands out to recruiters, we spoke to career experts about the changes you can make…

From DSC:
I’m posting this especially for students…though it would likely be good for all of us to consider these tips.

How AI can bridge the gap between business and IT [technative.io]

On 03/07/2020, in 21st century, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, change, computer science, corporate / business world, data related items, emerging technologies, future, global / globalization, trends, UK, United States, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

How AI can bridge the gap between business and IT — from technative.io

Excerpts:

Artificial intelligence and intelligent automation are changing how businesses function. How they collect data, capture information, present it, and leverage it to gain more customers, convert more visitors, and expand their operations.
…
According to Gartner, the global business value derived from AI will reach $3.9 trillion by 2022, through improved customer experience, reduced operating costs, and new revenue generation. Gartner also predicts that automating decision-making by harnessing unstructured data will be a key driving force of this trend- growing AI-derived value from just 2 percent in 2018 to 16 percent in 2022.

Also see:

Cybercrime, meet AI — from technative.io

Excerpt:

The value of AI in this model is that it lets companies take large volumes of information and find clusters of similarity. This is always the focus of cybersecurity to a degree, but organisations are often unequipped to do so in sufficient depth because of time and resourcing constraints. By contrast, AI can whittle down vast quantities of seemingly unrelated data into a few actionable incidents or outputs at speed, giving companies the ability to quickly pick out potential threats in a huge haystack.

The ability to quickly turn large amounts of data into actionable insights is something that cybersecurity teams are going to need in the coming years, because AI could become a formidable enemy. Unlike malware, which is purely automated, AI is beginning to mimic humans to a worryingly accurate degree. It can draw pictures, age photographs of people, write well enough to persuade people of truths – or lies.

Key Blockchain Stats, Happenings, and Trends for 2020 [Curtis]

On 03/07/2020, in Asia, Blockchain, business, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, emerging technologies, global / globalization, platforms, trends, by Daniel Christian

Key Blockchain Stats, Happenings, and Trends for 2020 — from yourtechdiet.com by Brian Curtis

Excerpts:

[Podcast] Strategy Matters | Elliott Masie on where we’re headed

On 03/06/2020, in adult learning, business, change, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, data related items, ideas, learning, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, podcasting, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Strategy Matters | Elliott Masie on where we’re headed — from performancematters.podbean.com by Bob Mosher and Elliott Masie
Listen as Bob Mosher and Elliott Masie discuss how learning is changing and what suggestions Elliott gave to two different airlines.

#corporatelearning #training #L&D
#strategy #learning #everydaylearning

How higher education can adapt to the future of work [Jahanian]

On 03/06/2020, in analytics, art, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, biology, business, change, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, corporate / business world, curriculum, data related items, design, digital learning, economics, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, personalized/customized learning, strategy, student-related, teaching & learning, technology (general), trends, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

How higher education can adapt to the future of work — from weforum.org by Farnam Jahanian, President, Carnegie Mellon University; with thanks to Evan Kirstel for sharing this here

Excerpts:

Embrace the T-shaped approach to knowledge
The broad set of skills needed by tomorrow’s workforce also affects our approach to educational structure. At Carnegie Mellon University—like many other institutions—we have been making disciplinary boundaries much more porous and have launched programmes at the edges and intersections of traditional fields, such as behavioral economics, computational biology, and the nexus of design, arts, and technology. We believe this approach prepares our students for a future where thinking and working across boundaries will be vital. The value of combining both breadth and depth in higher education has also led to many universities embracing “T-shaped” teaching and learning philosophies, in which vertical (deep disciplinary) expertise is combined with horizontal (cross-cutting) knowledge.
…
Invest in personalised, technology-enhanced learning
The demand for more highly skilled workers continues to grow. Recent analysis of U.S. data by The Wall Street Journal found that more than 40% of manufacturing workers now have a college degree. By 2022, manufacturers are projected to employ more college graduates than workers with a high-school education or less. Technology-enhanced learning can help us keep up with demand and offer pathways for the existing workforce to gain new skills. AI-based learning tools developed in the past decade have incredible potential to personalise education, enhance college readiness and access, and improve educational outcomes. And perhaps most importantly, technology-enhanced learning has the compelling potential to narrow socioeconomic and racial achievement gaps among students.

The rapid pace of today’s advances requires a more comprehensive workforce and education strategy across a spectrum of measures, including policy, access, programmes and outreach. The private sector, government, educators and policy-makers must work together to deliver multiple pathways to opportunity for young people looking for their first foothold in the job market, as well as to re-skill and up-skill workers striving to maintain their place in the workforce.

Four storytelling techniques to bring your data to life [Duarte]

On 02/27/2020, in business, communications, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, data related items, digital storytelling, MBA, presentations, story, storytelling, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Four storytelling techniques to bring your data to life — from sloanreview.mit.edu by Nancy Duarte

Excerpt:

Even though most corporate roles now work with data, it’s shockingly easy to forget that people generate most of it. When a user clicks a link, gets blood taken at the lab, or sets up a smartwatch, that person generates data. As people move, buy, sell, use, work, and live, their actions nudge numbers up or down and drive organizational decisions, big and small.

If it’s your role to communicate data insights and persuade people to change their behavior, you’ll have more influence and promote better decision-making if you emphasize the people behind the numbers. In a story, we root for the hero as he or she maneuvers through roadblocks. To use data to steer your organization in the right direction, you need to tap into the human tale your data can tell.

From DSC:
The items below are meant for those involved with digital transformation, developing strategy, and keeping one’s organization thriving into the future.

Strategy in the Digital Revolution with Ryan McManus — from dukece.com; with thanks to Laura Goodrich for this resource out on Twitter

Description of webinar:
Today, every business is focused on digital transformation, yet most organizations are struggling to realize value from their efforts and investments. Less than 20% of business leaders believe their digital transformation efforts have been successful. With unprecedented access to data and technology, how is it that firms and their leaders are experiencing such disappointing results?

At the root of the problem is the disconnect between how leaders understand strategy and the new rules of the digital revolution. Most leaders haven’t been taught how to think about a world that is very different from the one which gave rise to popular strategic concepts, and as a result, they apply outdated strategy models and thinking to the new world, trying to squeeze the competitive realities of the digital revolution into linear, analog strategic planning concepts.

In this complimentary on-demand webinar, Ryan McManus, lecturer at Columbia University Business School and Duke Corporate Education, discusses the New Strategy Playbook, including:

The current state and evolution of the digital revolution, and what’s next
The four levels of digital strategy: how you can adapt your approach to win
Why traditional approaches to strategy have reached their limits
Implications for leadership development

Example slides:

Also see:

More companies are using automated job screening systems to vet candidates, forcing jobseekers to learn new and absurd tricks to have their résumés seen by a human.

On 02/22/2020, in analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, corporate / business world, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, trends, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Cost cutting algorithms are making your job search a living hell — from vice.com by Nick Keppler
More companies are using automated job screening systems to vet candidates, forcing jobseekers to learn new and absurd tricks to have their résumés seen by a human.

Excerpts:

Companies are increasingly using automated systems to select who gets ahead and who gets eliminated from pools of applicants. For jobseekers, this can mean a series of bizarre, time-consuming tasks demanded by companies who have not shown any meaningful consideration of them.
…
Maneuvering around algorithmic gatekeepers to reach an actual person with a say in hiring has become a crucial skill, even if the tasks involved feel duplicitous and absurd. ATS software can also enable a company to discriminate, possibly unwittingly, based on bias-informed data and culling of certain psychological traits.

Until he started as a legal writer for FreeAdvice.com last month, Johnson, 36, said he was at potential employers’ whims. “I can’t imagine I’d move to the next round if I didn’t do what they said,” he told Motherboard.

The 5 top tech skills companies want in new hires right now — from fortune.com by Anne Fisher; with thanks to Ryan Craig for his relaying this resource

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Tim Tully agrees. Chief technology officer at data giant Splunk—whose clients number 92 of the Fortune 100—Tully says that the most important trait IT job candidates need now is “a strong desire to learn.” It might be too broad of a requirement, but consider Tully’s own list of the five most essential tech skills now:

1. Real-time data management
2. Design thinking
3. App development
4. A.I. and machine learning
5. A composite of the first four skills

From DSC:
I’m especially posting this for students who are considering a tech-related career. If that’s you, Tim’s words ring true — you must have a strong desire to learn. And I would add, to keep learning and to keep learning and to keep learning…

If you are in IT, it’s wise to check in regularly on career progress – because staying still for too long could quickly lead to falling behind. (source)

Also, given the pace of change and today’s current marketplace, you need to be ready to be let go and take a right turn (i.e., be flexible and adaptable). You need to have a healthy learning ecosystem built up and maintained — one that will support you over the long haul. Heutagogy comes into play here. And at least for me, prayer helps greatly here too — as one can easily put one’s eggs into the wrong basket(s) when we’re talking about tech-related jobs.

And for you applying for jobs, don’t get discouraged by those organizations/people who are looking for those “purple unicorns” that Ryan Craig talks about in his Gap Letter Volume II, #4 (i.e., the perfect candidate who meets a ridiculously long list of requirements for the job).

Also see:

Below is a relevant excerpt from that report:

How to Hire a Great Data Scientist [toptal.com]

On 02/15/2020, in analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, career development, data related items, Natural Language Processing (NLP), platforms, student-related, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

How to Hire a Great Data Scientist — from toptal.com; with thanks to Kathlyn Tantuan for this resource.

Excerpt:

What makes a great data scientist? The answer depends on the branch of data science in question and your specific needs, but all data scientists inevitably share a core set of skills. This comprehensive hiring guide outlines critical skills and explains how to pick the right data scientist for the job.

If your organization’s culture is all about maintaining the status quo:
* Your pursuit of lifelong learning needs to be in full gear
* Enhancing your personal learning ecosystem is critically important
…because given the rate of change, your organization may not be around for long.

— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) January 31, 2020

A.I. breakthroughs in natural-language processing are big for business [Kahn]

On 01/21/2020, in 21st century, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, career development, corporate / business world, emerging technologies, Natural Language Processing (NLP), tools, trends, vendors, by Daniel Christian

A.I. breakthroughs in natural-language processing are big for business — from fortune.com by Jeremy Kahn

Excerpt:

Over the past 18 months, though, computer scientists have made huge strides in creating algorithms with unprecedented abilities at a variety of language tasks. What’s more, these new algorithms are making the leap from the lab and into real products at a breakneck pace—already changing the way tech’s biggest players, and many other businesses, operate. The Natural Language Processing (NLP) revolution promises better search engines and smarter chatbots and digital assistants. It could lead to systems that automatically analyze—and maybe even compose— legal documents and medical records. But some believe the NLP revolution will do far more.

20 digital transformation leaders to follow on Twitter in 2020 — from enterprisersproject.com by David. F. Carr
Committed to digital transformation this year? Follow these people for perspective and emerging lessons

Excerpt:

One of our New Year’s resolutions was to refresh and expand our Twitter feed for digital transformation leaders, reviewing them not just for the use of the right hashtags but for the content they share.

There are a few repeats from a similar list we shared last year, but for the most part, we tried to give you new Twitter handles to follow. This year’s list includes CIOs, authors, consultants, and cloud computing leaders. Some only post on technology topics, while others share thoughts on family, culture, politics, and favorite movies.

The common denominator we looked for was a thoughtfully curated feed that’s not entirely self-promotional but adds to the conversation we’re all having about how to understand the potential of digital transformation and put it to work for our organizations.

From DSC:
While these types of lists invariably leave off a ton of extremely talented individuals and organizations who are worth following as well, such lists are a good starting point for:

Someone to use to begin tapping into streams of content in a given area
Observing the topics, issues, ideas being discussed
Building one’s network
Seeing who these folks follow and who they respect
…and more.

Searching for the top __ people of Twitter in subject XYZ is a solid way to enhance our [lifelong] learning ecosystems.

Learning Ecosystems

“Count your blessings.” You will, after reading even just the first few paragraphs of this article. [Christian]

Key Blockchain Stats, Happenings, and Trends for 2020 [Curtis]

Strategy in the Digital Revolution with Ryan McManus [Duke Corporate Education]

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