Me & AI: Turing exposed us to AI almost 69 years ago, the notion that a machine can think and process like a human. Clearly decades have gone by and we have not realized the full potential of AI and we are still a long ways away from Generalized AI. AI has gone through a serious winter and now is blooming into its fullest shape. But the journey has been super interesting and now at the verge of reaching a critical peak, why? Why AI now?

• Over the last 20 years, we have begun collecting vast amounts of data and the diversity and volume of data with the advent of social media and mobile apps/devices is climbing exponentially. Compute has become faster and cheaper beyond imagination. I shared some of my thoughts earlier in my blog post discussing the growth of AI in enterprises. At the same time we have also shifted our mindset from building products to meeting/exceeding customer expectations in what I call INVERSION in my new book, The Inversion Factor. And to make this even more interesting, it is no longer enough to be very good in one thing, customers expect companies to be great at many things and innovate at record speed. Disruption is not a revered term and the fever to innovate without boundaries more the norm than the exception.
• Having spent the last 2 decades of my career in large enterprises, AI is now a necessity to meet the demands of small to large companies. We started with analysis, on to analytics, to data science and now we are in the age of Machine Learning, Deep Learning and AI. The potential is massive but along with that comes the necessary thinking and processing of how to deploy AI, what are they key problems and which problems to solve in order to create maximum impact, both in the for profit and not for profit world. I am delighted to be part of this journey and fascinated about how we approach AI. As many of you know, IoT is deeply tied with AI and that is a key passion of mine as well.
• The future hyper-connected world will be a combination of mindful AI and planned and architected Intelligent IoT. So delighted to share all these thoughts with you in our book The Inversion Factor. AI becomes a key imperative in what we call the 3rd phase of IoT in the hyper-connected world, The Immersive IoT.

Author: My new book, The Inversion Factor (TIF, Published by MIT Press, October 6, 2017): TIF, discusses the evolution of IoT to Intelligent IoT, the new emerging technologies and the role of AI in enabling the critical evolution to the HyperConnected and Needs-Based world. My first book, ProVoke (2011) discusses the importance of disruption, as the most meaningful step towards mindful innovation, how cultures can make or break innovation. Third book is on the way. Stay tuned.

Speaker: I cherish the opportunity of speaking about these topics in forums across the world. Look forward to seeing you somewhere in the world in the near future. I love the global entrepreneurial drive and energy happening everywhere in the world!

Not for profit: Emeritus board member at the Anita Borg Institute for Women & Technology and the Grace Hopper Celebration & Astia. Emeritus board member at the SETI Institute. Advisor to several other not for profits in the area of Women in STEM and Technology.

Startups: Start up investor, board member and advisor to startups in highly disruptive technology areas ranging from data, AI, media, publishing, mobile, e-commerce, fintech, and other.