The Actionable Futurist® Podcast

This podcast episode features an interview with Darshan Chandarana and Julia Howes from PwC about opportunities in enterprise AI. 

They discussed AI adoption across industries, with financial services and retail leading the way, and Darshan emphasised the importance of responsible AI and understanding societal impacts.

Julia discussed the challenges of AI adoption like determining value and data privacy issues. 

Julia gave examples where Microsoft's Copilot AI is helping non-native English speakers and explains how the future of work with AI could involve remote working and creativity hubs. 

Emerging technologies like augmented reality are also discussed, and our guests encourage experimenting with AI, embracing change, and coordinating cross-functional teams to unlock value from enterprise AI.

We also discussed:

• Industries benefiting the most from Gen AI
• Responsible AI in practice
• Getting started with AI
• Why GenAI needs an intelligent approach to adoption
• PWCs own tool - ChatPWC
• What are customers asking about Generative AI?
• What are AI Co-Pilots?
• AI Strategy and Execution Challenges
• The need for an AI Council to help co-ordinate activities
• What do clients need to look out for with AI projects?
• Common challenges faced in integrating AI
• Safe, short experiments
• AI Applications and Data Quality
• The quick wins for AI projects
• The need for quality AI-ready data
• Without good data, there is no good AI
• Industry-specific LLM's
• AI Industry Trends and Applications
• The most unique problems solved by AI
• Podcast tip - using AI for language translation
• Preparing the workforce for Gen AI
• Addressing employee issues around AI deployments
• Future Work Trends and Emerging Tech
• The need for critical thinking in the age of AI
• The future of work under AI
• Emerging technologies to watch
• How to stay informed on new technologies
• 3 actionable tips to prepare for Enterprise AI

In this episode, we’re casting our minds back to 2004, when NASA landed the Spirit rover on Mars; the last episode of Friends aired; George W Bush was re-elected US president, and the number one hits were LMC’s Take Me To The Clouds Above in the UK and Hey Ya! By Outkast in the US.

Twenty-four years ago, the world prepared for the risk of a global meltdown due to the "Y2K bug" - the potential for computer errors related to the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates in and after the year 2000. The issue at the time was many programs represented four-digit years with only the final two digits, making the year 2000 indistinguishable from 1900. 

Because many computer systems could not correctly distinguish dates, this had the potential to bring down worldwide infrastructures for computer-reliant industries.

Thanks to the awareness of this as early as 1985, many systems could be modified in time, and the impact of the Y2K issue was minimal.

However, a new threat is looming with the advent of Quantum computing. These mega-powerful computers will potentially be able to decrypt current-day encryption by 2030, with some cybersecurity experts suggesting it could even be as soon as next year.

What does this mean for businesses and consumers? Any currently encrypted data could be stored until such a time that quantum computers can decrypt it, exposing our most important secrets and personal information to bad actors and hackers.

Are you prepared for the quantum threat? In this first episode for season six, we discuss the risks and opportunities of quantum computing with Chris Johnson, Senior VP and Global Head of Enterprise at Nokia.

Chris explains how quantum computing will exponentially increase data volumes and processing power, potentially allowing encrypted data from today to be decrypted in the future. He stresses the importance of preparing networks and systems now to be "quantum safe."

We also explore the positive uses of quantum, such as accelerating research and optimizing complex systems, and Chris shares examples of how quantum could speed up vaccine development and financial analysis.

Tune in to learn what Nokia is doing in the quantum space, how edge and cloud computing will work with quantum and three actionable steps you can take today to future-proof against quantum threats. 

It's a fascinating look at an emerging technology with worldwide implications.