Sol Rashidi

<ul><li><strong>AI: Fact or Fiction</strong></li><li>Geared for Non-Technologists who want to make sense of the AI world and what it entails, this conversation gets past the ‘Art of the Possible’ and into the ‘World of the Practical’. A majority of us aren’t technologists, so it’s important to understand what all this means today, for the future, and how to best be prepared for it personally and professionally. It also discusses the hype, the marketing, what is fact vs. fiction, and how to tell the difference.</li><li><strong>The New Workforce of the Future – The AI + Human Workforce</strong></li><li>As some employees adopt AI, while others resist it, AI will undoubtedly be a part of a company fabric, no matter what scale of AI you’re deploying, and it will come in various forms, the adoption of AI Agents, AI Models, and/or embedded AI systems (like Microsoft’s co-pilot, Salesforce, Snowflake, etc.). What should you do to prepare for this human + AI workforce integration? What should you look out for? What assumptions won’t hold true? How should your HR, Leadership, and Middle-Management teams proactively plan for what’s to come in the next 1-3 years?</li><li><strong>How to Be Responsible & Safe With AI</strong></li><li>With the advent of AI and nearly 86% of organizations investing in AI-based capabilities, it’s been proven that AI is not a fad or a trend that will go away. However, what we can’t measure are the economic and moral impacts AI will have on our society. Like parents, who are the caretakers of children, their responsibilities are to teach children right from wrong and to embed a moral compass in each of us. Similarly, WE as humans are the caretakers of AI, also teaching it right from wrong, yet we’re at a crossroads with a moral compass because of the biases, poor practices, falsification, and misinformation we’re helping it propagate. I will share a personal story of how ‘fake news’ almost ruined my 20+ career and how I caught it, and how to embed safer and responsible practices for AI.</li><li><strong>The Good, the Bad, and the Not So Ugly Sides of Innovation</strong></li><li>While many companies strive to be innovative, nearly 76% of all innovation projects fail, and nearly 92% fall short of expected results. This conversation focuses on how to avoid the pitfalls and quicksand of innovation and why BUSINESS VALUE is not the metric of choice when choosing your innovation projects. It also discusses how to make sense of the new world of CXO’s where the boundaries of technology have expanded past the CIO. How should one think through the division of labor, motivating a workforce that can be apprehensive or resistant towards the latest advances of today, and how to forecast innovation projects.</li></ul>