Disclaimer – Ramblings, guesses, ‘hypothesis’, and a few suggestions from a novice, non-techie entrepreneur. Just having a Mary Meeker moment. I don’t claim to be an expert on anything. In fact, I’m a firm believer that Ygritte got it bang on 😉 !! (If you’re not a Game of Thrones fan, she’s a character from the series. Her dialogue “You know nothing Jon Snow” went on to become epic amongst fans)
So, GOT fans, winter is not coming . Not yet. AI on the other hand, is. To Everything. Fast. Much faster than expected. A new era is beginning. The era of AI. If you’ve followed the hype at all, the way Netflix uses it is just the tip of the iceberg, and in just one domain. There’s a whole lot more in that pandora’s box. In this coming era of AI, everything you interact with digitally will have this magic dust sprinkled on it. With Deep Learning & NLP serving as its backbone (or err…it’s neural something or another). Evident, either in the enhanced customer experience or with slivers of it running under the hood giving the product special powers. The application of AI will not be limited to the digital side of things alone. All the physical products / experiences led industries will also use AI to help them with the discovery, distribution and delivery of their products in the future. AI will touch almost everything, eventually.
Glimpse into a future with AI:
If you’re into tech in any capacity, or even if you ‘just’ use tech and actually provide a reason for all of us bozos to exist, you should probably check this out if you haven’t already (link at the bottom in the footnotes). It’s a small glimpse at what the future holds.
Star Struck Fanboy (me):
Viv is the latest unveiled offering in the AI-powered personal assistant domain. They’ve set out with a really big & audacious goal – Ubiquity. And I get the feeling that along with the dreams they might just also have the right combination of vision, innovation, team experience etc. to really pull it off (at least partially, as ‘one’ of the successful PA services). If they succeed, theirs will be a story that’ll be written and spoken about much in the times to come.
My Rs 0.25 on AI’s impact on the availability of funds situation:
The money train isn’t leaving the station. Not yet. VCs are going to be widening their purse strings again, soon. They’ll be more selective who they do it for, but it’ll happen. They can’t afford not to, with a tectonic shift like this in the works. The AI buzz and the ensuing gold rush may not be as reckless as some of the others in recent history, but it’s certainly going to make some waves. It’ll bring about a change in the very fabric of tech offerings and will enhance customer experiences in some amazing new ways.
The VCs who get it will bet big across the board because of the new sets of possibilities it’ll open up. The gamblers who got stung recently are going to be wary. But chances are that other gamblers will fill this void. Especially when they see the big amounts of money being pumped in this direction by the right set of investors. The wow factor should contribute in getting them to loosen their purse strings, too. And there’ll be wow’s galore. If it’s not a blip, it shouldn’t be too steep a fall either when it comes to the availability of funds in the near future. Valuations are bound to get a reality check though. Is it possible there will be another FOMO/FOLO (Fear of losing out) frenzy? Maybe, but I doubt it. Enthusiasm, probably. But frenzy, probably not. My guess is that the memory of burnt hands is too fresh right now. I don’t think there’s a DOOM scenario, though.
AI and the impact on app-based services:
The decline of the app avatar is coming too, in one way or another. It’s not going to happen overnight. It’ll take time for these platforms to launch and find their feet. Once they launch and build some mass around their offering, initially the app based services will continue in their app avatars. With these PA platforms serving as additional discovery & distribution channels. Eventually, they’ll probably turn into primary channels for discovery, delivery & consumption. What that means for us is that at some point in the future we’ll have to build native experiences for enabling discovery and enabling at least partial consumption within these PA services. Eventually, if things pan out as per their vision, we’re going to have to rethink it entirely. Then the customer experience will demand the discovery, delivery, and consumption seamlessly on the interface of the customers choice (AI enabled, voice-driven, or chat-driven PA platforms from the looks of it). Over time (long term) this will take a bite out of browser based google search too. Insane thought, I know. But wait and watch. It will happen. It’s just the natural progression of things. How big a bite they can manage, time will tell. Which platforms will become the predominant ones, time will tell. How long the shift takes, time will tell. But it’s all going to be AI driven, and it’ll happen sooner than you probably expect it to.
Benefits & Perils:
Just like the industrial revolution and the digital revolution, the AI revolution will also have its perils. But it’ll also bring about some solutions that have evaded mankind for a long time. A small example — Someone I know and have immense respect for recently used AI to move the needle on cancer detection for a particular kind of cancer. By applying computer vision and deep learning to the problem he is now closer to building code that can be embedded onto the imaging machine and enable it to identify a particular kind of cancer without any human input. This will save thousands of lives that are routinely lost because the human eyeball method of detection misses so many cases that aren’t diagnosed on time. Because the cancer was in it’s infancy at the time of the scan. By the time another scan becomes necessary, it’s progressed too far for chemo / radiation / ablation / surgical resection etc. to be able give you any decent odds at life. There is zero doubt in my mind that cancer detection using this approach will eventually happen for all tumor-based cancers. With cancer, the earlier you’re diagnosed, the higher your chances are, to live. AI will save lives. In many, many different ways. No doubt about it.
Fear, Apprehension & ‘Singularity’ Misgivings:
Opportunities for Startups:
So to sum it up, if you live in Westeros, the winter may very well be coming. But if you live in the land of startups, it’s AI that’s coming, my friend. House Stark uses these as words of warning and to imbibe a mindset of constant vigil. We’ll have to go beyond that and actually hunt for the opportunities it brings for our products. We must use it. Not only towards efficiency but also & more importantly, to improve our customer experiences. As Jaqen H’ghar would say – A man can throw away all the other rules if he wants. But a man must never forget that nothing helps a startup succeed like successful customers. In the coming time, we’re about to get easier access to some of the best tools the world has seen yet. Tools to shape the experiences our customers have with our products. Tools that’ll make our product more intuitive. Tools to shape the design of our solutions. Tools to solve problems in completely new ways. Tools to solve problems that haven’t been attempted yet. Tools to innovate & push boundaries.
There are a lot of business models out there that were birthed when these capabilities didn’t exist. Their solutions were the best at the time. Tomorrow, their solutions are going to be outdated or will have gaps in them. They’ll be forced to innovate. And for some of them, their mammoth sizes will put limitations on them being able to innovate fast. The Status quo will be challenged in many industries, I believe. Some of the bigger players, if they’ve become complacent behemoths, may even bite the dust in some industries. If they don’t innovate and embrace AI as fast as their customers do. Or if they don’t innovate and embrace AI as fast as AI enabled experiences change customer expectations in their domain.
Get ready. Get your head above the clouds of daily drudgery for a while. Sit back and envision your entire solution. Imagine how AI will impact your industry in the coming time. Let the scenarios run through your head. Indulge varying scenarios. Play with them. Explore. How can it help your customers? How can it help your product? How can it help your solution? How can it help your proposition? How can it help you serve your customers better? The future is coming. And it’s bringing opportunity. How will you use this opportunity?
Footnotes:
Here’s a link to the video on Viv’s Unveiling (also embedded below). It’ll give you a glimpse at Viv’s capabilities specifically, and at how our world is about to change, in general. As entrepreneurs, and as consumers….
P.S. – I published this on medium a couple of days ago. This is the first time I’m putting my thoughts out there like this with this whole writing thing. Would love to hear your thoughts and any feedback……
– Rock on entrepreneurs! Cheers !
My twitter handle is @rohra_amit