future of work – Andrew Bolwell

October 23, 2024July 7, 2025

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A Day-In-The-Life with Generative AI Part 2: Maximizing Efficiency

Generative AI is becoming embedded in our everyday lives and transforming how we approach daily tasks and activities. With AI seamlessly integrated into our routines, we can experience efficiency and personalization that was once the realm of science fiction.

Remember Aiden, a 26-year-old living in San Francisco, who weaves AI into her daily life to optimize her productivity and enhance her experiences? She’s not the only one leveraging generative AI to create a more streamlined daily life.

Meet Dylan, a 40-year-old corporate executive who expertly uses AI to be more productive, achieve his fitness goals, and maximize his free time.

Morning Start

GIF showing AI-generated vivid dream replay. Very colorful

Dylan enjoys an AI-generated replay of a vivid dream he had, complete with visual and narrative details, providing creative inspiration and insights as he starts his day.

A customized AI-generated news briefing, with curated headlines and stories based on his preferences and current interests sets a focused tone for Dylan’s day.

bike workout screen with data from AI trainer

After the news briefing, Dylan’s personalized AI trainer analyzes his recent workout data and suggests a customized exercise routine, including specific cardio and strength training exercises to help him meet his fitness goals.

Efficient Afternoon

Dylan’s AI Chef orders culinary ingredients according to his AI customized meal plan and schedules delivery, ensuring he has fresh produce and essentials for later, delivered by an AI robot personal shopper.

smart watch on wrist sending emails automatically

While in a meeting, Dylan asks his AI assistant to draft and send follow-up emails, including a proposal for a new project. This allows him to focus on strategic planning while the AI handles the communications.

Engaging Interactions

Virtual Reality meeting with Madam C.J. Walker

During a staff meeting, an AI-powered digital twin of Madam C.J. Walker joins Dylan’s team for a Q&A session. Walker shares insights into her entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and social activism approaches.

Dylan takes a break to learn about AI advancements via a virtual tutor, exploring topics like machine learning algorithms and their practical applications in his industry.

His AI wearable device discreetly reminds him of key contacts he met earlier, captures important meeting notes, and follows up on promised actions.

Evening Relaxation

Chicken and broccoli meal prepared by a Robot

As he winds down from work, Dylan’s robot sous-chef prepares a gourmet dinner, following a recipe from his meal plan, while he relaxes and catches up on personal projects.

Dylan ends his day watching a movie tailored to his tastes and current mood, with AI creating a personalized viewing experience with a custom storyline.

Generative AI can transform how to manage tasks, access information, and enjoy leisure time. It’s not just about efficiency; it’s about creating a more personalized and enjoyable experience.

How do you envision generative AI transforming your routine and bringing more ease and excitement into your daily life?

September 24, 2024July 7, 2025

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A Day-In-The-Life with Generative AI: A Glimpse into the Future

Technology is seamlessly integrated into our daily routines, and generative AI will revolutionize how we live and work. Let’s imagine a day in the not-too-distant future where generative AI doesn’t just serve as an assistant but as an active participant in every aspect of your life.

Meet Aiden. As a 26-year-old living in San Francisco, Aiden spends her time working at a healthcare startup, socializing with friends, and focusing on hobbies like fitness and reading. Here’s a peek into what a typical day for her might look like with generative AI:

Morning Routine

AI trainer delivers a custom workout plan

Aiden likes to exercise before she starts her day. Her AI trainer sends her a customized workout plan each morning and adjusts her exercise plan based on her current fitness goals.

Digital twin of women attending a virtual meeting

After she finishes her workout, Aiden is ready to start her workday. A morning meeting pops up that could have been handled as an email. Aiden sends her digital assistant to attend the online meeting on her behalf.

Aiden’s digital twin participates by handling routine discussions and updates. As soon as the meeting is complete, her digital twin sends Aiden the meeting notes, key takeaways, and action items.

While her digital twin is in the meeting, Aiden takes a flying car to a face-to-face meeting in Oakland with her boss. With this commute, she cuts down on travel time and avoids traffic on the ground.

Robot feeding a black and white husky dog in a living room

Aiden attends her face-to-face meeting in Oakland, while a humanoid robot manages her household chores back at her apartment – feeding her dog, cleaning her kitchen, folding her laundry, and preparing her lunch. By offloading mundane tasks, Aiden can focus on more high-level tasks, such as in-person meetings and sharing her latest strategy ideas.

Health, Wellbeing, and Lunch

watch showing vital signs being captured and sent to an AI doctor

Aiden continues to work while wearing her AI wearable. Her AI doctor monitors her health statistics and raises a couple of irregularities to Aiden’s human doctor, who is based in Sacramento. When she receives the information, her human doctor sends a report to Aiden with key takeaways, updated prescriptions, and health information.

The meeting concluded in Oakland, and Aiden got a promotion! She’s thrilled and heads back to the City for lunch. On her way home, she sends a request to her AI Assistant to invite her friends for happy hour at her apartment to celebrate her promotion.

Once Aiden returns to her apartment, she enjoys the BLT her humanoid robot prepared for lunch while she answers work messages.

Happy Hour

As Aiden’s friends arrive to celebrate her promotion, her AI generates a celebratory playlist for the happy hour.

Aiden’s friends toast her accomplishment, and in the background, her AI assistant places an order for pizza delivery which her humanoid robot receives and brings inside. Enjoy!

Evening Routine

AI assistant lowers the lights in a living room

Aiden’s friends head home, and her AI assistant adapts the lighting and sound to her relaxation needs, offering her a comfortable and personalized environment to unwind. She settles into the couch to watch a series curated specifically for her previous viewing preferences.

Person touching screen and selecting next day tasks for AI assistant

Before she goes to sleep, Aiden delegates the household and work tasks she would like her AI assistant, digital twin, and humanoid robot to complete tomorrow.

Generative AI promises a future where technology enhances our routines, making our lives more efficient and enjoyable. From handling mundane tasks to offering personalized experiences, AI is set to become an integral part of our daily existence, turning futuristic visions into everyday realities.

How do you envision generative AI reshaping your daily life as we move toward this future?

Blog Futurism & Technology Trends Innovation

August 5, 2024July 7, 2025

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Revolutionizing daily lives: The future of AI wearables

Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) with wearable technology is poised to revolutionize our daily lives, blurring the boundaries between the human body and digital interfaces.

The AI wearable market is currently experiencing significant growth. According to Market.us, The Wearable AI Market is estimated to reach USD 304.8 billion by 2033, with a robust CAGR of 25.6% over the forecast period 2024-2033.

As we experience this explosive growth, let’s delve into the possibilities and implications of this technological evolution.

The evolution of wearables

Wearable technology started with basic fitness trackers and quickly moved to sophisticated smartwatches that monitor many health metrics. In 1977, Hewlett Packard released the HP-01 watch, which is considered the first instance of a mass-market wearable.

At the time, the ground-breaking, 28-key interface provided an alarm, data types, a timer/stopwatch, dynamic calculations, and more.

Over the next couple of decades, into the early 2000s, the miniaturization of electronics began. We saw devices that produced music transform from Walkmans to CD players to MP3 players.

This change brought about portability, making it easier to carry electronics around and ushering in a new era of wearables. During this time, cameras were also reduced tremendously in size from their origins, allowing them to be worn like GoPros, and recording was embedded into sunglasses, such as Snapchat’s Spectacles.

The next leap was embedding AI into these devices, enabling them to learn from our behaviors, predict our needs, and even intervene in real time to enhance our well-being.

Advancing health and wellness

As AI-powered wearable devices become more than passive trackers, they become proactive health advisors, continuously analyzing biometric data to provide personalized health insights. AI and wearable data can yield up to a 23.8% improvement in health prediction performance.

Research from MIT and Google shows that large language models (LLMs) can be trained on wearable sensor data based on contextual information, such as user demographics and health knowledge, and physiological data, including resting heart rate and sleep minutes, to deliver personalized, multi-modal health predictions.

AI-enabled wearables can then use this data to predict potential health issues before they manifest, recommend lifestyle changes, and even alert medical professionals in case of emergencies.

Oura has also made waves in the health and wellness space. The company’s ring translates our body’s most meaningful messages from 20 biometrics, including sleep, activity, stress, and heart health.

Enhanced cognitive abilities

AI wearables also have the potential to augment our cognitive functions. Devices can assist us with memory enhancement, language translation, and real-time information retrieval. Imagine wearing a sleek, discreet device that provides you with the names and details of people you meet at a conference or instantly translates foreign languages as you travel, breaking down communication barriers and fostering global connectivity.

AI startup Limitless will soon be launching a broach-like wearable device that records and processes conversations. The small device clips onto a shirt collar and sends recordings to a secure, encrypted, and AI-enabled cloud service, allowing you to remember and recall the conversations you’ve had and the people you’ve had them with.

This could also be helpful for a day when you are in back-to-back meetings or unable to take notes. The device can help you track action items and better connect with the person in front of you.

As AI advances, it won’t be long before we can wear a device that can record and summarize your conversations, create a to-do list, and automatically schedule a follow-up meeting with key stakeholders.

Seamless human-technology interaction

The future of AI wearables’ success lies in their ability to integrate seamlessly into our daily routines. Voice-activated assistants, gesture recognition, and even brain-computer interfaces will make interacting with technology as natural as breathing.

AI wearables could become an extension of our senses, intuitively understanding and responding to our needs.

Ethical and privacy considerations

With this great power comes great responsibility. The widespread adoption of AI wearables raises ethical and privacy concerns. As devices collect vast amounts of personal data, robust security measures to protect user privacy are necessary. Transparent data usage policies and stringent regulations will be crucial to ensure that the benefits of AI wearables do not come at the cost of our personal freedoms.

The future workplace

AI wearables will transform how we work. For example, AI-enabled wearables could monitor your stress levels and suggest short breaks or mindfulness exercises to maintain optimal performance.

Social and cultural impacts

The integration of AI wearables into everyday life will have profound social and cultural impacts. These devices will redefine how we connect with each other, potentially reducing the digital divide and fostering inclusivity. However, if access to advanced wearables becomes a privilege of the few, it may also exacerbate existing inequalities. Addressing these disparities will be essential to ensure that the benefits of AI wearables are equitably distributed.

Embracing the future

As we stand on the brink of this transformative wave in AI wearables, we must approach it with a balanced perspective, embracing the potential benefits while remaining vigilant about the ethical and societal challenges.

The future of AI wearables is about technological advancement and enhancing the human experience, empowering us to live healthier, more connected, and ultimately more fulfilling lives.

Envision a world where AI wearables are not merely gadgets but integral components of our daily existence, seamlessly woven into the fabric of our lives. The journey ahead is filled with promise, and it is up to all of us to navigate it wisely.

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May 6, 2024July 7, 2025

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The Rapid Evolution of AI Assistants: From Chatbots to Agents

The swift transformation of AI assistants into agents marks a significant shift in how we perceive and interact with digital technology. Gone are the days when these virtual helpers were simply chatbots to interact with. Now, they’re evolving into proactive, autonomous agents capable of independent decision-making and personalized assistance.

Today, AI agents are focused on accomplishing relatively simple tasks, from proactively scheduling your appointments to booking your flights, but in the future, they may help run companies. This transition from assistants to agents is reshaping our relationship with technology and opening new possibilities. 96% of executives agree leveraging AI agent ecosystems will be a significant opportunity for their organizations in the next three years.

Understanding the shift

The distinction between AI assistants and agents is their level of autonomy and intelligence. While traditional assistants primarily respond to user-initiated commands, agents operate more autonomously, leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms to anticipate user needs and take proactive actions.

For example, an AI assistant may remind you to complete a task based on certain criteria. In contrast, an agent could automatically reschedule appointments based on your calendar and preferences without explicit instructions. When ChatGPT launched, some people assumed it was actively looking up information on the web. However, it was actually generating answers based on the vast amounts of data it had been previously trained on, drawing on the relationships between that data to provide users answers. Now, plugins enable ChatGPT to access the internet and AI agents to navigate the current digital world.

And ChatGPT is not alone. Recently, a startup called Cognition AI released a demo showing an AI agent called Devin performing work usually done by well-paid software engineers. While ChatGPT can generate code, Devin goes further — planning how to solve a problem, writing the code, and then testing, debugging, and implementing it.

Proactive personalization

One of the emerging characteristics of AI agents is their ability to provide proactive, personalized assistance. These agents can anticipate user needs by analyzing user behavior, preferences, and historical data to offer tailored recommendations or actions.

Imagine having an AI agent that reminds you of upcoming meetings or birthdays, suggests relevant articles based on your interests, orders groceries when your supplies are running low, and adjusts your smart home devices to optimize energy usage — all without asking it to do so.

Netflix uses learning-based AI agents to offer personalized recommendations based on your viewing history. Aomni’s personalized AI agents can handle sales tasks such as account planning and relationship building.

Empowering decision-making

As AI agents become increasingly sophisticated, they can be entrusted with more decision-making authority. These agents can make informed decisions on behalf of users, ranging from scheduling appointments to making purchase recommendations by learning from past interactions and analyzing real-time data.

In business, AI agents empower employees with insights and recommendations to enhance productivity and decision-making, enabling them to focus on other tasks. For example, in customer service, agents equipped with AI capabilities can analyze customer inquiries, identify patterns, and recommend solutions in real time, leading to more efficient and personalized interactions. This leaves them more time to focus on tasks that require a human touch. Several innovative startups are in this space. Ema, a Universal AI employee, is described as an operating system that makes Generative AI work at an enterprise level. The company believes that if there were fewer repetitive tasks, there would be more time for creative thinking. Gen AI offers an unprecedented opportunity to enable this. Watching apps like these transform the future of work will be fascinating.

Sierra AI is another great example of a startup making waves. Focused on elevating customer experiences with AI, Sierra AI enables customers to self-serve–getting answers, solving problems, and taking action through a natural, conversational experience. The AI agent is personalized to your business and its customers.

There is even work being done to explore the collaboration of Multi-Agent AIs working across an enterprise and various operations tapping into data across an organization to make faster and more informed decision-making.

Ethical considerations and challenges

While the evolution of AI assistants into agents offers immense potential, it raises important ethical considerations and challenges. Issues like data privacy, algorithmic bias, and accountability become more pronounced as AI agents gain autonomy and decision-making capabilities. We must all discuss and address these concerns proactively and ensure that AI agents are designed and deployed responsibly to uphold ethical principles and protect user interests. For example, the United States and Europe have enacted extensive legislation regarding employees and data protection. In Europe, Article 22 of the GDPR specifies that no employment decisions should be made entirely in an automated fashion.

AI’s future

The advancement of AI technology is expected to accelerate the transformation of assistants into agents, ushering in a new era of intelligent, autonomous digital entities.

AI agents promise to revolutionize how we interact with technology and navigate our daily lives, from enhancing productivity by adding time back in our day and personalization to driving innovation across industries.

While the journey to this future has begun, we are just at the beginning. We must all play a role in ensuring we manage it in a way that benefits humanity. A paradigm shift in human-computer interaction is blurring the lines between tools and autonomous entities. It includes everything from apps to agents, from point-and-click to natural language interfaces, and from static UI to UI, which is dynamically generated based on what the user wants. AI agents are becoming AI employees. As a society, we must learn how to collaborate with them as teammates and employees. It’s up to us — will we embrace this transformation with careful consideration of ethical implications and a commitment to leveraging AI technology for the betterment of society? If so, we can unlock our full potential to empower individuals, businesses, and communities in the digital age.

Potential to change the way we interact with computers. From apps to agents, from point-and-click to natural language interfaces, and from static UI to UI that is dynamically generated based on what the user wants to do.

AI agents become AI employees. As a society, we will need to learn how to collaborate with them as teammates and employees.

Blog Futurism & Technology Trends Innovation

November 29, 2022July 7, 2025

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Insights on workforce automation

The lasting impact of remote work results in a reassessment of the IT infrastructure that enables workforce automation capabilities. Worldwide IT spending is expected to reach $4.5 trillion in 2022 as the post-pandemic recovery continues and remote and hybrid work takes an even greater hold on businesses everywhere. This creates a significant opportunity for companies looking to bridge the gap between home and office work, create remote first solutions, automate workplace processes, and create a more seamless experience for employees.

IT spending is expected to reach $4.5 trillion in 2022

A growing market

Digital products and services will play a critical role in these digital transformation efforts, requiring continued investment in remote-first technology implementations and new technologies. Peerbie, for example, transforms how teams work with one super app for everyone and everything needed to get work done.

It’s estimated that 31% of all workers worldwide will be hybrid or fully remote in 2022. The U.S. is projected to harness the trend, with remote workers reaching 53% of the workforce. A hybrid workforce will continue to increase the demand for PCs and tablets. In fact, in 2021, PC and tablet shipments exceeded 500 million units for the first time in history, highlighting the demand across both business and consumer markets. Hofy offers a device pre-configuration service to give IT teams peace of mind–knowing that any devices they provide are set up correctly and securely–and to spare new hires a tedious first-day setting things up.

A hybrid workforce will continue to increase the demand for PCs and tablets.

The pandemic-fueled growth in the adoption of software robots designed to ease routine office work is making at least one task easier for CIOs: selling the idea to their corporate bosses. The technology — robotic process automation (RPA), or software bots — became a critical tool last year during COVID-19 lockdowns and office closures as companies worked to keep their businesses up and running. Many turned to bots to handle tasks like processing payroll data or expense reports and fielding call-center queries. At the height of the pandemic last year, UiPath said it added more than ten corporate customers daily.

The complexity and interdependency of systems today mean that when something doesn’t work between two entities — be it apps, servers, or something else — the effects can be disastrous unless those overlaps can be detected and mitigated ahead of a live deployment or found and fixed quickly even if they are already out in the wild. Gluware has built a platform that aims to do just that — specifically by providing network orchestration and automation tools that identify and automatically fix when something is about to go awry on a network.

Opportunities to automate common workplace processes are everywhere, which is why automation is becoming a common element of every business. This includes providing good customer service, streamlining the hiring process, or managing marketing campaigns more efficiently. As technology improves, more tasks will become suitable for automation.

Opportunities to automate common workplace processes are everywhere, which is why automation is becoming a common element of every business.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence enable new forms of “smart” automation. As the software learns, the more adaptable it becomes. These technologies open the door for the automation of higher-order tasks in addition to basic, repetitive tasks. There’s much focus now on tasks humans don’t want to do, but in the future, automation will not just be about automating those tasks humans are doing today. Still, it will be about realizing potential opportunities. For example, RPA can automate tedious insurance processes as insurers undergo many manual but critical processes involving disparate systems. RPA can help streamline and automate these processes without changing large amounts of legacy code — assisting insurers in cutting costs in necessary departments like underwriting, claims, and regulatory and compliance, as well as expedite policy decisions.

As data sets become more thorough and available, and as software draws on more sources and synthesizes more data sets, contextual information in human decision-making will only improve. Machine learning will serve as a supplement to–or perhaps even an enhancement to–human knowledge. Combine AI capabilities with improved data retention through the Internet of Things (IoT), and the possibilities are endless. Kadence is building an all-in-one solution for desk booking, room scheduling, people, and visitor management. The company’s platform helps transform workspaces into smarter, safer spaces to create frictionless experiences. It also offers workplace leaders to deliver data-driven insights into how people use spaces to work, enabling clients to manage their spaces when work patterns and workflows change dynamically in response to our ever-changing world.

VC and startup opportunities

Workforce automation sectors are becoming a hotbed for venture capital investing. In 2021, HR technology alone received $12.3 billion in investments worldwide. At the same time, global funding to RPA companies hit a record high of $3.5B, driven predominantly by a handful of mega-rounds (deals worth $100M+). And in the first part of this year, we saw Lattice, a start-up making software to help employers fight the “big quit,” tripling its valuation to $3 billion in 10 months. While Envoy, the leading workplace platform that allows companies to reopen safe and flexible workplaces, secured $111 million in Series C funding led by Brookfield Growth. Envoy’s workplace platform is built to solve the problems of flexible workplaces where teams split their time between home and the office.

In 2021, HR technology alone received $12.3 billion in investments worldwide.

These are exciting times for startups in this space, and these are a few of the ones that have caught our attention.

EthSign is a developer of a decentralized application designed to revolutionize agreement and signing. The company’s application helps to make comments, edit, and access each version of your electronic agreement without privacy and communication concerns, enabling clients to have a simple and decentralized alternative and helping parties to upload a document with pending signatures.

Seatti is a developer of a flexible working platform intended to bring together your hybrid team. The company’s platform provides Microsoft Teams and Office365 integrated SaaS solutions allowing you to book a workspace in or outside of the office and share location plans with the team.

Namely is a developer of a human capital management platform intended to meet the complex demands faced by today’s HR professionals. The company’s cloud-based platform provides tools across payroll, benefits, human resource information, and talent management, enabling mid-sized companies to focus on developing their people and providing a better employee experience.

Diversio is a developer of a people intelligence platform intended to measure, track, and improve diversity, equity, and inclusion. The company’s platform is created using artificial intelligence to bring rigor data, diagnosis, and analysis to help organizations become more inclusive, develop cutting-edge technology, and eliminate barriers to diversity and inclusion. Their platform enables users to trust a platform that values feedback, transparency, collaboration, and impact.

Planless is a developer of a project and task management tool designed to automate teamwork. The company’s intelligent platform takes care of the planning by finding the people in the team who are the best suited to perform a task depending on their knowledge and availability, enabling organizations to focus on their core business.

TeamEQ can accelerate results through intelligent teams for leaders who no longer want to guess the situation of their teams but instead take their decisions based on actual data. Team analytics and intelligence platform designed to transform any group into a high-performance team that exceeds its objectives. The company’s product uses artificial intelligence to track the impact of a person’s actions. It guides people in real-time with transparent data and predictive algorithms while offering tailored people management strategies and training programs for leadership development, enabling businesses to monitor performance, discover and reduce attritions and boost productivity by promoting collective intelligence engagement and well-being.

TenSpot (Future of Work, HRtech) is a workforce engagement platform that helps companies connect and engage distributed teams to boost employee happiness, morale, and productivity. The company’s platform combines live and on-demand content with sophisticated tools that help measure engagement and sentiment, enabling clients to improve their culture, identify leaders, and create a space that welcomes everyone.

The extent to which automation transforms the economy remains to be seen, but it appears inevitable that we’re headed toward a future of more automation. What this means for businesses, workers and consumers will be the subject of enormous debate moving forward. One thing seems inevitable, however: if it can be automated, it will be.

Blog Futurism & Technology Trends Innovation

December 10, 2021July 7, 2025

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My top 5 TED Talks of 2021

There’s no question that the past two years have been highly disruptive. Our daily lives look entirely different than they did in 2019, and we’ve all had to adapt in one way or another.

One thing that I’m grateful for, however, is that TED has continued to share inspiring and innovative TED Talks throughout this time to give us inspiration and insight. Watching these talented individuals on the stage has become a favorite part of my week as someone who misses in-person public speaking.

Here are my top five TED Talks of 2021:

“We were looking for bliss in a blah day and purpose in a perpetual pandemic. But languishing is not unique to a pandemic. It’s part of the human condition.” –Adam Grant, How to stop languishing and start finding flow, TEDMonterey, August 2021

The pandemic created a massive shift in our lives, and many of us found ourselves sinking into “languishing,” which Adam Grant expertly explains in this TED Talk. After spending nearly two years living through a pandemic, it feels validating to put a name to the feeling that so many of us were experiencing. Even better are the solutions that Grant provides in his talk.

“On today’s internet, we don’t get paid for the work we do with our minds. And what’s more, the content we upload to these services is trapped there. These services not only make money from our content, they control it. Until NFTs.” –Kayvon Tehranian, How NFTs are building the internet of the future, TEDMonterey, August 2021

NFTs surged into popularity in 2021, and people have been trying to explain them ever since. This TED Talk from Kayvon Tehranian does a brilliant job of explaining what NFTs are, as well as their potential to bring the internet into its next evolution.

“This wouldn’t just be better for chickens and cows and pigs and the people who have to farm them and slaughter them and process their meat. This could be better for the whole world.” –Isha Datar, How we could eat real meat without harming animals, TEDMonterey, August 2021

One of my daughters is vegan, and she’s always making creative meals for us to enjoy (like this vegan turkey). She’s inspired me to look into vegan options, but I have to admit that I love real meat, which is why the development of lab-grown meat is fascinating. This TED Talk from Isha Datar dives into the science behind lab-grown meat, as well as all of the incredible benefits that could result from this new means of food production.

“The future of work is not going to be created with top-down, opinion-driven edicts from senior leaders whose day-to-day realities don’t match those of us dual-career, time-pressed and income-pressed people. Of course, senior leaders want to go back. That worked for them. But they have to recognize that for 18 months now; their people experienced unprecedented agency, control, flexibility, trust, and accountability.” –Debbie Lovich, 3 tips for leaders to get the future of work right, TED@BCG, September 2021

There’s no question that the future of work has changed drastically, and the post-pandemic world is likely to see a somewhat permanent shift to remote and hybrid work. As Debbie Lovich says in this TED Talk, it’s time for leaders to embrace the change and learn new methods of leadership and teamwork.

“It’s not just about your commutes. It’s really about changing everything in terms of how we move people, goods and services, eventually.” –Aicha Evans, Your self-driving robotaxi is already here, TEDMonterey, August 2021

Self-driving cars are not a new subject, but Aicha Evans believes their technology has the potential to shift how our world moves entirely. In this TED Talk, Evans discusses how robotaxis could create a high-tech, sustainable, and convenient mode of transportation.

These were some of my favorite TED Talks of 2021, and I’m looking forward to more educational and inspiring talks in 2022!

Share your favorites in the comments.

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April 2, 2020July 7, 2025

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Preparing for Gen Z as a Futurist

As a futurist, my job is to anticipate change and stay on top of current trends. There’s a new generation entering the workforce – Generation Z. Following Millennials, this generation includes those born between 1995 and 2010. While being defined as the most ethnically-diverse and largest generation in American history, Gen Z also grew up surrounded by technology, also making them the most tech-savvy generation.

I’ve previously provided some thoughts on thinking like a futurist and today, we’re diving deeper into the role Gen Z plays in the future. Here are my tips for how to collaborate with Gen Z:

1. Put yourself in their shoes

It’s important to acknowledge the obvious differences that divide each generation. For example, Gen Z grew up in a post-9/11 world with new technology and completely different childhood experiences than those of previous generations. With technology constantly at their fingertips, this generation of “digital natives” have had nearly lifelong access to boundless amounts of information at the drop of a hat. In fact, 97% of Gen Z have smart phones and spend more than 4 hours a day online.

And because they’ve never spent a day offline, they are acutely aware of the issues and challenges happening in the world around them. As a result, they are 54% more likely to say they want to have an impact on the world as compared to millennials. Also noteworthy is their attitude towards work and employers; almost half consider what the company does to make the world a better place as important as the salary.

By becoming familiar with Gen Z, and by understanding the different era and experiences they’ve grown up with, you’ll gain a better understanding of how to effectively collaborate with them. Whether it’s through asking questions, doing research, or understanding current trends, you won’t fully see eye-to-eye with this generation until you put yourself in their shoes.

2. Pay attention to what’s important

In the next decade, Gen Z is expected to cause an influx of roughly 60 million job seekers, effectively transforming the workplace. Concerning their careers, Gen Z-ers are very driven and competitive. Nothing motivates them more than achieving success and being rewarded for their good efforts. They value skill development and appreciate feedback, as they are always hoping to improve their performance. A controversial topic amongst Gen Z is the debate over work-life balance. It can be argued that this generation struggles the most with this – 24% say they feel guilty for taking time off work. On the other hand, 39% view work-life balance as a top priority when choosing an employer. Knowing these statistics as an employer can help foster a healthy work environment for future employees.

When choosing where to work, Gen Z will base their decision on the company’s values. This generation’s passion for sustainability, diversity, and inclusion reflects in their expectations for their future employers. Studies show that 77% of Gen Z believes a company’s level of diversity affects their decision to work there.

3. Stay up to date on trends

As any futurist knows, one of the most important ways to prepare for the future is to stay up to date with the latest trends. This applies to Gen Z trends as well. The more informed you are, the more prepared you will be to work with this generation.

Here are some resources for futurists to better understand Gen Z:

We can all benefit from learning from one another. As this new generation enters the workforce, preparing through a lens like this will allow us to better understand and support them in their journey as they embark on this new chapter.

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March 4, 2020July 7, 2025

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Why Robots Aren’t Our Competition

In 2016, I wrote an article titled “Robots Aren’t Taking Our Jobs, They’re Transforming Them,” in response to a flurry of articles I read about robots taking over the workforce in the coming years. Now, nearly four years later, we see the same headlines.

While innovation is happening at an astonishing rate, we’re still nowhere near a Westworld-esque future where robots and automation rule. Robots have come a long way, but still need human expertise and skills to function. Therefore, the outcome is less likely a replacement of humans, but rather a reskilling.

There is a valid concern over the possibility of increasing inequality in our automated future. Once robots enter the workforce fully, most highly-skilled, educated workers are likely to experience a smaller shift in responsibilities than their less-skilled, educated counterparts. In order to adapt, those with fewer skills and education will likely have to expand their abilities to either empower them to work with robots or fall within the realm of abilities that robots currently lack, such as emotional intelligence and creativity.

For those that adapt to work alongside robots and automation, most will experience an increase in job quality, or even safety. For example, customer service professionals have been using AI chatbots for a few years now, and chatbots like bold360 allow the AI to answer the simpler questions, giving the humans more time to focus on complex customer issues. For example, HP’s virtual agent helps its support team sort through nearly 600 million technical support requests each year. There are also bomb disposal robots that use VR to allow soldiers to pilot them while disarming bombs from a safe distance.

It’s predicted that, despite disruption, there is still a net positive outlook for jobs. In other words, though 75 million current roles may be displaced by technology, 133 million entirely new roles may emerge simultaneously. These roles will likely be of two categories, one that deals predominantly with emerging technologies, like IT Services or AI Specialists, and one that provides the exclusively human touch, such as Designers or Human Resources.

Other reports, like this one from Brookings Institute, find that approximately 25% of US jobs are likely to be affected by automation. At face value, this number can seem concerning, but it’s important to remember that the process of implementation will still take time.

In the time it takes for the world to fully implement robots and automation in the majority of work systems, humans will be able to adapt and learn new skills, especially if they are empowered by their employers. Some are calling this the “Skills Revolution,” which refers to the fact that the skills required in the workforce are changing at a rapid pace. In the face of this, workers must embrace continuous learning opportunities, and employers must provide ongoing training to future-proof their employees.

To do just that for your employees, consider the following steps:

Pay attention to trends

As a futurist, I am constantly on the lookout for new Megatrends and patterns that may affect our future. This skill has served me and many others well over the years and has helped HP prepare itself for the years to come.

When it comes to future-proofing yourself in the face of automation, pay attention to new careers and job opportunities. It’s predicted that 65% of the jobs that Gen Z will perform don’t even exist yet. If you are able to spot a job trend and properly prepare for it, you could help usher in an entirely new career field.

Embrace lifelong learning

Gone are the days where you could learn a set of skills, perform them for the rest of your life, and earn a living. Nearly all careers require the occasional training or upskilling, but soon it will be necessary to dedicate time to learning on an ongoing basis. For some, this could mean improving their existing abilities and adding complementary skillsets, but for others it could mean learning an entirely new skill. It’s predicted that 42% of required skills will change by 2022, requiring the average worker to adapt to new tasks such as analytical thinking and negotiation. To adjust to these new skills by 2022, employees will need 101 days of training on average.

Thankfully, there are plenty of resources that will help, like Coursera and Lynda, as well as an emergence of recognized online higher education.

Maintain a growth mindset

How do you cope with challenge and difficulty? Do you give up when you feel that something is out of your range of abilities, or do you accept it as a learning opportunity? To maintain a growth mindset, you must learn to embrace challenges and failure as opportunities for growth, rather than letting them stop you in your tracks.

Read “The Power of ‘Yet’ – Developing a Growth Mindset” for more information!

When you develop a growth mindset, you’re able to have the confidence to push through challenges, and this persistence will help you prepare for our automated future. Whether this is a small shift in your career or a larger transition to an entirely new field, a growth mindset will help you see things through a positive lens.