Talking Artificial Intelligence with Dennis R. Mortensen
Our monthly podcast, Masters & Mavericks in Global Marketing, focuses on global marketing strategies for content, social media, and other ways to spread brand messaging worldwide. The podcast, hosted by Textappeal and Newsroom founder, Elliot Polak, shares in-depth and actionable knowledge to help businesses across the globe expand their reaches and impact new audiences with modern strategies and practices dispensed by experienced marketing experts.
This month’s episode features Dennis R. Mortensen, CEO and Founder of x.ai, a company which offers an AI personal scheduling assistant by the name of ‘Amy’. His marketing prowess extends back more than two decades. He has founded and managed several digital marketing and analytics agencies which were subsequently acquired by major companies like Yahoo! and Outbrain.
The entire reason Amy was created was because nearly everyone that works in an office or corporate environment has to schedule meetings daily, weekly, or at the very least, monthly. No one finds this task fun or exciting; it is merely time consuming.
There haven’t been too many who have tried to address this pain point, and of those who have, most did not succeed. They didn’t succeed because people don’t want an app or extension for scheduling their meeting; they want a human assistant, yet most cannot afford one. The idea of building an intelligent assistant who can incorporate natural language was the catalyst for the creation and birth of Amy.
When this artificial intelligence goes global, her name will likely change, as different cultures must be embraced. Amy is referred to as ‘her’ by many; if you visit x.ai/lovenotes you will see many addressing her in this manner.
Referring to a machine in this way brought Dennis to discuss the fact that the way technology is delivered and perceived is currently changing. He believes that apps are not the future of technology, but rather, “The future is one of intelligent agents.” Once that future arrives, how do we address these artificial intelligences? It seems that the answer is already becoming clear.
Artificial intelligence also has a role to play in the realm of marketing. It will not only serve as a method of productivity enhancement through eliminating common tasks, but will also allow sales to be automated. Currently, humans have to take the time to meet with others and pitch their product or service. In the near future, artificial intelligence agents will be able to carry out these presentation at much higher volumes, without human intervention.
This possibility led Elliot to question if that type of future puts people’s jobs at risk. Dennis has quite an optimistic viewpoint of the changes to come, as he explained,
“My hope is that we will end up removing chores that humans just don’t deserve to do and can then do much more fulfilling tasks.”
This doesn’t mean that many jobs will not drastically change or even be eliminated. But instead of worrying about the jobs that will disappear, rather think of how many might be created. Artificial intelligence trainers were not something that existed four years ago, but do today. Additionally, there is no data to suggest that we will be working less anytime soon, so there isn’t too much reason to worry.
Artificial intelligence will soon change the way we interact, market on a global scale, learn, and so much more. You can learn more about the potential capabilities of artificial intelligence, if they have or will have consciousness, and the next big thing in technology by checking out the podcast in its entirety.
While you’re there, don’t forget to check out another recent podcast and soak up Giuseppe Caltabiano’s insights on Global Content Marketing for B2B companies.
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