Last month, Utah Business partnered with Foley & Lardner to host a roundtable discussion on how AI is transforming the technology industry. This conversation was moderated by Cydni Tetro, CIO of Swire Coca-Cola and founder of the Women Tech Council.
What’s the most transformative way you see AI reshaping jobs and the workforce?
Sunny Washington | Co-Founder | OrcaPanda
If you think about how people discover information in a search bar, they type in keywords — “Fitness trainers near me.” But now, AI will be in conversations, … so it switches to, “I just had a baby. What’s the best way for me to get into shape?” How do you make sure you appear for that? … There is a leveling field happening here where even if you are not the most well-known or the biggest, … you can appear right next to a big brand.
Joon Beh | Founder & CEO | Hallo
I’m from HR, and that’s exactly what’s happening in our industry right now. … Essentially, from the beginning until the end of the whole recruiting process is being automated. Not just searching, but they’re actually doing the work to automate the whole recruiting process.
Barclay Lincoln Burns | Founder | GenerativeImpact.AI
It doesn’t matter if you’re in nursing, computer science, accounting, philosophy; your job is changing. … We’re trying to help every department and every discipline think through what an innovation strategy looks like and ask themselves what AI agents are going to be involved in the tasks that our young people are going to be doing when they leave the university.
Manu Sood | Senior VP of Technology | AvidX change
Everyone has to rethink how they’re going to do their job differently with AI. … Every single job can get reinvented, and we really have to get good at redefining what the job looks like and where the workforce can work in that AI-augmented workplace.
What skills will be most critical for the AI-ready workforce of tomorrow?
Chris Willis | Senior Design Officer | Domo
One of the traps we’re seeing is that the things AI does well are things that actually humans did pretty well, but they make this a lot easier. A few of the comments are, “Hey, make me a song.” That’s great. You might have a great song, but that doesn’t make you a better musician. The way humans learn is different, and we worry that it’s these models that give you quick answers, which are maybe OK but not optimal and don’t force you to be challenged.
Edson Barton | Founder & CEO | YouScience
What we’re trying to do is help young people understand who they are at a deeper, more base level so that they don’t look at themselves as a label and say, “I don’t have a future if my job goes away.” [Instead, these young people should say,] “My talents are multifaceted, and my talents can be applied to a whole host of different areas.” … What that moves into is, instead, everybody becomes a creator … When everybody can create everything, it takes away some of the novelty of doing that. You have to be able to find a passion that’s innate.
Matt Freestone | Director of IT | Pura
It’s funny because I’ve seen these articles that say, “Oh, people who use AI are getting dumber.” I think that’s true if you let AI run your life. … You need to use AI to amplify what you’re already doing. … Everyone should be an innovator. The coolest thing about AI that I really wish people would understand is that it enables you to do things you couldn’t do before.
Saul Leal | CEO | Onemeta
From a pragmatic perspective, information [and learning are] becoming more of a commodity. Those things are more and more valuable [because] they create the initiative, the drive. Those are the type of things that I’m trying to put into the workforce. I have applied principles of disruption and innovation. I don’t look at disruption innovation now for technology, but it’s, “How do I apply disruption innovation within our team?”
Earl Foote | CEO | Nexus IT Consultants
We have a duty: One, to embrace [AI] openly, and two, to teach people to do the same. We can face it with fear, and it will likely disrupt us if we choose that stance, or we can choose to lean in. … We need to start talking to [our employees and teams] about, how do they remain relevant? What are the skill sets that they need? … What do we see happening in five years and how do they start preparing their role and their career path to meet where we’re going to be in five years?
Whit Johnson | Partner | Foley & Lardner
The individual that’s best positioned to leverage AI is the expert — the person that doesn’t actually need it. We [need to] fill in that gap to create expertise in the next generation so that it can continue to evolve and not devolve.
How have you seen people interact with AI? Are they accepting or rejecting it?
Mark Allen | Host and Speaker | AI Unleased Conference
Most of my audiences are trying to look as to how they can start using AI. … The thing that works for me when I’m talking to them is to start sharing examples of use cases that they didn’t think through to help them understand how it can help them in their daily lives. When I come back for the follow-up session, they tell me, “I used AI to do this and [that],” and their eyes light up. They hit that moment where the light bulb goes off and they’re excited [to use AI].
Sunny Washington | Co-Founder | OrcaPanda
I don’t think the resistance is against AI necessarily as much as it’s human nature to not want to learn something new. We all do the long way for a lot of things. We know there’s a faster way, but sitting down and figuring it out or opening up a new tool or downloading something? [We will] just do it the way that [we have] been doing it. … If we were to boil it down to what’s the problem, it’s probably just breaking a habit.
Chintan Patel | Head of Product, AI and Design | LVT
If you look at the use of AI, people are more or less looking for information; but, the shift is happening when you see the technology disappearing and start acting and interacting with the surroundings around you in a more natural way.
Edson Barton | Founder & CEO | YouScience
We have to get them to experience it. By getting them to do something on their own, … the next thing you know, somebody comes into work and says, “I just built an app.” And it was somebody [that] you wouldn’t have believed they would’ve done it before.
Matt Harrison | Python Data AI Corporate Trainer | MetaSnake
It needs to be top-down and the company needs to be focused on setting aside [time] that makes sense for them. ... A lot of people won’t learn on their own. So, forcing them into an environment where it’s safe, they can explore, they have the permission to do that, and then working with them to realize these are legitimate applications and this is how you can apply them has been super successful [with my clients].
What role should regulation and policy play in shaping responsible AI growth?
Mark Allen | Host and Speaker | AI Unleased Conference
We need to hold off until we start to understand what’s developing here. If we move too quickly, [it might] look totally different from what we were trying to do, and we’re going to create unnecessary expense, unnecessary complexity and destroy innovation.
Earl Foote | CEO | Nexus IT Consultants
Across the country, we have made the mistake of trying to regulate cyber and data security compliance laws at a state level because for organizations that operate across state lines or across global lines, the legal department has 70 different regulations to comply with. So, it should be something federal. We have to look at the real-world applications of how AI can be used today in a way that other technology that we have existing cannot be used. [If there isn’t] an application that’s different, then maybe we don’t need any more guardrails. If there is a different way that it can be used or evolved, maybe we need some guardrails.
Alice Schwarze | Head of Research | State of Utah
A lot of what we’re doing is changing laws to be more flexible. Not quite getting rid of them — people are used to living in a world where they have certain quality guarantees in our regulated industries — but adjusting them in a way that makes sense for the technology we have now and opening up spaces for folks to innovate in this state. … We’re trying to make sure that folks can go ahead without having too much red tape in their way.
How are Utah companies uniquely positioned to lead in AI adoption and innovation?
Chintan Patel | Head of Product, AI and Design | LVT
Utah has the ingredients. … I see infrastructure talent, I see SaaS, marketing, energy. There are a lot of cameras and solar companies here, and the biggest surprise was the VC community. … There’s a lot of activity that’s happening. How do we go and channel that energy and provide a platform so that they can collaborate and make big things happen?
Chris Willis | Senior Design Officer | Domo
This technology requires a huge amount of energy, [which is] going to be a constraint unless something changes. [We need to] rethink energy grid infrastructure, where we get it and how we get it. Tokens right now are cheap, but if they go up to $10,000 a token, all these businesses and innovations come to a halt pretty quickly.
Alice Schwarze | Head of Research | State of Utah
We have those folks who know exactly how sales and marketing works, who know how to build SaaS and who now have the opportunity within the state to build their own startups. … A lot of value can be produced right here [in Utah] because we have the folks who know how to do it.
What is one practical AI use case you’ve seen recently that went from hype to real impact?
Saul Leal | CEO | Onemeta
Last year, we had an event with over 100,000 people in Dubai — [with] 76 languages [represented]. … People were going to the room, [scanning] QR codes with their phones, listening in simultaneously as the speaker was talking. … At the end of the day, it’s interesting how these tools help minister to the masses.
Manu Sood | Senior VP of Technology | AvidXchange
When we build and deploy products, we’re doing a lot of predictive analysis using automated alerting [so] when a team pushes code, we can then see the impact. If there’s signals of an anomaly, we can determine back to what code was deployed. … There is self-healing being built into the systems where you can recover from that error state. … If it can’t fix itself, only then is a human paged. We’re still monitoring it, but we’ve seen double-digit improvements in system reliability and uptime, as well as mean time to detect and mean time to restore.
Matt Freestone | Director of IT | Pura
At Pura, we have initiative throughout the company to try and replace as much as we can of SaaS platforms with internal tools. … I am not a developer at all, [but I] did replace the SaaS platform that we use in my department. … What I’m seeing is that within a couple of years, your customer service manager is going to sit down with AI and [say], “This is the tool I need,” and just make it.
Barclay Lincoln Burns | Founder | GenerativeImpact.AI
As an economist, we’re used to building these deep econometrics models. Before, you had to have your PhD … to create these formal economic models and show how this production function is going to work against any kind of problem. Now, you can just go in and create these models. I do it all the time. … In just minutes, I can create incredibly complex production functions about any complex system.
What’s something you want the Utah Business community to know about AI?
Sunny Washington | Co-Founder | OrcaPanda
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Benjamin Ard | Co-Founder & CEO | Masset.ai
AI is here to augment you, not replace you.
S. Chase Dowden | Deputy General Counsel | Filevine, Inc.
Educate yourself about it and experience it because that’s how you’re going to know how to use it.
Joon Beh | Founder & CEO | Hallo
AI is going to be here, so you might as well enjoy it and use it.
Barclay Lincoln Burns | Founder | GenerativeImpact.AI
Organizations are generative, so be thoughtful about how you deploy generative technologies.
Whit Johnson | Partner | Foley & Lardner
I’m excited to see how the world solves all the new problems.
Chris Willis | Senior Design Officer | Domo
Engage deeply, stay human.
Chintan Patel | Head of Product, AI and Design | LVT
Pick your hardest problem and try to solve it in a transformative way.
Matt Freestone | Director of IT | Pura
You are only limited by your motivation and imagination.
Alice Schwarze | Head of Research | State of Utah
There is a future where AI makes us, our jobs and our lives be more creative and have more agency and it’s up to our industry to get us there.
Edson Barton | Founder & CEO | YouScience
[You should be] getting your talent pipeline and experiencing your business as soon as possible — focus on experience.
Matt Harrison | Python Data AI Corporate Trainer | MetaSnake
Learn what it means to be the human in the loop.
Saul Leal | CEO | Onemeta
Empower others to be your best and their best through AI.
Manu Sood | Senior VP of Technology | AvidX change
Stay curious, keep learning and don’t fear AI because your human skills are not replaceable. AI can give you the speed and the efficiency, but the human traits and the human values that we all bring are here to stay.
Mark Allen | Host and Speaker | AI Unleased Conference
Have an active plan to bring AI into your business now.
Earl Foote | CEO | Nexus IT Consultants
Utah’s future in AI lies not in the speed of deployment, but how we lead with humanity and how we learn to amplify humans, not replace them.