Enterprise hits and misses - AI woos cybersecurity, McDonald's goes digital
- Summary:
- This week: Can AI give companies the edge over cybercriminals? Will McDonald's become as digital savvy as Starbucks? Your whiffs include a blockchain post on a no-elbow-grease diet.
Lead story - Applying AI to cyber security is a force multiplier attracting big investors and customers - by Kurt Marko
I'm always a bit wary when "force multiplier" gets play, but Kurt isn't one to use buzzwords indiscriminately. Kurt's a bit like you and me - weary of the AI deluge, scouring for real world examples.
Turns out cybersecurity is a good one: "The same strength in pattern matching that enables algorithms to ‘see’ a potential tumor or identify latent customer preferences, makes AI a powerful tool in cyber security."
Attackers are more sophisticated. Stands to reason companies need more weapons in their arsenal. Kurt walks us through upstarts tackling everything from device security to risk assessment to fraud detection. Big companies are in the game too, with Cisco's network security suite bolstered by machine learning and AI acquisitions all over the place.
Kurt acknowledges it's unclear whether AI will tip the scales in favor of security defenses - I'd argue not, given how attackers push tech envelopes. But as for customer advisory, Kurt's view rings true: "Anyone shopping for security software and services should press prospective vendors on their AI roadmap, and bypass those without a legitimate, compelling answer."
Diginomica picks - my top four stories on diginomica this week- Starbucks sets the digital pace, McDonald's puts digital transformation on the menu - Stuart profiles two retail companies on a different stage of digital. Strong talk from Starbuck's chief strategy officer: "While digital companies may win in other sectors, we will be the digital company that wins in ours. " (Digital? You ain't seen nothing yet, says Starbucks Chief Strategy Officer). McDonald's is in a different stage, one we can kindly call "global digital re-invention." But as Stuart reports, you'll see some big changes in 4,000 stores on the ground, including self-service order kiosks (No Nothing Burgers on the menu - digital learnings from McDonald's). It may or may not work, but this ambition beats the heck out of the
gimmick bandaid pseudo-innovationsales blip they call "All Day Breakfast." - How manufacturers blend products, services on the path to XaaS - Phil puts another plank on the XaaS concept with a look at the blend of products and services today's savviest manufacturers serve up. XaaS, in case you are jargon-averse, is "everything as a service," which Phil also applies to Building subscription relationships that work in a XaaS world. We'd like to hear your take on how these concepts affect your work (or not), either in blog comments or, if you like, on the #XaaS Twitter hashtag.
Vendor analysis, diginomica style. Here's my two top choices from our vendor coverage:
- Slack just became your default messaging app. Right? - Den on the conundrums of collaboration, and whether Slack sets us free - or bogs us down further. Investors seem to be saying the former. Den's not so easily charmed: "Slack can quickly devolve into an unmanageable water cooler."
- Bloodhound and Oracle chase 1,000 mph land record and hope to inspire a generation of STEM students - Derek on a nifty racing partnership that morphed from a focus on breaking the speed records to inspiring a generation of students. And it's as much about the data as the cars.
A couple more vendor picks, without the quips:
- Travis Perkins cements its security with a Splunk foundation - Jess
- ServiceNow ramps up enterprise customers - and gets set to do more show than tell - Stuart
Jon's grab bag - Stuart risks a migraine of service stress from years past to bring us the story of Barclays - where a £1.6 billion quarterly loss is a sign of transformation progress (p.s. I wish I had a couple billion in "corporate baggage to shed" lying around). Jerry asks, Can Facebook and Harvard save U.S. elections with Defending Digital Democracy? My short answer to Jerry: no. But - cool idea and good piece.
Sad to have to weigh in on retrograde moves, but Stuart sums up the diginomica view well in Tech leaders step up to challenge Trump ban on transgender military personnel. No fence sitting in times like these. Finally, Derek's New Brexit report points to unknown risks for new customs IT system has a definite pre-whiff aroma. Does this strike you as a tad risky? "The UK is building a new IT customs system, but it doesn’t yet know how customs will change post-Brexit."
Best of the rest
Lead story - AI is stuck (for now) - and it's not that smart either - pieces by Gary Marcus and Ron MillermyPOV: Two strong pieces on AI, neither quite as skeptical as my title implies. One is by a former classmate of mine, Gary Marcus, who evidently got some real work done while I was goofing off (Artificial Intelligence Is Stuck. Here’s How to Move It Forward). Marcus is looking for AI to take on the challenge of human-like intelligence, and "deep learning" isn't cutting it: "Computers that can educate themselves — a mark of true intelligence — remain a dream." Marcus is worried that AI research isn't structured to achieve breakthroughs either:
Corporate labs like those of Google and Facebook have the resources to tackle big questions, but in a world of quarterly reports and bottom lines, they tend to concentrate on narrow problems like optimizing advertisement placement or automatically screening videos for offensive content. There is nothing wrong with such research, but it is unlikely to lead to major breakthroughs.
Ron Miller found a few more AI myths to debunk in Artificial intelligence is not as smart as you (or Elon Musk) think. Miller's isn't throwing AI out as a seasonal fancy though. He quotes the CEO of Toyota Institute:
The deep learning systems we have, which is what sort of spurred all this stuff, are remarkable in how well we do given the particular tasks that we give them, but they are actually quite narrow and brittle in their scope.
Not as sexy as the Elon Musk "machines are an existential threat" storyline, but an accurate view of AI in the enterprise at least. Caveat alert - check the whiffs section for more. See you next time.
Honorable mention
- Hot Spot for Tech Outsourcing: The United States - Your next outsourcing center will be based in... Michigan? Times = change.
- Summer 2017 - News Analysis - Google introduces Google Hire - Holger unveils his breezy-but-hopefully-enlightening news analysis format with a take on Google Hire.
- Microsoft’s Monopoly Hangover - Ben Thompson writes about Facebook and Apple way more often than Microsoft, but judging from this non-fanboyish nuance, he should do it more often.
- Reasoning in CRM - Ruminations on the role of AI in CRM, addressing issues of algorithmic distrust, and the dangers of impeccable/mathematical logic built on the wrong assumptions.
- Building the Network of Networks: Some Insights - Strong statement about supply chains saving the planet, but I can't fault the passion.
- What SAP’s Indirect Access White Paper Said and Didn’t Say - Yes, this firm has a stake in customer contract advisory, but I tend to share their beliefs that SAP's Indirect Access white paper raised more questions than it answered.
- Our 6 Must Reads on Content Marketing - A thorough piece that likely has something you haven't tried.
Whiffs
So on your list of drone concerns, did you have "they can be used to airdrop tools to allow prison inmates to escape?" I didn't either. Hank Barnes has been doing some special summer editions of Friday Fails over on LinkedIn - here's the latest - another blind squirrel looking for an email nut crossed Barnes' path.
It was widely believed that Elon Musk (AI alarmist) lost the debate with Mark Zuckerberg (AI advocate), though both were arguably taking brand-selfish positions. However, the news that Facebook researchers shut down their AI system after they discovered it had developed its own (rudimentary) machine-to-machine language was creepy interesting, and, in my view, a modest feather in Musk's concern cap - however mild it appears today.
Finally, a bunch of folks in my network thought it was a good idea to share Blockchain adoption on the rise but obstacles remain, survey finds. I hope they enjoyed tweeting it; I found it to as light as tissue paper. How's this for a bold stance: "The survey suggests that blockchain could be moving beyond the early-adopter phase." Is "potent insights" trademarked?
To add insult to trivia, starting this piece I got the premature email pop-up which boasted, "extract the signal from the noise." Ahh, but there's nothing to extract when you linger on the surface. Man, I should have gone into the greeting cards business. See you next time.
This is a truncated "Jon feels the road burn" version of hits and misses, which by definition excludes some worthy content - from diginomica and beyond. If you read an #ensw piece that qualifies, let me know in the comments as Clive always does.
Most Enterprise hits and misses articles are selected from my curated @jonerpnewsfeed. 'myPOV' is borrowed with reluctant permission from the ubiquitous Ray Wang.