Unlocking AI’s Potential in Business with Hazel Evans

Navigating AI's Evolution and Business Integration with Hazel Evans

In this episode of The Human Code, host Don Finley talks with Hazel Evans of Highland Valley Digital about the transformative impact of AI on business operations and customer service. They explore the importance of data quality, the benefits of adopting a test-and-learn approach, and the evolution of AI from early machine learning applications to modern chatbots. Join Don and Hazel as they delve into real-world insights and strategies for leveraging AI to drive innovation and achieve competitive advantage in today's fast-paced business landscape.

00:00 Introduction to The Human Code 
00:51 Meet Hazel Evans: A Journey in Tech Leadership 
01:11 Evolution of AI: From Machine Learning to Chatbots 
01:29 The Importance of Data Quality in AI 
01:37 Adopting a Test and Learn Approach 
02:42 Hazel's Early Career and Machine Learning 
03:42 Advancements in AI and Sentiment Analysis 
05:44 Practical Applications of AI in Business 
08:16 Challenges and Ethical Considerations in AI 
10:12 Customer Service and AI: A New Era 
21:58 Future of AI: Personalization and Human Connection 
29:18 Career Advice and Personal Growth 
33:02 Conclusion and Contact Information

Transcript

Don Finley: 0:00

Welcome to The Human Code, the podcast where technology meets humanity, and the future is shaped by the leaders and innovators of today. I'm your host, Don Finley, inviting you on a journey through the fascinating world of tech, leadership, and personal growth. Here, we delve into the stories of visionary minds, Who are not only driving technological advancement, but also embodying the personal journeys and insights that inspire us all. Each episode, we explore the intersections where human ingenuity meets the cutting edge of technology. Unpacking the experiences, challenges, and triumphs that define our era. So, whether you're in tech at the whether you're a tech enthusiast, Each episode, we explore the intersections where huma Each episode, we explore the intersections where human ingenuity meets the cutting edge of technology, unpacking the experiences, challenges, and triumphs that define our era. So, whether you are a tech enthusiast, an inspiring entrepreneur, or simply curious about the human narratives behind the digital revolution, you're in the right place. Welcome to The Human Code. In this episode. I am thrilled to have Hazel Evans, a distinguished executive with a wealth of experience, leading diverse teams across global operations, marketing sales, and more. Hazel strategic acumen and innovative approach have driven transformative change in top tier companies like Sephora and Ralph Lauren. And she continues to shape the future of business through her venture Highland valley digital today, Hazel and I will share how AI has evolved from early machine learning applications to modern chat bots, sentiment analysis, and its impact on business operations. The critical importance of data quality in achieving successful AI outcomes and how to ensure your data is set up to par. Why adopting a test and learn approach to new technology can give your company a competitive edge and drive innovation. Join us as we delve into these insightful topics with Hazel Evans. This episode is packed with practical advice and strategic insights that will inspire you to rethink how you approach AI and innovation in your business. You won't want to miss it. welcome back. I have with me today Hazel Evans of Highland Valley Digital, your fractional executives as a service it's really just a joy sitting here with you today. We always have such deep conversations about where we're going with life, and the joy that we get from our families, from our dogs, and from what's happening in the world today of technology. And so it's been really good to sit down with you and just share this space and allow us to talk about that connection with humanity and technology. My first question for you, Hazel? is what's the story? What really got you to being, the leader that you are today and being an innovator in the space that we talk about?

Hazel Evans: 3:01

thanks. It's nice to be here, Dawn. And, love to tell a little bit about my story. I am a Scottish native. I'm sure you can tell by the accent. came over to the States around 23 years ago after working in the world of globalization. as globalization and language and cultural nuances can be challenging. At the time, I actually started out working in machine learning for my globalization client. So think back to 20 years ago when the systems about translation and how to, Translate a language from one to another were just being invented, developed, and I was part of some of those tools and assessing them and building out solutions for them back in the day. Fast forward into working in e commerce, working in retail and continuing advance in machine learning. Looking at sentiment analysis for retailers to understand how buyers buy their products, how they browse their products. also got into chat and some of the AI chatbots that are out there to help answer customer service questions.

Don Finley: 4:22

Wait, 20 years ago?

Hazel Evans: 4:24

Now, in,

Don Finley: 4:25

okay.

Hazel Evans: 4:27

about 10 years ago, I was

Don Finley: 4:29

Okay. Still very dramatically different

Hazel Evans: 4:31

yeah, so there was quite an advancement. yeah. Quite an advancement from language learning. local dialects, to language sentiment, to chatbots being invented to reduce time and bring some speed to customers in the customer service space, now where We have all the great chatbots, multiple chatbots, and technology that's really understanding our brand, understanding our voice, understanding who we are and how we respond. And by giving it some data, it's responding with information that kind of looks a little bit and feels a little bit like me.

Don Finley: 5:22

It's an incredible journey that you've had. And I can understand that, so much rich history that you have with this space, and that, we've seen neurolinguistic processing come a long way, we've seen sentiment analysis, basically, when I was studying it, it was literally looking at, whether a word was positive, negative, and then taking the summation of the sentence, and going after, and that, Did some tricks, but if you have a sentence that has two subjects in it and it's positive for one, negative for the other, it wasn't able to build that kind of construct out. And we're finally seeing that in this space today. given your history of working in machine learning and with these technologies over the years. your capabilities as like the fractional executives. You're working with a number of clients who are doing innovative work. How are you recommending that they're utilizing these technologies today? Or are you recognize, or are you not?

Hazel Evans: 6:21

a great question. I am a big believer in innovation. I am a huge proponent. of test and learn. And I use technologies in my business today. And I use technologies in my clients today. And my team at Highland Valley Digital also recommend the technologies for use. Now that can be in marketing, that can be in technology, that can be in language translation, that can be in any form. Many times it's related to customer experience to try and Mitigate client questions or concerns very quickly and only escalate up into an agent when there is a real need to maybe transact with money, or give some kind of refund where Perhaps a supervisor might need to look at that. Some of the other areas that are really interesting, that I have been beta testing, and that's a benefit, of working in this world. Some of the clients are developing these tools, but some of my partners also have tools and background in product management. gives me a little bit of an edge in terms of is this viable? Does this work? And I get often asked to beta test products. So I have been testing a multi level chat GPT solution, which has around 30 growing to close to 60 integrated GPTs in it, which works with me in a COO capacity at looking at business strategies, exploring content for what I call filler content for social, marketing strategies, go to market plans, helping me determine if what I am putting forward to the client is Interesting. If there's anything that I haven't thought about, more of a checks and balances rather than starter point. But what I've found with the technology is when you bundle the GPTs have specialist skills, you can provide a level of information that gives you a much higher level of accuracy of feedback. Now, what I would say is for any artificial intelligence. the quality of data in, helps with the quality of data out. if you don't put the right data in, I'm not sure I would recommend using AI or GPTs with no data, no history, no background, no relevant brand information, because What you would get out would be super general and probably fairly inaccurate. And my guess there would be around 40 50 percent inaccuracy. if you take the time to feed the model, you can generate some really interesting new content, perspectives, and it becomes a little bit more conversational because it provokes your interest to learn more. Potentially dig into this area that you hadn't thought about and determine if there's something else there. And the vast amount of knowledge that exists in here can give you other information. Of course you have to validate it, and that's our job. But I find it really interesting, and I'm a proponent to test and learn. So I am recommending that companies try it. and explore it and potentially, test or do some POCs with some companies that have some really interesting tools.

Don Finley: 10:01

We do the same recommendations as well, right? Like you've got to get familiar with the tooling that's out there. additionally, like you're talking about as far as the quality of the data that you're putting into it, that is incredibly important. when it comes to really anything, but also if I give like my physical team members terrible instructions, they're going to do terrible work, So it's not. It's funny that we continually have to go back to good data and like good instructions going in because it is something that like helps business anyways.

Hazel Evans: 10:33

I'm curious what you think, Dawn, about just going back to that customer service idea. So we've all been using chatbots and customer service for a number of years now. Probably the last 10 years for most large companies, the last five at least for most companies. Often we have to escalate to an agent to do something, but I feel personally very comfortable with the chatbots if they can solve a problem for me. I'll use Uber maybe as an example. My order didn't show up. I'd like a refund. I've checked with the driver. He's gone off on holiday or something. I would be very happy working with a chatbot for that. I don't need to speak to a person. If there's a way to automate this and actually build the AI to manage some of these more I would say delicate or business type problems. How do you feel about that and where do you think it's going? Because I would feel very comfortable. Engaging more with the chatbot in these scenarios.

Don Finley: 11:37

Think about the phone systems that we used to have, let's say even 15 years ago, where you would call in and then you'd be, navigated through 15 menus and maybe it can give you the information that you need. So by default, even to today, if I have to make a phone call, I'm literally just hitting zero, zero, zero to get past all the operators. Now, I will tell you that Given the benefit of the chatbots that we're seeing today, that it can understand a bit more of the natural language that we use, as well as can find out the problem, the pain point, and then know where to direct you for that resolution. I'm feeling much more comfortable in that as an individual. And I think that others will as well, because it's just going to solve the problem faster. And that's really what people are looking for. I don't want to spend more time on the phone with Verizon. That's not really an added value in my day. It's not an added value in anybody's, but for both Verizon and their customers, that is an amazing benefit for you to get on the phone or on the web, get your problem resolved in minutes compared to, the hours, not hours that it would take, but even a five minute. chat compared to a 20 minute chat is a much nicer experience when you're going after that. So I'm with you. I definitely recommend looking at this technology and starting out in a place that allows you to have it answer questions for you to start seeing what kinds of questions people ask, as well as taking that large repository of knowledge that you've gained from, let's say, previous calls. And applying that to the chatbot so that now you can see what gets resolved, what doesn't get resolved. Another application that we're seeing in support centers is that instead of making the chatbot first talk to the customer, the chatbot is working with the agent. And so that basically, if there is that level of filter of saying, you know what, this makes sense. This doesn't make sense. And that's a good trial place to knowing Hey, How are these customer service requests being handled before we open it up for everybody to see?

Hazel Evans: 13:53

I really support this riffing on your statement on repository, not just for customer service. I think about things like marketing, things like, sales calls for sales reps, when the database is being populated consistently at the group level. So I think a little bit more. About not everyone having individual chat GPTs, but having company group GPTs where the data, the requests are going in. There is a massive repository being built over time. I could see that, five years later, a brand may say, Hey, remember that brand, that campaign that we ran that absolutely knocked it out and gave us the highest social, let's do that again. Who did that? Oh, the person's left the company. But information, the build out, the strategy, all of the content remains in the repository. So it can be beneficial to store the data over long periods of time and regain that. And there are chatbots that are available today. that focus on your brand and they only bring in the incremental from outside when you request, but they actually build your brand as well. And that's super interesting because now you're retaining a wealth of information from employees that have moved on that maybe you didn't want them to move on, or, they had brilliant ideas and they're no longer with the company for whatever reason, or they're in a different role and no longer can contribute. The information and retention. is there and that can be so beneficial to the team members who don't have that information or need to learn that information. And I would even go maybe as far as to say it could be used in a training capacity. So I just feel that there's so many different things you can do with that repository of information. And Jumpstart your team or save time on mundane tasks by using this technology. Again, data in, but also use it ethically. So long as you're using it for good and for the right reasons, I think it can be very successful.

Don Finley: 16:16

And I'll give you like the caveat of what we define as good around, like the use cases is how can we make the human connection that people have with each other more beneficial, right? So you can take away the mundane, you can take away the, What I love about what you're talking about for a company wide GPT or like a department GPT is that when we onboard new employees, now They can have something to interact with that gives them the benefit of finding the information that they're looking for or being able to, direct their own study around what's necessary for them to do the job that they need to be doing. as we're looking at like the general trend, remote work is becoming more popular, disconnected teams, And asynchronous work is, escalating as well. commercial office space is getting offered at a discount. And so we're seeing these things where teams are becoming more geographically spread out as well as, wanting to spend more time with their family, their friends, less time on commuting. And so the general push, as well as where technology over the last 40 years has gotten us is that we're getting to smaller teams that can be more impactful, but we also have more contract work. That comes in and out and to have an entity. That is this AI chat bot that people can interact with when they come into your business to know about your brand, to know about your procedures, to know about Hey, this event is happening or I'm looking for this information and getting an AI that can quickly answer that. But then additionally can either offer them the person that can help them out. Those things are just going to be, monumental for fast paced innovation amongst these small teams as well. Are you seeing any challenges to that? Any differences around like how your customers are operating now versus 10 years ago?

Hazel Evans: 18:16

Yeah. I feel like the people I work with they're in two camps. There is one camp of Let's test and learn. It's new, it's innovative, and testing lots of products to find the best fit for the company. Those people tend to be a little more flexible on budgets because these things cost money to test, but they're open to learning and they're innovation driven. I see some of the customers and some of my talk about this as well, that some brands, some companies are not so gung ho on it because there is some risk. There's fear of it providing wrong information and the wrong information being used and put out to the public. And there's many other fears associated with it in terms of what can be shared and will that then be recycled and surfaced in a competitor and so on and so forth. And again, that's where I feel like getting smart about these company GPTs or, and actually understanding the boundaries, if you like, with what you can use could open up opportunities for some of the naysayers to test and learn and have something that's within their environment. So think, I think about it as a little bit like our email platforms. when Web 2 was launched and everybody had email on the internet, everybody was scared of the internet and nobody wanted to communicate on email because people could see it and so on and so forth. Now everybody has private email, secure email. It's the same thing with chatbots, but that's not commonly known. It's more commonly known as Open AI, and I think the term open creates the fear. And if this was a closed AI, I would challenge the thought process of, is it closed into my company? Would you be more willing to test and learn? And I think people would. And I think it's really about Understanding the guardrails and making sure that you have the guardrails within your company.

Don Finley: 20:41

That is a frequent conversation that comes up with our clients as well. And actually, just at the very beginning, right? Because one of the ways that we look at that challenge is, okay, are you comfortable sharing your data with the rest of the world? there's certain amounts of information that you have that you're like, okay, this is okay. And it's not strategically important. Then you start to get into the, you know what? Maybe I'm not. but solutions out there that allow you then to host everything on your own, in your own cloud or on your own servers if you're co locating. but then there's also the middle ground of Hey, I'm okay with my data going outside of my four walls to use this service. And I feel significantly protected by the legal protections that the company is offering that my data is not being used in training. It's not being used for, anything else, but for my benefit. once you have that determination inside of your own business, you can start deciding which tools you're going to use. And funny thing is sometimes we have clients who They will use OpenAI's, LLMs, right? GPT 4 Omni, GPT 4 Turbo, like whichever one. They'll use that on Microsoft's platform for the legal protections, but they won't use OpenAI software on OpenAI servers because they feel they have a better legal protection standpoint with Microsoft versus the newness of what OpenAI is. And I, it partially probably plays into the name as well.

Hazel Evans: 22:17

Yeah. Yeah. I'm curious of the things that, that I am exploring right now, really on that human connection is having, my preferred bot sound like me. Um, and I'm super curious to see what your thoughts are on this. I actually think that in the future we are going to have. opportunity to have bots of ourselves, or texting bots or email friends or, the bot that learns how we speak, how we act, how we respond and, almost shorthand things for us in order that we can be more effective and scale our time better. And I think from a business standpoint, that's evolving very fast. And, the multiple GPT platform that I've been testing, I've been really impressed with the fact that it now sounds a little bit like me. I wouldn't say it's exactly like me, but the, responses I'm getting when I'm putting responses in because I'm giving it feedback because I'm speaking to it. And I should say that I'm also responding to it as if it were human in the sense of it's conversational inputs that I'm giving it. It's not just do this, do that. I'm actually saying, thanks. This was great. Not quite where I was going. I probably would have said it's something like this and it's learning everything. And over the last sort of six months, I've found that it's, become a little bit like me. And I had a few of my team members say, I'd like you to just do a little bit of tests. I'm going to give you three pieces of copy and I want you to tell me which one I wrote. And, picked the bulk copy, thought that was really interesting because what they believed was my brand, my mannerism, my way of, my tonality, my structure of how I would have put this piece of copy together. And the difference between what I put in and what I got out. was really just more structure. It was more fine tuning. It was rephrasing things, to be a little more succinct versus maybe a little more broad, but didn't lose the context and apparently it sounded more like I speak than I write. So I thought that was a really interesting feedback from the team that when I speak in soundbites a lot and this became very much. a soundbite copy piece that sounded like me and I thought that was fascinating.

Don Finley: 24:55

I think the general trend that we're seeing is there's two sides of it. We have, I'll use social media as an example. Social media has been using AI for a while as far as what's on your newsfeed. And then additionally placing like importance on your attention. Like they want your attention, they want to capture it, and they want your engagement. And so they can get your engagement by bringing you fear, anger, any sort of like base emotion, and that's what it plays into.

Hazel Evans: 25:21

Yep.

Don Finley: 25:22

The goal of that AI is for the benefit of the social media company, I think what we're going to see is we're going to see the change of the goal of the AI is for the actual user to be able to provide that in that benefit. And so I'm going to get to your question, but just laying out that framework, because we also are going to see where AI learns about us. Learns about our vision for what we want to see in this world, learns about our personal passion. And there may be one thing that we do amazingly well. And the thing that we like really brings us a lot of joy that we can bring to the world, right? Like that thing that just makes the soul's heartstrings like chime and like shines to the world. And when AI can help figure that out and help bring that out of people, it can also start to take your voice and interact in ways. with a other people other bots to bring the right person to you

Hazel Evans: 26:20

Yeah.

Don Finley: 26:20

to open the door for you to do the thing that like makes your soul sing. additionally, helps you to smooth that path, right? there's I had a boss once and he was like, he's if I have to do it twice, he's it's the most dreaded task for me. And he goes, the one thing that I hate to do is make the bed. He's every day you got to do it. And he's just I wish there was just that solution. And I'm not saying that AI can make our beds today. But there's those tasks that have to be done. And yet when AI understands our voice, understands what we do best and is learning that kind of, that intricacy of the relationship, it can start to go out and do those things for us that may not add to the value that we feel that we share with the world. And so overall, I think there can be a really positive direction to getting AI To imitate us and like I have a video tool that deep fakes me, and we have used it in marketing campaigns before. what we do is we take the ai, use the deep fake, and then create five different scripts, and then we can test based on what script actually does the best. And once we get to a point where the script is solid, I'll go into a studio and record it myself. But the mannerisms are getting better as each generation goes on. The different ways that my personality comes out is getting better in like the voice tooling. one thing that we've been looking at is, AI voices still sound a little bit too methodic in how they're going. And like GPT for Omni, Feels like it's crossing a little bit of that threshold and starting to get a little bit more emotionally engaging on communication to where it feels more natural. And I think we'll see that being implemented in a number of like chatbot instances, customer service centers, and helpful spots there. But for the most part, yeah, I think

Hazel Evans: 28:26

I agree with that.

Don Finley: 28:27

I would love to see that happen. Like you're talking about where our AIs. Become closer to our brands. And I don't know, like talking about having an AI, but even outside of AI, do you ever just talk to your business? Like it's an entity, like it has its own soul is probably too strong of a word. but it has its own kind of like relationship to the world. It is some being you ever do that?

Hazel Evans: 28:57

That's so funny that you ask that. Yes, I do actually. And I talk to it in a variety of ways and tell it what it's going to do this year and what its goals are. And, yes, I do. And, so far it's worked because it's listening.

Don Finley: 29:11

And that is the amazing thing I do the same thing. And I find that it's one of those connections that we can create to the business is both understanding that like the things that we create have these footprints in the world. And even though we're finally seeing it with technology and responding to us on a screen or responding to us through the speakers, we've been energetically creating these things for centuries now, millennia, however. what do you recommend to people who are, getting into their career, thinking about making changes in their career? how do they navigate this landscape that we're talking about? Because there, it, there's a lot of change in here.

Hazel Evans: 29:53

that's a really good, great question. And it, I guess that really also depends on the role that they're looking for and how they're changing, but generally dig in, get familiar. There is so much information that's free on the web, in LinkedIn, in courses, at conferences, go learn, go take a minute and invest in yourself. figuring out what you want to do and if it's AI or ar or VR or blockchain or Web3 or whatever it is, that is the next new and, innovative solution. If you're interested, take some holidays from your job. Go do some courses, get some online courses. Go attend conferences. Plan it, think about it, strategize and go talk to companies or ask a friend, ask someone in your LinkedIn network, ask one of us if we know someone that can, hear you out or tell you a little bit about their company. You learn by connecting, use your network, talk to people. You will grow faster you do that. And people will recommend you because if you're interested and you know someone, there's always someone willing to help, especially today with so many layoffs and reorders going on, which is just par for the course of business. we all have friends and networks that would love to help us. So tap them, ask them. And if you have some time. jump into their companies and offer a couple hours of free time to help out and you'll learn something.

Don Finley: 31:36

I love it. That is such great advice. And there's something about being a continual learner that it has been beneficial for people for years. And one of the advice that I hear from mentors all the time is just to continue learning and to dive in. but it is becoming more of a necessity. in today's world.

Hazel Evans: 31:55

There is one other thing I would say, Dawn, about changing careers, and that is to take some time for yourself, if that's what your plan is. So often people in my space of the world, in the executive world, They're changing or joining the fractional world because they've got corporate burnout, they have family issues, they have health issues, or they've simply reached a point in their career where they want to have a more integrated work life balance. whereby they can work on their own terms. They can work on a part time basis and they can choose who they work with because they have 20, 30 years of experience in their field and they can bring that to the table and boost companies. One thing that's consistent across all of those execs and myself included is taking time for reflection and mental health. And building your business or your next career around what works for your life. We have the power to do it. You don't have to wait. You can do it. And if you don't want to have a 60 70 hour work week, you don't have to. There are alternatives and you can do it. So have faith in yourself. but also treat yourself well. Treat yourself kindly. Be kind to yourself.

Don Finley: 33:23

great advice. I gotta say, Hazel, thank you so much for spending the time today with me and the audience as well. I think they'll find this to be an absolutely, brilliant conversation. use of their time and what great advice you've been able to offer as well as your insights have been a lot of fun. if anybody is interested in reaching you to talk about, what we've discussed today or, fractional executives as well, where can they reach you?

Hazel Evans: 33:47

They can reach me at HighlandValleyDigital. com and if they want to reach out personally they can find me on LinkedIn under Hazel S Evans.

Don Finley: 33:58

Once again, thank you so much. Thank you for tuning into The Human Code, sponsored by FINdustries, where we harness AI to elevate your business. By improving operational efficiency and accelerating growth, we turn opportunities into reality. Let FINdustries be your guide to AI mastery, making success inevitable. Explore how at FINdustries. co.