Digitally Curious

S6 Episode 7: Integrating AI into Small Business and Tech Leadership with Carla Rodríguez from Intel

July 21, 2024 with Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill Season 6 Episode 7
S6 Episode 7: Integrating AI into Small Business and Tech Leadership with Carla Rodríguez from Intel
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Digitally Curious
S6 Episode 7: Integrating AI into Small Business and Tech Leadership with Carla Rodríguez from Intel
Jul 21, 2024 Season 6 Episode 7
with Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

How can insights from managing a winery help shape the future of AI technology at Intel? Carla Rodríguez bridges both worlds. When I asked Robert Hallock at Intel who I should invite next onto the podcast – his response was instant - Carla Rodríguez, who runs Intel’s client software ecosystem.

“Razor sharp … just so smart, so capable” was his description, so I just had to invite her onto the show. Carla is no ordinary big tech company exec. She served in the Peace Corps in Romania and worked her way through the ranks of Intel, joining in the finance area to become VP of one of the most important and innovative parts of the company.

In between these roles, she has also found time to help run a winery business with her husband, which gives her a unique perspective on the issues facing companies of all sizes.

Her role at Intel is to work closely with the developer ecosystem. With the recent launch of their AI PC program, which utilises the Intel vPro platform powered by Intel Core Pro processors, we’re seeing AI rise to become mainstream and a must-have tool in the workplace, driving innovation and productivity.

In our discussion, Carla explains how running a boutique winery in Oregon’s Willamette Valley with her Husband gives her a unique perspective on the challenges and rewards of running a small business, insights that she brings back to her role at Intel.

You’ll also learn about:

AI: Moving from Niche to Mainstream

AI has now reached a tipping point where it is becoming mainstream and Intel is at the forefront of this revolution with their AI PC platform, integrating CPU, GPU, and the new Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to handle complex AI tasks efficiently. 

Empowering Developers with AIPC

Intel's AIPC Developer Program is a crucial initiative aimed at supporting developers in harnessing the power of the NPU. By providing hands-on labs and development kits, Intel is enabling developers to experiment and create groundbreaking applications. 

The Immediate Impact on Businesses

For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the benefits of adopting AIPC are immediate. Carla emphasised that the time to invest in AIPC is now, as it offers enhanced productivity, security, and innovative capabilities. 

Future of Work: Embracing AI

The future of work will be significantly shaped by AI, with tools that enhance productivity and free up time for more strategic tasks. As Carla pointed out, AI is like having an always-on intern, ready to assist with various tasks, making us more efficient and effective in our roles.

This podcast is sponsored by Intel.

More on Carla
Carla on LinkedIn
Intel AI PC

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. Pre-order the book that showcases these episodes at digitallycurious.ai/pre-order

Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com

Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
@AndrewGrill on Twitter
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Pre-order Andrew's upcoming book - Digitally Curious

Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

How can insights from managing a winery help shape the future of AI technology at Intel? Carla Rodríguez bridges both worlds. When I asked Robert Hallock at Intel who I should invite next onto the podcast – his response was instant - Carla Rodríguez, who runs Intel’s client software ecosystem.

“Razor sharp … just so smart, so capable” was his description, so I just had to invite her onto the show. Carla is no ordinary big tech company exec. She served in the Peace Corps in Romania and worked her way through the ranks of Intel, joining in the finance area to become VP of one of the most important and innovative parts of the company.

In between these roles, she has also found time to help run a winery business with her husband, which gives her a unique perspective on the issues facing companies of all sizes.

Her role at Intel is to work closely with the developer ecosystem. With the recent launch of their AI PC program, which utilises the Intel vPro platform powered by Intel Core Pro processors, we’re seeing AI rise to become mainstream and a must-have tool in the workplace, driving innovation and productivity.

In our discussion, Carla explains how running a boutique winery in Oregon’s Willamette Valley with her Husband gives her a unique perspective on the challenges and rewards of running a small business, insights that she brings back to her role at Intel.

You’ll also learn about:

AI: Moving from Niche to Mainstream

AI has now reached a tipping point where it is becoming mainstream and Intel is at the forefront of this revolution with their AI PC platform, integrating CPU, GPU, and the new Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to handle complex AI tasks efficiently. 

Empowering Developers with AIPC

Intel's AIPC Developer Program is a crucial initiative aimed at supporting developers in harnessing the power of the NPU. By providing hands-on labs and development kits, Intel is enabling developers to experiment and create groundbreaking applications. 

The Immediate Impact on Businesses

For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the benefits of adopting AIPC are immediate. Carla emphasised that the time to invest in AIPC is now, as it offers enhanced productivity, security, and innovative capabilities. 

Future of Work: Embracing AI

The future of work will be significantly shaped by AI, with tools that enhance productivity and free up time for more strategic tasks. As Carla pointed out, AI is like having an always-on intern, ready to assist with various tasks, making us more efficient and effective in our roles.

This podcast is sponsored by Intel.

More on Carla
Carla on LinkedIn
Intel AI PC

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. Pre-order the book that showcases these episodes at digitallycurious.ai/pre-order

Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com

Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
@AndrewGrill on Twitter
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Pre-order Andrew's upcoming book - Digitally Curious

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Digitally Curious, brought to you by Intel, a podcast to help you navigate the future of AI and beyond. Your host is world-renowned futurist and author of Digitally Curious, Andrew Grill.

Speaker 2:

Today's guest is Carla Rodriguez, Vice President and General Manager of the Client Software Ecosystem at Intel. Welcome, Carla.

Speaker 3:

Thank you. Thanks for having me, Andrew.

Speaker 2:

Now, when I spoke with your colleague, Robert Halleck, on a recent episode of the podcast about the AIPC, I asked him who I should invite next on to the podcast, and this is what he said.

Speaker 4:

Easy answer. I have a colleague, razor sharp. Her name is Carla Rodriguez and she's in the software organization at Intel. So a lot of the AIPC software work that's going on across the industry she is directly involved with and she's just so smart, so capable. I would love to hear her podcast.

Speaker 2:

And just like that you're on the show. Great to have you here.

Speaker 3:

Oh my goodness, here we are. Well, you know Robert's too kind, Let me put it that way.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's always good when we have someone recommending another, and it's happened twice before where the person they've recommended has become available and it's like yes. So I can't wait at the end of the show in the quickfire round to see who you'd like to have on the podcast and see if we can have a daisy chain and keep going on forever and ever. You have an impressive career at Intel spanning over 17 years, but even more impressive is your career path towards Intel. I understand you served in the Peace Corps in Romania, you were heavily involved in the Girl Leading Our World program focusing on leadership empowerment, and you're also heavily involved in the Latinx community. I'd love to hear more about this fascinating career journey from a financial analyst all the way to a VP at Intel.

Speaker 3:

Yes, yes, my path was a little more windy than others if you wind it all the way to a VP at Intel. Yes, yes, my path was a little more windy than others If you wind it all the way back. I'm originally from Mexico. I was born and raised in Mexico, so I've got a strong, very proud Latin heritage. And then I came to the United States for undergrad and graduate school and right after undergraduate I wanted to do a little bit more. I wanted to serve others, and so that led me to Eastern Europe.

Speaker 3:

Here in the United States we have a program called the Peace Corps. It was started with President Kennedy, I think in the 60s, and that is sending off usually younger people, but now the makeup is across all ages and I had the pleasure and the honor to serve in Romania for two and a half years, and so that was fantastic A lot of opportunities to help young women in leadership capabilities. I was really there at a perfect time. I had a fantastic experience and, yeah, came back from that experience, decided to go back to graduate school, refocused on finance. It led me to Intel. Spent 11 years in the finance organization at Intel Great foundation for what the company does, spent a lot of time in the manufacturing group, in the data center group, and then it's led me in the data center group, and then it's led me to the client computing group, which is where I've been for the last seven years, and, yes, lots of good stories there.

Speaker 2:

I'd love to hear more about the client computing group. What is it that you do and what are the sort of opportunities that you have there to promote what you're doing at Intel?

Speaker 3:

So the client computing group is the largest revenue base at Intel and it is essentially all of the client devices. We refer to them as client devices, but they're your laptops, your desktops and a lot of the things that are on the platform which may not be as obvious to a lot of folks. There's a lot of connectivity there's Wi-Fi, there's wireless, there's Thunderbolt. There's a lot of connectivity there's Wi-Fi, there's wireless, there's Thunderbolt. There's a lot of other components that go into the platform so that it all works seamlessly, and a lot of experiences that you and I and everyone out there kind of take for granted now because it all just works. That's all the capability that the client computing group brings to the market.

Speaker 3:

Within the client computing group, my role is around software enabling, so it is working with a lot of the software applications that we use day in and day out and making them perform best on Intel devices. There's a lot of software tuning optimizations. There's a lot of software tuning optimizations, feature offloading lots of good stuff that we do in partnership with our talented engineers and in partnership with the app vendors that allow us to give everyone a better experience. Much like right now we're having an experience where we're talking on a software platform I'm videoing in from the US. You're in the UK and there's a lot of software that's happening on your system and on my system and this beautiful experience we're having. Oftentimes Intel has played a role in making it happen.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I know that every part of this journey there's an Intel product in there somewhere or between you and me here in London. Part of the role, I suppose, is an interface between the Intel side of the equation and all of your external ecosystem, your app developers, as you said, helping to make things work. That must be incredibly enriching to see how developers are bringing their experiences to life on the Intel platform.

Speaker 3:

That's absolutely right, we see a lot of innovation happening, especially with AI becoming a lot more mainstream. I should say AI has been out in the market for many, many years and different facets, but I think it's reached a pivotal point recently where it became mainstream. You know, like parents are talking about it, grandparents are talking about it, so it's becoming a lot more mainstream. And you're right, andrew, there has been a role that Intel has played throughout that AI journey and broader industry enabling journey, and I get the pleasure of interacting with hundreds of ISVs on a daily basis and we manage what we call the portfolio of partners. Right, it is a portfolio of partners across collaboration applications, security applications, what we call manageability applications.

Speaker 3:

Many of us work in large companies and we're sitting in all different parts of the world. Many of us are not sitting in an office every day and our IT departments are able to log into our systems remotely Well, that's a manageability application that allows that to happen. There's also a lot of content creation applications. Right, we've got a lot of the big players where you're creating for a living right or you're designing a bridge Well, you're using some heavy duty application to do that and we work with across all of them, right. It is truly industry enabling, ecosystem enabling to bring that to the market so that the apps are better, right, and they should be performing better, so the user gets a better experience.

Speaker 2:

Now, when I spoke with Robert, he introduced a new concept to me. You've obviously got the CPU, the computer processing unit. You've got the GPU, the graphical processing unit. You've now got the NPU, the neural processing unit, so the AI PC, that three components there that really supercharges what you can do. That must be really exciting for developers. They've now got a new way of bringing their AI applications to life. Talk to me about what this means for the developer community, that they've now got faster computing at the edge, where the power is needed.

Speaker 3:

They're so excited. We have been talking to developers, most recently in a couple of dedicated events AI PC developer program right, specifically to target developers who are wanting to get deeper and smarter on AI PC. And, to your point, yes, we've had CPU, we've had GPU, now we have NPU, and so the NPU allows them to unleash all sorts of additional features or offloads within the applications they work on, especially for those sustained workloads right, and if you're doing certain tasks on the CPU that may bog that system down or it may burn up a bunch of battery, especially if you're on the go and you're working around everywhere, which many of us are. Now you've got an additional capability on the NPU to run certain workloads there. I'll give you an example.

Speaker 3:

We worked with a security vendor and one of the things that usually happens in the background that impact the user experience is that anti-phishing scanning. Many of us know what a phishing scan is. Right, they're targeting your email, they're pretending to be somebody you know. Those emails actually look really realistic. I have fallen for many of those baits in the past, but that is something that's constantly scanning, sending the workload to the cloud, bringing it back down, and it's constantly constantly going. So this particular security vendor. It was able to leverage the MPU. Their developers were able to leverage the MPU offloading that email phishing, anti phishing, scanning and they have seen tremendous improvement. I want to say it was something to the tune of like 300%. So now you're taking advantage of the local compute, you're not sending it up to the cloud, so you're increasing your privacy. Your latency is getting much better because you're not going up and down and it's unleashed that new use case for this security vendor and it's freed up space on the CPU right. So now they can do even more things and they can have more innovative use cases and they freed up that space. And so we see that example playing out over and over and over with many of our developers.

Speaker 3:

We just had a session at Microsoft Build in mid-May up in Seattle. We held a hands-on lab good old-fashioned hands-on lab. We put the latest hardware in their hands so that they could actually see what the NPU could do and we trained them right. This is what needs to happen. This is all very late breaking and so many of them are kind of saying, hey, well, I can't. You know, not until I get my hands on the hardware will I be able to know what I can do. So we're doing just that, right. We're handing out developer kits to make sure that all the talented developers out there have that hardware to test it themselves and write more and more unique applications.

Speaker 2:

This is a totally unique new capability of God. So, as you're right, with security software, I always complain oh, the virus scanning is slowing down my computer. Do we have to have it there Now? It's being done in the NPU so it can speed things up. But does this mean that they're now and they've got the device in their hands, as you said, and we'll talk about your development enablement in a second? But does that mean we might see completely out of the box thinking because now the compute is on the edge, at the desktop, at the laptop?

Speaker 3:

Absolutely, and it's playing out right now. So it's really unleashing new capabilities, new usages, new ways of delivering user experience collaboration, content creation, creator. We're seeing usages where this new capability, these new capabilities, across not just the NPU but the GPU and the CPU, they still have their rightful place on the platform where, much like right now, we're doing a video, a video conference. Sometimes we record them. Sometimes we say something that was misstated, let's say, I got a stat wrong or a date wrong. Well, typically we would have to go in and maybe splice in in post-production and re-record.

Speaker 3:

Well, there's now capabilities where AI built into that app will be able to correct the statement and clone your voice and smooth out the video, all in seconds. So it's very impressive. We're really excited for that use case and so it is just unleashing all sorts of incredible creativity and all ultimately done so with the purpose of making us more productive, making us safer, giving the users time back to go off and work on the things that require. You know your focus on something else. So, yeah, super excited about that one and we'd love to get that one in your hands because I could see in your line of work it being a really useful use case for you.

Speaker 2:

So I've worked in startups as well, and the challenge has always been we've got this crazy idea. If only we had the hardware or the platform that it could run on. It sounds like now you've opened a brand new capability. So let's say I'm a developer out there. I'm doing some really fancy AI app. It doesn't quite run in the cloud because of latency. It's got to run locally. So developers hearing this, how do they work with you and what would your advice be to new developers that want to join your ecosystem and work with Intel?

Speaker 3:

There are really easy ways to reach out to Intel. We've made it, hopefully, as easy as possible. So we have a program called the AIPC Acceleration Program. You can find it online. If you type in AIPC, intel's the one that shows up at the top of that search. So we've made it very easy so you can join our AI PC acceleration program. It also brings you to the AI PC developer program. So if you're you're a developer, an individual, you can join the developer program and you will have access to all of the software, the frameworks, the tools, the how to guides, a list of all of the software, the frameworks, the tools, the how-to guides, a list of all of the models that have been optimized Last count we were right at 500, if not more, models that have been optimized to run best on Intel platforms.

Speaker 3:

And there is a treasure trove of things, and we recently organized things on the site so that they're much more developer friendly. So AIPC Acceleration Program, aipc Developer Program, are the two key places that you can reach out to us and we're here to help. We're here to help enable, we're here to help unlock and unleash a lot more creativity in the ecosystem and, quite frankly, this is where Intel shines. This is where Intel does best. We've been doing this for decades, and this is one more milestone in our technology journey where Intel will continue to lead.

Speaker 2:

So the podcast with Robert, the people that listened to that and read the LinkedIn post, I think for one of the very first times we're hearing this whole concept of an AI PCPC and as people start to look at their existing estate they've got lots of laptops and PCs and desktops out there and they're thinking, well, when's the right time to move to the AIPC? Because of all these capabilities, probably for large organizations there's a long lead time, but I have a lot of people that are small to medium enterprises, that are in senior leadership listening to the podcast. What would you say, say to them about? You know when is the right time, what should they be thinking about in terms of this new capability and how can they unlock that productivity for their workforce?

Speaker 3:

Oh, as far as timing I think it was yesterday, right? This is how much AI PCs are adding value towards SMB small, medium business, a large enterprise so I think the time to go and get an AI PC is now. We have product in market today, right? We launched our Intel Core Ultra product for large enterprise back in January at CES. Before that, we had launched a product in New York for consumers. So we've got product, we're shipping, we're scaling right, which is more than anyone else in the ecosystem today.

Speaker 3:

And in order to take advantage of experiences and these use cases that I've mentioned, plus many, many, many more that are in the industry, you got to have an AI PC. I recognize there's budgetary constraints and there's design in cycles and validation cycles, and Intel will work with large enterprises along that route, but the sooner IT departments and medium-sized businesses get their hands on the hardware, the sooner they're able to bear fruit of all of that new technology and that extra productivity and extra security that's out there. So, yes, this is where I go into a little bit of sales mode, andrew, and I think that the time to refresh is now and there's more and more coming and there's also a component of for those large enterprises that have their own in-house applications. Right, there's many, many industries out there that have their own kind of homebred applications. We're getting, we're getting, you know, we're getting contacted on that.

Speaker 3:

How do I take advantage of this on my own in-house app? And so we do a little bit of help for the internal developers to say, hey, if you're running some sort of company backend for certain operations, depending on the vertical, you want to leverage that local compute across your fleet. You've gotten out more capability. It'll help reduce cloud costs for you, et cetera, et cetera, right, increased security and privacy super important, particular in some regions and you're reducing costs and you're getting your users a better experience. So you don't want to wait. You don't want to wait to take advantage of those benefits.

Speaker 2:

I'm just thinking of one way to get people across the line. It might be, you know, we're not ready to refresh the whole estate of all of our devices just yet, but let's get the AIPC into the power of the smart cookies, those like me that always are the early adopters. And actually let's do some A-B testing. How more productive are the people with an AIPC? What are the different use cases it unlocks versus those with legacy equipment? And maybe that's one way to A-B test. And then go wow the group that we gave the AIPC to. They're just finishing tasks a lot earlier. They've got more use cases, they're more efficient, they're able to go home earlier. Are you seeing already some examples where the future of work and modern work is going to be massively enabled by having this capability?

Speaker 3:

We are. We certainly are. I gave the example of the anti-phishing scanning right. So, first and foremost, cybersecurity is top of mind, especially in a large enterprise. So that is one where it helps put a lot of IT managers, it decision makers and some users at ease. Hey, this is something I don't need to be worrying about. I don't want to get impacted by a cyber threat. That's one way.

Speaker 3:

The second way is examples like even content creation applications, where you're texting, right, you're commanding via voice certain things you want the application to do, which is saving all these different clicks. So oftentimes these heavy duty users know exactly where to go to give the resolution. They want to add the background blur, to shade, to do certain things. But that takes a lot of skill set, right, you're working on this application for years. But if you're able to just tell it via a voice prompt, I want you to move this here. I want you to shade it. I want this side of the profile to be a little lighter. You're saving all those clicks. This side of the profile to be a little lighter. You're saving all those clicks. So you're sort of democratizing the ability for you know more of an average user to be able to unlock the capabilities of that application, so you're making that more accessible, right. So that's one thing. We're also seeing examples where you know the summarization of emails or the it starts a PowerPoint presentation for you. Oftentimes you know we spend so much time just cleaning things up on the PowerPoint or getting it started, where the real strategy and the real thinking comes at the very end, when you've got an hour before the presentation. But if you're able to kind of what I call outsource those tasks to your local compute, so you're spending the time on how do I want to deliver the message, what are the pros and cons of this particular proposal, how is this person going to receive the proposal and what is going to be my three, four things that I'm going to build my case. That's where you want to spend your brain power, not making things look a little prettier or not use the compute. So lots of different things during the day where an AI PC will really impact how we work.

Speaker 3:

And ideally this is going to become so pervasive and so prolific that in two, three years, five years, the way we do our day-to-day it'd be so different, right. I mean, I think about when I went to college many moons ago, I had to stand in line to register for my classes. Right, think of all the time we stood in line with a piece of paper with my five or six classes that I was going to take for the semester, only to find out that half of them were full. So, right there on the spot, at the scramble, and then come up with another class at a terrible time. All that's out the door, right? The way that kids at universities these days, or adults at the university these days, register for school.

Speaker 3:

So different, right, we're doing the same thing with our day-to-day work. So long answer, but you can hear a lot of the passion in my voice, one because I'm Latin, but the other is because you know these little things add up. It'll make us more productive. More productive so that we can go back to doing things that matter most, whether they're at work, out of work, with our families, with our hobbies, with our charities. You know we want to give people time back.

Speaker 2:

So I love your passion. I want to just touch on another passion of yours, and that's wine. I've only met two people in my life that own a winery. One is my good friend, deborah Humble, who was on the podcast many, many episodes ago. She and her partner own a winery in the Hunter Valley. But I understand you and your husband. Part of your hobby, your passion is also owning a winery as a proud South Australian and South Australia, as you'd know, has four of the most amazing wine growing regions in the world Tell me more about the passion that you find in having a winery in your life.

Speaker 3:

It is definitely a passion. It is a labor of love. Yes, so we here in the West Coast of the United States, I'm in Oregon. Oregon is a really great wine growing country. Specifically, we're in the Willamette Valley, well known for its Pinot Noir. So, yes, so my husband and I have a small boutique winery. We've had it for 13, 14 years.

Speaker 3:

My husband's been in the wine business for 20 something years, primarily on the vineyard side, growing farming, but then together we started a small winery and you know there's nothing like owning a small business to really get you to understand how how hard it is. First and foremost. So, for all the small business owners out there, it is tough. You are responsible for pretty much every aspect of the operation, which is very different from my, my day job, right? Somebody else worries about HR issues and IT issues and payroll issues, so I've come to have a huge appreciation for some of those tasks.

Speaker 3:

But, yeah, wine is great, love it, love to drink it, love to make it, love to sell it. And I've never been to Australia, but it is on my list for wine growing regions. And yeah, we grow Pinot, we grow Chardonnay, riesling and then we also grow a kind of unique varietal for Oregon it's Albarino. So, interestingly enough, albarino grows in the northern part of Spain. We love Albarino. It's a great varietal. We did some research and it turns out the growing conditions in that part of Spain are very similar to the growing conditions here in Oregon, and so we decided to plant a couple of acres of Albarino, and we've been making it for the last kind of three to four years. So we'll have to have you over, andrew, so we can compare notes on wine.

Speaker 2:

So what things have you learned in running a small business that you can take back into Intel and make the people you work with even smarter and appreciate more the small and medium enterprises that you are also helping through Intel Great?

Speaker 3:

question the job I took at Intel before the one I have today. I took that job precisely because it had a lot of interface with businesses, particularly small businesses, and I said hey're kind of in PowerPoint mode and so I took that role specifically because I have a passion for it. And so you know I have this unique perspective because I do have a small business and I work in technology and I recognize that there's so much we can do from a technology perspective to help small businesses If we can automate a lot of tasks, particularly with AI most recently, and really help them keep their businesses protected. A lot of small business owners, they're not as tech savvy. That's not what they're concerned with. They're concerned with making sure they've got enough revenue coming in day in and day out. They've got payroll challenges. They've got regulatory challenges. They don't have big fancy legal departments. They don't have big fancy IT departments. They're calling their brother-in-law for IT help, right, they're calling their buddy to get some HR advice.

Speaker 3:

And so I love bringing in the small business perspective as we're planning our products, as we're choosing software applications to optimize. Obviously, you know we've got a lot of business and large enterprise, but small, medium business is a big part of what we focus on as well and really doing a lot of the education. How do we reach the small business audience through all of the wonderful marketing channels that Intel brings to bear so that we can educate them in their terms on why this particular system is best suited for their enterprise or their small business? I should say yeah. So there's nothing like cashflow management as a small business owner to really get you to relate to how they're having to solve their day-to-day problems.

Speaker 2:

I think you'll uniquely play, straddling both the large corporate and the small and medium world, because you live it every day. Often you hear that the CEO, once a week, might go and work behind the counter, but you're living and breathing it. But just reflecting back on the AI discussion, and in my part of the world, I do a lot of public speaking and I ask for a show of hands. You know who's played with generative AI platforms like chat, gpt everyone's played with it. I then ask who actually uses it every day and very few go up. So I think the challenge is understanding the benefit of it. I liken generative AI to having an always-on enthusiastic intern at my disposal. So now we all have a free intern and I'm going to deliberately do a pun here. We all know about Intel inside. You've now got intern inside.

Speaker 3:

I love it. I love it. You're absolutely right. It's a personal assistant that works 24-7 and is able to do all sorts of tasks that perhaps we aren't able to ask our interns, because their capabilities are the capabilities they bring, but I love the intern example.

Speaker 2:

I'll give you that one for free. So you must also come across a lot of young people. You work in the Peace Corps and you work in the Latinx community. What would be your advice to young people, either at school or at university, looking to move into the high-tech industry? There's no better time, I think, with AI. What advice would you give them? To one temper their enthusiasm, because it's not easy, but also what's the opportunity and where do you see the youth of today moving into these new areas?

Speaker 3:

I would really what I appreciate about the technology industry now being in it for 18 years. It is fast-paced, constantly changing. I'm a learner, I love to learn, so if folks are learners or they want to learn about different aspects of technology, it's a great industry to join and it's okay to not have a technology background. I don't have a technology background. I have a finance background. I went to the Peace Corps right, I thought I was going to be working for the Foreign Service and here I am the Foreign Service and here I am, and so there is so much talent in technology.

Speaker 3:

It is a privilege to work with some of the smartest engineering minds that we produce globally that choose to work at a place like Intel and we sort of take it for granted. When you work at a place like Intel, you walk around and there's so many smart people with two PhDs and all sorts of material science, and so it can be a little intimidating, but I encourage a lot of young folks looking at careers. Come to technology. You learn fast.

Speaker 3:

Most folks are very willing to tell you to share with you their knowledge so that you can be fluent enough to be effective and contribute, and there's always this quest for improvement. How can we do things better? How can we do them faster? How are we changing and impacting the lives of every person on the planet for better Right? So I think that that is such a calling and perhaps that is a bit of my Peace Corps coming out right that the concept of improving and helping and serving for a greater good while being in technology, while having to make a paycheck. So it's been very enriching and I encourage others to join technology because we need smart minds. We need the next generation of smart minds all over the world to come and work at places like Intel and semiconductors.

Speaker 2:

I love your call to action, the fact that you don't have to have a technology background to be useful. What you have to be is digitally curious, and those listeners out there will know I'm writing a book called Digitally Curious and it really speaks to people that aren't technologists but they're sort of querying what is cloud, what is edge, what is quantum, what is AI and what does it mean for me? And I think that hunger to stay curious ask questions. I think those that are technically more advanced than others. We love explaining things. I mean, I have a technical background. I work for IBM. I now go in front of some of the most senior executives that haven't got a clue about AI or not haven't got a clue. They're confused about it and I've got to explain it in a really engaging, accessible way. And I love that, because they then go oh why didn't you say that in the first place? It's an always-on intern.

Speaker 3:

I hadn't thought of it that way, having the ability to translate in simple terms some very complicated stuff that it takes to to bring this to life to the average, or maybe slightly above average, end user. Right technology out, it is is a skill, and so, uh great that you're able to do that translation, andrew. So that's, that's fabulous. That's my call more of you.

Speaker 2:

Well, we're almost out of time, but we've reached the quickfire round when we learn more about our guests. But I think I know a lot about you already, even over this short discussion, so let's fire some quick questions at you. Window or aisle, oh aisle, pinot Noir or Chardonnay?

Speaker 3:

Oh, I mean, I think I've tipped my hand on that one. It's Pinot Noir all day.

Speaker 2:

Your biggest hope for this year and next.

Speaker 3:

Biggest hope is, professionally, is that we really, really really help large enterprises, small businesses and the average consumer and user to utilize all of this capability to give them time back. We're all over scheduled. We're all over scheduled, so put this technology to work for you so that you can get some time back to. We're all over scheduled. We're all over scheduled, so put this technology to work for you so that you can get some time back to go do the things that are important to you.

Speaker 2:

I wish that AI could all of my.

Speaker 3:

Laundry.

Speaker 2:

Okay, you are now the seventh person to say that I've had three guests in a row say that. So if you're out there, the AI laundry app is going to go gangbusters. What's the app you use most on your phone? I use WhatsApp quite a bit. The best advice you've ever received Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Who should I invite next onto the podcast?

Speaker 3:

I would say a colleague of mine that I just recently started to connect with. His name is Nuri and he leads AI marketing for Intel. So how we're going to reach folks in the industry and in the market, to make those connections and to keep it simple is part of his role, so I would invite Nuri Final quickfire question.

Speaker 2:

How do you want to be remembered?

Speaker 3:

Good person who tried to do some good and who raised some really good kids.

Speaker 2:

So I mentioned that I love being digitally curious. So what three things can our audience do this week to get started on better understanding how Intel's AI PC program can help their business and their employees be more productive? Great, question.

Speaker 3:

So first one is go into your browser. If it's a Google browser, great. Any other browser, fantastic. Type in AI PC, so that'll take you to all things AI PC by Intel, so you'll find out what applications are on there that you can leverage to go to your local retailer or your local OEM that you're purchasing an AI PC and test it right, find out what it can do for you. Ideally, buy one because you're going to be more productive. And three give me input, right, send me input on any applications that we may be missing. You can do so through that AI PCeleration Program email. And if there's any apps that we're missing that we need to enable to run best or run locally, we will put them into our portfolio and make sure that we're delivering for the applications that matter most for your listeners. So those three things.

Speaker 2:

Kyle, this has been a fantastic discussion. I've really enjoyed speaking with you. How can we find out more about you and your work?

Speaker 3:

Oh, go to LinkedIn. Yeah, LinkedIn gives you a little snippet of what we do, what I do, a little bit of my background, and then I try to share what we're up to more than anything. So that's it. Thank you so much for your time. I had a blast. Thanks, Andrew. Thanks for the opportunity.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to Digitally Curious, brought to you by Intel. Andrew's new book, Digitally Curious, is available to pre-order at digitallycuriousai. You can find out more about Andrew and how he helps corporates become more digitally curious with keynote speeches and C-suite workshops at digitallycuriousai. Until next time, we invite you to stay digitally curious.

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