Scott Schwarzhoff

A provocative piece in the Harvard Business Review from my friend Bobby Yerramilli-Rao (Microsoft CSO) charts how AI will reshape enterprise expertise and strategy. What resonates deeply with me is their insight into AI's "triple product" return. I’ve seen firsthand how AI drives operational efficiency, elevates workforce performance, and enables sharper strategic focus by automating non-core activities. Another fascinating insight: the conventional wisdom that AI mainly benefits top performers is wrong. Studies show AI assistants boost lower-skilled workers' performance by 43% versus 17% for high performers. AI is raising the floor for everyone. This has major implications for how enterprises should think about talent and org structure. Bobby and his co-authors John Corwin, Yang Li and Karim Lakhani deliver a clear-eyed view of what it means to compete when AI puts expertise at everyone's fingertips. Well worth the read: https://lnkd.in/gy9TsVVU

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This is a worthwhile overview on the bets Satya Nadella has made at Microsoft. His overarching them has been that with AI, every old fight and every old bet the Microsoft has made was back on the table, is paying off. He's made some big bets, including in OpenAI. A few didn't pay off, and a few more are still up in the air. He's successfully put Alphabet Inc./Google back on it's heals. He's forced Cisco to step up their security game. It's fascinating to see how he's revitalized the company and made it relevent again while building its resiliency to weather a few failures along the way. #Microsoft #satyanadella #ai #innovation #competition #technology https://lnkd.in/e7ssR6JM

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A fantastic deep dive by Techaisle's Anurag Agrawal on HP's "big bet" on AI PCs. "[HPE] anticipates that AI PC adoption will continue to grow over time. The company projects that AI PCs, representing their new generation of products, will account for 10% of all latest PC shipments in the next year. That number is expected to grow to 50-60% within the next three years." As Anurag mentions, this is an aggressive projection but one that clearly highlights HP's commitment to integrating AI into its PCs. Could AI PCs revolutionize personal computing by enhancing user experiences? Absolutely. Is it very likely that AI PCs can spur greater productivity? Definitely. But as Anurag points out, this journey is not without challenges and the competition from other device makers will be significant. Success on this front is all about the effectiveness of HP's marketing messaging and how well the company is able to help prospective customers understand the value prop AI PCs present, and, of course, how effective they are at driving sales and adoption. This is a big bet and one I'm betting that HP will get right. Looking forward to watching this play out. #aipc #ai #pc #devices #hp

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📈 AI Startup Sierra Expands HQ in San Francisco (4K to 41K SF) 🌁 Artificial intelligence firm Sierra is making a bold move by relocating to a larger office within San Francisco. The startup has signed a lease for a 41,104-square-foot space at 235 Second St., significantly upsizing from its current 4,000-square-foot office. 🏢 This move to San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, where office vacancy rates have started to decline for the first time since 2020, is a positive sign for the city's hard-hit office market. The area's office vacancy rate, though still high at 28.8%, is slightly lower than six months ago. 📉 The deal contributes to the increase in leasing activity in San Francisco, which is up by about 1 million square feet compared to last year. This uptick is driven by the region's reputation as a leading national hub for AI companies. 💼 Sierra joins other AI firms expanding in the South of Market area, including Scale AI, which signed the city's largest office lease of 2024 with a 178,000-square-foot deal. So far this year, office tenants have signed leases totaling 750,000 square feet in South of Market, a significant increase from last year's 370,000 square feet. 🚀 Co-founded in 2023 by former Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor and former Google executive Clay Bavor, Sierra raised $85 million earlier this year to develop a customer support AI tool for businesses. The firm is set to relocate from its current space at 215 Second St. by next month. San Francisco's reputation as an AI hub, bolstered by its talent pool and six major AI research institutions, continues to attract companies. Recent significant deals include OpenAI’s sublease of over 400,000 square feet of Uber’s former headquarters and Anthropic’s takeover of Slack's former headquarters. These developments reflect a resilient and adaptive real estate market. As a commercial real estate professional, I’m excited to see how these trends shape the future of office space in our vibrant city.

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Generative AI is outpacing the internet and PCs in adoption speed. Nearly 40% of U.S. adults have embraced this technology in just two years, compared to 20% for the internet and PCs in their early days. This rapid uptake signals a seismic shift in how we work and interact with technology. Are you ready for the AI revolution? #GenerativeAI #TechAdoption #FutureOfWork #AIRevolution #DigitalTransformation

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Did you hear it? But did you? AI is in the hype cycle no doubt, and everyone likes using words to try and capture the wave of change and opportunity, put the positive spin on it...and there is a lot to be positive about. Yet we need to understand all facets of the change. Huang and McDermott were asked a direct question about the upheaval taking place in the gaming industry, and the large displacement of programmers. Fortt even pointed out the irony of this industry giving birth to "Nvidia 1.0" and now being disrupted by the evolution of Nvidia into AI. I have a great deal of respect for both of these leaders, but neither of them answered the question. No one wants to be in the press saying, "Yeah, some people will be displaced." A Gartner report conservatively put the potential displacement at 10s of millions of jobs in the next few years. Just as the steam engine, printing press, and combustion engine revolutionized, eliminated, and created jobs, so too will AI...most likely on a much larger scale. And while most are focusing on the productivity gains in tech, or the new robotics advancements...look beyond the hype, slow the slipstream, and think about the implications. There is an unprecedented opportunity to leverage technology to augment business models and the way humans work. (Just look at the work of 🔮Kes Sampanthar ✨ and Scott Wolfson as a data point. I highly recommend Kes' Substack @thecentaurian) A big part of the challenge will be the individuals, the employee's willingness, ability, and focus on doing what they need to do to stay relevant. So my question is...are you ready to seize the opportunity? Excited to see where it all goes!

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Discover our global ecosystem of #NVIDIAInception #startups. We support startups at every stage to #innovate, #build, and #grow with special access to: 💡 Technical expertise ✨ Preferred pricing on hardware and software 🚀 Go-to-market support 🤝 Introductions to VCs and customers Take a closer look at how we support startups: NVIDIA for Startups

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Eric S. Yuan (he / him / his), Zoom CEO: Digital avatars attending meetings & handling emails are the future 🤖 Personalized AI twins, trained on your data, making decisions on your behalf 💡 I'm bullish on this vision. I already see many startups automating workflows for enterprise personas. Task-specific AI agents will be prominent in 2 years. What's needed short-term? 1️⃣ Better customized enterprise LLMs, learning from continuous human feedback 2️⃣ Nearly no hallucinations for autonomous actions 3️⃣ Robust authentication for non-human identities (a unicorn opportunity in the identity stack) Read the interview - Zoom aims to be a key player in this space. #largelanguagemodels #llms #ai #ml #aiagents #digitaltwin #digitalavatar #enterpriseautomation #startups https://lnkd.in/ggPr-4-R

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Here's a needed reminder (and warning) from FinTech Futures about how commonplace #deepfake scams are becoming as large language models (#LLMs) and #AI tech improves. AI-generation is becoming sophisticated at replicating human-like speech. Phone scams, fraudulent videos, and other types of scams are going to become more convincing to those who are unprepared. This article also highlights FinVolution, a fintech platform that has a focus on anti-fraud technologies in the Asian region. Right now, algorithm scientists are trying to spot #hoaxes by spotting the nuances and imperfections that come with AI voice cloning technology, basically digital forensics to help customers identify the artificial. I do truly mean it when I stress that AI, like other forms of technology, is ideologically neutral. In the same way that plenty of smart innovators are utilizing AI for good, there are also bad faith actors misusing AI for their own nefarious purposes. So, even though we live in an exciting time for generative AI, lets also remember to practice caution and use our better judgement to protect ourselves from #scams, #misinformation, and #fraud caused by deepfake technology.

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Made some further optimizations to the shdn.io stylesheet so it's now less than 10kb compressed while still supporting both light and dark mode: https://lnkd.in/g3rz2V_Y

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We just concluded Embiggen X’s strategy for 2025. For almost two years, we’ve experienced conversations and priorities shift for large companies - more focus on innovating the core the business and less on non-core innovation initiatives. We’ve seen large global companies in the west close down their innovation labs, corporate venturing units, and let go of non-core innovation teams — or at the very least, decreased spending in venturing activities. This is also true for large corporates in Southeast Asia. Simultaneously, we’ve been getting into conversations with CEO’s asking more questions on AI & Digital Business Transformation. No, I’m not talking about building apps. We’re getting questions around: - How do we rewire the “guts” of our operations for us to be able to “scale profitably”? - How do we fix our “spaghetti & siloed” operations? - How do we make sure that we don’t just “buy more” off-the-shelf tech platforms that don’t talk to each other and complicating our already inefficient ops? - How do we increase our NPS score by transforming our customer experience? - Can you help us build a holistic digital business transformation strategy and help us execute too? - How and where can we use AI to become grow better? This is why Q4 of last year in the midst of business challenges, we decided to shift focus from Corporate Venture Building and spin off an AI & Digital Business Transformation company, Embiggen X (https://lnkd.in/geVM4BCF), from the Embiggen Group. Within less than a year, we’ve expanded our operations in Southeast Asia to Europe and 2024 as our highest revenue & profit generating year. We’ve served companies from Insurance, Supply Chain, Telco, Conglomerates, Construction, and Consumer Services to date. We help from Strategy to Execution. I’m beyond grateful to the operating team that made this new chapter of our journey possible. Embiggen X Managing Partner & COO, Xavier (X) Marzan; Partner & Head of Europe, Nicolas Souvlakis (calling in from Switzerland); Junior Partner & CAO Bien Herrera; Partner & CTO Robert Newgen; Chief Growth Advisor Gary de Ocampo, GICD; Advisory Board Member and Incoming Board Director Cliff Eala; Head of Artificial Intelligence Miguel Testa (calling in from Canada); as well as more partners, clients, and supporters. Big goals & challenges up ahead. Excited for whats to come. Onwards & upwards. 🚀

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From where I sit in the SF Bay Area, cradle of innovation for at least the last 30 years, I'm a true believer in the promise of the #AI revolution. That said, I find it fascinating to consider views on the opposing side. I'm sharing below two opinion pieces from the last two weeks suggesting that the AI revolution is fundamentally overhyped and a bubble ripe for bursting, and that AI tools are actually not useful or transformative. Contrast this with venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee's prognostication that 50% of white collar jobs will be displaced by #AI within three years, and that OpenAI and the other cutting edge movers in the space are headed to a trillion+ dollar valuation. Which side will win out? Where will we be by 2030 in the AI race? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

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Unlock the true potential of #AI with Equinix! Our blog series on AI Model Marketplaces continues with Part 2. Discover how #Equinix provides predictable costs, performance, and privacy for AI marketplaces. Host your marketplace with us and access external datasets and AI models in a cloud-neutral location. Join us in revolutionizing AI! #DataPrivacy #DigitalInfrastructure  

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💡Meta’s journey with Reality Labs: Oculus VR was acquired in 2014 for twice the price of Instagram. By 2019, Reality Labs’ spend hit $5B/year, exceeding $10B by 2020 with the Quest debut. Then in 2021, the company rebrands to Meta. Those are the events known to outsiders. Discover key internal events and shifts that shaped Meta’s Metaverse vision from CTO Andrew Bosworth, who joined Facebook in 2006 and led Reality Labs from 2017. His candor about the challenges and “wrong paths” taken en route to technological breakthroughs adds credibility and authenticity. 👇 #technology #innovation #future #digitaltransformation #metaverse #spatialcomputing #linkedin #leadership

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We were so caught up in seeing if we COULD, that we never considered if we SHOULD". (thanks Jeff Goldblum, Professor of Jurassic Philosophy) The debate: Should creators of the largest AI models be held responsible for how someone else uses them in their business? Or worse, in their cyber attack or scamming? What do you think? That topic is swirling around San Francisco right now as potential liability is placed on tech companies should damages occur with their technology. Does liability for invention hamper future innovation? or is it the inventors responsibility to think of potential harm? #ai #aiethics #esg #innovation #SB1047 BUILT https://lnkd.in/ehni4KGK

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July 29 2024 – 5 Notable Articles To Read Article: NVIDIA Partner SMC Raising $950M to Tap AI Server Boom Takeaway: SMC - Sustainable Metal Cloud provides data center capacity to clients, offering them access to Nvidia AI chips and advanced cooling technology. Source: Bloomberg Link: https://lnkd.in/dFXr43uT Article: OpenAI Is Launching Search Engine, Taking Direct Aim at Google Takeaway: Developed with input from publishers, SearchGPT will provide real-time summaries of website information. Source: The Wall Street Journal Link: https://lnkd.in/dSDj5fpA Article: Royal Caribbean Group Raises Its Outlook. Cruise Demand Is Strong. Takeaway: “Exceptional demand for our vacation experiences has accelerated our performance by generating significant yield growth over the past several years,” Chief Executive Jason Liberty said in the earnings release. Source: Barron's Link: https://lnkd.in/dpznkWbS Article: Alibaba Group-backed Baichuan raises $691M as China seeks to catch up on generative AI Takeaway: The business is valued at 20B yuan with the funding round included existing backer Alibaba, along with internet giant Tencent and smartphone maker Xiaomi Technology. Source: PitchBook Link: https://lnkd.in/dmWTKFan Article: J.P. Morgan pitches in-house chatbot as AI-based research analyst Takeaway: Approximately 50,000 employees are using a large language model developed by the bank to enhance productivity. Source: Financial Times Link: https://lnkd.in/dx6Z2sU4 #news #ai #research #business

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A year from now, we will look back and ask... What happened? Here's me making a bet.... We are all focused on Gen AI hype. But something else has happened. AI at the customer coalface is industrialised and integrated. CRN below report that Google is having an eat your own dog food moment with AI. I bet, a year from now, similar implementations will have rolled out across a whole range of 'human interfaces'. Why? Because we already know how to use it. There is no ask for humans to change behaviour. Beyond the CRN article is a wealth of opportunity waiting for partners. Sit up, pay attention, understand what's happening. Now. Or look back in a year's time and wonder what exactly did happen. #partnerships

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