You need to think about, how to think about a problem before trying to solve it.
MEDIA 7: Could you please give us a glimpse of your profound experience of over 35 years? How has all this experience helped you play your current role at Cerebri AI?
ALAIN BRIANÇON: I started in wireless with operators, then moved to suppliers (Motorola, InterDigital). Next, I caught the startup bug with NTERA, which created inks for printing displays. After that, I crossed the big data chasm with Kitchology focusing on diets, Horizon Analog on IoT, WinVirginia on elections, and now the most challenging (and rewarding) customer experience in real-time with AI at Cerebri AI. What I have learned from this journey is that you need to think about, how to think about a problem before trying to solve it. It is easy to turn on VMs, pick code from repositories and get results. But are those the results that make sense to pursue?
Choose targets of the business objective you seek to achieve carefully. Then, debate and challenge your choice. Once done, jump/swim in the data, analyze it, find its idiosyncrasies, don’t get too focused on how dirty it is – there is no such thing as clean big data. Then, and only then, try to model. What I also learned is that the job of a technologist is to create business options. Do not lose. It is your design – your option –does not prevail, then just observe and improve your thinking about thinking. Lastly, just as data is data, age is just a number. You can be old at age 25. You can be young in your 60s.
M7: Your bio says, “Thinking excellence and thinking different are two sides of the same innovation coin.” Would you like to elaborate on this for our readers?
AB: Innovation cannot be programmed. It comes from trying to do the best, looking at problems from the user perspective, not the technology. Doing the very best brings you to question why things are the way they are; what drove a design to be this way? If you think about how to think (my go-to metaphor), allowing you to think differently about assumptions. It does not mean you have to be different for the sake of being different. Being different for the sake of excellence is excellent. Be outside the box, inside the box when it matters.
It does not mean you have to be different for the sake of being different. Being different for the sake of excellence is excellent.
M7: Cerebri AI offers a multitude of products and platforms like the ‘CVX 3’. Could you please tell us more about them?
AB: CVX 3 is an end-to-end platform that automates AI processes from data engineering to the next best actions for multiple KPI and thus achieves ‘Continuous Intelligence.’ Many believe that because of its richness, it is a series of products; it is, in fact, a platform. So, what is Continuous Intelligence (CI)? Continuous Intelligence (CI) is the ability to integrate raw data, calculate engineered data into datasets in real-time, score KPIs, generate insights seamlessly at scale. CI is essential to time-series processing. CI is the sine qua non for time-sensitive management of multiple Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
CI enables a slew of positive business outcomes and use cases:
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Dynamic personalization: Serve content, propose products, promote services, or execute actions.
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Dynamic customer cohort creation: Determine cohorts of similar behavior or tuned to specific KPIs. Scalable actions across segments of customers.
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Usage-based/behavior-based pricing models: Insurance based on behavior.
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Abnormality and fraud detection: Identify and prevent unauthorized activity.
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Security and remediation: Detect issues and alert responders in exponentially less time than traditional security through intelligent analyses.
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Network performance: Monitor and respond to network performance issues faster.
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IoT analytics: Unify disparate data sources to reduce costs and improve performance.
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IOT TCO: Reduces the cost of installation by reducing tuning and maintenance.
M7: ‘Cerebri Values: The industry’s first universal measure of customer success’, sounds intriguing. Could you please give us some insight into it?
AB: At the core of thinking behind ‘Cerebri Value’ is the realization that stating your opinion (with NPS surveys) is good, but spending your opinion is better. So you opine with your wallet. CVX 3 import data from corporate internal and external sources and build and visualize comprehensive customer journeys for the tens of millions of individual consumers. Significant outcomes, monetary commitments are flagged. CVX 3 applies our machine learning to quantify the impact of each event in the journey for every customer. We go one step further in monetizing every journey event by valuing them in local currency terms. This monetized value is the Cerebri Value, the measurement of customer engagement. It is not a zero to ten number like a survey.
The Cerebri Values CX platform dynamically values the impact of subsequent events in a customer’s journey and values every customer’s commitment to the brand and the products they use. The Cerebri Value goes up and down with events. The higher Cerebri Value, the higher the propensity to buy, consumer and yes, talk about it. We include risk in a customer’s journey enabling a better understanding of what customers qualify for offers being made before such requests are sent to the customer. With the impact of every event valued in local currency terms, we can calculate the next-best-actions applied on one or more Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for each customer, thus allowing the business to optimize its marketing and sales campaign.
AI has touched the digital world so far, it is about to change the physical one.
M7: What marketing and sales automation tools and technologies do you currently use?
AB: We use our tool to capture interactions with our customers. We integrate with our website where some leads are generated. Salesforce Pardot is how we reach out the most with customers.
M7: What are your predictions on AI changing our future in the next few years?
AB: User interfaces are ripe for the impact of AI. Intelligent dashboards in cars, automatic real-time voice translation in my earpiece, recognition of subtle motions for control. In system optimization, I am waiting for intelligent cities and traffic systems driven by AI. Fixed light patterns are unacceptable, especially in DC. Healthcare is the area where I am the most enthusiastic yet anxious about AI’s impact. The ability to have sensors continuously record your wellness status, not solely at the doctors. To have a continuous risk, behavior assessment, and recommendation for drugs will significantly impact our lives. The days when using broad mRNA to build vaccines will be looked upon soon as old age. AI is about to change the way vaccines and medicines are designed, all for the better. Lastly, new structures will emerge designed with AI using less material and materials more friendly to mother earth. AI has touched the digital world so far, it is about to change the physical one.