AI IMPACT in HIGH TECH: From 20x to the Singularity
Meet Tom Brazil.
Tom is …
A very original thinker, an innovator in fact
A technologist
An author, of the very fine book on innovation, Implementing an Agile Innovation Master Plan
And an expert in AI.
We sat down over zoom to discuss AI, and its impact on his work and his life.
You can watch to the full, 26 minute interview on our YouTube Channel, AI Impact and Strategy.
Here are a few highlight from the many fascinating topics we covered …
I asked Tom if AI is impacting his personal productivity. He said, “Yes, by a factor of 20x.” Come on, 20x … isn’t that a bit of an exaggeration? But he wasn’t kidding.
Then he gave me some examples of work he had recently accomplished, such as a complex reporting task that would have taken days to weeks before AI, but using AI he completed it in a matter of an hour or so.
He also described a coding project he had done, in which the AI basically wrote most of the code for him, at a huge savings in time. He went to observe that coders will soon go the way of taxi drivers who have been replaced by Uber. In other words, coding itself will be mostly automated, mostly done by AI. That’s a major disruption, and one that’s already well under way …
2. He also mentioned a bit of research he had recently done on a company, or more accurately, that AI had done for him on a company. He pointed the AI at the company web site to study, and then asked the AI to summarize the company’s technology, assess its competitors, and identify any distinctive competitive advantages. It took a minute to enter the query, and 3 minutes for the AI to spit out a three page report.
3. I asked if AI would one day affect his company’s business model. He said, “No, not ‘one day.’ It already is.” In multiple ways, it turns out. He’s training the entire company ( a few hundred people) on AI, and use cases are spreading.
Already the company is using more than 80 AI agents to accomplish all types of work, from advanced technology design to HR administration. They’re saving hours of time each week, enabling the firm to accomplish more high-value work with the same staff.
4. We also discussed the down sides of AI technology, of which there are quite a few, both current and potential. One is the exhaustion he feels after a day’s work of doing so much (20x productivity, you know…). Another is the impact on Department of Defense contracting, because now that AI knows so much, bidders can use AI to write their proposals, and pretend to know much more than they actually do know. Instead of, say, five firms bidding on some advanced IT work, the DoD may now be getting, say, a hundred proposals. But 95 of them may not actually have the competence they’re pretending to have, and in the advanced IT realm of the world’s largest military, these imposters could potentially cause significant problems if they take on work that they don’t actually understand. Weeding out those who actually know from the pretenders has now become a thing, a major task for DoD acquisitions teams, time consuming, expensive, and difficult. (Tom’s firm, by the way, has come up with some AI tools to help filter out the fakers.)
And then of course there are the very scary future warfighting scenarios of adversaries using AI, perhaps in conjunction with quantum computers, to fundamentally alter the way battles and wars are fought.
5. Tom also finds great uses for AI in his personal life. He mentioned that he loves to cook and try new foods, and he can just give his AI a list of what’s in his refrigerator, and instantly get a recipe. He uses AI to help him manage pests in his garden, and to compose stories (with illustrations) to read to his grandson.
Tom’s conclusion, which we might label as a bit of understatement:
“It’s a new day.”
And we agree …
Tom Brazil
Chief Digital & Innovation Officer, ICS, Inc.
Chief Innovation Officer, Red Team Engineering