Episode 27 - Captain TOC

Welcome to episode #27 of Agents of AI, Capto’s podcast for leaders who want to understand how humans + AI agents are reshaping the future.
"Captain TOC" joins us to share:

• The guest is from Denmark and works in AI. They are an educated historian and are skilled at bridging the gap between a complex technology world and business reality. The guest believes that meaning is more important than happiness, and that what they do "has to matter".

• The guest is motivated by meeting and being curious about different people, their perspectives, and the "contextualizations of things". They try to ask difficult questions and find subtle angles, while also observing trends in the global technology market that they describe as uncommon. The guest believes that "pain is a part of happiness" because overcoming difficulties leads to the accumulation of happiness.

• The most underappreciated part of the guest's work is the contextualization of technology, rather than just the direct actualization of it. The guest stated that everyone wants the end solution, such as saving money or having automation, but few people want to do the job of understanding why things are being done and making the difficult decisions that follow. It is important to know where you are so you can determine where you want to go.

• An early, powerful use case for AI was a data retrieval agent built by the guest. This agent took an unstructured data request and turned it into a structured data request to provide the data. The process involved a BI agent that created suggestions for interpreting the data, which was then given to an SQL agent to generate an SQL statement. This statement was reviewed by a senior SQL state agent and then translated into something a non-SQL business person could understand before being executed.

• The guest is most excited about the future vision of the invisible AI, where AI works within processes without people being aware that they are using it, and technology stops being called AI. The guest wants to see AI get into "something that's real and actually start doing things".

• A major challenge is the consumption gap. The guest notes that AI can produce a lot of output, but if people are unable to consume it and use it to take action and make decisions, then it does not matter. If finance functions are already filled with backlogs, they cannot take on more things that AI highlights, even if it could lead to saving money.

• The guest advises people in the automation and AI space to be curious and inquisitive, and to realize that "there's no stupid question here". They also suggest moving away from the "chatbot" level, as too many companies are still stuck there. 

...and finally their identity is revealed as Lasse Rindom, Lead AI & Technology Strategist at Basico and host of "The Only Constant" podcast: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lasserindom/ 
Agents of AI features CFOs, other practitioners, technology leaders, and AI visionaries to share real wins, failures, and strategies, so teams everywhere can learn, adapt, and lead. You can also learn any time from the entire knowledge base of our guests via our "AI Twin". https://hey.speak-to.ai/agents-of-ai 
If you know a superhero and "Agent of AI" that should join our program, or you are one yourself! Comment, tag them, or reach out to Alexis Chevallot or Peter Steube on LinkedIn.  https://www.linkedin.com/company/wearecapto