Superhuman Innovation

Anita Brick: Hi, this is Anita Brick. And welcome to CateerCast at Chicago Booth. To help you advance in your career. Today we're delighted to be speaking with Chris Duffey and his Android counterpart, which we'll talk about in a little bit. Chris spearheads Adobe's Creative Cloud strategic development partnerships across the creative enterprise space. In addition, he and his work have been profiled in The Wall Street Journal, Adweek, New York Post, and Business Insider, among others. And he's been featured by Google, McKinsey and Wharton in their digital marketing blog. Chris also serves on Rutgers University Data Advisory Board and the board of directors for the Association of National Advertisers in New York.

Prior to Adobe, Chris was an award winning executive creative director, noted speaker, AI and mobile technologist, and author. Chris, very excited to say I never read a book co authored by a human and an android. But actually I have someone who sent me a cookbook that was written by chefs from the Culinary Institute of America and IBM Watson. But this was really a synergistic dialog that you and your Android army were having in the book Superhuman Innovation. Thank you so much for writing it with her and for making the time all the way from Ireland today.

Chris Duffey: Thanks for having me.

Anita Brick: Maybe you can give us a really short, maybe minute or so, definition of what Superhuman Innovation actually means.

Chris Duffey: Superhuman Innovation was born out of this insight that artificial intelligence is one of the biggest transformational technologies our generation has ever seen. The underlying premise of Superhuman Innovation is that AI is an intelligent assistant that we can co-create with in the future.

Anita Brick: There's a student who's all concerned about AI. He says, “Hi, Chris, I'm concerned that AI is replacing people in fields where I have an interest, namely strategy, consulting and investment management. It's already happening. How do I partner with AI rather than fear it?”

Chris Duffey: Wonderful question. This goes to somewhat of the power of Hollywood when people kind of knee jerk reaction around AI is they default to this anthropomorphized encapsulation of artificial intelligence. So the first step is to unpack what is AI. It's been called a suitcase word because it's so complex, much like intelligence, much like emotion. AI fundamentally has three layers to it. The top layer is superintelligence. And that's this notion theory premise that at some point, artificial intelligence will become so profoundly intelligent that we as humans will not be able to even comprehend its intelligence.

Much debate around that. If that will ever happen, I can assure folks it's probably very, very far out there. The second layer is general intelligence, and that's one prong down. It's the theory of equal intelligence to human IQ. There's some big hurdles. We as humans are so complex, both intellectually and emotionally, and if you bring in biology, it's an immense challenge to try to recreate that in. Currently AI is narrow AI, and the word narrow doesn't give AI justice because it is profoundly powerful. It is a tool to aid us, to uplevel us.

Yeah, I always go back to a Steve Jobs quote. Technology is nothing. What's important is you have to put faith in people. They're basically good and smart. And if you give them great tools, they're going to do great things. So if I narrow, AI is not a replacement for humans. It's a tool to uplevel us. One fact that just came out here in the UK recently, they did an assessment in terms of job displacement, and they came to the conclusion that around 7 million jobs will be potentially displaced by AI. But more jobs will be created by AI by probably around 2037 or 2040 in the UK. So that's an example of how AI is going to uplevel us. I kind of gravitate towards creative and critical thinking. So the mundane, repetitive task will be aided by narrow AI to get that stuff out of the way for a higher level of thinking.

Anita Brick: Well, and it's interesting because clearly you made a pivot from what you used to do being creative director to what you do today. Oh, I'm sad. I am moving into a more data analytics role. What are a few key things you did to successfully move from being a creative director to what you do today?

Chris Duffey: Fundamentally, the foundational need and belief to be curious, continuously be curious and on a business standpoint, always default back to what is the business objective? What is the business outcome? And that is your North Star. And then great tools will help you get there faster, more effectively and with greater results. I started out on the creative side, and I was always fascinated when creativity met with emerging technologies and over the years they kind of gravitated towards everything from wearables to 3D technology.

Anita Brick: That’s very interesting. In the book you talk about your super framework. The E in super is experimentation, which is curiosity and inspiration. When do you think about this? A student asked this question, “How does this work in the business world to have AI curiosity and AI inspiration practical and actionable?”

Chris Duffey: This is one of my favorite topics and we discussed it, I believe in chapter 15 in great length. Fundamentally, it comes down to intent. If the human professional, the strategist, whatever role they're in, they have human intent and they're orchestrating tools to achieve those intent. So even if they're leveraging AI techniques that have some curiosity built into it, but from a very tangible standpoint, it always goes back to human in the loop, whether it be in identifying the business opportunity or creating and orchestrating the AI techniques. AI is fundamentally not a replacement for humans. It's an amplifier of human ability.

Anita Brick: That's a very, very good point. And one of the things in the book that I found fascinating, and I never really thought about it this way. Looking at history, you talk about how everything starts with solving a problem. So someone asked the question. She said, “How do you advise others on how to identify a problem that's big enough to solve? And with a sustainable vision?” And you talked about how the Apollo space mission petered out over time because the problem wasn't relevant enough. It's kind of what happens after you achieve the mission.

Chris Duffey: It happens quite often in business, even though it has been around since the 50s. We're seeing that in these early days of adoption of AI, where organizations, big or small, are doing a pilot of AI to test the premise of AI. A key component that's been missing is there is a longer roadmap for how it is going to be instrumental in the long term success of the business. Getting back to that question. It goes back to what is the objective for the business. We're hearing and seeing businesses that are succeeding in today's ever changing environment. They are driven by creating great experiences. And what we mean by that is experiences that are meaningful for the customer, but also for the employees. So if you have a long term vision, that's where I can help you get there faster and more effectively.

Anita Brick: What are the limited resources? There was a student who said, “I work in a senior well for an early stage food company, and we don't see the feasibility of using AI today. Where are the potential entry points for a non-tech company with limited resources?”

Chris Duffey: Two great starting points are to identify a quick win, whether it be an existing project or a future project where you can incorporate AI to get familiar with the technology. Look at the team structure, and we talk a lot about that in superhuman. There are some sizable challenges when you're implementing this in an enterprise or company wide. From an infrastructure standpoint, everything from getting the data to be siloed, to being structured, having the security ethics and team along that journey. If there is a quick win on that existing or future project, that's a great way to get things up and running.

A second one is if the organization or team has a data set that is accessible. Start with that. Take a look at your data and see what kind of insights you would like to be extracted from that. You know you can kind of run that pretty quickly nowadays. So that would lead to the third potential starting point. Take a look at a lot of the open source APIs out there. It also sparks a number of ideas and it's quite inspirational. You know, I have these moments where oh, I didn't know that was possible. Just by looking through existing APIs. Those would be the three suggestions as a starting point.

Anita Brick: That's great. Here's another situation with an alum whose business has been heavily in the data space. He said, “Data is a lifeline of my company's business, and we support executive decision making. What are the first steps in creating a long term strategy?”

Chris Duffey: In this case, 5 to 10 years around data and AI, without knowing the industry or a sector they're in, I go back to creating the experience. A sub point of that is the need for hyper personalized services, products or business frameworks. And again, that goes back to both your customer and your employees without knowing the details. That's a topic that is universal, that applies across all businesses for future proofing for the next 5 to 10 years. Use AI as an opportunity, as a tool to create these personalized experiences.

Anita Brick: One of the things that came up is that one of the other ones, who's a data scientist, like PhD and an MBA, his company isn't quite there yet. And he said, well, “What guidance would you have for someone like me who sees the potential of AI and my colleagues see it as a pet project?”

Chris Duffey: Yeah, this gets back to change management. We as humans are programmed to question new things. And AI, as we talked about earlier, is somewhat misunderstood and there's a need to demystify it. So first, first off, it's almost to get everyone on a common understanding of what AI is and is not, and then map it back to the overarching business goals or objectives, or even the team goals. And then again, go for that quick win to showcase how instrumental it is. And that kind of talks to the super framework that we suggest people use. AI is going to help with speed, understanding, performance, experimentation and results. And when you have that mindset going into a project, you can easily snap back to that and use that to create a quick win for broader uptake within the organization.

Anita Brick: When you think about that and you think about low risk areas in a company where you could do that kind of experiment or that mini pilot, are there any places that you've seen in particular that have a win, but that the risk isn't super high?

Chris Duffey: You know, many organizations have TCO as digital centers of excellence, so they already have an affinity for experimentation. It's almost within the organization. Find the advocates, find the projects that are a little more experimental. Use that as leverage for broader incorporation. I think it's good. And it does go back to, which seems to be a fundamental question that comes up. Almost every career case we do is that while of course, data and large data sets and being able to analyze and extract insights from are super important, relationships are probably more important than anything else.

Anita Brick: Two questions that sounded like two managers were struggling in different ways about building those connections. One, Allen, said, “I hire near digital natives to do advanced data analytics, which they can absolutely do, yet they're not so comfortable in having face to face conversations or presenting to clients. What advice would you have for me to help them bridge that gap?

Chris Duffey:This goes to the notion and the trend we're seeing or pattern of not only collaboration. Think of businesses, understand the need for collaboration, but the nuance to that is to have the data scientists or the AI team embedded into the business team. I think we're going through growing pains currently with AI, where in many cases subdivision or on the side once they get incorporated into the teams. That's where we see really powerful collaboration happening, and it's really quite exciting to see when you bring these different perspectives and different affinities towards approaches together in a very lockstep manner. It's almost having this inverse effect where the creative minded folks are learning to be more analytical and vice versa than analytical. We've seen many cases where some of the most groundbreaking, provocative approaches are coming from that side of the house as well.

Anita Brick: I think it's very interesting, and it kind of makes sense to go a little bit deeper with that question. How do you get people to practical action? To have conversations with each other rather than using yet another tool or app for collaboration, which doesn't allow for or it rarely allows for, encourages face to face collaboration. It's interesting to put humans together so they can solve problems and have you come in when and where it’s needed to execute those solutions, and I get that. But what would you do with me if I were a person that we describe? If everything that I do with you is through instant messaging or through texting or whatever tool I use, how would you get me to pause on that and actually have a live conversation with you, and ultimately help me feel comfortable enough to present my ideas to others without being behind the technology?

Chris Duffey: Yeah, in some cases, some people might prefer the slack as a form of conversation and interaction, and some people may prefer human to human interaction. There has to be an agreement. Some people have different preferences and work styles.

Anita Brick: How can collectively, everyone come together in the most efficient way as a team, but also as an individual?

Chris Duffey: There's quite a number of considerations when thinking and coordinating team dynamics specific to your question. If people have a fundamental preference and an ability to succeed in that preference, I would argue an individualized approach to let them be the high achiever they can be in their environment and then let the other folks work in their preferred style as well.

Anita Brick: So really creating more stratified roles, it sounds like.

Chris Duffey: Exactly. And then having an elastic team dynamic that is individualized within the workspace, it's still a little I mean, it's a new notion. I think everyone's contemplating experimenting with what is the most opportunistic and most efficient way to create these dynamics. And this is where I can not only be a part of, but also help achieve that, where it can create individualized work experiences for better team dynamics.

Anita Brick: Well, it is very interesting because not only is technology shaping the changing workplace, but our different generations as well.

Chris Duffey: Yeah, definitely.

Anita Brick: I find this whole area really fascinating, and I think that some people are excited about it. Some people are scared by it, but there's a lot that can be leveraged. I like the way the book was laid out. I think the first 40, 50% is laying the foundation for the application and the second half of the book. But I know that we like to be very practical here. So what are three things that you would advise someone to do in order to incorporate super human innovation for greater, not just career success today, but longevity, and I would add, without losing their humanity?

Chris Duffey: Exactly, and that gets to the fundamental premise. And that's the paradox of the name of the book. Superhuman Innovation is not about computer superintelligence. This is about using technology to achieve superhuman abilities. So it's not about the technology, it's about what the human can achieve with the technology first and foremost.

Anita Brick: You know, of course, I'm a fan of the book.I would encourage everyone to go out and get up to speed with a non-technical understanding of what artificial intelligence is and is not. I don't think it should be the onus of companies to train their employees. There has to be a commitment on individuals within companies to stay up to speed with technology.

Chris Duffey: Of course, it's amplified when companies also provide training. So I would say that's easily step one. And there's great materials for complete understanding of what AI is and how it can be applied. The next step is, and we chatter about this a couple times, is where are the quick wins? And the quick wins are not where AI can be introduced. But the quick win is where can a project, an initiative, have an impact on the broader business strategy and go after that and then incorporate AI to help achieve that?

Again, with a super framework with greater speed, greater understanding, greater performance, with some injection of experimentation and then measurement and results, that would be step two. And then you touched on step three. As great as AI is and all of this emerging technology, again, at the end of the day, it's about the human in terms of an employee as well as the consumer, and almost a little hesitant to say a consumer customer, because I think we're evolving that mindset to the fact that even customer and this is a no brainer, but even customers and consumers are human.

So not only do we have to consider the customer in terms of the customer journey as it relates back to the business objective, but we have to take a more holistic approach. What do the customers have as human value, what are their belief systems, and how can companies and businesses truly offer a great value? As a third point, at the end of the day, it's about elevating the human condition.

Anita Brick: I like that a lot. It takes us back to AI being a supporter, an example of the human. No pressure, but any other final words of wisdom you want to share with us?

Chris Duffey: Maybe a last note is I would urge companies to leverage AI, that it's tangible and can have an immediate impact on their business objectives.

Anita Brick: That's great! I can't wait to catch up with you in the future, because probably tomorrow things will have changed a whole bunch, because this is a very rapidly changing and growing field. Thank you for making the time and from very far away, which is very generous of you. So thanks so much. And I learned a lot reading the book, and I learned even more today. So thanks again for making the time.

Chris Duffey: Thanks for having me.

Anita Brick: Chris alluded to a whole bunch of things. He has a great site. It's Chris Duffey and that’s Chrisduffey.ai. Thanks again Chris.

Chris Duffey: Thank you.

Anita Brick: And thank you all for listening. This is Anita Brick with CareerCast at Chicago Booth. Keep advancing.