Business Builders Podcast

Navigating the Future of Business with Futurist Craig Rispin

• Brenton Gowland & Ron Tomlian • Season 3 • Episode 47

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In this insightful episode of the Business Builders podcast, we're joined by renowned futurist Craig Rispin. We delve deep into the realm of emerging technologies and explore how they could reshape the business landscape. Craig shares his expert insights on how to prepare for these inevitable changes today.

Key Points Discussed:

  1. The importance of understanding the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its impact on the business world.
  2. The role of emerging technologies like AI, VR/AR, and synthetic biology in driving productivity and innovation in businesses.
  3. The urgent need for businesses to adapt to technological advancements or risk becoming irrelevant.
  4. Practical ways businesses can embrace change, including deploying AI, adopting new apps, leveraging reverse mentors, and building university partnerships.
  5. Craig's views on the potential risks and ethical considerations associated with advanced AI.


Quotes from the Episode:

  • “The most exciting technologies to me are based on the fourth industrial revolution.” - Craig Rispin
  • “The next billionaires are going to be three people and AI and that’s it.” - Craig Rispin citing Peter Diamandis
  • “There will be two types of firms: those who exploit the opportunity of AI and the ones that are out of business.” - Craig Rispin
  • “Technology always precedes legislation.” - Craig Rispin on the universal law of technology
  • “The world has changed, and you're just keeping on doing what you did last quarter or last year, or three years ago, or 10 years ago. You can't do that and think you could be competitive.” - Craig Rispin

Conclusion:
This episode is a must-listen for anyone keen on staying ahead of the curve in the rapidly evolving business world. Join us as we navigate the future of business with Craig Rispin and learn how to adapt and thrive amidst technological change.

Next Episode Teaser:
Don't miss our next episode where we discuss implementing a four-day work week. An exciting conversation you won't want to miss!

Remember to subscribe to the Business Builders podcast for more insights from industry experts and thought leaders.

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Helping businesses find their new shape.

SA Business Builders
Business leaders social group based in South Australia

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Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Business Builders Podcast. Until next time, KEEP ON BUILDING !!

Brenton Gowland:

Hey there Business Builders. Ever wondered what the future holds for your business? Well, in this episode, we dive into the world of emerging technologies with renowned futurist Craig respin. He'll be sharing his insights on how these advancements and shaped the future of our businesses. Well, welcome to the Business Builders podcast. We are your host, I am Brenton Gowland.

Ron Tomlian:

And I'm Ron Tomlian.

Brenton Gowland:

And Ron, we tried to have today's guest on a few weeks ago, but we suffered from some technical glitches, technology,

Ron Tomlian:

It can be your best friend, and your worst enemy,

Brenton Gowland:

Just like the fact that technology is in the paper, almost every day of the week at the moment isn't it.

Ron Tomlian:

You can't pick up a paper or any type of news feed and not see something about AI. The fact that it's going to destroy the world or it's going to make the world a utopia, something along those lines.

Brenton Gowland:

So there's a lot of room in between them, which is why we've got our guest here today. Yes, we do. So do you want to tell us about him?

Ron Tomlian:

Yes. Craig Rispin is one of the world's leading futurists. Welcome, Craig.

Craig Rispin:

Thank you very much, Ron, and Brenton, it's great to be here. Let's talk about the future. It isn't so scary.

Ron Tomlian:

Let me tell our listeners a little bit more about you. First, you're a recognised expert in emerging business, people and technology trends, and most importantly, how companies can profit from those trends. Your keynote, and strategic planning are powered by artificial intelligence. And I've seen it with over 1 million data sources that you're using, revealing the future of any industry or major topic, Craig has over 35 years experience working with a future has been created with some of the most innovative organisations in the world. We'll get you to talk about some of those. Yeah, and awarding keynote speaker and CEO mentor. He shows his clients how to no First, be first and profit first. And I'm a great fan of Craig's because he I use him in my tech groups, and they just love him.

Brenton Gowland:

And I have seen him present, and I was super impressed. So it's amazing to have you with us, Craig,

Craig Rispin:

bar. Thank you so much. I can't wait to talk to you about the future. Because well, it's my passion. I'm lucky that I have this job as a futurist.

Ron Tomlian:

Yes, well, that's an interesting thing. You call yourself a futurist, what is a futurist? And why should business leaders be interested in what they have to say?

Craig Rispin:

Well, futurists are great people, not just me, there's 21,000 of us in one peer group that I'm part of. And we just ask great questions about the future to create preferable futures. And I think that's the main thing that we do. And about a third of us come from the academia and research area, about a third come from government and NGO. And like the Australian Bureau of Statistics employ a lot of futurist and other than the commercial world. And that's where I come from. In here in Australia, we've graduated about 900 Students with degrees and strategic foresight, mainly from Swinburne University.

Ron Tomlian:

Wow. And, you know, tomorrow we're thinking most people don't even know that something like a degree in future inside even exists.

Craig Rispin:

Yes, I know, they don't think it's a real job. But I say it's a real job. There's lots of us out there. We have professional industry groups. But here's the thing, one of the exciting things about being in this community of futurists, is that everything that you see around you everything that's been built of the most successful movies in the world. And the technology that we're using today, were all invented by futurists, and then created by great engineers who thought that's a great idea. I think I'll take that flip communicator from Star Trek, and turn it into a phone at Motorola. Literally, that happens. Yeah,

Ron Tomlian:

that's amazing. Because I remember when I was a young man, actually a young boy, I saw my first episode of Star Trek, back in Detroit. And I thought, how cool is that? Communicate it. And then when mobile phones came out, I thought, that's amazing. I've seen this before. The only thing I thought was cooler than the communicator was the phaser. And we haven't got those yet. And I'm kind of happy about that.

Craig Rispin:

Oh, well, the military does. But that's a whole nother story. The military have phases. Well, they have lasers and lasers to knock out missiles now. So yes, it's a thing. Well, you digress.

Brenton Gowland:

That's okay. I'm still waiting for the transporter because I know we have the advantage of having talked to you once before and you got me really jealous when we spoke because you said you knew Gene Roddenberry?

Craig Rispin:

Yes, Gene Roddenberry was the one of the original members of the World Future Society. The World Future Society was started in 1966. The year I was born. I didn't become a member until I was one of the first student members at the age of 11, and 1977. And the Roddenberry's are still involved with the World Future Society. His son, you, Gene Roddenberry, is still on our board. And there's a lot of futurist science fiction writers that would come along to our annual meetings, they would get great ideas, and they turned it into science fiction. So you can imagine when I get around the traps, and I bumped into some of these people, and I remember this memorable experience of going to speak to the worldwide president of one of the biggest advertising firms, BBDO people know this. And so we're in Bermuda and they have these little mini vans that take you from the airport out to the resorts. And I jump into this minivan, and there's a guy in a white leisure suit. And he says, Hi there. My name is Ray Bradbury. And I'm like, what Ray Bradbury, I know who you are. Oh, yes. And I get to bump into my idols all the time.

Brenton Gowland:

You had me really jealous last time, because it's just, I think we mentioned the fact that, like you just said there that Star Trek, for example, presents a future where with beetle and all of our problems, like we talked just about the AI destroying us or creating a utopia Well, in the Star Trek future, is become a utopia where people can work on art, or they can work on extending the human race and so forth. And that's great, it gives you hope. So on that, in your opinion, what are the most exciting emerging technologies or trends that will significantly impact our lives over the next decade? And are they from Star Trek?

Craig Rispin:

Well, some of them are because science fiction actually was created, mainly to ask big questions about what the future can be, and what preferable future we would want. That's why so many of them are dystopian, is because that's not the future that we want. So we better discuss it. So that's the main purpose of science fiction, I've been told by people who've made written these books and made the most famous films that everybody goes to see. So the most exciting technologies to me are based on the fourth industrial revolution. And the fourth industrial revolution is in three areas, not just technology, or the digital area, the digital area is so important, because that's the existing third industrial revolution, computers and technology expanded into new areas. And then we've got the physical world where we have things like advanced robots. And then we have the biological world, where we have synthetic biology, and printing have new life forms for doing all sorts of things like data storage, but that's a whole nother string of new life forms. Oh, yes, yes, we can print new life forms. My daughter did this. When she was at university. She's 26 Now, but she was 19, she ordered a new life form a nano particle that would enclose in a little trap, a cancer delivery drug or treating cancer. Wow. And she did that when she was 19. What kind of printers did you have when you guys went to school? Dot

Brenton Gowland:

Matrix?

Craig Rispin:

Yeah, I remember the dot matrix. And sometimes when I asked this question, in my sessions, you know what they do in my audience, they do this round thing with their hand round and round and round and round. Yeah, like one of those printers that they actually did those copies by hand?

Brenton Gowland:

Well, I was pretty impressed. Because I just had a friend of mine print me all these computer stands, they're great. Everyone loves them. But printing actual life forms, that's next level. It'll be a day we'll be doing that kind of thing in our own homes,

Craig Rispin:

probably because they are working on USB powered life form scanners. In other words, we can sequence DNA. So this is already happening in various African continent nations. And I know that a lot of my medical device manufacturers that I work with, they're saying that the next major revolution and medical technology won't come from the developed world. It'll come from the developing world. And that's what I'm seeing interest when we've got this USB powered sequencer. So could sequence DNA for it could sequence something like COVID, for instance? And that's starting to happen already.

Brenton Gowland:

Well, so are there any other technologies in that space? So we've covered off on printing and some other bits and pieces? Was there anything else on your mind before we move on to the next question?

Craig Rispin:

Oh, there's all sorts. But when I talk about the third industrial revolution, morphing into the fourth industrial revolution, it's really to understand these three areas, right? So that it's not just about technology, computers and communications. It's digital world of AR and VR. So augmented reality. The which Apple is doing VR that meta is doing and so on. And then you've got big data and cloud technologies. And then we've got the biological world and that physical world, and what people have to understand it's the merging of these together. Yes, it's creating this explosion of opportunities, especially for entrepreneurs and business, to be able to leverage and amplify their success. And if you understand that, new possibilities just unfold in front of you. And you're like, Oh, holy cow, we need to move into this new era

Brenton Gowland:

look just on that, too, because this is just coming out recently. And we're talking about Apple vision, the new interface that people have with technology, right through the goggles that everyone's paying out, and so forth, which mind you look very much like, I think it was Steven Spielberg's movie Ready Player, one where they're all wearing exactly the same goggles. And that was supposed to be 20 years in the future. But the reason I bring that up, it's caused a lot of discussion. Where do you see that going? And what do you see that doing with people? Because it's obviously not available to February next year, I think in the States, and then a little bit later in Australia?

Craig Rispin:

Well, you can really say that this is the really expensive product, that they really want to get into the hands of just a few developers, right to develop the app. So we don't even know will emerge. Yeah, because that's what really happens. You know, the first iPhone was horribly expensive. Wait a second, they're even more expensive now. But anyway, they were horribly expensive, and only a few people got them. And then all of a sudden, these apps came out. And Steve Jobs was against that at first, but they opened it up and listened to the people inside his company. And all of a sudden, these apps came out like Uber and Airbnb, and changed all of our lives. And so that's what they're going to be doing. So it's a first very expensive device. But that's not what Apple wants to do. They want a much smaller and more efficient, so it can run more than two hours. And this is just the first version. And I have to say, I love Apple, I worked for Apple. This is what I learned at Apple, never buy the first version of any of Apple's things.

Brenton Gowland:

Interesting.

Ron Tomlian:

Good advice. Good advice. Now, you talked about apps like Uber, which completely disrupted an industry and the taxi industry. He talked about Airbnb that disrupted the hotel industry. Are there any specific industries or sectors that you believe will undergo significant transformations in the coming years? And how should they adapt, stay competitive?

Craig Rispin:

Or will they adapt? Well, to adapt, you really have to first understand this framework of these possibilities of these three areas that can amplify from the fourth industrial revolution, then ask, How can I take advantage of this, and I'll give you an example. So I think one of the most exciting areas is the field of medicine, and medical devices, and so on. And I was presenting to a CEO group, and there was a female CEO in the area. And the reason I mentioned this is that she's quite passionate about helping actually returned service people with PTSD, using virtual technology, and especially returning female veterans. So this is her practice, specialty. She said, Craig, I'm really struggling to get traction. Because what I do is I use this VR technology to desensitise This is actually a technique that is used clinically to desensitise my returning veterans to the trauma that they've had. But my reaction in my peak industry group is Oh, that's just to lay there, you're just playing games that couldn't possibly help. So Craig, I'm looking at those three circles of the digital the biological, and the physical world. And I'm thinking how can I integrate the biological because I'm working with biological systems people. And I said, well, didn't you know cuz you see up there. There's neuro technology, neuro technology, brain technology that's available, where you could actually look inside the brains of your patients and see how they're responding to the treatment. You could analyse their brains ahead of time, you could analyse their brains during treatment, and then after treatment and actually show this visualise this with big data. Craig, I had no idea this was, Well, I kind of knew it was possible, but these machines cost hundreds of 1000s of dollars, don't they? And I go No. Thanks to emerging technology, these devices now cost less than $300. That's

Brenton Gowland:

right. I actually have a friend who bought one on your recommendation.

Craig Rispin:

Yes. The one that I'm using the quite excited about is called Mendy, m e n, Di. And it actually uses lasers, lasers, but not in a way that is going to shoot out other missiles out of the sky that are attacking you, but actually uses infrared lasers to go penetrate your skin. And through your forehead, it can actually sense the blood flow. And what's happening with your neurons. Actually, you can do that with light. Most people didn't think you can do that. But there were machines that were very expensive in hospitals. And this entrepreneur figured out that he could take that technology, shrink it down and turn it into a consumer device. And it's just amazing technology. People think, oh, that could possibly be true. But it is actually the most ridiculous technology is the one that you think that couldn't possibly be true. But it is. It's like magic, as Arthur C.

Ron Tomlian:

Clarke said. So what I'm hearing from you, Craig, is that there's no specific industries that will undergo significant transformation. It's

Craig Rispin:

no, it's the entire economy. Yeah, yeah. So every industry.

Ron Tomlian:

So the trick, I suppose is that the Kodak moments of the past, but we don't want to be the type of organisation that becomes a victim of changing technology. How can organisations that don't want to become victims? How can they adapt to stay competitive?

Craig Rispin:

Okay, this is from my experience, in working with the people that usually work with to this, these leaders and they realise all of a sudden, look, this AI thing, like the iPhone moment, is going to change everything. And they ask themselves, how can I respond. And the best way to respond actually, is to work with the next generation of leaders. So what I like to do is say that, once you understand, you got this framework, and you got a strategy, and you're gonna make a bet on the future, please, leader, when I asked who's in charge of this project, let's say rolling out AI across your entire organisation in some way, please don't point to yourself and say, This is my project. This is an ideal project for somebody else in the next generation to take on. All they need is your permission, a little bit of resources, and maybe a framework to point them in the right direction. And please let them do it. And I like to call these people the change leaders, not the CEO, the change leaders within the organisation. Sometimes peak industry groups will have a programme they'll call it their future leaders programme. Yes. And I worked with them and rolled out this framework of its curriculum over 12 months. So they've got all the tools and resources that they need to make this change. And then who's actually going to do it? Well, all of when I talk to these leaders and ask them how busy their team is, they're all overwhelmed, completely overwhelmed. What are you going to do give them another project? That doesn't make sense. So you get get this internal leader to lead say, they become your AI Wrangler, for this project, but the people who actually do it are what I call reverse mentors. So they're young people that you get in mostly from universities that must do commercial projects to graduate. And you can team up with any university anywhere. And you can post a project on their internal board and say, Send me three students, they're going to research the applications of AI into the legal industry, let's say,

Brenton Gowland:

that's really interesting, because in a sense, unis are in danger of becoming less relevant. So that's a really good way to get unis back in the front line, I reckon.

Craig Rispin:

Oh, yes, definitely. And I've worked with, well, the all the Vice Chancellors spoke to their combined group, and they've all realised that they need to have better connections to industry. And they're not very good at that. They'll admit that. And when I ask leaders, business leaders, do you have strong ties to universities? They say no, we're not very good at that. And I say, well, let's get your change leader to be very good at that. And the only time it will take them is they pick up the phone, they call the chair of the computer science department or whatever university might be and say, Would you like me to donate a speech? I would love to give you a day off and talk to your students about the future of technology and law firms or in medical devices or whatever industry, the built environment, whatever industry you're in, you take the day off and I'll donate a speech and you can mark papers, whatever you want. What do you think that professor says to that? Well, what do you think? Have your day.

Ron Tomlian:

I know I interface with a lot of lectures and I know that they'll be there'll be jumping up.

Craig Rispin:

Yes. And then what do they say? Well, how can I return the favour? And I say, Well, you know, we're posting projects, research projects, on the applications of AI in the built environment. And if you could encourage your students encourage, Craig once said to me, encouraged, no, I'm going to tell them, they have to sign up for your project, or they're going to be very, I'm going to be very disappointed with them. And I said, Great. And can we do that every semester, you send over two or three more of your superstar students, the ones that you hand select that, you know, are going to be amazing when they graduate. Oh, Craig, we'd love love to partner with you on that. So I have to tell you, many of my CEOs over the last 25 years have turned this into at one point. And Macquarie Bank had 800 Reverse mentors were coming on campus, every single week, were working with their most senior leaders, because you know what they admitted to me? I don't know if they would like me saying this, but this is a long time ago.

Brenton Gowland:

What do you want Chatham House rules here?

Craig Rispin:

I'll tell you, and I think they will own up to this anyway. And if we exit our CEO has said it publicly. At one point, they weren't in being invited in those billion dollar room deals anymore. They're rainmakers and sort of aged out of being. And they because they're industries that they knew about, had shifted. And to really be in those discussions of those next billion dollar deals. They weren't having those discussions. And they told me that they got a billion dollars worth of deal with Elon to fund him and his next deal. And they told me a direct line, Craig, we can draw a direct line between your recommendation of us getting reverse mentors, and us getting that deal with Ilan. So thank you, Greg, for that billion dollar opportunity. And I said to them, can I get it in writing? They said, No, we have a policy. We don't recommend vendors. Oh, no, no, that's true. It's absolutely true.

Ron Tomlian:

It's not on the industries that are facing challenges were globally we're facing all sorts of challenges, climate change, resource scarcity futures, would seem to me to have a role to play in that what's what's your view on that?

Craig Rispin:

Well, we do in fact, the futures community actually started this global conversation about the limits to growth back in 1972, when a book came out, called the limits to growth. And it was get this the very first book based on research, of modelling of the finite resources and population that we have on this planet. And we were going to have in the future, and it was done on punch cards like they did in 1970s. And it was so accurate that for the 40th anniversary, CSIRO ran the same algorithm, and they said it was about 89% accurate, the forecasts of the population growth and the limits to growth. And if you look at that, and Google that, go to Wikipedia and see it, it's got this map, and the dwindling resources that you're talking about Ron are specifically mapped in that van population growth. And so we have actually been having these global conversations since the 1970s. And that the sustainability industry worldwide, started with our community, who at the time, I can tell you in 1972, I remember as a kid, my parents were sharing this trying to share this book with some of their friends and family. And you know, what they were called when you suggested there was a limits to growth, what they were called communists. They were literally called communists, because you suggested that there was a limit to oil, or a limit to iron or a limit to natural resources based on population growth. But I think the conversation has definitely moved on from there. Every generation has its thing. It does. And I have to tell you, there are a great number of futurists, who are trying to encourage the next generation of leaders to not just have a project where they're working on a project at a company. But how about a project that has a positive impact in the world? That would help at least a billion people. Now I've been part of those programmes, getting young people to think how can I serve a billion people and I'm getting goosebumps right now. out, because this is the kind of thing that we really need everyone, especially our next generation of leaders to be talking about every day.

Brenton Gowland:

Yeah, it's interesting. Helping a billion people can seem like a really scary, almost impossible task. But does technology because I think we had a conversation a while back. And you said, it used to be that a country did a thing. But now a business can do what a country did. And then you said, now it's an individual who can do what a business did based on AI and so forth. So how do you get people to think that they can actually affect people at that scale? Is it through technology? Is it through just creating a different way of thinking?

Craig Rispin:

It is? Firstly, you have to have that idea that maybe this in fact, is possible? Yeah. Something that I never thought was possible could be true. So first, you have to have that entertain that idea in your head, that there is actually this abundance, that there isn't a limit, actually, when it comes to thought, sort of ideas and big ideas. There's no natural resource is dwindling in that space. And so really, it is a mindset. And then Peter Diamandis, who's a famous futurist who started the XPrize and salam ism now who wrote this fantastic book together, exponential organisations, they've just come out with a second version to exponential organisations to point out, and they said something really interesting in a recent interview, that they said that the next billionaires are going to be three people and AI. And that's it, as in the whole company is three people the whole company. Yes. Because billion is a big number. millionaires. Absolutely. I

Brenton Gowland:

get that. I'm not challenging you on that. I'm just saying, wow.

Craig Rispin:

And you can see that this is possible. And especially what's the challenge right now? And the reason I'll give you the reason that Microsoft invested $11 billion in a startup called Open AI, and even though they had employed It was estimated 30,000 ai experts. This team of a few 100 ai experts at open ai, gazumped, Microsoft, gazumped, Amazon, gazumped, Apple. And they're all looking at now saying, there is no moat. This is what one leaked memo that came out from Google, there is no moat with AI, that anybody can use this. And they can be as good as us. Even if we were to invest a trillion dollars, it wouldn't be a moat. Wow. So this is for anyone. And if you have this mindset of how can I do something to benefit a billion people? And how can I use AI to help a billion returning veterans, and we're probably going to have that. So why not have this tool that can help a billion people? Yeah, and reduce the cost to the ridiculous of a few $100. So you can see into somebody's brain, and it's not delegated just to expensive consultations at hospitals on expensive equipment.

Brenton Gowland:

As we all know, that's getting really hard to even get a booking at a hospital or getting a booking with a medical professional at the moment. So that just makes it accessible to people all of a sudden,

Craig Rispin:

yes. And I can tell you that the smartest doctors in the world right now are recommending apps and consumer grade technology that has been brought down from you know, hospital based technology. And they're saying you can go off your tablets, use this app and use this device, and you don't have to be on tablets. Now somebody out there is gonna go Oh, cray. Yeah. Wait a minute. Are you an anti tablet person? And I'm like, No, but I'm telling you the smartest cardiologist in the world. In New York City. I won't say who he is because I don't want to get him in trouble. But he is considered the number one cardiologist in the world. And he says to patients, you have two paths forward. You can wear an Apple Watch and run this app and check your heart rate and eat this meal plan and do this exercise. Or you can be on this collection of a dozen tablets for the rest of your life. Hello Dortch. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Apple Watch where it checks your pulse every six seconds. Yep. I had

Brenton Gowland:

someone who was working with us who had an Apple Watch to manage a heart condition they had. So what you're seeing is ringing true.

Ron Tomlian:

So it's it has the potential to affect us in every aspect of our lives. And that thing is this artificial intelligence. We started our discussion today talking about acting seems to be in very short order, although I know it hasn't been a short order, but it seems to a lot of be Apple that it's the last six months, it's just exploded and continues to advance and it's starting to become all pervasive. What are your thoughts on the potential benefits and risks associated with this widespread or seemed to be widespread adoption of AI?

Craig Rispin:

Hmm? Well, I can tell you that this is just a repeating pattern for me. So it's the 10 to 100 times productivity boost that we saw with the PC, then we had the internal network and the worldwide network. So the land and then the internet. And then next, we had the mobile phone. And then we connected the mobile phone with an app store to the cloud. And we had mobile and cloud. And each time we had this, we had this boost in productivity of 10x to 100x. And we're about to have that now. And imagine it's just like the App Store. Again, it's 2009, again, and two companies startup called Airbnb and Uber, based on a new technology called the App Store, and they completely transform industries worldwide. Well, it's like that again. And in just the last four months more has happened in AI, with I'm tracking now 12,000 ai apps have come out in the last four months. And that maps almost exactly to the number of apps that came out in the first four months when the App Store came out. And then a year later, there were a million apps, as you might recall, yep. Well, I can tell you, there's going to be a million AI apps, within 12 months, most certainly, they're going to be a billion people using it every single day. Because it's not only going to be built into every one of our phones, it's going to be built into Microsoft Office, or Google Apps, and people are going to be using it every day. And I can tell you right now, there will be two types of firms in the future firms who exploit the opportunity of AI, and the ones that are out of business. I see this I've sought when when the App Store came out, there were a few CEOs that approached me and said, Craig, this is going to change the hotel industry, Craig, this is going to change the taxi industry, Craig, this is going to change the publishing industry, Craig, this is gonna change the legal industry. And they took action. And I can tell you all those leaders who did not are no longer around, can show that to

Ron Tomlian:

you. That's one of the risks. You pretend it's not there at your own risk. But there's a lot of talk about AI going out of control and AI taking over the world. Give us your perspective on that from a futurist point of view.

Brenton Gowland:

Are we talking Terminator here? Well, Skynet,

Ron Tomlian:

I wasn't gonna go down that path. But yeah, that's the type of stuff that people are talking about. And even some of the people involved in AI seem to be giving it some credence. So the reason I asked that question is he's, we've got someone on the show, who actually lives in this area. What's your perspective? Greg?

Craig Rispin:

Well, I looked at all their arguments, because I'm open to new ideas. And I really, really want to consider whether their arguments could be true. So I've listened. And I haven't heard an argument that I can really get on board with that AI is going to wipe us out. Because I saw this guy that started this whole movement, writing this letter, and he had five other leaders saying we should pump the brakes a little bit on this AI thing. And it was on the BBC. And the argument he was making is that if we allow AI to accelerate at this alarming rate, it can be used to design a, let's say, a superbug, a printed life form, let's say, Right? Yep, that I talked about. And it could wipe us all off the face of the planet. And people in my family and people that know me. I've been talking about this for 30 years. We could do that today. We don't need AI. How is AI going to make that any easier? Will it make it easier to design drugs? Probably? Yes. Will it make it easier to design evil viruses? Yes. But that is already happening. And it's not because of AI. And so I just haven't heard an argument that really stands up. And it's interesting that many of the people who signed that letter saying we need to hit pause on AI with the firm's already doing it. Sam Altman, the co founder of open AI, went to Congress and said, I thought they said Don't you think you need to be regulated? And you know what he said? Yes, I think you should regulate us. And I have to tell you, there's this universal law of technology. And the universal law states, this technology always precedes legislation. And I've just been working with the taxi industry again. And I can tell you exactly how many years it took the government to respond to Uber in Australia. How many years? Do you think that was? Oh,

Brenton Gowland:

three to five?

Craig Rispin:

It was five years? Close. Five. That's a very long time.

Brenton Gowland:

I remember the taxi drivers screaming about it for years. Yes. And we were all celebrating in the background going, but we're getting better service.

Craig Rispin:

That's right. And, well, it's just I just don't think there is really that threat. And from my sense, I've heard this repeated time and time again, I've heard the PC was going to be used for evil purposes. And that internet was going to be used for evil purposes. And it has. But do you know that when there's been this study of bad actors on these platforms, like Facebook marketplace, and eBay, and Etsy, and other things, and in these marketplaces, if they were mostly bad actors on in these marketplaces, then they wouldn't be used. And so what's the factor of good intention? People are happy to do business with one another versus the bad actors. And the universal number is somewhere between eight to 10,000. To one, so eight to 10,000. Good actors, for every bad actor. Interesting. This is the internet, right? And they already said that, oh, it's going to end us. And it has ended. Well, newspapers to some extent, and some ways and other industries. But this is the this is what happens. I can't nobody can stop this. All we can do is adapt, be ready for it, and embrace it. Yeah. And if your leaders are listening, please do not take this on as a personal project. All you need to do is know enough to ask, we must roll out AI across our organisation to delight our customers and make our staffs life easier. Why wouldn't we do this? When the cost is 1/100 of what it was 10 years ago? Yep. 100%. Now, that's

Brenton Gowland:

all really incredible stuff. I'm really liking this. And we're coming up to almost needing to be at time. And I think Ron will probably agree, I think we should have you back on the show. Because I think there's a lot more things to talk about here. But the Business Builders podcast, it's all about giving practical advice to business leaders right now. And I know that that's what's been happening, like, I've been listening to the reverse mentoring thing. And I think that's absolutely fantastic. Because bringing that younger generation and really learning from them is great for our present more senior leaders. But it'd be great to wrap up our discussion today, with what you would recommend are the top three things that we as business owners, business leaders can do right now to prepare ourselves to stay competitive moving into the future. Sure. So right

Craig Rispin:

now, it's about deploying AI. Because this is everybody's gonna have it. And if you don't, you're gonna be left behind. So get that Wrangler, get work all of that in place, but don't take an ad hoc approach. But when I get done with speaking to the CEOs, many times I get invited to their place. And I talked to their staff, and when this leader isn't around, and I say, what's the biggest problem with making change, deploying things? And they said, the leader comes back from your sessions, Craig, Craig says about this fantastic video editing tool called descript. And, and you should do that. And then he goes back to his office, and we don't know, is this important? Is this strategic? Is this urgent? What what project is this for? So we need to have models to deploy things with not an ad hoc approach. And we can start with a model that everybody understands. So there's a next step, take your org chart, and look at all the tasks that everybody on your org chart needs to do. And each person asked them, what are the tasks you hate doing? And let's find an AI for this thing. And let's find an AI app that makes you look like a superhero to your client, or customer. Yeah, well, that might be an internal client or customer by the way, or an external client or customer. So an org chart to begin with. And then the next level that many people in the advertising industry, and some that have worked with agencies understand what a The buyers journey is where he is mapped out every touchpoint that customers have with you. And so we've talked about internal tasks. Now this is the external, how can you use AI? To engage with your customers, it's 10 times better. And give you one example of that, please, you're speaking. Great. And so here's a perfect example, almost every time I asked a customer, what's one of the main ways that people engage with you very first time they touch your organisation? And they'll say, well, they'll send in a form from our website or send an email into us, inquiring about our services. And I said, and how do you reply? And what do they say? 99.9% of the time, we reply with an email. Yeah, I go. So how can we make that 10 to 100 times better? So I would suggest there's a tool that you could use at scale to send videos back using kind of deep fake technology, where you record your voice as the sales leader or the CEO. And you record one message, and it says, Hi, Ron, or Hi, Brenton, or Hi, Craig, thank you so much for your inquiry I see are in South Australia, we've worked with many firms in South Australia. Over my shoulder here, you'll see three of our most recent jobs that we've done in South Australia. Now you record that video once and using deep fake technology, it will change your lip movements. And it can say hey, Craig, hey, Ron. Hey, Brenton, can insert the media dynamically over the shoulder based on weathering inquiry with scrub. And let me ask you, what do you think is that 10? Or 100 times better?

Brenton Gowland:

Well, I think it's definitely higher than 10 is 100 times better? Well, maybe. But certainly I always my argument to people is if you can see someone's eyes, and you can see how they talk and their expressions, you're way ahead of the game, because I call it the no sauce continuum. From no to like, rather than just

Craig Rispin:

Yes. And if you actually go to one of these apps, and I'm saying one of these apps, because there are literally dozens of them. But one I'm going to recommend that is low cost under $20 a month that can do this. And if you look at their actual results of what their clients are getting, how about their return on investment is in excess of 500%?

Brenton Gowland:

Yeah, that's fantastic.

Craig Rispin:

Can you tell us the app? Oh, yeah, the app is called B, human. The letter B, and human. So it's a letter B, human. And I've used this with clients in legal finance, agriculture, consulting, medical, every area you could imagine. And that's just one touch point. Imagine if you did that at every touchpoint Renton, yeah, where you were at least 10 times better.

Ron Tomlian:

And I'm sure there are plenty of places that people can go to find this stuff. But someone pointed me in the direction of a website called Future pedia where all these AI apps are being catalogued. Yeah. And you can go in and look for different things. So I'm just telling people have a look at that if you want to find out what's available, what sort of AI apps are out there that you could use? Have a look at future PDFs. Fantastic.

Craig Rispin:

It is it is a great one. And there's a couple others that I would recommend that's sure there. Yes, internal tasks I like to use, there's an AI for that. Because at the top of their website, they've identified over 1300 different tasks that AI can take over. And then if you're looking for categories, I like to use future tools, future tools.ai, and future pedia. I subscribed to all of these and I get all of their newsletters. So I'm aware and there are actually dozens of aggregators like future PDF future tools, and there's an AI for that. But here's the interesting thing. Many of them are using technology to grab all the new apps since the day they've started. Well, they started several months ago, I started 30 years ago. And the list was very small. So many of them were saying there are 4000 or 5000. I can tell you today, there's more than 12,000. And there'll be more than a million by the end of the year.

Ron Tomlian:

Incredible.

Brenton Gowland:

Yeah, look, I'm right now my current practice is when I got a task to do is to go looking for an app to help and I've done it in a number of cases. And I think again, you're you're really speaking my language I've been trying with my clients to get them onto AI and there's a slow uptake. I've been reverse mentoring Ron because we're using D script to edit this podcast Craig Yes. For yonks I couldn't get Ron to help me because I have done sound Engineering in the past, and so becomes second nature to me. But then I saw the script and I thought I can cut my work in half because I can get Ron to do it. And even I can use it. So that's been fun. So there's a bit of reverse mentoring, considering he's my mentor. But are there any other things? Sorry, I really enjoy the fact that Ron can do this now. Yeah,

Ron Tomlian:

I bet you do.

Brenton Gowland:

But are there any other areas, Craig? So you've talked about the leading of change, getting people involved trying apps? Are there any other last pieces of advice you'd give to people about staying competitive moving into the future?

Craig Rispin:

Yes. And so what I would say is don't overload your team, even though you must have many, many different apps to help for very different tasks. It's important that people have time to learn and create new neural pathways in our brains. I learned about this. So what I say is, don't break the stream, roll out one app for the entire team, check back weekly and ask the question, How have you been successful with this? Tell us what you've done, share successes, and do it where you've got people using it every single day for 30 days. And at the end of it, you can say you can continue to use it if you want. If not unsubscribe and we'll save the money. And then you'll have another app of the month the following? Yeah, it's interesting. Good. Yes. And we've learned that if you do something consistently, for more than 28 days, you will create the neuro pathways in your brain. And it will become a way that we do things around here. Yeah, that's interesting. Yes. And I what I say to companies, Brenton, let's do this. Let's roll out an app a month. And even if we have a 50% failure rate by the end of the year, how different would your organisation be?

Brenton Gowland:

I think the spec is right at the beginning. So I remember when I started, there's a whole heap of API's that are really easy, but something like the script takes a little bit of learning, right? The first couple of weeks with that, I was pulling my hair out for weeks on on like this is a breeze. And because I've got my head around how it works, all that kind of stuff. So I think and I'm a pretty tech savvy kind of person. So when I go into businesses, like manufacturing businesses and retailers in different ones, that little hump at the start of trying something new, that's the beat, you got to get over.

Craig Rispin:

I'll tell you one app that I've seen, that is going to transform the filmmaking industry, it would have come into you've seen it on some of these websites like future PDF, but it's early days, it's about to be released. And it's for making science fiction films. And it's called wonder studio. And what it does is you can film actors outside or inside or sitting behind a camera, you know, in a podcasting studio, and then you can drop a robot, a 3d model over the top of that actor, it will take the actor out, put the robot in place, and animate the face to be identical to the actor. And this, I used to train young people to do this digital compositing and animation. Yeah, for and they do it for a living. And they were working on films like, for instance, Lord of the Rings, yes, 14 months. And now you could do what they were doing for 14 months. You could do in minutes, literally a minute. And guess who is one of the first investors in this Disney, Steven Spielberg

Brenton Gowland:

resolve? Sorry, I read an article today on Disney and they've released Secret Invasion in the whole intro with

Craig Rispin:

his name. It was text a video? Yes. You see that intro on secret of invasion? And you might go, oh, well, I can kind of see that that was generative of video. Well, they wanted you to see that it was like that. So don't bag it, if you like. full res

Brenton Gowland:

is a full article. And I think it's either the Australian or the advertiser or something today about basically actors are on notice, because they copied Samuel L. Jackson. And so for the, as you said, for the the intro, it was all generated by AI.

Craig Rispin:

Oh, well, there's a whole agency in Hollywood right now that is going to all these older actors and saying we can licence your digital version of you. Wow. So you don't even have to turn up. But you can still get paid, though. And for those actors who are at retirement age, this could be a whole new revenue stream

Brenton Gowland:

for Brad Pitt talking the other day about the fact he doesn't like night shoots anymore. So he could just be like one night shoot can be AI.

Craig Rispin:

Yes, that's right. Well, I have to tell you just think about this. I just have to I feel like I have to grab the shoulders of CEOs and shake them awake and say, wake up. The world has changed and you're just keeping on doing what you did last quarter or last Two year or three years ago, or 10 years ago, you can't do that. And think you could be competitive. My

Brenton Gowland:

biggest fear for my clients and for the businesses that I'm meeting is that they just keep doing business as usual. And I don't think you can do that anymore. You have to keep an eye on the horizon.

Ron Tomlian:

I think for a lot of people, there's a temptation to put their head in the sand. And just, if I work really hard, I can stay in the game. And I don't think that's possible anymore. Right? Think about it. What organisation doesn't use a computer? You know, 30 years ago, it was kind of at the leading edge. Now you've got it it, you can have an entire organisation one person like me. And all you need is a computer.

Brenton Gowland:

What organisation doesn't use a phone? And phones are connecting businesses much more than computers now?

Craig Rispin:

Yep. It's so true. If you studied to be in a car mechanic now, what's the first course you take? It's Internet of Things, monitoring. It's all the sensors and computers in every car. Yeah, I'm not just talking about Tesla. It's Toyota and BMW and Mercedes. It's every car. And what happens when you take it to the service centre. Now, they literally plug into the USB, and the car tells them what you should fix.

Brenton Gowland:

Yep, it's an interesting world. And I'm really

Ron Tomlian:

keen to get Craig back on our metre.

Brenton Gowland:

Now, before we go, there's a bit of a plug for a year in Adelaide next week. Do you want to tell us about that? Because you need for people to come and see you.

Craig Rispin:

Yes, that's right. So I'm doing an event that is a charity event to raise funds for a great cause. And it's on the 11th of July. And really looking forward to it because it's going to be one of the sessions where I just don't talk about AI. But we're going to do hands on as well.

Brenton Gowland:

I heard that you got to to attend, you have to bring a laptop.

Craig Rispin:

That's right, a laptop or a mobile device.

Ron Tomlian:

And if I'm not incorrect, it's to help operation Flinders.

Craig Rispin:

That's right operation, Flinders, which is a great programme for helping kids at risk, and others have a bigger worldview. It's roughly based on an outward bound model, that I've been a huge advocate for worldwide. And there's a added mentality that goes around with it. If you're not aware, that gets peeps moves people from dwelling on the past, or trying to get immediate results or pleasure we say and focus on the future and just doing that significantly improves their mental health. Yeah, thinking like a futurist, in fact, improves your mental health. And it's used with many, many, many programmes like Operation Flinders all around the world to help youth at risk.

Brenton Gowland:

Okay, so look on Ron Tomlian or Brenton gallons LinkedIn feed, and we'll have an advertisement for that in the next week. Yep. And our mind

Craig Rispin:

to? Well, the best place is LinkedIn, really, because if you go to LinkedIn, then you can see all the people that I've already worked with your industry. And you can call them up and go, did you really hire Craig Risman? And what was your return on investment? And when they say a billion dollars, that usually does the trick?

Brenton Gowland:

So I'm impressed with how many people Craig knows, oh, actually, I've said to Craig, the other day that we had Bill Caskey on the show from the United States. And Craig's like, oh, Bill, I'm like, you don't know Bill Caskey? He's like, Sure I do. He's in one of my networks. And I'm like, wow, it's only got 47,000 people in that network.

Craig Rispin:

That's, well, you know, what futures do we were told in our training programme is great futurists have many networks that are loosely connected to one another of influence. And so this is one of the things we were trained to do is be part of a lot of different peer groups, learn and use them as brain trusts. And so I'm happy to say I work with about 25 different networks per year. And I just love it. Because not only do I get the chance to serve others, and shift their mindset into the future, but I learned so much from my customers. Really what we do as futurists, is tell people what is transforming other industries. And we cross fertilise like bumblebees, this is what we're told to be like bumble bees and cross fertilise between industries. Because as you probably know, some industries are ahead of others, and we can learn from them. I could

Brenton Gowland:

not agree with you more. And that's the whole concept of business builders that we get together. We share things with each other that can help each other grow. And so we are very glad, Craig, that you're part of our network. And we just want to thank you for joining us today.

Craig Rispin:

Well, you're very welcome and I can't wait to continue the conversation sometime in the near future.

Brenton Gowland:

Agreed. And thank you for joining us everyone who's been listening on the next episode, we're going to have a gentleman come along and speak about implementing a four day workweek in his business. We have him speak the other night at SA Business Builders. And that was a really interesting conversation. So we're going to bring it to you in our next episode. So that's two weeks time to let's buy from me.

Ron Tomlian:

Bye from me.

Brenton Gowland:

And see you later, Craig.

Craig Rispin:

See you.