In five years, customers are going to
demand delightful experiences where
computers understand what they're going
after and and don't do things like
you know the ask for the same
information twice - that kind of stuff
isn't acceptable.
[Music]
I'm pleased to welcome Ron Bodkin from
Google and Ron you're the technical
director for applied AI within the
within Google's CTO office.
Thank you for
being here at our AI Summit Staying
Human AI interview series.
Thanks.
It's a
pleasure to be here Bill.
So Google, it's become a verb it's you
know beyond the noun itself.
You
know they've they are in a corporate
responsibility position when you think
about kind of the employment of AI and
trying to like really set the stage for
how others should follow.
I mean, what how
does it feel to be in that position I
guess?
It feels great.
I mean one of
the big things for me in joining Google
was I'm passionate about responsible use
of AI that there's a tremendous
opportunity to have a big impact on
society and I wanted to be at a company
where my values were aligned where I
believe that there's a strong commitment
to ethics and applying AI not just lip
service.
And there's this amazing
opportunity but we have to be serious
about the impact and be very thoughtful
about how AI technologies roll out.
If we
think three, five years into the future.
Let's pretend that we can think
that far into the future.
I mean where is
the sector where do you hope that the stuff
you're working on today has had the most
impact?
I mean I'd say I think there is
so much opportunity in how consumers
interact with businesses.
Okay.
When you
look at things like the Google assistant
right and the ability to have really
smart interactions I think many of us
were captivated by duplex as an example
of our ability to put together systems
that can interact in a realistic way and
have a productive conversations.
Right.
We're applying a lot of those same
techniques in contact center right so we
have a lot of customers are saying hey
we want to both augment the drudgery
right take take the "hey can you be in my
account balance" as well as empower
contact center representatives
to be super effective and say "oh I've
got the information I need to really
serve this customer well".
You know, it's efficient for all involved
and we can come up with a higher quality
result.
So that kind of
empowered interaction, we're seeing a
lot of demand for that.
And I think
likewise Google, of course, makes lots
of investments around how do you have
better advertising and sales and
marketing.
Right?
So there's a lot more
intelligence being built into Google's
ad product but we're seeing customers
say hey we want to integrate more of our
data in the cloud and really understand
that full lifecycle of customer
interactions.
In five years customers are
going to demand delightful experiences
where computers understand what they're
going after and and don't do things like
you know the ask for the same
information twice or you know hey get 5%
off if you come to our site and then you
know get a 2% off offer three pages
in right?
That kind of stuff isn't
acceptable.
I mean delivering surprise,
delight and convenience is like
really at the bottom line
of a lot of what we're talking
about.
So, as I'm thinking again about
about Google and about the the presence
that you have in the marketplace - what is
the biggest misconception that you see
the public taking about Google that you
would love to spend a couple sentences
addressing?
Clearly there's a lot of
sensitivity to the role that large
digital companies are playing in our
economy but I think it's super important
emphasize how Google has had you know a
real focus on user trust and being good
stewards of user data and you know not
being biased.
You know, starting with you
know always having had the principle of
search is not influenced by anything
other than driving the best quality
results possible.
Right?
So I think
I think that foundation of ethics and
commitment to doing right by the user
and producing the right results but
those that's super important right.