Peggy Smedley Show

Peggy Smedley shares six startups that are making a mark in key industries. She highlights: a device that can help enterprises protect their computer-held data; a cybersecurity platform for industrial; a startup offering real-time edge intelligence for the IoT; a platform that monitors factory floor production efficiency; a smart road system; and a company that's commercializing technology that ha...

Peggy congratulates Josh Peschel, assistant professor, agricultural and biosystems engineering, Iowa State University, on being named a 2019 Pioneer and they discuss two big projects that he is excited about today. He also shares his story and why he loves being a professor, and that one of the benefits of being a professor is seeing ideas being born. His one piece of advice is that students need...

Peggy and Craig Lee, the director of the AT&T Foundry located in Plano, Texas, talk about the AT&T Foundry and what it provides around the world. He explains that customers often understand problems that need to be solved, and are able to come up with creative solutions such as connected porta-potties. He says it will spend a day with the customer to help articulate the business challenge and deve...

Peggy Smedley says the IoT (Internet of Things) is contributing to the greater good, helping create smarter cities, reducing traffic fatalities, and moving toward more patient-centered healthcare. She shares new examples of how AI (artificial intelligence) is helping with mental health coaching, how drones are helping with wildfires, and how a sensing platform can add to society's environmental in...

Peggy chats with author, lecturer, and investor Timothy Chou, about his book Precision Construction: Principles, Practices and Solutions for the Internet of Things in Construction. He says he wrote the book so that he can understand it. Also, he suggests most of the technology that has been built up until now has been for the Internet of People, but that there are five key reasons why things are n...

Peggy and Joshua Gans, professor of strategic management, University of Toronto, discuss how AI (artificial intelligence) is becoming better about predicting things and how it can augment or improve humans. He says a big benefit of AI is being able to crack the translation of languages. He suggests looking for places to slide in AI to reduce uncertainty. In order to get young minds to become innov...

Peggy Smedley says revenue for AR (augmented reality) devices and content will be $36.4 billion by 2023. But is it all hype? She dives into different use cases of AR in healthcare, transportation, and more. For example, during operation, a surgeon can see what is in front of him or her—and the key data about the patient. She asks listeners to consider AR in their business, and if not, why?

Peggy chats with entrepreneur, author, and life and business coach James Arthur Ray, who says there are three things that we all need to do to lead our life and business more effectively. He suggests that while technology has made things more convenient, it hasn't made our lives easier. He adds that we have to learn how to redefine ourselves, which is hard.

Peggy and Buck Bard, chief harbinger, Canary Works, talk about putting people and process first—and how design thinking factors into digital transformation. He says that design thinking forces us to back up and look at what we are doing, and it can be applied to internal processes or the supply chain. He discusses the big changes happening in manufacturing today and the myth and fog that currently...

Peggy Smedley says BI (business intelligence) is a set of methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful information—and it helps executives make more informed decisions with the help of real-time data. She shares new examples of how experiential learning can help in the classroom and how platforms can leverage AI (artificial intelligence) to turn...

Peggy chats with Tom Aageson, consultant, and Alice Loy, CEO and co-founder, Creative Startups. They explain that the creative economy is growing so fast and it rises out of the digital economy. At the same time, it has given birth to new sectors like 3D printing and AI (artificial intelligence). The first step is to understand that the creative economy is a new field—and it is more than just art....

Peggy and Ken Johnson, senior director, product management, Red Hat, talk about the evolution of the term IoT (Internet of Things). He explains that it is all about solving business problems and that the diversity of problems to be solved requires an open ecosystem. When it comes to true plug-and-play applications, he says it may not be practical in the near term, but it will be a progression over...

Peggy Smedley explains that advances in AI (artificial intelligence) and the IoT (Internet of Things) is changing industries like healthcare and manufacturing. She says AI is part of a larger part of digital transformation and that an innovation culture can help employees and leaders seek new ways to solve problems. She cites statistics that show growth, including that jobs requiring AI have incre...

Peggy and Josh Peschel, assistant professor, agricultural and biosystems engineering, Iowa State University, talk about the biggest drivers for AI and machine learning in the supply chain today. He says an exciting area right now is augmentation—being able to see what is in a warehouse through AR (augmented reality). Perhaps the most exciting thing is the implementation of machine learning in medi...

Peggy and Basavaraj Patil, a lead member of technical staff in AT&T's Internet of Things business unit, discuss the definition of the terms AI, machine learning, and deep learning. He says the term AI was coined back in 1956, but the technology has morphed today. He also explains how the IoT (Internet of Things) relates to all of it. Today, more and more companies are trying to figure out how to u...

Peggy Smedley talks about the challenges and opportunities for the digital supply chain—and why the IoT (Internet of Things) and AI (artificial intelligence) is playing a greater role. She points to examples of how manufacturers, retailers, and logistics companies are leveraging technology in today's on-demand economy. When done right, data can give businesses critical insights that can drive grow...

Peggy welcomes back Robin Raskin, founder and president, Living In Digital Times, who says right now there are some big players in the supply-chain space, but we are going to see a lot of innovation happening in this area. She says we lose so many hours a year looking for records—there is fraud and noncompliance and counterfeit, which is costing the supply chain money every year. She adds that it...

Peggy and Alan Griffiths, principal analyst, Cambashi, says many IoT projects are one-offs or proof-of-concepts. Most of the companies want to buy technology in the form of an application that can help them do their business better. He adds companies that typically own the operational side and process manufacturing, and IoT, used to be apart, but now some companies have a deep understanding of bot...

Peggy Smedley talks about how AR (augmented reality) is impacting the retail sector. She explains AR will be adopted where it will provide the most value and it will explode in this sector in the next several years. She adds that Wal-Mart is leading the way in adopting AR technologies. She says now the company is taking its VR (virtual reality) initiatives further, leveraging headsets that make le...

Peggy and Chris Westfall, author, Leadership Language: Using Authentic Communication to Drive Results, talk about communication, and he says just because you say something doesn't mean you should. Communication is key to success or unintended consequences. If you want to create a message with impact, you have to focus on leadership language. He points to a statistic: 69% of managers surveyed were...

Peggy is joined by Carol Bartucci, president, Crisp Consulting, who says her goal is to really help people with IT—including developing a strategy and planning. She says companies can do a five-year plan, but they have to be constantly reevaluating it. She says it is good to do pilots and proofs of concept and it is essential to have integration with existing systems. The reality is people don't l...

Peggy Smedley says research suggests the global blockchain in energy market will grow tremendously in the next decade. For example, in countries like Japan, utilities are testing blockchain tech to determine the value it can offer. She also says there are seven different uses for this technology in energy. She adds that blockchain can help address some of the core challenges in the healthcare indu...

Peggy and Elise Keith, co-founder, Lucid Meetings, and author of "Where the Action Is: The Meetings that Make or Break Your Organization", discuss meetings. Keith says every aspect of our world is moving faster, and thus we need to bring the people together. For many, meetings are just something that people do—it is not something leaders get training in. She suggests that is not always safe. Some...

Peggy chats with Senthil Ramakrishnan, lead member of technical staff in AT&T's Internet of Things organization, who says one of the first steps with cybersecurity is understanding what IoT is—and it starts at the c-level. The primary mistake companies make is they deploy IoT without understanding the difference between IT and IoT. Often, they don't include the new cybersecurity challenges that th...

Peggy Smedley says too many businesses are undergoing an IoT (Internet of Things) transformation lack a cybersecurity understanding. She says cybersecurity is the c-suite's job too, suggesting responsibility for risk starts at the top and involves everyone. She encourages c-suite executives to engage themselves in cybersecurity and the company's digital transformation. She also looks at cyber insu...