Intelligent Automation: getting past the hype.

Intelligent Automation: getting past the hype.

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I’m in the process of researching the topic of ‘Intelligent Automation’ for Warwick Business School’s Innovation Network, with a view to organising a member’s workshop for sometime in the second quarter of 2019. As with most emergent technologies, the real challenge is getting beyond the marketing hype and snake-oil salesmen and finding real evidence of innovation and value creation. This is no easy task, not least navigating through a new and rapidly changing lexicon, that embraces (but is not limited…

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Chatbots & Virtual Assistants: Shaping the future of work. 13th November 2018

Chatbots & Virtual Assistants: Shaping the future of work. 13th November 2018

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This is a sponsored ‘Breakfast Briefing’ (08.45 – 10.15) with all proceeds from ticket sales going to the BBC’s Children In Need charity. So, if you’d like to learn more about chatbots and virtual assistants and how they are changing the way we work, AND enjoy a sumptuous breakfast AND contribute to a good cause, get your tickets (a bargain at £32) from the WorkPlace Week website. But hurry, places are limited! Way back in 1966, the natural language processing…

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Up and coming SEO Trends

Up and coming SEO Trends

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The most successful sites and marketers always ensure that they are on the cutting edge of all the latest algorithms that are put in place in terms of SEO. Below you can find some of the latest SEO trends that are likely to be extremely important in the coming months or even years. Voice search – The time of voice search is upon us, and it brings yet another drastic change when it comes to SEO. An estimated 20% to…

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Content Curation: the future of relevance

Content Curation: the future of relevance

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This is an updated version of the article originally published in Business Information Review, January 2015.   Content creation is no longer the exclusive domain of journalists, newspapers and advertisers. As Clay Shirky has famously pointed out, publishing is no longer a job or an industry; it’s a button. We’re all creating content, as originators or commentators, which is then shared and re-shared many times over. As a result, online publishing is now ubiquitous and incessant, with the consequence that…

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Gamification: making work fun, or making fun of work?

Gamification: making work fun, or making fun of work?

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This post was previously published on 25th September 2014 at Collabor8now.com.  It is an abbreviated abstract from a research paper I submitted to Sage publications on the topic of  “Gamification”. The full article is available from the June 2014 edition of Business Information Review. Introduction: Gamification is about understanding and influencing human behaviours that organizations want to encourage amongst their workforce or customers. Gamification seeks to take enjoyable aspects of games – fun, play and challenge – and apply them to real-world business…

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Heuristics and Biases – The Science Of Decision Making

Heuristics and Biases – The Science Of Decision Making

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This article was originally published in June 2015 Vol 32 (2) edition of Business Information Review. References and links were checked and updated on 29th July 2018. Abstract A heuristic is a word from the Greek meaning “to discover.” It is an approach to problem solving that takes one’s personal experience into account.  Heuristics provide strategies to scrutinise a limited number of signals and/or alternative choices in decision-making. Heuristics diminish the work of retrieving and storing information in memory; streamlining the decision making process…

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Virtual Agents

Virtual Agents

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Society has been acquiring the benefits that artificial intelligence can produce ever since AI has been around. The summer of 1956 was a turning point for many scientists who would become leaders in their branches for decades. It was at a workshop organised at the Dartmouth College when the field of artificial intelligence research was actually founded. The first ever serious proposal in the philosophy of AI was six years earlier when Alan Turing published a paper in which he…

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Critical Steps For Building an Online Community

Critical Steps For Building an Online Community

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The following is a list of the critical points to consider when embarking on a project or plan to build an online community.  This information is available from previous blog posts I’ve shared over the years, and Slideshare presentations, but for convenience I’ve curated these posts into a single post/page of “knowledge nuggets”.  The items have been kept deliberately brief, but further and detailed information (with relevant citations and references) can be provided on request. Ensure you have community facilitator/community…

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Are any of us “experts”?

Are any of us “experts”?

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I was recently reminded of this article, which resonated with me at the time, and still does. I’m guessing all of us could pin a few names to people we might label as “confident idiots”, but I wonder how often we turn the mirror on ourselves and measure our perceived wisdom against the Dunning-Kruger curve? One particular example that I find a little irksome is the number of people who describe themselves as “expert” in their personal bios. Self-proclaimed expertise…

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The 4 Biggest Trends to Expect for Chatbots in 2018

The 4 Biggest Trends to Expect for Chatbots in 2018

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The year 2017 saw amazing strides in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and chatbots. The effects such innovations have had for everything from retail and customer service to data mining are even now still becoming realised. Chatbots, through their underlying technology, seek to mimic human interaction with users on websites, mobile apps, and messaging systems. They have potential to reach more customers faster and more efficiently while maintaining high levels of customer engagement and satisfaction.  Here are the four biggest…

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