Many business leaders have reached out to me about how to confidently navigate A.I. and stay ahead of the curve in this fast-paced landscape. That’s why in addition to this podcast, I’m building a trusted partner network dedicated to responsible, secure, and human-centered A.I. consulting and development that delivers meaningful results.
CybrCastle is part of my trusted partner network and I’m excited to have Steve Dong on the show to discuss how we help clients accelerate with A.I. and mitigate the risks to achieve their business goals. Interested in becoming A.I. ready? Reach out today!
Today, you’ll meet Steve and hear about Responsible A.I. development with a focus on community and people-centered approaches. Steve shares insights on how small and midsized businesses can leverage A.I. to compete with larger tech companies. He also shares strategies for A.I. adoption, risk mitigation, and change management for business leaders.
The conversation covers A.I. readiness assessments, use cases across various industries, and the development of secure A.I. solutions for middle-market businesses. Steve discusses ROI considerations, emphasizing the importance of thoughtful implementation and cultural alignment.
Throughout the discussion, Steve emphasizes that A.I. should enhance human capabilities rather than replace them, and highlights the need for values alignment in A.I. projects. We also explore Cincinnati’s growing role as a Responsible A.I. hub and the importance of community building in shaping the future of A.I. to amplify the best of human potential.
How can A.I. give power back to the people? Listen in and keep reading to find out!
Passionate about people and purpose-driven work, Steve is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of CybrCastle, where he’s at the forefront of helping mid-market organizations become A.I.-ready safely, securely, and responsibly. With an impressive track record of leading nine for-profit and two non-profit organizations, Steve’s superpowers include change management, executive governance, strategic development, and championing game-changing and world-changing innovations.
His journey from China to the United States some thirty years ago, including stops in Los Angeles and Cincinnati, has shaped his global outlook and entrepreneurial spirit.
Steve Dong
One of the most exciting insights Steve shares is the unprecedented opportunity A.I. presents for small and mid-market businesses to compete with larger tech companies. Unlike previous technological revolutions that favored those with vast resources, A.I.’s decentralized nature levels the playing field:
Steve Dong
Steve points out that tools like ChatGPT can be easily downloaded and implemented by businesses of any size, allowing them to quickly boost productivity and efficiency without the need for extensive infrastructure investments. This democratization of A.I. technology opens up new avenues for innovation and competition across industries.
At the core of Steve’s philosophy is a commitment to responsible A.I. development that prioritizes community needs and human flourishing. He emphasizes the importance of building A.I. systems that enhance human capabilities rather than replace them:
Steve Dong
This people-centric approach is evident in CybrCastle’s focus on governance, human interaction, and secure technology development. By prioritizing the needs of the community and fostering an ecosystem where A.I. supports human potential, Steve envisions a future where technology serves as a tool for collective growth and innovation.
As A.I. systems become more prevalent, concerns about privacy, security, and ethical use have rightfully come to the forefront. Steve addresses these concerns head-on with CybrCastle’s “governance-first” framework:
Steve Dong
To mitigate these risks, Steve advocates for a multi-pronged approach:
This approach ensures that A.I. systems are developed and deployed responsibly, with built-in safeguards against potential misuse or unintended consequences.
Perhaps one of the most valuable insights Steve offers is the critical role of change management in successful A.I. implementation. Drawing on his extensive experience in starting and leading multiple businesses, Steve emphasizes that change is constant and necessary for strategic competitiveness:
Steve Dong
Steve outlines a strategic approach to change management that starts at the top of the organization, with leaders developing a clear vision for how A.I. can support their strategic objectives. This top-down approach ensures that A.I. initiatives are aligned with the company’s overall goals and values, rather than being implemented as isolated technology projects.
To help organizations navigate the complexities of A.I. adoption, Steve introduces the concept of an A.I. readiness assessment. This comprehensive evaluation looks at multiple factors:
Steve Dong
This methodical approach allows organizations to identify their strengths and weaknesses, develop a tailored A.I. implementation strategy, and ensure that they’re setting themselves up for success from the outset.
Throughout the conversation, Steve shares several compelling use cases that illustrate the practical applications of A.I. across various industries:
These examples demonstrate the versatility of A.I. in solving real-world business challenges and improving operational efficiency across diverse sectors.
As organizations increasingly rely on A.I. systems, concerns about data privacy and intellectual property protection have become paramount. Steve addresses these concerns by introducing CybrCastle’s secure A.I. approach:
Steve Dong
Key features of this secure A.I. approach include:
This comprehensive approach to security and privacy sets CybrCastle apart in the A.I. consulting space, offering peace of mind to organizations concerned about protecting their sensitive information.
Throughout the conversation, Steve consistently emphasizes that A.I. should be viewed as a tool to enhance human capabilities, not replace them. This philosophy is evident in his approach to A.I. implementation and workforce development:
Steve Dong
By focusing on using A.I. to automate repetitive tasks and streamline processes, organizations can free up their employees to focus on more strategic, creative, and human-centric work. This approach not only improves efficiency but also leads to greater job satisfaction and professional growth.
When discussing the ROI of A.I. implementation, Steve takes a nuanced approach that considers both financial returns and broader societal impact. He introduces the concept of “return on purpose,” which focuses on community building, ecosystem development, and human flourishing:
Steve Dong
This holistic view of A.I.’s potential impact encourages organizations to think beyond immediate financial gains and consider how their A.I. initiatives can contribute to the greater good of their employees, communities, and society as a whole.
One of the most inspiring aspects of the conversation is the emphasis on community building and collaboration in the A.I. space. Steve highlights the vibrant A.I. ecosystem emerging in Cincinnati, praising initiatives like the CincyAI meetup and Cincy AI Week:
Steve Dong
This collaborative approach to A.I. development and implementation stands in stark contrast to the often-siloed nature of tech innovation in larger hubs. By fostering a community-driven ecosystem, Cincinnati is positioning itself as a unique and attractive destination for responsible A.I. development.
As the conversation draws to a close, Steve offers several key pieces of advice for those looking to engage with A.I.:
Steve Dong’s insights offer a compelling vision for the future of A.I.—one that’s rooted in community, focused on enhancing human potential, and committed to responsible development and implementation. As we stand on the cusp of a new economic era shaped by A.I., his message is clear: now is the time to engage, learn, and collaborate.
For business leaders, the path forward involves thoughtful assessment, strategic planning, and a commitment to using A.I. as a tool for positive change within their organizations and communities. For individuals, it’s about staying curious, engaging with local A.I. communities, and considering how these technologies might enhance their own work and lives.
As we navigate this brave new world of A.I., Steve’s people-centric, community-driven approach offers a refreshing and inspiring alternative to the often-impersonal world of big tech. By embracing these principles, we can work towards a future where A.I. truly serves to amplify the best of human potential, fostering innovation, creativity, and collective flourishing.
The A.I. revolution is upon us, and as Steve so eloquently puts it, it’s time to “embrace the future now.” By doing so with thoughtfulness, responsibility, and a focus on human values, we can shape an A.I.-driven future that benefits us all.
Links Mentioned in this Podcast
Thank you, Steve, for joining us on this special episode of Creativity Squared.
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TRANSCRIPT
Steve: If we’re going to use AI to build our future, AI need to help us to build a community. And that’s the only way for it to become sustainable and flourish. So I keep saying that; [I] sound like a broken record. That’s my core belief. Another one is AI give us power, superpower. But the power is really giving the power back to the people.
Steve: And we are coming up to 4th of July. The nation is founded on “we the people.” We the people of the United States of America. They didn’t say we the big tech, we the government. We the people need to have the power to do what’s to come in a new economy. Everybody knows the new economy is upon us.
Helen: Passionate about people and purpose driven work, Steve Dong is the co-founder, president, and CEO of CybrCastle, where he’s at the forefront of helping mid-market organizations become AI ready, safely, securely, and responsibly. With an impressive track record of leading nine for-profit and two non-for-profit organizations, Steve’s superpowers include change management, executive governance, strategic development, and championing game changing and world changing innovations.
Helen: Many business leaders have reached out to me about how to confidently navigate AI, and stay ahead of the curve in this fast paced landscape. That’s why in addition to this podcast, I’m building a trusted partner network dedicated to responsible, secure, and human centered AI consulting and development that delivers meaningful results.
Helen: CybrCastle is part of my trusted partner network, and I’m excited to have Steve on the show to discuss how we help clients accelerate with AI and mitigate the risks to achieve their business goals. Today, you’ll hear about responsible AI development with a focus on community and people centered approaches.
Helen: Steve shares insights on how small and midsize businesses can leverage AI to compete with larger tech companies. He also shares strategies for AI adoption, risk mitigation, and change management for business leaders. The conversation covers AI readiness assessments, use cases across various industries, and the development of secure AI solutions for middle market businesses.
Helen: Steve discusses ROI considerations, emphasizing the importance of thoughtful implementation and cultural alignment. Throughout the discussion, Steve emphasizes that AI should enhance human capabilities rather than replace them and highlights the needs for values alignment and AI projects. We also explore Cincinnati’s growing role as a responsible AI hub and and the importance of community building and shaping the future of AI to amplify the best of human potential.
Helen: How can AI give power back to the people? Listen in to find out. Enjoy.
Helen: Welcome to Creativity Squared. Discover how creatives are collaborating with artificial intelligence in your inbox, on YouTube, and on your preferred podcast platform. Hi, I’m Helen Todd, your host, and I’m so excited to have you join the weekly conversations I’m with amazing pioneers in the space. The intention of these conversations is to ignite our collective imagination at the intersection of AI and creativity, to envision a world where artists thrive.
Helen: Steve, welcome to Creativity Squared. It’s so good to have you on the show.
Steve: Yeah. Likewise, it’s such a privilege.
Helen: Steve and I met through Cincy AI, the meetup I cohost here in Cincinnati with Kendra Ramirez. And from that, we’ve actually started working together through a strategic partnership as I’m building out a trusted partner network for AI consulting and development.
Helen: So I’m so excited to have Steve on the show to talk about all things responsible AI, what’s happening in Cincinnati, and also how, like, business leaders should be thinking about AI and being AI ready. But for those who are meeting you for the first time, Steve, can you do an introduction and tell us a bit about your origin story?
Steve: Yeah, thank you. I’m from China originally. About, 30 some odd years ago, I migrated to the US. First in Los Angeles. I went to UCLA with the MBA degree and came to work for a company in Cincinnati, Procter and Gamble in downtown Cincinnati. I thought it was more short term assignment. I’m still here.
Steve: Not necessarily with P&G, but started many entrepreneurial ventures, both locally and in the Silicon Valley and also globally in China, but I locate in Cincinnati. I met my wife some 30 some odd years ago, and we called this home and we love this community. And I think that’s one of the reasons why we want to build a vibrant AI centric community for humans, for our community in Cincinnati.
Helen: Yeah, it is. It’s something really special that we have here. We see it through our Cincy AI meetups that get 150 people a month at UC’s Digital Futures building. We just had Cincy AI week, through community partners and there’s just a lot of momentum and excitement. And one thing that I’m really proud of is, that everyone’s really embracing responsible AI.
Helen: And I was curious how you see responsible AI, especially in the community and through the work that you do at CybrCastle.
Steve: Right. And that’s actually our mission; is to build a community with the proper AI technology responsibly. And for that, we first focus on governance. And then we look at people, how people interact with the governance, and then we bring in the AI technology, which we have a very strong AI technology lab, we call the Secure AI lab, building technology, pretty much all over the world, but that is more just to help human being like us to be better equipped for whatever is to come.
Steve: Our goal is to build a community, build our ecosystem, and help this ecosystem to flourish and thrive. Cincinnati [has] a uniqueness, in my opinion, instead of very big tech centric, it’s actually people centric, and I think that environment cultivates the AI we want to build for the community. Versus other kind of AI based on bigger tech, bigger organization. We focus on our community.
Helen: One thing that you shared with me in our conversations, when I was in Texas, Steve and I had many conversations, while I was in hour long traffic going to and from different places, that you had really mentioned that this is such a unique opportunity and moment in time for small businesses and mid-market size businesses, to kind of leapfrog the bigger tech companies.
Helen: And I really appreciated your perspective. And I was wondering if you could share that with our listeners and viewers today? Yeah, what you think and why you think that way.
Steve: So, in most of the breakthrough innovations in the human history, in my opinion, typically the larger nation states, the larger big tech, the larger companies will have the upper hand, they can access to resources and capital and technology and need to build on some infrastructure, otherwise it’s not available for the SMBs. However, AI is a decentralized type of infrastructure and anybody can adopt AI. And that actually levels the play field from the technological and process standpoint, and that’s really exciting.
Steve: But what’s actually even more exciting is it’s not depending on any particular infrastructure. We can download a Chat GPT today. We can use it right away after two minutes of download, and there’s no limit on how you use Chat GPT. And I think that’s the power of being able to leverage, a technology platform.
Steve: It’s already very, very, I would say proven to be generative and then be able to pivot on that and helping us to utilize it right away. Any, small business, medium sized business can use that right away without [having to build] their own infrastructure. So that levels the play field for productivity, for efficiency and also for strategic growth as well.
Helen: Well, and I know one thing, that we also talk a lot about, especially with the, the clients that we’re partnering with to do AI consulting and your AI readiness assessment is mitigating the risks. And that’s really important to you too, because as we all know, there’s been stories coming out about how these chatbots and LLMs have hallucinated and been liabilities for brands, whether that’s Air Canada or some of the other ones. So how do you think about mitigating risks when it comes to these chatbots?
Steve: Yeah. So, we use the framework called governance first. And then, really looking at people. So the chatbot risk is actually a lot of them are built into the chatbot by the people creating those chatbots.
Steve: The algorithms is to please human being. And most of the chatbots are people pleasers and because they are trying to please us, they want to generate things [that] actually, may or may not be true. We found that [to] be able to support the small, medium sized business, we need to build chatbots with the more of the small, medium sized computer builder and business builder persona.
Steve: So we actually train our chatbots not being people pleasers. So if we can do that, that would reduce the hallucination. Secondly, is the use human in the loop? We never want to depend on anything critical only from the chatbot, always double check, putting the human there.
Steve: And that’s really how human can actually, in the loop, to enhance the experience of AI adoption because AI is created for human. Human is not created for AI, swe need to focus on the human centric community of human using AI as a creative agent, a creative support, but never can really replace us, that human in the loop experience, to make sure whatever we produce is actually truthful, is factual, but we can do it much faster with our AI assistant on our side, so to speak.
Helen: And we’ll definitely get more into different use cases and, that, but one thing that I really love that you embrace too is change management because on the people front, it’s not just about the technology. It’s just as much about the people. So I was wondering if you could share kind of your change management history and how you think about change management, specifically for business leaders, in this moment in time too.
Steve: So my career brought me through starting nine different technology centric businesses worldwide, and I also started two non-profits. So I’m more like a global entrepreneur type. One of the things we learn is change is in the air all the time. Only way for us to advance, to be strategically competitive, to really have the blue ocean type of effect, is to change, not for change sake, but change strategically to adopt whatever is to come in the future, but bring it into the ecosystem right now.
Steve: Not to focus on where the puck is right now, but focus on where the puck is going to be two years, five years from now. So change is really what most business leaders are equipped to do.
Steve: Using AI as a twin turbo charge to change is really what we pivot on. AI is a tool, is a technology, but using AI to change can actually create probably the highest ROI we can see, and that’s why we use AI. AI is for human. So in the last 14 years, I have been [on] 20 different business boards or directors or advisors, mainly directors.
Steve: And in the last three years on different board roles, I found myself being asked, how do you really mitigate strategic change all the time? And then I said, well, what about using AI as a pivot? And they look at me, said, okay, what’s AI? So as I’m explaining to them what AI does, a lot of this business board said, well, let’s see how we can investigate.
Steve: Maybe we can put our toes into somthing like AI. And before long, they [have started to adopt] AI very responsibly. Adopting that for productivity, for workflow automations, for predictive analytics, in addition to the chatbots. So now we get a lot of different segues to use AI to do what human beings are already doing, the redundant work, the repetitive work.
Steve: Instead of using humans to do that, let AI to do that for us, so we can do more creative work, more cooler work, more really enhancing our creativity and our ability to be human, let AI be AI. So those changes require a mindset from the top of the organization. So we typically work with either the board directors or the CEO and his core leadership team.
Steve: Because most likely, like any other significant change in the human history, the leaders must lead. The leaders must have the vision. The leader must be innovating in their mind, and the leader must be backstopping the change. And those are the type of things we feel that is having a vision for the future, what your enterprise looks like, how you can innovate, maybe using AI. You may not use AI to innovate, but AI might be a good pivot.
Steve: But most importantly, be able to backstop the change. And so in most of the board roles [I’ve had] in the last three, four years, AI just shows up in all the board meetings. I say, you know what? Why don’t we create organization [that] can actually help people to do better in strategic planning, change management using AI as a pivot.
Steve: And that’s how CybrCastle adopted that. And now we are growing, obviously, significantly. And that’s why we are partnering, too, with Creativity Squared, too, to be able to even expand that influence, not just locally, but globally.
Helen: I love that, and I know, Kendra Ramirez, who also works with CybrCastle and is my Cincy AI co-host; she said on stage, I think at the UC, Research and Innovation week that, you know, part of change management too, is from once the leaders have the vision that you mentioned, to bring the team along the journey as well in training and are implementing the vision where everyone knows what’s happening, really mitigates people’s fears and stuff.
Helen: So I was wondering if you could share how, how you, you know, once the leader has the vision, what are the next steps to, to bring the team along.
Steve: This is such an interesting thing. A lot of leaders ask us, “So what kind of tech do you build? What kind of cool things you, what kind of chatbot?” I said, just hold on a second.
Steve: It’s not about the tech itself, it’s about how to engage the frontline workers, the middle management, the senior team, the governance team, and so what does that [have] to do with AI? It’s that that’s everything because AI empowers to do more, better, faster. So the key thing is us, not AI. They said, Oh, so you’re talking about actually helping human to do better.
Steve: I said, yeah. So really to training the human, to educate them, to help them to move along in the journey, as a journeyman, so to speak, that’s really exciting. Yeah, that’s that’s it. Well, how can you train us? Well, so what we do many times the first way to assess people’s AI readiness for the small, medium and large organization alike, but mainly the middle market is what we’re focusing on, is to provide AI readiness training, education, and some, we call it prom engineering training.
Steve: I know that sounds really complicated. It’s not, it’s just basic training on using AI responsibly. So, recently, actually about last week, we have a national nonprofit [who] invited us in to train their leadership nationally, including Canada. We are similar platforms [regarding] what we’re using right now, and we actually do a even a survey during the training, and it’s very exciting to see, wow, these leaders can express their hope, their dreams to this type of using AI responsibly.
Steve: But they also express their fears and doubts and disbelief at the same time. So we collect that data and we are building even more training curriculums to help each of the different, groups in a different geography, different, organizational uniqueness. We actually can tailor to each of those groups and train them based on our survey results.
Steve: So now we can actually get back to them and say, “Hey, these are some of the curriculums you can deploy to train your senior leaders to train your stakeholders, but we can also train your middle management team, your core team, and then you can train all the frontline workers that [are] using AI responsibly” and they were so excited.
Steve: So we actually in the process of doing that, and they are larger organization, but we found, wow, what an incredible impact we are making just in a few very short training[s]. And helping them to move things forward.
Helen: Yeah. And that’s one thing why I’m so excited to partner with you is that it really is people first in all aspects of it.
Helen: And one thing that I like about the AI readiness assessment too, is that I get people reaching out to me all the time like, “I know we need to embrace AI, but I don’t even know where to get started.” And that AI readiness assessment. does that. So, I was wondering if you could tell us like what that entails and then just more generally for, anyone listening, you know, how they should be thinking about getting AI ready too, outside of, you know, the assessment that we do for, for our clients.
Steve: So if you’re talking about more of the individual, like as a human being, everybody’s AI ready, just go ahead and download, Chat GPT or any of these chatbots, you are ready and typically you can get a free version. There’s no cost to it, right? And then if you want to look at organization AI readiness, I would recommend a few things.
Steve: One is, is your data ready, right? Is your cybersecurity and privacy persona ready? Are your people really ready to adopt something, and not to be fearful because of all the negative publicity to it, right? But the most importantly is whether your leadership, your change management process is ready.
Steve: AI amplifies everything we do, no question about that. But what do we want to amplify? So that readiness assessment would actually guide us to know where to amplify. Think of the AI readiness assessment is like doing an annual physical, when you go to a doctor’s office. If you want to run a marathon on climbing Mount Everest, you probably want to do a physical first before you say, Hey, do I need to do this first or that?
Steve: And so a lot of what we do is to pivot on all those elements and then provide a recommendation so people will know, okay, I may not be ready to run a marathon yet, but I can do my 5k going these three steps. And then after 5k we’ll do another assessment and say, you know what, now I can go half a marathon.
Steve: And now I can even go full marathon, or maybe I can climb Mt. Everest, maybe, right? So those are the type of things, is to shoot very high, but also do something right now. So you can move the, productivity efficiency forward for your organization, but not losing your team. And that’s the most important thing.
Steve: Do everything to keep your team engaged, keep them thriving and help them to be productive and happier. But at the same time, moving your organization’s strategic objective forward. And I think that’s what we used to pivot. We actually started using AI, deploying AI right away for certain customers. But that typically didn’t work that well at the beginning because we see the people resist to it.
Steve: They don’t know what this is. So you can build a very cool AI system. But if people are not using it, not knowing how to use it, it’s really kind of… the ROI, return on investment, is very low. So what we did is actually change that. Let’s just put a little bit of investment in it, but mainly in the people in the process side.
Steve: Instead, try to overly focus on technology. And then once we get the people and the process more ready, then the technology can be deployed. We have the highest, coolest tech. Our team is actually all over the place. In Cincinnati, in Australia, in Mumbai, India. The technology is very strong, but we don’t go with the technology first.
Steve: We go with people and process development first. So I think that’s really what we came up with the, I think a unique offering, at least for this point, is to really helping people to be ready before they adopt AI. And that’s what the readiness assessment is like.
Helen: It’s the new, digital transformation that we’re going through right now.
Helen: And even, with the app boom, you know, so many companies were like, Oh, apps are the new thing. Let’s spend a ton of money on them, mobile apps, for the app store or whatever. And then they never got used and, you know, money was wasted. So I think this approach, really is more thoughtful for, know, if you’re going to integrate AI and you’re going to invest in it, but you want to make it useful and that your team or your customers want to use it and adopt it in that way.
Helen: And you mentioned a couple of use cases, cause I know chatbots are kind of the easy low hanging fruit, but AI, I think it’s almost like a double edged sword, can do any and everything. And we hear that, but we want to find the ones, you know, if you’re going to invest in it that make the most meaningful impact and get you [a good] ROI.
Helen: So can you kind of discuss, some different use cases that you’ve done with your clients and how you kind of help your clients determine the use cases moving forward too.
Steve: Yes, so lots of different use cases. So we, after the assessment, then we typically hone into the highest ROI or the easiest to implement use cases, either or, okay?
Steve: And the easy to implement use cases, I would say is marketing and sales. Because I think every organization want to really increase their marketing and then increase their sales and AI is really, really good for that, right? The other one, we actually currently working with a customer on, is the HR use case.
Steve: Onboarding new employees. Performance evaluation. Instead using a lot of different spreadsheets and payrolls and all that, we actually integrate everything into a AI chat bot. So the HR professionals, all they have to do is talk to the chat bot about what they need to do with a particular employee and a chat bot will replace it.
Steve: Oh, they need to fill out this form. They need to check this insurance box. They actually need to figure out this or the manager actually need to provide an annual review summary and then we need to make sure their family vacation already is on our dashboard, right? So all that you can integrate and then what we found actually is interesting, is that people tend to not [engage] with the HR department before [but] now with this cool tool, they can engage the HR department privately and securely without actually being [aware] that that was the one their engaging.
Steve: So it’s very cool to seeing we have higher engagement on the culture development, training and performance review. All scheduled out for you without actually even thinking about you have to open up 14 spreadsheets. By the way, that’s the actual number. 14 spreadsheets consolidate to zero spreadsheets, [completely] automated by this particular chatbot.
Steve: We also, use another use case on predictive maintenance on machines. So we have a customer, just on board. They found that they have so many different manufacturing machines and different piece of equipment. They really want to see how to provide a predicted maintenance schedule.
Steve: So instead of letting the machine break down and then fix it, and that not only is costly, but also holds up the production. So using AI to predict when the machine need to be optimally maintained before they break down, it’s a huge benefit for them. So that’s what we are doing right now using, we call the “machine learning using computer vision,” but then pivoting on some of the predictive analytics type approach.
Steve: And then what we do is that they don’t need to worry about when the machine need to be because the basically the system will tell them XYZ machine need to be maintained within the next two months and their machine, the breakdown rate drop significantly just because of that. Another example is fleet management.
Steve: Some of the, customers might have a fleet, a hundred, a thousand different, trucks and things like that. And we actually can use AI to track them on every single thing and helping the fleet to be connecting with another one automatically and really helping logistics and supply chain issues. So those are some of the use cases for manufacturing logistics, supply chain and also business consultation.
Steve: One last one I can want to bring up is the, design of architecture design. So there’s a firm that we are working with. They are an architecture firm, and they have architecture drawings and blueprints from last 40 years.
Steve: And to find a particular blueprint and drawing from 20 years ago is almost an anomaly. You can’t really find it that easily. It’s somewhere, but you can’t find it. We use a AI system to actually automate the retrieval of data from their drawings even from 20 years ago, and be able to digitize it and make it available for the new architects to join new designs without completely going to this drawing board again, they actually can pivot on something they did 20 years ago.
Helen: Yeah, that’s one, I know I’ve said this on the show before. That’s one thing I’m excited about with AI, is just everyone being able to, play with and work with their, full body of work from their lifetime, whether that’s individuals or companies, because we have such like a recency memory of like what, we thought of most recently or read or books and stuff, but to be able to access that whole corpus of work, I think is really, really exciting. And your product is around secure AI and you had mentioned, you know, training it not to be a people pleaser. but you know, I know a lot of companies, it’s like, well, do we host on the cloud?
Helen: Do we do it ourself? And you have Jeremy Wood on the team with this, deep AI expertise. So can you kind of expand on secure AI and also like you have protected IP that you don’t want it on the public AIs. Like there’s a lot of concerns about the hallucinations, the cyber security, protecting your IP, all of these things.
Helen: And your secure AI product really addresses these. And I know a lot of people have these concerns even, you know, probably hearing this interview, it’s like, Oh, this sounds great, but like, how does it actually… like, how is it actually secure? So I was wondering if you could kind of expand on that. And even whether it’s people are considering working with CybrCastle or any AI consultant, like, how do you know who to work with to where you are getting and can trust that the AI development is secure.
Helen: I think that’s like, it reminds me of the early days of social media marketing where on Twitter, every bio was like, “I’m a social media expert now I’m a social media expert,” and in the past year, you know, since Chat GPT launched, like everyone’s an AI expert these days and it’s can be like overwhelming, like figuring out who’s legit and who’s not, and what does secure AI mean? And how does that actually, you know, what does that actually look like? so I know that was kind of a big question, but I’ll let you take the baton and run with it.
Steve: Yeah, this is really our domain, Helen. We are a cyber security, cyber privacy company first. So we focus on protecting organizations against any cyberattacks and privacy breaches.
Steve: That’s kind of where our company was founded, CybrCastle. About two years ago, we realized AI is coming on the scene. And I said, well, let’s really pivot on that. So we invited, my long term friend, a 20 some odd year friend, Jeremy Wood, to be our chief AI officer.
Steve: Jeremy stopped doing programming when he was eight years old. Okay. So he was building all kinds of systems, both for himself, for the government, for nonprofits, for for-profits, you name it. And, we felt that together we can do something cool for the middle market. So how does that look like really for, in layman terms? Everybody knows AI is powerful.
Steve: Everybody want to get AI to do the redundant work or the repetitive work. Everybody realized that our privacy and security somehow is being somewhat infringed, I would say by, without saying a whole lot, by the big technology companies. Right? So all that tech culminate into this product called Secure AI and the Secure AI, just to say, let’s give the power back to people.
Steve: Give the privacy [that] belong to the people, give the security back to the people. So we really tailor design this, product called Secure AI. When I say a product, it’s just an AI implemented into a small medium sized business. We call them a product. So we handle privacy security for the people, to the people, with the people, helping people.
Steve: That’s why. And that’s essentially how we kind of bolt together what we call our brand is Secure AI. Well, if I can look at, Jeremy and his team as global team now, wow, really looking at how we can do this efficiently we realize we need to make it for the middle market, need to be not, too expensive.
Steve: So we really need to keep the cost very affordable for the middle market. But at the same time, we want to make sure it’s secure, private. So we ended up actually pre-training a lot of the models. We call it the AI model. We pre train them. It’s almost like training an executive assistant, a HR specialist, a marketing specialist, or a logistics specialist, a sales, development specialist, almost like that.
Steve: We’re training them in our CybrCastle secure cloud ecosystem. And then once a customer say, “Hey, we need someone to help our logistics or machine maintenance.” We just pull that pre-trained AI system and then we customize it for our customers. And that way, it’s relatively inexpensive because we’re already pre-trained them and we can implement them quite fast into the system.
Steve: When I say fast, probably three to six months, you actually can engage a true AI system. You mentioned about cloud hosting. We host everything either on prem, which means in the on the customer side, if they met the higher security and privacy type of standard. But if some of the customers say, you know what?
Steve: We already use the cloud like Amazon or Google or Ezra, which is the Microsoft cloud. We can easily build the systems on those cloud. Some of the customers want a little bit more privacy snd more security. Well we actually have our CybrCastle cloud as well. So we can build them inside our cloud for higher privacy, higher security.
Steve: The difference would be if you go to a Amazon or AWS. You typically do not own your data. I know most people don’t know that. They own your data. They just tell you they don’t use the data to train their bot, mainly. But they can still change that later. That’s the kind of a nagging reality we are dealing with with the big tech.
Steve: So what we are thinking about is we decentralize the governance. Make sure it’s no longer the big tech controls. We can even use technology to tokenize it, means that the only way you can access the data is someone have the key to the tokenization. Also, it keeps it very safe, very private, only can be, deployed through AI.
Steve: Almost like a privacy as a service, you determine whether you want to release that data to one person, to 100 people or to a million people. It’s totally up to you. But then you can control that privacy. You can dial it up and down, almost like dial your knobs on your car radio. And that’s another feature we are providing is, you own your data, you own your privacy.
Steve: And you have full, control who you can share and how and when you want to share and you can discontinue the sharing and be able to expunge the metadata. I know that’s a lot of tech words, but essentially giving the control to the people of their own identity, their own security, their own privacy, their own data.
Steve: And that to us, it’s more than just a AI implementation, it’s almost philosophically, we are firm for building the community private, secure, helping them to thrive. And that’s a different approach from some of the big tech companies.
Helen: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. And I also think, you know, at the end of the day, and actually Maddie Bell, who is on the show and based here in Cincinnati with her Scheduler AI tool.
Helen: She’s like, it’s ask questions to the companies that you’re working with, whether it’s a tool or a firm like CybrCastle. And can they answer your questions? Cause it’s people, you know, behind the tools and the intentionality behind them and their expertise. And I know one thing that’s important to me is, to build inclusive tools.
Helen: Cause you know, a lot of these, models that, you know, are off the shelf or that you can download and start using, you’re just kind of relying on their own, training versus adding the extra guardrails to be more inclusive and the broadest sense of the word but Jeremy on your team, yeah. You know, he has a very specific background.
Helen: I was wondering if you could share more of that, when it comes to privacy and security and his expertise. Cause he, I know he builds that into all of the tools, for the client projects too.
Steve: We bring him in as our chief AI officer. because he has a unique, background with building large AI systems with the federal government.
Steve: Okay. And obviously we cannot talk about that, right? That’s a highly secure type of situation. So yeah, high security, high privacy background with the federal government building, let’s say systems that really supporting our national defense. National security level, right? So that’s the one background.
Steve: He also have a background building, he called this a sentiment analysis, for actually helping children to be away from their predators online. So he actually, this is a really interesting thing, it’s a global effort with global teams. So he had, he led a global team to catch criminals, helping local enforcements to catch criminals that they become predatorial to our Children globally.
Steve: So both the government side and the nonprofit side, so we felt that with that test sensitivity of privacy, security, protecting what needed to be protected. It’s the major foundation for us to build a responsible AI systems. For our community.
Steve: So that’s why he’s our chief AI officer.
Helen: I appreciate that. And, I think my last conversation with him, I was like, “well, how did, how do you make sure that it’s inclusive? Cause that’s really important.” He’s like, Helen, I love these questions. We build this into our pre-training too. And we can even, expand on that if needed for, for some of our customers. Cause-
Steve: Yeah, I guess I didn’t quite answer the inclusive question. So the inclusive really is building on your organizational persona. Your organization is an inclusive culture. We use an inclusive, pre-trained model to begin with. We will not want to be people pleasing model. Now there’s some model like going to explore the world.
Steve: You may want to people pleasing because you are having fun touring the world. That might be a good persona to use a people pleasing model. But when you really want to be inclusive, you want to get the culture built, that model need to be pre-trained, according to your objective, your strategy, your governance.
Steve: And all that we can build into the pre trained model with the secure AI implementation with CybrCastle. And Jeremy is, I would say, one of the best in the industry for that. I know that because he’s on our team, I might be bragging, but he is. Yes.
Helen: Well, I know it’s come up in the show too, and you all embrace it is like, don’t build and design for the average, because when you do that, you actually exclude, people on the edge and to be inclusive, you really want to take the broadest sense to lift up, you know, the whole organization or your whole team.
Helen: so that’s another thing that, that I really appreciate as well. When it comes to ROI, I think it was kind of interesting when I had Krista from IBM on the show, you know, she, cited a few different studies that some of the initial leaders weren’t seeing ROI out the gate from their AI adoption.
Helen: And I think it’s changed a bit today, with the implementation of AI thoughtfully, but how, how do you identify and help business leaders like understand the ROI use case, when it comes to, implementing, or adopting artificial intelligence?
Steve: Yeah, that’s a very good question, Helen. We would not do anything without first pivoting on high ROI.
Steve: So, one of the reasons why we pivot on even adopting AI, because we have a cybersecurity background. We have a management consulting, executive consulting, board consulting background. We felt that ROI is the key driver to any business, so don’t start anything until we know what the ROI is. So AI in the larger company field has been operating for the last five, six years.
Steve: For those really can adopt the change management, of course, strategic change management, starting from the stakeholders, that senior leaders of the organization, be able to create a culture of change, helping people be comfortable adopting things, execute a strategy right, and then bring AI into support [of] those execution of strategy.
Steve: Those companies which are wise are actually pretty outstanding or astonishing, I would say. A couple of reports we saw from either Harvard Business School or McKinsey and company and a couple other groups, IBM, even, the people can adopt those approaches starting from the top, champion the strategy, adopt the readiness assessment type of tools and then be able to really pivot on what can generate ROI.
Steve: The anecdotal data is about 13x (times) to 20x, 13 to 18x in three years on all the investments. Now that’s outstanding, 13x in three years. Our internal anecdotal data also supports that too. Again, this is a new field. So we don’t have a lot of, I think empirical data yet because it’s just so new.
Steve: Now on the flip side, we saw [that] organizations are really not doing… using that approach. They don’t do much assessment. They jump on the shiny object of particular AI tool. They implement it because they want to beat the crowd. And that does not connect with either their strategy, their tactic. They just want to buy a tool, being cool and tell people they can do AI.
Steve: Those organizations, I would say by and large, will suffer ’cause any technology. It’s not about a technology. It’s what the technology can enhance human being to do their work more efficiently and more effectively. I think that’s the divergent. So our goal is to helping business leaders to converge, right?
Steve: Using the cool tools, but before you do that, let’s see what are the best tools. We now, even on the open system, there are 20 some 1000 tools available right now, and no one needs 20 some 1000 tools. And then on the what we do is like, okay, we will evaluate the open system, but we also have a custom system, but that’s secondary.
Steve: Business leaders, what are you really pivoting on to grow? How do you want to be five years from now? How does that stay competitive either in your blue ocean strategy or other strategies? If you can pivot on those and then find the right AI implementation, find the right partners, Like us or someone else, we can really hone in into a strategic driven change management framework first, before we delve into a particular tool from one or another.
Steve: So I think that’s the area we are seeing the highest ROI and people will be happier too because they obviously thinking that this AI doesn’t replace them. It’s actually enhanced them. So there’s a, this is based on the phrase I learned from Harvard business school about a year ago, last August, there’s an article came out that said, “AI do not replace human, human with AI will replace those without AI.”
Steve: And I think that’s the core of it. Just. You can build the best, best AI system and still fail because people don’t use it and they are afraid to engage it. If people feel that AI would take over their job, how likely [will they] use that AI system? So a lot of what we do is helping human beings to say:
Steve: “No, this is not replacing me. This is merely just to enhance what I do. And I probably want to learn a few things just [so I can] be more competitive in my next pay raise and next career move,” right? That way people say, wow, if I learn this few things, I can be a better worker, better salesperson, better professional, better teacher.
Steve: That’s really what the heart of the secure AI implementation [is].
Helen: And another thing I really appreciate about you and the whole team is values alignment. And you also not only look at return on investment, you look at return on purpose. And I was wondering if you could share with our listeners and viewers what that means to you and working with values aligned partners and clients like myself.
Steve: Yeah, that’s a really good question. So I give you an actor, a real life example. There was a business sales call, we were engaged in a middle market customer and we’re talking to a particular CEO and then, everything goes great. They really are growing fast. They want to use AI to create, they call a “core delivery backbone.”
Steve: I said, this is awesome, fits our persona. Then the next thing, it becomes interesting. They start diverging. He said, well, we have so many people on the HR department. Our goal is to use the AI to replace all of them. That’s what the CEO told us. My colleague and I look at each other and we pause for about three seconds.
Steve: I said, okay, Mr. CEO, we will not be your best partner. Our goal is not to replace your HR department. So what do you mean? Right? This is great. Cause we can- it’s like, no, what we found is, we can help your HR department to streamline the processes, to optimize the processes, so they can actually do more HR work, not clerical work.
Steve: He said what you mean? How much time your HR department are focused on payrolls and benefits and answering questions are very basic. We can create a system to answer those questions. But our goal is that your HR department can actually now doing real HR work, like organizational development, recruiting, be able to provide culture development.
Steve: [He said] Well, I’m not interested in that. And that was the end of the sales call because we believe that the true value of what we do is the helping the HR department to do more. What HR is supposed to do, helping the HR professionals to engage their employees, their associates to create inclusive programs so they can benefit long term and short term instead of just reducing the cost.
Steve: So the return on purpose I call it community building, ecosystem building, human thriving, human flourishing. I think those are really the things, not only just for the workplace, really it’s for the society in general. So we felt that actually AI can support that at work. We are doing our part to support the society, moving towards human flourishing.
Helen: I fully support this and never advocate to use AI to replace humans, so that’s definitely one thing I appreciate, and encourage all, you know, teams and leaders to consider is, using AI as a superpower and not, not a replacement by, by any means.
Steve: I do want to pivot one more point on this.
Steve: AI also causes humans to elevate. For humans to be more happier, more productive, more innovative, more creative, using AI, I think, is one of the best ways. So it actually helped us to learn more, develop more, getting trained more, to do more of what humans should do. So it’s not a zero sum thing, it’s really enhance[ing] their capability and be able to give them time to learn new things for the new economy is upon us. So it’s really both is not just not replacing human. It’s actually helping human to flourish, to learn, to be created, to be better.
Helen: And I know I’ve said this many times, but I’m a big believer that the future is community and collaborative. And, I get so excited when I think about what’s happening here in Cincinnati and the AI ecosystem that’s really just blossoming and how everyone is learning together and collaborating, whether you see that in our meetup, and businesses coming together.
Helen: And Cincy AI week, the mayor, I just had a press conference with the mayor for another conference this fall, Midwest Con. So yeah, I appreciate the community focus, the ecosystem focus and the collaborative focus. And I think that’s another place where, you know, the smaller companies and mid-market firms, that’s catered to mid-market firms like yourself, can differentiate, each other because it’s more in the community, community focused.
Helen: but I didn’t know if you, wanted to expand on that or had any additional thoughts on community ecosystems and collaboration.
Steve: That’s the heart of AI in my opinion, is to build communities and ecosystems. In fact, you and Kendra and one of our colleagues, Sabrina, the three of you guys are really knock[ing] it out of the park on every month on the Cincy AI for human meetup, right?
Steve: That’s just awesome. So, if someone wants to learn more about this, just join the community, but you’ve got to register too, because they fill up every month. So make sure. Because I didn’t register, I couldn’t go the one time. So make sure you register, right? It’s free, but please register.
Steve: And then I think about two weeks ago, there’s a Cincy AI week. My goodness, it was attended by 1,100 people with 60 different organizations from some 20 different states, in Cincinnati. So Cincinnati is a hub right now. The community is getting stronger by the days. And again, thanks to you, Helen and Kendra and Sabrina and all these great people.
Steve: I don’t want to mention everybody’s names, but I am just in awe to see, wow, this is a true community effort and that’s really exciting to see. If we’re going to use AI to build our future, AI needs to help us to build a community and that’s the only way for it becomes sustainable and flourishing.
Steve: So I keep saying that, [I] sound like a broken record. That’s my core belief. Another one is. AI gives us power, super power, but the power is really giving the power back to the people. And we are coming up to 4th of July, the nation is founded on we the people, we the people, the United States of America, they didn’t say we the big tech, we the government, we the people need to have the power to do what’s to come in a new economy.
Steve: Everybody knows a new economy is upon us, okay? How can we pivot on AI to really, involve [it] in the new economy? The new economy doesn’t even have to be just commerce, can be non-profit, can be in the artistic community, like what you are championing, can be in education, supply chain. All the aspects. So it’s a community effort.
Steve: It’s not just an industry effort or technology effort. That’s what’s exciting about what’s happening in Cincinnati. And again, thanks for you guys for doing all this.
Helen: And for our audio only listeners, as Steve has been saying all this stuff about the community focus, which is near and dear to my heart, I’ve got a big smile on my face in nodding in agreement, the whole time.
Helen: So, very proud to, to partner with CybrCastle and for the community that we’re building here in Cincinnati and beyond. Well, Steve, I know we could keep going and going, but, we do try to keep these interviews to an hour and, one question that I ask all of my guests is if you want our listeners and viewers to remember one thing, what is that one thing you want them to walk away with?
Steve: Embrace the future now. AI is not a fad. It’s not just going to be going away, it’s here, it’s upon us, embrace it, work with it, learn from it, do something, download an app, whatever app you want to download, and just be mindful of security and privacy. Join the community, go to the Cincy AI Meetup or any other event, there are many events.
Steve: Subscribe to Helen’s newsletter, Kendra’s newsletter, seriously, because there’s so many good nuggets and so many things that you guys can really be a part of. Those are probably the foremost. The other thing is [that] if you are a business leader like myself and really learn how to learn how to use this to superpower your business.
Steve: Then I would say really, maybe even, get with Helen, get with Kendra to be seeing what are the ecosystem they are part of. We are not an end-all solution for everyone. Okay. We focus on our niche. There are other groups also focus on that niche. We work together. So we felt that. Just take one step to talk to someone like us, doesn’t even have to be us, to learn about how to engage AI in your organization.
Steve: And that might be a half an hour call, might be a 45 minutes call, may just benefit you to see how to make a pivot forward for your strategic change. That will be what I would recommend.
Helen: Well, I did not pay you to say to sign up for my Creativity Squared newsletter, but I appreciate the plug and I’ll be sure to include all of the links that you mentioned.
Helen: And, you know, we, in the Cincy AI newsletter, we do a roundup of a bunch of events, locally in the Cincinnati and Ohio region, but Kendra’s, which I’ll be sure to include on her website is really the most comprehensive list of events in the Cincinnati area region or Ohio too. But for those outside of this region, I know I’ve becoming kind of like an unofficial cheerleader for all things responsible AI in Cincinnati and the movement happening here.
Helen: But, you know, just going to Eventbrite and Meetup.com and searching, you know, AI, you’ll find local events in your community too. And I know, we have, we’re reaching out and working with people from Minneapolis to Cleveland, on, you know, in Columbus, like what’s the magic that we have in Cincinnati and how can they bring it to their cities as well.
Helen: So, if you’re not in the area, you know, there’s, everyone’s kind of like hungry and trying to figure this out all at the same time of how to navigate this brave new world that we’re in. So, we’re all in it together. That’s for sure. Steve, is there anything else you want to make sure to include in today’s conversation before, before we sign off?
Steve: Yeah, I want to say kudos to you. Kudos to Kendra and all the pioneers for the Cincinnati community and globally. I know you are a global champion for AI, not just for Cincinnati. You just came back from Europe. I would say that really just plug in. Learn, grow, and not be afraid to ask any questions. We are all learning about this together, maybe at a different level, but we all need to learn, so we will be ready, for the new economy is coming upon us. So thank you so much for inviting me to your show.
Helen: Yeah, I appreciate you saying that. And one purpose for the show is to, you know, I don’t want anyone with their head buried in the sands and then, you know, when it comes out, get hit by this AI Mack truck and not be prepared for, for what’s to come.
Helen: So, yeah, the show since the AI and we embrace the mantra, you know, a rising tide lifts all ships too. So, hopefully if anyone’s listening, then maybe a little bit more in the AI nervous side, this will, empower you to start, you know, getting to know the tools a little bit better. And if you have any questions, definitely reach out.
Helen: Steve, it has been such a pleasure having you on the show. I’m so excited to, know you and partner with you and get to see all the amazing work that you do up close in person. And, thank you for all of your time today, on Creativity Squared.
Steve: Thank you so much, Helen.
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