AI and the Future of Work: Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace, Business, Ethics, HR, and IT for AI Enthusiasts, Leaders and Academics - Tyler Foster, Evolv AI CTO, discusses the future of AI to help brands connect with consumers

Tyler Foster, Evolv AI CTO, discusses the future of AI to help brands connect with consumers

10/16/23 • 38 min

AI and the Future of Work: Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace, Business, Ethics, HR, and IT for AI Enthusiasts, Leaders and Academics

AI is here to accelerate the world's creativity. In fact, it's one of the things generative AI does best. Imagine a world where personalized campaigns help products you love find you. Today's guest did just that and he created Evolv AI to help brands connect with customers across all digital channels.

Tyler Foster is the CTO of Evolv AI, a platform that helps brands improve conversion and experiment faster. He started the company with CEO Michael Scharff in 2019 and together they've grown it into an early leader in AI-first digital experimentation having helped brands like Safelite, DirectTV, and Verizon. Prior to Evolv AI, Tyler was the founding CEO and Chief Architect of Senient Systems and an early Software Engineer at Cloudera.

Listen and learn...

How a farmhand and SCUBA diver became an AI developer
How AI is helping brands target consumers
The tradeoff between personalization and data collection
How to eliminate bias in automated decisions
Will AI eliminate creative jobs?
How society needs to adapt to new definitions of work imposed by AI
Why we need to disconnect ideas from tools and processes
What does it mean that we're entering a "post-truth" era?
Why AI is more fair than humans

References in this episode...

Listen and learn...

How a farmhand and SCUBA diver became an AI developer
How AI is helping brands target consumers
The tradeoff between personalization and data collection
How to eliminate bias in automated decisions
Will AI eliminate creative jobs?
How society needs to adapt to new definitions of work imposed by AI
Why we need to disconnect ideas from tools and processes
What does it mean that we're entering a "post-truth" era?
Why AI is more fair than humans

References in this episode...

Previous Episode

Tim Guleri, Managing Director @ Sierra Ventures, discusses what he's looking to fund in gen AI... and what most entrepreneurs get wrong

Tim Guleri has had a remarkable run at Sierra Ventures since 2001. He has invested in transcendent companies including Sourcefire and MakeMyTrip which both went public. Before that, Tim had a successful career as an entrepreneur and exec at companies like Scopus and Octane which was acquired by Epiphany in 2000.

Sierra has one of the strongest future of work and AI portfolios that includes companies like Paro, Krisp, and SupportLogic which acquired Emtropy Labs which was founded by great former guest Harish Batlapenamurthy. In full disclosure, Sierra and I are both investors in ArmorCode.
Listen and learn...

Why the most successful venture investors were previously entrepreneurs
Tim's thesis for investing in gen AI customer journey company Simulate
How Tim identifies "gen AI whitewashing" when hearing pitches
Why gen AI is more than just another platform shift
How gen AI startups can beat Big Tech incumbents
Why all companies are ultimately "financial products"
Sierra's primary data from CIOs: "...they're spending money on use cases that unlock employee productivity"
What Tim means by "build horizontally but execute vertically"
Which jobs AI will eliminate vs. augment
Tim's "one that got away" pitch from his early days at Sierra

References in this episode...

According to CNBC, 69% of U.S. adults are uncomfortable with AI that can mimic human thinking
Ashu Garg from Foundation Capital on AI and the Future of Work
Rory O'Driscoll from Scale Venture Partners on AI and the Future of Work
Sierra Ventures

Next Episode

Denise Hemke, Chief Product Officer at Checkr and former Workday GM, discusses using AI to reduce bias in the hiring process

Anyone who has ever hired a new employee knows how important and broken the background check process is. The experience is awful for candidates and employers. Plus, it's inherently unfair for under-represented and non-traditional candidates. Imagine a world where hiring the best people is easier and faster and all forms of verification data are provided automatically from trusted sources.

Today's guest is making that vision a reality. Denise Hemke is the Chief Product Officer at Checkr, the amazing company making employee screening more fair for everyone. Checkr has raised nearly $700M since its founding in 2014. Denise heads up product management, design, and program management after having served in various leadership roles at Workday including most recently GM for Analytics. Denise is also the San Francisco chapter lead for the excellent organization Products That Count started by friend of the podcast SC Moatti.

Listen and learn...

How to fix the broken background check process
How to give candidates with non-traditional backgrounds access to the labor force
How technology is making the hiring process more fair and helping workers get paid faster
How to use AI to reduce bias in hiring decisions
How AI used for background checks should be regulated
What Denise learned about building customer communities as a General Manager at Workday

References in this episode...