What’s Up? Part 1- Our Latest Watch This Space Podcast

Here’s a taste of what Chris and I had going on the podcast, talking about the Patagonia class action lawsuit for how they’ve been using AI:
“Using everyday conversations to train AI models raises issues of consent and privacy, and it shows you how disruptive and transformative new technologies can become – and when they hit, they happen big and fast. We’re in so deep now with these technologies, we just can’t walk away.

The main focus for our August episode was on the recent Leesman Corporate Real Estate Poll, and the emerging need for enterprise leaders to develop a workplace strategy. Senior management has numerous priorities to manage for their organization to function effectively; such as employee experience, office utilization and cost management, but they lack the tools to develop an integrated strategy. This where AI comes in, not just for integrating disparate elements across the organization, but also to provide the datasets management needs to make decisions and develop strategies. We discussed how there’s an unmet need here, and a possible opportunity for the UCaaS and CCaaS vendors, who are already capturing much of this data with their AI-driven platforms. Our discussion was based on my recent No Jitter article, which includes a link to the Leesman research. Ahead of all this, we opened the episode with a review of recent tech and AI missteps, namely CrowdStrike, Patagonia and Ticketmaster – not just for the risks we’re all exposed to, but also for how dependent we’re becoming on Big Tech.
For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform – you can access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website. Otherwise, the easiest platforms and sources to find WTS are Apple Podcasts, Google Chrome/Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, iTunes, Spotify and Amazon Music. Believe it or not, we’re also getting found on LinkedIn, Safari, and Alexa-enabled devices. For a more extensive replay archive, you can access all our podcasts here on my JAA website.

What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from July

While the Watch This Space podcast is the main form of original content for this newsletter, Part 2 here is a digest of JAA activities from last month, including my other forms of original content, along with my social media stats. Detail and links for most of these activities can be found on my blog, or posted on my website.

Industry events – none for July, but I had plenty keeping me busy

Video segments – recorded and published:
- Big UC News – industry roundup, including NICE launching UCaaS, state of RingCentral’s partnerships, and Microsoft’s anti-competitive case in the EU
- Let’s Do Video Boardroom – my first guest spot with David Maldow, talking about the future of UC and contact centers, July 15
- Intelligent Thinking AI Summit – a virtual IoT event, where I did a fireside chat about AI trends and opportunities with Tiffani Neilson, July 18
Video/podcast segments – recorded but not yet published:
- Big UC News – industry roundup, including MSFT Teams Premium, Avaya layoffs, and implications of CrowdStrike’s mini meltdown, Aug. 1
- VentureBeat – video segment on impact of AI on enterprises, in conversation with Gary Sorrentino from Zoom, moderated by VentureBeat’s Thom Langford, July 31
New kudo – Named a UC All-Star, UC Today, July 11
Writing roundup for July – summary of posts is here on my blog
Media citings – there were two for July, listed here

Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use LinkedIn – fyi: have now stopped using Twitter/X – so, here are my approximate tallies for LinkedIn during July:
- I had 15,863 views and 25 posts – about half of June’s activity, but not surprising given I had no travel, plus a lighter vibe with summer in full swing
- My top LinkedIn post registered 1,377 views
- Overall, 8 posts had 500+ views

What's Coming? JAA Outlook for August

For conferences, I have one for August - returning to NCEC to speak and be on a fireside chat with Cognigy about the growing role of AI in the contact center for utilities:
- North Carolina Electric Co-operatives Technologies Conference, Wilmington, NC, Aug. 13-15
Active work to keep watch for:
- Two white papers are complete now, and will be publishing this month, finally – one with Cisco, and one with NICE
- NICE webinar on August 8, in support of my new white paper for them
- 3 podcast interviews coming in August: with EM360, Nutun, and Glenn Goldberg’s Parallel Universe
- Fall is just around the corner, and that means conferences – details coming next month, but for now, I have two events on tap for September – Sprinklr and Verint
- For my Future of Work Expo event – running next Feb. 11-13 - here’s the Call for Speakers for anyone interested in being on a panel or to propose a new topic
- Continued guest posts coming – some with my byline and some without – will post about these as they are published
- New projects are in play with several vendors, both current and new clients

Hey, Did You Know?
… there’s more to life than being an indie tech analyst, and with our summers being so short, when a cottage opening comes, you have to take it. Sometimes it’s enough just to watch the waves and the clouds go by – with no AI in sight. We had a window for that during July, and another one coming for August – woo hoo!