January 16, 2019

CES 2019 Recap: AI for AI’s Sake, Mobility as Transportation, Data, & Privacy + The Product Mindset Book Preview

For this episode of The Innovation Engine podcast, we take a look back at the year’s biggest consumer technology show, CES, which just wrapped in Las Vegas. Among the topics we cover are whether AI lived up to the massive hype at this year’s show, why “mobility is the new transportation” according to Allstate’s CEO and why data is now their key differentiator, and why podcasting – yes, podcasting! – is poised to make a big splash in 2019. We also get the latest on an upcoming book called The Product Mindset to get the Cliff’s Notes version of the book and an update on when it will be hitting bookshelves.

David DeWolf, the founder and CEO of 3Pillar Global, joins us for this episode to talk those topics and more. David lives at the intersection of business, technology, and leadership. After accidentally starting 3Pillar Global, at the age of 26, David has grown the organization to nearly 1000 employees around the globe, hitting the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies for seven of the last nine years. 3Pillar Global builds customer-facing digital products for companies like Carfax, PBS, Equinox, National Geographic, and many other industry-leading companies. After a little more than a decade in business, 3Pillar and David have racked up dozens of awards, including SmartCEO Magazine’s Future 50, Washington DC’s 40 Under 40, and Virginia’s Fantastic 50. A board member and angel investor, David’s insights on the digital economy, innovation, culture, and company growth have been featured in Fortune, Fast Company, Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, PandoDaily and ZDNet, among others.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

You can tune in to the full episode of the podcast below.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

  • Is AI ready to live up to the massive hype it has received? David isn’t so sure. Most of what he saw he felt like was companies trying to use AI and machine learning to capture attention, not use it in ways that will actually benefit their customers or consumers.
  • Data, it has been said, is the fuel of the digital economy. David delves into that concept and discusses how businesses can deal with the heightened sensitivity around how consumer data is used. The short version – if data is used to provide something of value (read: not just serve up targeted ads), consumers are more likely to be okay with it.
  • A lot of products that were featured at CES centered around healthy living, which David sees as an extension of the in-roads wearables like Fitbit have made with consumers.
  • David covers the difference between the IT mindset that has traditionally governed most software development projects and the Product Mindset, which places an emphasis on driving business growth and generating dollars rather than driving efficiency and saving pennies.

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About The Innovation Engine

Since 2014, 3Pillar has published The Innovation Engine, a podcast that sees a wide range of innovation experts come on to discuss topics that include technology, leadership, and company culture. You can download and subscribe to The Innovation Engine on Apple Podcasts. You can also tune in via the podcast’s home on Spotify to listen online, via Android or iOS, or on any device supporting a mobile browser.