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Michael Westervelt

Account Executive, Retail at Google | Berkeley ExecEd Certificate: Artificial Intelligence: Business Strategies and Applications

Michael Westervelt is a self-driven and extremely motivated individual dedicated to personal growth and community improvement.

He holds an Executive Education Certificate in Artificial Intelligence: Business Strategies and Applications from the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business, and a B.A. in Journalism from The University of New Mexico.

Michael has held various roles in reputable organizations, including being an Account Executive for Retail and Government & Advocacy, Founder and Executive Director of Next Step Consulting Inc., Account Manager in Finance, and Field Sales Representative at Google.

Highlights

Feb 18 · linkedin

It's very fashionable (and fun) to talk about conversational AI right now - about all the money it could make for companies, how scary some of the results can be, and the potentially unforeseen consequences of this disrupting technology.

What's lingering heavily on my mind is what isn't being talked about.

This disruption has the potential to change our lives by the same magnitude (if not greater) as home computers or the internet...but just like those technological achievements that came before, it will likely benefit the wealthy who can afford access to it first. As this technology becomes exponentially important to our day-to-day lives, so too will the gap between those who can afford it and those who can't.

Is anyone working through the logistics of giving access to this type of "game changing" technology to the masses before it is widely adopted and capitalism makes it unattainable to many? If what we're reading is correct, AI could be the backbone of many careers in the future (not to mention new companies)...is the privilege of learning how to use AI going to be limited to the schools with 3 to 1 devices for their students already?

Is anyone thinking about this? #technology #future #students #ai

Feb 9 · linkedin

Google has officially entered the AI natural language race with Bard, and everyone wants to talk about the implications. Unfortunately, the focus is all-too-often centered around the immediate impact this conversational service may have on ads - and in that focus, I believe most people are missing the forest through all the trees.

Zoom out for a moment.

While Microsoft and ChatGPT have made news by marrying this AI to Bing, I'm not sure search engines are where conversational/natural language AI will be thriving in 5 years. I believe it will be more integrated into home automation and task management on our phones than in how we typically use search engines for intent-based queries. Of course, the data collected from lengthier "conversational queries" may make ads even more powerful. If 15% of queries are unique every day, how many "conversational queries" will be?

Conversational AI will be great when it comes to asking for ideas on what we can make for dinner (with the random hodgepodge of ingredients in our fridge after we forget to stop at Whole Foods).

It'll help when the creative juices aren't flowing after a long day and my daughter wants a bed time story about a rainbow unicorn.

Ad copy, coding, personalized emails...all things that companies could immediately use this type of AI to improve/scale within their businesses.

It'll be great in a lot of ways - but I just don't see it replacing the intent based research people are doing online anytime soon (and it will be even longer before people trust it enough with important decisions).

No offense to Bard or ChatGPT - but in what world would I consult either about a couch to buy instead of my wife? I barely trust the Geek Squad guy at Best Buy about which TV to get...you think ChatGPT is gonna give me the best answer and I won't research more?

The pandemic forced everyone to become a more digitally savvy researcher - looking for the best deals on the best products. The importance of research (and that Zero Moment of Truth) won't change with conversational AI (just yet) and Google and YouTube remain the best place for it. #google #ai #bard #chatgptai

Michael Westervelt
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Location

San Francisco, California, United States