Lynne Thomson

After a long career in marketing research and strategy consulting, I landed smack in the middle of the commercialization of AI, first at Amazon’s Alexa and then at Microsoft’s AI Platform, the group that makes the AI in all of Microsoft’s products.

I was fortunate to find brilliant engineers and data scientists who patiently explained what was really going on inside the models and how it is and isn’t similar the statistics I learned. When ChatGPT burst onto public consciousness around New Years 2023, I focused on how businesses want to use Generative AI and the many barriers to doing so. In and out of work I found myself explaining AI to smart people who want more than the handwaving in the press.

I started a Linked In newsletter Decoding AI to capture those explanations. I write to business leaders who need to make decisions about when to invest in AI and the risks that come with it, but I’m told it is also helpful for politicians and just smart people who are curious about what is going on.

Now I’ve decided to go all in, setting up a small consultancy to:

• Demystify AI for non-technical leaders. In addition to public presentations, I do custom seminars for a management team who wants an interactive discussion on how AI can be leveraged in their business

• Identify concrete opportunities for leveraging AI, triangulating business needs with technical capabilities, fleshing out the risks so leaders can make informed decisions on which to pursue.

• Inform product planning and development to maximize user adoption, since we have ample evidence that “if you build it they will come” often isn’t true.

  If you’d like to learn more please get in touch