Where is Dr. Michael Wu?

This year has definitely been a busy year for me right from the start with many travels for conferences, customers, partners, and PROS all the like. And the first thing that many people say to me when chatting over TEAM is “Where are you?” So I thought I could provide a little heads up, at least for the public speaking engagements that I have already confirmed and committed to in the next month.

Dublin Ireland: DMX / MII

Let’s start with the furthest, which is Dublin, Ireland. I will be giving a keynote at the DMX by the Marketing Institute of Ireland (MII).

From AI to the 4th Industrial Revolution — and What it Means to Marketers

Abstract: The rapid adoption of ChatGPT has created a tidal wave of realization that the age of AI is here. The disruptive power of AI is felt by all walks of life across the planet, irrespective of culture and language. In this presentation, we will briefly delve into the evolution and essence of AI. We will also explore how AI will change the way we work while we are being ushered into the 4th industrial revolution. Finally, we will discuss some of the implications for marketers. Join us for an insightful look at AI’s current and future state, and what it means to you.

Because AI is a hot topic today, everyone is trying to be more conversant about this subject. In response to the enormous demand for everything around AI, MII is also offering an 8-hour AI crash course that I’ve developed with UC Berkeley Extension (UCBx). It’s designed for business leaders who don’t necessarily have all the statistics and computer science backgrounds. So it is open to anyone who is genuinely interested in understanding AI.

Being a data scientist who studies machine learning (ML) and the human brain since graduate school and AI practitioner for years, I deeply believe that anyone can learn anything. It’s only a matter of one’s willingness to spend the time to learn it. After all, if inanimate machines can learn anything with sufficient data and training, why couldn’t we?

Considering that most people spent many years to get a good grasp on this subject, 8 hours is actually not much investment at all. You won’t be an expert, but you will be conversant, and you will know enough to be dangerous. Obviously, I will be teaching this course. It is an academically accredited course, so you will get a certification from UCBx upon completion. Since it is accredited, it’s verifiable and recognized by universities all around the world.

Aurora Colorado: INFORMS Business Analytics

Next is closer to home in Aurora, Colorado, where I will be giving a keynote at the Executive Insights Track of the INFORMS Business Analytics Conference. We will discuss the AI/ML innovations that were developed in response to the global disruptions as well as the increasingly volatile business environment in front of us. Since INFORMS tends to gather a more technical audience, we will cover everything from the challenge we are trying to address, to how we build, train, and productize our AI/ML system. Finally, since AI solutions must be adopted within an enterprise to have any ROI, we will also provide an effective strategy for deploying these solutions to ensure mass adoption. So fasten your seat belts!

Converging Worlds: AI Pricing Innovations in the Post-Pandemic Era

Abstract: The nuances of the airline vs. B2B world have always called for highly specialized and disparate approaches to pricing. However, as market volatility grew (especially in the post-pandemic world), many assumptions and conditions that drove the specialization of these respective pricing practices are no longer valid. Today, airline revenue managers must forecast demand far into the future using a much shorter set of relevant histories. On the flip side, B2B pricing analysts must now deal with supply shortages and volatile shipping costs due to the disrupted supply chain.

These challenges have led to a series of AI-powered innovations where airline RM and B2B pricing can learn a lot from each other. Thus, we are seeing a rare occurrence of technological convergence, where airline revenue management (RM) and B2B pricing are converging! We will discuss some of the crucial machine learning advancements that made these AI solutions possible. However, because these AI tools are highly disruptive to the ways that pricing analysts work, their successful deployment requires trust and adoption. We will present a tried and tested 3-phase AI adoption strategy that can greatly improve your odds of success in rolling out AI-based tools in an enterprise.

Virtually: Global Gamification Hackathon

Lastly, I will be speaking right from the comfort of my home office at the Global Gamification Hackathon. This conference is put forth by GamFed Turkey in February 2023, but it was delayed due to the disastrous earthquake that hit Turkey earlier this year.

The niche community of gamification has always held a special place in my heart due to my fascination with human behaviors. Through extensive research leveraging my unique expertise in analytics and data science, I consider myself half a behavior economist, informally. Over the decade of my work in my previous roles, I was able to contribute to this community and build long-lasting relationships with many of the speakers, many of whom I consider friends.

This community brings together like-minded individuals who are passionate about using technology to create a better and more efficient world by changing human behaviors one baby step at a time. And it is with great honor that I will be delivering one of the opening speeches following the globally renowned creator of Octalysis and a dear friend, Yu-Kai Chou. And I will be talking about how the gamification and AI community can benefit from each other.

I would also like to express my gratitude to Ercan Altug Yilmaz from GamFed Turkey for always bringing me back to my old friends, despite my shift in focus to further impact the world through my strengths in AI and ML. This is a testament to the strong bonds and sense of camaraderie that this community fosters, and I’m still very proud to be a part of it.

Conclusion

As reflected in the amount and diversity of conferences where I will be speaking in just the next month, it’s evidence that AI is definitely at the forefront of everyone’s minds. And these are just the public events. There are a lot more coming, and I will share them here at the Quantum Simplex as they are confirmed. I am so glad that we can finally put the pandemic behind us. And I am eager to get back on the road and continue contributing to the transformation of our world, one baby step at a time.