(This column originally appeared in Forbes)
Whenever a client asks me how AI is going to impact their business I always do the same thing: point them to this video. It’s only three months old, and just two minutes long. But if you’re a business leader and want to know what’s coming, it’s a must-watch.
The video shows a Google Project Astra developer who points her smartphone at different objects and the “agent” — a Google AI application — explains what it’s seeing. Very (and eerily) accurately. When asked, it points out a speaker that makes sounds, it creates an alliteration by looking at a group of colored pens, it immediately reads code from a screen and explains what the code is doing, it identifies the location outside her office window as Kings Cross, London and it even remembers where she left her glasses.
It’s seeing everything. It has memory. It understands its surroundings. It knows the difference between a pen and a speaker.
According to Google the “agent takes in a constant stream of audio and video input. It can reason about its environment in real time and interact with the tester in a conversation about what it is seeing. “
This is real stuff. This exists in 2024. Imagine taking the phone she’s holding and inserting it into a moving robot or a car or a plane. Or a missile. Or a drone. That’s what’s coming. No, sorry, it’s here.
Some of this AI technology is already trickling into the mainstream. For consumers, Google Maps can immediately identify where you are with a camera and point you in the right direction for walking and Google Lens can immediately tell you about objects just by taking a photo. Apple’s latest iPhone can see and describe things too. ChatGPT 4o is giving fashion advice and tutoring children. It’s amazing and it’s still early days. Particularly for businesses.
But just you wait. Imagine a device — any device — that’s able to use a camera to see, and then understand what it’s seeing. And imagine these devices have access to your company’s internal accounting systems, files, documents and other data, as well as the internet and any external data services where you have a subscription (start budgeting for that too).
Imagine pointing your device around your warehouse and it telling you what inventory you have in stock, when it was purchased, what customers use it, what condition it’s in and whether it thinks you should order more based on prior levels. Or a device that points out potential safety issues or OSHA violations. Or which employees are working on what machines and whether or not their skill set is right for the job.
Agents will drive autonomous forklifts and material carriers and power robots to lift things on and off skids. It’s like having the smartest, most informed warehouse worker walking around your facility making sure everything is running ship-shape.
Or say you’re running a construction project. You’ll have an expert project manager inside of a device — a drone, for example — that’s checking on project progress 24/7 in all conditions and comparing to estimates and timelines. And checking on delivery of products and identifying that the materials received look right. That same device will help to identify safety issues, count inventory on site and visually inspect the quality of new structures.
Retail store and restaurant managers will be able to do the same with kitchen staff, inventory and managing capacity just by holding up their phones. Flight attendants can walk down the aisle of a plane and the agent will be able to identify all passengers along with their status and potential health concerns.
The agent will be part of drones that fly autonomously around properties, vehicles that transport materials between a warehouse, robots that pick up boxes from a shelf and put them on a pallet, security cameras that take action on potential breaches and equipment that senses high humidity, shaking or other maintenance issues. They will leverage new AI-enhanced hardware to process what they see and make decisions fast.
Since OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022 there have been countless pundits prognosticating about the “future of AI” and for my clients none of this is real life. It’s like watching an episode of Star Trek and acknowledging that, yeah, someday we’ll be able to tele transport ourselves to different places. But that day’s nowhere near yet.
But this is near. Very near. Just take a look at the Project Astra video. This isn’t the future. This is the present. This is now. This technology exists.
Google, Apple and other big techs won’t be developing all of these solutions. They’ll be licensing their systems out to other tech companies who will be doing this. If you’re running a business these are the companies that are selling and supporting your current software and hardware platforms, your machinery and equipment, your communication and security systems. They’re the ones who will be incorporating this stuff. Talk to them. If they’re not leveraging this existing technology — or have plans to — you’ll need to find tech partners that are. Before your competitors do.
