Wednesday, March 13, 2024

AI is a Complement, Not Replacement, for the Human Touch


AI will complement, but not replacement human touch. 


It will be a valuable tool for companies that want to empower their customers and simplify the user experience. However, like any tool, AI has its limitations.


For complex and stressful situations, clients will still want to talk with humans, who can provide empathy and flexibility.


© 2024 Praveen Puri

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Medical AI to Screen for Diseases

If you're developing AI to screen for diseases in health care, it would probably be better to think analog instead of digital.

Instead of making the AI respond "yes" or "no", have it rate the likelihood of having the disease, on a scale such as 1-5.

If your AI only responds "yes" or "no", it would probably be useless because of false positives and negatives.

With using a scale, however, the screening could actually prove useful.  For example, after running clinical trials, it might be found that:

1. Ratings of 1 don't need follow-up.
2. Ratings of 2-3 require follow-up, but not urgently.
3. Ratings of 4-5 should be a priority follow-up.


© 2024 Praveen Puri

Friday, March 1, 2024

Innovation Isn't About Hard Skills


Innovation isn't about hard skills (data analysis, programming, project management, design thinking, etc.). 

All of the hard skills listed above are superseded by curiosity. You could be an expert in all those skills but, if you don't have the curiosity to play with concepts, try new things, and go down dead ends, then you won't reach your potential for innovation. 

Conversely, if you are weak on the hard skills, but are curious and playful, you'll succeed.


© 2024 Praveen Puri

Monday, February 26, 2024

Venture Capital Company to Buy Hospital System



that a General Catalyst, VC company, plans to spend billions of dollars to buy a health system.

The strategy is not to gut it, load it up with debt, and sell it.

Instead, their plan is to own it for the long term, and use the hospital system as a proving ground for the innovative health startups in their portfolios.

They think this will solve two problems facing digital health startups:

1. It can take months or years to get deals signed with hospitals.

2. Healthcare AI systems needs a lot of medical data to train on.

© 2024 Praveen Puri

Friday, February 23, 2024

CIOs Complain About Tech Bundling


Consumers have been "cutting the cord", and switching from cable to streaming, because they don't want to pay for bundled channels they don't watch.

Now, according to a recent WSJ article, CIOs are having the same issue with tech vendors.

There have been an increasing number of business technology acquisitions, and it's resulting in fewer, but large-bundled, offerings.  For example, the article mentions that, after VMware bought Broadcom, it "went from more than 160 individual products to two primary bundled offerings."

The CIOs don't like it because, in many cases, they are just searching for products to fill gaps in their IT systems.  By having to buy in bundles, they end up with more complex systems with redundant functionality.  As one CIO described it: "I now end up with overlapped Venn diagrams...very hard to manage."

To simplify their IT, thus promoting robustness, reliability, and better security, CIOs need access to streamlined, modular products that let them better customize for their needs.

© 2024 Praveen Puri

Monday, February 19, 2024

A Tech Product Has to Add Value

Did you ever hear about the Juicero? 

It was a startup that sold a $699 (later $399) wifi-connected juicer and then you subscribed to get bags of pre-pulped fruits and veggies that you used in the machine to make cold-pressed juices.  

Bloomberg put them out of business with one video:


Turns out, you could just hand-squeeze the bags into your glass and didn't need the wi-fi enabled juicer...


© 2024 Praveen Puri