Joe McKendrick

Northeast

Writer and Analyst at Freelance

Analyst and Contributor at Forbes

Pondering disruption, tech & otherwise, with optimism & skepticism. Contributor: Forbes, Harvard Bus Rvw, ZDNet, InfoToday, RTInsights. Temple U.; Army brat.

Articles

AI First? Make Sure Your People Understand It First

1 week ago | forbes.com | Joe McKendrick

AI: Educate first. gettyAI-first thinking doesn’t just spring out of a vacuum. Leaders and employees need to adopt an AI-first mindset that prepares everyone for the changes ahead. This makes training and education about AI more important than anything – and where any AI-first efforts are most likely to get bogged down. Among students, 65% say they had not had the opportunity to take an AI-specific or AI-inclusive courses at their universities, according to a student-run survey published in EdTech.
For AI agents, bite-size 'small language models' could make more sense

2 weeks ago | zdnet.com | Joe McKendrick

Weiquan Lin/GettyIf you're looking to build AI agents into your workflows, don't waste the valuable compute power of large language models on these systems. That's the opinion of a group of Nvidia researchers, who recently for "small language models," or SLMs, noting that while LLMs have been the engines of generative AI up until now, they're probably overkill for supporting more focused AI agents. Instead, SLMs may present a smarter approach.
Cobots, Not Necessarily Robots, are the Future of Workplaces

2 weeks ago | rtinsights.com. | Joe McKendrick

Cobots are engineered for seamless human-machine interaction, offering advanced motion control, real-time reprogramming, and dynamic task execution. There’s been quite a bit of discussion about the increasing role of robots in workplaces, but what we’re more likely to see are “cobots,” or collaborative robots, that serve as assistants alongside human workers. And they are being viewed as lower-cost, easier-to-deploy alternatives to full-on robots.
Trust, But Verify The Actions Of Your AI Agents

2 weeks ago | forbes.com | Joe McKendrick

AI agents need to build trustgettyWhen it comes to the benefits seen from AI agents so far, it’s real “meat-and-potatoes” stuff: 66% in a recent survey, report increased productivity, 57% say they are seeing costs savings, and 55% say AI agents have sped up their decision making. The more “game-changing” stuff – enhanced innovation and opening up new revenue sources – are still lower on the list, cited by 35% and 29% respectively.
Cobots, Not Necessarily Robots, are the Future of Workplaces

2 weeks ago | rtinsights.com | Joe McKendrick

Cobots are engineered for seamless human-machine interaction, offering advanced motion control, real-time reprogramming, and dynamic task execution. There’s been quite a bit of discussion about the increasing role of robots in workplaces, but what we’re more likely to see are “cobots,” or collaborative robots, that serve as assistants alongside human workers. And they are being viewed as lower-cost, easier-to-deploy alternatives to full-on robots.
Building An ‘AI-First’ Culture: What Does That Even Mean?

4 weeks ago | forbes.com | Joe McKendrick

Lately, there has been no shortage of talk of managing organizations around “AI-first” approaches, meaning managers would consider whether AI could do a job, or set of tasks, before humans are brought in. But AI-first goes deeper than that, suggesting an organization’s entire culture can be redesigned to incorporate the broad intelligence solutions that AI platforms and tools can offer. How would such an organization look, and is this something a decades-old company could pull off?
AI May Be All Around Us, But Our Supply Chains Are Still Manual

4 weeks ago | forbes.com | Joe McKendrick

Nothing is more vulnerable than supply chains – everything and anything can rock them without notice. Tariffs, weather events, political disruptions, economic issues, worker shortages, and epidemics will always disrupt even the smoothest-flowing chains. Let’s not even get started on the 2020 Covid toilet-paper crisis. And we’re seeing the potential pain Apple is facing with tariffs on its manufacturing operations in China.
AI agents make great teammates, but don't let them code alone - here's why

4 weeks ago | zdnet.com | Joe McKendrick

Bill Oxford/Getty ImagesAgentic AI may offer compelling productivity benefits, but it still falls flat when it comes to the heavy lifting of day-to-day operations and technology development. Still, technology leaders and proponents see great advantage in putting agents to work in many key areas of their businesses. At the end of last year, Carnegie-Mellon University researchers released details on the performance of a mock company they assembled running entirely on AI agents.
The Potential of Graph Databases and Knowledge Graphs

1 month ago | dbta.com | Joe McKendrick

In the age when data is everything to a business, managers and analysts alike are looking to emerging forms of databases to paint a clear picture of how data is delivering to their businesses. The challenge is an insatiable demand from businesses for AI capabilities, which rely on access to data that has be reliably vetted and relevant to the prompts or queries at hand. Graph databases and knowledge graphs—especially when combined—fulfill this role.
AI Agents Deliver Productivity, But That’s Only Part Of The Story

1 month ago | forbes.com | Joe McKendrick

The word on agentic AI’s ability to deliver on its promises is: so far, so good. With caveats. A majority of 300 senior executives adopting AI agents, 66%, say they’re delivering positive results in terms of productivity, a recent PwC survey suggests. But, let’s face it -- all systems deliver some degree of productivity. What executives need is that extra edge that delivers extreme competitive differentiation.