Introduction

So my name is Michael Alf. As Rob said, I'm a founding partner of Beyond the Obvious.

We focus on executive education with a focus on AI, generative AI, digital transformation and leadership. And over the last, yeah, I'd say one and a half years, I've trained and worked with a couple of hundred middle, senior managers and executives on AI and digital transformation.

I also do some work with the NOVA Business School in these areas around AI and digital transformation.

And I have a very interesting client and I have to plug in now kind of an almost an ad, a German logistics client and we do some interesting AI projects as well. But also we are building an AI innovation hub here in Lisbon.

And for that I do have two open roles. So if you know someone, one is the ecosystem lead and one is an L&M engineer who wants to work on real problems, on real logistics problems for a German client, then reach out afterwards and we can have a discussion.

If you know anyone from the people you know, let me know and we can have a chat.

Focus on Education and Learning

Back to education and learning.

So when you look at learning, there is a great study from the WEF, World Economic Forum, on skills. And this shows kind of the key skills towards 2030. This is a lot of skills, so I wanted to simplify that. And we simplified that into two big areas.

And one is, of course, AI and generative AI. This is a must. I don't have to convince you about that.

The second one, equally important, soft skills. And this is critical thinking, this is empathy, this is listening, all these kind of things are equally important.

So we, and this is me with my two partners, we asked ourselves, is there a way for executive education to integrate both areas? to bring them together. Because it would be nice if you combine the two most important things in our learning. And get the most kind of biggest bang for our bucks.

Introducing Maverick: An Executive Education Initiative

So this is how we came up with what we call Maverick. And Maverick is basically a 13 scenarios Gen-AI simulation that helps the participants to understand what is possible with Genitive AI.

And this is not technology, it's actually process. It's understanding what is possible.

And we walk our our people through these 13 scenarios and you can see the scenarios here So there's some foundational scenarios. There's a little bit of technology not a lot and Then you have a lot of business scenarios and the way how it works is we have a group of let's say 25 people We put them into groups into teams.

They are set into a specific scenario so this is a spin-off of a large company and you are the leadership team of that company and And you have to go through these scenarios and explore the opportunities of generative AI for the company. That's basically the scenario.

This does a lot because it gives kind of these teams, they work as teams and they work against each other. It's a competition, it's a gamification. And then they have to discuss and they have to go through these scenarios.

Of course, the facilitator plays a key role. This is not an online training which you just do as a course. This is a highly facilitated exercise where you go through these scenarios and really have fun with the learning.

And the learning comes from the discussion with your peers, with your colleagues, or with other people from other organizations. That's where most of the learning comes. Because on each scenario, you're giving us kind of three options, and then you have to decide for one option. Now let's say Rob and I are in one group, and I say, well, A is the right one, and you say B. Well, then we have to convince each other which one is right. That is soft skills. There's nothing AI there. It's actually the soft skills talking about it. And when you explain that and even convince someone else, that's how you learn.

Maverick in Action

And this is kind of this simulated environment, of course, there are KPIs and results so that you can win the race between the teams. But the core is actually the discussion amongst each other and between the facilitator. To give you an idea how that looks like, I have a 45-second video. So don't worry, no long video.

Well, that's in... So as you can see, it's highly interactive. So you're working, you're discussing, you're going through, and it's... Better again? Okay, even more so.

So yeah, that's not a little bit too much. It's fine-tuning. I'm fine-tuning the audio model now. So as you can see, it's very interactive. It's kind of learning by doing and going through these scenarios and you create completely different insights. That's kind of the feedback we are getting from the audience.

And this can be actually younger master students, for example. Come in. Yeah, so we did that. And it can also work with CEOs and leadership teams. So week after next, I again have another logistics company with a CEO and his complete leadership team. We're going through that. And so it's kind of, it works on different levels. It works in a different way, but it does work. And that's kind of what simulations is.

So this is the first step. Oops, sorry. No, there we go. So this is the first step.

Future Directions for Simulations

Now we're thinking what's next, because we want to evolve. And at the moment, and I have some questions for you in a second, we see two directions where these simulations can go next. One is more immersive.

So this is kind of virtual reality, either with a headset, but more likely on the computer. So you have this immersive component. So we're working on a solution around that. This gives a completely different experience again for the audience.

And secondly, this is kind of a solution, this is more adaptive and tailored. So we're bringing in generative AI into the whole experience to make it very tailored, very specific scenarios where you go through. They can be company specific or even on an individual level.

These are kind of the two directions we are heading where we're seeing kind of simulations work for adult learning to make it even more interesting, more entertaining and more exciting and therefore you capture more and keep more.

Engagement and Feedback Session

So for me now, I have a couple of questions, but I want to also open the floor for your questions.

So when you see that, and we're all adults, what do you see working? What would you like to see if you learn? I mean, we are all learning one way or the other.

What works for you? What would you like to see more of?

What do you think where the future is evolving?

So open the floor, both questions to me and maybe here and there an answer.

Thank you.

Open Questions and Discussions

The first point is how is intelligence artificial working?

That's a very, very broad question.

I mean, it's basically simulating how humans think and act. So it's kind of trying to emulate that with neural networks and make that happen.

Thank you. Who else? Questions? Or any feedback on those questions? No questions?

There we go.

Hello, everyone. I'm not a professional person, I'm just a student. But I learned a thing from my professor that teaches us strategy, business strategy.

Before you apply the knowledge, you should see the culture of the company, first of all, and ask yourself, does this company have the culture to apply what I'm learning to the company or not? and after that the strategy for example the company strategy is different from what you're learning from ai so you should consider the two strategy of company and culture of company

Very good point. Thank you very much. Absolutely. So, of course, we need to see, understand where the company is.

So, for example, the week after logistics company, I'm in London for another high-tech company, a very large one, running a workshop again on agentic solutions and Gen AI. That's a very different approach. So they come from a different angle.

They have some experience where the logistics company has far less experience. And you have to take that into account and also the openness of that.

Very good. Thank you.

Who else? Yeah, I see your hand there.

Quality Assurance in Generative AI

What about quality insurance? I see a lot of things with generative AI with code and things like that, but usually the quality is below, very below the normal standards.

I think you are a German, so it's a nice person to ask that. Thank you. Yes, I'm German and Australian, by the way. Yeah.

So the quality, I come back so that you can see me. Do you mean the quality of the outcome or the quality of the learning? There is a quality test.

So, I mean, for the simulations and the work there, that's easy because we do the facilitation. So we make sure the quality is there. And this is measured, of course, by, for example, feedback from the participants, typical ratings and things like that.

So if you're referring to just the outcome and what you saw with the Maverick, we created that. That's our IP behind that, the different scenarios based on the experience we have. So that part is there.

Look, if I go and have a session with the CEO of a large company, I definitely make sure that the quality is there. Because otherwise I'm kicked out and will never get a job again. So of course, I make sure that I kind of work in preparation with that company, what are the needs, what are the requirements, where are they at the moment, and then we tailor these programs. And we see how we build that in.

We know that the Maverick simulation, for example, that's quality tested and there have been quite a few. And we have large partners who love this concept. We have universities who love that concept and bring that to market. And this is of course we are doing the quality control then in the back.

Does it answer the question? Not fully but maybe do that over a beer and a pizza.

Yeah, okay.

Okay, so that's more the outcome of the results, I would say, and building also on what you said, things are developing so fast, and we do, for example, if you are interested, we do a weekly live on LinkedIn, so if you follow on LinkedIn, then actually we discuss kind of these topics, and we had one today, and one of the things we recognize is the quality out of the box is now so high, that actually the whole prompting for a lot of things is no longer necessary. as it was before for certain areas and applications totally super important for a lot of areas.

And I used actually the examples or who of you is kind of a PlayStation or things like that? Well, I have now my personal FIFA PlayStation coach and I'm blown away by the coach. I'm totally blown away. The quality I get there, nobody else could give me this.

In terms of details. So I think the outputs are really, really getting extremely good. Yes, you have to, of course, you have to be cautious on certain things.

Conclusion and Call to Action

So I think kind of the time is running out. So let's continue later on. Here are details. Get in touch on LinkedIn if you want, of course.

And if you are interested in these two roles or if you have someone, please reach out. Very exciting. It's a real company. It's a large company. It's real problems. And the task of these people is to bring innovation, the Lisbon innovation, back to Germany into the logistics business.

So thank you very much. And let's continue later on.