3060: AI Solutions with Purpose: Linda Yao on Lenovo's Latest Innovations

[00:00:04] What does it take to bring together some of the brightest minds in the tech industry and showcase the future of AI in action?

[00:00:11] Well today, my good friend Linda Yao is going to be joining me here at Lenovo Tech World.

[00:00:17] Linda and I last spoke virtually in August about Lenovo's vision of building a smarter AI for all.

[00:00:24] But today we're meeting in person on the show floor here in Seattle.

[00:00:28] I want to learn more about what is it that makes this event so special, what drives the passion for AI at Lenovo and why is it crucial for leaders to understand its full potential.

[00:00:39] But beyond the boardroom, I also want to learn more about AI's profound social impact, such as Lenovo's work with ALS patients

[00:00:48] and how hybrid AI is already transforming our lives, business and world.

[00:00:54] But most importantly, I want to learn more about why the announcements this week matter across the broader tech ecosystem.

[00:01:02] And also try and determine what's next on the horizon for AI, particularly for enterprises seeking fast return on investment.

[00:01:11] Lots to talk about. So join me today as we explore the role of AI in shaping industries and making technology more accessible for everyone.

[00:01:19] But enough from me. Let's get Linda onto the podcast now.

[00:01:24] Now, we last spoke virtually in August about Lenovo's vision for building a smarter AI for all.

[00:01:31] Now we're meeting in person at Lenovo Tech World.

[00:01:34] What does the event mean to you?

[00:01:36] What do you look forward to most?

[00:01:38] What excites you about it?

[00:01:39] Well, it's so great to see you in person, Neil.

[00:01:42] And I will say that this is one of the things that excites me most about this event.

[00:01:46] The ability to bring together all of the luminaries in the technology industry from our own technology partners, but also our customers, fellow analysts, media, and just a whole brainwave of people who are interested in the technology revolutions and the emerging technology that's happening at this time,

[00:02:07] coming together and really be able to have these human interactions and conversations, of course, facilitated by AI.

[00:02:15] But nothing can replace something like this.

[00:02:17] Yeah, there's a real melting pot of ideas here with all the different people that we're both talking to.

[00:02:22] And although AI does get a lot of bad press for the hype around it, I love how Lenovo Tech World started with a live use case of showcasing how ALS patients can communicate using eyesight-enabled word selection and an AI avatar.

[00:02:38] And I think what was most powerful was that the event started with that as well.

[00:02:42] So can I ask you just to expand on that for people listening that wasn't there for the event and why it was so powerful?

[00:02:48] Yeah, absolutely. So what you're referring to must be the AI lullaby.

[00:02:53] This is one of the use cases that we put in place with the Scott Morgan Foundation to support patients and people who have been diagnosed with ALS, which is a syndrome that affects their ability to speak.

[00:03:08] Right. Eventually, they might lose their voice and eventually they might lose other types of motor and mental functions as well.

[00:03:14] And so what we've been able to do is work with the Scott Morgan Foundation and other innovators in this AI space who have a similar mission of AI for good to help these patients preserve their voices, preserve their story and communicate with their loved ones and communicate with other folks even after they have lost these capabilities physically.

[00:03:34] And that I think is a huge power of AI.

[00:03:38] The ability to create these types of AI twins or to create an AI twin of even a capability or a function or specific domain of knowledge in a much more automated and much more hyper-realistic fashion than before.

[00:03:54] This really ties into Lenovo's mission and mantra around smarter AI for all.

[00:04:00] What we say for all, we really mean for all.

[00:04:04] We target every geography, every demographic, every level of accessibility because we truly believe that that is the best way to make our world more connected and more empowered.

[00:04:15] And I think that message came across beautifully and I go to a lot of tech conferences and that was by far one of the most powerful things I've ever seen to start a conference and really encourages people to think bigger, think differently and make positive changes in the world.

[00:04:30] And for business leaders, though, there's a lot of talk at the moment about ROI, bringing AI into the enterprise, but it can be expensive in more ways than one.

[00:04:39] So why are businesses struggling to demonstrate that ROI, do you think?

[00:04:43] You know, this is a very astute observation because in our own global CIO study, we find that over 60% of C-suite members are finding it difficult to demonstrate that return on investment from AI, even though they're almost universally excited about adopting AI and they're almost universally bought into the value proposition that there should be return on investment.

[00:05:06] And so when I break down the barriers to ROI, it falls into a few trend areas.

[00:05:12] The first barrier to ROI is that it can be difficult to realize that ROI and what it looks like in a timely fashion, right?

[00:05:22] So these stakeholders might have a challenge understanding and touching and feeling what is the outcome and the result that they can expect from AI without having to wait for a year or two years for a fully scaled implementation.

[00:05:35] And that's why Lenovo launched what we call our AI fast start.

[00:05:40] The idea of the AI fast start is that we have done pre-configuration, pre-validation, pre-curation of ISVs, of technologies and of use cases so that within the span of 90 days, which is one fiscal quarter, we can help a stakeholder to demonstrate to their stakeholders what would an AI result look like?

[00:06:03] What types of outcomes could we expect from this AI solution?

[00:06:08] And that really helps overcome that first barrier of show me something quick, show me something in a timely fashion before I lose interest or before I lose sponsorship.

[00:06:18] Now, the second barrier we see is that after these companies are able to understand and demonstrate that ROI, they know that it is a complex ecosystem and a complex technology stack to be able to deploy into production.

[00:06:34] We launched the Lenovo hybrid AI advantage.

[00:06:37] And across this technology stack, we have devices and infrastructure.

[00:06:41] We have data, we have models, we have software, we have services.

[00:06:46] This is a lot of elements to have to glue together.

[00:06:49] And so what Lenovo provides is the ease and the expertise.

[00:06:54] We have an AI library of use cases that we have already curated and we've already selected and we've already battle tested.

[00:07:01] The value of this AI library is that we know these things work so that you as a customer don't have to worry or second guess that this implementation is going to fail.

[00:07:12] It is a set of use cases that we have already deployed into production at scale so that when we start with a customer, they don't have to start from scratch.

[00:07:22] They can start from 60%, 70% and we can work with them to tailor and customize the rest of the way there to specifically fit their scenario.

[00:07:32] And that's the type of ease and expertise that we bring to bear around AI.

[00:07:38] And I think for a lot of people listening, that maybe when they hear Lenovo, they think more hardware, they think devices.

[00:07:44] But the message seems to be clear.

[00:07:46] It's so much more than that now, isn't it, with the arrival of AI?

[00:07:48] Absolutely.

[00:07:49] You know, in the past many years, Lenovo has been undergoing a transformation around being a total solution provider.

[00:07:57] And it is definitely leveraging our expertise and our scale from a device and infrastructure basis.

[00:08:05] Devices and infrastructure forms the foundation of our total solutions.

[00:08:10] And indeed, the devices, infrastructure, those form factors, those touch points, that computational intensity is also necessary for AI as well.

[00:08:21] So when we bring together these full AI solutions, one of the values that Lenovo can bring from a hybrid AI perspective is that we have expertise on making AI work in a public setting.

[00:08:34] We also have intimate knowledge of what it takes to make it work in a private setting or an on-prem setting.

[00:08:42] And of course, we also own the endpoints.

[00:08:44] We own the edge.

[00:08:45] We own that user experience for the personal AI settings as well.

[00:08:50] And so I believe that puts Lenovo in a unique position to be able to orchestrate across the spectrum of public enterprise and personal AI so that we can bring the full hybrid AI value proposition that can meet customers in whatever scenarios and meet their requirements where they are.

[00:09:08] And I'm so glad you mentioned hybrid AI there.

[00:09:12] And obviously, Lenovo's hybrid AI portfolio was a big part of the event.

[00:09:16] Are there any other examples of how businesses are already leveraging some of these AI templates that we're talking about in different industries just to bring it to life for business leaders?

[00:09:25] It's a great question, Neil.

[00:09:27] You know, I think back to the mobile revolution when everything became mobile first and it was all about apps and we talked about the killer app.

[00:09:36] Well, now with AI and Gen AI, it's all about the killer use case.

[00:09:40] How can we find the right use case that targets the right metrics, that targets the right user groups so that we can get that ROI, right?

[00:09:50] And in those use cases, we've seen a few really emerge that we have already seen double digit impacts.

[00:09:57] One of them is what I like to call the Gen AI powered contact center.

[00:10:02] This is all around using AI and Gen AI to transform the customer care experience.

[00:10:08] This type of Gen AI transformation has multiple implementation points.

[00:10:13] We might use AI to be able to help the human agent to do their work more effectively and to provide the end customer a better experience in that interaction.

[00:10:24] We might be able to use AI to actually automate and replace an interaction so that the end customer can have a better self-service experience, right?

[00:10:35] So that the end customer might be able to get to a resolution more quickly without needing to bring a human agent into a loop.

[00:10:42] We're also using AI to improve the backbone of data that powers this entire experience with the intelligence.

[00:10:50] So AI can help us to better understand those product definitions, better understand the IT tickets that are coming in, better understand and analyze the conversations that happen around troubleshooting.

[00:11:03] And that is just one example of the multiple control points and facets that we've identified around using Gen AI to transform customer care.

[00:11:12] This has already resulted in 10 to 15% gains for us in productivity, right?

[00:11:18] 10 to 15% reductions in agent call handling time.

[00:11:22] So there are a lot of these types of real, tangible, measurable improvements in metrics that we can see already.

[00:11:29] And this type of killer use case also exists in marketing for content creation.

[00:11:34] It exists in legal and human resources for knowledge-based mining.

[00:11:39] So you can just imagine these types of functional and enterprise use cases that can make a difference at scale.

[00:11:45] And it's so refreshing to hear you talk about real metrics there, 10 to 15%, real business language, because we don't hear this enough.

[00:11:52] So it's great to hear that.

[00:11:53] And Lenovo has also emphasized AI for social impact, such as the Alzheimer's Intelligence Initiative.

[00:11:59] And so many other healthcare innovations that really seem to stand out.

[00:12:02] So how do you ensure these initiatives maintain that balance between technological advancement and ethical considerations?

[00:12:09] I would imagine it could be quite a fine balance.

[00:12:13] I'm really glad you bring up Alzheimer's Intelligence.

[00:12:16] This is something that we've been working on with the Scott Morgan Foundation, with that AI lullaby that you mentioned at the beginning of our conversation.

[00:12:24] This is really all around how we not just focus on using AI well, but also on using AI for good.

[00:12:33] And the way that we do that is that we wrap our responsible AI approach across all of our offerings and across all of the services that we deliver.

[00:12:43] So I'm very proud of the fact that at Lenovo, we had a responsible AI committee, you know, a couple years back, even before this Gen AI revolution really took off for organizations.

[00:12:55] And in that responsible AI committee, we bring together a very diverse group of stakeholders and experts to ensure that any AI implementation that we do, any AI that we're delivering to a customer has satisfied our own conditions around ethics, around gender bias, around data privacy, around sovereignty, around security.

[00:13:18] And the list goes on.

[00:13:20] All of this is in adherence to our own corporate AI policy.

[00:13:24] And that is influenced as well by our commitment to the UNESCO responsible AI principles.

[00:13:31] And Lenovo's collaboration with so many major tech companies, it was like a super group here this week with NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Microsoft, et cetera, all highlights an almost ecosystem approach to AI.

[00:13:44] So how important is that strategy for delivering comprehensive AI solutions?

[00:13:49] And what are some of the key benefits for the clients and customers to this, all these partnerships, do you think?

[00:13:56] Well, you know, AI takes a village.

[00:13:58] Yeah.

[00:13:59] We at Lenovo strongly believe in fostering an open ecosystem of innovation so that we are able to bring together the best in breed in every component of a total solution.

[00:14:11] That's what makes us better.

[00:14:41] So that we can put them through our trusted supplier protocols as well.

[00:14:47] When we are integrating this solution for our customers, not only are they getting all the best in breed components, but they're also getting a peace of mind that not only will they all work together, but they will all work together in a responsible, secure and ethical way.

[00:15:02] And I think that's a beautiful moment to end on.

[00:15:04] But before I do let you go, as we fly home after the conference, what are you going to be thinking about?

[00:15:10] What's the big takeaways from you?

[00:15:12] What are you going to be reflecting on from this year's event?

[00:15:14] You know, I'm going to really be thinking about what is next for AI.

[00:15:20] Over the past, I would say 18 to 24 months, we've been so focused on helping our customers to understand the value proposition of AI and getting over the initial barriers to adoption.

[00:15:33] Now, I'm very buoyed to see that everyone sees the value of AI.

[00:15:39] We have real proof points.

[00:15:41] There are real scaled production deployments out there.

[00:15:44] And people are excited, right?

[00:15:46] They're excited to bring AI into their work, into their life.

[00:15:50] What I'm going to be thinking about now is how do we work through some of those items that need to be streamlined to scale more seamlessly?

[00:16:00] I'm going to be thinking about how do we now take the next step function change from agents to teams of agents?

[00:16:07] How do we start moving from assistants to companions?

[00:16:11] How do we start really thinking about AI not only helping us in our daily lives, but transforming or maybe even taking our place in some of the tasks that we would otherwise do?

[00:16:24] So it's all about how we might be able to take AI and Gen AI and move us to a next level of human potential.

[00:16:32] And the last time we spoke, we gave us a book that everyone listening could check out.

[00:16:37] You've probably got a big pair of headphones for that flight home.

[00:16:39] Nice noise cancelling headphones.

[00:16:41] What song would you add to our Spotify playlist?

[00:16:43] What's your jam at the moment that we can add to that?

[00:16:46] What song would I add?

[00:16:48] My favorite song is Country Roads by John Denver.

[00:16:52] And so when I put on my headphones, I listen to almost every different rendition, almost every different arrangement of this song.

[00:17:02] I love it because it gives me a feeling of heading home, heading to the core, really heading back to a mission that we believe in.

[00:17:12] And I think that is a great song to take us home.

[00:17:15] See what I did there.

[00:17:17] And what I'll do, I'll get added straight to our Spotify playlist.

[00:17:22] People can check that out.

[00:17:23] But just thank you for sharing your time with me again today.

[00:17:26] Another great conversation.

[00:17:27] Thank you, Neil.

[00:17:28] Appreciate it.

[00:17:28] My big takeaway from the event this week is Lenovo Tech World isn't just about flashy announcements and big partnerships.

[00:17:35] It's about setting a foundation for AI's future in both enterprise and personal use cases.

[00:17:42] From the powerful live demonstrations of AI's impact on healthcare to Lenovo's focus on making hybrid AI accessible and efficient for businesses around the world.

[00:17:55] And Linda has given us a deep look into how AI is no longer just an emerging trend.

[00:18:00] It's a tool for real transformation.

[00:18:03] But as you reflect on what we've discussed in today's episode and other interviews over the last few days, how is your business or industry embracing these AI advancements?

[00:18:14] What steps can you take to ensure that you're not just following trends but leading this charge?

[00:18:20] I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and spare a thought for Linda who's leaving the conference listening to Country Roads by John Denver,

[00:18:27] which is a timely reminder it's time for me to get my flight home back to the UK.

[00:18:33] So Lenovo Tech World, you've been amazing.

[00:18:35] Seattle, you've been amazing.

[00:18:36] But now it's time to take me whole.

[00:18:41] Country road.

[00:18:44] To the place where I belong.

[00:18:49] Speak with you all tomorrow.