The Future of AI and Work with Sinead Bovell

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.

 

Sinead will be the RIMS Canada plenary speaker She will kick things off on September 12 with “A Future with Artificial Intelligence.” Sinead tells about her career and how an MBA, studied under a futurist, inspired her to create a career as a futurist focusing on AI. She explains how risk-averse risk managers will have to accept some level of risk to work with AI technology. She explains the inherent risks of the technology, as well as the expected benefits it provides. Then she and Justin talk about the upcoming RIMS Canada Conference 2023, the focus of her Plenary Address, and what to do in beautiful downtown Ottawa in September.

 

Key Takeaways:

[:01] About RIMScast and the RIMS App, an exclusive benefit for RIMS members.

[:32] About today’s episode, where we will joined by futurist and RIMS Canada Conference 2023 Plenary Speaker, Sinead Bovell.

[:55] All about exciting, upcoming RIMS events! Registration is open for the RIMS Canada Conference 2023, which will be held September 11th–14th in Ottawa! Visit RIMSCanadaConference.ca for more information.

[1:16] For those of you based in Canada, Justin wants to hear from you about a game show he will be hosting on September 13th. A link to a 15-question survey is in this episode’s notes. Justin needs your honest feedback, so he can say, “Survey says: …” Please check out the links in this episode’s notes!

[1:40] On September 14th, the Spencer Educational Foundation returns to New York City for its Annual Funding Their Future Gala. The event will be held at the Cipriani on 42nd Street. A link is on this episode’s notes. You can also visit SpencerEd.org.

[1:57] The RIMS Western Regional Conference will be held October 4th–6th in Vail, Colorado. Visit RIMSWesternRegional.com for more information and to register.

[2:09] Head to the RIMS.org/Advocacy page to find information about The RIMS Legislative Summit, which is returning to Washington, D.C. on October 25th and 26th.

[2:23] We are very excited about the RIMS ERM Conference 2023, which will be held November 2nd and 3rd in Denver, Colorado! The theme is Elevate and Evolve. Registration is open, as is a call for nominations for the ERM Award of Distinction. Those submissions are due September 1st.

[2:44] The RIMS ERM Conference 2023 will be different than years past. We’ve got some great changes, so book your travel plans now!

[2:52] The guest today is Sinead Bovell. She is a futurist and the Founder of WAYE, an organization that helps prepare the next generation of business leaders for a world radically transformed by technology. She is an eight-time United Nations speaker and certified in AI Ethics from MIT.

[3:11] Sinead is here to provide a preview of her upcoming RIMS Canada Conference 2023 appearance on September 12th when she will discuss AI’s role in the future of work.

[3:22] Justin welcomes Sinead Bovell to RIMScast!

[3:46] Sinead studied finance, and chemistry, and was working on an MBA, studying under a futurist. She learned that all the tools she was using in finance, statistics, and forecasting could be applied to emerging technologies and more quality information and start to build forecasts about the future.

[4:12] That’s when Sinead started to zoom in on how technology is going to disrupt how we live and how companies work and operate. That was a light-bulb moment for Sinead. However, she continued down the MBA path and became a management consultant before making a quick turn, moving to New York and starting a different life.

[4:36] Since then, Sinead is an active, practicing futurist. She gives talks, she consults, she guides public-sector and private-sector organizations, on how the future could be evolving, relating to the data, so we can have a little more control in moving toward the futures we want.

[5:09] Sinead’s aha moment happened after all the sacrificing. She knew she had to quit. There was no direction of what step she should take but an inner feeling that something wasn’t right. She realized she was going to have to build the life she wanted. She wouldn’t be able to apply for it.

[5:54] During Sinead’s MBA, she saw the role technology was playing in disrupting all elements of how we work and live. Tesla was making a lot of ripples in the market. She saw different disruptors stepping in and the different ways startups were positioning themselves around technology and artificial intelligence even before Generative AI.

[6:25] There were early indicators and it was quite clear to Sinead that how we work and live were going to be disrupted by this technology, if and when it fully manifested..

[7:46] Sinead suggests that strategic planning shouldn’t stop at years three to five but be carried forward for four to six years. You’ll see the AI disruptors better and move toward them instead of reacting to them.

[8:36] We’ve arrived at a moment when you can no longer deny the power of artificial intelligence technology and it forces you to act radically and boldly even if it feels like it’s out of your comfort zone. Some of it is hype. Don’t get lost in the “NFT-PTSD zone.” Make sure that you’re not distracted but focused on the actual signals in the data.

[9:32] A lot of companies are realizing, it doesn’t matter what industry you consider yourself; you are now a tech company. We are rebuilding all industries on top of technologies like AI and potentially, blockchain. That has forced risk managers and leaders to shed their risk aversion and step into the game.

[10:14] Everything we do today creates a digital “gravesite” for all the decisions we’ve made and things that we share. It’s in the digital world forever after. Your descendants will be able to see how you weighed in at certain moments in time. There is a wide net over what we consider our digital identity.

[11:43] RIMS plug time! Sponsor an episode of RIMScast! Contact us at pd@rims.org. For upcoming virtual workshops visit RIMS.org/virtualworkshops for the calendar. 

Fundamentals of Insurance is a two-day virtual workshop hosted by Elise Farnham September 12–13.

[12:25] Managing Data for ERM is a three-module course that begins September 21st.

[12:31] Optimizing Risk Management with Artificial Intelligence will be led on September 28th by Pat Saporito. Recent RIMScast guest Chris Hansen will be leading Managing Worker Compensation, Employer's Liability, and Employment Practices in the US on November 7th and 8th. Be sure to register for that course!
[13:05] Information about these sessions and others is on the RIMS Virtual Workshops page. Check it out and register!

[13:13] For anyone attending RIMS Canada on September 10th and 11th, we will host an in-person RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep In-Person Workshop in Ottawa, and it will be led by former RIMS President Chris Mandel.

[13:33] Visit RIMS.org/Certification for these and future workshops. A link is also in this episode’s show notes, as is a link to the full Virtual Workshop calendar.

[13:46] There is a new RIMS webinar called A Decade of Disconnect: Understanding Multi-Generational Mental Health in the Workplace. It is sponsored by Travelers and Constitution State Services on September 7th, 2023 at 12:00 noon Eastern.

[14:12] On September 12th, our friends at TÜV SÜD GRC are back with Seeing the Unseen: nVent's Proactive Approach to Fire Risk Detection With Infrared Imaging On September 26th, Gallagher returns to present A Road Less Challenged? An Outlook on the Management Liability Market at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

[14:34] Visit RIMS.org/Webinars to learn more about these webinars and to register! Links are on the show notes. Webinar registration is complimentary for RIMS members.

[15:00] Sinead Bovell will be at the RIMS Canada Conference 2023 in September. The theme for the conference is “Risk Evolution...Be a Part of It.” Sinead says risk professionals need to recognize that AI is essentially a prediction machine. What risk comes down to is what margin of error or safety you are willing to put on a decision.

[15:38] We’re going to have systems that can make the cost of prediction close to nothing while going toward an accuracy of close to 100%. This should be a lightbulb moment for anybody who works in risk or risk management that we now have an intelligent agent around the clock that we can tap into.

[16:03] There are risks with this technology. If you use AI, you are becoming an AI company. There are ethical challenges. Where is your data being sourced? Are there biases embedded in the data? Who are the teams making decisions about what data gets to be used? These are conversations that are required for working with AI.

[16:32] Embedding the technology in our decision processes, move away from the scarcity thinking of how can this technology cut a workload to move toward how can it add value. AI isn’t here for you to pass your work to. It’s here to reach new markets and ideate things in different ways. It will help you add a lot of value.

[17:25] Sinead discusses the Canadian risk landscape. Finance in Canada is more stable than in many nations around the world. Canada is endowed with a lot of natural resources. Canada is relatively stable which can help make predictions even more accurate.

[18:29] About RIMS Canada Conference 2023. Sinead can’t believe it’s only three weeks away. It will be great to see everybody. She’s looking forward to talking about our future with AI. Sinead has been to Ottawa but this will be Justin’s first time in the city. Sinead recommends Justin to have the beaver tail pastry and long walks in the September sun.

[19:34] The focus of Sinead’s Plenary Session at the RIMS Canada Conference 2023 will be “A Future with Artificial Intelligence.” It will span from how we live, day-to-day, at work and at home. When we all have AI assistants, our lives will be transformed. If the moderator permits, Sinead will take questions from the audience.

[20:16] Justin is looking forward to the RIMS Canada Conference 2023 in Ottawa, September 11th–14th, 2023 and he looks forward to seeing Sinead then.

[20:34] Special thanks again to Sinead Bovell for joining us here on RIMScast. I am stoked for Sinead's Plenary Session at the RIMS Canada Conference 2023 in Ottawa, September 11th–14th. Register now at RIMSCanadaConference.ca. I look forward to seeing you there. I will be your host!

[20:56] We cover AI and the future of work, especially in Risk Management Magazine. You can find it at RMMagazine.com but RIMS members can access it instantly via the RIMS app. This is a special members-only benefit. Everybody loves the RIMS app!

[21:19] You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in our show notes. RIMScast has a global audience of risk professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let’s collaborate! Contact pd@rims.org for more information.

[22:59] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information. The RIMS app is available only for RIMS members! You can find it in the App Store.

[22:22] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today’s risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more.

[22:37] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com and in print, and check out the blog at RiskManagementMonitor.com. Justin Smulison is Business Content Manager. You can email Justin at Content@RIMS.org.

[22:58] Justin thanks you for your continued support and engagement on social media channels! We appreciate all your kind words. Listen every week! Stay safe!

Mentioned in this Episode:

NEW FOR MEMBERS! RIMS Mobile App

RIMS Canada 2023 — Sept. 11–14 in Ottawa!

RIMS Canada 2023 — Game Show Survey! Participate today!

RIMS ERM Conference 2023 | Nov 2–3 in Denver, CO!

Nominate a practitioner or risk group! ERM Award of Distinction nominations due Sept. 1!

Spencer Educational Foundation — Funding Their Future Gala — Sept. 14, 2023

RIMS Western Regional — Oct 4–6, Vail Colorado

RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP)

Dan Kugler Risk Manager on Campus Grant

RIMS Webinars:

A Decade of Disconnect: Understanding Multi-Generational Mental Health in the Workplace | Sponsored by Travelers | Sept. 7, 2023

Seeing the Unseen: nVent's Proactive Approach to Fire Risk Detection With Infrared Imaging | Sponsored by TÜV SÜD GRC | Sept. 12, 2023

A Road Less Challenged? An Outlook on the Management Liability Market | Sponsored by Gallagher | Sept. 26, 2023
RIMS.org/Webinars
Upcoming Virtual Workshops:

Fundamentals of Insurance | Sept 12–13

Optimizing Risk Management with AI | Sept. 28

Managing Worker Compensation, Employer's Liability and Employment Practices in the US | Nov 7

See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops

RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep at RIMS Canada 2023
September 10–11, 2023
9:00 am–4:00 pm EDT
Ottawa, ON, Canada
All RIMS-CRMP Prep Workshops
Related RIMScast Episodes:
“Crisis-Ready with RIMS Canada Plenary Melissa Agnes”

“Turning Tides: Live from RIMS Canada 2022”

“Rising Risk and Insurance Professional Ana Lage, 2022 Fred H. Bossons Award Winner”

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RIMS Publications, Content, and Links:

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About our guest, Sinead Bovell. Futurist | Future of Work Expert

Sinead Bovell

WAYE

 

Sinead Bovell is a futurist and the founder of WAYE, an organization that helps prepare the next generation of business leaders for a world radically transformed by technology with a focus on non-traditional and minority markets. She is an eight-time United Nations speaker, an experienced host, and certified in AI ethics from MIT. Bovell founded WAYE (Weekly Advice for Young Entrepreneurs) in 2018. Every day, over 10,000 Millennials and Gen Zs tune into Bovell’s platforms to hear her take on technology and the future, and in particular her future forecasts on the ethical challenges of emerging technologies. To date, she has educated over 200,000 young entrepreneurs on the future of technology. She also serves as a strategic advisor on digital inclusion to the United Nations International Telecommunication Union. Dubbed the AI Educator for the “non-nerds” by Vogue and one of Refinery 29’s “Top Ten Black Women Changing the Game,” Bovell has given formal addresses to presidents, royalty, and Fortune 500 leaders on topics ranging from cybersecurity to artificial intelligence. She also hosted WIRED magazine’s hit YouTube series, “What We Will Know” and gave a TEDx Talk on the ethics of avatars in 2022. Bovell received her MBA from the University of Toronto. Prior to founding WAYE, she worked as a management consultant for A.T. Kearney and was a tech contributor for several publications, including The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail.

 

Tweetables (For Social Media Use):

 

“I started to zoom in on how technology is going to disrupt how we live and how companies work and operate and that was kind of a lightbulb moment for me.” — Sinead Bovell

 

“This was the right thing to do but there was no general, ‘This is the step you should take;’ it was more just an inner feeling that something isn’t right, and I’m going to have to build the life I want. I’m not going to be able to go apply for it.” — Sinead Bovell

 

“Everything we do is creating a digital “gravesite” for all the decisions that we’ve made; all the things that we share. All of that is in the ever-after land of the digital world. … We’re stepping into a new world where your digital footprint is … yourself” — Sinead Bovell

 

“AI is essentially a prediction machine. … If you use AI, you are becoming an AI company. There are ethical challenges. … Where is the data sourced that you are using? Are there biases embedded in all of that?“ — Sinead Bovell