An inspiring imaginative and prescient for the longer term was painted by Kate O’Neil, CEO of KO Insights and writer of “Tech Humanist,” in her opening keynote session, “A Future So Shiny,” on the 2021 Healthcare Design Expo & Convention in Cleveland in October.
O’Neill mentioned it’s not unusual to anticipate a future with scary, overwhelming situations—suppose pandemics, local weather disasters, and political and geopolitical unrest. And rising expertise is commonly cited as a contributor to such fears.
As a substitute, she mentioned, expertise gives large alternative to assist resolve human issues whereas providing higher human connectedness. Somewhat than concern the longer term, she requested attendees to as an alternative suppose how they may help humanity put together for an more and more expertise and data-driven future, the place the bodily world connects to the digital world. “How are you going to suppose extra excitedly about the way you’ll use expertise to create extra significant areas?” she mentioned.
To assist information that journey, she provided three pillars for bringing a brighter future to the constructed setting: constructing our greatest expertise, rising our greatest companies, and changing into our greatest selves.
Noting that a part of what it means to be human is to crave that means, O’Neill mentioned it’s necessary to border expertise via this lens, specializing in how expertise and information could make the world higher for folks each now and sooner or later. In healthcare, she mentioned, that will imply fascinated by one of the best futures for the most individuals.
Discussing how you can develop higher companies, O’Neill mentioned the main target shouldn’t be on a expertise transformation however a “information transformation” that makes use of human information to optimize enterprise. She added that when attendees hear the phrase “information” they need to suppose “folks,” together with their motivations and needs.
Seeking to create one of the best expertise, O’Neill mentioned expertise options shouldn’t be seen as both good or unhealthy, however they do have dangers. “People can not go away that means as much as the machines,” she mentioned. For instance, delicate nuances usually are not a robust go well with of synthetic intelligence (AI), which O’Neill illustrated by exhibiting a slide with photos of puppies and muffins, lots of which regarded comparable and could be laborious for a pc to determine. People, nevertheless, can draw on sense reminiscence to make contextual selections to determine what’s what.
To get to our greatest expertise, she famous, we have to combine one of the best of expertise with one of the best of people to construct “empathic, significant human experiences.” Moreover, she famous, it’s necessary to have numerous views concerned in undertaking groups to make inclusive human experiences. “Machines are what we encode of ourselves,” together with our biases and values, she added.
In wrapping up, O’Neill reiterated {that a} tech-driven future with extra significant and built-in experiences shouldn’t be scary. “We’ve got company and energy—it is going to be what we make it.”