Vator innovation series

Thought Leadership

Learn from top entrepreneurs in conversation with leading strategic players and growth investors.

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How apps broaden utility while staying simple

by Matt Raoul, December 18, 2017

Stay true to a mission and take away the burden of complexity

Close your eyes, and imagine a time in the not-so-distant past. A time when technology finally made the leap from research facility to the living room. When the future vision of what daily life would become started to include a lot more robots. That time was called the 1970’s, and it was magical. It introduced a whole new concept in ...

From search and surf to a conversational paradigm

by Andy Kurtzig, December 8, 2017

Virtual assistants will become our copilots throughout the day

In a study out of the University of Pennsylvania, a linguist found that on average one out of every 60 words uttered is “um” or “uh.” In a world where our interactions with technology are fully conversational, computers have to understand people’s language imperfections and word-fumbles. We’re not there yet. But we are in the midst of a fascinating paradigm ...

Society's obsession with nostalgia

by Matt Raoul, December 4, 2017

Making an oldie a goodie to create a brand-spanking new adventure

We’re often told that if you want to move forward, don’t dwell on the past. Rather learn from it and live in the present since the past can’t be changed. Yet more often than not, people find themselves getting lost in their past experiences; the idealized versions of their memories both good and bad. Here at Timehop, we obviously see ...

Challenges HR faces using AI to hire from within

by Michael Buhrmann, November 10, 2017

AI will flourish once data is collected, organized, transparent, trusted

How artificial intelligence is being used to hire new talent is a trend I explored in a previous essay. In that piece, I briefly noted the apprehension some companies have to fully integrate AI into their recruiting processes, partly due to concerns that machines lack interpretative skills when it comes to judging character. No doubt these skills are already being ...

Data wars fuel an online marketing arms race

by John Scott, November 6, 2017

The big opportunity for marketers is learning how to better leverage the data that they already have

In today’s digital era, around 90 percent of the data collected internationally has been generated in just a few years. Unstructured data, such as human language, account for about 80 percent of what’s collected. A scant half percent of the data collected is actually analyzed, because a great portion is inaccurate, becomes old and outdated, or is difficult to act ...

When AI tells you the success of your new hire, before you hire them

by Michael Buhrmann, October 9, 2017

Machines will learn to make sense of myriad data sources to provide insights and recommendations

When a person thinks about artificial intelligence (AI), they might visualize Terminator, the iconic 80’s film starring futuristic sentient robots. More than three decades later, we’re starting to see a world that is both invigorating and frightening as machines become increasingly self-aware. AI has gone from Hollywood screens to many aspects of our lives, including the hiring process where millions ...

Your health insurer will be your next doctor. Really.

by Andy Kurtzig, October 2, 2017

Health insurance companies are evolving to have a concierge component

It’s hard to imagine calling your health insurer to receive medical tips, much less sympathy for your ailments and ever-increasing premiums. They’re perceived as faceless, paper-pushing middlemen whose role isn’t to inform you on treatments to receive, doctors to see, or whether acetaminophen is better than ibuprofen. With a child who has juvenile diabetes, my wife and I have spent ...

How digital ads drive in-store shopping

by John Scott, July 28, 2017

The value of leveraging today’s consumer behavior, location, and online convenience

Over the last two decades, consumers have become accustomed to convenience, variety and doorstep delivery: the modern-day shopping paradigm ushered in by Amazon. From books, to shoes, to fresh bananas; the dominant face of retail sells 480 million products online, leading many of us to ponder the purpose, value and hence the fate of brick-and-mortar stores. Well, they are ...

How machine learning unlocks the value of video

by Sandeep Casi, May 10, 2017

New technology allows for deeper insights into video, driving viewers from inspiration to action

Digital video consumption has surged, igniting new monetization opportunities for these modern distribution outlets and content makers, a point I explored in a previous essay. The challenge I didn’t touch on, however, is how to optimize these monetization events in the most efficient manner. Machine learning is at the root of the answer. Machine learning is when computers learn and ...

The increasing focus on reliving our digital past

by Steve Cosman, May 8, 2017

New services are empowering people to reconnect with their memories and relive special moments

We’re experiencing a global explosion of personal content, a deluge of digital data that’s partially curated, deleted or in the case of moments that often really matter -- lost in the ceaseless current of photos and videos. Consumers only have so much time to collect, and more importantly highlight, their important memories. Photos sent to social media represent a very ...

How content marketing is personalizing ads

by John Scott, April 6, 2017

Successful ads are genuine, personalized and offer a nuanced call to action

It’s hard to imagine a world where advertising is perfectly targeted to know exactly how you feel and what you need or want. If it were to happen, we may find it incredibly creepy and encroaching of our privacy as there’s a yin and yang about data we want to share. Still, people do share; their preferences are increasingly known; ...

The increasing interplay of video and social media

by Sandeep Casi, February 24, 2017

A new era of video consumption, distribution and monetization

When Snap made headlines last year for surpassing Facebook’s video viewership, its achievement of the 10-billion-video-views-per-day milestone underscored not only Snap’s staying power, but the growing importance of video to social media. Increasingly video is being consumed over social networks. To wit, social platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Snap are all making big bets on video. Twitter’s acquisition of ...

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by Steven Loeb
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by Kristin Karaoglu
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Corporate Innovator: Tina Moen, Deputy Chief Health Officer at IBM Watson Health

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