Unlock Editor’s Digest for free
FT editor Roula Khalaf selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Messages from the archive of Rutherford Hall, critical communications strategist
WhatsApp to Stephen:Do we need an AI product? I’ve been thinking for a while that we should offer customers something to do with AI. Everyone seems to be doing it and expanding their AI offering. Is there anything we can do with AI externally? Should we hire someone to lead our AI team?
WhatsApp to Stephen: Yes, anyone who is really good at this field is going to be terribly expensive, but there must be people out there who are interested in developing both their capacity and ours.
WhatsApp to Stephen: No, I don’t know exactly what product we could offer either, but that doesn’t matter. We just hire one or two people and ask them to do some AI. We set up a test lab, we run some ideas. We get some machine learning. Or maybe we just ask GPT-4 for some suggestions.
WhatsApp to Stephen: How good does it really have to be? Take a look at McKinsey’s website. Much of it seems like AI fluff: “Harmonizing Humans and AI: We harness the power of technology and people to create growth that benefits organizations while supporting a prosperous, sustainable, and inclusive society.” Are you more in the know? They also offer “hybrid intelligence.” I don’t know what that is, but my wife drives a hybrid car and says it’s great.
WhatsApp to Stephen: Yes, of course McKinsey can leverage its size to seemingly offer industry-specific AI tools, but there needs to be something that clients can think of as offering additional value. Something generative with large language models and Bayesian probability.
WhatsApp to Stephen: I have no idea, but all the good AI stuff seems to have Bayesian models, so we should too. I’ll talk to some recruiters.
Of: Rutherford@Monkwellstrategy.com
To: WintersRichard@winters.net
Richard, it was a pleasure meeting you yesterday. I am delighted to be able to offer you the role of Principal Developer at Monkwell AI Solutions on the terms and salary we have discussed. Your role will be to build our capability from the ground up, developing AI solutions that serve our customers and enrich our critical communications service. Our aim is to harmonise technology and humans to benefit organisations, society and the planet.
I look forward to having you on the team.
The best Rutherford.
Find me on Strava, KoM Sydenham Hill, PR Al Jubailah/Bawdah Loop — 42 minutes
WhatsApp to Stephen: Yes, we went with Richard Winters. I wasn’t surprised. I didn’t understand him at times, but that’s probably a good thing, right? And he was the best in our price range.
WhatsApp for Richard Winters: Hi Richard, it’s a pleasure to have you here. Now that you know our work, what is your first project?
WhatsApp to Richard Winters: Streamlining purchase orders is great, but what I’m really looking for is something customer-oriented.
WhatsApp for Richard Winters: I was honestly hoping you could tell me. We want something that optimizes efficiency, takes a holistic view of processes, and accelerates sustainable growth.
WhatsApp for Richard Winters:Oh, I thought you’d know what that meant.
WhatsApp for Richard Winters: A chatbot? That doesn’t sound very AI-like.
WhatsApp for Richard Winters: Ah, I see. A chatbot with generative artificial intelligence. Sounds amazing.
WhatsApp to Stephen: I think Richard will work, although he just asked me what we actually do here.
WhatsApp to Richard: Okay, you’ve offered some valuable learnings, but let’s move on from the chatbot. How about something that watches (or crawls) all of a company’s internal announcements and uses some sort of AI learning to flag potential risks?
WhatsApp to Richard: Yes, of course, we’re going to test it on ourselves first, even though we don’t have many announcements. And no, I don’t mind if we call it Winterfell. But can we incorporate some Bayesian? Once we’ve done that, maybe we can offer a proof-of-concept partnership with a favored client.
Of: Rutherford@Monkwellstrategy.com
Susan, I hope all is well with you. I just wanted to give you a heads up on something. We have just created a new division (Monkwell AI Solutions) under the direction of a brilliant young man, Richard Winters. He is developing a new tool that uses 360-degree generative machine learning and Bayesian AI to identify future communications crises before they happen. As a particularly valued customer, we were wondering if Volpone might be interested in being the first to try out this tool when it is ready.
The best Rutherford
Meet me at . . .
WhatsApp to Stephen: We tested Winterfell with Monkwell’s internal announcements and WhatsApp messages and found a host of problems: hopelessness in adopting new technology, weak staffing in several sectors, lack of contacts with the Labour Party and slow cycle times. It’s clearly nowhere near ready for a wider rollout.
WhatsApp to SusanCB: Don’t despair, Susan. We’re still not sure how accurate it is. It’s always the same with cutting-edge technology!
Messages recovered by Robert Shrimsley