How to Build a Self-Driving Business

Sit back and enjoy the ride.
HOW TO BUILD A
SELF-DRIVING BUSINESS

A BIT OF HOUSEKEEPING
● WiFi connection is...
● Bathrooms are…
● Refreshments are...

Right now is the single largest entrepreneurship
opportunity in human history:
● Artificial Intelligence — making everything easier, smarter and
faster
● Internet of Things — giving you access to previously unobtainable
data…providing unprecedented customer and product insight
● 3 billion more people — coming online...eager to help and buy new
products and services
I BELIEVE...

I’m here to answer your questions.
And the slides are designed to provoke more
questions.
So don’t hesitate to dive in with a
thought, question or comment.
CHIME IN ANYTIME

RECORDING
Tons of info in this deck.
Book will be available in a few
weeks.
chris@mohritz.co
Slides on meetup.com

● What is a Self-Driving Business?
● What Led Me Here
● The State of A.I.
● How to Build a Self-Driving Business
● FAQs
O
U
R
JO
U
R
N
EY
THE AUTONOMOUS ERA BEGINS

AND THERE’S...
Bad news: there is no silver bullet
Good news: we can actually do it

TODAY’S GOAL
Make it real.
What does a self-driving business look like?
How can you build it?

Who is this for?
silverside.com/understanding-rogers-adoption-curve

WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE
TALKING ABOUT?

We’re entering an era where we will no longer be
thinking about technology…
We will be thinking with it.
A.I. will empower us to think
faster and farther than ever before.
Allowing us to solve age-old problems.
WELCOME TO THE GOLDEN AGE OF A.I.

A NATURAL PROGRESSION
A.I. is the next step in automating our world...
In the 20th
century we automated work,
In the 21st
century we are automating intelligence.

AUTONOMOUS IS EVERYWHERE
A.I. is giving rise to a new generation of
completely autonomous vehicles.

YOU NAME IT, IT WILL DRIVE ITSELF

WHAT CAN AN AUTONOMOUS CAR DO?
A self driving car is smart enough to achieve a specific goal.
For example: “Take me to the grocery store.”
● The car then searches web-based maps and traffic data, then
determines the best route to the store.
● And while it’s driving, it has built-in parameters to operate
within so it can successfully meat the goal.
○ Don’t exceed posted speed limit
○ Stay within the lines
○ Stop for red lights

WHAT IS DRIVING?
A fairly routine task.
Thousands of mini decisions
(most of which we take for granted).
A perfect job for A.I.

What would your business look like if we
applied that same intelligence
to your business?
● Give it a goal
● Give it access to resources so it can find answers, and
● Give it operating parameters to guide its decisions

What could a self-driving business
actually do?
● Support your existing customers
● Find new customers
● Attract leads & sell them
● Order new inventory
● Handle the taxes
● Research new product ideas
● And…?

Self-Driving Car Self-Driving Business
Objective Arrive Encore hotel Accrue $10M in capital
Parameters Stay in lane (stay between lines)
Avoid other cars
Avoid pedestrian
Stop at red lights
Can only gain capital from product sales
Maximize margin
Minimize returns
Maximize customer happiness score
Resources Built-in or internet-based maps Internet
Cloud APIs
Operating
procedures
If you see a car coming at you...
Slow down to maintain x feet distance
Customer journey (subscriber, customer,
etc.)
Send tax payment every quarter
Course corrections Take a wrong turn
Unexpected detour
Poor performing customer (find a new
one)
High returns (improve product quality)
A DIRECT COMPARISON

Give your business a
subconscious.
It keeps everything
functioning, growing
and healthy.
ANOTHER WAY TO THINK ABOUT IT...

LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR...
Your personal A.I. will
skyrocket productivity.
youtu.be/nPcb05I0anY?t=24s

EVERY BUSINESS NEEDS A KNOWLEDGE GRAPH
Image having this level of
understanding about each of
your customers, vendors, etc.

If your business could
remember and recall
everything, what could
it tell you about...
● Customers
● Suppliers
● Transactions
● etc.
What kind of decisions
would it make?
HOW TO CREATE A MIND
Photo: neo4j.com/blog/36-million-series-d-whats-next-graph-space

Company Knowledge
BETTER EXPERIENCE FOR EVERYONE
A.I.-Powered
Marketing
A.I.-Powered
Support
A.I.-Powered
Product
A.I.-Powered
Admin
A.I.-Powered
Innovation
Imagine a customer support chatbot
helping a customer — and that
chatbot has instant recall of every
interaction that customer has had
with your products & brand in the
past. Imagine happy customers!

SIT BACK & ENJOY THE RIDE
Your business
continues to grow
and earn revenue
without you having
to focus on the
road?

IT’S A COMPLETELY NEW PARADIGM
Without the need to
focus on driving, the
design of a car’s
interior is completely
up in the air.
Same goes for your
business.

SOLVE AGE-OLD PROBLEMS
● Lack of control over your schedule (work when you want)
● Insufficient profit to grow (scale up and be more productive)
● Lack of Harmony between projects and employees (keep everyone on the same page)
● Hit the ceiling (get out of the rut — and stay out)
● Feel like nothing is working (automatically test different strategies until you find the
perfect option)
● Bureaucracy never helps (stay lean and nimble)
● Information overload / analysis paralysis (implement it & forget it)
● Unable to recharge (not finding time for yourself)
● Unreliable vendors (eliminate the need to find vendor that actually follow through)
● Collections (automate bill collection)
● Unable to delegate (let A.I. assign tasks)
● Poor customer experience (no more getting stuck 'on hold')

EARN MORE & LIVE MORE
Make more money while working less.
Sound to good to be true?
Let’s unpack it a bit...

ABOUT ME
Chris Mohritz / chris@mohritz.co
● Lifelong entrepreneur & technologist
● Live in Italy (in Vegas for a consulting gig)
● Have been using A.I. in business since 2009
● Launched a startup accelerator in 2013
(Sold 42 companies in 2017, $1.3B)
● Corporate trainer on A.I. strategy since 2015
(Fortune 500 & startups)
A
B
O
U
T

LESSONS FROM ACCELERATOR
Working in a startup accelerator has taught me…
● Highly systematized companies…
○ 100% success rate (195 companies & counting)
○ Grow faster
○ Sell quicker
○ Get higher valuations
○ Have a better reputation in marketplace, due to...
■ More consistent experience
■ Higher product quality
Business success or failure boils
down to the quality & speed of
decisions

LESSONS FROM A.I.
Working with A.I. has taught me…
● A.I. is awesome!
● How to run a better business
(Every business problem is a math problem)
● A clearer view into how we think as human beings
● The tech works, to make it useful….
It’s not a technology problem.
It’s an architecture problem.

MY MOTIVATION
Initially built and sold 2 companies solo.
Realized that I love startup but don't like the work.
Ever since then, I’ve been coming up with new ways
to automate it. Getting close to creating...
The one-man startup.
So let’s dive right in...

BUT FIRST...WHAT IS A.I.?
Intelligence is a subjective result.
The sprinkler test…at what point do you call it intelligent?
● Start with a simple, manually operated water valve
● Add a timer, automatically starts at specific times
● Add a temperature gauge, won’t start if below 60F
● Add a rain detector, won’t start if raining
● Add a hose sensor, won’t start if hose is disconnected
● Add a ground moisture sensor, automatically shut off
● Add an Internet connection, won’t start if restricted usage

IT STARTED IN DARTMOUTH
In 1956 at Dartmouth College, the Dartmouth
Workshop kicked of the modern era of artificial
intelligence.
“Every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in
principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to
simulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use
language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now
reserved for humans, and improve themselves.”
They thought intelligence would have concrete descriptions like physics.

A MISCONCEPTION?
Most of the past 60 years
have been focused on
creating a single A.I. that
could do anything.
In my opinion, due to an
inaccurate view of how
human intelligence works.
One model to rule
them all.

Before ~2000 A.I. research was primarily driven by
academia and focused on creating General A.I.
Today, research is driven by business, which is
focused on Narrow A.I. via machine learning.
General A.I. Narrow A.I.
‘Academia’ focus ‘Business’ focus
THE A.I. REBOOT

THINK THIS... NOT THIS...
One model to rule
them all.
Product
Recommendations
Emotion
Recognition
Sentiment
Analysis
Text
Analytics
Job Search &
Discovery
Video
Analysis
Text to
Speech
Computer
Vision
Search
Autosuggest
Facial
Recognition
Language
Translation
Speech
to Text
Resume
Analysis
Content
Moderation
Micro A.I. Monolithic

THE RISE OF MACHINE LEARNING
Show a computer the right
answer, then let it figure out
the best way to get there.
youtube.com/watch?v=PFFgz6fSLvk

We’re training computers,
just like we train pets.
One skill at a time.
IN OTHER WORDS...

ON PAR WITH HUMANS
August, 2016 — “The researchers reported a word error
rate (WER) of 5.9% …about equal to that of people who
were asked to transcribe the same conversation...”
Note: This is just the ability to identify words.
It’s up to us to make that skill useful.
blogs.microsoft.com/next/2016/10/18/historic-achievement-microsoft-researchers-reach-human-p
arity-conversational-speech-recognition

AN INTERESTING TIPPING POINT...
2011: Machine tries to beat humans. 2017: Humans try to beat machine.6yrs later ⇨

NO MORE CALLS OR TWEETS
Cracking the natural
speech barrier has opened
the floodgates.
A.I.-powered
‘conversational agents’ can
have any conversation a
human can.
youtu.be/ogfYd705cRs?t=35m50s

THE ROBOTS ARE HERE
“Hazelnut”
Hotel Interurban south
of Seattle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvueTeSs_6A

MORE & MORE HUMAN-LIKE
Crazy!
(self-driving humanoid)
youtu.be/vjSohj-Iclc

NO MORE FILMING VIDEOS
“With great power
comes great
responsibility.”
youtube.com/watch?v=MVBe6_o4cMI

WHAT OUR A.I.-POWERED
FUTURE LOOKS LIKE

Linear thinking
Tech drives our world, and tech evolves
exponentially. But our brain evolved to
process things linearly.
Our minds don’t register exponential
change...so things that move quicker
than linear are ‘hard to believe.’
FIRST, A QUICK WARNING...
Exponential
change
It will never
‘feel’ right

WHAT’S COMING?
The future is already
here — it’s just not
evenly distributed.
~ William Gibson
diamandis.com/blog/countdown-to-the-singularity

UPDATE YOUR BUSINESS’S RESUME

Think big. Build small.
Stay focused on pinpoint, precise tasks.
General A.I. Narrow A.I.
‘Replace’ mindset ‘Augment’ mindset
REMINDER...

AGAIN, THINK THIS... NOT THIS...
One model to rule
them all.
Micro A.I. Monolithic
Product
Recommendations
Emotion
Recognition
Sentiment
Analysis
Text
Analytics
Job Search &
Discovery
Video
Analysis
Text to
Speech
Computer
Vision
Search
Autosuggest
Facial
Recognition
Language
Translation
Speech
to Text
Resume
Analysis
Content
Moderation

The tools are all there.
All we need to do is connect the dots.
Build it one skill at a time.

WHAT DO YOUR CUSTOMERS LIKE?
Give your business the insights it
needs to connect with your
audience on a personal level.
personality-insights-demo.ng.bluemix.net

WHAT ARE THEY FEELING?
Identify emotions
from photos,
video or written
content.
azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-services/emotion

Examples
Binary
1 of 2 choices
“Is this email spam or not spam?”
“Will the customer buy this product?”
“Is this product a book or a farm animal?”
“Is this review written by a customer or a robot?”
Pick from a List
1 of >2 choices
“Is this product a book, movie, or clothing?”
“Is this movie a romantic comedy, documentary, or thriller?”
“Which category of products is most interesting to this customer?”
Number “What will the temperature be in Seattle tomorrow?”
“For this product, how many units will sell?”
“What price will this product sell for?”
MAKE ANY DECISION...INSTANTLY
docs.aws.amazon.com/machine-learning/latest/dg/types-of-ml-models.html

AND OF COURSE...
Have any
conversation.
Instantly.
24/7.
dialogflow.com

BRING IT ALL TOGETHER
aws.amazon.com/products

Collectors Vault Analyzers Deciders Actions Operations
THE FRAMEWORK
( lambda ) ( lambda ) ( ml ) ( lambda )
Sensors Actuators
Conversational U.I.
( ddb )
Research
Interviews
Project Mgmt
etc.
Writing
Publishing
etc.
Inventory
Hire/Fire
etc.
Trends
Predictions
etc.
Persons
Events
Places
etc.
APIs
RSS Feeds
Files
etc.
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
IoT devices

THE METHODOLOGY
1. Determine Business Objectives (What’s the mission?)
2. Determine the Governing Policies (Keep things in line)
3. Prioritize Goals (Find the low-hanging fruit)
4. Layout Workflows (High level steps)
5. Define Operating Procedures (Checklists)
6. Diagram Processes (Dive into the details)
7. Define Human Monitoring Points (Keeping tabs on it)
8. Define Automated Decision Parameters (Required info)
9. Design Implementation Architecture (Map out the tech)
10. Construct Architecture (Install & configure)
11. Build Management U.I. (Command & control)
12. Flip the Switch (Go live)
HUMAN
MACHINE

A FEW TIPS...
● One decision = one model
● Workflows don’t change
● Multiple interchangeable processes per workflow
● Objectives must be specific number or event
(no runaway trains)

WHERE SHOULD I START?
● Don’t give away your data
● Any process that touches customer
● Build a [good] chatbot (better customer experience)

IS IT ALL OR NOTHING?
Nope.
● Start small and build up
● Set a goal to automate one thing per month

WHAT ABOUT BUSINESS ETHICS?
Ethics and morality are just a way of thinking.
A set of guidelines we use to make decisions.
They can — and should — be trained into every
automated decision you set up.

WHAT ABOUT JOB LOSS?
Who really wants a job?
What we want is a better quality of life.
And that’s where we’re headed.
Jobs optional.
Stockton, California is gearing up to be the first U.S.
city to test U.B.I.
nytimes.com/2018/05/30/business/stockton-basic-income.html

WHY AWS?
They nailed it!
Microservice architecture.
Breadth of services.
Fast & reliable.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
● Think big
● Build small
● Connect the dots
● Sit back and enjoy the ride!

POP QUIZ
How do you build
JARVIS?
[ One skill at a time. ]

THANK YOU
A
B
O
U
T
Chris Mohritz
chris@mohritz.co

UNLEASH YOUR BUSINESS
EMBRACE EXPONENTIAL
10xnation.com

How to Build a Self-Driving Business

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