Blink:

I decided to go offline last week and attend a live conference to learn more about the potential utilization of AI. Below is a summary of my key learning at the (WAICF) World AI Cannes Festival.

Read On:

This was a challenging conference for me to attend, thus extract the most juice for the squeeze given my time was limited, plus I was exceedingly out of my area of expertise, food marketing, not AI technology. Consequently, my goal was to learn more about Agentic AI and whether it could be utilized as a tool for F&B innovation in the food-away-from-home channel Key learning:

• Conference Engagement – The conference was relatively well attended, an estimated 10K participants all armed with their elevator speeches. Their speed pitches were micro in content, mostly about their company’s products or services. Few discussed the “Big Picture,” specifically how AI will potentially transform our society  
• Work Shops/Demos – A.) Numerous tutorial solutions designed to help companies with their people adapt to the AI processes being implemented. B.) I was interested in learning about AI solutions specifically for product development. The only product case studies I spotted were for supply chain and WMS (warehouse management systems – inventory) efficiency solutions. Note: The financial services business sector’s utilization of AI was a popular topic as well as healthcare which included drug innovation.
• Conference “Buzz” – Sovereign AI, the expansion of autonomous multi-systems world-wide which provide the sovereign control and governance of a company’s AI data exposure. There were numerous companies displaying their Sovereign AI compute solutions for the EU, which were all power-hungry data centers, thus a drain on the geographic water supply utilized for cooling.          
• MIA – To my dismay (when I was able to walk the floor) I did not spot or engage with any companies showcasing their AI products or services addressing their solutions as it relates to generating environmental efficiencies – decarbonization monitoring, extreme weather disaster planning, Agri-tech, etc., etc., etc.

Candidly, I found the conference refreshing, more global in scope versus the food conferences I normally attend, thus look forward to my next AI event.  

Opinions welcomed!