In this episode, we're joined by Jonathan O'Reilly, the Co-Founder and COO of Akkio. With a background in operations, product, and marketing at Sonos and Markforged, Jonathan brings valuable insights to the table, particularly in the Low Code AI space and with his vast experience in product management and experiencing companies like Sonos and Markforged scale from 0 to 1 and 100.

Jon’s personal story in going into the entrepreneurship and embarking on a journey within the AI and product space is an inspiring one. We discussed about Akkio, a Low Code AI start up that democratize access to ML models and allow integrating them in business processes. Jonathan also shared compelling insights on the integration of Low Code AI with robotic process automation software, highlighting the potential for these two technologies to work together to streamline and automate business processes.

We also discussed the challenges and opportunities in building a machine learning platform for all users by emphasizin the importance of an agnostic perspective and the ability to integrate generative AI algorithms like OpenAI to enhance the platform's capabilities.

Throughout our conversation, Jonathan touched on the ethical considerations surrounding the use of technology within AI and the responsibility of technology companies to ensure their products are being used for good. He also provided valuable advice on how to approach building high performance teams in a beneficial culture for a technology startup.

If you're interested in entrepreneurship, AI, and the technology space, this is an episode you won't want to miss. Tune in to hear from an experienced leader in the industry!

Joy Mountford is an internationally recognized leader in design, particularly human-computer interface, user experience and interaction design. She has built and led world-class design and innovation teams at Apple, Ford Motors, Akamai, Yahoo, and Interval Research. She has designed interfaces for a wide variety of systems including airplane cockpits, computers, the web, consumer electronics, musical instruments, and toys. She is inventor on over 28 key patents, granted in multimedia and human computer interaction. She created the International University Design Expo, which has touched the lives of thousands of design students for more than 20 years. She has given invited presentations at the top conferences in the field including ACM SIGCHI, IDCA, EG, and TED. She receivedWomen in Leadership Award in 2019 and received the SIGCHI Life-Time Practice Award and elected to the CHI Academy in 2012. In 2021 she contributed one of the first 3 invited transcripts covering her life works archived for the Babbage Institute, 2021.

“Joy is a founder of the intellectual and practical elite of design, a design legend" John Maeda – executive, designer, and technologist

"Joy is one of 1000 most creative individuals in U.S." Harry Marks, co-creator of TED conferences

As a pioneer of your field, how did your journey begin that led you to explore the human-computer interface? What led you to explore this field?

As the builders of the future, we are told that what we invest our time in today creates what's next for the children of tomorrow. What is the number 1 thing that today's design thinkers think about differently, and what are some things that may lead to bad experiences?

This is more of an open-ended question. As robots and software continue to interact with humans, such as pizza shops that automatically create pizza, restaurants without servers, self-driving cars, and pilots, human-to-human interaction is replaced for efficiency, consistency, and less interactivity. As humanity continues to find ways to boost Customer Experience (CX) with automation, what's the future that's waiting for us? Do people want consistency and efficiency over interactivity at all costs? And how can the young generations shape the future of work for a better experience for all? What are your thoughts?

Optimism and honesty lead to positive outcomes. Similarly, the purpose and the design of a product don’t mean that the product, when adopted, will be used for the same reasons that it’s designed for; hence you can point to the many stories revolving around Facebook or cup to filter boiled pasta water, what are some of your strategies to collect constructive feedback?

One of the most exciting aspects of predicting the future is that we always think and forecast what will happen but do not focus on what won’t happen. What won’t happen depends on what the innovative and entrepreneurial minds choose not to do in the next few years and where the people do not want change to happen. Given that the world is investing a lot of time and money into the metaverse, it opens new doors for Human and Computer interactivity. New user controls and new ways to experience the world of computers. What are your thoughts on this, particularly around a future where everyone is wearing a helmet and sitting on a couch can be both bright and dark?