AI and big data is rapidly changing the way organizations approach their business. These technologies provide insight into how the world is changing, enabling them to shift their strategies and develop their own R&D capabilities. At BCG X and the Center for Growth and Innovation Analytics, they see first-hand how AI is impacting both their clients and even their own business due to the incredible speed at which the technology is advancing.
Join the Tech Talk on Wednesday January 11 at 12pm ET, to hear from BCG’s Michael Wahlen and CSAIL Researcher, Neil Thompson. The talk will include a brief presentation from Michael, followed by a fireside chat with him and Neil. They will discuss Neil’s research on how application progress is changing as the cost of increased computing power escalates. They will focused particularly on AI, and how changes in the economics of competition within AI-heavy industries will create new challenges and opportunities.
Michael Wahlen is a Project Leader at in BCG’s Center for Growth and Innovation Analytics, where he has worked with over 75 clients to measure technological trends and identify potential growth opportunities. Prior to joining BCG, he completed his PhD from MIT's Sloan School of Management and worked as a Consultant at Accenture. He has published peer-reviewed academic papers on the evaluation of novel ideas in The American Journal of Sociology and Management Science.
Neil Thompson is the Director of the FutureTech research project at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, where his group studies the economic and technical foundations of progress in computing. He is also a Principal Investigator at MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy.
Previously, Neil was an Assistant Professor of Innovation and Strategy at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he co-directed the Experimental Innovation Lab (X-Lab), and a Visiting Professor at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard. He has advised businesses and government on the future of Moore’s Law, has been on National Academies panels on transformational technologies and scientific reliability, and is part of the Council on Competitiveness’ National Commission on Innovation & Competitiveness Frontiers.
He has a PhD in Business and Public Policy from Berkeley, where he also did Masters degrees in Computer Science and Statistics. He also has a masters in Economics from the London School of Economics, and undergraduate degrees in Physics and International Development. Prior to academia, He worked at organizations such as Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Bain and Company, the United Nations, the World Bank, and the Canadian Parliament.
