Esteban Kolsky
EnterpriseIrregulars
Healdsburg, CA, United States
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Past articles by Esteban:
Three Pitfalls to Avoid with Artificial Intelligence in Customer Service
A few weeks ago, I did a webinar on using AI in customer service with my friends at ServiceNow. It was very well received, and since then I got some questions about the content. There was one slide that was the most discussed, and I wanted to take this opportunity to go into deeper detail on … → Read More
Enterprise Software Priorities for the Next Decade
As I continue my myriad research projects this spring season I come across incredible insights from those I interview. I have been doing a lot of work in platforms, data usage (including AI), infrastructure, and digital transformation this season (and I don’t see it slowing down, or changing, anytime soon – these are mission-critical, decade-plus … → Read More
Can You Sell $10B by Focusing on Customer Experience? (short post)
In 1997 (yes, 21 years ago) Steve Jobs made the case very vividly at the WWDC (developer’s conference) in the most eloquent way possible. It’s the customer experience, my friend. It’s the customer experience. (if you want more on the setup to this question, asking Steve Jobs why they were killing certain technologies – which … → Read More
The Three I’s of AI – One More Time, With Gusto!
I wrote before this: AI will never match human intelligence because it lacks the three I’s: Intuition. Imagination. Innovation. These things can be programmed, of course – everything can, but even if programmed are not going to “continue to grow on their own” as human’s do. The lack of any of the three, or the … → Read More
The SAP CRM Story: 18 Years In The Making – Is It Finally Right?
Yesterday, at SAPPHIRE (their annual show for and with customers), SAP released C/4HANA, their final attempt at getting the CRM story right. In short, if they would’ve used this storyline back in the mid-2000s, SAP would’ve likely become a key player and potentially even the leader after the acquisition of Siebel + PeopleSoft. Today? Too late, … → Read More
Experience? Engagement? Same Difference! Right?
ah, the wonders of having been there, done that, and having the t-shirt…. i actually have tons of t-shirts. i have not only done many things early, that’s what comes with being an analyst for 20 years – the wonderful challenge of working with early adopters guiding them to achieve the visions we concoct, but i … → Read More
That Facebook Thing? We’re Stupid, That’s Why We’re Mad
Oh, Facebook — you had us all at “free games and pictures of high school crushes today” So, why are we that mad at them? Why is Facebook’s the new incarnation of evil? I talked about this with Ray Wang and Vala Afshar last Friday during the latest and greatest episode of DisrupTV: DisrupTV Featuring … → Read More
These Are The Last 12 Questions You Had On Customer Experience – Promise!
(lengthy post warning: over 4,000 words) I wasn’t even close. After the first of the three video webinars, we did with Microsoft on customer experience I wrote a blog post saying that I had found the four questions you had about customer experience. Man, was I off. The first webinar was the basic definition and … → Read More
I Spent 29 Years Adopting Channels for Customer Service – Here is What I Learned
I figured I’d try a little bit of click-baiting, see how it works… Beyond the lame title, this is a good post. Another one in the “I did an amazing webinar, and these are the questions I did not get to” series. Number two, and am doing another one today, so will have more questions … → Read More
Four Questions You Have About Customer Experience (and answers)
On January 18th I participated with Matt Kresch (Microsoft) in the first of three video webinars (vidnars? webdeos?) that we are presenting on Customer Experience. It was fantastic, seriously – here’s the link if you want to check it out (registration required), and we had a very engaging (that’s what the comments said) conversation about why … → Read More
Edge Computing: Interesting Video, Even If Flawed
I came across this “short” (25 minutes or so) video by Andreessen Horowitz partner Peter Levine. I don’t like people that announce “death of” or “end of” or similar (see Mainframes, COBOL, even tape for a simple explanation why). However flawed the thinking, there are some very good points he is making (and a very … → Read More
What Should We Worry About Today (Strategy Version)?
Clickbait! let’s talk about cryptocurrencies… Just kidding. I have a very good friend, someone would even say my BFAM or best friend, with whom I usually have this conversation: Him: How are you doing? Me: Well, these are the many things I want to complain about…(list of small things that annoy me and bother me) … → Read More
OK, Jon – here I am…
2017 was an — er, interesting year. Among many changes in my life, and we can talk about those later, I made two big decisions: I left Twitter (voluntarily, and willingly) in October and I stopped writing in public (long story, not really voluntary, more like a sign of the times thing… KWIM). I am … → Read More
Lithium, Jive-X, and Some Thoughts
Wednesday Lithium announced they had acquired the code base and customers from Jive-X (the external community product from Jive). Let’s face it, this should be a non-event. At least, that is what I thought at first. After all, I wrote off Jive some time ago: great architecture, bad management, poor understanding of their target market … → Read More
Article: Why Gaming is Good for Computers and AlphaGo is not AI by Itself
Title: 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2017: Reinforcement Learning Link: Source: surfin’ Why has reinforcement learning recently become so formidable? The key is combining it with deep learning, a technique that involves using a very large simulated neural network to recognize patterns in data My Perspective on this: This is a good article not only for what … → Read More
Knowledge Summary: The Next Decade in Digital Transformation
A knowledge summary is a semi-long to a long post that synthesizes positions, concepts, and lessons learned around a topic. They consist of a mix of primary research with ideas and frameworks I built based on conversations and working sessions. This knowledge summary will focus on concepts you have to know to succumb to embrace … → Read More
The Next Decade in Digital Transformation
A knowledge summary is a semi-long to a long post that synthesizes positions, concepts, and lessons learned around a topic. They consist of a mix of primary research with ideas and frameworks I built based on conversations and working sessions. This knowledge summary will focus on concepts you have to know to succumb to embrace digital transformation in the next decade. → Read More
Article: Memory is the Barrier Between Computers and Humans
Title: Understanding the Four Types of #AI Source: Twitter, via Vala Afshar Link: We need to do more than teach machines to learn. We need to overcome the boundaries that define the four different types of artificial intelligence, the barriers that separate machines from us – and us from them. My Impressions: I often marvel … → Read More
Article: Differentiating Between #AI and #ML
Title: The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI Link: Source: MIT Technology Review, via Google Alerts “If it can’t do better than us at explaining what it’s doing,” he says, “then don’t trust it.” My Impressions: I am not going to say that machine learning is misunderstood, but the fact that most everyone uses AI … → Read More
Research Project: Customer Service Going Forward – Please Help
It’s that time again – time to give me your ideas and plans for Customer Service, in exchange for a consolidated view of the market. This is my sixth year doing this research project on adoption and trends for customer service and this is the most exciting so far. We are entering the era of … → Read More