Benefiting from AI: Oslo Business Forum | Thomas Anglero

Okay, so the next speaker is going to share his experience from talking to a lot of top Norwegian leaders. He's the head of innovation in IBM, and I want us all to give a warm welcome to Thomas Anglero. I was wondering how ugly they could make me appear, you know, not that— pretty bad. Um, I hope you guys don't mind, but we're gonna get really personal. For this time. So let's make believe we're chilling out at the hytte in front of the pais with a little aquavit. Nobody touch anybody. Let me— but I'm being serious. I'm going to get very personal because I'm going to share with you 20 years of living in Norway. I've been living here for 20 years. And I'm never gonna be Norwegian. I don't look Norwegian. I talk crappy Norwegian according to my kids. But I ski damn good. But in the 20 years I've been here, I've been living with you, I've been feeling you, I've been experiencing everything. And I want to tell you who you are. It's not like I know anything. But it's really important. In my position as Director of Innovation for IBM, my job is I'm responsible for Watson, artificial intelligence, this computer that knows everything, is able to take all the data together. What it does, it exposes who you are. And what I see every day, if I'm not on stage— since January, I've given enough presentations, I've spoken to 30,000 people since January. This is what I do. But if I'm not on stage, I am in the meeting rooms with you. With your top bosses, the top bosses of Norwegian companies, and opening them up and finding out what's going on in your company. What's happening? The oil is no longer here, it's down here. But you cannot tell your employees, "Hey, we only got 18 months left of money." Do you guys know that's actually what's happening? Raise your hand. Or are you people in shock? I've never in the 20 years I've been here seen the amount of insecurity I've ever seen. That I see now in Norway. And it's okay. And I'm going to help you out. Is that okay? Størklemme? So I'm going to try to do that with some stories, and then hopefully if we have enough time, give you some advice. A couple of weeks ago, they flew me down to Denmark. Large Nordic company. Their entire management team, top 50 people were there. And they said, we have it. So I'm coming into the room, you know, I'm outside the room, they say, it's your turn. The CEO comes out of the room and says, Thomas, I want you to give them everything. I want you to be yourself. I want you to let them have it. And I said, do you know what you're asking for? He said, exactly. So I go in the room and there are these, all these men and about 4 women. You women can relate to that. And I suck, right? So I go in there and, you know, I'm Mr. Innovation. Oh, by the way, sorry, to give you some better reference, before I was the Director of Innovation for IBM, I was Director of Innovation for Skatte Taten. Did you see that one coming? But I think that's important. You have to understand, I'm not typus americanus. I'm not just a New Yorker. I'm also a public sector Norway. So be careful what box you put me in, because one of the things we do is we always put people in boxes. But yet if somebody looks at you and puts you in a box, you get all pissed off. Sound familiar? Let's go back to Denmark. I walk into the room in Denmark, here's all these top leaders, they're all, "Hmm, hmm, hmm." So I start doing my innovation thing. I start talking about artificial intelligence is able to read 10 million pages in 3 seconds, it understands everything, it remembers everything it ever reads, it remembers everything it ever seen, it remembers everything it ever touches, Imagine if you were that person, you remember everything you ever experienced in your entire life at this moment. How would it be to be married to you? This thing that we're all so scared of, this thing, this uncertainty, and I've never seen it so high here, because everybody's going, everybody's wondering, "What about my job? What about tomorrow? Is he going to expose the fact that, you know, I take long lunches or I leave?" Friday at not 3 o'clock, not 1 o'clock, but 11:30. Familiar? Anybody ever ta— eh, Octane around Friday 1:30? Packed. The software, artificial intelligence, it's gonna allow, it's gonna expose who you are. Not the negative. It's gonna do all these wonderful things. It's able to connect all the dots of all the different things. The traffic lights outside, the high tide, the moon, The databases that you've been working on, do you know they all have correlations and all together there's a meaning? There's something in there. So I'm explaining to these top leaders and they're understanding what I'm saying and they're realizing, Jesus Christ, what is this thing? And we went through a business case and exposed the fact that they've been missing complete revenue. I exposed the fact that For the last 40 years, these top leaders have been making millions of kroner, but in reality, they're incompetent. This is what's happening now, but it's okay. I was at another meeting, spent the entire day, stood up and told the board, went to the CEO and said, do you realize, first to your leadership group, 'You guys are wonderful.' 'Cause they're guys. 'You've done a wonderful job. Congratulations. You brought this company to where they are today.' This is probably for all your companies. 'Congratulations. Fantastic job. But in this world that we're approaching in artificial intelligence, all of you are incompetent. You have no knowledge of this. But it's okay.' What it does is when you have all this information and everything, You have a chance to be you. Isn't that why you're here? Isn't that why we exist? Do any of you go to work thinking that way? This is what it's all about. Life is all about you. I'm a nerd guy. I've been in IT my entire life, and here I am preaching you about life, and this is what I'm trying to tell you. The thing that is most scaring you is the thing you've been waiting for your entire life. This is your moment. You're going to be released from the bondage of all this crap. This is it. This thing that scares you— you ever heard that expression? Right at the precipice, right at that point that is most fear, that you're afraid to jump, right after that moment, that little bit more, is ultimate joy. That's where we're at. Have you ever heard the story about the Nurse at the hospice. I'm talking so much, I need some water. Excuse me. Everybody know what a hospice is? Hospice is where you go in your last 7 days before you die. This woman, she was a nurse. She's worked there for 25 years. For 25 years, she took care of people in their last moments. And for 25 years, in the moments before they die, consistently they said the same thing. It didn't matter these people that are dying. Now this is important and I'm doing this for you Norwegians, all right? You got people from Oslo who make fun of people from Bergen because of their dialect. Sound familiar? No? We'll hang out tonight. She realized it didn't matter what city you were from, what religion you are, how much money you make. Whether or not you live in Home on Kowloon, whether or not you have a brand new Tesla, blah blah blah. In those last moments, there were things that everybody said. Number 1 was, did I love enough? Number 2, was I happy? And number 3, How come I work so much? Don't you see it? We all wonder what's the meaning of life. 25,000 people in their last moment all had the same last thought. There's the meaning of life. Love, happiness, and stop working so much. A couple of weeks ago, 2 weeks ago at IBM, we're moving our office from super exciting Cobolten. Anybody from Cobolten? Stay the hell over there. It's the most boring place in Norway. I'm so excited we're moving. So we're moving from Cobolten and we're moving to over near Akersøven near Modhollen. Very cool. So we're having a party and we invite everybody who's ever worked at IBM in our big office, right? And all these pensioners show up, all these old people show up, and then we're having a big party. And so first you got to get your food and then you got to go and sit down at the table. So everybody gets their food and they come out and they run and they have to think, and we're looking, it's just like high school, right? Better go to school. Who am I going to sit with? Um, you guys do the dance when you're in the cantina, the Norwegian dance, right? I'm watching. So everybody's doing the dance. I come out and I see a table of really old men. Every one of them were eating like that. And I go, that's ground zero. That's where I'm gonna sit. I sit down with these old men. And remember I told you right at the precipice of where things are most uncomfortable, where you're most scared? I don't even know if I understand Norwegian, they're so damn old, right? But I'm going for it. I sit down, pick my head up, all these old men pick up their head, and the party started. We had a kick-ass time. We had a wonderful time. They told me stories, they enlightened me with philosophy, all these amazing things. We laughed so much. It is funny to see an old guy who hasn't probably bent up straight laugh so much he actually straightened up and realized it goes right back. I mean, these guys were old. And I had such a wonderful time, and while I'm having a wonderful time, you know, you laugh, you lift your head up, And I looked around the room. I looked around this big auditorium where everybody is now sitting with their compis, you know, "Wie hat es hingeliehen?" And what is everybody doing? No socializing. Everybody's on the phone. Aren't you missing your moment? Because I took myself to the precipice, because I put myself in the most uncomfortable place possible— I don't know them, super old, difficulty with the language— Did it, I had an amazing time. And the gentlemen in front of me, I sat with them and I said, you know what, I'm gonna go for it. I said, gentlemen, do you have any life advice for me? 4, I think 3 here, 1 here, 4, 80, 80, 80, 320 years of advice. They went quiet. You know how Norwegians, you guys, when you're thinking really hard, you go, hmm. And you guys spend a hell of a lot of time doing this. The guy in front of me broke culture and he actually picked his head up after 2 seconds. I said, "Ooh." And he said, "Learn to listen." He said, "I've used decades of my life Learning that. How often when you talk to someone, you're thinking you had what to say next? You're thinking, "I need to impress them. I need to show how smart I am." When that conversation's over, you walk away going, "Yeah, I proved how smart I am." Did that person hear you? Or more important, did that person feel you? Do any of you think that way? Do any of you, when you meet someone, you listen? No thought. Listen to them. What that man told me was, It was amazing. He says, "Once I started to learn how to listen without thought, love and trust and bond was built. And when people walked away, they walked away with a taste in their mouth saying, 'There's something wonderful about that person.'" Do you guys have that taste in your mouth? When you— when we had the break and the pause, when you were eating? How many of you saw somebody you wanted to talk to? And I love picking on Norwegians. You see somebody you need to talk to, so you position yourself over here exactly where they're looking, and they go, "Du, vetter va?" Am I right? Why do you have a pre-agenda? Listen without thought. People, you are here to— we all want to know who you are. Who are you? How many times in a day are you truly you? Does everybody know who you really are? Not the business person, not the person with the salary, not the person with the Tesla, not the person who lives on Home and Colon. I live in Home and Colon, I have tons of Home and Colon jokes. If you live in Homunculan, run the hell out of this conference, I'm going to tear you apart. But is it not so important that we are loved? That somebody, when you find that special someone, that someone sees me, you're missing out the fact that everybody we talk to every single day, that's that opportunity to have that. That's the way it is. That's the way we're wired. And this old man, these old men, They're in their 80s, they're done. No, I take that back. If you're 80 years old, you're not done. Viagra helps. Inappropriate joke. We, you, if you're frustrated, if you're worried, center yourself, quiet yourself. Everyone you meet, every moment of every day is that opportunity to be you. Does everybody know who you really, really are? That's why you're here. So let me give you some little advice to go forward. Remember, this is advice coming from the Director of Innovation of IBM, Director of Innovation, Fiskars Ådalen. Messing with your heads yet? Do the job that nobody wants to do. What I mean by that is get rid of Janteloven. You guys have fallen for the trap. Look at the most famous people in the world. They took a risk. They took a chance that no one believed in them. And now they're here. Look at Petter Nordtåg. We all love Petter Nordtåg, right? He's out of his mind. He crazy. That's why you love him, is because he broke away from the mold and he says, yo, I'm— he doesn't say yo, but I don't know Petter that well. He goes, yeah, yeah, Petter Nordtåg. We love people who are themselves. But Janteloven says, "Don't stand out, be like everybody else." The other rule is the flingpikke or bragut thing. Again, forcing you to be like everybody else. But are you not here, do you not exist to be you? See the contradiction. I spend my entire day with the top leaders in and out of Norway and the Nordic countries. Now I'm flying me to Europe, I'm all over the place. And what I do— yeah, I'm a tech guy, yeah, I'm a nerd, but I get in your head because I love you. You have to be you. Do not worry about tech, do not worry about disruption, do not worry about all that crap. If you are the ultimate version of you, nothing will stop you. You will excel, your company will do fine. But if you're scared, you're going around, "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," nothing will happen. I love you too. It's Friday night. Just swipe right on Tinder, don't worry about it. My time is up, there's a big red sign over here. I want to end it this way. Please do not take what I said as entertainment. It's a little bit, I'm trying to have fun. It's easier to understand and swallow these messages when you're smiling, right? I love you. All of you. Do me a favor, sometime this weekend, tell someone you love them. Do it for them, and do it for you. I love you. Thank you. Wow. I want a hug. Oh yeah. Yeah. That was great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Headphones? Oh yeah. Yeah. Where's that woman who says I love you? Yeah, give it to her. My wife will kill me. Perfect. You want to take any questions or do you just want to leave it with what you said? It's up to them. I'm here for them. Questions? Oh, the Tinder girl. Is that the I Love You woman? I think so, yeah. Please turn up the lights. Where's she at? You ready? Where you at, baby? There I come. Oh, there you go. How you doing? What sign are you? I'm Aquarius. How you doing? I say thank you for your encourage me to ask you something because I have a lot of ideas to The first thing, I love myself because I'm dyslexic and I have so difficult to write some subject for university. But my project is a cancer machine. I would like to develop that artificial intelligence. How can you help me for that? Can I do this one? Yeah, sure. Oh boy. Here we go. Everybody ready? Cool. She says there's two parts, right? So we'll do the technology part. When it comes to your work in the area of cancer, IBM, we have a Watson Innovation Lab where we've been working on cancer for the last 6 years. It's at Radium Hospitali offering 3. So just contact me and I will help you as much as I possibly can using the power of IBM globally. Okay? Yeah. Thank you. Now to your statement on dyslexia. Boy, I got one for you. Everybody hold on. Everybody alright? Grab the person next to you. It's about labels. Why the hell do you put any emphasis on the label that somebody gives you? Why? Why do you call yourself, "I'm dyslexic," or, "This person thinks I'm slow," or you go to the doctor and they say you have attention deficit disorder, "Oh, that explains everything." What the hell's wrong with you? No, seriously, are you looking for an out from life? Is that what you're looking for? Is you're looking for an excuse to, "That's why I don't have a girlfriend, that's why I'm divorced," or men at home and calling, "This is why I'm on my fifth wife." You guys should move me out of home and call him boy. Why? Why do you put emphasis on a stranger who you never met, who gives you a label, and then you use that as the excuse? What the hell is wrong with you? You are you. You're the ultimate you. Are you not? You know how great you are. When you wake up in the morning, "Oh yeah!" When you do something fantastic, Oh yeah! They give you a crappy label? Oh no! Why? No, seriously! Somebody doesn't like you? The hell with them! Someone doesn't believe you? The hell with them! Your boss doesn't give you any credit on a project? Go fuck yourself! No, seriously! You are responsible for you. You are the ultimate you. You kick ass! Do you understand me? You don't let anybody put any label on you. This is your life. When you die, in that last minute, you'll have those same things, and I don't want you saying, "Oh no." I want you saying, "Life was one big party." Thank you. Bem. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.