The Secret Link Between The Economy, AI, and Data, With Guest Will Quinn

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The Horn in Wholesale Distribution with Kevin Brown and Tom Burton. Sponsored each week by Lead Smart Technologies. Tom, Kevin and their guests review the news of the week and dive deep into the topics impacting manufacturers, wholesale distribution, independent sales agents and the global wholesale supply chain. Whether It's M&A SaaS and cloud computing, B2B, E commerce or supply chain issues, we peel back the onion with our guests into the topics that impact your business the most.

Good morning.

Hey, hey, hey, how are you?

Good, how are you?

Great to see you. And we have our friend Will Quinn with us, the distribution guy. Good to see you, Will.

Morning gentlemen. Thanks so much having me on.

You got it. It's great to have you with us. So just a quick kind of intro. Kevin Brown here, Tom Burton, Will Quinn. Tom and I are the co founders of Lead Smart Technologies. Lead Smart Technologies is a AI enabled CRM and customer intelligence platform built specifically focused for manufacturers and wholesale distributors. Each week we get together and we bring guests like Will in with us and we talk about the news and the economy, mergers and acquisitions, cybersecurity, E commerce, you name it. We bring all that together and talk about how that impacts wholesale distribution. So hey, Will, Tom, great to be here together. Will, we're going to talk it with you before we get too deep into things in just a moment. But Tom, what's on the agenda for today?

Well, some common topics, but I think some interesting topics. So we have some stuff on the economy. We have some things that, you know, we're going to talk a little bit about what's going on with that auto strike, but not so much from the details of the strike itself but kind of the ramifications of it. There's some really good AI pieces that I think we're going to get into again with data. I know that's a shock. And yeah, it's looking like some good stuff today.

Very good. So Will, you're a long time person joining us or I guess listener and watcher each week and great commenter on a consistent basis. But we're really happy to have you with us today. In fact, what I noticed is as I kind of looked through and there's a side note, everyone that's with us, we're this morning live, it's 9 o' clock Pacific time where Tom and I are. Will, you're in Chicagoland, is that correct today?

That's correct, yep.

And so we're broadcasting live this morning on LinkedIn Live, YouTube Live and Facebook Live later today. Everything that we're doing live will be recorded and put onto all the popular podcast formats in the around the Horn and wholesale distribution podcast. But will, you did a wonderful job and we're appreciative of inviting some of your connections and audience. So we have quite a few folks that are with us today probably for the first time. So two things. One is if you're with us and joining us and we've got a couple people popping in, Brian Connolly, Craig Schmidt joining us. Pop a little note in here today and tell us where you're from. If it's your first time. That's great to have you with us. Reminder for those folks, every Friday morning we do the same thing here and you're welcome to come back with us. The easiest thing to do is if you're listening on LinkedIn Live, just click the like button on or the Follow button on the Lead Smart Technologies page and this will be out there each week. So thanks to those new folks that are with us and we'd love to maybe in the comments see who you are and where you're checking in from today will tell us about you and your work at Infor and a little bit about Infor.

Sure.

Well first of all thanks so much. I'm big fans and you know you guys do such a great job with this podcast. You know bringing to forefront really interesting thought leadership and relevant topics in the discussion for you know the distribution industry which is near and dear to my heart. I work for Infor which is a a global software company. You know our focus is is not in all industries but where we do focus what industries we do focusing on. We provide industry specific erps in the cloud multi tenant that really have the the best practices for that particular industry built in and distribution happens to be one of those and prior to and many of those that support distribution now also worked in the industry. So before I joined Infor I was working at Grainger. I ran distribution centers for companies like MSC Industrial Supply, Coca Cola, Wegg Electric, Cintas and then initially I cut my teeth in supply chain and logistics in the Marine Corps.

That's a phenomenal background and I really love and appreciate that. And you know what's interesting is and what I'm enthused about you being with us today right is we don't talk as much about the supply chain side of things. Typically you know my background experience 30 plus years on the distribution side. But there's the supply chain side, you know I call it there's the front door and the back door of right of a, of a manufacturer, distributor and you bring such a great wealth of background and experience and you know, I'm so appreciative to see the stuff will that you write on an ongoing basis. Last week we featured one of your articles on our newsletter and discussed it briefly on the podcast. You're quite a prolific writer and what I'm learning is the more and more that you and I talk is you're becoming quite the expert at prompting chat, GPT and bard and some of the AI tools as well. So it's pretty cool to see someone you know, Marine Corps background, warehouse distribution expertise, now working in technology and SAS software and becoming that expert. So it's, it's really kind of ties into some of the things we're going to discuss today as well about. Right. The skills that we need moving forward in. In our career. So that's super happy to have you and and what a great company in for is you get sponsor so much great content out there, events and so forth. We're going to talk later today about the Distribution Strategy Group's AI event next week in Chicago. Will are you going to be there next week?

I will not. I next. Well there's a. There's a lot going on. So there is. I'm going to be in Denver for the national association of Electrical Distributors Lead Conference and then Third Bridge Consulting. They are third stage consulting apologists, Their Stratosphere conference where our own Chief technology officer SOMA will be speaking.

That's great. Well, I'll be in your town and I'll be speaking at that event. We're going to talk more about that later. So before we dive into the news, one last thing.

Right.

What we're doing here, if you're on with us live today, is we're going to review a newsletter that we send out every week. That newsletter is called around the Horn and Wholesale Distribution where we bring all the data that we found relevant from global events, economy, stock market, sometimes mergers and acquisitions, sales and marketing, AI technology, software. We try and bring all those things together and have relevant discussions with great guests like we have today. If you would like that newsletter. And again we have a lot of people that I believe are with us for the first time today. If you would like that newsletter, there's two simple ways to get it. You could send us a direct email which will get that out to you@helloadsmartech.com or you can go to www.aroundthehornpod.com and Tom, that's functioning now, right. I think we had a hiccup with it. A week or two ago. But that right at the bottom of that page, you can sign up for that newsletter and you'll get that newsletter every week coming to you. And that'll also in the newsletter have an invitation to come back to the live event that we have today. So let's jump ahead into the news and talk about a little bit about some economic trends. We talk about that a little bit each week and we see some information that's tied to durable goods. Orders are up, I mean a minuscule percentage. Right. But small amount up in August. So that was some good news. You guys get a chance to read through that one?

Yeah, I mean it seems, you know, again, more of the same sort of, I guess, economic news we've been seeing each week. Right. Nothing earth shattering one direction or another. Some good, reasonable incremental improvement. I think there was some down though in June or July.

July, yep.

A bit of a roller coaster there. But again, I don't know that there's any evidence one way or the other other than things are just moving ahead.

Yeah, well, you know, and it just kind of ties back. We talk about this pretty consistently, right? Is that the, what we see on the news and in the economy is influenced by a lot of different things, but what we see every day and it's, you know, anybody that's with us today that like to throw a comment about, about what they're seeing in distribution and manufacturing is it's full steam ahead. Right. I mean, Will, what's, what's your view? You're, you're at. I can't even imagine. I know you've got a family with kids at home and the amount that you travel, what do you, you're out seeing people every day. You, you do see the same bullish view that we see in talking with folks about, you know, where their businesses are at.

Yeah, I would agree. And you know, it's good to see this is one of the, you know, the, the biggest economic indicators. They took a look at durable goods orders because you're really looking in the future. So what are the manufacturers looking. Looking at what? How do they see their forecasts? And yeah, you know, distributors facing lots of challenges and people is one of those is they've got so much work they can't get things done. So you know, bringing in some of the things we'll talk about later with, you know, automation and artificial intelligence and that sort of thing is like, you know, how can we make the, take these mundane tasks away, make the, the job more fulfilling and be able to get more done.

That's great. Yep. So, you know, good, some good news there. I think we're going to kind of continue to see this, right. There's all this stuff going on with the Fed and so forth, but at the end of the day, people are still buying things to run factories and plants, distributors are still sending trucks out to deliver things and buildings are still being built. You know, and I really look at that when we talk. I was on the phone this morning with a large plumbing and pipe, valve and fitting distributor in the southeast part of the US and you know, as we were talking about, right. Hospitals that were scheduled to be built when the economy was booming are still being built. Right. Roads are still being repaired, schools are being re. Plumbed. Right. So it's good, there's good news out there of positive things that are going on. So it's good to see. You know, though back to kind of seeing some, I just will call it, it's depends on which side of the coin you, you view this on. And that's not why we're here to discuss today as you know, political views or anything like that. But you know, we've got this UAW strike that's going on and it's interesting because it's 9 11, 9:12am Pacific. So I think if it was, if they didn't have some new news by midday today, there was going to expand these strikes out there. So you know, right now there's about, I think it said 18,000 members on strike that could go up dramatically from as they hit some other plants and so forth. And you know, again, this isn't to say whether that's right or wrong. My take on this is there's a bigger picture behind this and it's the sustainability. Right. Of what's going on with some of these things. Right. Looking for, I think that what we saw was there was a request for 40% increase in wages and four day work weeks, but getting paid for five day work weeks. Automotive companies are coming back at around 20%. I thought that was a pretty interesting response. But again, it's not the right or wrong of this. It's the is this type of thing sustainable? And what we're seeing is, right, we've got manual work going on in this setting that's becoming more and more automated. We're going to talk more today about some of the automation tools related to some of these things. But then you've got the other side of that is you've got Nissan, BMW, Tesla, Toyota, Honda, all making cars. Also here in the US without that influence of those unions. And, you know, the question ends up becoming is how sustainable. Right. Is this? If you've got parts that aren't available, plants that are closed, what's it going to do to the economy? What's it going to do to that competitive environment? And then we'll talk in just a moment, Tom, I want to get your thoughts on that and then we'll talk about kind of the impact on distribution.

Yeah. So, I mean, you said a lot there, right? There's, there's a lot of, a lot of nuance, I guess, to all of this thing with the, with the strike.

Right.

I think the, I don't know. I don't know if there is, you know, a lot of this is trying to protect jobs. A lot of these requests may be trying to protect not just jobs, but project, Protect my career.

Right.

And getting things and having some of those things. I mean, I think there's a lot of. Pardon.

Future careers too.

Right. Your careers. Right. So, you know, there's a, there's a lot going on here with this. I do agree, though, that, and I don't know all the data, so I don't want to claim to know all the details of this, but it really does put it potentially a disadvantage at some of these auto workers or auto shop organizations that are unionized versus the ones that aren't. And it's, you know, what, what can happen there and what that's going to mean to prices or all of that. Obviously to be determined. It's still not settled yet. So there's still probably a lot of, a lot of room between here and there. But yeah, I think a lot of it is probably driven off of, hey, we got to protect ourselves for the future and for the future of what we're doing.

Well, and I, and I, you know, there's no point in getting into the discussion about, you know, CEO pay versus worker pay or greed or any of those things, because that's irrelevant to. Right. None of that matters. What matters is at the end of the day here is if you, if wages go up 40% and people are working 20% less, right. There's going to be output issues that go with that. Tesla is lowering prices. How do you, if you're one of the big three and you now have a 40% increase in wages that you're paying, how do you keep up with that in the marketplace? Again, forget about the union issue here. It's if you, if your expenses are going up and other people are driving prices down, for high quality vehicles and the electric vehicle, you know, arena is surging. It's going to be an interesting thing to see.

Yeah.

Yep.

So, you know, and then as we talk about how this impacts. Right. Wholesale distribution is, you know, if you're, if you're an industrial distributor, power transmission bearing distributor, folks like that that are supplying these plants and more and more of these plants are shutting down, it's going to have an impact, it's going to have an impact on wholesale distribution, you know, and there are, I've been at a number of events recently and there are a number of companies out there that I've just had discussions with who a huge part of their business is automotive.

Right.

So it's going to have an impact coming back around.

So. Yeah. And we'll just have to, you know, see how it plays out. Right. And, and how broad it gets. Right. How things that are there.

Well, I'm, I'm hoping that people that have broken down cars or need car parts and so forth are going to be able to get them soon because if this continues too much longer, if you're driving a, a U.S. made Ford or GM or, or Chevy vehicle, it might be tough for parts, but we'll see how this plays out. I'm hoping it all comes together in a balancing act and that, you know, five years from now we can still talk about those three companies and that they're still around. So next, Tom, I'm going to have you, you are the data and regulatory guy. So we're going to bring all of this full circle in just a few minutes, talking about AI and automotive plants and manufacturing and so forth and all these things kind of tie together. But the next article that we're going to review, and again, if you're listening later in the day on or in the future on our podcast, we're looking at a newsletter that we send out every week. And this particular article is data privacy law seen as a needed precursor to AI regulation. We talked last week about these Senate hearings that they've been having and now we're talking about the needed data regulation about data privacy. Will, I want to know your thoughts on this, but I'm going to have Tom lead us off on this as our data guy.

Yeah. So I do think it's important to separate out the regulation aspect of it, which is regulating the types of AI solutions and models that are being built and then the data that's fueling those AI models and solutions that are there. We're talking here more on the data side. We've talked about regulation being more on.

The other side, but this article was touching on, we touched on this last week, I think with GDPR when we were talking about this. But they're talking about, you know, well.

We have to look and see are.

We, you know, do we have data privacy issues and so forth. There are really three things. And we talked about this a bit. I know you're going to be touching on this, I think even next week in your talk with, at the AI conference is when you look at data and you look at sort of how you're going to manage your data, you got to look at three things. You got to look at privacy, which means should this data even be used to fuel AI? Right? Whether it's personal information, whether it's, whatever the case may be, should this data even be allowed to be used to fuel AI? Number one, that's privacy. Then there's security, which is the second layer, which is okay, well, maybe the data is okay to be used, but who has access to that data? So whereas privacy is, nobody should have access to that data. It's personal, private or whatever. The other part of it is the other piece of it. And then the third area is the integrity of it is okay. Well, if the privacy is okay and the security is okay, is the data accurate? The integrity aspect of it, that this.

Is actually correct data. So these are really the three things when you start looking at data issues that are going to start to come more to the forefront. I think it's been overshadowed up to this point, but we're going to see a lot more of it.

Will any thoughts on that?

Well, no, yeah, I'm definitely not the data guy, but data is super important when it comes to distribution and the more decisions you can make that are driven from data, the better. So I, I, you know, you think about this from a, from a distributor's perspective. You know, how can we, you know, they're responsible for their data and their customers data and their vendors data and how do you keep all that secure? And I think, you know, taking that to the cloud, where companies like AWS have invested billions and billions and billions in security, is a good first step in doing that. But then when it comes to data privacy, I think, you know, unfortunately our legislators don't understand the issues. A lot of times if you, if you've watched some of those hearings and it's, I think it's important that they're, they're put, they set up some guardrails where companies can follow so that, you know, people's Privacy is respected.

I think those are good points. I mean, there's an interesting piece out of this article, right? They talk about data privacy being the foundation of the trust that everyone believes. It's interesting because unless you peel back that onion a little bit, you're not even thinking about this. But this article said, let's see, the recent AI summit focused on controls and even licensing and regulations about AI. But it didn't, as the article mentions here, this quote says, didn't adequately cover how Americans personal data is being fed into AI applications without their knowledge. You know, it kind of came into my mind was that, you know, we've got these monster algorithms that are being built and they, you know, what is being fed into that, right? Is it what time I got to work, how much work did I do from home, how many keystrokes on my computer if I'm a plant worker, you know, and so forth with those things. You know, what, what is my production rates, what are my, how many days was I out sick? What happens with that? That's, that's my information that I've entrusted my employer with about our trusted relationship. Right. And so I do think it's going to be interesting to see how this, you know, and we have, I think the article mentioned there's 11 states led by California that have improved and increased data privacy legislations. But you don't hear about those that much. I mean, Tom, this is more kind of in your side of the world, but I mean, I hear we live in California, right? I couldn't tell you the ins and outs of what California did. I could tell you a whole lot more about what GDPR is in the, in the U.K.

Yeah.

And again, what your, your example there of whether it's like, you know, keystroke data or sick days or whatever, Again, you have to look at privacy versus security or security versus privacy. So yes, a corporation or a company knows, right. The fact that, you know, you're sick or you take a sick day or whatever. The question is, who in that company should have access to that data, right? That's outside the company or outside that company or anywhere, right? Who should have access to that data wherever they may, may ever, may live? So I think you have to separate privacy, okay. With should you have access to it at all, right? In other words, should, should the company have access to the data that you were out at a bachelor party last week because it showed up on Facebook and then that goes, I mean, should they have access and be able to.

Use that at all?

That's a. That's a question. Then there's if they have access to the right security. And then the third thing, which I call the integrity is. Which is, to me, maybe the most important and the one that's going to get the most scrutiny is, is that data accurate? And how can you prove that it's accurate?

Right.

That it's the integrity of there? Because maybe I go on Facebook and said, hey, I had a great time with Kevin at the bachelor party, but you weren't even there, that kind of stuff. So there's all of these types of things that are going to focus, and all of that data ultimately goes in the model, which influences the output of the AI. And so this whole data area is an area that I don't think has really been scrutinized or looked at a lot. I'm not saying scrutinized from a regulatory perspective. I'm just saying scrutinized in general on how we're going to manage this and use this. In fact, I was having dinner with a friend a couple nights ago, and I said, probably one of the biggest career opportunities is going to be data operations or data ops. And how do you manage data and organizations and how you do those things that are here. But anyway, we're just in the very, very early stages of this.

Yeah. I'd also expand to. If you look at, you know, our homes, you know, we're more and more. We're getting smart homes.

Sure.

What is. What is Alexa listening to? You know, do they know that my. My washer and dryer are hooked up to the web and how many times I'm doing laundry or, you know, my toaster or all other different things that are in my house that, you know, my, my video camera, you know, can. Can they just come in and just snag that data if they need it without. Without warrants? And so, you know, it's. It's more than work and. Or, you know, if you think about it, work from a work perspective. You know, everybody's trying to reduce health care costs. Do my employers have access to how many times my. I go to the doctor or what ailments I have or what, you know, that sort of thing. And should they.

Yep. Well, and I think that that's a great point, Will. And I think Tom even referenced that earlier. Right. It's that. And then, yeah, maybe the company has that data, but who inside the company should be able to see that information? And when you start thinking about it, and we can take this kind of. To the level of what could happen?

Right.

There are AI tools being developed right now for hr. Okay, well, what's reasonable in HR AI software that you should know about Will Quinn, Tom Burton or Kevin Brown? Right. And that's, I think what this is going to go out and show us and, and the big piece of this. Right. Ties to this and why I think it's, this is a very reasonable discussion, you know, for our typical viewers or listeners is, hey, if you're a wholesale distributor or a manufacturer, you may be getting ready to go to, you know, one of many different know, AI related to events. As we mentioned earlier, we're going to be at the Distribution Strategy Groups event next week in Chicago, speaking and exhibiting there. But we're all talking about all the cool things you can do with AI. But there's bigger ramifications on your company and your organization, right, Than just, oh, I bought this fancy new tool because it was the latest shiny object and it was going to bring me information about AI or about sales or whatever it is. It's what, where am I getting that data? And you know, typically when we're dealing with, you know, specifically generative AI, right. Is we're putting data out to the Internet, not just taking. Right. So what is from my company is going outside of my firewall. So maybe potentially, yeah, but well, and I think it's particularly those who aren't. And we watch this all the time, right. Will's company is in the software business. We're in the software business. We all talk to people day in and day out who went to a trade show, got a phone call and they bought a piece of technology because it sounded like it was going to be beneficial to their company, but they don't really know what it does right. Or how it's working. And these things are going to become that much more critical. So I think this whole thing about. And when I read this article earlier this week, I was like, we've got to tie this article in about data protection in that AI conversation because most weekly we talk about AI.

And one last point on that, the reason it's relevant, data privacy, data security, all these things have been issues forever. However, we didn't have the tools to process that data and to utilize it the way we do. Now, an HR person isn't going to sift through thousands of pieces of data about you or if you're a candidate or an employee because they didn't have the tools to do that right now they have the tools to do that and have more insights that they never had. Would never have had before.

Well, you just opened up another little can of worms that we don't need to go down too far the path with. But the reality with that what you just said, right. I mean, if you think about it, the vast majority of people, and Tom, you know, correct me if I'm wrong here, but the vast majority of people would look at the gdpr, you know, requirements in the euro tied to spam and email. Right. You know, we look at the same thing, but I don't care much about that. And I think why is good example is being a lifelong resident of California. I don't care about California's regulations because it's not impacting how much spam I'm getting. So I don't care about it. But if now all of a sudden we're talking about, you know, how many times I went to the doctor is going to be, you know, manipulated or shared, that's a different story. Right. People should care differently about it. Good. Let's go talk about robots loading trucks. And I'm going to throw this over to you. Will we? I've got this article about this test Amazon or FedEx is doing. You're the, you're our distribution and warehousing guy.

Well, I think this is fantastic. Again, it's like what kind of work can you take off as mundane and routine? I've been the guy that's had to be inside of the truck as the, the boxes are coming off the conveyor and, and build it out whether it's the middle of July and it's 100 degrees or if it's, you know, the middle of January and it's negative 10 outside. So deploying automation, whether that's robotics or, or matching up receipts to bills to take away that routine mundane work is, is, is, is awesome. You think about just from you know, a job, job satisfaction standpoint or you think about, well, you know, how often is somebody injured in from doing those repetitive motions, whether it's your back or shoulders or, or that sort of thing, constantly going up or then then beyond the reverse where I've got that floor laded, floor loaded trailer from FedEx or UPS. And then we're unloading those boxes and then putting them.

Yeah, this. Tom, I'm going to throw one thing in here and then I want to come come to you on this right here. Here's what we're talking about. We went pretty quickly into this article. So FedEx is working with a, a company called Dexterity AI that has built these AI driven robots that have the ability to take things from, whether it's a pallet or a warehouse or a pallet rack and package, take those packages and load trucks. You know, I think, Will, we were talking before we went live today about something we had both watched on 60 Minutes a while back about, you know, AI driven robots that were playing soccer and they, they kept getting better, I think is what you mentioned. They kept getting better and better because they, we're using AI to say there's a better way to get this ball into that net. And what's cool about this is that. And I want to give a little bit of the details about this, this robot that they have, right? It says their AI software takes 500 milliseconds or less to assess billions of wall build possibilities to pack trailers with tight stable walls. So, Will, I'm going to, I've loaded a truck in my young days, but I've never been done it truly as a career. A wall build is which boxes go where, in what part of the truck is that correct?

Correct. So I'd say you want, you want the heavy stuff on the bottom, the lighter things on top, and you're really, you're building a puzzle. It's, it's Tetris in real life and say, okay, how can I maximize the space? It's same thing with containers, like how much stuff can I get in there? Or an LTL carrier. It's going from, you know, New York to California. How much freight can I put in there and get the right mixture so that I've got good load factor and then I'm not smashing things.

Yep. So this, this robots, they call it, is using sense of touch. So they have this AI powered force control that gives the robots this sense of touch. So they gently are nudging things because, you know, the first thing might come to mind is, you know, this bulky old robot that we saw in a cartoon or something, right. It's squashing a box. But this has got dexterity control on it, so they have a sense of touch to it. And then they're using machine learning to know what's in every box that's picked. And your point, right, what's where it's going to be, how it's going to be loaded, what the weights are and so forth. So this is pretty powerful stuff as this plays out.

Well, if you think about it, Kevin, they've got robotics where they can do surgery on your brain, right? So it's not that big of a leap to say, okay, well, can I carry, can I move this box without crushing it. If I can have that instrument not, you know, tear up your brain.

Yep, yep.

And I just want to touch. Will. I think you make a really good point. We'll probably hit more on this later. You know, AI, the opportunity with AI, Right. A lot of times we get even questions today from prospects and customers. Why should I even care about AI? AI really provides, in my opinion. There's two major categories of benefits. It optimizes things to the extreme. Right? It's optimized. You were just saying Will a minute ago. Taking things that are difficult, tedious, time consuming or whatever, and optimizing those to levels that we've never seen before or never had the capabilities to do before. The other part of it is, can we use this to provide a better experience to my customers, to my partners, to my employees, to everything else that are there? So it's all about optimization and it's all about experience. And this to me is a great example of optimization. But it also may provide a better experience. It may provide a better experience to, again, whoever the stakeholders are on this type of thing. When you're loading trucks or whatever, they may go faster, they may go easier, they may, whatever the case may be. But those to me are just, this is a great, I guess, easy to understand example of optimization.

I think I'll just add to that if I could. Kevin. I just had a customer this week and I won't, I won't say the name, but they had opened up a new branch, a new warehouse in D.C. and they're like, okay, well, we're going to let the inventory optimization engine run and kind of do its thing. And it really. Everybody was terrified because they said, you, I could go through and I could throw a football through the racking. But what was interesting was they didn't miss a single sale. So, so the, so the, the machine learning and the artificial intelligence balanced the inventory such that customer service wasn't affected. And then when your DC isn't is.

Is.

Is less than 80% full, your efficiency just goes up, your turns go up, the, the damage goes down.

Those are great, great points. So we're talking about robotics here, right? It made me think, you know, I've been back on the road a little bit recently and it's interesting, specifically with United Airlines, I'll flying American in, in a week or two, but to see what they're doing as well. But you know, United now is, is literally when you check a bag, is sending you a text message that says, track your bag here. So they Figured I'm sure out some automations that they're very confident if they're going to let you track your own bag.

Right.

That they're going to get it right. And I think it's probably a matter of time before one of these, one of these robots with the dexterity and so forth is what's going to be packing airplanes and the right bag is going to get to the right place. So before we move off of the whole topic of robots, one of the things I wanted to talk about, because it kind of ties into our whole AI discussion today and even auto manufacturing, as we were talking about at the start of things today, late last week or early this week, Tesla put out a video. Tesla's got a whole division that's building robots and they're not just building robots, they're building some pretty cool stuff. Tom, will you fire up that video? Hopefully those that are watching this can, can see. We'll just watch a moment of this. But this is an AI robot that's got sensors throughout its, its, I'll say its body, its hands are seeing things in color. It's, it's so called eyes and brains are, it's doing, picking and packing operations with dexterity like we've not seen before. And it's pretty powerful. I, I heard a comment made the other day that this is doing things that no one's ever seen before. I can't remember. Tom, do you, can you see there what, what's it called again?

What's what called?

The robot. It's, it's in there somewhere. I can't remember what they referred to it at, but it's, it's got a name to it. But, you know, somebody talked about in a podcast I was listening to earlier this week related to this, right. Was Optimist.

Optimist, Yep.

And it's, you know, showing here right now. And for those listening on the podcast, what we're looking at is this super futuristic robot that is there now, though, and, and that's able to literally find its own mistakes and do squats and.

Stretching way better than we can.

And it's doing yoga now. But, but the point behind that is, and we don't need to spend a lot on that, is this technology is just getting better and better and better. And I'm going to go back to the organized labor side of this. Forget about the uaw. It could be uaw, it could be the screenwriters, it could be actors, it could be whoever it is. This technology is getting so much better, so much more Powerful. When we even tie this back to manufacturing, wholesale distribution, our automations, whether it is at the front of the house where we're working on sales automation, or it's HR or it's operations or it's pickers and automated forklifts and robots loading trucks, where we need to all be thinking right now is how can I embrace this? Because that change is coming. And if you're goal is that you don't want to have artificial intelligence and robotics impact your job, you probably need to rethink that mindset. What we should be figuring out is, you know, Tom, I remember you talking to, you know, one of the people that work in our company at Lead Smart is, you know, that had some concerns about programming that could be done through artificial intelligence. And that's what they do is like you need to become the expert in the prompts, right? We need to embrace these things and not be trying to fight them. Because that, that Tesla robot that we saw and the one, the things that it can do, it can do things maybe better than people can do. So I think it's just something people need to be embracing versus fighting and figuring out how to support it.

I would say two things for that. Say, first thing is, too bad it's not Amazon doing it because then they could call it Optimus Prime. And then the other thing I would say is, you know, throughout history, anytime there's been some sort of technological advance, there's always been more jobs created on the back end. You think about, you know, going from horse and carriage to automobiles. That's right, the horse industry, a lot of that went away. But how many people are employed by, by the auto industry? Absolutely, you just carry it forward.

No, I think I, I think that is a great point. You know, I. In, in. I think when we had Ian Heller on a couple weeks ago, we were talking about this and I've had some separate conversations and listen to him say it's poor. Right? Listen, AI is going to displace jobs, there's no question about it. But it's also going to create a bunch of jobs. So we have to decide as one is business executives and business leaders and then as individuals, do I want to embrace that and be on the leading edge of that, or do I want to fight it and get left behind?

Well, and I'll just say one more thing on that, I think we will move on, is yes, it's going to cost jobs, it's going to create jobs. But I think the middle of that, which again goes back to your point Will, about optimization. I think it's going to make a lot of more jobs, a lot more. A lot of existing jobs, a lot more productive and a lot more valuable and rewarding, frankly. I mean a lot of our jobs that we do get so overwhelmed with tedious work that we don't really get to do the things we really want to do and we have the skills to do. So I think it's going to open up the door for existing, for jobs that do continue to exist. Yes, the role will be different, the actions will be different. Even taking the programming job, right. If I'm able to use some of the tools out here, I can have a much more fulfilling career as a programmer or developer than I'm going to do otherwise. And I'm going to create more. I'm going to, you know, that's what we as programmers, we get excited about, building and creating stuff and doing it quickly and you know, having it all there. It's again, all of those types of things so well.

And that's where we get to Digital twins and co pilots and so forth that are also going to allow us to have lives, right. As opposed to just, just working.

We're going to do it better.

I think that quality of life, the.

Quality of life will get, should get better through the optimization. Quality of work and quality of life.

Right. Well, on the other side of that too is, I mean imagine, by the way, just as a reminder, those of you that are listening on the podcast where what we've been looking at here is our newsletter that goes out every week around the horn and wholesale distribution, tying all of this information back to kind of the future of wholesale distributors and manufacturers. But what we were just watching was a demonstration of a. An Optimus is the name of it from Tesla. Some kind of amazing things that a robot was able to do. If you're listening versus watching, that's worth a look to check that out on YouTube or just search for that to see that. But imagine, you know, a robot that can do those things, right, that it's got, you know, thousands if not millions of sensors and can tell colors and, and, and so forth. Imagine that working next to a human where they're optimizing each other right as they're going. So think about that in an auto plant or a hose factory or you know, where you might get your, you know, whatever that manufacturing plan is where now you've got. The testing that went on was done by digital twins to see if it will all work, first off using AI and then now we Have a robot working next to a human that are, they're maximizing each other as they go through that. So a lot of opportunities there.

Yeah. All right, let's move on.

All right, well, it finally happened, Right. The FTC and their commissioner head there has been threatening it for a long time, since long before she was in that role and writing papers about Amazon's monopoly. The FTC in 17 states have sued Amazon about them. Allegations of inflating online prices, overcharging sellers, so on and so forth. So, you know, Amazon's already come back with their response saying that they're wrong on the facts and they're wrong on the law. So I, you know, I think it's.

Kind of interesting saying they have bad data. Right. Their data.

There you go.

Very good right there. Yeah, yeah.

But I mean, that's, that's it, right, Is you have wrong facts and you're wrong on the law. But the, the reason I even chose to include this today is the biggest marketplace of its type. Right. Will, I don't know. Does, does INFOR have E commerce plugins to share data amongst E commerce systems and so forth? I would assume you probably do.

Oh, certainly a lot. A lot of our customers have platforms. We have our own E commerce platform as well. Yeah, that's what I, our, our ion, which is the, the middleware will connect your ERP to anything like that. And you know, just, just what I would say about this is, you know, anytime competition is stifled in, in whatever market it is, the consumer loses. Yeah. So there's less innovation, there's less competition, the prices, all that. So anytime you want to, you don't want to, you know, Big brother coming in and telling what you have to do. But once something gets so big, then, you know, just like what happened with Ma Bell, you kind of got it. You got to break it up a little bit. And then what happened? Look, all the innovation that occurred there, you know, I will say I'm a power seller on ebay and I've not heard any of these type of issues there.

Yeah. And I think a little bit different business model amongst those. The reason that I threw this in for this discussion was marketplaces are key. Right. We've got chemical industry marketplaces, we've got lab supply marketplaces online, we've got all of these. And I think there's a lot to be learned from what Amazon has done right and what Amazon has done wrong. And, and all we're doing in wholesale distribution. Right. Is getting more and more involved with this. You can See, I could rattle off probably 10 manufacturers off the top of my head very quickly who have their own presence on Amazon now. Right. And are selling direct to consumers because they're looking at Amazon, Amazon business as they're just another distributor as part of their distribution base. Right. So they're selling on that marketplace. But I think the implications of this are going to bleed out into other industry specific and unique marketplaces that are out there. And I'm sure Amazon, my guess is that, you know, I can't remember. Tom, I don't know if you remember, we've talked about this before on the broadcast here, but there's been four or five other lawsuits filed by the FTC against Amazon and they've lost them all. I'm assuming that Amazon is going to have to give in on some of these things. Their response to this though is also is if we tried to fix all the stuff that they're saying is wrong, that they don't even agree is wrong, it would be bad for the user and the consumer. We're gonna have to see these things. The reason I shared this today is these things are worth watching because our listeners and subscribers in wholesale distribution are doing more and more and more with E commerce every day and even those who are doing nothing yet are putting their plans in place. So understanding and watching what's going on with marketplaces is key.

Yeah, I think the key thing is the marketplaces, right. We talked about this on the show a few times is, you know, Amazon is just a marketplace and a marketplace has control.

Right.

And they do have controls and they have, you know, they can decide things that may or may not be benefit for you as the seller and, or the consumer or the buyer, the other side. But anyway, we'll see how this goes.

And something to watch, right. Well, what I want to do is get, in fact, maybe we'll get a. In the coming months as this kind of starts to play out, we'll get Brian Beck back with us. You know, Brian is one of the key authorities within the distribution world on marketplaces and most specifically Amazon and has clients all over that he works with on there Amazon and other marketplace strategies. So his take on this might be good. So Brian, if you're listening today, I'm going to ping you here pretty quick. All right, Tech talk.

I'll go through this really quick. This is something that's actually well worth reading. It's a Tech Target article where it describes the difference between generative AI and predictive AI. And I think in our industry this is really important to understand because again, Kevin, I look at some of the people that are presenting next week at the AI event that you're going to, the distribution strategy group event. A lot of what they're talking about is predictive AI. It's basically taking data, analyzing that data and then coming back and saying based on this, I predict or I recommend or I guide you to do something, versus generative AI, which is taking data and then generating something, generating a conversation, generating a result, generating code, all those types of things. Very different use cases and use cases that exist. Very valid for both sides, but they're very different and they have very different value propositions. So anyway, I thought this was a really good article to just explain the differences and I don't think we need to spend a ton of time on it here. I would just recommend reading it.

Good. Will, any thoughts on that? You're becoming a, an AI dude, we're gonna have to, you're gonna have to trademark or register another name.

Well, you know, I think generative AI is, is a. Is. There's another great use case for that is that, you know, taking these, these great articles that can be kind of lengthy and technical and, and what I do is I just take it and I, you know, for this one in particular, I put it into Bard. I put it in the chat GPT, I put it in the cloud. Cloud. And I said, hey, put this in simple terms for me and explain it and, and summarize. And, and then what it did is it just came back and just in simple terms like the first, it says generative AI is like a creative artist. It creates content, text, images, music from existing patterns and data. And then it says predictive AI is more like a fortune teller taking historical data and uses it to make predictions about the future.

So really what you're saying is we should have had Bard on with us today. I like that.

Bard on every week.

Yeah, yeah, probably, maybe, maybe.

You never know. That might, might get to the point where you can have the AI bot as part of the discussion and have it chime in and just click a button.

I think you're right.

And they said, what's the, what's your opinion?

Right. So before Tom says it, you could just replace me and I could be on the beach and you know, my, my hologram could just chime in with AI driven responses.

Kevin Avatar and chatgpt behind it.

Yeah. Okay.

You look even more brilliant than you already are.

I'm out. No, I think, I think that's powerful. And understanding the differences in these things is very critical.

Right.

We've got, as we talk about our audience here, the people with us that have chimed in today are in the wholesale distribution and manufacturing world is we need to understand these things because what we're facing right now is lots of people coming with here's my product, buy my product. Because it does this well. Understanding the difference. Right. And this is kind of where Tom was starting earlier. Right. Understanding the difference between these two or how they should be working together to get me a good result and is very different than just buying a piece of software.

Yeah, we, we, we have to, I'm sure we're going to talk more about this on future shows. We're at a point now and certainly going into next year that we have got to look at as a business. We have to look at our AI strategy more holistically and we can't be looking at it by hey, how do I chase shiny objects and so forth. Because you're going to miss out on a whole lot of opportunity and you're going to end up creating a bunch of siloed shadow AI projects that may have a very, very niche purpose but are not really being leveraged the way that they can. So I think we're moving from that early adopter.

Hey, we're going to just go try some AI things. We have to start taking a step back and looking at it more holistically in our organization. And there's a lot of things I know we're working on to help facilitate that which we'll be sharing more. I know you'll be talking about even this week.

Yep.

As I go to these different conferences, you hear a lot of distributors saying yeah, I would love to utilize AI, but boy, where do I even start?

Yes.

My answer was first time is always. Okay, let's number one, let's get you to the cloud. So once you get all your data in a data lake then you can, you can better utilize those, those tools like artificial intelligence and machine learning and infor. You know, we can come in and do a AI and implement AI use case in three, four months and you see, start seeing instant results. That's and that's not, it's not a three year plan, it's, it's months.

Yeah.

But the denominator common here piece here that we need to talk about consistently is a plan.

Right.

And, and it's just, and I, I, I say this passionately because you know, Will, you and I both every day and Tom now much more consistently we're talking to wholesale Distributors and manufacturers every day, right, who have this plethora of software that they've purchased within their organization because somebody in their buying group or trade association said, hey, I love this product for truck routing or I love this product to get data out of my ERP and make my guys easily be able to check inventory in an app. They've got all these disparate systems, right? But there's no digital transformation. And I'll say digital transformation towards using AI system in place that is designed for their organization that says, hey, I've got data in all these places, how am I using it? I've got these pieces of software. What does my tech stack look like in 2024 and 2025 and do I need all of these things and what should I buy next? And that's one of the risks I think right now is that we have shiny objects that are starting to pop up all over the place that have this. I use AI, right? But what does that mean to my overall plan for my tech stack and growing my organization?

Right?

And what you just described Will, you know, is you talked about a series of months of being able to get somebody there. And that's the plan is the key. Right? So Tom, we've got a webinar coming up in November about holistic AI360. I'm talking about that next week at Distribution Strategy Groups event we'll talk about before we close out today and then again at the NetPlus Buying Groups event in a couple weeks from now. So each week in our newsletter we also have a segment called Industry Scuttlebutt. Some good news with some acquisitions going on at Ferguson. You know, as we talked to started the episode of Broadcast today talking about the economy, ups and downs. Well, you know what, there's no shortage of M and A and wholesale distribution is there? So I didn't want to spend a lot of time on this, but I did read earlier this week and I wouldn't talk about it or name the company if it wasn't for the fact that it's out there everywhere. Is that, you know, Michigan based company, Shively Brothers, again, they're very, very focused on the automotive industry and they got hit with the data breach. And I talked at the same event that I was at two weeks ago with Affiliated Distributors. I was talking to some of their key people from Shively Brothers as this was just happening to them. And the other side of it became a conversation I had over lunch with a manufacturer who had been interested in our technology and they Kind of went dark on us about a year ago. Haven't had any significant conversations and the gentleman shared with me that they had gone through a whole data breach and a ransomware situation. And this is a mid sized family owned manufacturing company in the Midwest that you wouldn't necessarily think, you know, hackers from the, you know, Eastern Europe or whatever will be coming after. So we're going to spend more time in coming weeks and months talking about data security on our broadcast here as well as your steps and tips. And we'll be looking for articles and things we can share because it's happening more and more and we need to be prepared for it. All right. As we kind of close out we've got our good reads that we have each week three rituals that will get you laser focused and super productive if you get the newsletter. Look at those. Tom, one of your favorite things is in there. Turn off notifications.

Right. Absolutely.

I've heard, I think all three of us today have had little pop ups. We've heard the beeps coming of things and so it's an interesting, that's a great thing about productivity. But upcoming events, Tom, do you have I think you had up there where you could share on our screen about the AI events. So Distribution Strategy Group, Jonathan vine and Ian Heller and their organization are hosting Applied AI for distributors at the Chicago Marriott next week. There's lots of companies there. I think he's the, I can't remember if if he's the chief revenue officer or his title head of Head of Go to market from OpenAI and chat. GPT is one of the keynotes. I'm speaking there on Thursday about holistic AI and a 360 view of that in your organization. So a good event coming. Yep, yep. And then we're deep into trade association buying group season. Right. You're going with NAD next week, is that right Will?

Yeah, I've got a whole list here going going to NAD in Denver. The week after that I'll be in Vegas with the National Beer Wholesalers Association.

I want to meet you there for that one.

And then after that I'm really looking forward to the ISA fall summit for our good friend Dirk Beverage is going to be. He's going to be speaking and then he and I at that night we're going to go to EPCOT and do it around the world drinking. So I'm looking.

Oh man, my friend, you're killing me. Because we are huge supporters and partners with ISA and Brendan and his team and their event conflicts with a major other event that we need to be at. And so we're not going to be at that event. But I would, whether I was invited or not, I would find my way in to joining you and Dirk, if I was in town, you wouldn't even have to invite me. I would just fight to get there. So. That sounds like fun. I'd like some, some, some updates from both of you by text messages. You do that. So we're gonna.

I'm sure it'll be on LinkedIn.

Yeah, right. Well, there's. The parts that can't go on LinkedIn are what I want to see. So we're, we're way over today. Tom's been messaging me. Wrap up. Stop talking. Will, thank you for being with us. We appreciate your feedback and thoughts. You're with us almost every week on the broadcast. You make great comments. We're appreciative of that. Hopefully we can get you back in the new year as well.

I'd be honored. Big fans, thank you so much. This is a, this is a great, great service you're providing. Good.

So if you're with us, whether you're with us live here this morning on Friday morning, or you're listening a week or a month from now on the podcast formats that are out there, whether it's Spotify or Apple or Odyssey or whatever it might be, if you are live and you're listening on YouTube, LinkedIn or Facebook Live, please hit the subscribe button. If you don't see that simply and easily, you can go to the LinkedIn page for lead Smart Technologies. Just hit the Follow button and you're going to be notified every week about this event, other things that we publish there. So again, Lead Smart Technologies on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, hit that button. You'll get notified about this every week. I'm reinforcing that because, Will, we're appreciative you brought in another segment of a new audience to us today with some of those supply chain folks, and we appreciate that. If you're on the podcast side, please subscribe, leave a review that gets this information out to others. If you found it valuable, the best way to help us and others is to share it with your friends. So that's it. I'm done talking. Gentlemen, have a wonderful weekend, everybody. Be kind, do good things, have fun, be safe, and we'll see you next week.

Thanks, everyone.

We hope you enjoyed today's episode and our guests. Each week we try our best to dig into the topics that are impacting your business. So please reach out to us and let us know how you think we can make the show better or topics you'd like for us to tackle or talk about more often, and even guests you'd like to see join us. We're looking forward to bringing you next week's session and hope that until then you stay safe, stay focused, and do great things. If you haven't already, please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review to help others in wholesale distribution get access to the conversation. And finally, please check out our sponsor, Leadsmart Technologies and their manufacturing and wholesale distribution Industry CRM customer intelligence and channel collaboration platform. That's Lead Smart Technologies at LEED Smart Tech.

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