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The boundaries between physical, digital and biological worlds are breaking down — giving way to a new world of computer based business known as cyber-physical systems. These cyber-physical systems are characterized by the merging of physical, digital, and biological realms in profound ways. Artificial intelligence (AI) serves as the primary catalyst of this transformation. Klaus Schwab, Chairman and Founder of the World Economic Forum wrote: We are at the beginning of a revolution that is fundamentally changing the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope and complexity … the fourth industrial revolution is unlike anything humankind has experienced before.   We have all heard this kind of hyperbole before. So why should this matter and what are local companies doing to address the issues? Beyond hyperbole It matters because we have already seen our lives changed by these tools in the most dramatic fashion. The last presidential election in the USA was directed affected by the use of AI. These tools were used in identifying and directly addressing those electors who were undecided or felt strongly about key issues. These powerful compute engines, combined with good old-fashioned phone calls and door knocks, meant voters were either encouraged to vote by “people like them” who knocked on the door (e.g. young mum talking to young mum) or to not vote through messages directed directly to them about the futility of “rigged” elections. Leveraging AI in the New Zealand Business Context Politics and business are uneasy bedfellows so I will get back to the brief. How do Kiwi companies respond to international and local competitors who already understand and are leveraging artificial intelligence and bringing it to our competitive landscape? Let’s start with energy. It is one of the most fundamental parts of any business. Most of us just focus on getting a cheap price for electricity or gas and then move on to running the enterprise day to day. This approach just won’t work when machines are making the micro-decisions that can mean success and failure. International Competition Consider some of our major New Zealand computer companies. They are in a life or death struggle with public cloud providers like Microsoft, Amazon and Google. These gigantic multinationals have access to all the tools mentioned above and even deliver them “as a service” to companies everywhere. Competing with organisations like this is not just a question of having good people or getting the best price for inputs. It is about innovation and very, very careful monitoring of all the inputs and outputs, including energy. One of the most brutally competitive battlegrounds is over the provision of data centre services to the business market. In the past ten years companies like Datacom and Spark have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in state of the art datacentres. These datacentres require huge amounts of energy to keep them running. New Zealand's advantage New Zealand has a natural advantage because over 80% of our energy is created via renewable means. In the years ahead this advantage will become a cost and strategic advantage. As the forth industrial revolution unfolds New Zealand’s energy advantage that will drive our strategic advantage in data centres. Don’t believe me? Microsoft recently announced that a key new measure for its Azure data centres was energy inputs to data outputs. Thus Microsoft has directly linked energy usage as a means to define its compute power efficiency in terms of services delivered. So what are our Kiwi companies doing to compete on this stage? Both Datacom and Spark use tools like artificial intelligence to monitor, control and measure their energy inputs. Historically it was simply a case of installing a few sub meters and a cost calculator (macro energy measurements). Today these companies aim to measure and monitor right down to the lightbulb (micro monitoring). The rise of the internet of things has made this ability to micro monitor even greater. As new data centres and factories are being built across the country, architects are being required to include in their plans, tools and products that embed internet of things, artificial intelligence and micro monitoring in the very fabric of the design. Companies building factories in this country that do not think of micro monitoring of energy use as a strategic tool should be reminded that in the last few decades we exported more manufacturing jobs overseas than we created in all of IT. Ignorance of the strategic possibilities of micro energy monitoring is wilful blindness in a world where the Fourth Industrial Revolution is not only upon us,  it is rapidly transforming the competitive landscape we work in.

A decade or more ago I used to defeat chess playing computers for a small wager. It was simple stuff really – just find a weakness and ruthlessly exploit it – in my mind computers were basically binary and thus “stupid”. Today chess masters are fair game for computers. My party trick is ancient history and I am frankly a little scared about what happens when computers can outsmart humankind.  Terminator anyone? Some would argue that we have nothing to fear. Others feel exactly the opposite. Stephen Hawking recently wrote “The full development of AI could spell the end for the human race”. Elon Musk – founder of PayPal, Solarcity and Tesla called it “Summoning the demon”. The impact of AI in New Zealand Putting aside visions of Arnie and terminators for the moment we should also look at the impact that AI might have on New Zealand businesses. Most kiwi business owners and leaders are constantly aware of the need to innovate, optimise and seek competitive advantage by being cleverer than the guy overseas. Thus, we find ourselves asking: How do we get the best out of what we have? How do we employ better people and make them more effective? How do we use the limited space we have at our disposal? How do we get the machines that we paid heaps for to be more efficient? The questions are endless but sadly the time and money we have is not. I cannot count the number of times I have spoken to business people who know what needs to be done to make companies better, faster or quicker but simply don’t have the spare time to do it. Here is where Artificial Intelligence comes in. It not only analyses the data to answer the question but it can also act on the insight, often in real time. Don’t believe me? How do you think Amazon remembers your book purchases and even title searches and then suggest others that may be of interest? AI also allows Amazon to identify your location, match it to the right supply chain service to execute the sale and delivery via the cheapest and most direct route. Amazon's arrival in Australia is causing tremors across the whole retail industry there. It’s not just books they sell, you name it, they have it, at a price too cheap to resist. At the heart of this frighteningly effective, multinational monster is Artificial Intelligence We have always had AI – it has just been too expensive to make that much of a difference. Now it’s available as a service from the likes of Google (Google AI) and IBM – (Watson) and numerous clever startups. The availability of world class AI a via Software as a Service model means that we don’t need supercomputers and massive budgets to take advantage of AI in New Zealand. Next month I will describe examples of how AI is being used to optimise business’s use of energy and compute resources to save money and compete.

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings. Drawing is the honesty of the art. Salvador Dali Today Total Utilities announces its new branding. Over the last 18 years we have worked hard to assist companies in controlling consumption and cost. It's an exciting day for us and we are proud to share this with you. From today you'll see a change in the way we look, including our new ribbon logo. The spherical shape represents the whole as we take a 360 degree approach to understanding our clients and their utility requirements, whether it be Energy, Waste and ICT or Insights, Strategy and Solutions. What doesn't change is our desire to create a sustainable future for New Zealand businesses and how they manage their utilities by continuing to deliver ongoing value for our clients. We continue to work hard to provide new services to assist our clients such as Energy Monitoring and Targeting through wireless non-intrusive energy senors, Cloud Computing Analytics for consumption of computer services and qualitative and quantitative reporting aligned to overall financial strategy. Total Utiltities About Us Presentation We remain committed to delivering a personalised service and assisting our clients navigate a rapidly evolving commercial market place by underpinning strategic thinking. I would like to thank our existing clients for your continued loyalty and confidence in our company. To prospective clients, I hope that you will partner with us to discover real world solutions for sustainable utility consumption and cost optimisation.