Three of our global thought leaders explore the most coveted topics at SXSW, practical applications to our clients’ business (and our own), and how SapientRazorfish takes these highlights from hype to reality. Whether you were in Austin or not, top trends are not difficult to find. Which is why we’re taking it a step further. Not only have we shared our takeaways from this year’s sessions, but we've also examined how the conversations at SXSW relate to business reimagined for a connected world.

2. From Hype to Impact: Applying This Year's
SXSW Highlights to Business Transformation
M A R C H 2 2 , 2 0 1 7

3. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 3
A G E N D A
1 Overview
2 The Hype
 Accessibility & Affordability
 Augmentation & Replacement
 Social Impact & Ethics
 Culture & Tech
3 The Impact
 Readiness
 Reliability
 Education
 Purpose
4 Questions & Answers

4. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 4
Our leading collaborators span our capabilities as much as they span the globe, bringing
a holistic and cross-discipline view to this year’s trends.
SHELDON MONT EIRO
Global Co-Chief Technology Officer
Chicago, USA
SIMON JAMES
Global Lead for Data Analytics
London, GB
MELANIE COOK
Head of Strategy & Consulting, SEA
Singapore

5. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 5
S E C T I O N 1
Overview

6. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 6
We hosted our very own
Innovation Day, where our
speaker line-up was
packed with some notable
names and topics:
 Augmented Intelligence: The Next-Gen AI with
Melanie Cook, Head of Strategy & Consulting, Southeast
Asia, SapientRazorfish
 The Future of Content Creation with Ron Nagy, Senior
Evangelist, Adobe
 Building the Cognitive Business
with Simon James, Global Head of Performance
Analytics, SapientRazorfish
 HeyMap: Blending Social Media with the Real World
with The Community’s Andy Amendola, Director of
Digital Strategy, Juan Aguilar, Art Director, and Lindsey
Stormer, Copywriter
 Same, Same, Different: A Conversation on Changing
the Ratio in Creative Technology with moderator Keri
Elmsly, CCO, Second Story and panelists Ian
Sefferman, GM, TUNE Marketing Console ; Julia
Kaganskiy, Director, NEW INC at New Museum & Aina
Abiodun, Head of Strategy, Sideways Inc.
 Lessons Learned from Birthing a Bot with Chris
Messina, inventor of the hashtag, former Googler, and
proud participant in the open source/open web
communities

7. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 7
Innovation Day

8. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 8
Our presence at SXSW didn’t go
unnoticed…
One of the highlights from our presence on the ground came in
the form of media attention. Most notably, our Innovation Day
session with Chris Messina found its way onto CNBC thanks to
reporter Michelle Castillo.
We also had encore versions of our sessions. Melanie Cook,
for example, saw a full audience both times for her session on
AI vs. IA, not to mention getting featured on Forbes!
Our efforts were also bolstered by social media, where our
strong focus on Twitter (and the #SXSW hashtag) generated
noteworthy impressions and mentions.
TOTAL IMPRESSIONS TOTAL MENTIONS
1651.7M

9. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 9
S E C T I O N 2
The Hype: Accessibility & Affordability

10. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 10
Artificial intelligence has
reached the state of “the
idiot savant.”
40 years ago, AI was a common conversation in
academia. Now, the technology has broken out of
labs and is being increasingly commercialized.
These are some of the most coveted AI applications
today:
 Virtual assistants (Alexa/Google Home)
 Insight generation (e.g., advanced analytics)
 Business acceleration (e.g., personalization)
That being said, we’re still decades away from
generalized intel. Google, for example, may be able to
tell you the time, but not how long until something
happens.
That future is still being pieced together…

11. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 11
Chatbots are still a testing ground.
Yes, you can build your own bot, but should you? Chris Messina did and it
saved him 320,000 messages that he would have had to send himself.
Supporting his choice, he highlighted the following:
 Social media and the Internet of Things are causing connections to grow
exponentially.
 Messenger bots allow for context and history (unlike webpages).
 Bots aggregate info from various sources that you publish to from across
the web.

12. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 12
Personal assistants
are here to stay.
Across multiple verticals, leaders are
experimenting with voice-activated
assistants, asking:
 What portions of the experience can
be automated and how?
 What does search sound like and
how are results communicated?
A great example is Lonely Planet, who
has successfully shifted from physical
publisher to being a digital-led brand.
Case in point: they’re now looking into
architecting (and monetizing) the
planning of entire family vacations via
Google Home.

13. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 13
S E C T I O N 3
The Hype: Augmentation & Replacement

14. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 14
Our goal should be to
ensure that we’re
augmented rather than
replaced.
Norbert Wiener’s concept of the negative feedback
loop – that in which technology works better than and,
therefore, replaces us – was a common discussion
being had at this year’s SXSW.
However, the idea of a positive feedback loop is more
beneficial and, lucky for us, more plausible. In this
case, exponential technology allows us to work less
by automating only certain portions of our actions.
We must build technology to be a complement to our
humanity, and evolve our interactions with it as it
evolves its interactions with us.
Take coding, for example. A significant amount of
coding will be done by robots, and coding efforts will
have to shift into a process of developing products
that complement human roles.
AI:IA

15. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 15
Automation is collar
blind.
Any tasks that can be automated – that
can be codified in standard steps and
where decisions can be made on
perfect information – will be.
Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance has
replaced 34 of its human claims clerks
with IBM’s Watson Explorer, saving the
company $1.1 million a year.
Chatbots will replace up to 90% of
public sector workers in the UK, as
well as tens of thousands in the health
sector, by 2030.

16. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 16
Is your job at risk of automation?
If the answer to the above question is yes, then what can you do to drive
technology towards being centered around our human strengths and
values?
The following are four courses of action that we can take as technology
reaches superintelligence:
 Disconnect it from the world (i.e., Faraday Cage)
 Give the technology only binary responses
 Build an AI verifier (always have an anecdote, remedy, vaccine, etc.)
 Create a derived value system in which humans hold the values
while machines execute (i.e., the tech watches and learns from you)
Therein lies the difference between Artificial Intelligence and Intelligence
Augmentation. “(Collaboration between humans and machines
can) amplify human power and release people
from the repetitive drudgery of manual labor, in
favor of more creative pursuits in knowledge work
and the arts.”
N O B E R T W I E N E R , F A T H E R O F C Y B E R N E T I C S

17. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 17
S E C T I O N 4
The Hype: Social Impact & Ethics

18. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 18
There’s no doubt that we
saw a significant number of
“human” sessions.
Brexit and Trump showed us that profiling is back in a
big way – and that technology can place us in some
uncomfortable situations if we continue to “sleepwalk”
in terms of allowing our data to be accessed and
used.
Power without controls is dangerous. Technology can
certainly help society, but it can also leave many
people behind. Social impact and ethics have become
key to the conversation.
For example, M.I.T.’s Andrew McAfee and Erik
Brynjolfsson show that technology is widening the gap
between the rich and poor in a phenomena called “the
hollowing out” of the economy (specifically, the middle
classes).
So, who is going to be disenfranchised by technology
and who will be empowered by it?
Who will decide the regulation around ethics when it
comes to evolving technologies such as autonomous
cars and data application?
Not sure what image to put here…

19. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 19
Autonomous cars are sparking
debate.
As the autonomous car industry grows, so too will the need for legal,
political, and ethical conversations and analyses.
Danny Shapiro (Senior Director of Automotive @ NVIDIA) states that the
government needs to start viewing autonomous cars on public roads similar
to the pharmaceutical industry.
Automakers will also need to take the responsibility for potential (albeit
rare) crashes rather than having fault attributed to the vehicle’s user.
But the biggest elephant in the room is this: What happens when people
can hack into your vehicle (as folks from WIRED were able to do with a
Jeep)? Will it be possible to “design accidents” for malicious purposes?

20. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 20
Open APIs stand to
change the game.
FinTechs have changed what safety
and security means – being in the
cloud was a deal breaker until a few
years ago.
Going back to cars: Are car companies
morally obligated to share information
if it could save people’s lives?
Now, consumers are required to
understand more and more where their
data is going.

21. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 21
T H E R I G H T T O R E P A I R B I L L
Whether they be tractors or smartphones, if
you don't own the software in your products,
then what do you really own? Hardware is
inanimate and useless without the software
you merely license.
You currently don’t have the right to repair
most devices. But if you cannot repair it,
adapt it as you see fit – like you can with
clothes, for example – then, do you really
own the item?
Legislation, entitled “The Right to Repair
Bill”, is currently tackling this in the US and
getting quite a bit of opposition from tech
companies.

22. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 22
SECTION 5
The Hype: Culture & Tech

23. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 23
This year was all about
bringing diversity from the
individual level up to the
systematic.
A lot of companies talk about diversity, but they don’t
do it. In fact, they don’t even know where to begin –
an unfortunate trend that was overheard across
multiple sessions at this year’s SXSW.
Now, more than ever, the lines between company and
community are blurred. People cannot be expected to
check themselves at the door and are entitled to
certain expectations of their leaders when it comes to
support.
There will always be opposing points of view, but
employees are increasingly expecting the CEO to be
a caretaker, listener, and comforter – to take a stand
in a way that aligns with the company’s culture and
values.
We’ve seen this lately with gender discrimination and
sexual harassment allegations brought against Tesla
by AJ Vandermeyden and against UBER by Susan
Fowler.

24. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 24
How? What’s
different now?
Shari Slate (CDO at Cisco) and Adam
Quinton (Founder/CEO of Lucas Point
Ventures) were at SXSW last year
talking about unconscious bias at the
individual level. This year they showed
up to talk about systematic diversity.
They agree that diversity will not be
solved by hiring someone or asking
human resources to do it. If the CEO
doesn’t have the time or resources to
drive diversity, then he/she is not really
taking care of the people. People want
to hear it coming from the top – to
know that it matters.
Picture of women working together

25. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 25
Culture Is More than DevOps.
SXSW speakers had much to say about building high performance
software teams and delivering software. These sessions were good
refreshers on well understood Recruiting, Agile, and DevOps practices.
One of the more offbeat sessions, “The Pervert’s Guide to Programming
Languages,” took us on a fascinating journey applying psychoanalysis to
software development – we learned that software architects and
developers make choices amongst the over 1000 programming languages
in use today for reasons that go beyond the rational.

26. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 26
W H A T A B O U T C R E A T I V I T Y & T H E A R T S ?
AI can achieve various levels of creativity
and, in turn, strengthen a human’s ability to
reimagine.
 Google’s Deepmind machine learning
can be visualized as an art form (in this
case playing Atari Breakout)
 The AI-created film done for Saatchi &
Saatchi’s 2016 New Director’s Showcase
at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity
 Autodesk’s Dreamcatcher can generate
hundreds of unique designs in a matter of
hours

27. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 27
SECTION 6
The Impact: Readiness

28. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 28
Are technologies such as
artificial intelligence and
virtual/augmented reality
ready for prime time?
Novel technology is not just a shiny object, but rather
represents a spectrum of possibilities. The question
you must ask yourself is whether the technology is
ready to solve your specific industry use case.
Artificial intelligence, for example, is a practice that
can be used to do something as traditional as
structuring data and gathering insights. This is what
we see with the opening of APIs to better the
customer experience.
While many companies are experimenting with this
technology, it is the movement of that behavior to
actual production that needs to happen in order for
the technology (and usage of it) to evolve.
For example, what do we make of IBM classifying
Watson as a platform for microservices architecture?

29. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 29
Where can you see this apply?
Brands like L'Oreal are deepening their communications with consumers in
virtual and augmented reality. L’Oréal’s “Matrix Academy,” an educational
program for its Matrix beauty brand reduces costs and increases scale by
replacing in-person training for hair stylists with advanced styling
techniques taught via high resolution VR experiences.
Another example stems from sports, where virtual reality is being used to
test players’ decision making within the context of certain scenarios.
And, in Australia, the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) has
created Nadia, an online virtual assistant (voiced by Cate Blanchett) that
can speak, write, and chat online while answering questions about the
NDIS in a “natural way.”
“Initially Nadia will be used to answer the
most common questions people have about
the scheme, but over time, with your help she
will develop the capacity to provide detailed
responses to a wide range of queries.”
L O U I S E G L A N V I L L E , D E P U T Y C E O @ N D I A

30. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 30
To drive your use
case forward…
Consider and speak to some of the
most common obstacles in (multiple)
industries today:
 Lack of insight
 Sluggish attitude in the industry;
inability to see the advantage
 Complex, expensive manufacturing
process
 Broken industry model
 Lack of product/application utility
 Not competitively priced
 Not sustainable, and at times,
downright indulgent and wasteful
“We need another Lycra to revolutionize the industry .”
C O N S E N S U S O F P A N E L I S T S D I S C U S S I N G T H E F U T U R E O F F A S H I O N

31. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 31
SECTION 7
The Impact: Reliability

32. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 32
When you make a
commitment to production,
you make one to ongoing
support.
Product-based companies should (and are) shifting to
more service-driven mindsets. For example, as
artificial intelligence permeates more and more of
each industry, things like cars will need to get more
regular updates – a concept that is difficult for product
lifecycle companies.
And it’s not just about the software, but the
infrastructure, as well. We need new modes and
media for rapidly changing technology.
Take IBM, for example, whose plug and play model
allows for laudable modularization. This leads to
increased reliability and sustainability – not only for
the product, but for the business model and customer
relationship, as well.

33. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 33
DevOps strikes again. You ship it. You
support it.
As Capital One mentioned, software delivery (speed incentive) and
operations (stability incentive) have traditionally been two separate
sections. These silos have been known to create some animosity at the
organization level.
Key leaders including the CIO and CMO need to work together to combine
the existing focus on speed and agility with consideration for scale and
reliability, as well.
It’s more than just tooling – it’s an actual cultural change. And it requires
the organization to stand by their products with adequate support (not just
tech teams, but also information security, legal, finance, etc.).

34. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 34
SECTION 8
The Impact: Education

35. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 35
Brands and consumers are learning
simultaneously.
Chris Messina mentioned that it’s really hard for users to know what to do
with chatbots. There is no general awareness of messaging apps/bots and,
if there is, it tends to be quite negative.
And chatbots are just one example of a lack of comprehension on the user
end when it comes to artificial intelligence, its power, and the introduction of
it into people’s homes (and lives). Some users are testing the waters with
chatbots, but so are brands – they’re using these bots to see what AI can
do.
So, how can you educate the larger population on the breadth of actions
supported by AI? And on its safety?

36. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 36
What about the designers behind this
revolutionary tech?
AI offers substantial potential because of the insight that it can provide
designers; however, there's still the equal challenge of educating designers
on its capabilities.
One thing that is certain is that we have yet to establish some design
principles for conversational user interfaces – and we should. These
principles should take in things like:
 Consumer expectations: Does Alexa give you the straight (binary)
response to your question or try to answer the question that it believes
you are trying to ask?
 Platform neutrality: These principles will have to be executed the same
across platforms in order to maintain a certain level of customer
experience and comprehension – not to mention usability.

37. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 37
SECTION 9
The Impact: Purpose

38. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 38
Purpose is the ultimate
platform for internal and
external transformation.
Business transformation is achieved through a
combination of both internal and external efforts. And
with AI becoming more like the Web circa 1996, the
brands that survive will be those that build purpose
into their work and their teams.
The concept of purpose is not a new one, but never
has it been so prevalent as it is in this moment of
proliferation, data access and application, and
societal uncertainty. But purpose is not something that
leaders deliver via pep talk. It is a combination of
those who interact with your consumers, roam your
offices, and build your products.
Here’s a great example: There will be an increased
need for understanding humanities and social
sciences in order to collaborate with developers to
produce AI that interacts well with people. Once
again, humanity can be augmented and scaled rather
than replaced with a rationality that lacks semantic
understanding.

39. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 39
When considering a set of internal organizational needs, Marty Weiner (CTO of Reddit)
mentions the following key components:
#1SAFET Y
S A F E T Y
Discomfort about funding, company
trajectory/mission, job security, or
physical/emotional safety.
#2T RUST
T R U S T
Lack of communication, inconsistent delivery on
promises, subversive individuals.
#3RESPECT
R E S P E C T
Disrespectful or offensive people – sometimes
miscommunication can lead to the same effect,
as well.
#4MOT IVAT ION
M O T I V A T I O N
“Autonomy, mastery, purpose." Too much or not
enough autonomy or unclear purpose.

40. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 40
Five next steps to
consider.
 Redefine success and value
creation in the company
 Own inclusion and diversity as
business leaders
 Communicate your company’s
values and your values as a leader
 Expand your mindset to expand
your talent pipeline
 Exercise your strengths and build
your muscles

41. C O P Y R I G H T S A P I E N T R A Z O R F I S H | C O N F I D E N T I A L 41
I N S U M M A R Y :
The Hype
 Accessibility & Affordability
 Augmentation & Replacement
 Social Impact & Ethics
 Culture & Tech
The Impact
 Readiness
 Reliability
 Education
 Purpose