3 Interesting Learnings From Maricopa County Clerk of the Superior Court
Read Time: 4-minutes
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The power of human-centric experience in AI is what Aaron Judy, Chief of Innovation, AI at Maricopa County Clerk of Superior Court, does on our podcast.
Below are this week’s 3 Interesting Learnings:
1. Not all emerging technology is appropriate for all agencies
2. More than a catchy tune- how to identify the OEOEO to open up to the Art of Possible
3. Even with AI, people crave a natural human experience (hello, digital human?) : )
1. Not all emerging technology is appropriate for all agencies
Innovation requires testing emerging or “new to us” technologies for their fit and appropriate use in that particular agency.
Sometimes that requires sitting in on other agencies’ meetings for the sole purpose of absorbing and analyzing, “would that be a fit for our need?” or “could we do that differently?”
Aaron Judy identifies the value in letting the innovator innovate by not bogging them down with administrative, bureaucratic, or “say no-first” mentalities.
“We follow technology, emerging technology, very closely. We may come up with an idea on our own or somebody may come to us and say, Hey, we have a need. We need to fill this gap. We need a solution to do X and we may jump in there.
Sometimes we sit in other people’s meetings and just absorb and listen in and say, Hey, we could do that differently.
We pair our technologists with, know, subject matter experts, our technologists, we try to keep pure in that we don’t saddle the innovation group with operations.” ~ Aaron Judy
2. More than a catchy tune - how to identify the OEOEO to open up to the Art of Possible
Obstacles, Expectations, Obligations, Explainability, Ownership:
Aaron Judy shares how this acronym helps break down barriers to what is possible:
“I think you and I have talked before. Fear is an institution of culture. How you celebrate and recognize failure will structure fear and your tolerance for risk, right? Ultimately Obstacles, Expectations, Obligations, Explainability, Ownership- all these little bits are what stop people.
Obstacles: if you don’t have the skilled talent in your shop to do some of these things, it becomes an obstacle.
Expectations and Obligations: you wanna do cool stuff, but this judge is expecting you to deliver this modification to this system, or this customer wants you to do something. You can’t go do the cool thing and deliver it first or else somebody’s gonna be mad that you didn’t deliver their thing.
Explainability: if it is a black box, now mind you, it has to have some kind of productization, right?
I have to be able to touch it and, look and show everybody even the layman to be able to access it. But if I can’t explain how it works, I’m not gonna put the risk of, my public career. I don’t want to be in the headlines for this thing. Spouting hate at somebody. And Ownership, right?
Who is ultimately going to be in charge? If something is said by a conversational AI who owns that, I’ll leave it there.” ~ Aaron Judy
Related Podcasts:
Ep.31 The Art of the Possible: How an Agile Mindset Transforms Your Team’s Approach to Leadership with Stacy Mill, fmr. CTO at the State of Kansas
3. Even with AI, people crave a natural human experience (hello, digital human?) : )
AI doesn’t need to equate to robotic voices devoid of emotion. Automation can have a human face, and that is what Aaron’s team is working hard to do- to put a face to their emerging technologies- a digital human experience- so that people still feel known:
“The digital human is a virtual avatar that represents a human as closely as possible. It may reach into what’s called the uncanny valley where, it can look a little robotic or soulless, doll’s eyes look. But, the goal is to get a very humanistic interaction with somebody else. The more we push customers away, don’t come down to the office, , just use my chat service. Don’t, don’t use your traditional methods. We get away from the humanization of things. A lot of folks just like seeing a smile, when they’re on the worst day of their life, sometimes they want to hand a paper across the counter and just have you go, oh, okay.
What you’re asking me. Isn’t crazy. You get feedback at times from humans, even when you’re not getting feedback. Conversely, not all generations like text you and I were just talking about it. I was gen X. I was one of the first texters. I was one of the first DOS users, but the generations that came before me value human face to face interactions. They may not like a chat bot. They may not like typing or texting things.
So how do I reach those customers? Conversely, gen Z. Gen Y and gen Z.
They want that same human video interaction. They want more immersive video interactions. And that’s where digital humans come in. I am trying to figure out what is the value of a smile, honestly, if I can put a smile on my service, That I can talk to you and understand where you are, empathically, how you’re standing, how your body posture is.
Are you sad? If I ask you for a death certificate, don’t keep smiling at me. Don’t keep with the same, boring text, have a solemn look, feel sorry for me.
We’re humans. We want that. Most of what we exchange in communication, isn’t coming out of our mouths and ultimately that’s where I want to go with Cleo.
Related Podcasts:
Ep.66 AI-Powered Conversational Cloud with Founder & CEO Rob LoCascio at LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN)
I could do a 3 Interesting Learnings based solely on Aaron’s cosplay and props in the background during that interview (did you see that awesome Iron Man suit and Halo helmet?!) - but next time!
What else would you expect from someone who heads up innovation by truly living it out?
Catch the video of this episode to see what I am talking about now on TechTables+.