Monday 25 July 2016

PHD Ghana CEO talks AI at Tedx Accra



From Right to Left (Emmanuel, Benjamin, Bright, Wassim, Philip)
PHD Ghana Ceo, Bright Ladzekpo  was the guest speaker at the ‘innovation session’ of the just ended TedxAccra 2016 organised at the auspicious Kempinski Hotel, Accra.

TEDxAccra is the largest event of its kind in Ghana with an audience of over 1500 gathering at the National Theatre to share and discuss innovative and creative ideas. A series of events were organized preluding the final event at the National Theatre including the ‘Media, Arts & Entertainment edition on Wednesday, April 20, 2016. 

This year’s event featured visionaries sharing their unique stories and valuable perspectives on the topic ‘Re-Think’.

Mr. Ladzekpo spoke on the theme ‘Rethinking Marketing Ahead of the AI and VR Future’. Speaking at the event, Mr. Ladzekpo stated that “The future of work is play”. He explained that gaming enables multitasking and fast problem solving. Referring to a study by Gartner, “by this year most innovations will be done by gamified approaches”, he alluded to the famous ‘foldit story’ where gamers collaborated to solve the puzzle of the structure of an HIV-like virus, retrovirus enzyme. This was an incredible testimony since it averagely takes scientists 10 years to achieve what the gamers discovered in three weeks. He went on to talk about PHD Media’s gaming platform ‘SOURCE’ which enables collaboration across the entire PHD global network to contribute to campaigns being run from anywhere in the world.

Referring to Gay Kasparov and Fan Hui’s defeat to Deep Blue and Alpha Go respectfully, He stated that man cannot beat computers in the mundane automated things therefore man has to rethink why they were created – Man was created to create and innovate, he said. Marketers would have to rethink the way they undergo their business because they would in the near future have to market to VPA’s as opposed to humans. Moving on to talk about singularity he stated that in the near future computers will be as smart as humans in a lot of ways until they are both on the same level. Man will work with machines on various sectors due to ‘atomation’. Man and Machine working collaboratively is the future of life.

Speaking on Virtual reality, he emphasized that the key areas driving VR is engagement, entertainment and empathy. Using the UN-Ebola documentary, Waves of Grace, which gives viewers a virtual experience as volunteers at the grave yard of Ebola victims as an example, he explained how VR is been used to elicit empathy by organisations and brands. He went to talk about how the Oculus Rift and Gear VR immerse users when watching movies or videos in an exceptional way like never before.

To round up, He encouraged participants to cultivate their soft skills like empathy, storytelling and creativity This brings a paradigm shift to media communication strategy as brand managers and marketers would have to rethink how to transport consumers in terms of brand experience to an immersed point where consumers can relate to brands and life in  a creative manner.