AI with a Twist
A Keynote or a Workshop
​
It starts with how an AI-generated cocktail landed me in the New York Times. A year later, I directed AI to create another cocktail that we served to 200 people at a reception on the lawn of the Waldorf Astoria.
Over the past year, I've found that the playful prompt: "Create a cocktail based on the tenets of Chinese Medicine with a backstory in the style of the J Peterman Catalog" served as an engaging, useful lens into understanding the possibilities with AI.
It's the absurdity of the AI cocktail that makes it work. I'm not threatening anyone's job, and there's little overlap with existential risk. Yet, the path we go down in the talk allows me to touch on many of the most fundamental elements of how AI works.
After creating the first cocktail, we go down a series of "What If" paths that underscore the critical role of curiosity when working with AI.
We wander down a path that includes:
​
✴ What if we created a "Cocktail Genome" based on Pandora's Music Genome....
✴ How might we turn this into a business?
✴ How might we analyze the market?
✴ Can you create me an engaging survey.... more engaging?
✴ Create me a marketing strategy... and a SEO plan... How would be the idea spokesperson and why?
✴ Create me an image of this drink... and a song to accompany the advertisement....
You get the idea. In doing this, we also review the best practices for developing prompts, the risks of bias, and the issues related to data security.
The content can be scaled from a 15-minute opener, or it can be the foundation for an entire AI workshop spanning hours.
For an actual session, we would work together to find the right areas to tie this back to your specific strategies and priorities.
​
If you're looking for a fun way to get the team started with AI, we should talk.
​
​
​
​
My AI Cocktails in the New York Times
Why Cocktails?
It started with a fun project to use AI to create a book at the intersection of three vastly different domains: Mixology, Chinese Medicine, and the J Peterman Catalog. After it got picked up by the New York Times, it took on a new life. It now serves as a portal for a fun, fascinating way to explore the surprising and expected ways to use AI.
ATTENDEE FEEDBACK FROM PRIOR SESSIONS
Over the past year, I've had the opportunity to present variations of these materials to teams from Adobe, Google, and Salesforce, groups of CEOs in Europe and Asia, collections of authors and writers, and a range of audiences in the education space.
"Matt curated an invaluable session, making Generative AI practically available to busy senior executives as a tool for strategic planning and organisational change. His eye-opening examples were both profound and tangible and he left the group better prepared for what lies ahead. Stylistically, Matt has a unique gift in making these subjects less intimidating and more approachable. He uses deeply relevant examples of how Generative AI can immediately add value to one's organization".
- Steve Stine. Asian Corporate Leadership Council. The Conference Board
​
Matt delivers the thing we need most: He demystifies the A.I. landscape and puts a caring, human face on the coming A.I. revolution. Matt makes clear A.I’s promise and potential in terms everyone can understand and offers thoughtful, practical, and immediate suggestions for ways to make the most of this fast-evolving technology. His 90-minute live class remains the best reviewed Five Things I’ve Learned workshop ever – so good that we immediately asked him back to lead another.
- Mark Nieker, CEO, Founder, ExtendedSession
"That was the most well-presented, humorous, informative, concise and creative presentation I've seen...maybe ever."
- Bibi, Owner of consulting business
"Aside from the beyond user-friendly, ease of entry into Chat GPT, I thought the sense of community and the way you interacted with the group and the individuals was super welcoming and made everyone feel very comfortable and willing to comment and ask questions, which is quite a rarity." - Independent Film & Television Producer
I love combining my broad experience in AI, business operations, and leading teams. The acceleration of AI brings a combination of fear and fascination. My goal is to provide everyone in an organization with the knowledge and sense of agency so that they are informed, engaged, and in a position to integrate AI into their personal and professional lives in a way that is creative and productive.
If this resonates, let's talk.
- Matt