Jeff Standridge (Intro): This is Jeff Standridge, and this is the Innovation Junkies podcast. If you want to drastically improve your business, learn proven growth strategies, and generate sustained results for your organization. You’ve come to the right place. Welcome to the Innovation Junkies podcast.
Jeff Standridge: Hey guys, Jeff Standridge here. This is another bonus episode of the Innovation Junkies podcast. How we doing Jeff?
Jeff Amerine: Nothing better than a bonus episode.
Jeff Standridge: That’s right. That’s right. Today we’re talking about our outlook for 2022, specifically as it relates to innovation. What do you think?
Jeff Amerine: Yeah, I mean, it’s, I think that the pandemic has accelerated some trends, some megatrends that we’ve seen all the way along. But the stuff that I’m constantly looking at these days is the rise of EVs, electric vehicles. I think that’s one of the things that we’re going to see an ongoing pace of development. I think the pacing item there, that’ll be real interesting to see if it catches up, is the infrastructure. Right now there’s still range anxiety. There’s delays in recharging, but I actually think EVs are going to make a big impact this year.
I would also say another category in innovation that I’m seeing is drones for last-mile delivery. We know that the local big player, Walmart, has got at least two major trials going on with Zipline, this is all publicly available information and DroneUp for last-mile delivery. I think you’re going to see more drone UAV. You’re going to see some FAA action on some of that to make it easier. Some of them will be autonomous. Some of them will be controlled, but you’ll see more and more use of drones and autonomous vehicles for delivery to add efficiencies in.
And then the third one, I think we’re going to see more of this year is with the rise, out a necessity, of the mRNA technology and rapid to market technologies for both therapeutics and vaccines. I think you’re going to see those platforms expanded into a variety of other disease instances, which will be very interesting. Whether it’s cancer or whether it’s stuff that has been intractable. I think those platforms are going to become even more widely accepted and are going to have more positive impacts during the course of this year, beyond what we’re seeing with COVID. Those are three that I would anticipate being a big deal this year.
Jeff Standridge: Yeah, I think you’re right. And those are three very easy-to-see innovations. You have gas-powered vehicles, now you have electric vehicles. Or you have last-mile delivery happening via a semi-truck and a train. And now you’ve got a drone, right? So very easy.
Jeff Amerine: That’s what Admiral obvious can come up with.
Jeff Standridge: Hey, no, no, no, no. No, I like it. I’m not criticizing, but I’m establishing the juxtaposition.
Jeff Amerine: No, I understood.
Jeff Standridge: The ones that we won’t see very much of, and I think that’s the continued proliferation of AI and machine learning. And the honing of that, if you will, to solve everyday problems that we may not even know it’s happening behind the scenes. Getting more precise in how we predict customer behavior. Getting more precise in how we predict patient behavior. Getting more precise in how we can prescribe personalized medicine for individuals based upon some of their social determinants of health and some of their lifestyle behaviors and lifestyle characteristics, and what have you. I think we will continue to see things happening that on the outside look just like services are getting better and much more precise, but not realizing that what’s really driving that behind the scenes or behind the curtain, if you will, is a continued advancement and proliferation of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Jeff Amerine: Yeah. I couldn’t agree more. And some other things that are related to that, I think there will be questions raised as machine learning and AutoML and AI come out, as to when they start to be relied on, on the question will be, why did it make that recommendation? What’s the basis for that? Well, I think all these companies are going to be challenged during the course of this year, to be able to explain this is why this recommendation was made. This is what the model actually did.
And one other that we didn’t mention, which is as big as all outdoors in terms of the amount of money involved, is in crypto and blockchain. I think that some of that store of value stuff is beginning to wane somewhat because of the volatility, but there’s some really useful applications that are coming out as it relates to digital intellectual property. Some of the stuff around NFTs. I think that whole universe, which leads into Web 3.0, is going to manifest in ways in 2022 that we can’t yet foresee. But there’s so much energy behind it, you have to believe that there’s going to be some pretty amazing things that will come out of that as well.
Jeff Standridge: Very good. Very good. Well, it’s going to be an interesting year for sure, 2022, 2023, just to step back and look at some of the things that are happening around us.
Jeff Amerine: Yep. And there hopefully won’t be a shortage of bourbon just in case our predictions are wrong. At least we’ll be able to drink.
Jeff Standridge: There you go. We’ll celebrate them, either way.
Jeff Amerine: Absolutely.
Jeff Standridge: This has been another bonus episode of the Innovation Junkies podcast. Thank you for joining.
Jeff Amerine: Hey folks, this is Jeff Amerine. We want to thank you for tuning. Now we sincerely appreciate your time. If you’re enjoying the Innovation Junkies podcast, please do us a huge favor. Click the subscribe button right now. Please leave us a review. It would mean the world to both of us. And don’t forget to share us on social media.