I’ve been working with artificial intelligence (AI) for a long time, so I’m always curious to hear what new engineers think about its potential impact on our lives and the world at large. That’s why I recently sat down with Saliha Demir on our podcast.

How often do you compare yourself to other people? To your peers or competitors? Once a day? Once an hour? According to Tim Stoddard, your answer should be, “Never.” You should only be comparing your performance today to where you want to be tomorrow. That’s how you get better. That’s how you succeed in life and business. By getting better – doing better – each day.

There are a lot of ways to reduce shrink at the point of sale (POS) without degrading the customer experience. There are also many ways to stop losses stemming from accidental misreads or mis-rings by associates as they’re hurrying to queue bust, do inventory, or restock shelves. All of them start with having the proper barcode scanner. I know you probably think you’re set with your scanners. But are you really? Are you sure you have the right scanners for the job?

It's the little things in life that seem to have the greatest impact on our well-being and happiness. The same is true in business, especially when it comes to technology. For example, many retail, healthcare, and hospitality leaders have been telling me they would be so much happier if devices like barcode scanners were physically smaller and easier to install and manage.

I know many companies are making technology purchases these days in reaction to regulations or mandates. Not just in transportation and logistics (T&L), either. I’m seeing this happen in the pharmaceutical and food and beverage industries too. But because compliance is the driver for these purchases, I worry that many business leaders aren’t taking the time to consider the bigger picture opportunities that technology offers them.

For many decades, there were business problems that machine vision technology (and engineers) just couldn’t solve for manufacturers, warehouse operators, 3PLs, retailers, and even healthcare providers. Now, we’re seeing at least two solutions proposed for every problem. In some cases, we’ve swung from having no options to having too many options when it comes to using machine vision as a solution facilitator.

Tony Palcheck has been identifying consumer and commercial business trends and investing in technologies that either drive or benefit from those trends for over 20 years. He remembers the days when GPS and Wi-Fi were ideas on a PowerPoint slide – and watching them become mainstream technologies across industries that help improve our everyday lives. And he’s proud to have been at the forefront of many smart, innovative technology ideas ever since as a corporate venture capitalist.