 Hi, this is Thairu Hassan from Brightline here at Rise in Hong Kong. I'll be having a conversation with Brent Dykes from DOMO and we'll be talking more on the conversation, the journey regarding how organizations can take ideas and make them reality. But before moving forward, maybe I'll give a floor to Brent to give us an overview of what he's doing at DOMO and what DOMO is about. Sure, yeah. So DOMO is a cloud-based BI solution. We like to think of ourselves as like an operating system for your business. A lot of our customers rely on us to really run their business in terms of the data on their phones. So we have a mobile-friendly solution. It's pretty powerful in terms of how we bring all the data together, the ETL and then all the visualizations and other things that you need to run your business on your phone. And then my role specifically, I'm in consulting, in our consulting group and I run kind of a COE in terms of best practices around how we deploy our tool, how we leverage data so focused on adoption and how the companies adopt and use the platforms strategically within their business to get the most value from their investment. Excellent, excellent. And we are here at RAISE, you know, RAISE Tech Conference. How does a conference like RAISE help us basically understand the future for organizations and for individuals when it comes to technology? Yeah, I think with the RAISE conference, you know, obviously they're focusing on a lot of the new innovations that are out there, AI, machine learning, those are some of the areas that I'm focused on in terms of data. And so I think, you know, looking into the future, looking at what other companies are doing and understanding what those trends are kind of helps organizations to be prepared for the future. You know, obviously we've heard a lot of talk about big data and now it's really just data. It was always kind of data. But you know, there's always going to be those new trends and new things that are going to be really valuable to companies. And I think that, you know, obviously AI is one of those. But being on the analytic side, on the BI side, I think obviously just using data as an organization is pretty critical. And I think there's still room for growth there and, you know, it's kind of a journey that we're on. And a lot of companies have made tremendous headway, but there's still a lot to do. Good point. And of course you were saying new things and of course we know that there's a very fast pace when it comes to technologies and organizations need to keep up with that fast pace. Why do you think it is that important? You know, you're going to be disrupted. Occasionally it's going to be, you know, it's part of the landscape, especially on the technology side. I've worked in technology for almost 20 years now and seen a lot of technologies come and go. And, you know, one of the things that I think companies need to do is to think of, rather than just the technology, you know, time and time again it always comes down to not just the technology, but the people in process and thinking about, you know, that old maxim that, you know, really to be truly successful with technology you need to invest in the people. You need to invest in the processes to make sure that all of that stuff is kind of, you know, you can't just invest in the technology. You have to invest across those other areas. And so I think, you know, thinking about that holistically and not just limiting yourself to the technology, I think that's really where, you know, companies separate themselves. Obviously there's tremendous value, tremendous potential in these technologies as they're being introduced into the market, but it's really the companies that are innovative that take the time to really, you know, invest in these things. And, you know, it starts at the top. It starts with the leadership, you know, having executive sponsors who understand, you know, that this may is not a quick short-term fix. It's something we have to invest in and, you know, make sure that we have the right training, we have the right resources, we have the right, you know, investing not just in the technology, but everything that goes along with it to have a successful program. How organization can leverage people? Because you'll hear often people will say, people are our most important asset. And I heard you mentioning that it's not only about the technology that people need to actually also looking at the people side within organizations. Yeah, so it's looking at, okay, are these people trained? Do they have the training to use the tools? Are processes, you know, if we take the new technology, is it integrated to the existing processes the way that they need to work? Are we creating new processes that will work well for the people so they can take the best advantage of these tools? So I think, you know, obviously thinking about the people and also the skill set, you know, when you're hiring people or training people, upskilling people, you know, these are all things that are really important to factor into your decisions. And at the end of the day, if people do not buy into what you're doing, you're going to face resistance and you're not going to see the progress, you're not going to see the uptake. Maybe people go through the motions, but they're not really invested. And I think leadership as well, having good executive sponsorship, making sure that they're on board, that they are supportive, people top and bottom, you know, right from the board room to the call center. Everybody's got to be bought into this and then they have the resources, they have the tools that are going to work for them in their specific roles, they have the training, you know, maybe they have other means of getting support, you know, there may be lunch and learns, office hours, I mean, again, I'm thinking of the terms of data, but those are things that I've seen at companies when they're rolling out analytics platforms that, you know, they do need to support the people, they have to have a rollout plan and figure out, you know, how are we going to make this work, not just for the short term, but the long term. Wonderful, wonderful. And of course, you know, there are many technologies these days, I mean, you'll hear about big data, you just say, we say now just data, or AI, or let's say machine learning and all these things. If you were to look at through your crystal ball, like which technology do you feel will disrupt the most society or offer the most opportunities when you look forward in the future? Yeah, I think really, when I think about the artificial intelligence, for me, that's the one that could be a real disrupter. We're only just scratching the surface of the capabilities, you know, and it could be a disrupter both from an advantage in terms of how we can take very menial, labor-intensive processes and turn that over to computers to handle, which, you know, frees up humans to focus on more important things. There's also ethical challenges as well with AI, and obviously, you know, if we have humans building, you know, models and different things, but it's based on our own biases and maybe historical things the way we perceive the world, you know, that's going to shape the future of the world too. So I think there's ethical things related to AI as well, which is very interesting. But, you know, we're starting to see companies doing really innovative things with AI and, you know, it's only the beginning. It's only the beginning and it could really have, depending on the industry and depending on the functional area of the company, it could have a dramatic impact on certain roles and companies. I know, I mean, of course, you are more focused on data. What is the link that you see between AI and data and how do you connect them? Yeah, so, I mean, again, within the world of analytics, there's many menial tasks. There's tasks that are not suited for humans. Today we do them because we have to, but we're not efficient at them. They're painful. Nobody wants to do them. And so we can turn those over to a computer to do, you know, they can do them much more efficiently, much more cost-effectively, less painful for human beings. You know, I think there's that opportunity there. Obviously, AI will depend on the data that is collected and will feed into those models. And so, you know, obviously, the quality of that data, you know, they're inseparable. What is the number one skill that you feel teams need to execute on strategy when it comes to times of digital transformation? Yeah, so I'm a little bit biased here. I'll just say that. I mean, I think one of the key skills that people will need is, aside from data literacy, which I think everybody now needs because data is so critical. It's a big part of these technologies that we see. But, you know, my bias is around data storytelling. So the ability to take that insight, the insight that we get out of these tools and actually share them with people in a way that we can persuade them and motivate them to take action on the data. And so the skill of being able to tell stories with data is something that I'm very passionate about and I believe strongly that, you know, we're going to all need to become data storytellers. We're going to need to be able to communicate and share the insights so that we can take advantage of, the value that the data offers to us through the insights we make. Well, Brent, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. We really, really appreciate it. Thank you very much.