Announcer: Welcome to Business Life 360 with Kristi K., where we cover trends and impact in the world of business.

We get to know CEO leaders and innovators, and we see firsthand how business and life connect.

Business life 360 with Kristi K. is made possible in par by KeyBank National Association trustee for the Walter Education Memorial Fun and ProMedica Toledo Hospital, celebrating 150 years of serving our community.

Also by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Kristi K: Welcome to Business Life 360.

I'm your host, Kristi K.. On this episode, we travel into the world of artificial intelligence.

When human and robotic lines begin to blur.

When technology evolves at an unprecedented pace.

That's when innovation accelerates.

Welcome to the frontier.

The revolution of AI.

So settle in and come along with me.

This is business life.

360.

So, Luke, it's great to have you here in Ann Arbor up from Austin, Texas.

Luke Schnieder: That's right.

It's fantastic to be here and, and to be on the show.

Kristi K: Yes.

Glad to have you with us.

You've been involved, Luke, in eight startups in this at this intersection that we're talking about with autonomous vehicles and technology and transportation.

Tell us a little bit more abou perhaps some of those startups.

Luke Schnieder: you know, for 25 years, maybe 25 years ago, you know, I was working in the auto industry.

I was doing some pretty core mechanical engineering work on powertrains, on engines and transmissions.

and just came to the conclusion that, there is a better future for transportation.

So with companies you know, like Zipcar, where we, you know, we're we're trying to make transportation more, more affordabl for people who live in cities.

so it's very expensive to own a car in a city, between fuel and maintenance and garaging it and the payment itself.

So share a car with other folks in the city and just use it when you need it from there.

You know, another company that I just, I really love.

We started up Silver Car, in 2012, which was really more of a platform for distributing transportation.

Krist K: And we're here at refraction.

I this is an autonomous vehicle company.

But I want you to tell me more about the actual description of the company and what the technology is.

Luke Schnieder: Yeah.

So refraction AI is a last mile delivery company.

we, are different from other last mile delivery companies in that we use autonomous or self-driving robots to actually perform the deliveries.

There's a lot that's involved with that.

Kind of the core of it is a technology that is an artificial intelligence.

it's the AI which allows the robot to drive itself.

And, it's similar to what you find in autonomous cars, which are finding their ways onto our streets in some major cities all over the country.

but it's differen in some pretty special ways in that the delivery category, has special requirements.

It has different ways of executing its tasks.

And so the robots we build are purpose built for that.

Kristi K: So describe for us a little bit more about what that technology is and how you utilize that for, advancemen of delivery and transportation.

Luke Schnieder: As we move into a next generation, next era, a next chapter of technology for transportation cars and other vehicles that can drive themselves, that can enhance the safety of thos who are in them and around them, as well as cars that can make i less congested on our streets, make them more walkable, make our cities more livable.

and, and, you know sort of at the pinnacle of that is make goods and services more accessible.

So what refraction AI focuses on is taking a specific category of transportation, the transportation and deliver of goods, applying technologies that really weren't around more than, you know, 20 years ago.

and allowing those things to happen more safely, more cleanly and with less congestion in our cities.

Kristi K: So refraction AI is specifically in what industries in terms of distribution.

Luke Schnieder: We focus on three, the restaurants, grocery stores, and retailers.

So primarily food.

Food has been the early adopter here.

people have delivering pizzas for, you know, I don't know, a century.

so that's an easy place to start.

groceries became much more popular righ around the turn of this century, with companies in the dawn of the internet, ubiquitous broadband and technologies that allowed people to order remotely and then have fulfillment happen through a truck or a van or something else.

we look at refraction.

AI is really the latest evolution of that trend, which began, you know, maybe 25 years ago.

but in a way that is both economically sustainable and also more palatable to th city infrastructure as we have.

Kristi K: Luke.

Fascinating.

Let's go take a look a one of your autonomous robots.

Luke Schnieder: Sounds great.

Let's do it.

Kristi K: I would love to know how you incorporate AI into the everyday usage of this particular robot.

Luke Schnieder: Yeah, well so we're looking at Maximilian, a, a delivery robot.

that is a third generation robot, from refraction AI.

And, you know the general construction of this is pretty evident by looking at it.

It is a four wheel, road goin robot that's designed to travel in the margin of the road, a bike lane if there is one.

The shoulder.

but sort of like a bicycle.

And it is in fact based o a recumbent or, an e-bike frame.

So, there are two doors, which, can open in the rear, in the front for access to the payload within.

And we're looking at an Uncon figured robot.

So right now, you're seeing sort of the guts of, of one of these delivery robots, depending on the application, whether it's for the delivery of, food, or restaurant or, or groceries, or just some retail item.

we will configure these, with specific panels to allow for either the suctioning or, the, the the use of the entire payload.

So, there are a number of different pieces that are required to do this.

we've got, sensors that are around the perimeter of the vehicle, some lights in the front.

we use a combination of different optoelectronics, and other kinds of sensors.

and then up top, which is this, this, this piece that sits above everything, which.

Kristi K I'm told is called the top hat.

Luke Schnieder: We call it the top hat.

The top hat contain most of the complex electronics and what we call the sensor stack.

The sensor stack is what, in fact, senses what's around the robot.

and then computes and tries to decide, you know, what the appropriate action is for driving and, and, and to proceed through the delivery.

so that's, yo know, kind of an overview of it.

They're all electric.

so there is zero emission at the tailpipe.

Kristi K: Now, do you envision the general consumer on a regular basis, being able to call, pick up the phone, go through an app?

how how does one acces the capabilities of this robot?

Luke Schnieder: Yeah.

So, the way one typically would experience, one of our robots is by going through, a restaurant or a merchant's website directly.

those merchant then use our robots as a sort of native delivery option for their products.

and so the robo kind of lives at the merchant, and then makes its deliveries out to the public from there.

Typically that's through an app.

you choose the delivery option, it informs you that it's going to most likely come by robot.

and then the robot, is loaded when the order is produced, and it's, you know, the appropriate compartmen opens to, to accept the order.

and then the the robot is dispatched and shortly before it arrives for the delivery, the consumer will get a text message or some other notification through the app that their order is approaching by robot.

and they will be given, yo know, instructions to come down and simply show their phone, in this case, to the robot.

there's a window in the top hand where they do that.

and, and that opens the appropriate compartment.

Kristi K: Luke, give us an example of someone using a robot like Maximilian in everyday life.

Luke Schnieder: Sure.

well, one of my favorite examples, is of someone.

Somebody that, who uses this, she's she's well, she just turned 90, and, she has a difficult time getting out of the house, to do some basic things like shopping for groceries or other things.

And, so somebody like that, in recent weeks, you know, ordered groceries, from a local grocery store, which then use this robot to pick them up and, and bring them to her.

And it it essentially work the same way as curbside pickup.

It's just that the robot, is the curbside pickup vehicle.

and why that's so special is, is that in this case, you know, that woman is, someone who really wanted to retire in place.

She really wanted to, to stay in her neighborhood with her neighbors.

there were a lot of young families, and.

And when we think about things like that, when we think about cases like that and this ability to to make our communities richer and healthier and happier, you know, the wisdom of that particular woman, you know, I think is something that we all treasure, and the ability to allow her to remain in the community is something that we all really are happy and thankful about.

Kristi K: It's easy.

Makes her life better.

All the things that you said were your goal when you started the company.

Luke Schnieder: That's right.

Healthier, happier, safer communities.

And we're doing that by helping those producers and consumers connect.

Kristi K: Luke, thank you fo the explanation on the robots.

It is fascinating and how AI is being used.

That refraction, I hear.

And I'm going to head back to the studio.

Luke Schnieder: Sounds Great.

Kristi K: Here on Business Live 360 and my podcast, Business Life After Hours.

We're exploring artificial intelligence and its transformative impac on business and our daily lives.

In studio with me is Tom Bush, our AI expert and visionary in the field.

Tom, welcome.

It's great to have you here.

Tom Bush: Thanks.

I'm super excited.

This is, a big topic, so we'll see how far we get into it.

But I'm looking forward to it.

Krist K: With AI evolving so quickly, what would you say if you could, as at this point in time, what is the definition of AI and artificial intelligence?

Tom Bush: So artificial intelligence is really, having a computer do what usually is ascribed to a human to be able to do.

Kristi K: And as we start to think about the tasks that can be done by AI and these AI robots, we continue to hear about, what are some of those examples?

And is that the same thing as machine learning?

Tom Bush: Yeah.

So, so artificial intelligence actually encapsulates a large topic.

and there's lots of different subdisciplines underneath it.

Machine learning is one specific capability.

And this is where you give it, a bunch of give the computer a bunch of information, and you train i on how to look at, say, images.

And so it can identify a dog or a cat.

Machin learning is specifically that.

And one of the the things that's got all the press right now is what's called gen AI or generative artificial intelligence that's generating new information.

Krist K: When we talk about business, obviously what we put in, we're goin to get out of this whole thing.

So how does a corporation use AI for a competitive edge?

Tom Bush: Oh, for competitive edge, yeah.

I mean we're in an age of productivity.

And, AI is definitely an accelerator.

for all of your employees in almost every aspect of what they're doing.

we see companies, for example being able to reduce training, to, you know, today a training program for a new employee.

You're educating them on all these policies and, capabilitie that they need to be able to do and maybe teaching them about scenarios that they may not encounter for another year or, you know, a year or two out, imagine putting a chat bot in play where they could just ask, what's the policy on this?

How do I solve when I encounter this type of problem?

So it's allowing for more, real time information to be disseminated to the individual when they need it versus having to do a long term training.

companies are saving billions, around process improvements.

you know, the advantage of artificial intelligence is that it can take in a large amount of data, and hold that in its mind while it thinks through a problem, which is difficult for humans to take in all of these different parameters.

Well, if you think about process improvements and, you know, producing a bottle for less, your ability to analyze how your process is running and the AI suggesting what parameter you might change to go faster, these are some of the examples that would help businesses save lots of money and go faster.

But it's really at this juncture with the AI side.

It's about the individual.

And what are they doing today that feels repetitive, redundant?

and is what I call painful meaning it's just like very tedious.

Those are things that bots could do, very easily.

Kristi K: And to improve everything from seeking process management, all of those things.

And, you know, also, I really is involved in helping with data analysis and everything from customer behavior and analyzing how consumers buy products.

Can you tell us a little bit more and dive a little bit deeper into how that works?

And you mentioned creating chat bots for certain things, describing that for us as well.

Tom Bush: Sure.

Yeah.

I mean, the ability to look at a market and understan I mean, imagine that you could and I know this is happening today.

People are analyzing Twitter, for example, to understand what's the current sentiment.

I'm sorry, it's called X nowadays.

what is the sentiment out there?

Right.

What's the topic of the day?

Right.

What are people conversing o and using that and tying it back to, well, how does that, relate to my sales for my product?

And so if I see that we're talking, you know, if it's a big topic at the moment is related to, say, music and some release of a big CD, then how does that relate to my product?

Whatever it is, how does that relate and make i so that we can start to predict when this goes up, than I likely this will go up, or if this goes down, then my stuff will go down.

Yeah.

And so I think, that's one of the cool things about, the targeting the bots on bigger sets of data is that can create correlations that w maybe hadn't noticed previously.

And then creating chat bots internally, for companies, this is definitely been an accelerator to get better access.

we've worked with local governments who, for example, have, copious amounts of rules and regulations.

And one of the things they, spend a lot of time o is answering questions on the, on the phone about certain rules or regulations and what we've, proposed to them is a chat bot that will basically allow the person calling in to either speak with an A that will be able to answer this question directly or have a chat on their website so that they can get the answer to their questio without having to call a human.

Kristi K: I think many of us, myself included, have these thoughts of fear when we think about the future of AI and robots and some of the things that we hear and read that potentially could impact the human race down the road.

If you really play it out, can you talk to us more about what that feels like, what that looks like as I kind of plays out and becomes much more, sophisticated, if you will.

Tom Bush: Sure.

Yeah.

I think there's, often I'll get a question.

We'll start locally, after I get the question of like, am I going to lose my job right?

And that specifically, I think the answer today is no, you're not going to lose your job, but your job might look different if you hold all things constant where you say, oh, my company will only ever do this.

And therefore if an AI does that, will there be loss of jobs?

The answer is possibly.

However, no company that I know of is like that.

When you optimize a certain part, they're going to grow and explore other areas.

And I think that's really the the great part about AI is it's goin to give us more time to explore, the adjacent products.

We could build the more advanced product we could build to really help us figure out, you know, if I'm a script writer, what if you could, you know, you could use AI to help you write more scripts faster.

but you still are able to put your edge on it.

But if it puts the 75%, you know, complete draft together for you, think about how many more jobs you could go do, how many more scripts you could be writing.

So I think we're about to enter an A into a time when creativity and creation is going to accelerate, because we will be able to all of that that stuff that slowed us down.

The some of the hard work part will be, done by an AI for us such that we can do even more, we can be more versatile, we can explore more avenues.

Kristi K: Oh, I love that innovation.

Creativity really can be opened up.

At that point, I absolutely hadn't thought of it in that regard.

I can't help but think, as you're talking about the timeline and how this is just going to be that snowball effect as we look forward.

How do you see this playing out, and at what point am I going to have to report into an AI boss?

Tom Bush: Yeah.

You know, yeah.

So how soon, is the world going to be taken over by AI?

Is a fun question to think about.

And, you know, in parallel, ho soon am I going to be a cyborg?

You know, how soon is that chi going to be planted in my head?

you know, th reality is, is that over time, we've been delegating more and more to computers, you know, like, so it started with the calculator, right?

We delegated our knowledge of how to execute math quickly to this calculator.

today we are definitely directed on how to drive our cars by our GPS you know, and on our cell phone.

And we have that cell phone, which is a, you know, a computer, right next to us, telling us things a lo like your next meeting is now.

Right You should go to that meeting.

So it's very interesting how we've, over time, technology has infused itself such that we are cyborg ish, already taking our direction from a computer.

Kristi K: And it's a great assessment.

It's a great perspective that we need to be thinking about.

And as you said, really, as we look ahead to the benefits of AI that certainly is one of them.

Yeah.

Tom Bush: Absolutely.

Kristi K: Tom Bosch, thank you so much for being with us here in business Life 360 and Business Life After Hours.

It has been so eye opening and enlightening.

Tom Bush: Yeah.

Thank you.

Kristi K: So in conclusion, we thank our guest expert Tom Bush for his insight as we look at today's perspective on our future.

This is truly a transformative time in our lives.

While a future world with AI may be bright, it is up to us to shape it in a responsible way.

And now let's check back in with the CEO of a fraction AI to see what this innovator doe when he isn't developing robots to make the world a better place.

So, Luke, it's great to be with you here.

Enjoying some outdoors with you.

Luke Schnieder: Yes.

Beautiful today.

Kristi K: Wondering what the CEO of refraction AI does in his spare time while not impacting the transportation and innovation world.

So what is it that you do for fu outside of work when you are not developing, Luke Schnieder: Robots to try to keep everything grounded and centered?

I like to do a lot of things outside.

I love places like like this where, you know, the natural landscape provide that sort of beautiful backdrop.

And, and you can kind of just come in and disconnect and disengage, and, you know, your subconscious is always processing, you know, but to the extent you can appreciate something of visual beauty, and also a little bit of the wonder of nature.

So, I spend a lot of time working on, landscape and all kinds of things.

I love to fly fish because you can spend a day outside and just sort of enjoy the weather and enjoy the, the natural environment.

but all of those things kind of help me keep it together, when I'm not, in the office.

Kristi K: And you are flying in toda to Ann Arbor from Austin, Texas.

Tell us about some of the hobbies and the interest that you have there.

Luke Schnieder: Yeah.

well, you know, Austin's a fantastic place.

So much going on there and so much in the news these day for lots of different reasons.

you know, one of the big things that, that that takes up a lot of my time is working with, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, which is the State Botanic Garden of Texas.

It's, affiliated with th University of Texas at Austin.

but it's dedicated to th preservation of, native species.

And so, Mrs. Johnson herself really had a, a rich legacy of, beautification, and and protecting th environment and sustainability.

and so the center, that is her namesake is a place that a lot of us feel very passionate about.

And we work pretty hard to try to improve it and, make it a plac that's accessible to everybody.

but it's also just a astonishing place to spend time.

no matter what season of the year, wildflowers do not have to be in bloom.

Kristi K: It's really awesome.

And I know and I find fascinating the fact that you have an interest in classic cars and from where you are today, doing autonomous robots and all such things, I' intrigued by that progression.

So how did it start?

Way back in the young Luke days when you got interested in classic cars?

Luke Schnieder I actually did start my career, in the auto industry.

as a, as a mechanical engineer, a powertrain engineer working on engines and transmissions, very close to her and just sort of I always have had a love for, for cars, the cars that kind of were built in, let's say the, you know, the first century, in the early first century of the U.S. auto industry, and in the global auto industry, I guess, are just particularly beautiful, the combination.

Kristi K: So.

Luke Schnieder: Yeah, sure.

I mean, the combinations of, of, of body panels and curvatures of the use of chrome of the first attempts at trying to do human machine interface for something that travels that fast.

you know, a particular passion of min are, are early 1970s, Porsches.

The 9/11 I think were just such a unique product and, you know, such a, a focus for this company.

All that's ever produced are sports cars.

and these are sor of the very earliest examples, and the ones that honestl became accessible to everybody.

they weren't just restricted to people, you know, who wanted to race them.

and so the restoration, process, thi idea of looking at a car that, you know, has been beat up over 50, 60 years, and just going in and kind of carefully, thoughtfully, sometimes painstakingly cleaning, you know, removing corrosion, repainting, even sometimes rebuilding and, and, you know, things like welding and fabrication, it's therapeutic.

Kristi K: I was just going to say that that sounds like very therapeutic.

work life balance kind of really getting back to wha it means to be sort of peaceful.

Luke Schnieder: That's right.

And so much of how we work today, even compared to, you know, a couple of decades ago when I first got started, you know, we spent so much time communicating and on so many different forms of media.

You know, we have, you know, it used to be telephones and in person, discussion and sometimes writing a letter.

but now you have, you know, everything in between instant communications, electronic communications, video meetings and the like.

and so a lot of you know, how we, you know, how we kind of keep our our mental health and wellness.

I think, you know, for me is about, taking that time and, and recharging by just sort of doing something physical, you know, working with your hands, thinking about a problem, and just you know, being with yourself.

Yeah.

Kristi K: For sure.

Don't stop innovating.

the world needs more growth minded people like you.

Luke Snyder, thanks so muc for being on business life 360.

Luke Schnieder: It's bee an absolute pleasure, Christi.

Thanks for having me.

Kristi K: Thank you.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping every aspect of our lives in real time.

Technological progress.

Machines with human cognition.

It's a new business frontier and it's here to stay.

So buckle in.

And that's a wrap on this episode of Business Life 360.

Thanks for joining us to learn more about the innovation, trends and future of business and life as we know it.

I'm Kristi K. and I'll see you on the next business life.

360.

Announcer: Connect with Christy K. on LinkedIn at Christy K. Hoffman.

And here are the business live 360 with Christy K..

Conversation on FM 91 on Thursday mornings.

To watch previous episode and more, visit our website at gt.org symbol 360 and listen to Christy K's podcast, Business Life After Hours.

Wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Business live 360 with Christy K. is made possible in par by KeyBank National Association trustee for the Walter Tune Memorial Fund and ProMedica Toledo Hospital, celebrating 150 years of serving our community.

Also by viewers like you.

Thank you.