NTT Data’s primary goal is to bring innovative offerings to clients that address their business challenges now and in the future. To learn more about their approaches and innovations with automation, AI, Blockchain and IOT, I sat with NTT’s new president and Cheif Digital Officer, Eric Clark.
M.R.Rangaswami: How can “intelligent” legal assistants address court case backlogs?
Eric Clark: Virtual agents and ‘intelligent’ bots are machines that can interact with you and solve a range of problems by understanding your natural language, whether spoken or written. Imagine a scenario where you call your healthcare insurance provider to discuss changes to your plan. The day where a conversational agent can answer every question you ask and provide support and make changes to your account is here. The future will bring new and exciting use cases, such as an intelligent legal assistant with the ability to search through a virtual case log of files and information, simply by your voice request.
M.R.: What potential do you see specifically for blockchain?
Eric: Blockchain has tons of potential and we’re starting to see the proof; in fact, I just returned from NTT’s Research and Development Forum 2018 in Tokyo. We have over 50 proof of concept blockchain projects happening – one, in fact, was just announced publicly with our client, Tokyo Marine. The potential is there – in every sector from banking and financial services to shipping and manufacturing.
M.R.: Briefly tell us a little bit about how NTT is looking to partner with startups.
Eric: We are really excited to host our 9th global innovation contest – this year our team is hosting two contests in the U.S. (San Francisco and Boston) in order to encourage local startups and those with great business ideas, and offer a platform for those entering. This will foster connections, networking and ultimately innovation. The finalist of our U.S. contests will be invited to present at the grand finale in Tokyo. The ultimate winner will receive in-kind contributions and the potential to bring the winning business idea to life.
M.R. Rangaswami is the co-founder of Sand Hill Group and publisher of SandHill.com.