Columbus Inno: Ohio on the cusp of catching AI wave, according to Ohio Tech Summit attendees
By Carrie Ghose
May 20, 2024
Artificial intelligence is sweeping through business and popular culture faster than any other emerging technology.
Ohio's history of innovation and collaboration will allow it to harness that emerging power – but only if humans stay central, panelists said at the third annual Ohio Tech Summit.
"In Ohio, we are right at the beginning of an inflection curve of growth," said Dr. Tim Lucas, CEO of Columbus-based NeuroTech Institute. "You wanted to invest in Amazon when Jeff Bezos was a one-man operation."
"Ohio is at an inflection point of being able to harness that force multiplication," said David Sylvan, chief strategy and innovation officer at Cleveland-based University Hospitals.
The summit, organized by technology trade group OhioX, featured large businesses, tiny startups and academics at Ohio State University's Ohio Union. The event sold out 500 tickets; some 200 were on a wait list.
"Ohio's legacy is innovation," said OhioX President Chris Berry. "There’s an absolute opportunity for us to be thought of as a national leader."
Nationwide recently completed a more than decade-long, $1 billion modernization of its technology core, said Mimi Chizever, vice president of technology innovation and organization strategy.
"We are able to focus forward on innovation," she said.
The Columbus-based insurance and financial services giant is exploring predictive AI, blockchain and computer vision to enhance the claims filing process or prevent damage in the first place.
For example, machine-learning software could start the estimation process when a customer takes a video of a dented fender.
Nationwide is looking even more broadly, she said, such as exploring robotics or other technology to help seniors – customers of its retirement financial products – remain in their homes as long as possible.
AI has the potential for remarkable advances in diagnosing and treating disease, Sylvan said, but accuracy and patient safety must remain paramount.
"We are maintaining the human in the loop for everything we do around AI," he said.
While harnessing the potential of AI, the state needs to simultaneously address inequity in access to devices and broadband internet connections, said Ervan Rodgers, formerly the CIO of both Designer Brands and before that the State of Ohio.
"If we got devices in the hands of more people, we'd have a whole new pool of talent that's been untapped," he said.
Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted are unusually plugged in to technology trends, Rodgers said, and that benefits business.
"We share information in a way that's not done in other states," he said. "We have to continue to work together as a group."
Lucas brought his idea for the NeuroTech Institute to Columbus two years ago, jointly recruited by Ohio State University and Battelle. He had pitched the idea for a nonprofit that commercializes university-developed technology at his previous school, but was told there weren't resources.
"The intellectual capital here (in Columbus) is phenomenal," Lucas said. "The culture here is very different from other startup locations."
Colleagues in San Francisco tell Lucas their entire staff turns over about every 18 months, he said.
"They flit from job to job to job," Lucas said.
Shane Bigelow said he moved away to work in tech in Miami, New York and San Francisco. He moved to Cleveland to start Champ Titles, software to digitize transfers of auto titles and liens.
When talking to friends on the coasts, he said he's taken to describing the incredible workforce, transportation infrastructure and natural resources of "New Lake City" before telling them it's Cleveland.
"What's going on here is phenomenal," Bigelow said. "It's becoming easier and easier to recruit people."
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