The Heller Report: How the Wow Factor Drives Innovation at Northeast Grocery

Artificial intelligence represents an opportunity to redefine IT leadership, Scott Kessler, CIO at Northeast Grocery, tells Martha Heller in this article for CIO.com. Among the supermarket chain's moves, Kessler says, is establishing an Office of AI to foster collaboration and AI-driven innovation; streamlining business process workflows; consolidating systems in the cloud; and experimenting with retail-floor robots to improve product availability.

Eric Vaughan, CEO of Ignite Tech and GFI Software, determined that his companies’ development process and software products would use AI, a shift that led to a major workforce change. In this interview, he explains, “the biggest benefit of AI … is the ability to eliminate routine work for everyone from the CEO to the CIO to a software engineer to free their time up for more important tasks.”

Researchers at Penn State have invented a way to send sound through space at a frequency that can be heard by one person in a group. Writing in “The Conversation,” the scientists explain they manipulated combinations of high-intensity ultrasound beams to be heard in one “audio enclave.” While not yet ready for adoption, potential applications include personalized audio in public spaces (like a museum tour without headphones), music for car passengers that the driver can’t hear, and confidential conversations.

Heller was recently retained by Black & Veatch to recruit a Chief Information Security Officer. Black & Veatch is a 100-percent employee-owned global engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. For this role, we identified Bob Schuetter, who most recently served as Chief Information Security Officer for Ashland. Schuetter holds an MBA from Xavier University. Congratulations, Bob!