Graham Gillen
Last week Pureinsights sponsored and presented at the first Knowledge Management Reborn 2022 Conference, with the theme “KM: Latest Technologies, Strategies and Techniques.” We provide some brief takeaways from the conference here along with links to Pureinsights’ presentations.
An international audience
The conference was presented around European time zones, and so most of the audience was from that region. However, the participants and presenters (estimated at 200) represented many different geographies, including the Americas, South Asia and Asia Pacific in addition to Europe.
We will see how the conference feedback plays out, but there seems to be a resurgent demand for KM conferences (virtual or live) since KMWorld stopped staging their Enterprise Search and Discovery conferences several years ago (usually in London).
Palpable enthusiasm – with some “wait and see”
The presenters certainly did not lack ideas or enthusiasm for the conference, with topics ranging from “The State of KM Right Now and How It’s Changing”, to soft topics like “Creativity – The Missing Piece of the KM Puzzle”, to tech topics like “The Knowledge Graph as a Central Element of Knowledge Hubs.” The panel discussions were also lively and interactive.
But what did the attendees think?
Well, we don’t have the pulse of all the attendees but one gentleman that we had significant conversations with surprised us with his sentiment. Along the lines of
“I have been really discouraged by where I thought KM was these past few years. But after seeing some of the talks today, I see – or I want to see – some hope that things are changing.”
“Making Enterprise Search Work Like Google.”
One of the sessions this gentleman was talking about was the presentation given by Pureinsights’ Graham Charlesworth, VP of International Operations. While many vendors and consultants talked about the impact of AI on Knowledge Management, Pureinsights continued to simplify the message down to the fact that Google has “trained” the public what to expect every time they use a search bar (or digital assistant) to look for information. And while different use cases can dictate different requirements, most users expect a Google-like experience when searching for information.
Technology Showcase: Demonstrate of the Pureinsights Discovery Platform
Pureinsights’ CTO, Phil Lewis, also presented how this Google-like search experience can be achieved by providing a 5-minute demo of the Pureinsights Discovery platform.
Closing Panel Question: Will AI Define the Future of Knowledge Management?
The conference closed with a panel of industry experts for an interactive Q&A session with attendees. But the most interesting question was the final one posed to the panel by the conference moderator.
“Will AI Define the Future of Knowledge Management?”
The panel was probably split about 50/50 in the affirmative versus the negative. But this result is not really surprising. KM has always had technology-focused supporters (now pushing AI) as well as methodology / sociology / psychology focused practitioners (pushing human-centric innovation).
The answer – like most complex questions – is probably, “it depends”. But what does Google think? Well even Google hedges its answer somewhat.
The top results points to an article from the KM Institute on The Connection between Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Management. So, Google is pointing users to a published “expert”. But Google also adds this featured snippet as the next result.
The source? A blog from our CEO, Kamran Khan during his time as a Managing Director at Accenture.
At Pureinsights, we can’t tell you where Knowledge Management and Search will end up – but we are pretty sure where it’s headed. Contact us and we’ll have a chat!