There’s a very strange pattern I’ve noticed among smart people — they have stopped reading. In today’s world, that's becoming a big risk.

I started asking people I met a simple question: What’s the last book you read?

I’ve noticed something odd over the last few years. More and more public places I visit — movie theaters, airports, universities — are Pepsi only. Meanwhile, The Coca-Cola Company keeps introducing flavors I really like… briefly. Then they disappear. Sometimes they return for a month. Then they’re gone again.

I often get asked to help companies predict the future using AI. While I don’t have a crystal ball to foresee black-swan like events, I can help companies forecast, prepare, and adapt – sometimes with surprisingly simple approaches. In the first part of this post, we explored how AI can help with certain categories of prediction but still can’t give you the winning lottery numbers. Here, I will look at some concrete examples of where AI can help to manage your business by increasing the accuracy of your future models. Let’s start with the ubiquitous sales forecast.

What if I told you AI can now determine exactly which deals in your pipeline will close this quarter? Or which product SKUs will run out of inventory in 90 days? The real question isn’t whether AI can predict the future – it’s whether it can do it better than you.