I’m excited for clients to attend Forrester’s New Tech & Innovation Forum, July 18–19 in Boston. This year’s theme is Putting It All Together: The Power of Exponential Tech. At the leading edge, innovative companies are finding that really explosive potential lies not in any one technology alone but in the combination of two or more to create new tools, new platforms, and new products and services. For example, a cloud implementation offers a powerful platform upon which to build machine learning and AI-based offerings.

My colleagues will explore how combining technologies can drive business value in the age of the customer. I’ll be speaking on RQ, the robotics quotient, which is a prerequisite to operationalizing these technologies. RQ measures the ability of individuals and organizations to learn from, adapt to, collaborate with, trust, and generate business results from automated entities, including software such as RPA, AI, physical robotics, and related systems. Organizations, teams, and individuals with high RQ are more likely to succeed because they have established the skills, practices, culture, processes, budgets, and buy-in required to transform their businesses.

Clients who have read “The CIO’s Guide To Automation, AI, And Robotics” know that driving business value requires investment in strategic competencies. In “RQ: Assess Your Readiness For Working Side By Side With Robots And AI,” we formalize these competencies into a model called PLOT — People, Leadership, Organization, and Trust. The first three factors measure your current and desired capabilities; the final factor is a measure of trust, which varies by the characteristics of the technology you plan to implement. Trust acts as a technology challenge multiplier, the lens through which People, Leadership, and Organization operate to yield results.

At the New Tech & Innovation Forum, I’ll extend my viewpoint on RQ, drawing from dozens of interviews with digital and technology leaders, survey data from Forrester’s Business Technographics®, and conversations with clients who are currently in the process of transforming their businesses with AI and automation. People who attend the talk will gain a deeper understanding of the areas of investment required to actually succeed with these leading-edge, exponential technologies.

Our event will be held at the Sheraton Boston on July 18–19. I hope to see you there! More information may be found here.

J. P. Gownder is a vice president and principal analyst serving CIOs. He leads Forrester’s research on the impact that robots, AI, and automation technologies have on employment, the economy, and the future of work. He also covers innovation in the context of disruptive devices and interfaces — from PCs to mobile devices, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), software, and intelligent agents. He was named one of the five most important people in the world in the area of wearable computing. Follow him on Twitter at @jgownder.