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Speaker 1: When you're in a market leadership position as a company

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Speaker 1: can be challenging. People can say, well, what's wrong, it's

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Speaker 1: not broken, what are you trying to fix? We're number one,

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Speaker 1: and our goal was we are number one, But sometimes

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Speaker 1: you've got to be willing to disrupt yourself to get

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Speaker 1: better and to maintain that number one. So we're kind

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Speaker 1: of looking at it as like, not all the things

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Speaker 1: we did to to get to our our upcoming hundred year,

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Speaker 1: but what can we do to position State Farm to

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Speaker 1: be here for the next hundred years. Welcome to the

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Speaker 1: restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland. I've spent more than a

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Speaker 1: decade really learning about technology, what makes it tick, and

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Speaker 1: then describing and explaining that to my audience. But it's

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Speaker 1: the conversations with the world's most unconventional thinkers, the leaders

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Speaker 1: at the intersection of technology and business, that fascinate me

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Speaker 1: the most. In partnership with Mobile for Business, I explore

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Speaker 1: the unique set of challenges that see I O S

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Speaker 1: and c t o S face from advancements in cloud

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Speaker 1: and edge computing, software as a service, Internet of things,

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Speaker 1: and of course five G. We are often left wondering

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Speaker 1: how the leading minds and business continue to thrive. Let's

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Speaker 1: find out today. We're honored to have on the show

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Speaker 1: Ashley Pettitt, Chief Information Officer of State Farm. Ashley joined

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Speaker 1: State Farm thirty years ago and is the company's first

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Speaker 1: female ce IO. On top of her responsibilities as CEE

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Speaker 1: i O, she spends time encouraging young women and girls

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Speaker 1: to study STEM subjects and pursue careers in tech. I

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Speaker 1: sat down with Ashley to learn more about the incredibly

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Speaker 1: complex technological underpinning of State Farm, and I started off

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Speaker 1: getting to know a bit more about her background. Ashley,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us for the Restless Ones.

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Speaker 1: And one thing I love to do right off the

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Speaker 1: top of a show is to get to know the

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Speaker 1: person i'm interviewing a little bit more. And I'm just curious,

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Speaker 1: when and how did you first get interested in technology? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: thanks for having me, Jonathan. So, I didn't grow up

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Speaker 1: on technology, and I think other than probably playing Atari

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Speaker 1: in junior high in high school on on my home system,

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Speaker 1: my first exposure to technology was late in high school

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Speaker 1: where we took a basic programming class. And I would

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Speaker 1: say my real interests got harvested more when I was

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Speaker 1: in college. So I was a finance major in the

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Speaker 1: College of Business, and we had to take a couple

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Speaker 1: of computer classes as part of that curriculum, and I

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Speaker 1: just really gravitated to those classes such that by the

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Speaker 1: time I was ready to graduate, I had a double

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Speaker 1: major then in finance and m I S. Well, first

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Speaker 1: of all, you had the perfect entry point with the ATARI.

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Speaker 1: Whether it was the computer system the twenty it doesn't

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Speaker 1: matter to me. I love the idea that you grew

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Speaker 1: to love technology through something that I think a lot

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Speaker 1: of people when they go to college, they view those

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Speaker 1: necessary classes as a burden, and it turned out to

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Speaker 1: be a gateway for something that you might not have

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Speaker 1: otherwise encountered. Was there a specific point in your experience

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Speaker 1: at college where you thought, yeah, this is something I

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Speaker 1: want to pursue as a potential career. There was. So

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Speaker 1: when I first started college, I was electrical engineering as

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Speaker 1: my declared major. I always loved math and science, but

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Speaker 1: for some reason electrical engineering just didn't do it for me.

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Speaker 1: Switched to College of Business and Finance, and it was

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Speaker 1: actually my very first professor in my m I S

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Speaker 1: class who was, like, you pick up on this really quickly.

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Speaker 1: Have you ever thought about, and I hadn't really. I

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Speaker 1: was doing it, to your point more as like a

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Speaker 1: secondary kind of general ed requirement. And really that encouragement

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Speaker 1: was all the boost that I needed. And I'm one,

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Speaker 1: I'm just wired by personality. I love a good challenge,

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Speaker 1: and so for me it was something fun, something different,

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Speaker 1: something I just didn't really have a background in, and

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Speaker 1: so that learning and exploring process just turned out to

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Speaker 1: be a lot of fun. Well, it may have been

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Speaker 1: that electrical engineering wasn't the right path for you, but

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Speaker 1: you certainly are coming across to me as an engineer,

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Speaker 1: someone who sees the world as a series of challenges

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Speaker 1: and looks for potential solutions. So what was your experience

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Speaker 1: like when studying tech and when working in the tech world.

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Speaker 1: I know that you are an advocate for women to

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Speaker 1: go further into STEM studies and STEM careers. What was

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Speaker 1: it like for you? So in college, I would say

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Speaker 1: my journey was a little hit or miss in terms

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Speaker 1: of representation of women. Certainly an electrical engineering those classes

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Speaker 1: were much more male dominated. College of business as you

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Speaker 1: started to think about business administration and marketing and just

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Speaker 1: the range of courses and degrees, probably more fifty fifty,

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Speaker 1: and I feel incredibly fortunate, you know, as I reflect

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Speaker 1: on my journey into State Farm from the beginning, my

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Speaker 1: first supervisor at State Farm was a woman, and I've

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Speaker 1: had great mentors bosses male and female throughout my career,

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Speaker 1: but it has never been an issue for me at

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Speaker 1: State Farm thinking about representation of females really even representation

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Speaker 1: of females and technology. When I started, I would say

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Speaker 1: the problem was I saw them at entry level leader positions.

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Speaker 1: I saw some of them advancing to middle management positions.

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Speaker 1: Um certainly at that time thirty years ago, there were

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Speaker 1: very few, if any, in the senior most positions, and

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Speaker 1: so for me, like you said, it's just been an

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Speaker 1: incredible journey on the first female c I O at

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Speaker 1: State Farm uh In in nine years, right, and I'm

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Speaker 1: incredibly proud of that. But I think it just showcases

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Speaker 1: State Farms approach to diversity and inclusion and what a

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Speaker 1: supportive company and environment I'm part of, So very very

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Speaker 1: thankful for that. It definitely sounds remarkable as someone who

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Speaker 1: has covered technology for several years, the story of of

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Speaker 1: companies being where State Farm was when you first joined

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Speaker 1: that being that there was a lack of of women

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Speaker 1: executives at higher levels. It is refreshing to hear that

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Speaker 1: that was something that was already transforming when you joined

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Speaker 1: thirty years ago at State Farm. You wouldn't think about

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Speaker 1: that for a company that is one year away from

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Speaker 1: celebrating its centennial. Absolutely, and you're right now. As I

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Speaker 1: participate in industry meetings right with pire C, I O

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Speaker 1: S Fortune fifty companies, many of whom have a global

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Speaker 1: scale in arena, the stories are not like mine, and

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Speaker 1: I think that's unfortunate, and that's really part of what

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Speaker 1: has fueled my passion to to want to mentor to

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Speaker 1: be very active in STEM and building uh those skills

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Speaker 1: in our communities. I just think it's incredibly valuable, not

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Speaker 1: just to females to feel valued and seen and recognized

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Speaker 1: in the organization, but firmly believe the organizations are better

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Speaker 1: for it. The solutions we build are more representative of

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Speaker 1: our customers and the community. So I think everyone wins

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Speaker 1: when when we do the right thing. Yes, and we're

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Speaker 1: going to dive even more into that a little bit

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Speaker 1: further into this conversation, but I UH really take heart

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Speaker 1: in what you were saying. When did you join State

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Speaker 1: Farm And what was your first position with the company. Yes,

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Speaker 1: so I started in June of nine, two weeks after

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Speaker 1: graduating college, and my first job was as an HP

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Speaker 1: cobal programmer. And so my first assignment was to support

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Speaker 1: some software applications that were used to move claims between

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Speaker 1: claim reps claim offices. Basically, what that meant was it

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Speaker 1: was batch code that ran off hours. So if my

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Speaker 1: code didn't work well, if I failed to test it correctly,

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Speaker 1: I was going to get a call in the middle

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Speaker 1: of the night and be on the phone trying to

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Speaker 1: troubleshoot auto flow or come up with a corrective action

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Speaker 1: to walk the data center technician through. Wow, you really

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Speaker 1: cut your teeth early on, early on in your career.

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Speaker 1: And so skipping obviously way ahead, what was your journey

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Speaker 1: from the point where you were coding for one department

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Speaker 1: to becoming the chief information officer. Yeah, so I moved

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Speaker 1: into a senior vice president role over our enterprise technology

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Speaker 1: group back in ten. It was on the heels of

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Speaker 1: a pretty sizable transformation and revamp of our our technology capabilities,

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Speaker 1: and then two years later in twenty nineteen, officially was

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Speaker 1: named ce IO. And this is a question I love

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Speaker 1: to ask my guests. Let's assume that you know, you're

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Speaker 1: at a casual party, everyone's happily vaccinated, and someone asked, well,

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Speaker 1: what do you do for a living? How do you

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Speaker 1: describe your job to someone? So usually I will say

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Speaker 1: I do all things technology, and that's partially true. So

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Speaker 1: in our environment, UM, I have a great partner, our

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Speaker 1: Chief Digital Officer, and collectively we lead enterprise technology for

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Speaker 1: state farms. So UH, my part of that is kind

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Speaker 1: of everything that's behind the scenes infrastructure, I T operations,

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Speaker 1: data and analytic tool and platforms, engineering and architecture practices.

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Speaker 1: My peer, the chief Digital Officer, overseas all of our

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Speaker 1: UH customer business facing applications and software. And you use

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Speaker 1: an analogy of like building a house. UM, he's done

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Speaker 1: all the decorating and picked the paint colors and the

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Speaker 1: furniture and in the style, and UM, I've got the

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Speaker 1: plumbing and the light switches and electrical so a lot

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Speaker 1: of the stuff that's probably not quite a sexy and

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Speaker 1: and that people don't really notice. It's a little bit

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Speaker 1: inside the wall or behind the curtain, but critically important

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Speaker 1: and certainly gets noticed when it doesn't doesn't work. It's

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Speaker 1: the technology that in ables everything else to work. Exactly

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Speaker 1: when that underlying technology doesn't work. That's a major issue obviously. Well,

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Speaker 1: let's let's segue into talking a little bit about your

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Speaker 1: leadership style and your strategy, a little bit more about

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Speaker 1: your department. What is the scope of your department? At

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Speaker 1: State Farm our enterprise Technology group, we are the technology

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Speaker 1: provider for the enterprise. We're we're running infrastructure and platforms,

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Speaker 1: we run our own data centers. We're beginning to migrate workloads,

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Speaker 1: both applications and data into public cloud. But we we

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Speaker 1: are responsible for enabling our agents, were responsible for enabling

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Speaker 1: tools that are customers directly use, whether that's on our

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Speaker 1: mobile app or or state farm dot com. We're enabling

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Speaker 1: all of our operational areas. I I referenced claims earlier,

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Speaker 1: but certainly underwriting and our pricing capabilities and actuary across

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Speaker 1: all of our our suite of products. So state Farm

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Speaker 1: offers more than a hundred products across P and C

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Speaker 1: and financial services to our customers. We are enabling and

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Speaker 1: supporting that technology for all of those And you know

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Speaker 1: we've mentioned that that State Farm is is nearly one

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Speaker 1: hundred years old. Uh, with a company that has that

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Speaker 1: kind of history, obviously there's there's this tendency to lean

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Speaker 1: on things like legacy systems, which can sometimes require extra

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Speaker 1: consideration when you want to do things like migrate to

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Speaker 1: new systems, particularly cloud based operations. What sort of challenges

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Speaker 1: do you face as c I O working for a

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Speaker 1: company that that has been around for nearly a century. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's really a great question, Jonathan. We have a myriad

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Speaker 1: of technologies that have been assembled and put together over

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Speaker 1: forty fifty year ers, and they're running millions of transactions

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Speaker 1: and processes every day that are critical to running our operations.

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Speaker 1: And so as you try to modernize these systems, UM

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Speaker 1: understanding dependencies and and where things intersect, UM navigating pulling

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Speaker 1: business rules out of technology, and trying not to break

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Speaker 1: things as you're trying to modernize and make them better

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Speaker 1: UM certainly becomes a delicate balance. We have a number

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Speaker 1: of modernization efforts underway, shifting to data lakes and in

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Speaker 1: public cloud to drive some of our advanced analytic capabilities,

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Speaker 1: incorporating software as a service. Historically, all of our software

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Speaker 1: was custom built in house, and now we've become much

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Speaker 1: more of an integrator of software solutions, putting pieces together.

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Speaker 1: We have a multi year plan and teams are are

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Speaker 1: collect of lee tackling that and trying to do so

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Speaker 1: in a way where it's not just modernizing technology for

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Speaker 1: the sake of the technology. We're trying to align the

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Speaker 1: technology advancements with their desire to reinvent a business process

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Speaker 1: and and really shift their business strategies. So a lot

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Speaker 1: of time has spent between business and technology at State

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Speaker 1: Farm just trying to align make sure that that we

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Speaker 1: have that same sense of urgency and focus for the outcomes.

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Speaker 1: I can't think of another industry that perhaps aerospace, that

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Speaker 1: relies so heavily on very complex mathematical formulas that rely

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Speaker 1: on numerous variables. And the thought of bringing systems into

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Speaker 1: a new era of technology while still staying true to

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Speaker 1: all these very complex formulas that have been developed throughout

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Speaker 1: the history of State Farm, it blows my mind. When

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Speaker 1: I was looking into the research on this episode, I

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Speaker 1: found multiple places where the phrase digital transformation was being

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Speaker 1: used with regard to State Farm. Would that in mind,

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Speaker 1: would you say that the sort of the the pace

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Speaker 1: of evolution has picked up, uh since you started at

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Speaker 1: State Farm? Absolutely Yeah, the cycles in technology when I

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Speaker 1: first started seemed to be there was a new programming

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Speaker 1: language coming out, right, and you'd often have years of

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Speaker 1: lead time between a new one coming out. Now, whether

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Speaker 1: it's hardware componentry, software languages there as we think about

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Speaker 1: some of the emerging technologies like machine learning right that

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Speaker 1: are are just leap frogging and enabling us to do

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Speaker 1: things that weren't even possible before. Certainly the pace of

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Speaker 1: change is faster, and I think we feel the pressure

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Speaker 1: of that pressure on the technology side to effectively deploy

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Speaker 1: and align the technology capabilities that will really cause our

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Speaker 1: business to thrive and push forward. But there are unique

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Speaker 1: challenges that we have to work through in an organization,

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Speaker 1: our size on adoption and consumption of technology, and that's

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Speaker 1: a new pace as well, and so renewed emphasis on

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Speaker 1: training and how do we learn in small pockets and

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Speaker 1: then quickly scale and adapt and it becomes less about

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Speaker 1: deploying the technology and it really becomes more about leveraging

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Speaker 1: the technology to produce some value or outcome, whether it's

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Speaker 1: a simplified process for an employee, so we've eliminated manual

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Speaker 1: task for them, We're doing things in the background Uh,

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Speaker 1: that they don't have to sit and key into the system.

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Speaker 1: Um or whether it's a very intuitive interface for a customer. Uh,

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Speaker 1: so that they can with ease self service. And if

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Speaker 1: they want to be a digitally oriented customer and navigate

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Speaker 1: a process themselves for insurance or a financial services product,

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Speaker 1: how do we make it easy for them to do that?

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Speaker 1: So uh that that omni channel experience of being there

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Speaker 1: with help screens and and advice and training our people,

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Speaker 1: but making it simple that somebody on a mobile phone

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Speaker 1: can navigate the same process equally effective. Um. It's a

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Speaker 1: little bit of a trick. Yeah. I think that's probably

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Speaker 1: the understatement of the podcast, a little bit of a train. Well,

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Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about your approach to leadership.

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Speaker 1: And one of the things that was very curious about

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Speaker 1: is what are the qualities you look for when you

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Speaker 1: want to mentor people to move into leadership positions. Increasingly

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Speaker 1: at State Farm and and I think most companies are

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Speaker 1: like this. Uh, you have this shift of you know,

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Speaker 1: I grew up in technology, so I'm a technologist at heart,

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Speaker 1: but there there's this need to understand the business, the

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Speaker 1: industry that you work in. And um, so we've really

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Speaker 1: seen this convergence UM in our leaders as we think

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Speaker 1: about kind of digital leaders of the future. I need

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Speaker 1: to understand my business so that I can take technology

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Speaker 1: concepts that are emerging and and be able to reimagine

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Speaker 1: my business workflow UM and and vice versa, right, and

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Speaker 1: and so increasingly I think we're we're looking for and

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Speaker 1: encouraging our leaders have experience kind of on both sides

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Speaker 1: of the house, if you will, within technology, but in

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Speaker 1: some of the core business areas, whether that's our claims, operation,

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Speaker 1: or underwriting or pricing, UM and and know what that is.

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Speaker 1: And we talk a lot about UM having a growth mindset, right,

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Speaker 1: So we're talking a minute ago just about this pace

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Speaker 1: of change and UM we need leaders who are intellectually curious,

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Speaker 1: right and they want to ask why, who are are

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Speaker 1: pretty optimistic and positive. They see challenges not as something

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Speaker 1: to kind of run the other way from, but they

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Speaker 1: kind of thrive in that environment of tough problems and

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Speaker 1: hard problems tend to produce like breakthrough results and great accomplishments.

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Speaker 1: If there's one thing most businesses can agree on these days,

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Speaker 1: it's that change has never come about so quickly. New

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Speaker 1: ways of working have become the norm. As a result,

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Speaker 1: the status quo no longer cuts it when it comes

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Speaker 1: to helping businesses adapt and innovate. That's why T Mobile

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Speaker 1: for Business uses unconventional thinking to help businesses work smarter

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Speaker 1: and grow faster. Only T Mobile offers America's largest and

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Speaker 1: fastest five gene network. It's just one reason they're better

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Speaker 1: able to help businesses the real world challenges they face

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Speaker 1: as they evolve. For instance, their new WFX solutions help

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Speaker 1: team members stay connected and productive where work happens. With

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Speaker 1: nearly two and a half times the network coverage of

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Speaker 1: A T and T nearly four times more than Verizon,

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Speaker 1: and forty billion dollars invested in network and business improvements

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Speaker 1: over the next three years, T Mobile for Business is

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Speaker 1: better for your business right now and into the future.

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Speaker 1: See what they can do for your organization at T

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Speaker 1: mobile dot com. Slash Unconventional Open Signal awarded T mobile

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Speaker 1: fastest five G network based on average speeds. USA five

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Speaker 1: G User Experience Report January. Capable device required coverage on

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Speaker 1: available in some areas. Some users may require certain plann

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Speaker 1: or feature see T mobile dot Com. Yeah, you've touched

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Speaker 1: on on so many things that that I find really important.

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Speaker 1: The idea of breaking out of that silo mindset where

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Speaker 1: you focus primarily on just one element of a business

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Speaker 1: is crucial. I think also that that idea of inviting

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Speaker 1: people into who don't have that that preset expectation that

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Speaker 1: something has to be done a specific way because that's

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Speaker 1: how it's been done. And a lot of this is

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Speaker 1: echoing things that I've heard from other thought leaders and

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Speaker 1: and it's just creating this really rich uh landscape in

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Speaker 1: technology and business that I was not really aware of

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Speaker 1: before I started doing this show, and I wanted to

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Speaker 1: to loop back and touch on on something we had

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Speaker 1: already mentioned a little bit, but I wanted to maybe

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Speaker 1: get a little more detail about some of the initiatives

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Speaker 1: that you participate in that are aimed at young women

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Speaker 1: and girls to get involved in STEM subjects, and also

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Speaker 1: beyond that, what you think companies and leaders can do

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Speaker 1: to address issues that traditionally have discouraged women from pursuing

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Speaker 1: STEM education and STEM careers. Within State Farm, I'm one

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Speaker 1: of our executive sponsors of our Women in Technology Employee

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Speaker 1: Resource Group, and that's a great opportunity to encourage women

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Speaker 1: within our company, whether they're currently in the technology department

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Speaker 1: or not to network, to do some of that crossover

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Speaker 1: from business to tech or the other direction, to provide encouragement.

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Speaker 1: Really just to be a role model for them. And

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Speaker 1: you know, I think it's incredibly humbling to me. We

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Speaker 1: talked about being, you know, the first woman's ce IO

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Speaker 1: at State Farm and the obligation kind of the sense

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Speaker 1: of purpose of people seeing someone that looks like them

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Speaker 1: in the highest highest levels of the organization and if

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Speaker 1: I can do it and get here, they can as well.

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Speaker 1: And so that notion of spending time with them, encouraging them,

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Speaker 1: knocking down roadblocks that get in their way, in leveraging

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Speaker 1: my position power and influence for good in that fashion.

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Speaker 1: So in the communities where we serve, we do a

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Speaker 1: lot of STEM oriented programs. It's a specific program targeted

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Speaker 1: at girls in fifth through eighth grades, and much of

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Speaker 1: the data as you study girls and different age groups,

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Speaker 1: and when they start to have a fall outrate, it's

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Speaker 1: typically at that middle school junior high age where they

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Speaker 1: quit raising their hand in class. Uh, they get a

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Speaker 1: bit overwhelmed and overshadow. It's a series of hands on labs,

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Speaker 1: but they also get exposed to role models and mentors

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Speaker 1: so that they can start to see what is a path,

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Speaker 1: what might that look like, what's a college degree or

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Speaker 1: program that I could study, What's a class that I

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Speaker 1: might want to take as an elective in high school.

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Speaker 1: We've had girl that went through that program who now

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Speaker 1: are graduating from college right as scientists and medical professionals

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Speaker 1: and technologists and engineers. And we've brought them back to

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Speaker 1: the program with pictures of themselves in fifth grade, you know,

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Speaker 1: at the program to show the girls like you can

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Speaker 1: do this too, And um, that just has my heart.

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Speaker 1: There's power in that. It's great to hear about. Any

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Speaker 1: initiative that manages to create a welcoming space leads to

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Speaker 1: an environment where you have women with their own perspectives

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Speaker 1: coming in with expertise into different fields, and that way

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Speaker 1: all the different organizations benefit from those perspectives they otherwise

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Speaker 1: never would have access to. Can you tell me about

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Speaker 1: a project or undertaking that you're particularly proud of outside

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Speaker 1: of the STEM, because I think it's pretty clear that

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Speaker 1: has to be way up there. You knew that would

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Speaker 1: be top of my list. Yeah, Um, you know, I

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Speaker 1: I reflect back before I was in my my s

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Speaker 1: V P and C I O role I I mentioned

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Speaker 1: we went through a pretty sizeable transformation and um, I

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Speaker 1: feel like that's a bit of my legacy that that

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Speaker 1: I'll leave here at State Farm. And it was an

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Speaker 1: effort we undertook back in UH twenty fifteen sixteen timeframe

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Speaker 1: to really just look at our technology capabilities. Increasingly we

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Speaker 1: were seeing that business and in digital connection and really

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Speaker 1: wanted to make sure we had our act together, and

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Speaker 1: so we looked at the alignment of technology to our

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Speaker 1: business strategies and outcomes. We looked at how we were

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Speaker 1: prioritizing and making I T investments, where we were placing

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Speaker 1: right though those digital bets, if you will. We looked

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Speaker 1: at our internal structure and processes for how we did

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Speaker 1: work and said, these kind of seem a little dated too.

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Speaker 1: So as we're modernizing the technology, let's modernize our methods.

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Speaker 1: Going through a process like that in an organization our

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Speaker 1: size and when you're in a market leadership position as

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Speaker 1: a company can be challenging. People can say, well, what's wrong,

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Speaker 1: it's not broken, what are you trying to fix? We're

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Speaker 1: number one, and our goal was we are number one,

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Speaker 1: But sometimes you've got to be willing to disrupt yourself

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Speaker 1: to get better and to maintain that number one. So

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Speaker 1: we're kind of looking at it as like, not all

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Speaker 1: the things we did to to get to our our

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Speaker 1: upcoming hundred year, but what can we do to position

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Speaker 1: State Farm to be here for the next hundred years.

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Speaker 1: And I'm super proud of our team. They're delivering tremendous

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Speaker 1: capabilities for our organization ation at a faster pace, iterating

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Speaker 1: and learning. It's just been incredible to watch their accomplishments

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Speaker 1: are just evident in industry awards that we have business

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Speaker 1: partner feedback the growth of State Farm. We've just never

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Speaker 1: seen technology driving our enterprise growth in in such a

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Speaker 1: tight fashions. Well, and you've you've hit a real theme

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Speaker 1: of the restless ones right on the head, the idea

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Speaker 1: that complacency has no real place in business. If you

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Speaker 1: grow complacent and you are unwilling to make the moves

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Speaker 1: to bring businesses into the next era, you can be

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Speaker 1: darned sure someone else is going to. I think this

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Speaker 1: is a great point for us to kind of transition

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Speaker 1: and talk about emerging technologies. You mentioned machine learning earlier,

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Speaker 1: and we'll jump into that. But one thing I must

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Speaker 1: ask is, in what ways is State Farm investing in

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Speaker 1: five G technology? How do you anticipate leveraging five G?

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Speaker 1: I think, for us, when you think about our distributed

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Speaker 1: footprint nineteen thousand plus agent storefronts UH in an extended

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Speaker 1: network and and telecom environment that that fully connects all

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Speaker 1: of our facilities together, this notion of lower latency and

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Speaker 1: high capacity right there, there's power in what that could

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Speaker 1: mean to our organization. I just think in a hyper

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Speaker 1: connected world, and as you think about sensors and data

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Speaker 1: and just the volume of movement across networks, five G

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Speaker 1: has potential to be a real game changer. Well, and

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Speaker 1: clearly when we talk about State Farm, we are talking

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Speaker 1: about a company that is right there on the border

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Speaker 1: of big data. And with the emergence of UH new

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Speaker 1: artificial intelligence tools, particularly in the world of machine learning,

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Speaker 1: we're starting to see incredible ways to leverage this enormous

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Speaker 1: amount of data. So, in what ways has State Farm

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Speaker 1: been leaning on things like AI or machine learning? How

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Speaker 1: are you looking at those technologies to enable State Farm's mission.

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Speaker 1: So I would say our strategy is very much this

435
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:21,640
Speaker 1: intersection of like human and digital capabilities together, and so

436
00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:26,600
Speaker 1: our human element obviously fulfilled through our agents, our agent

437
00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:31,680
Speaker 1: team members, you know, our customer facing associates. But how

438
00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:36,000
Speaker 1: do we leverage emerging technologies like machine learning and AI

439
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:43,680
Speaker 1: to simplify our customer experiences, to create efficiencies straight through processing,

440
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:48,680
Speaker 1: minimize a lot of the manual work that our our

441
00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:54,040
Speaker 1: operations employees do, and UM, when we deploy those technologies

442
00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:59,440
Speaker 1: effectively for us, the benefit is we then can have

443
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:03,920
Speaker 1: our associates, whether it's an agent focus on selling right,

444
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:07,360
Speaker 1: focus on meeting and understanding the needs of their customers,

445
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:10,760
Speaker 1: which is the value add for them, or if it's

446
00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:14,480
Speaker 1: an operations and underwriting employee, I would rather have them

447
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:19,800
Speaker 1: truly assessing unique risk rather than doing manual task UH

448
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:23,080
Speaker 1: that that we can streamline for them. And I think

449
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:25,800
Speaker 1: now we're we're at the point where we're starting to

450
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 1: see some value from State Farm as the largest insure

451
00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:34,680
Speaker 1: Number one, we have more data than our competitors. UM,

452
00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:37,360
Speaker 1: you don't win by having the most data. All that

453
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:40,480
Speaker 1: does is increase your storage cost. If if I'm just

454
00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:43,560
Speaker 1: dragging it with me, but it's what's the power, what

455
00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:48,200
Speaker 1: what's the UH inferences and insights that that data brings?

456
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:51,760
Speaker 1: And then how do I incorporate and leverage that. It

457
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:54,680
Speaker 1: sounds a lot like that that the AI in this

458
00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 1: case is in that realm I like to call augmented intelligence,

459
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:03,959
Speaker 1: where very much right, you are augmenting your your workforce,

460
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:09,320
Speaker 1: your customers, your partners with technology. As opposed to the

461
00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:14,720
Speaker 1: scary science fiction dystopia version of AI where everyone gets displaced.

462
00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 1: We're seeing that's not really the case. We're seeing that

463
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:20,880
Speaker 1: the deployments tend to be how can we allow people

464
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:24,640
Speaker 1: to do their jobs but more efficiently, How can we

465
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:26,840
Speaker 1: free them up to be what they're truly good at

466
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:30,160
Speaker 1: and have everything else kind of be taken care of

467
00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:35,480
Speaker 1: in the background. Absolutely, Yeah, Well, I also have to

468
00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:38,640
Speaker 1: ask about one of my favorite topics because it's the

469
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:42,960
Speaker 1: one that consistently becomes the most challenging for me to

470
00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:49,640
Speaker 1: describe to the uninitiated state farm exploring blockchain and if so, how, yeah,

471
00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:52,760
Speaker 1: you may have seen we UH kind of advance some

472
00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:56,880
Speaker 1: work in partnership with U s a A. And really

473
00:31:56,960 --> 00:32:02,400
Speaker 1: this relates to using blockchain technolog eology for claim subrogation,

474
00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:08,920
Speaker 1: UM activities and so um. Over the past year, we've

475
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:14,040
Speaker 1: worked with us a A cooperatively UH kind of training

476
00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:18,320
Speaker 1: the blockchain technology making sure we had things right. Um,

477
00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:22,360
Speaker 1: and today we're really in a full production mode where um,

478
00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:26,640
Speaker 1: all of those subrogation settlements between US A, A and

479
00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:31,600
Speaker 1: and State Farm are leveraging a blockchain process. I think

480
00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:36,720
Speaker 1: about seventy five thousand checks are exchanged per year, so

481
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 1: so that's a high volume process where again the technology

482
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:45,480
Speaker 1: can have a real material impact on our business as

483
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:49,400
Speaker 1: we think about scaling this in this is about how

484
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:52,920
Speaker 1: do we start to onboard other carriers, uh, to to

485
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:57,520
Speaker 1: leverage that blockchain and so uh super excited about that

486
00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:00,600
Speaker 1: partnership with U S A A and in forming that

487
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:05,040
Speaker 1: consortium around claim subrogation. I think this might be the

488
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:08,960
Speaker 1: first case where I've spoken with someone where a blockchain

489
00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:12,800
Speaker 1: use was not purely a hypothetical but was actually put

490
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:15,920
Speaker 1: in in practice in a pilot program and out of

491
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:18,720
Speaker 1: curiosity were there were there those sort of conversations within

492
00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:21,640
Speaker 1: State Farm just to kind of have people wrap their

493
00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:25,640
Speaker 1: minds around what block chain actually is. Absolutely so much

494
00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:30,640
Speaker 1: like other emerging technologies. UM, you know, we dabbled in

495
00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:34,360
Speaker 1: blockchain just to understand, well, what is it and how

496
00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:38,080
Speaker 1: would we use it? And um, I think for a

497
00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:42,320
Speaker 1: while that business use case is just elusive. And I

498
00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:46,040
Speaker 1: can reflect on sitting in industry meetings with my peers

499
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:50,080
Speaker 1: even just twenty four months ago, and it's like, Okay,

500
00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:55,200
Speaker 1: we get the technology. We we understand the ledger concept

501
00:33:55,280 --> 00:33:57,960
Speaker 1: and how that works, but like, where would we ever

502
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:01,280
Speaker 1: use it? A few of my peers in banking, they

503
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:05,720
Speaker 1: can make the very literal jump to a financial ledger

504
00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:07,960
Speaker 1: and you can say, okay, I can see that, but

505
00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:11,879
Speaker 1: beyond that, it was difficult to find a path through

506
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:16,600
Speaker 1: and um. So again we're we're excited that our our

507
00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:20,920
Speaker 1: labs team persisted and warmed that partnership with us A

508
00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:24,160
Speaker 1: A and and that they were creative and they're thinking

509
00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:27,879
Speaker 1: to apply that to subrogation and and who knows where

510
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:31,279
Speaker 1: that may lead now that we've got that example, Well,

511
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:34,840
Speaker 1: are there any other emerging technologies we haven't really touched

512
00:34:34,920 --> 00:34:38,759
Speaker 1: on that? State Farm is looking into things that you're

513
00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:43,560
Speaker 1: particularly interested in. We're we're always doing forms of research.

514
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:48,600
Speaker 1: We have some early stage look at quantum computing and

515
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:52,680
Speaker 1: and what the possibilities right and and potentials are there,

516
00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:58,000
Speaker 1: always looking at things like next gen network, telecom, anything

517
00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:01,799
Speaker 1: that adds more kind of software defined or automation into

518
00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:05,680
Speaker 1: that space is super helpful. So those are probably the

519
00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:07,959
Speaker 1: top two the that come to mind that we hadn't

520
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:11,200
Speaker 1: talked about. Yeah, quantum computing. When we started getting into

521
00:35:11,280 --> 00:35:14,560
Speaker 1: super position and cubits and stuff, we we know we

522
00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:19,800
Speaker 1: really are touching the bleeding edge of technology. Of course,

523
00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:23,920
Speaker 1: I couldn't let Ashley go without asking her one more thing.

524
00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:31,000
Speaker 1: What keeps you up at night? So many things? Coffee,

525
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:36,600
Speaker 1: you know. I think it's for me making sure that

526
00:35:37,239 --> 00:35:43,520
Speaker 1: I'm keeping pace with new technologies, with capabilities that that

527
00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:46,960
Speaker 1: my organization again, you know, providing a lot of the

528
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:51,920
Speaker 1: foundational capabilities for State Farm. Um, you have to have

529
00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:55,040
Speaker 1: lead time for those, and so for me, it's just

530
00:35:55,440 --> 00:35:57,600
Speaker 1: trying to make sure I don't have blind spots, that

531
00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:01,239
Speaker 1: that I'm aware of those things UM, and that that

532
00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:04,359
Speaker 1: I'm kind of signaling to my team to make sure

533
00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:08,160
Speaker 1: they're pressing and have a sense of urgency to try

534
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:12,000
Speaker 1: to drive those and then probably that I'm I'm listening

535
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:17,000
Speaker 1: as well. Ashley, thank you so much again for joining us.

536
00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:21,000
Speaker 1: This was a fantastic conversation and I'm very pleased that

537
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:24,840
Speaker 1: I got the opportunity to speak with you today. Oh, likewise,

538
00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:27,440
Speaker 1: thank you so much. I'm honored to be here and

539
00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:34,360
Speaker 1: it was great to speak with you. It's hard for

540
00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:38,000
Speaker 1: me to say what most impressed me about Ashley. Her

541
00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:41,680
Speaker 1: extensive knowledge about tech, coupled with the drive to continue

542
00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:46,040
Speaker 1: to learn as new innovations emerge, is certainly admirable. Her

543
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:49,560
Speaker 1: role in helping State Farm embrace new technologies and avoid

544
00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:53,840
Speaker 1: complacency is another. But I think it's her dedication to

545
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:57,279
Speaker 1: helping young women and girls explore STEM subjects in a

546
00:36:57,400 --> 00:37:02,240
Speaker 1: space that is welcoming and encourage, giving them every opportunity

547
00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:05,480
Speaker 1: to discover a love and affinity for subjects that they

548
00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:10,239
Speaker 1: might otherwise avoid because of social pressures and expectations. That's

549
00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:13,759
Speaker 1: what really impresses me the most, And once again I

550
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:17,360
Speaker 1: find that a company I wouldn't have necessarily associated with

551
00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:21,360
Speaker 1: technology is not just relying on tech but exploring the

552
00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:25,480
Speaker 1: bleeding edge of technology. I don't get to talk about

553
00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:29,919
Speaker 1: quantum computing that frequently. After all. Make sure you join

554
00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:33,160
Speaker 1: us for future episodes of The Restless Ones, where we'll

555
00:37:33,239 --> 00:37:35,759
Speaker 1: sit down with other leaders in the tech space to

556
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:39,160
Speaker 1: get insights on leadership and how to leverage technology to

557
00:37:39,239 --> 00:37:44,120
Speaker 1: a company's best advantage. Thanks for listening. I'm Jonathan Strickland.

558
00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:52,560
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Speaker 1: comes to helping businesses evolve and grow. That's why team

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Speaker 1: Obile for Business uses unconventional thinking to help businesses sees

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