There’s a massive opportunity waiting for Michigan
I’m a optimist. I believe passionately that every team, in every industry, has a bright future ahead. But there’s a catch: you’ve got to adapt to the change in the world as it comes. The teams who reinvent the things they build, and the way they build things will be the teams who lead and succeed in the future.
You may have noticed that I’ve been spending a lot of time in Michigan lately. I’ve been helping Michigan to reinvent the way they work so they will thrive in an future of innovation. I’ve attended, supported, and spoken at events in the corridor from Ann Arbor to Zeeland. I’ve made a bunch of new friends and colleagues. In this post, I’ll explain why I think the region is so incredibly exciting to me right now.
Michigan is standing on the precipice
of their biggest opportunity in 120 years!
It’s maybe their biggest opportunity ever. In the next ten years, Michigan has the opportunity to become a global leader in innovation. But that opportunity won’t be waiting for long. Others are already lining up to try to take it.
Here’s what that future will hold…
In the last year, we’ve seen a boom in the use of ChatGPT (also Google Bard, Otter, Jasper, Claude, and many more). People everywhere are using these tools to answer questions, generate images, write posts for social media, draft emails to customers, summarize meetings, and a possibly-infinite list of uses that will likely change the way that every one of our teams, in every one of our industries gets work done. We’ve all heard a lot about AI lately.
But this is not a post about AI. Instead, it’s about the thing that AI will enable.
Because AI can also generate code.
And that’s where things could get really interesting for Michigan.
You see, the world is right on the cusp of the democratization of robotics. Robots are already pretty capable. The research and development has achieved amazing milestones. The cost of sensors and actuators has become dramatically more affordable. Batteries and charging systems enable power-on-demand. Today’s robots have surprisingly amazing, balance, dexterity, and navigational skills. Today’s robots are already physically incredible.
But today’s robots are still pretty dumb.
…for now, at least. Programming robots is still a dramatically manual task in most cases. Many of us have a Roomba (or at least a Roomba-clone) in our homes. In America, there are 20 million of us. That’s a single-task robot and it’s already wildly popular. Now, imagine if it could do more things. Imagine arms and legs on that Roomba helping you to fold your laundry, take out the garbage, clean the toilet, cook dinner (…maybe not in that order).
That will be awesome and it’s not that far away. But programming tasks for robots one task at a time is still too hard and takes too long. And that’s getting in the way of our robot-household future.
AI will lower that barrier – more quickly than you think.
AI-generated code will facilitate the creation of a massive marketplace of robot skills. Making it possible for a single robot in our homes, or in our hospitals, or in our restaurants, to complete a near-infinite amount of tasks. When that happens there will be a boom in robot-demand. We will need 30-million, or 50-million, or 100-million robots just in the United States alone! Estimates expect that this future might come by 2033 or sooner.
Someone has to build those robots. It might as well be Michigan.
”But, wait. Michigan makes cars,” you might be thinking. Sure. But also…
The organizations and leaders who build millions of robots at scale, will need:
mechanical engineering,
manufacturing leadership,
partner and supply-chain networks,
and software development.
Sound familiar? It should! Michigan has a unique combination of all four of those things. Educators in Michigan already lead the nation in preparing the workforce for the precise combination of disciplines necessary for producing general purpose robotic machines at scale. Businesses, innovation centers, economic development organizations, and universities have already been driving the region toward this future.
I’ve had a bunch of conversations this year with some of the most innovative organizations in the region: The Right Place, Disher, Atomic Object, Twisthink, Michigan Software Labs, Lakeshore Advantage, the Michigan Israel Business Accelerator, and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. I’ve also been talking with some of the schools in the area from Grand Valley State University, to Ferris State, the University of Michigan, and more. With their help, teams in the region are already creating an amazing future for Michigan as an innovation leader.
And don’t forget, Michigan is also pretty great at healthcare. If you think robots at home will be great, then the possibility of health-services robots will be even better. And that will amplify the opportunity that lies ahead! Michigan could be the place that produces robots – at scale – for a billion people or more. There might not be a place that’s better equipped to create this future.
Whether you live in Michigan, or somewhere else, my message for everyone is this:
Don’t wait for the future.
Create it!
But reinventing the way your team works to support an innovative new future will take some bold moves. People will need to #Adapt to change continuously, even when there is some risk. Teams everywhere will need to #Align in more-streamlined and efficient ways. Organizations will need to #Automate to get rid of the old work, to make space for the new.
Reinventions like these aren’t easy. But the most rewarding stuff never is.
Let me know how I can be helpful. And let’s create the future, together!
Cheers!
-Dan