I’ve been very quiet on here for a few months. Alongside teaching, I’ve been deep in thinking, researching and experimenting with AI. This feels a bit like going back to my first academic post in the late 1980s as a Senior Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence, and at the same time a leap into the future.
Today I can finally say why.
Since May I’ve been working with a remarkable new company, Brilliant & Bloom, as an advisor and collaborator. Huge thanks to the three founders – Mark Watkins, Peter Moss and Dev Gadgil – for letting me get fully involved. Today they launch to the world.
Brilliant & Bloom deliberately does not start with technology. It starts with an audience: affluent over-50s, or Seasoned Achievers – a vast, valuable and badly underserved group. Too often they’re stereotyped, ignored or treated as an afterthought.
What if we really understood their ideas, values, needs and preferences, and used that to shape marketing, communication and innovation?
That’s the gap Brilliant & Bloom is stepping into. They’ve commissioned hundreds of hours of interviews, surveys and observations to build a rich knowledge base, and, led by Dev, have built the first version of Bable, a learning engine whose AI agents “know” this audience and can help brands spot opportunities, shape strategy and design better experiences and businesses.
I’ve been lucky enough to help with modelling the knowledge, prototyping components, exploring ethical and cultural questions, and setting up evaluation, trend-spotting and red-teaming work.
AI is clearly part of every business’s future, but “How do we use AI?” is the wrong starting question. A better one is: “How can we better meet the needs of our customers, including Seasoned Achievers, and where can AI help us do that?”
I’m excited to see how clients and partners respond to Brilliant & Bloom and Bable. And I’m very happy to be along for the journey.
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