#72—Erica Orange: Trends to Keep Top of Mind

Erica Orange is Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of The Future Hunters, one of the world’s leading futurist consulting firms. She evaluates emerging social, technological, economic, political, demographic and environmental trends—and identifies the strategic implications (the “So what?”) of those trends for several of the most influential Fortune 500 companies, trade associations and public sector clients. Erica’s ability to identify patterns, think critically and analytically, and translate that into actionable strategies is what has made her an invaluable asset to clients. Erica frequently speaks to a wide range of global audiences about the macro trends that are shaping and impacting today’s landscape. She has spoken at TEDx and keynoted over a hundred conferences around the world, including across Europe, Latin America, and Asia. She has authored numerous articles and industry white papers on a variety of future-focused topics, and has been featured in news outlets including NPR, Time, Inc, Yahoo Singapore, WWD, Bloomberg, and CBS This Morning. In 2020, she was named by Forbes as one of the world's 50 Top Female Futurists. In this podcast, she shares:Why the big opportunity of metaverse is not on the all the B2C marketing side that we tend to talk about The number one future trend that keeps her up at nightWhat competencies will be necessary in the future of AI__________________________________________________________________________________________" "-Erica Orange_________________________________________________________________________________________Episode Timeline:00:00—Introducing Erica + The topic of today’s episode2:17—If you really know me, you know that...2:55—What is your definition of strategy?4:59—How did you become a futurist?6:59—For the individual what does it look like to think about these trends and extrapolate?8:20—Could you elaborate on the trends you've seen in artificial intelligence, and what we should be thinking about?12:08—What are the implications for AI in terms of what it will affect, e.g. hiring, training...14:57—What keeps you up at night?18:35—Could we dig into the concept of "digital twins"?21:50—How do we balance reaching too far in the future with what's immediately possible?22:59—How do you get companies ready for the permutations of the future?25:46—Where can people follow you and keep learning from you?__________________________________________________________________________________________Additional Resources: Personal Page: https://thefuturehunters.com/speaking-engagements/erica-orange/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericaorangeTwitter: https://twitter.com/erorangeThank you to our executive producer Zach Ness, our producer Nazanin Homayoun Jam and our editor James Pearce. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast