As Jay Ash exited Governor Maura Healey’s ceremonial signing of a $4 billion economic development bill on Tuesday, he was asked by a reporter what’s on the minds of the high-powered executives in his group, the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership.
The Partnership chief executive responded with two all-too-familiar letters: Next year, he said, will be the year of AI.
Ash wasn’t just saying that because the bill Healey signed includes $103 million for artificial intelligence. Corporate Boston’s interest in generative AI has been building for a while now, pretty much since ChatGPT’s emergence two years ago. And now it’s a massive buzzword, regardless of where you turn.
Speaking on a health care panel at MIT on Dec. 4, Mass General Brigham chief executive Anne Klibanski talked about how AI will take personalized medicine to new heights, while biotech entrepreneur Bob Langer and Biogen chief executive Chris Viehbacher chimed in about how it will rapidly accelerate clinical drug trials. (Viehbacher said it’s “not just a cool tool” but “will revolutionize how we’re doing things.”)
On Tuesday of this week, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce chief executive Jim Rooney kicked off a series to discuss the topic over the next year, with a virtual presentation by McKinsey & Co. senior partner Rob Levin and state technology services secretary Jason Snyder; Levin talked about how AI is taking over software coding and will do the same for food design and packaging, while Snyder mentioned how Northeastern University students used AI to help state highway officials outline all the policy steps necessary for building a bridge, a process that normally can take staff two or three weeks. (Snyder also discussed the results of the Healey administration’s AI task force, which will soon release a report on what the state can do for the field to flourish here.)
Later on Tuesday, Visa chief executive Ryan McInerney held forth with New Balance chief executive Joe Preston on stage at a Boston College Chief Executives Club meeting. Preston asked McInerney how AI will change his business.
Artificial intelligence, McInerney responded, will meaningfully alter how consumers shop because they’ll likely have access to a virtual agent that can do the buying for them.
“It’s going to know as much about you as you know about yourself,” McInerney said. “It’s going to know the type of sneakers, the type of flat-screen TVs, the type of fashion that you want. It’s going to go find those things for you and ultimately, once we get comfortable with things, it’s going to buy them for you.”
McInerney likened this to e-commerce’s evolution two decades ago. Once a novelty, most shoppers don’t give online purchases a second thought today.
“We’re going to ask our agents to maybe go find something for my wife for Mother’s Day,” he added, noting that the assistant could scour her text history and social media accounts. “I’m quickly going to realize that my agent is much better at knowing what my wife actually wants than I am.”
That prompted some laughter, though the audience quickly realized he wasn’t kidding, and the crowd was left to contemplate what that tidbit means, good or bad, for their own lives and relationships.
This is an installment of our weekly Bold Types column about movers and shakers on Boston’s business scene.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.