Exactly 100 years after the fictional Dr. Dolittle talks to animals (1919), and “curses in fluent kangaroo,” we’ve reached the non-fictional moment. People can now have intelligent conversations with inanimate devices. If you’re familiar with Hugh Lofting’s books featuring the eccentric Dr. Doolittle, you know that he used his unique abilities to speak with animals in order to better understand nature and the history of the world.

Today, technology has taken us beyond Dolittle’s wildest dreams. We can now talk to a myriad of devices and get valuable information about our world. Many of you have already dabbled in artificial intelligence (AI)  by using Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant to perform simple tasks: setting alarms, getting the weather, recipes, world news, etc.

From my advantageous perch, I’ve been witness to the disruptive, next generation of business technology which has just been deployed for architects, making Dr. Dolittle’s out of all of us. We can now talk to our devices and have them intelligently respond to us with information that gives us a better understanding of our projects, our employees, and our entire business. It might seem odd, but I’m convinced that with AI, we can now “do little” and “get more.”