top of page


AI Funding Is Growing - And Bringing Entrepreneurs to San Francisco
The San Francisco Examiner published a summary of Pitchbook’s Q1 2025 Global VC First Look . A few key take away’s: 1) VC fundraising is...

Julie Ask
Apr 92 min read


Use Your Words: Teaching Prompt Engineering (Google's Whisk)
Whisk is a "new experimental tool that lets you use images as prompts to visualize your ideas and tell your story." Everyone knows the...

Julie Ask
Apr 42 min read


Nvidia Keynote 2025: Missing: Consumer Use Cases
Technologists leave consumers out of the agentic AI conversations - still.

Julie Ask
Mar 193 min read


Retain Human Element In Sports’ GenAI Use Cases
Background: I had the privilege to host a panel of female executives in sports management for a panel discussion at Oakland Roots and...

Julie Ask
Mar 192 min read


Apple Reinforces Measured Approach to GenAI In Consumer Services With 16E
Apple launched its smartphone portfolio's latest device (16E) on February 19, 2025. As an analyst, I’ve covered Apple for nearly 20...

Julie Ask
Feb 244 min read


Virtual Agents (and Assistants) Aren't Ready for Mass Consumer Use Cases
To be clear, the technology is impressive - its aspirations, capabilities, and more. Using it involves too much friction today for most...

Julie Ask
Feb 102 min read


Bring Humans Back Into Agentic AI Discussions
Too many genAI stories lack a human component. It feels a bit like Kevin Costner’s 1995 movie Field of Dreams. “Build it, and they will...

Julie Ask
Jan 253 min read


Context Will Make Conversational Interfaces Better Sources of Answers Than Search
Search is a big business. Google has grown its revenue from search ad revenue from $45B in 2014 to $175B in 2023. During the same time...

Julie Ask
Nov 11, 20243 min read


Robots: Are Consumers Ready for GenAI-Powered Agentive Machines?
Physical Intelligence raised $400M in “early stage funding” in November 2024. In doing so, they pulled the spotlight back towards...

Julie Ask
Nov 10, 20245 min read


Ascension to Modern CX Leadership
I had the privilege and opportunity to attend NICE’s annual analyst summit last week. NICE assembled a world-class team to accompany...

Julie Ask
Nov 2, 20243 min read


The Gifts of GenAI for Consumers
GenAI headlines scream about the “unprecedented productivity gains” that this transformational technology will deliver to the workforce...

Julie Ask
Oct 16, 20244 min read


Figma Config 2024Figma Config2024: Transparency and Truth About Design Today - Including GenAI
Had the privilege and opportunity to attend Figma’s Config 2024 event at the end of June in San Francisco. I attended so many inspiring...

Julie Ask
Jun 30, 20243 min read


Apple's 2024 WWDC Shows Off How Evolutionary GenAI Is - Less Revolutionary
Apple may not have its own large language model (LLM), but it will be just fine. Apple has long tapped into artificial intelligence to...

Julie Ask
Jun 8, 20245 min read


Power and Limitations of GenAI in Consumer Applications Today
Illustrations of the power and limitations of genAI are rapidly evolving. I had the opportunity to attend Snowflake’s Developer Day on...

Julie Ask
Jun 8, 20244 min read


Will Virtual Assistants Be The Killer Consumer App for GenAI?
Possible, but not plausible in the near term. Sam Altman believes they are poised to do so (see article from MIT Tech Review.) I've been...

Julie Ask
May 27, 20242 min read


Smartphone GenAI Arms Race Heats Up with Google I/O Announcements
Google mentioned “AI” 121 times in its keynote today at Google I/O. At a high level, the speed, large context windows, and ability to...

Julie Ask
May 13, 20242 min read


It's 2050 And Your Website Is Deserted. Why?
(Repost from LinkedIn from 10/31/2023) Websites will play a less prominent role in future consumer digital experiences for three core...

Julie Ask
Oct 31, 20234 min read


It's 2050 and Your Website is Deserted. Why?
Forrester Research Websites will play a less prominent role in future consumer digital experiences for three core reasons: The digital...

Julie Ask
Oct 30, 20234 min read
bottom of page
