In Which We Get Two Brilliant Tech Execs to Talk About AI

Earlier this week, Microsoft and Google both announced they’re introducing different types of AI into search and related products with staged press events. Both of today’s guests have spent a lot of time thinking about and working with machine learning and AI in their digital marketing careers. Duane Forrester thinks about emerging technologies from the point of view of a leading business tool maker while Ryan Jones is a vice president of one of the oldest digital marketing agencies in the world.

Duane and Ryan join Jim Hedger and Kristine Schachinger for an hour-long wide ranging conversation about Google and Microsoft’s AI announcements and the implications for the web and for the digital marketing communities.

Duane Forrester is the Vice President of Industry Insights at Yext, the leading business-fact management tool where he leads industry outreach, evangelism, and company authorship. In his career, Duane ran the WebmasterTools program at Microsoft and Bing. Before that, he ran the SEO program at MSN. After leaving the concrete comforts of Microsoft, Duane ran operations for Bruce Clay’s company. He moved to Yext about five, maybe six years ago. In between all that, Duane authored two books, “How To Make Money With Your Blog” and “Turn Clicks Into Customers”, both published by McGraw-Hill. He also taught himself how to make custom electric guitars in his garage when he isn’t tenting it up somewhere miles away from civilization in his ample free time. – Duane Forrester, welcome back to Webcology

A web-dev turned SEO, Ryan Jones is Sr.Vice President, SEO at Razorfish, one of the oldest web marketing agencies on the web. Based in Detroit, Ryan has been an SEO since before Google became a publicly traded company (does today’s Alphabet price give you a sense of nostalgia?) You’ve read Ryan’s work as he’s a regular contributor to most if not all industry publications. Publisher of WTFSEO, Ryan still makes his own websites and tools. He was one of the main crew that dissected Yandex a few weeks back. When he’s not putting some keyboard to good use, Ryan hunts and plays hockey, softball, and golf. If you get the chance, look for him at an industry conference somewhere near you. Ryan Jones, welcome to Webcology.