Your grocery and drug store purchase cards allow the stores to predict when you’re going to need laundry detergent and Advil, and when you don’t buy it in time they send you a coupon to get you to come back in. Then there’s an even more advanced (some might call it “insidious”) form of Artificial Iintelligence (A.I), like Frankie Russo’s. Frankie’s A.I knows you want to buy a car before you do.

 We humans have an uneasy relationship with algorithms and robots.  Sure, we create them. But there is a general sense of foreboding about a world where humans and algorithmic-driven bots co-exist.

Part of that fear is rooted in a Hollywood science-fiction vision of the future, which is more fiction than science. And then there’s the all-too-real truth about the advent of driverless cars; the massed DNA information database that Ancestry.com is building; and how much Facebook knows about you already.

Frankie’s A.I.

When you consider this growth of Artificial Intelligence, you might start to realize that a science fiction future isn’t going to look like a Will Smith movie – where we’re fighting humanoids in the streets – but it’s also not futuristic. It’s happening right now.

Even right here in Acadiana. In fact, one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence in the world of marketing is Lafayette’s own Frankie Russo.

Frankie Russo

Frankie Russo is a pioneer in the field of Artificial Intelligence in the world of marketing. Which is why Frankie’s company, 360 IA, knows what you want to buy, before you do.

If you think that’s fascinating, listen to this conversation.  If you think someone who can accurately predict your purchasing future is just too freaky, you might want to skip this.

Aileen Bennett, Frankie Russo

This show was recorded at Spoonbill Watering Hole & Restaurant in downtown Lafayette. Photos by Lucius Fontenot.

You can hear Frankie’s previous appearance on Out to Lunch here.