John Thompson

Owner and Principal Consultant at The World of Analytics

Wilmette, United States

John is an international technology executive with over 38 years of experience in the fields of data, advanced analytics, and all forms of artificial intelligence (AI).

While the global Head of AI at EY, John actively led the ideation, design, development, implementation, & use of innovative Gen AI, Foundational AI, & Causal AI solutions, across all of EY's Service Lines, operating functions, geographies, & for EY's clients globally.

John led a team of 400+ staff & contractors was comprised of - an Applied AI Research group, and a Product Development team.

In the Applied AI Research Group, the team pioneered the development of LLM & SLM Orchestration, Agents, use of Short & Long Term Memory, Expert Model & MOE Architectures. Also, the team worked on refining our approaches to: advanced prompt engineering, in context learning, building LLMs & SLMs from scratch, fine tuning LLMs & SLMs, & high performance GenAI implementations.

In the product development team, the team built the Intelligence Layer of EY Fabric. We implemented an environment to encompass all the phases of Foundational/Classical AI from model design to moving models in and out of production environments. We defined and disseminated the reference architecture for GenAI use across all of EY. Also, we built a number of leading edge GenAI applications, and an experimentation zone for EY teams to collaborate with internal teams and clients to build new Generative AI applications.

We developed and released:
- One of the world's largest, secure, private GenAI environment, which has been the fastest growing tech service in EY's history serving over 300,000 employees, achieving 99.6% adoption in under a year
- a Synthetic Data Generation Service
- an Enterprise Prompt Engineering & Mgt Service
- a multi tiered orchestration layer
- an agent development & deployment architecture for simple agents, intelligent agents, self replicating agents and polymorphic agents

We built innovative solutions for EY to use internally and then we made those solutions available to our clients around the world. Our group delivered global solutions.

We drove the leading edge of AI at EY. EY uses our work to position itself as a leader in AI

John has been responsible for the global advanced analytics and AI function at a leading biopharmaceutical company where he led a team that developed and deployed over 25 analytical applications in 3 years. John was an Executive Partner at Gartner, where he was management consultant to market leading companies in the areas of digital transformation, data monetization and advanced analytics. Before Gartner, John was responsible for the advanced analytics business unit of the Dell Software Group.

John's fifth and most recent book is - The Path to AGI (Artificial General Intelligence)

Explore the history, current state, and path forward for all three fundamental areas of Artificial Intelligence

When most people talk about AI, they are talking about Generative AI (GenAI). GenAI is useful and valuable, but the field of AI is much more than GenAI. AI has been under active development for over 70 years. This book explores all the nuances and differences in each of the three areas of AI.

As AI moves towards larger and more comprehensive applications and solutions, we will see an evolution of all three areas of AI, and a convergence toward Composite AI. Composite AI will be the state of the art for many years and possibly even decades. Composite AI will grow and evolve into Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

While AGI is an exciting theme for science fiction movies, it will not arrive in the next few years. The path to AGI will be long and challenging. We discuss the pragmatic and practical path in detail.

The Path to AGI is a reference book and guide for those interested in all types of AI and how these types will merge, integrate, and evolve into one of the most consequential technologies the world has ever seen.

John's fourth book is - Causal Artificial Intelligence, The Next Step in Effective, Efficient, and Practical AI
Discover the next major revolution in data science and AI and how it applies to your organization.

In Causal Artificial Intelligence: The Next Step in Effective, Efficient, and Practical AI, a team of dedicated tech executives delivers a business-focused approach based on a deep and engaging exploration of the models and data used in causal AI.

The book's discussions include both accessible and understandable technical detail and business context and concepts that frame causal AI in familiar business settings.

Useful for both data scientists and business-side professionals, this is an enlightening and easy-to-understand treatment of an essential business topic. A must-read for data scientists, subject matter experts, and business leaders seeking to familiarize themselves with a rapidly growing area of AI application and research.

John is the author of – Data for All, will be published in the Fall of 2022. Written for the general public, the book is an outline of how the world of data works today and how it will work in the near future. Described as a “Revolutionary Manifesto for Data”, the book instructs people in how to protect and manage their data and the data of their loved ones. Data for All communicates how to do this in applied and practical terms.

John is the author of the bestselling book – Building Analytics Teams: Leveraging analytics and artificial intelligence for business improvement. The book was published in June 2020 and outlines how to hire and manage high performance advanced analytics teams. The book outlines how to engage with executives and senior managers. How to select and undertake analytics projects that change and improve how a business operates.

John is co-author of the bestselling book – Analytics: How to win with Intelligence, which debuted on Amazon as the #1 new book in Analytics in 2017. Analytics is a book that guides non-technical executives through the journey of creating an analytics function, funding initiatives, and driving change in business operations through data and applied analytical applications.

Mr. Thompson’s technology expertise includes all aspects of advanced analytics and information management including – descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics, artificial intelligence, analytical applications, deep learning, cognitive computing, big data, simulation, optimization, synthetic data, and high-performance computing.

One of John’s primary areas of focus and interest has been to create innovative technologies to increase the value derived by organizations around the world.

John has built start-up organizations from the ground up and he has reengineered business units of Fortune 500 firms to reach their potential. He has directly managed and run - sales, marketing, consulting, support, and product development organizations.

He is a technology leader with expertise and experience spanning all operational areas with a focus on strategy, product innovation, growth and efficient execution.

Thompson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Ferris State University and a MBA in Marketing from DePaul University.

Available For: Advising, Authoring, Consulting, Influencing, Speaking
Travels From: Chicago
Speaking Topics: Artificial General Intelligence, AGI, Artificial Intelligence, AI, Advanced Analytics, Prescriptive Analytics, Predictive Analytics, Analytics Teams