Brad Jacobs

I think it's a really interesting...

chronology of technology and inventions starting from over 2 million years ago when cavemen started using pebbles for tools, and then invention of fire a little time later, and then when I say a little time later, like half a million years later, and then invention of shelters another half a million or more years later, and then all the inventions that accelerated in time leading up to today where we are in this very

AI-centered world.

Technology is critical to get right.

You cannot be in a business where technology is going to disrupt you and technology is going to diminish the value of the service or the product that you're providing.

And on the other hand, you must be in a business where technology is your ally, is your friend, is wind to your back.

And all my businesses, fortunately, have been on the right side of technology.

On technology, if you look at today, the three companies that I chair, I'm no longer CEO, but that I chair, technology is all over the place.

You look at XPO, the third person I hired at XPO back in 2011 was a guy called Mario Harik.

Mario Harik had an advanced degree at MIT in machine learning and AI.

And I loved him the first second I met him.

And I said, okay, I'm going to hire this guy because he

Like me, he talks fast and thinks fast.

And we were just completely got what my vision was of automating brokerage.

My original hypothesis for brokerage back in 2011 was this is going to get automated eventually.

You're not going to have people in rooms talking on phones.

You're going to have computers talking to computers.

And we got to get ahead of the curve on that.

He understood that immediately.

And I hired him very quickly.