Georgia Technology Summit 2025: Larry Williams with Technology Association of Georgia

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Georgia Technology Summit 2025 at the Woodruff Arts Center. This is Business RadioX. And now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here broadcasting live from Georgia Technology Summit 2025. So excited to be talking to my next guest, Larry Williams with TAG. Larry, How are you doing?

Larry Williams: Doing great. Lee. How are you?

Lee Kantor: I am doing great.

Larry Williams: Delighted to have you back here again this year as.

Lee Kantor: Well, interviewing so many interesting people. Uh, tell us about the summit. Tell us about your vision for the summit and how it’s going today.

Larry Williams: Gosh, Lee, there’s so much going on here, but I’ll highlight a couple things. One, the summit this year is really focused on a new reality. It’s about AI and the quantum verse. So everyone’s talking about AI. What are the real opportunities that we can have here? Um, but we also have to be looking over the next horizon. And that’s quantum. It’s coming faster than most people think, but it’s going to be the next major disruptor as we really start to get, uh, get AI on the tracks. The thing that I’m really, really proud of and I’m interested in is we’ve got people that are really taking AI and creating commercial and business opportunities and applying it in the real world. There’s so much that we often hear it’s more about the theory or the fear around it, but these are people that have actually taken this wonderful tool that is going to be a major catalyst and a major disruptor for what we do. Um, probably the most transformational technology of our lifetime. And they’re actually putting real world applications, uh, uh, in place for it. For example, Brett Taylor was a keynote this morning. We did a great fireside chat with him. Bret Taylor is, um, he’s the chairman of OpenAI. So if you think ChatGPT, that’s what they do. Um, he is the guy who was thinking about Google Maps back in Google back when it was just creating, when we just called it, you know, machine learning and sort of the infancy of what is now AI. He’s the guy who created the thumbs up. He’s the former co-CEO of Salesforce. He was the former, uh, chair of Salesforce. This guy’s the real deal. And now he’s running a company called Sierra AI, which is focused on customer service and language and, you know, real language modeling. So these are the types of people that are taking these great technologies, bringing it down to the street. How do we improve people’s lives? How do we improve productivity and creating great opportunities out of it? Super thrilled about that.

Lee Kantor: So when you’re, uh, obviously as the leader of Tag and you’re having conversations with people, I’m sure, all over the globe when it comes to the latest technology. You mentioned AI. You mentioned quantum. How do you take kind of all of these things that are at the bleeding edge and then create a path for people here in Atlanta through tag to at least get their feet wet or immerse themselves or get the knowledge they need in order to deliver that back, like you said to their customers.

Larry Williams: So one of the, you know, part of the heart of Tag is connections. So a lot of it is making sure that we’re getting people connected. And so that they can learn that they can share, they can inspire each other about what these particular opportunities are. You know, Lee, I’ve always felt like business will find a way. If there’s an opportunity out there, you get the right people connected and in the right room together and they’ll, they’ll they’ll figure out the rest. Um, but as we think about bringing people together in a relative way, it’s, it’s getting them thinking about how how can we do something? What can we do to collaborate, to actually build the next generation of ingenuity? And that’s what what happens here. The other thing, and, Lee, I think you’ve heard me say this before. One thing about Atlanta and Georgia throughout the state is that we really are a group of people that think about what are the real applications for something. I’ll say that Georgia is where technology meets the real world. It’s not always the, you know, shiniest new gadget or the coolest new social app or the biggest trend. But we’ve got people that are building businesses, creating opportunities that drive revenue more than anywhere else in the world. That’s what happens here. And so I think as you see it, um, the companies that are here, the innovations that come out of here, whether it be through our universities like Georgia Tech or the entrepreneurs, uh, the people that are thinking about next generation of, uh, innovation. That’s what’s happening here. People are building real businesses.

Lee Kantor: So walk us through what happens. Like you hear about I. You hear about quantum, you hear that things are happening. These are the next big things. How do you take those concepts and actually integrate it into tag, so that there are a pathway for businesses to connect and turn into the community that you want them to. So business can find a way in those areas. Uh, you know, it’s one thing business can find a way, but they have to be in the right pond to find that way. And tag is the right pond in a lot of places. But how do you put them in, uh, relationships? And how do you give them the information they need so they can say, okay, quantum is next. That is real. If Larry says that I should be paying attention, I should be paying attention. And who should I meet? And how do you kind of facilitate that? How does it go from your head into the real world?

Larry Williams: You know, it’s it’s interesting because it’s there’s a lot of layers to what you just put out there. Um, and especially when we think about something like AI that really it’s, uh, a lot of people that are implementing things today are pioneers. And so we’re learning. And so what I’m learning here today, and this is a lot about what this conference is, um, when I was thinking about quantum, you know, and I really AI is the first opportunity in front of us right now is things that we’re really implementing and commercializing right now, today. Quantum is really over the next hill. I used to describe last year, I was saying it’s about three hills over. It’s coming fast. So to get back to to you know what we’re saying, I think what people are, are learning here is that there are people that have taken more finite, uh, opportunities. Uh, the example with Brett Taylor and Sierra AI thinking about customer service, and they’re implementing AI in a product that is actually solving a problem, that people have a pain point, so they’re not trying to boil the ocean. They’re trying to do something that is going to help people solve a, you know, or create a solution or solve a problem today. So there are people that are taking it and using it. How do we improve healthcare? That can be a longer cycle because of the regulatory environment. You know, HIPAA laws and things like that that they have to work along.

Larry Williams: But you’ll start seeing it in fintech and people are really taking, you know, pieces, as we say, pieces of the elephant because you can’t eat it all at once. And actually creating solutions will continue to help convene people and connect people throughout Tag. And then we’ll start to see, hey, did application over here for industry for an industry actually help, uh, you know, a seemingly disparate industry over here. But actually the solutions and the challenge was the same. That’s what we’ll continue to make those connections and create those dialogs. Quantum’s going to be the same thing. You know, there’s a you know, I shared a quote on stage a minute ago, said the pace of change has never been faster. The pace of change will never be slower. And that’s what we’re going to see. That’s what we’re seeing with AI, and that’s what we’re going to see with quantum. We’re going to continue to convene those people, connect them and make sure that they can, you know, get together and have great conversations and inspire each other. Another piece of it, there’s two other pieces that we do so much of, you know, people don’t always know about how much we do down at the state House, um, to lobby to make sure that we have good policies. So one things the lens that I look at things on when it comes from a policy point of view is what are the things that are either going to enable or inhibit innovation.

Larry Williams: And that’s how we have to look at the policies. And right now, again, AI is a bit of the wild, wild West. We have to think about what are the policies that will allow this to flourish. But also and I’m an optimist, but we’ve got to make sure that the technologies are flourishing to do good and to help our people. So, you know, to the point that we can, you know, and get it right and we’ll get it right. Then we can put the right parameters in there, you know, to keep the, you know, the bad players at bay and also utilize this great transformational technology to move us forward. The third piece, let me give you one more. And that is the workforce. So our workforce is not to become irrelevant. It’s going to be uh, but we have to make sure they stay relevant and it’s going to be, you know, the relevancy is going to be in a new world, a new reality, as we say here at the at the Georgia Technology Summit. Um, you know, people who master the skills of AI and other technologies that are come on, are still going to be in high demand and and very much needed. So we’ve got to make sure that people are prepared and armed with those skills to be able to operate in, in a new reality with AI and other technologies.

Lee Kantor: Now, I know as a leader, you’re already looking ahead at 2030. Uh, can you talk a little bit about how you see, uh, talent and the partnerships with, uh, some of the educational institutions, whether they be universities, whether they be, you know, kind of ad hoc academies or even, you know, maybe K through 12. How do you see, um, kind of the upskilling of that group in order to be ready for the change that’s going to happen, like you said, at a rapid pace, um, five years from now.

Larry Williams: You know, we just rolled out today on stage our vision 2030, uh, uh, plan. And that’s exactly that’s one of the key components of it. We’ve got to really think about how, you know, continuing to connect as we do promote this great ecosystem, you know, influence through our lobbying. But educate is going to be critical. So we’ve got, you know, nobody’s going to solve this alone. But the demand. Listen, this is a business imperative that we have to make sure that we have the most relevant technology and innovation workforce in the world, and that we have them right here in Georgia. And the way that we’re going to do that is through partnerships. There is going to be a great and a huge role for our to continue to work with our well-known four year universities in four years and beyond. And then we’ve also got to work with our technical college system of Georgia, and we have some great partnerships with them already, helping prepare people for for AI and for other jobs. But the private sector is going to be critical in all of this as well. There’s a lot of programs out there that are helping develop people, and we really got to think about how we make sure that everybody across the state is getting plugged into this great prosperity that we’re experiencing, and it’s all driven by technology. Lee, you know, you know this. Georgia has been ranked number one place to do business 11 years in a row.

Larry Williams: That’s unprecedented. It was unprecedented at seven years in a row. And we keep it going. And it’s not because we sit back on our laurels. I can assure you that we’re always thinking about what’s next. Yesteryear when. When we were coming up, Lee, people used to move to where the jobs are today. The jobs are moving or the employers are moving to where the talent is. People are coming to Atlanta. People are coming to Georgia because they know about the workforce that we have. We’ve got to keep up. And the only way we’re going to keep up with that, man, that demand is to make sure that we’re engaging. It’s all hands on deck. We need all of our smart people across our states and everybody smart. We need them trained, and we need to get them plugged in to the great opportunities, to the great careers. This isn’t just about jobs. These are careers that people can have the ability to advance themselves. And then we need to be able to use every, every avenue that we can, four year universities up our our friends at the Technical college System of Georgia, private, um, educators, other ways to get training, even in house. That’s what we’re doing, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do. And we’re going to make that. I think we have about we have well over 100,000 jobs, new jobs that we’re going to have to fill over the next few years.

Lee Kantor: And we need to have a path for the people who are successfully exiting to stay around here and stick around and kind of fund the next ventures.

Larry Williams: You’re exactly right. So, you know, that’s part of that whole ecosystem. It is about, you know, it’s making sure that our great enterprises have great policies, great tax climate, great business climate to be able to thrive here. But we’ve also got to have the the great ecosystem about how do we, you know, generate new ideas and how do we help those, those those ideas grow and flourish here. I just had a chance to do a fireside chat with Toyota. He’s the founder of Calendly. So you know, Calendly sure. You know, what a, you know, sort of a maybe a simple what you think is a simple problem. But everybody had it. How do I effectively calendar, um, or manage my calendar? He came up with a great solution in about 2014. I believe he has scaled that to be a multi-billion dollar enterprise. So that’s the type of things that we want to continue to encourage here, to be able to connect to previous success people. His success, his connection was with, uh, David Cummings, who was a great entrepreneur, had a great exit with Pardot, created the Atlanta Tech Village. All of these connections have helped create and drive, uh, again, that next generation of innovation. So you’re dead on. We got to get more capital here, and we got to continue to plug them in with that capital.

Lee Kantor: And I hope the South Downtown initiative, um.

Larry Williams: Is that incredible?

Lee Kantor: It’s formative.

Larry Williams: It is transformative. And it’s so funny to hear David tell the story as well, because if you think about where all of the major corporations that were the icons of Atlanta, that’s where they all started. Right, exactly.

Lee Kantor: You know, what’s old is new again, right?

Larry Williams: Exactly. So.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to connect with tag online, what’s the the best way to do that.

Larry Williams: Tag online.org. You you said it. So please look for us on the website and be delighted to talk with you more. And also or look at our events page on there and come to some of our society events. They are all inspiring.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, there’s events for every special interest group, anything, uh, that touches technology, which as you mentioned earlier, is pretty much everything, uh, that’s happening in the economy. Well, Larry Williams, thank you so much for sharing your story, doing such important work. And we appreciate you.

Larry Williams: Thank you. Lee.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll be back in a few. At Georgia Technology Summit 2025.