Edgar Pérez is a former Vice‑President at Citibank and ex‑consultant at IBM and McKinsey, now celebrated as a technology speaker with unmatched expertise in AI, quantum computing, deep learning and cybersecurity.
An author of acclaimed books including The AI Breakthrough, The Speed Traders, and Knightmare on Wall Street, he delivers powerful insights on how disruptive technologies are remapping business and financial markets—from Wall Street to global strategy.
In this exclusive interview with The Champions Speakers Agency, Edgar reveals how innovators can harness tools like ChatGPT, the Metaverse, CBDCs and quantum computing to stay at the forefront of transformation.
Q1. How can organisations use disruptive technologies, like ChatGPT, to provide a superior service for customers?
Edgar Perez: “Organisations of all sizes can use disruptive technologies such as ChatGPT, for example, to provide great customer service. They can use artificial intelligence; today we have available LLMs, large language models, that allow us to use models developed by large organisations for our own purposes.
“General purpose models allow us to create unique models for our particular industry. If I have a new employee working in customer service, I would like this employee to provide all the expertise of the organisation to the customer from day one.
“Unfortunately, that’s not always the case; sometimes only the most experienced employees can provide that. Now we can use these models—we can create a unified model for our company that will incorporate all our experience, all the details of our products and services.
“That will give high quality service to our clients. They will be impressed, whether they are talking with the most experienced employee or a newly started employee in the organisation.
“At the same time, companies can also use RPA tools, robotic tools that allow them to automate the most repetitive, boring tasks that employees sometimes have to work on. That is going to free up human resources for more value-added activities.
“Finally, companies can also apply analytics. There is a lot of data that companies can collect from customer interactions, and that data can be used to generate value, to gain deeper insights into customer behaviour, preferences and needs. That can help us to optimise pricing, service delivery, and later on to create personalised and proactive offers.”
Q2. What are some of the major challenges businesses may face when incorporating disruptive technologies into their everyday operations?
Edgar Perez: “Once upon a time there was a company called Blockbuster, which used to rent movies, and there were thousands of these stores across America. The company was very successful, and they thought rightly so that they would continue following that path.
“Yet there was a small company called Netflix. At the beginning, Blockbuster was very dismissive of this new initiative of using the internet to provide video services to clients. In fact, Netflix offered itself to be sold to Blockbuster for 50 million dollars, yet the company rejected that approach. Years later, guess who was laughing? Netflix was the company that was able to embrace change.
“They were able to embrace it because they were a start-up; they wanted to try something new, they wanted to try the new technologies available. At that moment, when you saw the internet really disrupting our lives, they thought video services like that would be the next step for customer interaction.
“These legacy baggages that large organisations have—sometimes this success bias, that they feel complacent because of past achievements—can work against them. That is something all organisations need to be careful about. We always need to monitor market trends, customer expectations, new technologies, and embrace them.
“For that, it needs to start from the top. CEOs need to always look at what is out there, to see what competitors are trying to do, to see what suppliers are offering, and to understand what is happening in the market overall. That is the only way a company will stay at the top.”
Q3. The Metaverse promises to merge our digital and physical lives; how will this new technology benefit businesses?
Edgar Perez: “The Metaverse is the next stage of the internet. In the same way that 40 years ago nobody thought we would be spending so much of our lives working on the internet, connecting with friends through the internet, now we feel that the Metaverse is going to be the next stage. Equally, in the future we will be spending quite a bit of time in the Metaverse.
“Let me give you an example. My children play games like Roblox and many others. All these games involve technology, and many are Metaverses that we already have today. When they grow up, go to school, and start working, they won’t leave that space. They will want to continue interacting with friends, colleagues, students, teachers through this medium.
“The Metaverse will take over. It is no longer just a space for gamers. It will be something that all companies—small, medium-sized and large—will use to reach new audiences. If I want to advertise a product, I cannot use radio or newspapers; nobody reads newspapers today.
“My kids get news and socialise through these games. In the future they will also study and receive information through Metaverse-like environments.
“That is what companies can do. If I sell physical products to physical customers, in the Metaverse I can also create virtual products that my customers will want, because they will also live in virtual worlds. They will have virtual houses, they will buy a virtual car to go from one place to another, and for that you need to dress up.
“I will give a speech in the Metaverse, so I will need a virtual suit, a virtual tie. That is a new universe of opportunities for all companies. If I wanted to expand and have stores worldwide, I don’t need physical stores in every city. Today, I can have a big store in the Metaverse accessible to clients from all over the world.
“They will be exposed to my physical products and also my virtual offerings. For example, they can buy virtual shoes, like Nike offers today, or if they want to run on a track, they can buy my real shoes. That is the benefit of the Metaverse: creating a new universe of opportunities for products and services.”
This exclusive interview with Edgar Pérez was conducted by Mark Matthews of The Motivational Speakers Agency.
