Zach LaValley, CTO and EVP of Product, Data and Engineering at RapidSOS, joins Russ Fordyce to talk about the 2026 Stratus Award win and how connected phones, cars and smartwatches are reaching 911. Zach explains why RapidSOS adds a fast lane next to existing systems instead of replacing them, and how humans and AI share the work. He closes with two practical tips: enable the emergency health profile on your phone, and ask your vendors whether your car is connected.

• Guest: Zach LaValley, CTO and EVP of Product, Data and Engineering
• Company: RapidSOS
• Award: 2026 Stratus Awards, Solution / Platform as a Service (Product)

• [00:00] Welcome to the Winners' Circle
• [00:50] What RapidSOS does
• [02:46] Software, hardware and the redundancy backup
• [04:22] Why 911 infrastructure is slow to change
• [06:05] What happens when a device is not on the network
• [08:21] Ending the game of telephone
• [09:59] Better responses and the Cass County crash
• [11:52] Layering on top instead of replacing
• [13:58] Synthetic data and privacy
• [15:14] Earning trust with a fast lane
• [20:27] Humans in, on and over the loop
• [23:28] Call metadata and intelligence
• [24:51] Better decision support for dispatchers
• [26:36] The next three to five years
• [28:13] Check your emergency health profile

• The 911 call is only one signal now. Cars, phones and smartwatches can all send location and context, and RapidSOS connects them into 911 and out to responders in the field.
• Add a lane, do not rip out the road. Zach's team layers on top of existing systems so agencies can shift traffic at their own pace and always be able to go back.
• Choose the right human and AI relationship for each use case. Humans can be in the loop, on the loop or over the loop, depending on the job and the comfort level of the agency.

• RapidSOS
• Zach LaValley on LinkedIn
• 2021 911 Profile Database Report
• NHTSA publication DOT HS 809 896
• AARP guide to smartphone emergency info and Medical ID
• Nomination video on YouTube

Congratulations to RapidSOS on winning a 2026 Stratus Award. Know a team that deserves the same recognition? Learn more and nominate at the Stratus Award for Cloud Computing.

Subscribe to the Winners' Circle podcast: www.bintelligence.com/podcast

Jack Zhang, Global Head of AI Transformation and Worldwide eSupport Strategy at Lenovo, joins The Winners' Circle to break down how Lenovo pushed its AI chat agent transfer rate below 5%, an industry leading number that covers every kind of customer issue. Jack shares the eight year journey behind that result, why he believes organizational structure matters more than model quality, and a surprising new signal that AI assistants are starting to act as customers themselves.

Jack Zhang, Global Head of AI Transformation and Worldwide eSupport Strategy, Lenovo

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-zhang-535b4733/

Website: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en

• [00:00] Introduction: Jack Zhang joins the Winners' Circle
• [00:50] Jack's role at Lenovo: 17 years, eSupport across 180+ countries
• [01:49] How the Run AI initiative started three years ago
• [04:38] Rebuilding the workflow instead of copying it into AI
• [07:53] Managing AI with AI: alert, notification, and quality assurance agents
• [09:46] An eight year AI journey, not an overnight build
• [12:53] Why Lenovo still offers a human first option in premier support
• [16:59] The metric that matters: transfer rate under 5%
• [18:12] Inside a touchless service journey, from chat to dispatch
• [20:41] Touchless, partial touchless, and 80% total automation
• [27:06] What most companies still get wrong about AI adoption
• [29:45] Protecting a legacy brand through an AI transition
• [34:27] Closing thoughts

• AI transformation is an organizational project as much as a technical one. Lenovo's leadership consolidated three separate product support teams into a single group on one knowledge platform before scaling its AI agent, and Jack argues that the people and structure of an organization are usually the real barrier to transformation, not the technology itself.
• The numbers behind Lenovo's AI support hold up under scrutiny. A sub 5% transfer rate, roughly 60% fully touchless resolution on hardware issues, and 80% combined automation only work because Lenovo built a chain of specialized sub agents, a knowledge agent, a fulfillment agent, and a dispatch step, rather than one general purpose chatbot, and because every new version is simulated and regression tested before it reaches a real customer.
• Customer service is starting to shift from person to company interactions toward AI to AI interactions. Jack shared that 3 to 5% of Lenovo's survey feedback now comes from customers' own AI assistants rather than the customers themselves, a signal that companies need to start optimizing content and building direct agent to agent connections now, not later.

• Lenovo eSupport: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en
• Jack Zhang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-zhang-535b4733/
• Gartner: 40% of enterprise applications to feature task specific AI agents by 2026
• Zendesk CX Trends 2026 Report on customer expectations for AI powered service

Jack Zhang won Executive of the Year at the 2025 BIG Awards for Business. Learn more about the award program and see this year's open categories at BIG Awards for Business.

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The trade show industry generates roughly 600,000 tons of waste a year, and Rhiannon Andersen has spent 21 years inside it. As CMO and owner of Steelhead Productions, she helped rebuild the company’s economics around rented components and custom overlays, led the business through B Corp certification, and pushed sustainability into all 13 departments.

This episode covers what actually worked, what it cost the owners, and why measuring sustainability every month is what makes the program real.

Rhiannon Andersen, CMO and Owner, Steelhead Productions
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhiannonandersen/
Website: https://www.steelheadproductions.com/

• [00:00] Welcome and the least sustainable industry
• [00:57] What Steelhead Productions does
• [01:12] Recognizing bad industry practices
• [01:50] Renting the base, customizing the overlay
• [03:30] Becoming a certified B Corporation
• [04:02] The nine month B Corp application
• [05:10] From social work to marketing
• [06:27] Restarting after 9/11 and COVID
• [08:27] Why face to face is growing again
• [10:06] What happens when a show ends
• [11:49] Sustainability across 13 departments
• [12:19] Binders to iPads and hand dryers
• [14:37] One water station, 30,000 bottles diverted
• [15:17] Paying for sustainability from owner distributions
• [16:03] Cutting energy use per employee by 60%
• [16:26] Measuring consistently
• [17:42] Six years as one of Nevada’s best places to work
• [20:14] Give Happy and paid volunteer time
• [21:23] Advice for owners
• [22:56] Congratulations and close

1. Trade show waste is a business model problem, not just a materials problem. Steelhead’s access model rents the structural components and sells customization on top, so booths still look custom while more parts return to inventory instead of the landfill.
2. Sustainability works when every department owns a piece. Printed project binders became iPads, paper towels became hand dryers, and one water station diverted about 30,000 plastic bottles in a year. The individual changes look small, but together they matter.
3. Consistency is the program. Steelhead reports sustainability metrics every month at a company wide meeting, even during the busiest weeks. If leadership lets it slip, the team reads it as optional.

• Steelhead Productions: https://www.steelheadproductions.com/
• B Corporation certification: https://www.bcorporation.net/
• Trade show waste data: https://www.accesstca.com/blog/waste-reduction-exhibit-program/
• 2025 State of Events report: https://www.bizzabo.com/blog/power-of-in-person-events-2025

Steelhead Productions won Sustainability Initiative of The Year in the Business Intelligence Group Sustainability Awards for the Exhibit Happy initiative.

Submit a nomination: https://www.bintelligence.com/awards/sustainability-awards

New episodes of The Winners’ Circle every week: https://www.bintelligence.com/podcast