Chuck Rinker Podcast Transcript
Chuck Rinker joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, Home of The Digital Executive Podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to The Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Chuck Rinker. Chuck Rinker is the founder and CEO of PRSONAS, one of the earliest digital human and AI avatar companies, where he currently serves as its chief executive officer as an innovative tech leader.
Chuck is deeply committed to transforming businesses through cutting edge technologies beyond his accomplishments in the tech industry. Chuck is a late-stage colon cancer survivor. Which has instilled in him an unwavering determination to make a meaningful impact in everything he does. Alongside his tech pursuits, he is also an experienced aviation pilot, finding solace and inspiration in the skies.
Well, good afternoon, Chuck. Welcome to the show!
Chuck Rinker: Thank you much. I appreciate you having me.
Brian Thomas: Absolutely. And I appreciate you making the time today, Chuck, hailing out of the East coast there. So, a one-hour time difference is not a huge deal, but again, appreciate it. I know calendars can be a tad challenging these days, but Chuck, jumping right into your first question, could you share with us the journey that led you from working on military technology and at EA sports to founding Personas?
Thanks. And what was the inspiration behind starting one of the earliest digital human and AI avatar companies?
Chuck Rinker: Great question to start off with. I actually grew up a cattle farmer in the mountains of Virginia and had almost no exposure to electronics. And early on, my father saw an aptitude in math, and I took some courses early on that got me out of this farming community and got me into kind of this electronic revolution.
And the 40 years that I’ve done this, what really spawned out of that is a concept of automation and human computer interaction, how I interacted with early video games, how little red dots on the screen were turning turned into complete football teams in my mind and things like that. So, as I went through.
My many years of military simulations and ultimately landed a job at EA Sports with the Madden and NCAA franchise, I think what it really boiled down to is learning how people interact with technology, but also more importantly, how people interact with other people. So, the inspiration behind personas, which is the name personas coming from multiple Personalities is, is how do you turn a piece of technology into a personality, and have it had that same level of human engagement that we share with other humans and we’ve always aspired to in technology.
So that’s really where the name personas and the aspirations to form personas came from.
Brian Thomas: Really love that. Again, love the backstories starting out on a podcast. Typically, it’s the first question really do love it. And just for our audience’s sake, it’s not just. Your traditional persona spelled out, but it’s actually spelled – your company is P R S O N A S, which is kind of, like I said, pretty creative as far as that goes, especially when you’re doing your marketing. So, I appreciate the share and Chuck jumping into your next question here. Your work at personas intersects technology and healthcare, particularly in enhancing patient engagement through AI avatars.
How do you see digital humans transforming the patient experience and healthcare industry in the coming years?
Chuck Rinker: That’s an interesting transition. I’ll try to be brief on it, but we were focusing a lot on, as I mentioned, you know, how human communication is being able to be broken down the barriers of human communication with technology and had some personal experiences with my, my wife and myself both going through several rounds of cancer over a short period of time and said, well, if we’re able to help.
Brands connect with their customers, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we took that same approach, but applied it to health care. So, we’ve really kind of turned the concept of a digital personality into more of a patient advocate. How do we scale that human experience so that every patient as they’re going through their trials and their health care journey, not only has these vetted resources that the avatars can help deliver, but you also know, what is getting the correct information, not just.
Turning someone loose on the Internet to self-diagnose, but how do you get that vetted information? How do you become a vetted resource that makes every patient? Feel like they’re represented, and it felt like they’re welcomed and felt like they’re actually being heard and given the proper information.
So that’s really how I see what the future of healthcare is going to be is a set of patient advocates. AI will be that patient advocacy that we miss so often in the healthcare world.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. And I think that’s so important. And again, a lot of times the experiences that we’ve had to experience in our life makes an impact on what we’re doing.
And I appreciate that. I’ve been in health care about 20 years. And so, health care technology resonates with me and the patient certainly resonates with me as well as your story. So, I appreciate that. Chuck, the next question I have for you, you’ve mentioned the potential of AI and revolutionizing customer service from your perspective, what are the key factors in designing AI interactions that truly enhance customer satisfaction and brand loyalty?
Chuck Rinker: That’s a great question. It also kind of boils down to, you know, even swapping out the word customer with patient. Let’s kind of broaden that out because we have a common goal. And I can summarize it literally in 1 sentence. Is that I think. The key factor is for companies to stop focusing on human replication, meaning creating photo realistic human avatars, creating this concept of I wanted to look at and you would believe it’s a human.
That’s not that’s not what we’re trying to do. That’s not the right approach. The right approach is really to focus on that human communication. How do we bond and communicate with other humans? And that’s what creates that brand loyalty. You’re talking about it. Some people call it brand intimacy, but also plays directly into that patient experience piece of how patients feel represented?
How do they feel welcomed? How do they feel like they have a trusted advocate on their side? So, it’s really the communication focus, not the human replication focus.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. And that is so important. Communication should always be a two-way street and people need to listen more than they speak. And that just, again, resonates with me and that message that you have there.
And last question of the day, finally, for those looking to make their mark in the tech world, particularly AI and digital innovation. What advice would you give based on your experiences and the lessons you’ve learned throughout your career?
Chuck Rinker: And for those who know me, I’m a, I’m a devout follower of the, the wonders of Walt Disney and what he pulled off in a, in a shortened lifespan of his, and I always play on this quote, he has matter of fact, it’s my tagline on probably most of my social media sites and my emails.
It’s, it’s kind of fun to do the impossible and that’s not meant to be conceded. It’s not meant to be tongue in cheek. It’s really going well, everything’s possible until someone really Does it, you know, until you just figure out how to pull it off. And so, what I learned from following Disney is he always did what nobody else had done, not that it was technically impossible.
You just figured it out. So, the advice I give people is, is don’t spend your career. Don’t spend your efforts. Recreating the wheel, do something you haven’t done before or get out of your comfort zone a little. I know the cliche “think outside the box”, but it really is true. Basically, don’t do something you’ve already done and just embrace it and say, you know, it’s kind of fun to do the impossible. And that’s kind of the advice I give people.
Brian Thomas: I really love that. I just read something recently, a pretty good article on growth, and it talks about getting out of that comfort zone. And that’s something that we all need to do in some part of our life, whatever we’re doing to make something better, you’ve got to get out and do something.
As they say, get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And I think that’s a good one too. Yep. Resonates with, with a lot of people. So, I appreciate that. And Chuck, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
Chuck Rinker: I appreciate it, Brian. You have a wonderful afternoon.
Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Chuck Rinker Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s podcast page.
