— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with returning guest Nick Myers, CEO and co-founder of RedFox AI.
Myers provides an update on the Madison-based software company, which has refocused its efforts in a new direction this year after getting industry feedback.
“In our case, you start your business bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, thinking that you have the world figured out, and then your solution you built to a specific problem is everything,” he said. “And then through trial and error, and conversation, learning and failures, you realize ‘oh, well maybe there’s a different path ahead for us.’”
After initially focusing on supporting at-home lab testing and medical devices with its AI platform, the company has shifted to prioritize training and continuing education for medical devices. The pivot was prompted by larger companies reaching out to express a need for a medical device training AI system.
“And at the time, being so engrossed in the initial vision that I had, right, I turned them down … Now we’ve really embraced a lot of that feedback and have repositioned,” Myers said.
The podcast explores some of the latest trends in the AI industry, noting more widespread adoption of the technology by businesses shows it’s having a real impact by saving time for employees. He expects that trend will continue into the future, but adds “we are seeing a bit of a plateau” in use cases for consumer-side generative AI tools.
While these tools are great at consolidating information and following a prompt, Myers notes the technology still lacks agency.
“It’s not like I can go to ChatGPT and be like, ‘here’s a trip I want to take out to Morocco, book me a hotel, book me a flight.’ You know, it can’t do stuff like that yet,” he said. “Undoubtedly, it will at some point but we’re not there right now.”
Myers also touches on his plans to continue legislative advocacy going into 2025, focused on AI policy in Wisconsin. He said “now is the time to really take a hard look” at the technology and advance policies that support innovation while addressing concerns around data privacy, AI safety and more.
“We need to mitigate a lot of those risks now while we’re still early on,” he said.
Listen to the podcast and see the full list of WisBusiness.com podcasts.
— The Wisconsin Hospital Association is touting $2.3 billion in community benefits and charity care provided by hospitals in the state in fiscal year 2023.
The group yesterday released its 2024 Community Benefits Report, which details $168 million in charity care, $109 million in subsidized health services, $16 million spent on research, $25 million on other public programs, $18 million in nursing home losses and more.
WHA President and CEO Eric Borgerding notes 96% of hospitals in the state are nonprofits and reinvest their resources into meeting local health needs, supporting a variety of services in the community. He said hospitals are helping address issues like food insecurity, transportation challenges, mental health needs and workforce shortages.
“Simply put, many of these services wouldn’t be possible without the additional commitment from hospitals,” he said in the report.
He also put a spotlight on the “mounting financial pressures” facing hospitals, referencing higher costs for supplies and labor as well as “severely inadequate” Medicaid reimbursement levels. Of the $2.3 billion total, $1.6 billion represents unfunded Medicaid losses, which is $225 million more than in fiscal year 2022.
“Even while one-third of the state’s hospitals are currently operating with a negative margin, Wisconsin hospitals continue to face undeserved criticism by some for not doing enough, including questioning the value of their taxexempt status,” Borgerding said. “Removing that status would not only increase health care costs by hundreds of millions of dollars, but also reduce access to vital services.”
The report also includes a regional breakdown for the community benefits total, showing the largest share goes to southeastern Wisconsin with about $1.1 billion. That’s followed by $392 million in the northeastern “Packerland” region, $359 million in southern Wisconsin, $209 million in the north central region, $110 million in the western region, $104 million in the west central region and and $27 million in the northwestern “Vikingland” region.
See a summary and the full report, and see more in the release.
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— Wisconsin set another record for total employment in November as the state jobless rate held at 2.9%, according to the latest figures from the Department of Workforce Development.
November marked the seventh consecutive month for record-high employment in the state, DWD says, with 3,073,900 people employed. That’s an increase of 6,000 over the month and 29,300 over the year.
Meanwhile, unemployment stayed the same over the month, remaining below the national rate of 4.2%. And the state’s labor force participation rate ticked up to 65.8% and remained above the national rate of 62.5%.
DWD Chief Economist Dennis Winters said the trends in the report aren’t surprising, noting “what we’ve seen all year is increasing jobs and employment.” Still, he underlined the state’s labor quantity challenge as a persistent issue.
“That won’t be going away anytime in the foreseeable future, and our workforce gains are about zero going forward into what we can see over the next 10, 20 years,” he said yesterday during an online briefing. “And that ramification permeates all through the economic construct, and we’re seeing it in all avenues and all industries and all geographies.”
See the release.
— The state has launched a new rebate program for energy-efficient appliances, backed by funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.
Gov. Tony Evers and the state Public Service Commission yesterday announced the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebate program, for which Wisconsin was awarded $74.5 million in IRA funding. The program is meant to help low- and moderate-income households with discounts for installing eligible appliances.
“This is great news for folks across our state, and we’re excited to be among the first states in the country to launch this program,” Evers said in a statement.
See the release.
TOP STORIES
Konecranes in New Berlin has a Navy contract worth $244 million
A declining forest products industry threatens Wisconsin’s woodlands
1,000 patients a day: New UW Health clinic hits the ground running
TOPICS
AGRIBUSINESS
– H5N1 Avian Influenza confirmed in Wisconsin poultry flock
BANKING
– PNC Bank to close Brookfield branch off of Bluemound Road
ECONOMY
– Wisconsin’s strongest population growth this decade still ranks near the bottom
ENTERTAINMENT & THE ARTS
– Potawatomi Casino Hotel eyes further expansion after $190M renovation
ENVIRONMENT
– Lake Michigan, Superior warmer than average going into winter
HEALTH CARE
– Norovirus cases are rising in Wisconsin, with 19% positivity rate in late November
INVESTING
– Wauwatosa-based GenoPalate raising new funds to continue expanding its services
– Milwaukee-based Golgix completes $1.2 million funding round
LEGAL
– The Manitowoc Company will pay $42.6 million penalty for Clean Air Act violations
MANUFACTURING
– TAPCO acquired by Texas-based private equity firm
MEDIA
– ‘Nosferatu’ actor Willem Dafoe tells WPR how his Wisconsin roots shape his acting today
REAL ESTATE
– King Drive projects win funding from $525M state affordable housing programs
REGULATION
– Plan to move Green Bay coal piles in jeopardy after county vote
– Coal piles could stay: Brown County alters lease proposal; C. Reiss calls it a rejection of plan
RETAIL
– Wisconsin shoppers are spending more on Christmas 2024, report says
– Big Lots deal falls apart, ‘going out of business’ sales planned at all locations
– Neenah-based Bergstrom Automotive buys Madison Lexus dealership
PRESS RELEASES
