I was very tempted to go fishing today, and leave this show to the machines.

Until he’s replaced by a better looking & cheaper AI bot, Peter Ricchiuti hosts Out to Lunch at The Columns Hotel in Uptown New Orleans

If you have any doubt that AI could do my job and conduct a 30 minute interview with local business people, today’s show is going to remove that doubt. In fact, it won’t take the whole show, you’ll probably be convinced in 5 minutes.

Step one: meet Rich Simmerman. We first met Rich a few years ago when he launched a breakfast cereal company. Then, in 2024, Rich started up another company. This one is called Cantaloupe. It’s the same name as the fruit, but this company’s product is people. Specifically, people in the hospitality and construction industries.

Rich Simmerman, Co-Founder of Canatloupe, the AI company whose humanoid bot, Clio, interviews candidates for jobs in hospitality and construction

Cantaloupe is an AI tool for interviewing people looking for a job in a bar, a restaurant, or on a construction site. Cantaloupe’s proprietary interviewer – an AI bot called Clio – interviews prospective applicants then analyzes their responses according to the parameters an employer lays out, and decides whether the applicant would be a good fit.

Cantaloupe’s research says it’s more accurate than a human reading a resume and reduces turnover caused by early quitting by 40%. Cantaloupe’s technology has won awards and Clio is working for all kinds of companies, including multi-location restaurant groups.

I recently had a doctor’s appointment, and for the first time in memory, my doctor paid 100% attention to me. While I was talking, he wasn’t typing anything into my records, like he usually does. When I mentioned it, he said he was part of an evaluation group who were trying out an AI-based system that would record our conversation and write it up for him as consultation notes.

The pressure is on healthcare systems to incorporate AI into its daily functions, to provide better patient care, and do a wide range of back-end tasks, from accounting to reading X-Rays. The problem is, if you manage a big hospital, or a small medical clinic, whatever skills have gotten you to your current position, they probably do not include a sophisticated knowledge of AI.

So, who do you call about that? The answer is a company called Benzait. They’re dedicated to implementing AI into medical practices, hospitals, and other parts of the healthcare industry. Benzait’s Founder and CEO is New Orleanian Ralph Whalen.

Ralph Whalen, Founder and CEO of Benzait, an AI company specializing in developing and implementing AI for healthcare providers, from small clinics to major hospital systems

If you went to sleep in 2020 and woke up today and needed a job on a building site and a doctor appointment – to discuss your sleep disorder – you’d barely believe the changes that have taken place in the last few years.

Your job interview is with a non-human. And the notes from your doctor appointment, along with recommendations for further consultations and a detailed treatment plan, are all available through your patient portal online before you even get home.

Ralph Whalen and Rich Simmerman are ushering us into a whole new world.

Peter Ricchiuti, Rich Simmerman, Ralph Whalen, Out to Lunch at Columns on St Charles Avenue in Uptown New Orleans

Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. Photos by Jill Lafleur.