Mike Switzer interviews Rick Jenkins, host of the podcast: Let’s Talk Business South Carolina, based in Greenville, SC. Rick gives us his thoughts on the outlook for our state’s tech industry cluster.
TRANSCRIPT:
Switzer: Hello and welcome to another edition of the South Carolina Business Review. This is Mike Switzer. It's Monday, and that's when we like to take a look at current business issues that are trending across our state right now and discuss them with one of our fellow news media friends. Today we have Rick Jenkins, formerly the publisher of SCBizNews and now the founder and CEO of Let's Talk Business South Carolina, a network of B2B talk shows that airs on YouTube. And he joins us now by phone from his office in Greenville, South Carolina. Rick, welcome back to the program.
Jenkins: Mike, it is good to be back.
Switzer: So what are we going to talk about today?
Jenkins: Today we're going to talk about technology. How about that? Nobody's discussing that these days, right?
Switzer: Yeah, nobody's talking about technology. Of course not. But I know that on your recent YouTube show, you talked about technology and that tech industry and the, cluster here in South Carolina.
Jenkins: Yeah, Mike, we did. We had an industry outlook on tech, and, Jamie Dement joined me. Jamie M. Is the director of SC Tech at the Council on Competitiveness. For me, the big takeaway was how big technology has become. I mean, we all know it, right? But in South Carolina, it's a $51 billion economic impact on the state. There's about 150,000 tech workers in South Carolina, and that was measured back in 2024 when they did their last economic impact study. So I'm sure it's a lot bigger now. But one other thing that really struck me is, we can't even look at technology as a standalone industry anymore. It just is in every single industry, and it's in there big. It's changing how we operate. And. And hey, AI, game changer.
Switzer: Yeah. This tech and everything kind of started with Internet of things, right Iot you remember that?
Rick Jenkins: Yeah, that's right.
Switzer: And now we have AI. The topic du jour, are you seeing a lot of workers in the tech industry in particular that are concerned that AI will eventually replace their jobs?
Jenkins: Yeah, I think the concern is legitimate, at least to a degree. There's a lot of people now that you will hear that will say, no, the jobs aren't going away. They're just going to change. It's going to be different types of jobs. But I guess I'm a little more pessimistic about it than that, because I know myself, AI, saves me 15 hours a week. And so I know it's got to be that way across all industries. But I think the bigger risk for employees is not adapting to it. In a lot of cases, it may not be that AI is going to replace an employee. It may be somebody who knows how to use it better than you do that gets you replaced.
Switzer: All right, so with AI obviously dominating a lot of conversations across the state right now, what does our state need to do to ensure that, we don't fall behind in this?
Jenkins: When I was talking to Jamie on the show, she used a term that I like. She said South Carolina has to remain AI forward. And the point is, businesses have to create a culture where they are willing to learn and experiment as tech changes. And let's face it, you know, it's changing constantly. Hardly a month will go by that something new doesn't come up, and we cannot play catch up. We got to stay ahead of the game and be again, what she called AI forward In it, it doesn't mean you got to make huge investments, but it does mean that you got to stay on top of things.
Switzer: So in your conversation with Jamie, what came out regarding how technology is today continuing to change? Manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, some of these traditional industries of ours.
Jenkins: Manufacturing. It's the best example. And we'll just stick there since we're a manufacturing state, obviously. But I think we all know manufacturing plants. We call them smart factories, right? They use. They use AI and predictive analytics, robotics, automation, something cool called a digital twin. And, you know, it goes on and on. technology, it helps them to reduce downtime and make their supply chains more efficient and predict failures. Tech can offset a lot of the difficulty that manufacturers have in a lot of different areas, especially, workforce challenges that we're having. It can help with that as well.
Switzer: All right, we have time for one more question. Rick, let's go beyond AI. What other emerging technologies or technology out there that we should be paying attention to right now?
Jenkins: Well, I'll tell you what, I've got a name for you, but I can't explain it to you, Mike. It's called Quantum computing. And we've all heard it, right? Quantum computing. And Jamie and I talked a little bit about it. And so if you want to know some more about quantum computing, listen to Jamie. But I would just suggest that you Google it or use your favorite AI, platform, to find out a little more about it. But it is what I'm hearing constantly now.
Switzer: Yes, I've been hearing about it, too. Well, Rick, thank you so much for spending time with us today.
Jenkins: Mike, you're welcome.
Switzer: Rick Jenkins is host of the podcast let's Talk Business South Carolina. And he talked to us by phone from his office in Greenville, South Carolina. And remember, you can hear this show again at our web page, South Carolina Public Radio.org and you can hear us again wherever you find podcasts with the South Carolina Business Review. This is Mike Switzer.
The views expressed on the South Carolina Business Review do not necessarily reflect those of South Carolina Public Radio.
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