On the long-standing debate on the mix between automation and manual operations, here’s what the Cyber Security Hub says:
100+ AI security startups claim they can replace Tier 1 and Tier 2 SOC analysts with 24/7 LLMs. They promise AI can triage, detect, and respond—no humans needed.
But here’s the reality:
AI tools hallucinate and miss context
Custom attacks slip by without human insight
Escalations stall when no one’s validating alerts…
…This isn’t about rejecting AI. It’s about using it wisely—and never cutting people out of the loop.
“We convince ourselves to hold on just a little longer, to give one more chance, to extend one more ounce of patience. We hope things will change, that people will appreciate us, that circumstances will finally shift in our favor. But sometimes, despite our best efforts, the change never comes.
“That’s when the lesson arrives—not in a single, dramatic flash, but in a quiet realization: I deserve better than this. I deserve to feel seen, valued, respected.”
Back when I was with IDEMIA and working with U.S. states to implement (physical) driver’s license production systems, a big word floating around states and their CIOs was “modernization.”
Because many state and federal systems are really really ancient.
But it’s not just governments that have fallen off the path. Many business and government entities, possibly including your own, are in desperate need of modernization, or at least of digital transformation.
Four reasons for digital transformation
Why do you need digital transformation? Here are four reasons why you should transform:
Are you suffering from outmoded manual processes? Do your business processes require a lot of outmoded manual steps? Are there steps that you can automate?
Are you unable to change your business as the market changes? Is your website and other systems locked into a 2015 or 2005 process? If the market changed tomorrow, how long would it take you to change with it? Could you business benefit from a flexible modular implementation that allows rapid change?
Are you blind to your business operations? Can you gather metrics that help you know how your business is doing? For marketers, these could be key process indicators (KPIs) that alert you as prospects move from awareness to consideration to conversion. For operations personnel, these could be performance metrics. But you’re flying blind if you can’t get those metrics, or if you’re getting the wrong metrics.
Are your customers unhappy? This is probably the biggest reason of all. Do your current systems frustrate your customers? For businesses (i.e. firms where customers do not have to content with a government monopoly), are your customers about to flee elsewhere?
The need for modernization. Imagen 4.
Yes, you have to perform a cost-benefit analysis, but in many cases you’ll realize future revenue by transforming your digital system and removing inefficiencies.
Two digital transformation experts
There are a number of consulting firms that can help you digitally transform your systems. Bredemarket is NOT one of them (although I can help you transform your marketing).
But it doesn’t matter with me now, because this post is going to highlight two other firms that can help you perform digital transformation: one very specific, and one that is general.
Adobe Experience Cloud Digital Transformation: KBWEB Consult
If you have a mid-sized business and need to digitally transform your Adobe Experience Manager implementation, or other parts of your Adobe Experience Cloud solution, KBWEB Consult is the firm to help you. KBWEB Consult and its people have transformed digital solutions for Kaiser Permanente, LinkedIn, Shimano, and other firms.
General Digital Transformation: Silicon Tech Solutions
If you have wider digital transformation needs, talk to Silicon Tech Solutions. Offering custom software development and other services in addition to digital transformation, Silicon Tech Solutions addresses multiple needs for small and mid-size businesses. With a team that has gained experience from employment at Amazon and Facebook and from multiple consulting projects, Silicon Tech Solutions is ready to help your firm.
Get more information from Silicon Tech Solutions by contacting them via Bredemarket at my Silicon Tech Solutions page and clicking on the Silicon Tech Solutions logo.
I’ve consistently believed that when a company is in trouble, it pares down to three key elements:
Engineers to create the product.
Salespeople to drive the sales of the product.
Executives, because they’re always critically important and can never be let go, can they?
Actually I’m kidding about the last one. There are plenty of cases where executives, and even company founders, determined that they were no longer affordable and left their own companies.
But many companies realize that engineers and salespeople aren’t enough, and they actually hire product marketers and other marketers.
Take UiPath, which self-identifies as “a global leader in agentic automation, empowering enterprises to harness the full potential of AI agents to autonomously execute and optimize complex business processes.”
It just hired a new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO): Michael Atalla, previously of Microsoft, F5, and other tech firms.
And hopefully he’ll remove “improve outcomes” from future press releases.
Geolocation and “somewhat you why” (my proposed sixth factor of identity verification and authentication) can not only be used to identify and authenticate people.
They can also be used to learn things about people already authenticated, via the objects they might have in their possession.
Stalkerware
404 Media recently wrote an article about “stalkerware” geolocation tools that vendors claim can secretly determine if your partner is cheating on you.
Before you get excited about them, 404 Media reveals that many of these tools are NOT secret.
“Immediately notifies anyone traveling with it.” (From a review)
Three use cases for geolocation tracking
But let’s get back to the tool, and the intent. Because I maintain that intent makes all the difference. Look at these three use cases for geolocation tracking of objects:
Tracking an iPhone (held by a person). Many years ago, an iPhone user had to take a long walk from one location to another after dark. This iPhone user asked me to track their whereabouts while on that walk. Both of us consented to the arrangement.
Tracking luggage. Recently, passengers have placed AirTags in their luggage before boarding a flight. This lets the passengers know where their luggage is at any given time. But some airlines were not fans of the practice:
“Lufthansa created all sorts of unnecessary confusion after it initially banned AirTags out of concern that they are powered by a lithium battery and could emit radio signals and potentially interfere with aircraft navigation.
“The FAA put an end to those baseless concerns saying, “Luggage tracking devices powered by lithium metal cells that have 0.3 grams or less of lithium can be used on checked baggage”. The Apple AirTag battery is a third of that size and poses no risk to aircraft operation.”
Tracking an automobile. And then there’s the third case, raised by the 404 Media article. 404 Media found countless TikTok advertisements for geolocation trackers with pitches such as “men with cheating wives, you might wanna get one of these.” As mentioned above, the trackers claim to be undetectable, which reinforces the fact that the person whose car is being tracked did NOT consent.
From consent to stalkerware, and the privacy implications
Geolocation technologies are used in every instance. But in one case it’s perfectly acceptable, while it’s less acceptable in the other two cases.
Banning geolocation tracking technology would be heavy-handed since it would prevent legitimate, consent-based uses of the technology.
So how do we set up the business and technical solutions that ensure that any tracking is authorized by all parties?
Does your firm offer a solution that promotes privacy? Do you need Bredemarket’s help to tell prospects about your solution? Contact me.
Draw a realistic picture of a wooden floor in a cabin on a sunny fall day. The focus of the picture is on a 12 Oz aluminum can of “Impact” with blue letters on a mustard yellow background. The can is illuminated by a ray of sunlight from a cracked door to the outside
The history of L-1 Identity Solutions has always fascinated me. I dealt with then-bitter enemies Digital Biometrics and Identix while I was at Printrak, with Viisage while I was at Motorola, and de facto competed with MorphoTrust while I was at MorphoTrak…until MorphoTrust in effect acquired MorphoTrak when IDEMIA NSS was set up and I reported to a supervisor in Massachusetts.
I used to have a PowerPoint presentation that traced the family tree of all of L-1’s acquisitions. Wish I still had it. But here’s a little taste of where things stood before Joseph Atick and Robert LaPenta started combining things:
Identix, while making some efforts in the AFIS market, concentrated on creating live scan fingerprinting machines, where it competed (sometimes in court) against companies such as Digital Biometrics and Bioscrypt.
The fingerprint companies started to compete against facial recognition companies, including Viisage and Visionics.
Oh, and there were also iris companies such as Iridian.
And there were other ways to identify people. Even before 9/11 mandated REAL ID (which we may get any year now), Polaroid was making great efforts to improve driver’s licenses to serve as a reliable form of identification.
(Some former links are dead and were removed from the bullets above. But the Digital Biometrics-Identix court case is described here, and Polaroid’s history with driver’s licenses in Utah is described here.)
Back in 2023 I assembled a list of “Five Topics a Biometric Content Marketing Expert Needs to Understand.” My fifth topic was “How L-1 Identity Solutions came to be.” I claimed I was half joking, but in reality I was completely serious. Despite similar efforts by HID and others (including IDEMIA), the sheer number of companies that combined to form L-1 remains unmatched.
Have you ever had a friendship end and felt a shift in your online life? A former friend’s actions completely focused the direction of the Bredemarket Instagram account. This experience reshaped the content I shared, and refocused the audience who received it.
Nap Time.
Those who were reading the Bredemarket Instagram account over a month ago may have caught my disappointment at something I discovered among my followers.
Or more accurately, someONE whom I DIDN’T discover among my followers.
“Someone I respect unsubscribed from the Bredemarket Instagram page. Not sure why or how I turned them away.”
So I “took a nap,” pausing most Bredemarket Instagram activities for a week.
But over time I remembered what Alfred, Lord Tennyson never said: ‘Tis better to have subscribed and unsubscribed than never to have subscribed at all. (I’ll get to the latter group later.)
Reshaping the content
Admittedly some aspects of my Instagram account could alienate some people. As I took my Instagram “nap,” I pondered whether to put the wildebeests out to pasture, and whether to consign the 1980s music to a garbage can filled with cassettes and 8-tracks. After all, the so-called “experts” say that TRENDING AUDIO increases engagement.
Maybe for the “experts”…but not necessarily for Bredemarket.
After all, any perceptive person who is interested in me and my 30 years of identity/biometric experience will realize that I would enjoy songs that are 30 years old…or older.
After I reshaped my content, I took a long hard look at who was and wasn’t reading it.
And discovered that I was subscribed to hundreds of people on Instagram who, unlike my former friend, NEVER subscribed to me in the first place. And thus never saw a word I wrote. Or the accompanying audio: David Guetta, Thomas Dolby, or “Royalty Free Music Background.”
Did you notice my use of the word “was”?
Like my former friend, I did a lot of unsubscribing myself, reducing the list of people I read by hundreds.
Bredemarket 