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Peggy’s Tech Blog:
Climate, Agriculture, and AI
Different regions of the United States have different climates, something I have experienced firsthand ever since I have moved to the Southeast. As we know climate can have an impact on agriculture, urban, and environmental systems. This is why my interest was piqued when a report crossed my desk about very specific climate indicators in the Southeast. For today’s blog, let’s dig into this report and then look at how it will ultimately impact vertical industries like agriculture.
The report looks at one very specific region—Southeast Florida—but it provides a good representation of similar climate indicators for the entire Southeast. In the Southeast Florida Climate Indicators report, we see while sea level rise frequently receives the most attention in the region, there are other impacts that have consequences for communities and for industries like agriculture.
Expert Opinion:
The ROI Assessment: The Cost Impact of Indirect Labor
In my last article (It’s Technology Acquisition Time) I provided an overview of a tool used to define the potential value of new technology acquisitions to improve operational productivity and effectiveness. We left off with the promise to show how to calculate the full cost of a human worker, and the number of workers that your current technology platform requires to get the work done.
Does the proposed innovative technology provide enough of a productivity gain, viewed as the result of the elimination of worker headcount, to justify acquiring the technology? This is the main reason for the ROI (return on investment) assessment for many companies.
Big investors are buying this “unlisted” stock
When the founder who sold his last company to Zillow for $120M starts a new venture, people notice. That’s why the same VCs who backed Uber, Venmo, and eBay also invested in Pacaso.
Disrupting the real estate industry once again, Pacaso’s streamlined platform offers co-ownership of premier properties, revamping the $1.3T vacation home market.
And it works. By handing keys to 2,000+ happy homeowners, Pacaso has already made $110M+ in gross profits in their operating history.
Now, after 41% YoY gross profit growth last year alone, they recently reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.
Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.
Peggy Smedley Show:
Scalable and Efficient Data Centers
Episode 932 | 8.12.25 | Segment 2
Peggy Smedley and Akshitha Sriraman, assistant professor, Carnegie Melon University, discuss new research and why it is important to design scalable and efficient data center systems. She says her research focuses on large-scale data center systems and how to make the servers more sustainable and circular.
They also discuss:
Open-source tooling infrastructure and open-source datasets and benchmarks.
The correlation between cost and carbon.
Why she chose this as her research and how her research has shifted.
Peggy Smedley Show:
Employee Productivity in Construction
Episode 932 | 8.12.25 | Segment 3
Peggy Smedley and Dan Horner, managing director of Dar/Sidara UK, talk about why productivity and innovation in the construction industry is not the same as other industries. He says some people say innovation in the construction industry ended with the hammer, although he doesn’t believe that is true.
They also discuss:
Research from the Economist that shows construction ranked 21 out of 22 relative to other industries.
New innovations such as AI (artificial intelligence)—and how they might change the construction industry as a whole.
Two examples of historical innovations and the lag from initial invention and the ultimate speed of change.
What’s Trending
Success Stories: Patient-Centric Healthcare
Could healthcare become more personalized with the help of technology? Probably. And one new initiative aims to help. At the end of July, the Trump Administration announced progress toward a more secure and personalized healthcare experience with the CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services).
The Administration secured commitments from major healthcare and information technology firms—including Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, Google, and OpenAI—to begin laying the foundation for a next-generation digital health ecosystem.
Looking to sponsor an upcoming segment of The Peggy Smedley Show? Check out the exciting topics planned for the coming months and send your ideas to [email protected].
September: What's Next for Manufacturing?
October: How to Secure Your Data