[piano intro] - Hello, I'm Nido Qubein.

Welcome to "Side by Side."

Our guest today invested 25 years in technology.

She led major transformations at Google.

Today, we meet North Carolina Secretary of Information Technology, Teena Piccione.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Side by Side with Nido Qubein" is made possible by.

- [Narrator 1] Coca-Consolidated is honored to make and serve 300 brands and flavors locally, thanks to our teammates.

We are Coca-Cola Consolidated, your local bottler.

- [Announcer] The Budd Group has been serving the southeast for over 60 years.

Specializing in janitorial, landscape, and facility solutions, our trusted staff delivers exceptional customer satisfaction.

Comprehensive facility support with the Budd Group.

- [Narrator 3] Truist.

We are here to help people, communities, and businesses thrive in North Carolina and beyond.

The commitment of our teammates makes the difference every day.

Truist.

Leaders in banking, unwavering in care.

[upbeat music] - Madam Secretary, welcome to "Side by Side."

Congratulations.

- Thank you.

- You have been selected as the new secretary of the Department of Information Technology, and not just that, but also the state's Chief Information Officer, and you were at Google for many years.

- Yes.

- And you've been in this sector for a long time, so you are clearly qualified and come with enormous credibility.

Are you excited about this new adventure?

- I am absolutely honored and thrilled.

I think this is gonna be a great way to literally, not only in the career, but make an impact that I haven't been able to have because it's across all of our great state of North Carolina.

- But you are gonna be in government now.

- I am.

It's a total different world.

- Yes.

You were at Google a long time.

- [Teena] I was.

- And what did you do at Google?

You were one of the executives there.

- I was.

I did two main positions.

One was I ran the sales teams for all of Google Cloud and customer engineering, as well as internal engineering.

So I had many different roles at Google and loved every one of them.

- And Google changed our world.

- It did.

- We can't live without Google.

- And still continuing to change.

- Yes.

- If you think about it, you wanna Google everything.

You wanna be able to have it effortless and you wanna be able to see it.

So it had that connectivity across all platforms.

- With all of the emerging new technologies and new sites, does Google have a lot of competition?

If so, where?

- It does.

It actually has a lot of competition.

So you think about the power of Amazon, that they're bringing to it, and AWS, not only from their cloud, but their products and how they deliver their services.

You think about Microsoft and all of the benefits that they can provide across their platforms, and then you look at Red Hat, IBM.

You look all the way across and everyone now wants to be able to compete with Google and really turn it into a marketplace.

- Mhm, and so when you were at Google, you're no longer at Google.

- Correct.

- When you were at Google, how did you address that competitive terrain?

What did you talk about?

Now, you can tell us some secrets here.

- Of course.

So, one thing that we talked about was what differentiates, and I think that goes into every aspect of what you do.

You can take it from Google.

You can take it from your personal life.

What differentiates and gives you an impact more than anyone else?

And that was really what we were able to hone in on.

So when we're talking huge sales contracts, it's here's what differentiates us from our competitors and here's how we can do it better, and here's how we can give you a customer service that's unparalleled and equal to none, and that was what typically would land the contracts and land us in all the companies that we worked in.

- And that applies to any enterprise, really.

- [Teena] It does.

- Yeah.

- It does.

It's that customer service.

It's the mentality of how do we serve, how can it be our pleasure to do it, and how do we follow up and make sure that we're excited about what we gave you?

And if it doesn't work, you wanna throw your laptop or the device out the window, how do we make sure you're not doing that?

- You're a very interesting person, in part you're a first-generation high school- - [Teena] Yes.

- And college graduate in your family.

- [Teena] Yes.

- And you've come a long way and you have a family and your children have gone to college and you've insisted on it.

There's so much talk today about, you know, college education.

Do we need it?

Do we not need it?

There's talk that there's so many high school students that are choosing not to go to college, be entrepreneurial, start a business.

What's your take about college education, especially in a world that is so technologically-focused and changing and transforming in a faster terrain that we ever imagined?

- I would say, when you look at it, it's what you wanna do in life, and a lot of times, you don't know.

So whether it's a vocation you start at, it's still going to have the underpinning of technology, and I think as much as people wanna get away from it, every single job you do is gonna be underpinned in technology to make it easier, faster, smarter, better.

When you think of the education, you know, my dad was a self-made mechanic and he didn't have to go to college, but he made an incredible life, learning how to work on cars.

At the same time, being able to go to college also gives you that extra edge to be able to look at, how do we do things differently?

How do we have mindshare and thought from different professors and different people around us?

And you can get that through, whether it's through vocation schools, whether it's through tech schools.

I go back and get nano-degrees.

I still do because I think they're fun and cool, and it's the opportunity to continue to learn.

Technology changes in a second.

- [Nido] Yes.

- And if we're not keeping up with what's the latest and greatest, the cybersecurity of all of it and the nefarious characters, they sure are.

So how do we make sure that we're on the cutting edge of that?

- You went to undergrad and graduate at George Washington University.

- [Teena] Correct.

- What did you major in undergrad and grad?

- Yeah, undergrad was communications and journalism, 'cause I thought if I could talk about anything, I could probably do anything.

- [Nido] Yes.

- And then graduate was program management to be able to figure out how to be able to lead large organizations and hold 'em accountable to the projects that they were supposed to do.

- Wow, that's awesome.

Speaking of large organizations, you're now the secretary of the Department of Information Technology in North Carolina.

What does that mean?

To me as a North Carolinian, how will I know that you're doing a really good job?

- Well, we wanna keep it safe and safer and stronger for you.

In order to do that in every community where you live, work, and play, we wanna make sure that technology is the underpinning and effortless for you.

We wanna make sure broadband is everywhere in our state and it's affordable, and we wanna make sure, no matter where you go, you have an effortless experience.

Whether it is going to get your license renewed, whether it is going to do anything that interacts with the government, we wanna make sure it's effortless and we wanna help you with that.

So that's what we're about is how to make it easy for you and not frustrating for you.

- How much of North Carolina now does not have access to the fullest of technological services?

- We still have a ways to go on broadband.

We have made incredible strides.

- What does it take to fix that?

- Well, a couple of things that we're working through, that's making sure we have the actual lines to get to every single person, whether it is fiber, whether it is satellite.

How do we make sure that we can get them to places that traditionally has not had access?

- So rural areas would be more difficult.

- Rural areas.

That's correct, but even in Wake County, which is one of the largest counties in North Carolina, they still don't have access in some places or affordable access.

So we wanna make sure that it's affordable as well as accessible, because when you look at it, if you can't afford it and it's there, it really does no good.

So that's part of what we're doing, and looking at projects that are out of the box.

How do we think differently?

How do we stay on the bleeding and cutting edge to be the best state there is for the technology?

- Now, here's the four.

In the state of North Carolina, we've never had a secretary's position for IT.

This is a new position.

- It is a fairly new position.

Correct.

- I mean, the office has been there for a long time.

- Correct.

- But becoming secretary, have we ever had a secretary?

- We did.

We have had one before.

- Oh, we did?

- Mhm.

- And what happened?

- Well, they chose to have a different path and go back to the private sector, and I chose the opposite path to go into the public sector.

- I see, I see.

Okay.

Well, we're delighted that you're doing this and serving the Tar Heel state in the way that you are.

What is it, as a layperson, should I know, should any one of us know, to prepare ourselves for this tremendous revolution and evolution of technology?

I'm thinking, for example, about artificial intelligence.

One of my good friends is Steve Wozniak, who was the co-founder of Apple Computer, and Woz says you can have all the artificial intelligence you want, but you can never have artificial wisdom.

- [Teena] Correct.

- Do you agree with that statement?

- I do.

I do.

- Do you think artificial intelligence is gonna predict and even bypass our human intelligence?

- Never.

No, I don't.

I think artificial intelligence, if used correctly and in the right ways, absolutely can help.

If you think about it in the medical field, they can quickly look at X-rays and scan them.

You still have to have the human interaction and touch because individuals and people are different.

And then you look at, how do you code faster?

How do you get things to market faster?

Websites can be changed in an instant or a nanosecond, but if you don't have a second look by a human, sometimes it doesn't appear as it should or it has something on it that maybe shouldn't be.

So you've gotta always have the wisdom and intelligence of the human to be able to do it, and you look about all the possibilities of artificial intelligence.

It is endless.

You can have games faster.

You can be able to do things on your phone faster.

Everything can be summarized.

Just as we used to look up in dictionaries and encyclopedias, now it's two seconds on your phone.

That's the wonderful part of it, but we've also gotta look at, what's the downside of it?

How do we make sure that we are looking at it from the human perspective, that we have a second touch point to say, "This is right, this is wrong, this can be better"?

So it's always going to evolve and it's always going to give us more, but we have to have that second look to be able to really give the human touch, common sense touch, as I like to say, to be able to ensure that, when you're looking at it, it's exactly what it should be.

- So you're having a cup of coffee with someone who knows very little about technology, and they say, "Madam Secretary, what is artificial intelligence?"

- Great question.

It is a faster way of, on the internet, to search.

I'll give you one example.

On the internet, if you go into Google or Bing, you can search anything you want and it will give you a summary of all the articles across the web.

So you can imagine there's hundreds and thousands of articles.

On yourself, for example, it will summarize in three bullet points everything about you.

Now, you may look at it and say, "That's a great three bullets," or you may look at it and say, "This thing's crazy and needs to have, you know, more coffee than I am."

So when you look at it, that's something that quickly can be done from it.

- I see.

How does it, for example, influence and affect industry, as an example?

Let's say in a factory somewhere.

- Great question, 'cause people are afraid it's gonna take jobs, and absolutely, it will take some jobs, but it will produce more jobs, and that's where we have to be able to pivot and retrain staff to be able to understand the technology to be able to take the new job.

So, can you code faster with it?

And in a factory, can you set up a machine to do everything a human was doing on a printing press?

Absolutely, but does it still need the supervision for when it goes wrong?

Absolutely.

So that's where, where one job is taken more jobs are created.

- What is the relationship of robotics and artificial intelligence?

- Great question.

So when you look at the robotics piece of it, it is a way for the machines to do exactly what human hands could do, and so instead of human hands doing surgery, they use robotics to do it using a computer and telling it exactly what to do, and in some cases, it works perfectly.

In other cases, the surgeon might say, "I've gotta be able to go in and do it myself," because they see the difference of the person that they're actually working on.

So, it is a blended way of doing it, but the doctor is the one that has to go in with the robotics arm and tell it what to do, so you still have that in the background that still has to occur.

- It strikes me, though, that you have to have a higher level of intelligence, maybe as a human, and maybe a deeper level of understanding and willingness to invest oneself in artificial intelligence in a meaningful way.

It strikes me as a demanding new way to learn how to do what we've always done.

Where am I wrong?

- You are not wrong.

You are not wrong, and I think too, as you look at it, and even as students, they wanna take a shortcut in life.

One thing I found, there are no shortcuts.

There are faster ways to do things, but you still have to learn the mechanics behind it, and you have to be able to learn exactly how it's coded to be able to utilize it and to even use it well, to be able to get the best out of it.

So if you think about gaming, which, you know, every kiddo in the world is into gaming, I've decided, right?

That's all coding, and a lot of it is done using the backend of AI intelligence.

However, if they don't know how to utilize it well, it's not going to come out as the perfect game that everyone is out using.

- Yeah.

As you look at North Carolina, and as I'm sure, in the early stages, you're assessing and reassessing some things, one of the good things happening in our state is that lots of people wanna move to North Carolina.

- [Teena] Yes.

- And workforce is gonna be a challenge for us.

- It is.

- As more and more companies come here and start creating a large number of jobs, a large number of positions, are we as a state gonna be able to supply that workforce for these companies?

And more importantly, given your expertise, are we gonna be able to supply individuals who are capable and willing to adjust to the new, a stage of, you know, IT and artificial intelligence and all the transformation they're in?

- You know, it is one thing that we keep addressing and looking at.

How do we make sure that we are the best of all the 50 states and K through 12?

So when you think about it, how do we already set up our students well right from the start?

Having the best teachers, having the best education to be able to prepare them well for what they wanna do.

So that's how we set the stage to start, and then when you think about it, we've gotta make sure that we are really coming around all the vocation schools, colleges, community colleges, and ensuring that we're talking to the, I can call 'em kiddos, I hope.

We're talking to the kiddos that are graduating and giving them options as to what they can do in life.

You can't tell me what you wanna do that I can't find you a job.

It doesn't matter what you want.

I'll find you a job in a company, and people look at me like I'm crazy and I'm like, "You cannot come up with anything I can't find."

I don't care if it is determining whether it's in biotechnology, whether it's in technology, whether it is designing games.

You know, even the roads that you ride on, it comes from the technology that we have to determine, when can you actually pour the concrete?

When can you do the tar?

Is it too hot?

Is it too cold?

All of this is technology-embedded, and people don't realize that.

All of our electrical engineering, it's all a matter of being underpinned by technology, and that, for me, is exciting, but we've gotta get students excited too, and I find that sometimes they're not as excited as I am.

So I need to get them excited and energetic!

- But you speak in a fluid, flowing, and fluent manner, so I have a feeling that you'll be very effective in persuading people about the goodness that lies within the world of technology.

You know, one of the issues we're all concerned about in business and education, in banking, in any sector is cybersecurity.

- [Teena] Yes.

- And while we've made great advancements in cybersecurity, there seems to be an avalanche of wrongdoing in that world.

What is your take on that and how does an individual, and I understand how organizations can do that by having all this programming that they buy and software and so on, but how does an individual protect themselves against the abuse that comes from cybersecurity or all of these schemes that people play with people using technology?

- Oh, great question.

There are so many nefarious characters out there that we have to watch for and we never see them coming.

- Individuals, perhaps governments, and so on.

- Right, and they attack.

My daughter was attacked with a cybersecurity attack and we had to figure out where it was coming from and what to do.

Thankfully, you know, I've always instilled passwords mean something.

Make sure they're secure and don't use your street names.

Don't do things I can find online.

Don't answer questions I can find about you online, and people don't realize that.

So when you think about, you're setting up your Gmail account and it says, "What high school did you go to?"

That's public information.

Don't use that answer.

- [Nido] Birth date.

- Birth date, right.

So when you're thinking through them, you've got to remember you've gotta choose things that are not easy for people to get to.

You've also gotta change your passwords often.

You've gotta go in and make it more difficult for someone to be able to hack you.

So that's the one thing I would always say to start with, and be diligent.

You know, a lot of people say, "Well, I never check my credit card receipts."

Why not?

That's how they get you.

They start with a dollar, and if you just miss it on your credit card statements, next month, they're gonna go with $20 and the next month $40 and the next month $60, and it just keeps progressing.

So you've gotta be diligent and you've gotta constantly check, and it's something we would like not to have to happen, but we live in a world where that's our new reality.

- In your new position as secretary, you're clearly responsible to the enormous base of data that the state has on individuals.

- [Teena] That's correct.

- I understand that there are systems and software and programs that, you know, protect that, but is that a concern for you?

- Always.

- That someone would somehow get into this data and abuse a state-wide system, whether it's in the North Carolina Department of Revenue or it's in the, you mentioned, you know, vehicles and licenses and all that.

- Always a concern.

Always one that we will always keep watching.

We have ways of continuously checking and monitoring, because the last thing we wanna do is have anything happen to that data and not have it kept safe and secure.

My data's in there, so I wanna keep it protected as much as Fort Knox.

So how do I do it?

How do I make sure we're doing it and how are we diligent about it?

'Cause the last thing, again, we want is anyone to be able to get through, and they're gonna try, and so we have to ensure that we continuously monitor and keep up with it.

I wanna make sure your data's secure.

- Yes.

- I wanna make sure mine is and every single resident of North Carolina, and ones just passing through.

- Yeah, and we appreciate that.

I can see why you were picked as one of the top women, top 10 women in data in the country.

You certainly know what you're doing.

Are your daughters upset that you have given up a significant position in private sector, where your compensation could be at a significantly higher level and you've taken a service position with the State of North Carolina where your income is gonna drop measurably?

Your work and complexity of your work is gonna increase measurably.

What does your therapist say about all that?

[Teena laughs] - They actually asked if I'd lost my mind.

- [Nido] Yes.

- But you know, as I told them, I said, "You have to give back and you have to find ways of doing that in everything you do and be grateful for every day you've been given.

We're all gifted the same 86,400 seconds.

How we utilize them is what makes a difference and an impact everywhere we go, and this is my time for that impact.

Now, I will tell you, when they graduated from college, they each got a new car and I told 'em that was it.

No more Google stock.

[Teena laughs] - Oh.

- So that was your last big gift.

- Yes.

- Go out and make your way in the world, and so- - Yes.

There's no stock of the State of North Carolina to be given.

- There is no stock.

- Yeah.

- Our stock is in the roots that we have here.

- In the fullness of satisfaction.

- Exactly.

- That comes from serving humanity.

Well, as one Tar Heel citizen, I'm grateful for that.

I know that you've mentored a lot of people in your life, both men and women.

- Yes.

- I know that STEM is something we all talk about in a big way.

I also know that perhaps it's not as available in the educational system as someone like you would argue should be.

- Right.

- What is your take on STEM and how does the educational system, K through 12 perhaps, and maybe colleges as well, how much attention should they pay to that and what do they have to do to make good things happen there?

- Great question.

I think we do have to pay attention.

We are losing so many people to other careers that are not STEM-focused, and what they forget is, again, everything is underpinned by technology.

So we have to bring it into the classrooms.

We have to be able to show, this is the excitement that technology can bring and utilize it and not be fearful of it, and that means we're gonna have to bring things into the classroom that teachers haven't quite used before, but we've gotta train them and make sure it's effortless for them as well and get students excited about the possibility.

Hey, you can game and make that design that you're gaming on.

You can turn around and help impact the roads that you're riding on, and here's how.

Here's how your work in the government can make such a difference all the way across your state.

Your impact can be bigger than you yourself, and being able to get into the classroom and actually have, all of us as adults, getting in there with the teachers and putting our money where our mouth is with our time and spending time with them.

I think that's vastly important, and so that's one thing I'm gonna be doing.

I'm gonna be crossing the state and going into some places to where I can say, what are we doing?

How can I help?

And in mentoring, it's been the same thing, making sure that people are excited and in tune with what they're working on.

- Now, at Google, you had to deal with a small group of executives who make decisions.

Now, your funding and all else is gonna be dependent on the legislature and your relationship thereof.

Are you prepared to make the case to the legislature in Raleigh and get the kind of advantages that you must have to run a really significant department?

- Yes.

So, short answer is yes.

Longer answer is that's where I'm gonna spend the bulk of my time, is making sure they understand it.

Technology is not an easy thing to quickly understand.

They just want it to work and people don't understand the cost of what it takes to do.

It's just like building a house.

You know, most of our costs are in the walls, not in the prettiness that we have everywhere.

So it's the same thing with technology.

I've gotta get them to understand technology is a sexy place to be behind the walls so that we can produce everything we need to, but it's gonna cost money.

- [Nido] Yes.

- And being able to do that in a quick way.

- And the stronger the structure, the better the service, and the better all of us have.

- That's correct.

- Well, thank you so much for being with me on "Side by Side."

I wish you the very, very best in your new endeavor.

- Thank you.

- It's gonna be an adjustment.

- Yes.

- Private to public, but I have a feeling you're gonna do just fine.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

I appreciate it.

[uplifting music] [uplifting music continues] [uplifting music continues] - [Announcer] Funding for "Side by Side with Nido Qubein" is made possible by.

- [Narrator 1] Coca-Cola Consolidated is honored to make and serve 300 brands and flavors locally, thanks to our teammates.

We are Coca-Cola Consolidated, your local bottler.

- [Announcer] The Budd Group has been serving the southeast for over 60 years.

Specializing in janitorial, landscape, and facility solutions, our trusted staff delivers exceptional customer satisfaction.

Comprehensive facility support with the Budd Group.

- [Narrator 3] Truist.

We are here to help people, communities, and businesses thrive in North Carolina and beyond.

The commitment of our teammates makes the difference every day.

Truist.

Leaders in banking, unwavering in care.