Maryjo Charbonnier is the former CHRO and Executive Advisor at Kyndryl, the world's largest provider of IT infrastructure services , with more than 70,000 employees across roughly 60 countries. When Kyndryl was spun out of IBM in 2021 as one of the largest public company spin-offs in history, Maryjo helped build its culture and people strategy from the ground up, which is why she and others have called it the world's largest startup.

She has spent nearly two decades as a public company CHRO on both sides of the Atlantic, including Wolters Kluwer (traded on the Dutch exchange) and Broadridge Financial Solutions, after a formative run at PepsiCo where she led change management for Frito-Lay. She was named CHRO of the Year in the Netherlands and earned her MBA at Southern Methodist University.

In this episode, Maryjo draws on a career spent leading messy transformations and building a 70,000-person workforce to argue that as AI automates tasks and chunks of jobs, the work that defines a career is moving from what you know to how you judge, lead, and decide, and most organizations are not teaching for it yet.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why Maryjo “seeks the heat” in messy transformations and what she learned leading HR through turnarounds, spin‑offs, and large‑scale change.
• How Kyndryl defined the “Kyndryl way” with six core behaviors and uses culture as an operating plan in the world’s largest startup.
• Why HR must focus on which skills are rare and most valuable, and how Kyndryl’s Make Yourself Discoverable campaign turned skills into a strategic asset.
• How AI-powered career profiles, skills-based redeployment, and role-specific AI curricula were intentionally designed to show Kyndryls that AI is an asset to their career, not a threat to it.
• Why Maryjo believes HR has three roles in AI, including reshaping commercial work and building an AI governance council that balances speed with risk.
• How leadership “ORE” (organizational design, risk management, empathy) and human skills like change management and people leadership will define careers in an AI‑enabled workplace

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Maryjo on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How Rory O'Driscoll Explains Success Modes for AI Companies and Three Essential Startup Strategies
• Episode with Keith Sonderling, then an EEOC Commissioner and now the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor

Trond Undheim is a futurist, innovation expert, and research scholar at Stanford University whose work spans governments, startups, and leading academic institutions. His ideas have been featured in outlets including Forbes, The Boston Globe, Fast Company, Fortune, and MIT News, and he previously hosted the Futurized podcast.

He holds a PhD in AI and cognition from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and is the author of eight books, including The Platinum Workforce, which explores how to train and hire for the twenty-first century’s industrial transitions. 

In this episode, Trond draws on decades of interdisciplinary work on emerging technologies, systemic risk, and workforce transitions to argue that system awareness, not traditional knowledge, will determine who thrives in an AI-defined economy.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why Trond says knowledge has become superfluous, and what that claim means for how we define expertise in an AI era.
• Why cutting junior hires to cash in on AI efficiencies bakes a failure mode into your organization.
• What “system awareness” looks like in practice, and how it changes the way leaders think about skills and careers.
• Why socio-technical thinking matters, and how treating humans and machines as mutually constitutive systems reshapes AI design and governance.
• Why humanity is unprepared to operate at gigascale, and what megaproject research suggests about the cost of that gap.
• How The Platinum Workforce maps twelve durable skill domains, from socio-technical capabilities to maker and maintenance skills, that will outlast multiple AI waves.

Explore this conversation:

00:00 Intro and AI Fun Fact: Pew Research Americans More Concerned Than Excited About AI

04:22 Introducing Trond Undheim, Futurist and Author of The Platinum Workforce

05:09 Why the Workforce Is the Single Biggest Lever for Human Survival

09:08 System Awareness: The Only Knowledge That Matters in the AI Era

15:06 Socio-technical Systems: Co-Evolution of Humans and Technology

17:54 Human Agency Over Technology: Who Really Sets the Rules

23:24 The Human Skills AI Cannot Replace: Making, Maintaining and Place Maximizing

31:12 Workforce Preparation for the AI Era: Training Juniors and Experimentation

34:08 Macro Challenges: Giga-Scale Projects and Management at Scale

45:33 The Augmented Workforce: What AI Integration Must Look Like in 10 Years

54:39 Where to Connect with Trond Undheim and Learn More About The Platinum Workforce

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Trond on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How AI Will Transform Tax Filing: Insights from Daniel Marcous, Founder and CTO of April and Former CTO of Waze

Lev Gonick is the CIO at Arizona State University, one of the largest and fastest-growing universities in the United States, with over 200,000 students across campuses in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Washington, and 35 partner institutions around the world. He won an ORBIE Award in 2023 as a top large Enterprise CIO, was named a Top 50 Educational Technology Influencer by EdScoop in 2022, and holds a PhD in International Political Economy from York University.

Before joining ASU, he was one of the rare CIOs who came from the classroom, having spent the first decade of his career as a teacher and researcher before pioneering online learning in the 1990s, long before it became an industry. 

In this episode, Lev draws on more than 40 years at the intersection of technology and education to make the case that AI is not the disruptor of higher education, it is the accelerant, and that the institutions treating it that way are already building what everyone else is still debating.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why AI is not the disruptor of higher education, and what has actually been driving the disruption for decades
• How ASU went from survival mode during the 2009 financial crisis to building the largest online learning operation in the country, and why the same instinct is now driving its AI strategy
• What ASU's data from 200,000 students using AI daily actually reveals about which skills will endure and which ones will not
• How the role of university faculty is fundamentally changing in the AI era, and why the hardest question has nothing to do with cheating
• What the "Agentic self" means for creatives, and how a unique course taught by Will.i.am is helping students protect and amplify their creative futures.
• How the traditional responsibilities of the Chief Information Officer are expanding beyond basic operations to actively shaping institutional strategy and innovation.

Explore this conversation:

• 00:00 Intro and AI Fun Fact: Blue Books vs AI Rethinking Academic Integrity
• 04:25 Introducing Lev Gonick, CIO at Arizona State University
• 05:17 From Classroom Teacher to Academic Disruptor at ASU
• 08:16 ASU Principled Innovation and the Design Build Approach to AI
• 13:23 Co-Creating with Industry: AWS Zoom and the GSV Summit at ASU
• 17:35 Soft Skills Are Smart Skills: Rethinking AI Literacy in Higher Ed
• 23:25 Rethinking Assessment: What Faculty Must Adapt to in the AI Era
• 27:01 Why a College Degree Still Matters in the Age of AI
• 30:37 From YouTube to ASU: Meeting Learners Where They Are
• 34:22 Disrupt or Be Disrupted: ASU Mission to Reach 300000 Students
• 35:57 From Operator to Strategist: The New Playbook for the Modern CIO
• 40:26 Connect with Lev Gonick and Arizona State University

RESOURCES

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Lev on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article: Blue Books Are Making a Campus Comeback via Axios, by Josephine Walker
• On what most entrepreneurs get wrong when pitching to VCs.

Dr. Muthu Alagappan is the Founder and CEO of Counsel Health, the company automating access to high-quality, personalized medical advice from doctors. Counsel recently closed a $25M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures, following an $11M seed round that included A16Z, Asymmetric Capital Partners, Floodgate Fund, and Pear VC.

He holds an MD from Stanford Medicine and a B.S. in Biomechanical Engineering from Stanford, and was among the earliest AI researchers to publish on clinical applications of machine intelligence.

In this episode, Muthu draws on 15 years at the intersection of AI research and frontline clinical medicine to explore the shift toward semi-autonomous care.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How AI addresses the limitations of traditional primary care by offering a highly personalized, knowledgeable, and always available medical experience.
• Why patients might leapfrog clinicians in their willingness to adopt AI for medical advice, and how this shift challenges the traditional identity of physicians.
• What semi-autonomous care actually looks like in practice, and how Counsel Health uses a clinician cockpit to augment human compassion with real-time machine intelligence.
• How to leverage population-level patterns without compromising patient privacy.
• Why the double standard applied to AI is misplaced, and why Muthu argues we should hold AI to a much higher benchmark than human doctors simply.
• What the future of global healthcare could look like when cognitive medical expertise is fully democratized, ensuring that a patient's zip code no longer dictates the quality of care they receive.

Explore the Conversation

00:00 Intro & AI Fun Fact: Big Data Limitations and Bias in Clinical AI
03:52 Meet Dr. Muthu Alagappan: From Stanford AI Researcher to Counsel Health CEO
06:51 Why Primary Care Falls Short: The Case for AI-Augmented Medicine
09:05 Human Doctors Are Human: How Patients Are Adopting AI Medical Advice
12:20 Patient Privacy and Population Health: Learning Without Training on Data
14:17 Inside the Clinician Cockpit: Real-Time AI Support for Doctors
16:17 Why Counsel Health Employs Its Own Physicians: Messaging-Based Care
19:00 From Semi-Autonomous to Fully Autonomous Care: Healthcare's Next Era
24:19 AI Ethics in Medicine: Safety Standards, Model Values, and Data Ownership
27:22 The AI Double Standard: Why Machines Deserve a Higher Benchmark Than Doctors
31:07 Founder Lessons: Building a Category-Defining Healthcare AI Company
33:53 Rewriting the Commencement Address: Medicine as Lifelong Learning
35:37 Where to Connect with Dr. Muthu Alagappan and Counsel Health

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Muthu on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article: Artificial Intelligence in Health Care: The Ethical Frontier via Conexiant
• On the future of AI, Silicon Valley and Venture Capital 

In this special compilation episode of AI and the Future of Work, we are bringing you four conversations recorded live on the show floor at HumanX 2026. This is the second and final compilation of our three-part HumanX Live series.

Our first compilation explored how AI amplifies the human potential it can never replace. This one turns to the technical side, and to a question that gets harder the more these systems touch our lives: how do you build AI you can actually trust not to fail when it matters most? 

As technology reaches further into the moments that count (the systems that monitor our health, drive our cars, and work alongside us on the job), these four builders share how they design for accountability, safety, and harmony between people and machines.

What You'll Learn

• Why reading code is no longer enough, and how observing real outcomes (not system metrics alone) is the only way to know whether AI is actually serving the people who depend on it
• What "AI values" are, and why companies will soon need shared norms for how people disclose, review, and engage with work produced by agentic systems
• How robots earn trust on a job site by measuring their own uncertainty, asking questions, and communicating their intentions before they act
• Why the most valuable place for automation is the dirty, dull, and dangerous work humans were never meant to do, and what that means for keeping people safe
• Why physical AI should be built first as a reasoning and communication model that can explain its thinking to people, rather than one that jumps straight to action
• How "harness engineering" moves teams beyond prompt and context engineering, and why orchestrating several frontier models together can outperform any single one

Featured Guests

• Christine Yen, CEO and Co-Founder of Honeycomb. Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19362645 
• Dr. Ali Agha, CEO and Co-Founder of FieldAI. Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19362711 
• Dr. Jaime Lien, Co-Founder & Chief Scientist of Archetype AI. Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19363341 
• XD Huang, Chief Technology Officer of Zoom. Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19363454 

Inspired by something you heard in this episode? Share your favorite insight about the future of work and tag us on social:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ai-and-the-future-of-work 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aifutureofwork/ 

And don't forget to subscribe to AI and the Future of Work for more conversations with the leaders shaping what comes next.

Explore the Full HumanX 2026 Series

This episode is part of a special three-part series recorded live at HumanX 2026:

• Episode 1: Special conversation with Stefan Weitz, CEO of HumanX: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19210355
• Episode 2: Compilation featuring the CEOs of Scribe, Operative Games, and Dataiku, and the Chief Business Officer of Zensai: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19257142

XD Huang is the CTO of Zoom, where he is leading the company's shift from hosting meetings to completing work, a vision he calls conversation to completion. He joined Zoom after 30 years at Microsoft, where he served as Azure AI CTO and a Technical Fellow and helped ship Azure OpenAI Services. A pioneer in speech recognition for four decades, he led the Microsoft team that first reached human parity in transcribing conversational speech. 

Recorded live from the floor of HumanX 2026, this lightning round explores what it takes to turn everyday conversation into finished work.

XD and host Dan Turchin dig into Zoom's federated approach to AI, the cost and accuracy tradeoffs hidden inside every model decision, and why, after a career spent solving the hardest technical problems, he believes taste and judgment are the qualities that still belong to people.

What You'll Learn

• What "conversation to completion" means for the way work actually gets done
• How Zoom's federated approach combines multiple frontier models into one stronger result
• Why every AI decision is a tradeoff between cost and accuracy, and how to control for it
• How an open ecosystem lets the same AI work across Zoom, Google, Microsoft, and in-person meetings
• Why taste and judgment are the qualities XD hires for that AI cannot replace

🎙️ Part of our HumanX 2026 compilation series. Listen to the full compilation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19363520

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter.
• Connect with XD on LinkedIn.

Dr. Jaime Lien is the Chief Scientist and a co-founder of Archetype AI, where she is building a foundation model that turns complex sensor data into meaning people can actually act on. A signal processing scientist by training, she earned her PhD working on RF imaging from satellites and later helped develop the first radar embedded in consumer smartphones at Google, before leaving with four colleagues to start Archetype AI. 

Recorded live from the floor of HumanX 2026, this lightning round explores how AI can read the rich, non-human signals all around us and translate them for the people who rely on them.

Jaime and host Dan Turchin dig into how machines distill signal from noise, why a reasoning and communication model matters more than a straight-to-action one, and why keeping a human in the loop is a requirement, not a feature, when the stakes are physical.

What You'll Learn

• How AI separates meaningful signal from noise across the sensors already around us
• Why Archetype builds a reasoning and communication model, not a straight-to-action one
• Why keeping a human in the loop is treated as a requirement, not an optional feature
• How interpretability and explainability have to be designed in from the start, not added later
• Why discovering something new about the physical world matters more than automation alone

🎙️ Part of our HumanX 2026 compilation series. Listen to the full compilation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19363520

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter.
• Connect with Jaime on LinkedIn.

Dr. Ali Agha is the CEO and co-founder of FieldAI, where he is building general-purpose "brains" for robots across different forms, environments, and tasks. He has spent nearly two decades in AI autonomy, including years at NASA JPL and research roots at MIT, putting software and intelligence on drones, legged robots, and other platforms. 

Recorded live from the floor of HumanX 2026, this lightning round explores what it takes to bring AI safely into the physical world, where people already live and work.

Ali and host Dan Turchin dig into why reliability is the overlooked challenge of physical AI, why a robot should communicate how confident it is before it acts, and where the line sits between the tasks machines should take on and the ones that should always stay human.

What You'll Learn

• Why reliability, not lab demos, is the real test for AI in the physical world
• How robots that measure and share their own uncertainty earn human trust on the job site
• Why the future of robotics is hundreds of specialized form factors, not one humanoid
• How FieldAI targets the dirty, dull, and dangerous work to keep people out of harm's way
• Where the boundary sits: the creative, strategic, and human-touch decisions that stay with people

🎙️ Part of our HumanX 2026 compilation series. Listen to the full compilation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19363520

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter.
• Connect with Ali on LinkedIn.

Christine Yen is the CEO and co-founder of Honeycomb, the observability platform that helps engineering teams understand what their software is actually doing. A developer by background, she built products at Facebook before co-founding Honeycomb to bring fast, flexible observability to the rest of the world. 

Recorded live from the floor of HumanX 2026, this lightning round explores what observability means now that both humans and agents are writing, shipping, and debugging code.

Christine and host Dan Turchin dig into why the code was never the real source of truth, why "more" has become the watchword of the agentic era, and what it takes for teams to agree on what good actually looks like before they build it.

What You'll Learn

• Why the code was never the real source of truth, and what to observe instead
• How the software development lifecycle is collapsing as PMs, designers, and engineers become builders
• Why the system that writes the code should not be the one that judges it
• How defining "good" in plain English keeps quality measurable, whether people or agents build it
• What responsible AI looks like in practice, from disclosure norms to protecting human attention

🎙️ Part of our HumanX 2026 compilation series. Listen to the full compilation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19363520

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter.
• Connect with Christine on LinkedIn.

Dan Roth is the Editor in Chief and a Vice President at LinkedIn, where he has led the world's largest professional editorial operation since 2011. Business Insider once called him the most powerful business journalist on the internet, and over more than a decade he has helped turn LinkedIn from a networking site into a global media platform, building out its editorial team, top voices, and Influencer Program. He also hosts the popular This Is Working podcast.

Over 15 years watching professionals navigate every major shift in the workplace, from the rise of social media to the agentic AI era, Dan has developed a clear and counterintuitive view of what actually drives a durable career. In this episode, he draws on LinkedIn's data from over a billion members to make the case that the skills employers are hunting for right now are not the ones most professionals are building, and that the gap between what AI can produce and what humans can offer is closing faster than anyone is prepared for.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why AI has commoditized knowledge itself, and what professionals actually come to LinkedIn for that no chatbot can give them
• What separates content that spreads beyond your network from content that stays stuck inside it, and what LinkedIn's systems are really looking for
• Why AI is a great tool for getting your voice out, and the exact moment it starts working against you instead
• The mindset Dan drills into his team about passion and failure, and the one thing he says you are never allowed to get wrong
• How a mission-driven company resists the pull to chase clicks and ad revenue, and what Dan's old-world instincts taught him to unlearn
• The two categories of skills surging in demand right now, and why the second list is the one most people overlook

Explore this conversation:

00:00 Intro and AI Fun Fact: Stop Giving AI Human Adjectives 

04:10 Introducing Dan Roth, Editor in Chief at LinkedIn 

05:50 Leadership Lessons from 15 Years at LinkedIn Mission and Failure

12:30 LinkedIn Authenticity AI Content and Protecting Community Integrity

18:27 Moderation vs Distribution: What LinkedIn Promotes and Why 

23:55 Ad Revenue vs Mission: The Cost of Chasing Clicks 

28:24 Skills on the Rise: What to Build in an AI World 

34:29 Going Undercover and Staying Flexible in Your Career 

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How AI is making networks smart
• Other episode mentioned in the show: 315: Tony Stubblebine, CEO of Medium, On Human Curation, Subscription-Driven Quality, and Fixing the Internet 

Sophia Kianni is the co-founder and CEO of Phia, an AI shopping agent with more than 1.4 million users that has raised over $43 million from an investor list that includes Kris Jenner, Sara Blakely, and Hailey Bieber. Sophia and her co-founder built the company out of their Stanford dorm room on a single thesis: in the future, every consumer will have a personal AI shopping assistant.

Sophia is also the co-host of The Burnouts, a podcast with more than 600,000 followers and over 200 million downloads. Earlier in her career, she founded Climate Cardinals, the world's largest youth-led climate nonprofit with more than 20,000 volunteers, and became the youngest United Nations advisor in U.S. history.

In this episode, Sophia draws on her experience building high-velocity ventures before the age of 25 to challenge how founders think about feedback, team culture, content creation, experimentation, and workflow efficiency. She also makes a compelling argument for how AI should be used at work: removing friction from the parts of a workflow that drain time and energy without adding value.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why the intersection of social and shopping looked like a solved problem to most founders, and the gap that Sophia and her co-founder saw inside their Stanford dorm room
• How Sophia thinks about team building as company building, and the specific qualities she screens for before resumes, credentials, or experience
• How a consumer-first mindset and relentless customer feedback help Phia iterate faster and build a product users love
• Why building close to your user is still the most underrated advantage in AI, and what most founders miss when they try to scale it 
• Why Phia and The Burnouts built data-oriented content engines that operate like scientific labs, testing hooks, fonts, retention curves, and B-roll as measurable variables rather than relying on creative instincts alone
• How Sophia uses AI tools like Adobe Firefly to increase workflow efficiency by removing friction from repetitive tasks, not to replace creative work, but to protect it
• The framework Sophia uses to decide whose feedback shapes her decisions and whose she treats as noise

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Sophia on LinkedIn

In this special compilation episode of AI and the Future of Work, we are bringing you four conversations recorded live on the show floor at HumanX 2026. This is the second episode of our three-part HumanX Live series.

In an era dominated by headlines about displacement and disruption, these four founders share a grounded optimism about what AI cannot replace: human judgment, creativity, and the drive to do work that matters.

Each of these leaders is building in a different space, but they arrived at the same conviction. The companies and people poised to win in the AI era are not the ones moving fastest to automate. They are the ones who understand what humans are uniquely built to do, and build systems that make space for it.

What You'll Learn

• Why most organizations cannot answer a basic question: how does work actually get done here, and why that gap is now a strategic liability
• How AI-powered learning can shift employee development from a compliance obligation to a genuine driver of engagement
• Why storytelling will remain a human craft, and what the Pixar transition teaches us about navigating creative disruption
• The case for asynchronous AI collaboration, where systems work overnight and humans return to exercise judgment
• Why optimism about the human worker is not naive, and what the data actually shows
• How to balance AI use cases that replace humans with those that create new value and grow the economy

Featured Guests

• Jennifer Smith, CEO & Co-founder of Scribe. Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19257070 
• Robin Daniels, Chief Business Officer at Zensai. Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19257107 
• Jon Snoddy, CEO of Operative Games. Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19257113 
• Florian Douetteau, CEO of Dataiku. Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19257131 

Inspired by something you heard in this episode? Share your favorite insight about the future of work and tag us on social.

And don't forget to subscribe to AI and the Future of Work for more conversations with the leaders shaping what comes next.  

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter

Explore the Full HumanX 2026 Series

This episode is part of a special three-part series recorded live at HumanX 2026:

• Episode 1: Special conversation with Stefan Weitz, CEO of HumanX: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19210355
• Episode 3: Compilation featuring leaders from Honeycomb, FieldAI, Archetype AI, and Zoom: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19363520

Florian Douetteau is the CEO and co-founder of Dataiku, the enterprise AI platform he has been building for over a decade to make data and AI accessible at scale. Recorded live from the floor of HumanX 2026, this lightning round explores how the rise of agents is reshaping the role of data teams and what a genuinely AI-native way of working looks like in practice.

Florian and host Dan Turchin go deep on where agentic AI actually creates economic value, why most enterprises are still thinking about agents the way people thought about websites in 1997, and what it means for humanity when machines start doing things we thought only humans could do.

What You'll Learn

• How Dataiku evolved from data science platform to full agent studio for the enterprise
• Why business teams need to become their own AI enablers, not just consumers of data insights
• What a truly agentic workday looks like for knowledge workers in the near future
• Why the dystopian AI narrative misses the use cases that actually grow the economy
• What it means to be human when intelligence is no longer exclusively a human trait

🎙️ Part of our HumanX 2026 compilation series. Listen to the full compilation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19257142

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Florian on LinkedIn

Jon Snoddy is the CEO of Operative Games and a veteran storyteller with a career spanning NPR, Lucasfilm, Disney Imagineering and a co-venture with Spielberg and Sega. Recorded live from the floor of HumanX 2026, this lightning round explores what happens when you combine Disney-level character craft with large language models to create a completely new kind of interactive storytelling.

Jon and host Dan Turchin dig into how Operative builds AI-powered characters that feel emotionally real, what the entertainment industry gets wrong about the AI disruption, and why small studios have an edge that no major franchise can buy.

What You'll Learn

• How Jon went from Disney Imagineering to building AI characters you can call on the phone
• Why emotional fidelity matters more than photorealism in AI-driven storytelling
• How Operative thinks about guardrails, ethics and responsible AI in immersive entertainment
• What the Pixar disruption can and cannot teach us about the AI moment in entertainment
• Why big studios are watching but not moving, and why that's an opportunity for startups

 🎙️ Part of our HumanX 2026 compilation series. Listen to the full compilation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19257142 

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Jon on LinkedIn

Robin Daniels is the Chief Business Officer at Zensai and a seasoned tech executive with stints at Salesforce, LinkedIn, Box and WeWork. Recorded live from the floor of HumanX 2026, this lightning round explores what it really takes to create an environment where people are motivated to grow, learn and do their best work every day.

Robin and host Dan Turchin dig into why most LMS platforms have failed employees, how AI is changing the relationship between learning and performance, and why investing in people is not just the right thing to do but a proven path to better business outcomes.

What You'll Learn

• Why 80% of employees are disengaged and what organizations can do about it
• How AI-powered learning delivers the right skills at the right moment, not generic compliance training
• How Zensai uses AI to coach managers and strengthen the employee-manager relationship
• Why proving the link between learning and performance is the key to making L&D a strategic priority
• Why the future belongs to humans who combine technical skills with taste, judgment and soft skills

 🎙️ Part of our HumanX 2026 compilation series. Listen to the full compilation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19257142 

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Robin on LinkedIn

Jennifer Smith is the CEO of Scribe and a former McKinsey consultant turned venture capitalist who interviewed over 1,200 enterprise CIOs before founding her company. Recorded live from the floor of HumanX 2026, this lightning round covers how AI is helping organizations finally understand how work actually happens inside their teams.

Jennifer and host Dan Turchin explore why even Fortune 500 leaders don't truly know how their companies operate, and what that means for AI transformation.

What You’ll Learn 

• Why process visibility comes before any AI initiative
• How Scribe maps workflows across 600,000+ companies
• Responsible AI and building a data-driven culture
• Humans and agents working side by side
• Helping people spend more time on the work they love

 🎙️ Part of our HumanX 2026 compilation series. Listen to the full compilation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19257142 

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn

Andrew Palmer is a long-time editor and columnist at The Economist, where he writes the widely read Bartleby column on work and life. He also hosts Boss Class, one of The Economist's most popular podcasts, whose most recent season explored generative AI in the workplace, a topic Andrew approached not just as a journalist, but as a self-described unsophisticated user determined to get smarter by doing.

In this episode, Andrew draws on his reporting and interviews with leaders across industries to offer an outside-in view of where AI adoption actually stands, and why the gap between the hype and the reality is not a sign of failure, but of how complex change really is.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why AI adoption faces three distinct barriers (behavioral, technical, and organizational) and why solving one without the others leaves productivity gains stranded.
• Why structural reskilling frameworks (like Denmark's flexicurity model and Singapore's voucher-based lifelong learning system) offer a more credible response to AI disruption than waiting for policy to catch up.
• Why Johnson & Johnson's "let a thousand flowers bloom" approach to AI experimentation produced a Pareto effect (15% of projects generating 85% of value) and what they changed as a result.
• How the AI productivity boom is real at the individual level but not yet showing up in aggregate data, and why Andrew believes that gap is a question of time, not technology.
• Why enlightened corporate leadership requires transparency about potential job disruption and a commitment to adjacent career planning rather than performative optimism.
• What work in 2036 might look like, and why Andrew's most unsettling prediction has nothing to do with jobs, and everything to do with privacy.

Explore this conversation:

00:00 Introduction to AI and the Future of Work episode 391

01:14 AI fun fact: AI legislative speed versus technological advancement

03:51 Meet Andrew Palmer The Economist Bartleby Column Boss Class

06:14 Digital Doppelganger and AI Personality Traits

07:57 AI Adoption Barriers Behavioral Technical and Organizational

11:01 AI Impact at Work Startups vs Large Organizations

14:15 Leadership Humility and AI Uncertainty in the Workplace

17:41 AI Experimentation at Scale Lessons from Johnson and Johnson

24:26 AI vs SaaS Productivity Data and the Speed of Adoption

27:35 Balancing AI Automation with Human Meaning at Work

31:26 AI Policy Reskilling and Lifelong Learning for the Future

36:03 Work in 2036 AI Monitoring Privacy and Constant Surveillance

38:47 Who Really Controls AI and What That Means for Workers

44:08 Connect with Andrew Palmer and Boss Class The Economist

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How Arvind Jain Is Shaping the Future of Enterprise Search 
• Another episode mentioned in the interview: How we can take back control from Big Tech with Tom Wheeler, former FCC Chairman, CEO, VC, and author of Techlash. 

Arnnon Geshuri is Chief People Officer at Snowflake, where he leads culture development, talent strategy, and organizational design at one of the world’s leading data cloud companies. His career spans decades of scaling high-growth technology organizations, including leadership roles at Google, Livongo Health, and Tesla, where he oversaw its growth from a 400-person startup to a 35,000-person transportation juggernaut.

Throughout his career, he has consistently chosen companies that demand a people function as innovative, as creative, and as forward-thinking as the business itself. And across every role, he has focused on one core idea: the people function must evolve as fast as the business itself, grounded in data, experimentation, and trust.

In this episode, Arnnon draws on that experience to challenge how leaders think about AI in the workplace, arguing that the real opportunity is not automation alone, but redefining how humans contribute, decide, and grow inside modern organizations.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why the people function must speak the language of data and analytics to influence engineering-led organizations and earn credibility in high-growth, technical environments
• The shift from transactional HR to a strategic role focused on connection, education, and rebuilding trust after workforce disruption and disconnection during COVID
• How Snowflake frames AI adoption by automating repetitive work, augmenting creative tasks, and preserving human judgment in decisions that require empathy and context
• Why employees adopt AI faster when leaders encourage curiosity, remove fear of experimentation, and make tools accessible through simple interfaces like natural language
• The risks of over-automating decisions like hiring and performance reviews, and why removing human accountability breaks trust inside organizations
• How building a culture of experimentation, measurement, and iteration allows people leaders to scale organizations without relying on intuition alone

Explore the Conversation

00:00 Intro & Fun Fact: How AI manipulation threatens autonomy

05:06 Meet Arnnon Geshuri: CPO at Snowflake, from Google, Tesla, and Livongo Health

10:24 The Evolution of HR: From Transactions to Amplifying Humanity

13:37 Snowflake's AI Framework: Automate, Augment, and Preserve Human Judgment

21:44 Driving AI Adoption: AI for Everybody and a Culture of Experimentation

26:26 Data Privacy and Trust: Building Guardrails for Enterprise AI

28:36 AI in Hiring: Mitigating Bias to Rescue Human Connection

32:28 Setting AI Boundaries: Why Algorithms Should Never Conduct Performance Reviews

34:16 Scaling Culture in Hyper-Growth: The Power of People Analytics

41:33 The AI Ride-Along Prediction and What Comes Next

43:15 Where to Connect with Arnnon Geshuri and Snowflake

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Arnnon on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How Rodrigo Liang, Raised Over $1B to Build the First Generative AI Unicorn

In this special episode of AI and the Future of Work, we are bringing you an exclusive conversation recorded live on the show floor at the HumanX 2026 event. This full interview kicks off a special three-part series, with the upcoming two episodes releasing in a compilation format. To start things off, we are sharing our uncut conversation with the man who made this entire gathering possible.

Stefan Weitz is the Co-founder and CEO of HumanX, an organization and premier event dedicated to cutting through the AI hype to find practical, world-changing applications. He joined Microsoft in 1996, working alongside leaders like Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer on iconic product launches and foundational tech like Bing and Windows.

In this live episode, Stefan draws on his extensive product development background to explain why our survival in the AI era depends on treating technology as an evolving tool and why the most powerful thing a leader can say today is "I do not know".

In this conversation, we discuss: 

• Why relying on focus groups and lean product development is the wrong approach for building breakthrough AI hardware and software.
• The reason established tech giants risk losing the AI race if they rely solely on distribution over building superior products.
• How AI differs fundamentally from all previous human tools and why its ability to learn creates unprecedented exponential growth.
• Why the speed of current technological adaptation threatens to outpace our natural ability to transition roles and find new purpose.
• The danger of anthropomorphizing artificial intelligence and why framing it as human creates unnecessary fear and resistance.
• How saying "I do not know" has become the most powerful leadership tool in a non-deterministic technology landscape.

Resources:

• Connect with Stefan on LinkedIn

Explore the Full HumanX 2026 Series

This episode is part of a special three-part series recorded live at HumanX 2026:

• Episode 2: Compilation featuring the CEOs of Scribe, Operative Games, and Dataiku, and the Chief Business Officer of Zensai: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19257142
• Episode 3: Compilation featuring leaders from Honeycomb, FieldAI, Archetype AI, and Zoom: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/19363520

Robb Wilson is the CEO and co-founder of OneReach.ai, an agent-building platform focused on complex enterprise use cases across healthcare, government, and telecommunications. A serial entrepreneur and former creative executive at Time Warner, Robb has spent decades working at the intersection of design and technology. He is also the co-owner of UX Magazine, a global community of more than 640,000 members, and the author of two bestselling books, including Age of Invisible Machines.

His career spans designing high-stakes systems like the Boeing 787 cockpit to building conversational AI platforms that rethink how humans interact with technology. Along the way, he earned an Academy Award nomination for Technical Achievement, reflecting his ability to bridge creativity and engineering at scale.

In this episode, Robb draws on that rare combination of design, product, and systems thinking to challenge how companies are adopting AI today, and why most are optimizing the wrong layer of the problem.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why companies are using AI to accelerate outdated software instead of rethinking what software should be, and how this creates the illusion of progress without meaningful change
• The fundamental mismatch between human communication and traditional interfaces, and why conversational interaction exposes how poorly most software has been designed for real users
• What “getting AI” actually means inside organizations, and why productivity gains often hide the fact that teams are still building systems they plan to replace
• The concept of “invisible machines” and why the future of AI is not better interfaces, but removing interfaces entirely to prioritize human interaction over system interaction
• Why evaluating AI systems based on what they do misses the point, and how understanding how they learn becomes the more critical question for decision-makers
• The tension between building AI that drives engagement versus AI that strengthens human connection, and how market incentives continue to reward the wrong outcomes

Explore the conversation:

00:00 Intro and Fun Fact 

04:27 Robb Wilson's Journey at the Intersection of Design and Technology

06:26 The UX Collision: Why Using AI to Build Old Software Faster is a Mistake

10:47 Defining Human-First Design and the Concept of Invisible Machines

13:26 Lessons from the Boeing 787: Using Context to Remove Complex Interfaces

16:08 The Adoption Problem: Why We Must Evaluate How AI Software Learns

20:40 The OpenAI Dilemma: Choosing Between Dopamine-Driven AI and Healthy Innovation

25:22 The End of Compiled Software: Why True AI Transformation Requires Total Transparency

29:48 Future Interfaces: Valuing Human Connection Over Brain Chips and Productivity

35:09 Will Capitalism Reward Ethical AI? The Power of Consumer Choice

41:54 Where to Connect with Robb Wilson and OneReach.ai

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Robb on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How Steve Truitt Is Working to Save Humanity and Prevent AI From Ruining Us

Matt Fitzpatrick is the CEO of Invisible Technologies, an AI platform used to improve models for more than 80% of the world’s leading AI companies, including Microsoft, AWS, and Cohere. The company has raised $100 million and scaled to $134 million in revenue, making it one of the fastest-growing AI companies globally.

Before joining Invisible, Matt was the Global Head of QuantumBlack Labs at McKinsey, where he led large-scale AI and data engineering efforts and helped enterprises move from experimentation to production.

In this episode, Matt draws on years spent inside enterprise AI deployments to challenge the gap between model progress and real-world adoption, and to explain why most organizations still struggle to turn AI into measurable business outcomes.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why enterprise AI adoption lags far behind model performance improvements, and why most organizations still struggle to turn technical progress into real business impact
• The hidden role of messy, fragmented legacy data, and why decades of accumulated systems make it nearly impossible to deploy reliable AI at scale
• Why defining “good” output in generative AI is far harder than expected, and how unclear standards stall deployment across high-stakes enterprise workflows
• The case for redesigning workflows from scratch, and why layering AI on top of existing processes fails to create meaningful efficiency gains
• Why most AI initiatives fail due to lack of business ownership, and how separating technology teams from operators prevents projects from reaching production
• How fear-driven narratives about job loss are slowing adoption, and why AI is more likely to shift work toward higher-value tasks than eliminate roles entirely

Explore this conversation: 

00:00 Intro and Fun Fact 

03:57 Matt Fitzpatrick's Path From McKinsey to Invisible Technologies 

09:56 Scaling Enterprise AI with Modular Platforms and Clean Data 

12:44 The Crucial Role of Expert Human Feedback in Model Training 

17:56 Why 95% of Enterprise AI Projects Never Reach Production

21:38 The Missing Link: Why True AI Transformation Requires Business Ownership 

26:54 Overcoming AI Fear and the Reality of Jevons Paradox 

32:24 Responsible AI: Governing Outcomes Over Technology 

39:05 The Future of Work: Moving From Administration to Innovation 

44:12 Where to Connect with Matt Fitzpatrick and Invisible Technologies

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Matthew on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How Allison Baum Gates Reveals the Secrets to a Successful VC Career

Your employees are already ahead of you on AI. The data is in and the question is no longer whether this is happening, but what leaders choose to do about it.

That is one of the key findings from Microsoft's 2026 Work Trend Index, and it is the starting point for this week's special episode. PeopleReign CEO Dan Turchin sits down with Matt Firestone, General Manager at Microsoft leading product marketing for Microsoft 365 Copilot and Agents, to unpack what trillions of anonymized signals across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem reveal about how AI is actually changing work right now.

What pairing telemetry with survey responses and in-house research reveals about the gap between where employees actually are and where their organizations think they are is striking. And the numbers on how organizations reward, or fail to reward, the people already doing this work will make most leaders uncomfortable. The bottleneck, it turns out, isn't where most people expect it.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why the job of a leader has shifted from designing transformation strategy to changing systems and culture
• How the report reframes agentic AI collaboration, not as a threat to human agency, but as an expansion of it
• What "frontier firms" and "frontier professionals" actually means, and why it's a mental model and rallying cry, not a marketing term
• How building in the open, leaders experimenting visibly and removing the stigma of getting things wrong, is one of the most quantifiably impactful things a manager can do
• Why agent adoption on the Microsoft 365 ecosystem is growing at a rate that will surprise even the optimists

Explore this conversation:

00:00 Intro

01:14 Inside Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index

02:22 Telemetry, Not Just Surveys: What the Data Reveal

03:09 Employees Are Ahead of Their Managers on Agentic AI

04:37 The Transformation Paradox and Broken Reward Systems

06:15 More Agentic AI, More Human Agency: The 49% Finding

09:28 How Leaders Should Respond: Build in the Open

11:26 Safety, Trust, and Responsible AI at Microsoft Scale

13:36 Building a Manager Equity Dashboard in 25 Minutes with Copilot

17:31 What Frontier Firms and Frontier Professionals Actually Do

20:04 AI, Toil, and the Fear of Becoming Obsolete

22:52 The 1 Billion Agents Prediction and What Comes Next

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Matt on LinkedIn
• Microsoft's 2026 Work Trend Index

Emmanuel Daniel is an author, advisor, and global thought leader on geopolitics, the future of finance, and their intersection with business and society. 

As the founder of the research and consulting house TAB Global and a recognized top 10 global influencer in the Fintech Power50, Emmanuel has spent decades looking under the hood of the global economy to understand how nations and institutions truly interact. 

In this episode, Emmanuel draws on 25 years of building relationships with central bankers, policymakers, and fintech leaders across 157 countries to make the case that the disruption most financial institutions are bracing for is not the one that is actually coming, and that the leaders asking the wrong questions today will have no runway left when the real inflection point hits.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why financial markets distracted everyone from the real AI disruption, and what happens to large organizations when agentic AI finally reaches the Internet of Things.
• Why the end user no longer interacts with your bank's app directly, and what that means for every institution investing in UX.
• Why Emmanuel argues that debt is the economy, and why the conversation about U.S. debt-to-GDP is asking the wrong question entirely.
• Why state-promoted digital currencies are structurally designed to fail, and what China's eCNY after 8 years in pilot reveals about the limits of government-driven innovation.
• Why stablecoins have enabled a parallel global economy that traditional banking missed, and what that signals for the institutions still holding the rails.
• Why originality of thought is the one human capability AI cannot replace, and why Emmanuel says AI is of no use to you if you cannot form the right questions yourself.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Emmanuel on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How AI Voice Assistants Will Make Meetings More Productive
• Other episodes mentioned:
  • 344: Can Decentralized AI Fix Banking? Crypto, Brain OS, and the Future of Finance with Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO
  • 358: Inside Mastercard’s AI Adoption Journey: CTO George Maddaloni on Building Trust, Detecting Fraud, and the Future of Payments

Tom Scott is the CEO of Wrike, the work management platform trusted by over 20,000 customers including Walmart Canada and Sony Pictures Television, across more than 140 countries and nearly 2 million end users.

Tom's path to the CEO seat is anything but conventional. He spent over 20 years leading finance and operations across some of the most hardware-intensive sectors in tech, from building cell towers to running finance at Zebra Technologies and autonomous robotics company Fetch Robotics, before joining Wrike as CFO and transitioning to CEO in July 2023.

In this episode, Tom draws on that rare vantage point (having led through multiple waves of technological disruption) to make a case that the leaders and companies that treat organizational intelligence as a combination of human judgment and AI capability, rather than a replacement of one by the other, are the ones building something that lasts.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why transformation remains stubbornly hard in the AI era, and what leaders consistently underestimate about the real blockers to change
• Why the biggest career risk today is not AI itself, but the decision to stop moving up the value stack of your current role
• The two words Tom's customers and team use most to describe the current moment: pace and noise, and what that means for leaders trying to drive transformation.
• How Tom coaches his leadership team to hire for intensity and ownership over domain expertise, and why that philosophy matters more now than ever
• Why a deterministic career plan is no longer a viable strategy, and what curiosity and experience-chasing actually look like as professional operating principles
• What Tom believes will be table stakes in the workplace well before 2031, and why the building blocks are already visible today

Explore this conversation:

• 00:00 Intro and Fun Fact
• 04:08 Scaling Work Management with Tom Scott, CEO of Wrike 
• 04:47 From Cell Towers to the CEO Seat at Wrike 
• 05:51 How Wrike Helps Teams Connect and Accelerate Work 
• 10:21 The Hardest Part of Transitioning to the CEO Role 
• 14:13 Wrike's Origins: Building Scalability for Complex Workflows 
• 17:04 Managing Pace and Noise During AI Transformations 
• 21:20 Why True Organizational Intelligence Requires Human Judgment 
• 25:54 Embracing Technology to Move Up the Value Stack 
• 28:11 Why Curiosity Outweighs a Deterministic Career Plan 
• 31:25 Hiring Empowered Teams: Selecting for Ownership and Intensity 
• 34:31 The Future of Work: When Agentic AI Becomes Table Stakes 
• 36:32 Where to Connect with Tom Scott and Wrike

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Thomas on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How Decentralized Intelligence and Data Precision Are Reshaping the Future of AI

In this special April compilation episode of AI and the Future of Work, we’re bringing back six great former guests who published popular books about how AI is redefining humans at work. 

The future of work isn't about competing with algorithms. It’s about how we use technology to increase our capacity for trust, express our vulnerability, and discover meaning.

This episode brings together insights from authors who explore how AI is reshaping work and what it means for individuals and organizations. 

What You’ll Learn

• Why delegating routine tasks to AI frees us to explore our human superpowers like empathy, rational thinking, and compassion.
• How the future of knowledge work lies in navigating ambiguity and expressing entirely new ideas.
• Why leaders must move beyond monitoring and productivity theater to build cultures of trust and give teams the space to experiment.
• How the traditional, contract-based employment model is failing the next generation and what replaces it.
• Why the era of the “superhuman” leader is over, and how showing your human side earns loyalty in times of disruption.
• How the AI revolution is sparking a massive work quake, and why only you can write your own story and decide what gives you meaning.

Featured Guests

• Bernard Marr, Futurist and Bestselling Author of Generative AI in Practice - Listen to the full conversation here: [https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/15441666] 
• Atif Rafiq, Former Fortune 500 Executive and Author of Decision Sprint - Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/14507445] 
• Brian Elliott, Executive Advisor and bestselling author of "How the Future Works". - Listen to the full conversation here: [https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/17282891] 
• Josh Drean, Co-founder of the Work3 Institute and Co-author of Employment is Dead - Listen to the full conversation here: [https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/16473644] 
• Linda Rottenberg, CEO and Co-founder of Endeavor, and Author of Crazy is a Compliment - Listen to the full conversation here: [https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/8356582] 
• Bruce Feiler, Bestselling Author of The Search: Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World - Listen to the full conversation here: [https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/14158168] 

💬 Inspired by something you heard in this episode? Share your favorite insight about redefining work, building trust, or finding meaning in the AI era, and tag us on social. 

We’d love to hear what resonated with you. And don’t forget to subscribe to AI and the Future of Work for more conversations with the authors and leaders shaping what comes next.

Oren Michels is an entrepreneur, investor, board member, and advisor to technology startups in the US and Europe. He is the co-founder and CEO of Barndoor AI, the control plane for agentic AI, and the founder who previously helped define the API management category with Mashery, acquired by Intel in 2013. He is also a Tony-nominated Broadway and Off-Broadway producer whose credits include Romeo+Juliet and Good Night, and Good Luck starring George Clooney.

In this episode, Oren draws on two decades of building foundational infrastructure for the enterprise to make the case that governing AI agents is not a security problem. It is an entirely new category of problem, and most companies do not yet have the vocabulary to describe it, let alone the tools to solve it. 

If your agents can already write to your CRM, interpret your instructions, and act without life experience or fear of consequences, who is actually in control?

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why securing AI agents is entirely different from managing APIs, and why traditional security and identity access tools were never designed to handle what agents can do.
• The reason most so-called agentic AI is still glorified robotic process automation, and what it will actually take to unlock enterprise value.
• How Barndoor AI's "least privilege" framework for agents works, and why the permission logic goes far beyond the identity of the human using the tool.
• Why an agent with delete access to your CRM is one probabilistic misfire away from a catastrophic outcome, and why ultimate responsibility always comes back to the humans operating the tools.
• The BYO AI parallel to BYOD: why well-meaning employees using personal AI tools with company data may force the enterprise governance moment no one is ready for.
• Why the same instinct that took Oren from API infrastructure to Broadway and back to enterprise AI may be exactly the mindset the agentic era demands from its builders.

Explore this conversation:

00:00 Intro and fun Fact

03:46 Oren Michels's Path From API Management to Building Barndoor AI

05:44 Redefining Trust: AI Lacks Life Experience and Fear of Consequences

08:24 History Repeating: Why AI Needs a Control Plane Just Like APIs Did

12:35 Deterministic APIs vs. Probabilistic Agents: Why Governing AI Is a Social Challenge

18:25 How Barndoor AI's "Least Privilege" Framework for Agents Actually Works

20:50 The Token Economy and Context Windows: Wandering Into the AI Home Depot

25:25 Preventing Catastrophic Failures: Why AI Agents Should Never Have Delete Access

31:39 The BlackBerry Moment of AI: Navigating the "BYO AI" Enterprise Trend

38:04 Balancing Tech and Creativity: From Enterprise AI to Producing on Broadway

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Oren on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How AI may eliminate jobs: what the data reveals

Jake Saper is a General Partner at Emergence Capital, one of the most iconic venture firms in enterprise software, with a portfolio that includes Zoom, Gusto, Veeva, and Together AI. Emergence has backed some of the most category-defining B2B companies of the last two decades, and Jake has spent nearly 12 years at the center of that deal flow.

What sets Jake apart is a life lived on both sides of the creativity question: he backs the companies building AI but also performs across genres from blues to metal as a working musician.

In this episode, Jake brings that rare combination of investor rigor and artist instinct to one of the hardest questions AI is forcing us to face, and whether you leave reassured or unsettled may depend entirely on how much of your identity is wrapped up in the work you create.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How AI will democratize the creation of art but commoditize its execution, ultimately causing the value of live, dynamic human performances to skyrocket.
• The stunning acceleration of startup growth, with top-quartile B2B software companies now scaling from zero to $1 million in ARR in just four months.
• How the flood of AI-generated content is turning attention into the real bottleneck, and why curation and point of view become the new competitive advantage.
• Why Jake believes the market will self-regulate the anthropomorphization of AI agents in the workplace, and where that logic has a hard limit.
• What Geoffrey Hinton said about building AI "like a mother," why it was both comforting and deeply unsatisfying, and what it reveals about AGI risk.
• Why Jake argues disclosure matters during this transition period, but what he actually wants people to ask about art as AI becomes a normal creative tool.

Explore this conversation:

00:00 Why AI Makes It Easier to Build a Demo and Harder to Build a Moat
05:25 From Cell Towers to Venture Capital: Jake Saper's Path to Emergence
08:53 How AI Is Compressing Startup Growth: From 18 Months to 4 Months to $1M ARR
18:05 What Art Actually Is: Compressed Human Experience and the Act of Making Meaning Shareable
23:30 How AI Can Unlock Latent Creativity in People Who Don't Think of Themselves as Creators
26:55 Why Disclosure Matters When Trust and Authenticity Are at Stake
30:19 Navigating a Post-Truth Era: When Everything Looks Synthetic, What Do We Believe?
32:14 Why the Value of Live Performance Is About to Skyrocket
35:58 As Soulless Entities Multiply, Soul-to-Soul Human Connection Becomes More Valuable
40:38 What Geoffrey Hinton Said About Building AI "Like a Mother" and Why It Was Unsatisfying
43:04 Why the Most Enduring Art Has Always Been About Transfer, Not Authorship

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Jake on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How AI Is Revolutionizing Creativity in Art, Music, and Education

Daniel Lereya is Chief Product and Technology Officer at monday.com, the AI work platform trusted by 60% of the Fortune 500 and valued at approximately $8 billion. He joined the company when it had 30 people and $4.5M ARR, and has since grown his team from 5 to nearly 900 people as monday.com crossed $1 billion in ARR.

In this episode, Daniel draws on nearly a decade of scaling one of the world's most adopted work platforms to share what it actually takes to rebuild product thinking from scratch when AI changes everything you thought you knew.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why the instincts that made monday.com successful are the exact ones Daniel says had to be dismantled to build AI-first products.
• What the critical difference is between building a demo that impresses and an agent that actually works in production, and where most teams get it wrong.
• Why Daniel believes wrapping AI inside rigid workflows produces better results than giving agents full discretion, and what monday.com learned the hard way.
• What happened when 2,000 of 3,000 monday.com employees started building their own apps in just two weeks, and what it revealed about the future of who gets to build software.
• Why Daniel argues that when an AI agent makes a mistake, the real question leaders should be asking has nothing to do with the technology.
• Why the biggest barrier to AI adoption is not the technology itself, and what Daniel says companies must stop waiting for before they start.

Explore:

00:00 Why AI Adoption Is Harder Than It Looks
00:53 Introduction + AI Commerce Standards: Google, OpenAI & Visa
04:30 Daniel Lereya's 9-Year Journey Scaling monday.com to $1B ARR
09:00 How AI Forces a Complete Reset in Product Thinking
12:25 The "AI Month" Initiative: Pausing R&D to Rebuild from Scratch
14:57 Building AI Products When the Output Is Non-Deterministic
20:47 What 250,000 Customers Taught Us About AI in the Real World
25:38 Responsible AI: Guardrails, Governance, and Data Control
31:28 Who Is Responsible When an AI Agent Makes a Mistake?
37:04 The Future of Work: Humans, Agents, and What Comes Next

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How we can take back control from Big Tech
• https://peoplereign.io/podcast/

Lisa Davis is a technology executive who has served as CIO and tech leader for some of the world's most complex organizations, including Intel, Blue Shield of California, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Department of Defense. 

She is now focused on shaping the next generation of leaders and advocating for women and diverse talent in STEM through her board work, executive coaching, and her forthcoming book, The Only Woman in the Room: How to Win in a Workplace Still Built for Men.

In this episode, Lisa draws on 30+ years leading technology at the highest levels of government and enterprise to make the case that the future of AI depends on who gets to build it, and as long as women remain locked out of those rooms, we are getting it dangerously wrong.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why women's representation in STEM has fallen from 34% in the mid-1980s to 22% today, and why that decline is a crisis for the future of AI, not just the workplace.
• Why the real risk isn't the technology itself but the leadership teams making AI decisions without diverse voices at the table.
• The structural systems that were never designed for women to thrive, and why redesigning them is a business imperative, not a social favor.
• Why current corporate layoffs are being falsely attributed to AI, and what leaders need to start saying out loud.
• Why girls begin dropping out of math and science as early as middle school, how cultural norms around "bossiness" suppress leadership potential, and what parents and organizations can do to intervene earlier.
• What Lisa says women who finally reach the executive table must do differently, and why most don't.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn or visit her website to learn more about her book.
• AI fun fact article
• On how to navigate life transitions with Bruce Feiler, award-winning author and popular TEDx speaker 

James Cham is a Partner at Bloomberg Beta, the venture capital firm recognized by CB Insights as the #2 investor in AI. He has spent years backing the companies quietly building the infrastructure of tomorrow's economy, including Orbital Insight, Primer, Domino Data Labs, and AppZen. 

A Harvard CS graduate and MIT MBA, James brings a rare combination of technical depth, philosophical seriousness, and long-horizon investing perspective to every conversation. 

In this episode, he challenges some of the most popular  assumptions in enterprise AI adoption (including the idea that keeping humans in the loop is always the right answer) and makes a compelling case for why the moral and economic decisions we make right now will shape the nature of work for the next hundred years.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why the people who benefit from AI models, not those impacted by them, should bear full legal and moral responsibility for the harms they cause
• Why comparing AI to a flawless "Platonic ideal" is a mistake, and how the mathematical consistency of models is a massive advantage over noisy, unpredictable human decision-making
• The case for pulling humans out of the loop and why romanticizing your role in the process is exactly how organizations miss the real opportunity
• Why corporate America's "gold star" approach to AI adoption, tracking how many employees used AI once this week, is a dangerous distraction from what heavy users are already doing
• How ancient wisdom and the biblical concept of creation in Genesis can help us navigate the moral responsibilities of building new technologies
• James’s three massive investment theses, including the untapped market for AI tools with high emotional intelligence and why developers spending over $50 a day on tokens are already living in the future

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with James on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How AI Impacts Humanity

Adrian McDermott is Chief Technology Officer at Zendesk, where he leads the company’s product management and engineering teams and helps shape the technology behind one of the world’s most widely used customer service platforms. He joined Zendesk in 2010 and has played a key role in guiding the company’s product and platform strategy as customer experience continues to evolve in the age of AI. Drawing on years of experience building enterprise software used by service teams around the world, Adrian brings a thoughtful perspective on how AI can help organizations deliver better customer service while allowing people to focus on the work humans do best.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How customer service evolved from a cost center with rigid scripts and binders into a strategic function where technology helps teams deliver better experiences.
• Why customer service leaders shouldn't fear automation — and why everyone has a "service debt" that AI can finally help pay down.
• The shift from traditional contact centers to AI-enabled service platforms that help companies respond faster while improving both employee and customer experience.
• Lessons Adrian learned scaling Zendesk from a small product team to a global platform serving 100,000 customers and how product-led growth shaped that journey.
• The critical challenge of moving from non-deterministic, creative AI models to deterministic, reliable solutions necessary for enterprise trust and safety
• The future of context engineering and why the next major leap in AI won't be about superintelligence, but about building systems that capture and act on the knowledge created in every customer interaction.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Adrian on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How the impact of the pandemic on leaders, culture, and the evolving nature of work

To celebrate International Women’s Day, this special compilation episode of AI and the Future of Work revisits powerful moments from past conversations with women leaders shaping technology, artificial intelligence, and the future of work.

Across industries and roles, these leaders share reflections on career growth, leadership, resilience, and the barriers women still face in technology and executive leadership. Their stories reveal how confidence, mentorship, and opportunity shape who gets to lead in emerging industries like AI.

As artificial intelligence reshapes how organizations operate and how work evolves, representation in the people building and guiding these technologies matters more than ever. Expanding access and opportunity is essential to creating a more innovative and inclusive future of work.

Featured Guests

• Charlene Li – Author, Keynote Speaker & Strategic Advisor. Listen to the full conversation here: [https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/3970637]
• Daphne Jones – CEO at The Board Curators. Listen to the full conversation here: [https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/12105172]
• Patty Hatter – President & COO at Opsera. Listen to the full conversation here: [https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/5939122]
• Mona Sabet – SVP at GCG. Listen to the full conversation here: [https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/16747398]
• Tess Posner – CEO and Founder at AI4ALL. Listen to the full conversation here: [2019: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/2207636 - 2025: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/17326118] 

What You’ll Learn

• Why women often wait until they feel fully qualified before pursuing leadership roles
• How imposter syndrome shapes career decisions and confidence in tech
• Why perfectionism can limit growth for technical leaders
• How hiring practices based on brand signals reinforce gender imbalance
• Why diversity in AI development leads to better technology outcomes
• How leaders can expand opportunity for the next generation of women in tech

💬 Inspired by something you heard in this episode?
Share your favorite insight about leadership, risk-taking, or expanding opportunity for women in AI and tech, and tag us on social.

And don’t forget to subscribe to AI and the Future of Work for more conversations with the leaders shaping the future of work.

Matt Britton is Founder and CEO of Suzy and a leading voice on how AI and generational change are reshaping business. He is the author of the best-selling book Generation AI: Why Generation Alpha & The Age of AI Will Change Everything, and has advised more than half of the Fortune 500 on marketing, innovation, and consumer behavior. Drawing on decades of experience working with global brands, Matt examines why AI is shifting the economy from knowledge tasks to creative problem solving, why reskilling will define the next decade, and how leaders can build organizations that elevate human judgment in an AI-driven world.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why AI is accelerating a shift from memorization and knowledge tasks toward creativity, critical thinking, and real problem solving.
• Why reskilling, not upskilling, will define the next decade and why that transition will be harder than most leaders admit.
• How Gen Alpha, the first AI-native generation, will reshape expectations around work, brands, privacy, and employer relationships.
• Why robotics will transform the service economy sooner than most leaders expect, and what that means for jobs.
• The mistake companies make when they chase AI tools instead of focusing on the most important problems to solve.
• How hyper-personalization and an “audience of one” are redefining trust, value creation, and meritocracy in business.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Matt on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How Kai Nunez, Vice President of Research & Insights at Salesforce, is making tech teams take ownership of AI ethics

Kourtney Cross is a RiseUp with ServiceNow Graduate and Business Analyst at Leidos. With a background in accounting and operations, Kourtney saw a shift happening in the enterprise tech landscape and decided he wouldn't be left behind. He immersed himself in a new ecosystem, earned multiple certifications through the RiseUp program, and built his own hands-on projects to prove his skills to skeptics.

But his story isn't just about learning new software. It's about the grit it takes to pivot your career in public. Kourtney joins Dan Turchin to share what it really looks like to go from "credentials on paper" to delivering value in the AI economy, and why he believes compounded effort always yields success.

In this conversation, they discuss:

• Why Kourtney saw a market shift and decided to dive in headfirst, and how that decision became a pivotal career inflection point.
• How RiseUp with ServiceNow program enables ambitious early-career professionals to obtain certifications, build real skills, and pivot into future-proof tech roles.
• What certifications actually do, and don’t do, in the job market, and how Kourtney differentiated himself by building and showcasing a hands-on project.
• How to proactively leverage AI as a business analyst, from writing user stories to tightening requirements, instead of fearing job displacement.
• Where AI should accelerate productivity and where clear human boundaries still matter, especially in high-stakes areas like healthcare and admissions decisions.
• Why patience, resilience, and what Kourtney calls “compounded effort” matter more than credentials alone when breaking into tech and building long-term career momentum.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• AI @ Work – Level One Leaders certification
• Connect with Kourtney on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On how AI can unleash human potential
• Explore more about RiseUp with ServiceNow

Scott Strickland is Chief Commercial Officer at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and former Chief Information Officer of Wyndham Hotel Group, where he led technology and AI initiatives across one of the world’s largest hospitality portfolios. With experience spanning global operations, enterprise data strategy, and board-level leadership, he has built a reputation for translating business priorities into scalable technology execution.

Drawing on that experience, Scott brings a pragmatic lens to how organizations align AI with business strategy, prioritize initiatives by ROI and time to value, and scale responsibly while building trust across teams.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How Scott translates business needs into technical AI execution while keeping a sharp focus on measurable dollar impact.
• Why winning board support for AI requires the “4 E’s” framework, and how making AI a recurring agenda item changes the trajectory of investment.
• How to scale from four initial AI use cases to more than 340 by prioritizing ROI, time to value, and data readiness.
• Why AI works best as a co-pilot that removes friction and drudgery, rather than as a replacement for frontline teams.
• What it takes to build trust with employees during AI transformation, including transparency, reskilling pathways, and new roles like AI coaches.
• Why security, privacy, and risk management must be built into AI initiatives from day one, and how servant leadership creates the cultural foundation for responsible adoption.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Scott on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On how the journey from intern to a $5B unicorn happens

In this special February compilation episode of AI and the Future of Work, we explore what it truly takes to build AI companies designed to last.

While AI innovation moves fast, enduring companies are built on fundamentals. Clear problem selection. Thoughtful product design. Ethical intent. Leadership under uncertainty. And the resilience required to keep going when the market pushes back.

This episode brings together insights from founders and operators who have built, scaled, and sustained AI-driven companies across different stages and industries. Their stories reveal a shared truth. Long-term success depends less on hype and more on discipline, courage, and trust.

Featured Guests

• Eric Olson, CEO and Co-founder of Consensus - Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/11574063 
• Rich White, Founder of UserVoice and CEO of Fathom - Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/11911533 
• Dmitry Shapiro, CEO of MindStudio - Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/14866979 
• Daniel Marcous, Founder and CTO of April, former CTO of Waze - Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/12679210 
• George Sivulka, CEO of Hebbia - Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/16572788 

What You’ll Learn

• Why founders must act before certainty appears
• How solving real pain leads to stronger, longer-lasting companies
• What ethical intent looks like in practical AI system design
• Why trust, accuracy, and discipline matter more than speed
• How resilience shapes leadership through uncertainty
• What separates durable AI companies from short-lived experiments

Inspired by something you heard in this episode?

Share your favorite insight on social and tag us. We’d love to hear what resonated with you. And don’t forget to subscribe to AI and the Future of Work for more conversations with the founders and leaders shaping what comes next.

Other special episodes: 

• Lessons from Four Unicorn CEOs Disrupting Massive Markets with AI (Special Episode)
• Artificial General Intelligence: Can Machines Really Think Like Us? (Special Episode)
• Ethical AI in Hiring: How to Stay Compliant While Building a Fairer Future of Work (HR Day Special Episode)
• AI and the Law: How AI Will Change Legal Careers (Special Episode)
• AI and Safety: How Responsible Tech Leaders Build Trustworthy Systems (National Safety Month Special)
• Lessons from Leaders: How AI Is Redefining Work and the Human Experience (Labor Day Special Episode)
• 365: What We’ve Learned from 364 Expert Conversations (Special Episode)

Andrea Iorio is one of Brazil’s most requested keynote speakers on digital transformation, innovation, and leadership. His work has reached more than 50,000 people through live talks, and his podcasts have surpassed 300,000 downloads. A former Head of Tinder across Latin America and Chief Digital Officer at L’Oréal Brazil, he brings firsthand experience leading digital change inside large organizations. Today, he advises leaders, teaches MBAs, and studies how AI reshapes work, skills, and decision making. His latest book, Between You and AI, explores how humans stay relevant as machines take on more cognitive tasks.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why AI replaces tasks rather than entire jobs, and how reframing work around tasks changes how leaders redesign roles, workflows, and value creation.
• Andrea shares surprising data from a global HR survey that reveals why 93% of HR leaders prioritize soft skills over hard skills in new hires, and why this trend signals a massive shift in the future of work.
• Andrea outlines nine new skills, grouped into Three Pillars of Transformation essential for professionals and leaders: cognitive, behavioral, and emotional.
• Why asking better questions matters more than producing answers, and how prompting extends beyond AI inputs into everyday leadership and decision making.
• Andrea shares how L’Oréal’s reverse mentoring program shifted the C-Suite’s perspective on emerging digital trends, demonstrating why understanding the Gen Z consumer requires direct immersion over passive presentations.
• What the rise of autonomous AI agents means for responsibility, goal setting, and collaboration, and why agency remains a human obligation even as systems gain autonomy.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Andrea on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On how investors decide what to fund in gen AI and what most entrepreneurs get wrong

Lynne Chou O’Keefe is the Founder and Managing Partner of Define Ventures, one of the largest early-stage health tech investment firms, with $800 million in assets under management.

With deep experience across digital health, venture capital, and frontline healthcare systems, Lynne brings a clear-eyed view of why the industry is changing now and where AI can make a meaningful difference. 

She is widely recognized for her work backing companies that rethink access, outcomes, and patient experience, and is a trusted voice on how technology, ethics, and human judgment must come together to move healthcare forward.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why healthcare still runs on fragmented systems and what that means for where AI can truly move the needle.
• How the shift from fee-for-service to value-based care changes incentives and pushes the system toward prevention over volume.
• Why patients now expect healthcare to work like transportation or food delivery, and how that expectation reshapes care delivery.
• The three phases of AI in healthcare, from administrative efficiency to clinical workflow support and, eventually, clinical decision-making.
• Where the ethical boundary sits today between AI-assisted care and AI-led decisions, especially when access to care is limited.
• Why the future of healthcare is hybrid by design, with AI augmenting clinicians rather than replacing human judgment.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Lynn on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On how AI is fixing the biggest problem faced by doctors.

Dave Kellogg is a leading voice in enterprise software, SaaS metrics and go-to-market strategy. A four-time guest on AI and the Future of Work, Dave brings decades of hands-on experience inside SaaS companies to challenge how leaders think about growth, metrics, and execution. He is an Executive-in-Residence at Balderton Capital and the author of Kellblog. His perspective is shaped by years spent leading and advising software businesses from early stages through scale.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why Dave argues that we are increasingly working for the algorithm, not the other way around, and how that shift shows up in SEO, productivity, and workplace behavior.
• Why SaaS is not dying but is under real pressure, and how claims that companies can easily replace systems like Salesforce or Workday misunderstand how enterprise software actually works.
• How AI changes jobs by pushing work up the value chain rather than simply eliminating roles, and why history suggests societies adapt faster than we expect.
• Why trust becomes more valuable as AI floods the world with low-quality content, and how brands, creators, and leaders must earn credibility in an era of front-run information.
• What the move from the Rule of 40 to the Rule of 60 signals about today’s market, and why many mid-scale SaaS companies now face uncomfortable strategic choices.
• How venture capital is becoming more financialized, what that means for founders, and why AI may accelerate the shift toward larger funds, bigger bets, and fewer safety nets.

Episode Chapters

00:00 Why Dave Kellogg’s Annual SaaS Predictions Matter More Every Year

03:53 Working for the Algorithm, Not the Other Way Around

06:10 “Death of SaaS”: Why Enterprise Software Isn’t Going Away

08:56 Why Enterprise Software Is Built to Last

11:51 AI and Jobs: Why Work Disappears Differently Than We Expect

16:31 The New Jobs AI Creates and Why Humans Stay Essential at Work

19:22 Why Trust Becomes the Most Valuable Currency in an AI-Driven World

24:23 Why AI Forces Us to Rethink Trust, Media, and Credibility

27:57 Why the Rule of 60 Is Replacing the Rule of 40 for Startups in 2026

33:44 How Venture Capital Is Becoming a Financial Services Business

41:47 Why Silicon Valley’s New Willingness to Take Political Positions Surprised Many Founders

45:57 What the Grateful Dead Can Teach Us About Business, Creativity, and Legacy

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Dave Kellogg on LinkedIn
• Kellblog Predictions for 2026
• AI fun fact article
• On How AI is Making Networks Smart
• Previous episodes in AI & The Future of Work featuring Dave:
  • [2025] 324: 2025 predictions with Dave Kellogg: The Future of AI, SaaS, and Business
  • [2024] Dave Kellogg, SaaS whisperer and EIR at Balderton Capital, predicts the future of AI, Silicon Valley, and venture capital
  • [2023] Special episode: Dave Kellogg, serial CEO, investor, and SaaS pioneer, shares his (provocative) tech predictions for 2023

Lynn Thoman is a professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and the founder of 3 Takeaways, a top 1% global podcast known for distilling big ideas from influential leaders shaping policy, business, and society. 

Drawing on experience across corporate strategy, public sector advisory work, and board service at institutions such as the Brookings Institution and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Lynn brings a cross-sector lens to how AI is reshaping decision-making, learning, and human potential.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why AI is best understood as an amplifier of human capability, especially in leadership, where judgment and choices matter more than technology.
• How the real upside of AI is giving people more space for imagination, empathy, and meaningful human connection.
• How to prepare students and professionals for an AI-shaped job market by prioritizing learning paths, adaptability, and relationships over fixed career tracks.
• Why the biggest risks of AI come from small, hard-to-detect changes in data or models that can create serious downstream harm.
• How AI is pushing education, work, and leadership back toward core human skills like judgment, curiosity, and imagination.
• Where cautious optimism comes from, including AI’s potential to expand access to knowledge, healthcare, and opportunity when used with care.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Lynn on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How genAI studios launch AI-first companies

Other podcast episodes mentioned on the show:

• On reinventing the academic curriculum for MBAs with Dave Marchick, Dean of the Kogod School of Business
• From 3 Takeaways:
  • The Genetic Revolution Has Begun - George Church on What Comes Next
  • The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business: Setting the Table with Union Square Hospitality Group Founder & CEO Danny Meyer

Every January 24, the world celebrates the International Day of Education, a reminder that learning remains one of the most powerful drivers of opportunity, mobility, and social progress.

In this special compilation episode of AI and the Future of Work, we revisit conversations with education leaders, university deans, and workforce innovators exploring how AI is transforming learning, access, credentials, and lifelong education.

From academic integrity and digital classrooms to reskilling and future-ready education models, this episode highlights one essential truth: technology can accelerate learning, but education must remain human-centered.

Featuring insights from:

• Chris Caren (CEO, Turnitin) - Listen to the full conversation here: https://aiandthefutureofwork.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/15780222 
• Marni Baker Stein (Chief Content Officer, Coursera) - Listen to the full conversation here: https://aiandthefutureofwork.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/17359747 
• Dave Treat (Chief Technology Officer, Pearson) - Listen to the full conversation here: https://aiandthefutureofwork.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/17557154 
• Dave Marchick (Dean, Kogod School of Business, American University) - Listen to the full conversation here: https://aiandthefutureofwork.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/17119724 
• Gary Bolles (Chair for the Future of Work, Singularity University) - Listen to the full conversation here: https://aiandthefutureofwork.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/9236086 

What You’ll Learn:

• How AI is reshaping education and digital learning models
• Why academic integrity matters more than ever in the age of generative AI
• How universities and platforms expand access to global education
• Why lifelong learning and reskilling are becoming essential career skills
• How educators prepare students for future work and leadership
• Which human skills remain critical in an AI-driven economy

Inspired by something you heard?
Share this episode with someone passionate about education and the future of learning. And don’t forget to subscribe for more conversations with the leaders shaping the future of work.

Other special episodes: 

• Lessons from Four Unicorn CEOs Disrupting Massive Markets with AI (Special Episode)
• Artificial General Intelligence: Can Machines Really Think Like Us? (Special Episode)
• Ethical AI in Hiring: How to Stay Compliant While Building a Fairer Future of Work (HR Day Special Episode)
• AI and the Law: How AI Will Change Legal Careers (Special Episode)
• AI and Safety: How Responsible Tech Leaders Build Trustworthy Systems (National Safety Month Special)
• Lessons from Leaders: How AI Is Redefining Work and the Human Experience (Labor Day Special Episode)
• 365: What We’ve Learned from 364 Expert Conversations (Special Episode)

Amit Bendov is the co-founder and CEO of Gong, the revenue AI platform he started in 2015 after realizing that traditional CRM systems tracked outcomes but failed to explain why deals were won or lost. That insight led him to focus on customer conversations as the missing source of truth in sales. Since its founding, Gong has raised more than $580 million and reached a valuation of $7.25 billion. Today, Gong helps sales teams reduce manual work, improve performance, and better understand what customers are actually saying.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why traditional CRM systems track what happened but fail to explain why deals are won or lost, and how that gap led to the rise of Revenue AI as a new category.
• How Gong’s Revenue AI differs from CRM by analyzing sales conversations, reducing manual admin work, and actively helping sellers prepare, follow up, and improve performance in real time.
• The emotional cost of sales work, and how using AI to remove administrative burden improves both sales results and seller job satisfaction.
• What it takes to build trust in AI tools that analyze customer conversations, including data stewardship, transparency, and delivering clear value to sellers.
• How an AI-first product vision can exist years before the technology is ready, and what it means to design systems for autonomy rather than simple automation.
• The reality behind “overnight success,” including early product-market fit tests, paid pilots that felt risky, and navigating growth slowdowns without abandoning the original vision.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Amit on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How AI Is Changing Finance: Data Challenges, Collaboration, and Future Trends with Mike Schuster
• Other episode mentioned in the show:
  • On AI Design Philosophy and Building the Anti-PowerPoint with Grant Lee, CEO of Gamma 

Kimberly Williams is CEO of Absorb Software, where she helps over 3,000 organizations deliver smarter learning experiences to 34 million employees. She brings decades of leadership in enterprise tech and now sits at the center of how AI is changing the way people grow at work. In this episode, Kimberly shares how learning becomes more powerful when it’s personalized, embedded in daily workflows, and led by curious teams who treat culture as a competitive advantage.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How AI is shifting corporate learning from generic training programs to personalized, in-the-flow development tailored to each employee’s needs.
• Why in-context learning matters more than traditional courses, and how AI coaching inside tools like Slack, Salesforce, or ServiceNow changes how people actually learn at work.
• What it means to turn L&D teams into AI model trainers who encode company culture, values, and knowledge into coaching experiences.
• How Absorb Software tracks AI usage across teams and uses dashboards and leaderboards to drive internal adoption.
• The role of outcome data in modern learning systems, and how tying learning directly to performance metrics changes what training gets delivered.
• The advice Kimberly gives early-career talent, especially women, about finding roles where their contributions are measurable and their growth is supported by culture, not just credentials.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Kimberly on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On how Robert Plotkin addresses LLM regulation and legal advice for entrepreneurs
• Other episodes mentioned on the show:
  • AI as a Liberating Technology: Josh Bersin on Turning Routine Tasks into Superworkers Driving Trust, Creativity, and Growth
  • Dr. John Boudreau, future of work pioneer and former Cornell professor, discusses the new definition of work

Henrik Werdelin is a founder and investor who has spent more than a decade building companies at the intersection of culture, technology, and consumer behavior. He co-founded BARK, the public company that redefined how millions of dog parents connect with their pets, and Prehype, the startup studio behind brands like Ro and Audos.

In this episode, Henrik explores how founders can embrace AI without losing human connection, drawing from his experience as co-host of Beyond the Prompt and co-author of Me, My Customer and AI.

Recognized by Fast Company and Business Insider for his creative impact, Henrik shares a practical perspective on building companies that scale while staying deeply human.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why Henrik believes founders must stay close to users and how AI can deepen (not dilute) human connection.
• What “building companies at the edge of culture” means and why authenticity beats scale when designing for trust.
• How Henrik and his team use AI to speed up product development without compromising on creativity or purpose.
• The shift from storytelling to “storylistening” and how paying attention to customer behavior shapes better products.
• What the best founders get wrong about generative AI and why Henrik advocates for a more mindful approach to adoption.
• How roles inside companies are evolving in response to AI and what leaders can do to support creative experimentation.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Henrik on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• How to Use Generative AI to Get Ahead In Your Career

Kelly Jones is Chief People Officer at Cisco, where she leads the people strategy for more than 84,000 employees worldwide. Over nearly two decades, she has helped make Cisco a global benchmark for workplace culture. In this episode, Kelly explains why trust is the foundation of every AI strategy, how Cisco is equipping managers for an era of augmented work, and what it takes to lead responsibly when the pace of change is this fast.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why trust is Cisco’s most valuable workplace currency and how it shapes decisions about AI, culture, and leadership.
• How AI becomes a co-pilot when employees are given the safety, training, and time to explore new tools at their own pace.
• What “super leadership” looks like and the four traits Cisco’s CPO believes will define successful managers in an AI-augmented workplace.
• How Cisco evaluates AI use cases based on disruption, scale, and their potential to enhance the employee experience.
• Why the real opportunity of AI lies in automating administrative work to give humans more time for purpose, creativity, and connection.
• The systems Cisco is building to ensure responsible AI use through governance, upskilling, and clear ethical boundaries.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Kelly Jones on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How to Use Generative AI to Get Ahead In Your Career
• Other episode mentioned in the show: AI as a Liberating Technology: Josh Bersin on Turning Routine Tasks into Superworkers Driving Trust, Creativity, and Growth

Eric Cheng is co-founder and CEO of Jobright, the AI career copilot serving more than 550,000 users. After building core backend systems at Box and scaling Fangcloud to acquisition, he turned his focus to fixing what’s broken in hiring. His perspective blends engineering depth with a human-centered approach to matching talent and opportunity.

In this conversation we discussed:

• Why Eric created Jobright after interviewing 150 young professionals and discovering a gap in personalized job search support.
• How Jobright reframes hiring as a “matching” problem and uses AI to function more like a career coach than a job board.
• The limitations of keyword-based search tools and how AI enables more nuanced, human-like job matching.
• Why building trust matters in AI-powered hiring platforms and how Jobright balances efficiency with authenticity and accuracy.
• What the “learning loop” means for job seekers and why Eric believes the mindset shift matters more than the résumé.
• How emerging roles like AI operations and forward deployment engineers reflect deeper changes in how organizations adopt and manage AI.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Eric Cheng on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How to raise over $200 million to detect audio deepfakes

Kate O’Neill is a leading voice on AI and tech humanism, known for helping organizations build more meaningful, human-centered futures. She has been featured by outlets like BBC, NPR, and NBC, and serves on the United Nations AI advisory board. A CX Hall of Fame inductee and award-winning entrepreneur, Kate brings a unique blend of optimism and realism to conversations about AI, data, and the future of work. Her latest book, What Matters Next, explores how to make human-friendly tech decisions.

In this conversation we discussed:

• How tech humanism explains the relationship between people, technology, and business, and how leaders can design AI systems that strengthen the alignment
• Why humans project intelligence and agency onto AI tools, and what it takes to build healthy, intentional habits around emerging technologies
• Practical ways workers can use AI to elevate their roles rather than fear automation
• The role of leadership in creating psychologically safe environments where employees can openly experiment with AI tools
• The risk of designing systems that lead to “automated bureaucracy,” and how organizations can embed meaning into automated experiences at scale
• Why meaning and purpose remain uniquely human, and how future workplaces can evolve by pairing human judgment with increasingly capable AI systems

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Kate on LinkedIn or at KO Insights
• AI fun fact article
• On How Unleashing Human Potential with AI

Sid Sheth is the CEO and co-founder of d-Matrix, the AI chip company making inference efficient and scalable for datacenters. Backed by Microsoft and with $160M raised, Sid shares why rethinking infrastructure is critical to AI’s future and how a decade in semiconductors prepared him for this moment.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why Sid believes AI inference is the biggest computing opportunity of our lifetime and how it will drive the next productivity boom
• The real reason smaller, more efficient models are unlocking the era of inference and what that means for AI adoption at scale
• Why cost, time, and energy are the core constraints of inference, and how D-Matrix is building for performance without compromise
• How the rise of reasoning models and agentic AI shifts demand from generic tasks to abstract problem-solving
• The workforce challenge no one talks about: why talent shortages, not tech limitations, may slow down the AI revolution
• How Sid’s background in semiconductors prepared him to recognize the platform shift toward AI and take the leap into building D-Matrix

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Sid on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How Mastering Skills To Stay Relevant In the Age of AI

In this special episode of AI and the Future of Work, host Dan Turchin looks back on what 365 conversations have revealed about how AI is reshaping the way we work.

What themes have emerged most consistently? Which ideas connect founders, researchers, and operators across industries? And what have these discussions taught us about the evolving relationship between humans and intelligent systems?

Featuring Guests:

1. Mark McCrindle, Founder and Principal at McCrindle  - Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/13014260 
2. Pradeep Menon, CTO at Microsoft - Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/13034974 
3. Dave Kellogg, EIR at Balderton Capital - Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/16665133 
4. Alex Buder Shapiro, Chief People Officer at Jasper AI - Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/17522593 
5. Gary F. Bengier, Writer, philosopher, and technologist - Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/12934217 
6. Josh Bersin, Founder and CEO at The Josh Bersin Company - Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/17863187 
7. Bryan Power, Head of People at Nextdoor - Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/16837259 
8. Dave Treat, Chief Technology Officer at Pearson - Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/17557154 

💡 What You Will Learn

• Why the future of work remains human-centered 
• How AI amplifies human capability rather than replacing it
• Why trust and transparency define successful AI-driven teams
• How workplace culture is evolving as organizations adopt AI
• Why meaning, empathy, and lifelong learning matter more than ever

💬 Inspired by this episode?

Share your favorite insight on social media and tag us (https://www.instagram.com/aifutureofwork/) 
And remember to subscribe for more conversations with the leaders shaping the future of AI and work.

Other special episodes:

• Lessons from Four Unicorn CEOs Disrupting Massive Markets with AI (Special Episode)
• Artificial General Intelligence: Can Machines Really Think Like Us? (Special Episode)
• Ethical AI in Hiring: How to Stay Compliant While Building a Fairer Future of Work (HR Day Special Episode)
• AI and the Law: How AI Will Change Legal Careers (Special Episode)
• AI and Safety: How Responsible Tech Leaders Build Trustworthy Systems (National Safety Month Special)
• Lessons from Leaders: How AI Is Redefining Work and the Human Experience (Labor Day Special Episode)

Darrick Horton is the CEO and co-founder of TensorWave, the company making waves in AI infrastructure by building high-performance compute on AMD chips. In 2023, he and his team took the unconventional path of bypassing Nvidia, a bold bet that has since paid off with nearly $150 million raised from Magnetar, AMD Ventures, Prosperity7, and others. TensorWave is now operating a dedicated training cluster of around 8,000 AMD Instinct MI325X GPUs and has already hit a $100 million revenue run rate. 

Darrick is a serial entrepreneur with a track record of building infrastructure companies. Before TensorWave, he co-founded VMAccel, sold Lets Rolo to LifeKey, and co-founded the crypto mining company VaultMiner. 

He began his career as a mechanical engineer and plasma physicist at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works, where he worked on nuclear fusion energy. While he studied physics and mechanical engineering at Andrews University, he left early to pursue entrepreneurship and hasn’t looked back since.

In this conversation we discussed:

• Why Darrick chose AMD over Nvidia to build TensorWave’s AI infrastructure, and how that decision created a competitive advantage in a GPU-constrained market
• What makes training clusters more versatile than inference clusters, and why TensorWave focused on the former to meet broader customer needs
• How Neocloud providers like TensorWave can move faster and innovate more effectively than legacy hyperscalers in deploying next-generation AI infrastructure
• Why power, not GPUs, is becoming the biggest constraint in scaling AI workloads, and how data center architecture must evolve to address it
• Why Darrick predicts AI architectures will continue to evolve beyond transformers, creating constant shifts in compute demand
• How massive increases in model complexity are accelerating the need for green energy, tighter feedback loops, and seamless integration of compute into AI workflows

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Darrick on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How the new definition of work

Jeetu Patel is President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco. He previously served there as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Security and Collaboration.

He joined Cisco in 2020 after serving as Chief Product Officer and Chief Strategy Officer at Box, where he played a key role in expanding the company into a multi-product platform used by more than 100,000 customers. 

He currently sits on the board of real estate services company JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle) and holds a B.S. in Information Decision Sciences from the University of Illinois.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How Cisco is becoming an AI-first company and why fully embracing AI is now a requirement, not a choice
• How AI will reshape every job, and which human skills will matter most in the decade ahead
• The real constraints slowing enterprise AI adoption: power, trust, and data
• The infrastructure, security, and data gaps limiting AI’s potential, and how Cisco is closing them
• Why skill gaps are growing, and what workers can do to stay relevant as AI changes the workplace
• How Cisco approaches new markets, strategic focus, and building products people love at global scale

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Jeetu on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How AI helps serve 70 million meals every day

Past guests mentioned on this show:

• Box´s CTO Ben Kus on Responsible AI Use, Innovation Culture, and Future AI Trends
• Box’s Global CIO Ravi Malick on Why Every Problem Doesn't Need an App
• Cisco´s Former CEO on the Future of AI-Driven Work and Investing in PeopleReign

In this special episode of AI and the Future of Work, host Dan Turchin examines one of the most urgent questions in technology today: how artificial intelligence is reshaping the law.

Who owns AI created work? Who is accountable when automated decisions cause harm? And how should legal professionals prepare for a world where AI influences every part of the practice?

This compilation episode revisits insights from five leaders who are redefining how the legal system approaches ownership, risk, compliance, and the future of legal work.

Featuring Guests

• Robert Plotkin,Co-founder, Blueshift IP - Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/13061560 
• Jim McKenna, CIO, Fenwick & West - Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/13373166 
• Scott Stevenson, Co-founder & CEO, Spellbook - Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/17211693 
• Rafie Faruq, Founder & CEO, Genie AI - Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/16949168 
• Tamara Steffens, Managing Director, Thomson Reuters - Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/15250057 

💡 What You Will Learn

 • How AI is changing ownership, IP rights, and data confidentiality
 • Why law firms need strong governance to innovate safely
 • How legal AI tools reduce risk with verification and citations
 • How AI will reshape early legal careers and firm operations

💬 Inspired by this episode?

Share your favorite insight on social media and tag us.
And don’t forget to subscribe for more conversations with the leaders shaping the future of AI and work.

Other special episodes:

• Lessons from Four Unicorn CEOs Disrupting Massive Markets with AI (Special Episode)
• Artificial General Intelligence: Can Machines Really Think Like Us? (Special Episode)
• Ethical AI in Hiring: How to Stay Compliant While Building a Fairer Future of Work (HR Day Special Episode)
• The Future of AI Ethics Special: Perspectives from Women Leaders in AI on Bias, Accountability & Trust
• AI and Safety: How Responsible Tech Leaders Build Trustworthy Systems (National Safety Month Special)
• Lessons from Leaders: How AI Is Redefining Work and the Human Experience (Labor Day Special Episode)

Faraj Aalaei is the Founder and CEO of Cognichip, an AI company building the world’s first Artificial Chip Intelligence (ACI) platform to design semiconductors using AI. He brings four decades of experience in communications and networking, having led two companies (Centillium and Aquantia)through IPOs. Aquantia was later acquired by Marvell, where he also held an executive role. 

Prior to that, Faraj was Co-Founder and CEO of Centillium, which went public on NASDAQ just three years after its founding, the fastest IPO ever for a semiconductor company. 

He holds an honorary Doctor of Engineering from Wentworth Institute of Technology, where he also earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, along with an MSEE from the University of Massachusetts and an MBA from the University of New Hampshire.

In this conversation we discussed:

• Why chip development cycles are trailing AI applications by years and how that disconnect leads to inefficient infrastructure and higher energy costs
• How AI could help democratize chip design by enabling smaller teams outside traditional hubs to build customized, application-specific hardware
• What Faraj sees as the real barrier to innovation: the time and cost of chip development, and how Cognichip is reducing both through compute-led design
• How AI can augment, not replace, engineers by offering transparent, explainable design suggestions while keeping humans in the loop
• The coming talent shortage in semiconductor engineering and how AI might close the skills gap and unlock new opportunities for nontraditional builders
• Why every major technological shift creates more opportunity than it destroys, and how Faraj sees AI enabling people to work on more meaningful problems

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Faraj on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How To Drive Compelling Narratives in Youtube Videos.

Grant Lee is the CEO and co-founder of Gamma, the company reimagining presentations by building what some call the “anti-PowerPoint.” Since its launch in 2022, Gamma has grown to over 70 million users, with 30 million gammas created each month, and has reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). These milestones were achieved profitably, with a team of just 50 people (that’s about $2 million in ARR per employee) and a Series B round at a $2.1 billion valuation, led by Sarah Wang at Andreessen Horowitz.

Before founding Gamma in 2020, Grant led finance at Optimizely, where he developed a passion for A/B testing. He began his career in investment banking and holds a BS in Biomechanical Engineering and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How Gamma went from an idea to one of the fastest-growing presentation tools in the world with $100M ARR and a 50-person team
• Why Grant and his co-founders set out to reinvent slides from scratch instead of improving on PowerPoint
• Lessons from Optimizely that shaped Gamma’s culture of experimentation and rapid iteration
• How Grant thinks about product-market fit and why every feature must solve real user pain instead of mimicking the competition
• How AI serves as a design partner, not a replacement for human creativity, and why “human in the loop” is central to Gamma’s philosophy
• The importance of building user trust in generative AI through transparency, feedback loops, and community programs like the “Gambassador” initiative
• How resilience, early failures, and conviction helped Gamma survive investor rejection and a near-collapse during the SVB crisis

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Grant on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How To Revolutionize Finance and Financial Decision Making using AI.

Dennis Kozak is the CEO of Ivanti, a leading enterprise IT and security company generating over $1 billion in annual revenue and serving more than 40,000 customers. He previously served as Ivanti’s COO after holding senior leadership roles at Avaya. Earlier in his career, Dennis spent nearly 23 years at CA Software (now Broadcom), where he led global partnership sales and services teams. He holds a BS in Accounting from St. Joseph’s University in Long Island.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Dennis’s leadership journey from CA Technologies and Avaya to becoming CEO of Ivanti, and what prepared him to lead a billion-dollar IT security company
• Why convergence between cybersecurity and IT operations is accelerating, and how Ivanti is positioning itself at the center of that shift
• The impact of generative AI on IT support, including how Ivanti is building AI agents to handle routine tickets and empower human technicians
• How organizations can reduce cyber risk by closing visibility gaps and simplifying their tech stack
• The challenges of securing distributed workforces in a hybrid world, and why automation is critical to stay ahead of threats
• Why Dennis believes the future of enterprise IT is about blending user experience with security, not choosing between them

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Dennis on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How to Reimagine Fan Experiences and Digital Transformation.

Jim Curry is the co-founder and CEO of BuildGroup, a venture firm based in Austin that has raised $330 million since its founding in 2015 and backed companies like Anaconda, Vidmob, DigniFi, and Benefitfocus. He brings more than two decades of experience in product, strategy, and corporate development from roles at Rackspace and Dell, and he co-founded OpenStack, one of the most widely used open source cloud computing platforms. Jim serves on the boards of Generation Serve and the University of Texas School of Undergraduate Studies. He holds degrees from UT Austin and Harvard Business School.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Jim’s journey from Rackspace to launching BuildGroup and why he believes in “longer, slower capital” to support mission-driven founders
• How his experience co-founding OpenStack shaped his thinking on community-driven innovation and open-source software
• What AI startups can learn from the cloud era—and why infrastructure still matters in the age of foundation models
• Why Jim believes VCs often push startups to scale too fast and what sustainable growth looks like in practice
• The impact of AI on venture capital and how BuildGroup thinks about investing in software companies that solve real problems
• How founders can balance product vision with pragmatism, especially when building in volatile markets

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Jim on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How to Develop NLP and AI Data Harvesting Using Games and Blockchains To Earn NFTs

In this special episode of AI and the Future of Work, host Dan Turchin explores one of the most ambitious and debated frontiers in technology: Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

What is AGI? How close are we to creating machines that truly think, reason, and learn like humans? And what will that mean for the future of work, creativity, and ethics?

This compilation episode revisits insights from three leading thinkers who have spent years defining, debating, and developing the next generation of intelligent systems.

Featuring Guests

🔹 Peter Voss, CEO & Chief Scientist, Aigo.ai
 🎧 Listen to the full episode here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/15366873 

🔹 Babak Hodjat, CTO of AI, Cognizant
 🎧 Listen to the full episode here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/14689727 

🔹 Pankaj Kedia, Founder, 2468 Ventures
 🎧 Listen to the full episode here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/15662279 

✅ What You’ll Learn

• What truly defines Artificial General Intelligence and how it differs from narrow AI
• Why scaling large models isn’t enough to achieve real cognition
• How cognitive and embodied AI could bridge the gap to human-like understanding
• Why AGI may usher in a new “age of abundance” where work, creativity, and purpose are redefined

💬 Inspired by this episode?

Share your favorite insight on social media and tag us.
And don’t forget to subscribe for more conversations with the leaders shaping the future of AI and work.

Other special episodes:

• Lessons from Four Unicorn CEOs Disrupting Massive Markets with AI (Special Episode)
• Ethical AI in Hiring: How to Stay Compliant While Building a Fairer Future of Work (HR Day Special Episode)
• The Future of AI Ethics Special: Perspectives from Women Leaders in AI on Bias, Accountability & Trust
• AI and Safety: How Responsible Tech Leaders Build Trustworthy Systems (National Safety Month Special)
• Empowering the Next Generation: Career, Leadership & Resilience Insights (International Youth Day Special Episode)
• Lessons from Leaders: How AI Is Redefining Work and the Human Experience (Labor Day Special Episode)

George Maddaloni is the EVP and CTO for Operations at Mastercard, where he leads the performance and modernization of technology platforms serving more than 35,000 employees worldwide. He has previously held senior IT leadership roles at AIG, UBS, AT&T, GM, and Merrill Lynch, and currently serves on the board of SustainableIT.org. George earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from Fordham University.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How Mastercard’s CTO thinks about the balance between innovation, trust, and regulation in one of the world’s most complex financial networks.
• The strategy behind modernizing Mastercard’s internal technology platforms to empower 35,000 global employees.
• Why a decade of AI experience changed how Mastercard approaches fraud, data, and customer confidence.
• The cultural shift that turned curiosity about AI into measurable progress across a global workforce.
• How a 50-year-old payments company keeps competing with startups by rethinking infrastructure from the ground up.
• George Maddaloni’s vision of the next era of payments and how technology might make transactions faster, safer, and nearly invisible.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with George on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How To Create an Energy-Based Work System that Empowers Employees
• Other resources mentioned in this conversation: On decentralized AI in Banks and the Future of Finance with Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO 

Jon Levy is a behavioral scientist and New York Times bestselling author known for exploring trust, human connection, belonging, and influence. He’s the founder of The Influencers Dinner, a secret dining experience that has grown into a community of thousands of leaders, including Nobel laureates, Olympians, celebrities, executives, artists, and musicians. His book You’re Invited: The Art and Science of Connection, Trust, and Belonging was named a Wall Street Journal “Book of the Month” in 2021. He’s also the author of The 2 AM Principle: Discover the Science of Adventure and the newly released Team Intelligence: How Brilliant Leaders Unlock Collective Genius.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why the smartest teams often fail, and how trust, belonging, and psychological safety drive collective intelligence
• The surprising data behind team performance, including why individual IQ doesn’t predict group success
• What makes a team “brilliant,” and how leaders can design environments that unlock group flow and faster decision-making
• How AI changes team dynamics and why it's urgent to redefine collaboration in a hybrid, tech-driven world
• The four principles of Team Intelligence and how they apply to both startups and global enterprises
• Jon’s personal journey from hosting secret dinners to writing Team Intelligence, and why he believes social bonds are the future of work

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Learn more of Jon on LinkedIn
• Explore Jon’s published work and speaking events
• AI fun fact article
• On How gen AI startups can beat Big Tech incumbents 

Tracy Layney is a seasoned HR leader with more than 15 years of experience shaping people and culture strategies at Levi’s, Gap, and Shutterfly. She currently teaches Human Capital Strategy as an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Tracy holds a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Tracy shares her unconventional path from English major and aspiring lawyer to CHRO at Levi’s, Gap, and Shutterfly, and how consulting shaped her approach to organizational strategy.
• She reflects on lessons from working with iconic leaders like Eva Sage Gavin and Chip Bergh, including leading Levi’s through the early days of the pandemic.
• She explains why excellence and heart-centered leadership must coexist to build values-driven, high-performing cultures.
• She explores how AI and other disruptive forces are reshaping HR, from talent strategy to employee expectations, and why adaptability is critical for leaders.
• She discusses the importance of transparency and trust-building between HR and employees during times of uncertainty, drawing parallels with past crises.
• She shares her perspective as a professor on how future HR leaders are navigating unprecedented change, mental health challenges, and the rapid rise of AI in the workplace.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Tracy on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How To Democratize Content Creation using AI 

Sean Williams is the CEO and founder of AutogenAI, the world’s leading AI proposal-writing engine, launched in May 2022. Under his leadership, the company recently closed a nearly $40 million Series B round led by Salesforce Ventures. Prior to AutogenAI, Sean founded Corndel Ltd, where he served as Chief Executive and scaled the business to 350 employees before its $60 million acquisition by THI Holdings in 2020.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why Sean believes AI will revolutionize how organizations write, win, and deliver proposals
• How AutogenAI is reducing proposal writing time from days to hours for companies bidding on complex contracts
• The ethical considerations of AI-written proposals and why transparency is critical in high-stakes industries
• What Sean learned from scaling Corndel to 350 employees and how that experience shaped AutogenAI's go-to-market strategy
• Why the biggest risk for organizations isn’t adopting AI too quickly, but failing to experiment early
• How AutogenAI is building trust with enterprise clients through customization, compliance, and human-in-the-loop design

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Sean on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How To Prevent Bias and Be Responsible for Ethical Decision Making

Josh Bersin is one of the most respected voices in HR and HRTech, known for shaping how organizations think about talent, learning, and the future of work. He began covering the space in 2001 and later sold his firm, Bersin & Associates, to Deloitte in 2012. Today, he leads The Josh Bersin Company, which produces influential research, publishes widely on workplace trends, and hosts the annual Irresistible conference. He’s also the author of Irresistible: The Seven Secrets of the World's Most Enduring, Employee-Focused Organizations and the host of a podcast that explores the evolving world of work with clarity and insight.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why fears of AI-driven job loss are overstated and how automation can unlock new opportunities for growth.
  
  
• The rise of “superworkers” who use AI to eliminate routine tasks and focus on creativity, innovation, and more meaningful contributions.
  
  
• How companies are rethinking organizational design, roles, and skills in response to rapid advances in AI.
  
  
• Real-world examples of AI adoption in banking, insurance, and airlines—and what leaders can learn from them.
  
  
• The concept of “supermanagers” and why human leadership and soft skills remain critical in an AI-powered workplace.
  
  
• Josh’s perspective on what it means to be an “irresistible organization” in a time of massive technological and cultural change.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Josh on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How To Invest on AI Driven Work
• Past Episode with Josh [Season 3, #278]: On How the Best-Performing Teams use AI

In this Labor Day Special Episode of AI and the Future of Work, host Dan Turchin sits down with three leaders for an open conversation about how AI is reshaping the workplace.

They discuss both opportunities and challenges. The focus is on building organizations where technology amplifies human potential rather than replacing it.

From rethinking the employee experience to redefining leadership in the AI era, the panel explores themes of empathy, trust, and the evolving social contract between employers and employees. Together, they share what it means to lead responsibly at a moment when the future of work is being rewritten in real time.

Featuring Guests:

🔹 Armen Berjikly (Venture Partner, Emerson Collective) – Listen to a previous conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/15520806 

 🔹 Alex Buder Shapiro (Chief People Officer, Jasper) – Listen to a previous conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/17522593 

 🔹 Anthony Moisant (CIO & Chief Security Officer, Indeed) – Listen to a previous conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/17751365 

✅ What You’ll Learn

• How to create a culture of experimentation that builds empathy during times of change
• Why leaders must balance speed of adoption with responsibility and trust
• The evolving social contract between employees and employers in the AI era
• What responsible AI policies look like in practice, and how to communicate uncertainty with honesty
• Why the human experience must remain central as AI transforms the future of work

Watch the video version of this episode here: https://youtu.be/zJa8ASZVFYk 

💬 Inspired by this episode? Share your favorite insight on social and tag us. And don’t forget to subscribe for more conversations with the leaders shaping the future of work.

Other special episodes:

• Lessons from Four Unicorn CEOs Disrupting Massive Markets with AI (Special Episode)
• Ethical AI in Hiring: How to Stay Compliant While Building a Fairer Future of Work (HR Day Special Episode)
• The Future of AI Ethics Special: Perspectives from Women Leaders in AI on Bias, Accountability & Trust
• AI and Safety: How Responsible Tech Leaders Build Trustworthy Systems (National Safety Month Special)
• Empowering the Next Generation: Career, Leadership & Resilience Insights (International Youth Day Special Episode)
• Data Privacy Day Special Episode: AI, Deepfakes & The Future of Trust

Jody Glidden is the CEO and founder of Postilize, a company focused on reinventing CRM through AI. Before launching Postilize, he co-founded Introhive and served as CEO until 2022, helping raise over $100 million to build the enterprise relationship management category. A serial entrepreneur, Jody previously founded icGlobal, which was acquired by Smartforce, and played a key role in scaling Chalk Media, later acquired by BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. He holds a BBA from the University of New Brunswick and a Master’s in Information Systems from Harvard.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why traditional CRMs fail to reflect how relationships actually evolve—and how Postilize is addressing that gap
• How Postilize handles privacy, hallucinations, and human oversight to stay useful without crossing ethical lines
• Jody’s approach to using AI not to replace human connection, but to augment and scale authentic relationship building
• How relationship intelligence helps sales and go-to-market teams understand who to engage, when, and why
• Why keeping CRMs accurate is nearly impossible without automation and real-time enrichment
• What Jody learned from building Introhive and why Postilize is taking a radically different approach
• The future of CRM as a system of engagement rather than just a system of record

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Jody on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How To Manage Enterprise Apps That Support Thousands of Employees for a Rapidly Growing Global Company. 

Anthony Moisant is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Security Officer (CSO)  at Indeed, the world’s leading job site with over 610 million job seeker profiles. He joined Indeed nearly five years ago after serving in a similar role at sister company Glassdoor for eight years. As CIO, he leads the teams responsible for the internal technology that supports employees and drives the business. As CSO, he oversees the security team focused on protecting the data of job seekers, customers, and employees. Anthony is also a graduate of the U.S. Navy Nuclear Submarine School.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Indeed’s goal to cut time-to-hire by 50% by removing friction across systems and workflows.
• Solving the hiring challenges so every application gets seen and answered, using AI to improve matching and follow-ups.
• Why skills (not degrees) will define the future of hiring, and how job seekers can prepare for a skill-first economy
• How to double team productivity with AI while keeping trust high and addressing fears about automation.
• A values-driven approach to AI ethics: transparency, fairness testing, red-teaming models, and an “AI constitution” agent.
• The lessons Anthony brought from the U.S. Navy and how they continue to shape his leadership approach in high-pressure environments

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How to Invest and Advise Early Stage Tech Companies

A few days ago, Nick Mehta announced his transition from CEO to Board Director and Special Advisor at Gainsight. As CEO, he spent more than a decade transforming the company into a global leader in customer success, serving over 20,000 customers and surpassing $100 million in ARR. Before Gainsight, he led LiveOffice through its acquisition by Symantec and co-founded Chipshot in the 90s. Nick serves on the boards of F5 and PubMatic and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and a Master’s degree in Computer Science, both from Harvard. Known for leading with heart, humor, and humility, he’s also the voice behind the blog Mehtaphysical Musings, a rapper, and a YouTube creator with over 50 parody videos.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How Nick Mehta balances vulnerability and optimism as a leader navigating uncertainty
• Why Gainsight’s values like “childlike joy” matter more in an AI-driven world
• What happens to identity and purpose in a post-work economy shaped by automation
• The growing divide between capital and labor, and why Marxist ideas are resurfacing in the AI era
• Why we shouldn’t assume past tech cycles will repeat and how to question AI's impact on jobs
• What Gainsight’s AI initiative “Atlas” reveals about the rise of agentic tech in customer success

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Nick on LinkedIn
• Past Episode with Nick [Season 5, #298]: On Building A Human-First AI Culture
• Watch this for a laugh: “I promise that you’ll never find a CEO like Nick”
• Recommended by Nick:
  • Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
  • Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut 

Dr. Jad Tarifi is the co-founder of Integral AI, a company he launched in 2021 after holding senior AI roles at Google. He earned his PhD in Computer Science and AI from the University of Florida and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Waterloo. A returning guest to the podcast, Jad is a leading thinker on world models in AI and often shares insights on the science of longevity and the future of intelligence.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why Jad believes the goal of AGI isn't intelligence but freedom, and how that redefinition reframes both ethics and alignment
• The role of world models in achieving AGI, and why video prediction alone isn't enough for robust, reliable reasoning
• What it means to design AI that can autonomously learn new skills with minimal energy and data, matching or exceeding human learning efficiency
• How Integral AI is building AGI-capable models by focusing on unsupervised abstraction and embodied, open-ended agents
• How Jad defines superintelligence and what it reveals about the evolving relationship between humans and machines
• A glimpse into Integral’s long-term roadmap, including recursive superfactories and post-AGI economies

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Jad on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How To Pick The Right Business Problem to Solve with AI
• Jad Tarifi’s past episode on how to train AI to reason like humans

To celebrate International Youth Day (August 12), this special compilation episode of AI and the Future of Work brings together inspiring voices with wisdom for both young people starting out and the leaders, parents, and mentors guiding them.

In this episode, we revisit key moments from four remarkable guests who share timeless lessons on navigating change, finding meaning in work, embracing vulnerability, and developing the human-centered skills that will matter most in the future.

Featuring Guests:

🔹 Bruce Feiler, Bestselling Author - Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/14158168 

🔹 Linda Rottenberg, Co-Founder & CEO, Endeavor - Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/8356582 

🔹 Mark McCrindle, Social Researcher & Speaker -  Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/13014260 

🔹 William Osman, Tech Creator & YouTuber - Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/15701415-301 

💡 What You’ll Learn:

• Why your work journey will change multiple times—and how to embrace it
• How vulnerability can make leaders more relatable and effective
• The enduring value of human-centered skills in a tech-driven world
• Why experimentation and adaptability are critical for success
• How leaders and mentors can help create opportunities for young people
  
  

Whether you’re charting your own course or helping others navigate theirs, these conversations will inspire you to take bold steps toward a meaningful future.

—

Inspired by something in this episode? Share your favorite insight on social and tag us. And don’t forget to subscribe for more conversations with the leaders shaping the future of work.

Other special compilation episodes: 

• Lessons from Four Unicorn CEOs Disrupting Massive Markets with AI (Special Episode)
• Ethical AI in Hiring: How to Stay Compliant While Building a Fairer Future of Work (HR Day Special Episode)
• The Future of AI Ethics Special: Perspectives from Women Leaders in AI on Bias, Accountability & Trust
• AI and Safety: How Responsible Tech Leaders Build Trustworthy Systems (National Safety Month Special)
• World Health Day Special: How AI Is Making Healthcare Smarter, Cheaper, and Kinder
• Data Privacy Day Special Episode: AI, Deepfakes & The Future of Trust

William Chan is the co-founder and CEO of Iodine Software, a company he helped launch in 2010 to pioneer the use of AI in helping healthcare providers get paid. A serial entrepreneur, he previously co-founded WhisperWire, acquired by Convergys, and Crimson, acquired by The Advisory Board, and has held product leadership roles at companies including Oracle. William holds a BS in computer science from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• The challenges hospitals face in accurately capturing patient care details for proper reimbursement.
• How AI can address staffing shortages by assisting with clinical documentation review.
• The importance of responsible AI that supports, rather than replaces, human decision-making in healthcare.
• Strategies to reduce bias and improve accuracy by training AI models on diverse datasets from different hospital types and geographies.
• Why AI must deliver clear, actionable insights that clinicians can validate, ensuring trust and accountability in healthcare decisions.
• William’s vision for reducing the $260 billion in administrative waste and enabling providers to focus more on patient care.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with William on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How To Revolutionizing Finance and Decision-Making
• Past episodes mentioned in this conversation:
  • [With Dr. Shiv Rao, CEO and Co-Founder of Abridge] - On How Generative AI is fixing the Biggest Problem faced by Doctors

Dr. Mark van Rijmenam is ranked as the world's best futurists and is known globally for his trademark “Optimistic Dystopian” viewpoint. Recognized by Salesforce as a top voice shaping the future of AI, he’s a sought-after speaker on the relationship between innovation and humanity. He delivered the world’s first TEDx Talk in VR (2020) and introduced a digital twin that speaks 29 languages (2024). Mark holds a PhD in Management from the University of Technology Sydney, where he studied how organizations can use big data, blockchain, and AI. He’s also a six-time author and dedicated endurance athlete.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why Dr. Mark van Rijmenam believes we need a paradigm shift to prepare society for the long-term consequences of AI and quantum computing
• The critical difference between building technology for shareholders versus stakeholders and how that shapes our future
• What the “spiral dynamics” framework reveals about humanity’s current worldview and its path toward a more interconnected mindset
• How banning technology for kids under 16 could protect future generations and reshape digital education
• The risks of anthropomorphizing AI and the need to preserve human agency in a world increasingly shaped by machines
• What inspired Dr. Mark’s sixth book Now What? and how he uses fiction, philosophy, and global cultures to help readers ride the tsunami of change

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Mark on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On Extending Life With AI
• Explore more from Dr. Mark van Rijmenam:
  • Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change
  • Futurwise Platform — The Fastest Path to your Next Insight
  • Dr. Mark’s TEDx Talk in VR 

Bhaskar Roy is the Chief of AI Products & Solutions at Workato, the workflow automation leader with more than 11,000 customers and a $5.7 billion valuation. He has been with the company for nearly 11 years, previously serving as CMO. A serial head of products, Bhaskar co-founded Qik, which was acquired by Skype in 2011 for $150 million and later by Microsoft for $8.5 billion, and later held leadership roles at Playphone. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Birla Institute of Technology in Mesra, India.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Bhaskar’s journey from co-founding Qik to leading AI products at Workato, and why a lightbulb moment convinced him to pivot from marketing back to product innovation
• What Bhaskar learned from building products that scale globally and how those lessons shape his view on AI’s real-world impact
• Why Bhaskar sees AI agents as the next leap beyond low-code automation and how they orchestrate complex business processes
• The balance between deterministic workflows and AI’s reasoning capabilities, and how to maintain human oversight
• How enterprises can move beyond AI experiments at the fringes to transformative use cases that deliver measurable ROI
• The cultural shift required to embrace AI in the workplace, from reducing fear of automation to unlocking new opportunities for employees

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Bhaskar on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How to Help Companies Push Boldly Into The Future
• Past episodes with amazing guests from Workato:
  • Interview with Vijay Tella, CEO of Workato
  • Interview with Carter Busse, CIO at Workato

Dave Treat is the Chief Technology Officer of Pearson, the world’s largest education company headquartered in London, with a market cap of $11 billion and over 17,000 employees. Before joining Pearson, he spent several years at Accenture as a Senior Managing Director leading the Innovation Incubation Group. Dave has also served on multiple technology and industry boards, including the Linux Hyperledger Foundation, Linux Open Wallet Foundation, Digital Dollar Project, and the Global Business Blockchain Council. Earlier in his career, he held leadership roles at Deloitte and UBS. He holds a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration from the University of Michigan and a degree in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How Pearson is evolving from a textbook publisher into a software company driving the future of learning
• Why AI study tools are reshaping when and how students learn, meeting them at the exact moment they need help
• The mental health and motivation challenges students face today, and how AI can support them with simpler, more personalized learning
• How AI can simplify the administrative burden for educators and free them to focus on deeper student engagement
• Why the traditional “slingshot model” of education is broken and how skill mapping and lifelong learning are the future
  How immersive, 3D digital learning experiences will replace today’s flat, two-dimensional interactions

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Dave on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On leveraging AI to create more time in your day
• Other resources mentioned in this conversation:
  • [With Dave Marchick, Dean of the Kogod School of Business] - On How AI is Changing Academia
  • Lost in Transition: Fixing the “Learn to Earn” Skills Gap

In this special compilation of AI and the Future of Work, we spotlight four unicorn CEOs who’ve disrupted entire industries using artificial intelligence—while building cultures of urgency, resilience, and relentless innovation.

From scrappy beginnings to billion-dollar valuations, each founder shares what it really takes to build and scale in the AI era.

Featured Guests:

• Wade Foster, Co-founder & CEO of Zapier - Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/14202937
  
  
• Jonathan Siddharth, CEO of Turing - Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/15084162
  
  
• May Habib, Co-founder & CEO of Writer - Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/13598374 
  
  
• Arvind Jain, Co-founder & CEO of Glean - Listen to the full conversation: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/12239379 

You’ll learn:

• How successful founders turn early user feedback into fast growth
• Why operating with urgency can be a competitive advantage in tech
• What mindset shifts are needed to scale from startup to enterprise
• How to lead through uncertainty, doubt, and high-pressure decisions
• The role of resilience and focus in long-term company building
• Why empowering teams and simplifying execution drives innovation
  
  

Whether you're building the next unicorn or leading change within your team, this episode is your behind-the-scenes pass to the mindset, strategy, and grit it takes to win.

—

Inspired by something in this episode? Share your favorite insight on social and tag us. And don’t forget to subscribe for more conversations with the leaders shaping the future of work.

Other special compilation episodes:

• Ethical AI in Hiring: How to Stay Compliant While Building a Fairer Future of Work (HR Day Special Episode)
• Data Privacy Day Special Episode: AI, Deepfakes & The Future of Trust
• The Future of AI Ethics Special: Perspectives from Women Leaders in AI on Bias, Accountability & Trust
• World Health Day Special: How AI Is Making Healthcare Smarter, Cheaper, and Kinder
• AI and Safety: How Responsible Tech Leaders Build Trustworthy Systems (National Safety Month Special)

Alex Buder Shapiro is the Chief People Officer at Jasper AI, a company with more than 100,000 customers using its AI-first marketing platform and over $125M raised. She is a forward-thinking people leader with a unique perspective on the role of HR and the future of teams, having served in the same position for six years at Flatiron Health and as an HR Business Partner Manager for nearly eight years at Google. Alex studied Political Psychology and Theatre Arts at the University of Pennsylvania.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How Alex’s early career at Google shaped her views on aligned incentives, experimentation, and building high-performing people cultures.
• Why the employer and employee relationship has shifted dramatically in the last five years, from shared incentives to trade-offs driven by economic and social change.
• Why AI adoption in the workplace creates both opportunities and anxieties, and how people leaders can design human-centered approaches to integrating AI.
• The concept of “practicing at the top of your license” and how it applies to redesigning work in an AI-driven future.
• How the next generation of employees will challenge and reshape workplace structures through their fluency with AI and new ways of learning, mentorship, and problem solving.
• What responsible AI means for people leaders, including addressing bias, conscious adoption, and collective accountability.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Alex on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How To Build High Performance Organization with AI for the Tech Services
• Past episodes mentioned in this conversation:
  • [With Dave Marchick, Dean of the Kogod School of Business] - On How AI is Changing Academia
  • [Bryan Power, Nextdoor’s Head of People] - On how AI is Reshaping Work and Job Loyalty 

Paolo Ardoino is the CEO of Tether, the company behind the ticker symbol USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin. He also serves as CTO of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and co-founded Holepunch, a platform for peer-to-peer applications. Ardoino holds a Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Genoa and is one of the most visible proponents of improving the banking system with cryptocurrencies.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How Paolo built the infrastructure behind the world’s most used stablecoin and why he believes math, not politics, should govern money
  
  
• Why he believes Bitcoin is the first form of money governed by math, and how that math could reshape global finance
  
  
• How USDT became the most used digital dollar by solving practical challenges in regions with limited banking access
  
  
• Why Paolo believes traditional finance is broken and how decentralized tech offers a more inclusive infrastructure
  
  
• The case for brain–computer interfaces and why Paolo sees human and AI symbiosis as the next frontier of intelligence
  
  
• Why he’s optimistic about AI’s role in society, even as he argues that long term AI safety might be an illusion

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Paolo on LinkedIn or on X
• AI fun fact article
• On How to Ensure the AI and Workplace Technologies Align with Civil Rights Laws

Kyle Daigle is the Chief Operating Officer at GitHub, the world’s largest host of source code with more than 100 million developers and 420 million repositories. He joined GitHub in 2013 and later served as VP of Strategy and Chief of Staff to the CEO, playing a key role in the company’s 2018 acquisition by Microsoft. Kyle is also the public face of GitHub Copilot, the AI coding assistant launched in 2021 that now helps over 15 million users. Earlier in his career, he was a partner at Digitalworkbox and VP of Product Development at Geezeo.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Kyle’s journey from studying fine arts to leading operations at the world’s largest code platform
• Why GitHub Copilot is about freeing developers to focus on creativity and solving meaningful problems
• What it means to bring pragmatism into AI development and why usefulness always wins over hype
• How AI is lowering the barriers to software creation while keeping humans at the center of accountability
• The responsibility of platforms like GitHub to protect users from flawed code and teach safe coding by design
• Kyle’s vision for “ambient AI” and why the future should feel personal, context-aware, and privacy-conscious

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Kyle on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How to Discuss Regulation for LLMs and Legal Advice for Entrepreneurs
• Past episodes mentioned in this conversation: [With Patty Hatter, tech exec/board member/advisor] - On the best advice for women in technology 

Anders Indset is a Norwegian philosopher, author, tech investor, and former Olympic handball player often called “the business philosopher.” He is the founder of the Global Institute of Leadership and Technology and chairman of Njordis Group, a venture firm focused on the intersection of humanity and exponential technologies. Anders has invested in deep tech companies like Terra Quantum and launched The Quantum Economy Alliance to explore the future of innovation. He brings a unique mix of philosophical insight and real-world experience to today’s conversation.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why Anders believes our economy is society’s “operating system” and how AI might destabilize or enhance it
  
  
• How we’ve built an economy driven by reaction rather than reflection and what it takes to shift toward more thoughtful progress
  
  
• What the “final narcissistic injury” means for humanity as we face the rise of superintelligence
  
  
• Why it's naive to separate economy from ecology and how the concept of the quantum economy offers a new way to align hyper-efficiency with sustainability
  
  
• The difference between artificial general intelligence and artificial human intelligence and why Anders argues for enhancing ourselves before trying to replace us
  
  
• What the technological singularity really is, why it's misunderstood, and how Anders thinks we should prepare for it

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Anders on LinkedIn or on his website
• Explore Anders’ published work, including “The Quantum Economy”
• AI fun fact article
• On How to Optimize Hiring Processes and Celebrate Cognitive Diversity

In honor of National Safety Month, this special compilation episode of AI and the Future of Work brings together powerful conversations with four thought leaders focused on designing AI systems that protect users, prevent harm, and promote trust. 

Featuring past guests:

• Silvio Savarese (Executive Vice President and Chief Scientist, Salesforce) -Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/15548310
• Navindra Yadav (Co-founder & CEO, Theom) -  Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/12370356
• Eric Siegel (CEO, Gooder AI & Author ) -  Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/14464391
• Ben Kus (CTO, Box) -  Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/14789034

✅ What You’ll Learn: 

• What it means to design AI with safety, transparency, and human oversight in mind
• How leading enterprises approach responsible AI development at scale
• Why data privacy and permissions are critical to safe AI deployment
• How to detect and mitigate bias in predictive models
• Why responsible AI requires balancing speed with long-term impact
• How trust, explainability, and compliance shape the future of enterprise AI

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter: https://aiandwork.beehiiv.com/subscribe 

Other special compilation episodes 

• Ethical AI in Hiring: How to Stay Compliant While Building a Fairer Future of Work (HR Day Special Episode)
• Data Privacy Day Special Episode: AI, Deepfakes & The Future of Trust
• The Future of AI Ethics Special: Perspectives from Women Leaders in AI on Bias, Accountability & Trust
• World Health Day Special: How AI Is Making Healthcare Smarter, Cheaper, and Kinder

Marni Baker Stein is the Chief Content Officer at Coursera, the global learning platform with over 175 million learners and partnerships across 6,200 campuses, businesses, and governments. She leads Coursera’s content and credential strategy and manages global partner relationships. Before joining Coursera, Marni was Chief Academic Officer and Provost at Western Governors University, where she oversaw programs for more than 135,000 students. She has also held leadership roles focused on access, student success, and program design at the University of Texas, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Marni earned her PhD in Educational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How AI is shifting education from one-size-fits-all to personalized, contextualized learning tailored to each student
• Why microcredentials and stackable learning are replacing traditional degrees as the new path for lifelong learners
• The role of educators in the AI era and why they should be part of the solution, not sidelined by automation
• What it means for universities to stay relevant as learning becomes more modular, flexible, and job-aligned
• Why GenAI is fueling demand for both technical skills and enduring human abilities like critical thinking and communication
• How tools like AI tutors, instant translations, and proctoring are democratizing access and preserving integrity at scale

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Marni on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How To Identify The Power of Product and Listening to Your Customers. 
• Past episodes mentioned in this conversation:
  • [With Dave Marchick, Dean of the Kogod School of Business] - On How AI is Changing Academia
  • [Chris Caren, Turnitin CEO] - On using AI to prevent students from cheating plus lessons for leaders on innovation and team culture

Tess Posner is the CEO and founding leader of AI4ALL, a nonprofit that works to ensure the next generation of AI leaders is diverse and well-quipped to innovate. Since joining in 2017, she has focused on embedding ethics, responsibility, and real-world impact into AI education. Her work connects students from underrepresented backgrounds to hands-on projects and mentorships that prepare them to lead in tech. Beyond her role at AI4ALL, Tess is a musician whose 2023 EP Alchemy has over 600,000 streams on Spotify. She was named a 2020 Brilliant Woman in AI Ethics Hall of Fame Honoree and holds degrees from St. John’s University and Columbia University.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why AI literacy is becoming essential for everyone, from casual users to future developers
• The role of project-based learning in helping students see the real-world impact of AI
• What it takes to expand AI access for underrepresented communities
• How AI can either reinforce bias or drive real change, depending on who’s leading its development
• Why schools should stop penalizing AI use and instead teach students to use it with curiosity and responsibility
• Tess’s views on balancing optimism and caution in the development of AI tools

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Tess on LinkedIn or learn more about AI4ALL
• AI fun fact article
• On How To Build and Activate a Powerful Network
• Past episodes mentioned in this conversation:
  • [With Tess in 2020] - About what leaders do in a crisis
  • [With Tess in 2019] - About how to mitigate AI bias and hiring best practices 
  • [With Chris Caren, Turnitin CEO] - On Using AI to Prevent Students from Cheating
  • [With Marcus "Bellringer" Bell] - On Creating North America’s First AI Artist

Brian Elliott is one of the most recognized future of work thought leaders and the CEO of Work Forward, where he advises senior leaders on how to build better organizations. A former senior executive at Slack, Brian is also the bestselling author of How the Future Works: Leading Flexible Teams to Do the Best Work of Their Lives. His insights have been published in Harvard Business Review and Fortune, and cited in Time, Bloomberg, CNBC, The Economist, and Forbes. He holds a BA in Math and Economics from Northwestern and an MBA from Harvard.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Brian Elliott’s leadership journey from Google and Slack to founding Work Forward and advising companies on building healthier workplace cultures.
• Why alignment, accountability, and shared purpose matter more than hustle culture in scaling organizations effectively.
• The hidden risks of AI at work, including why employees often use it in secret out of fear of punishment or judgment.
• The growing tension between executives and employees in an era of midnight layoffs, return-to-office mandates, and AI-induced anxiety.
• How progressive leaders can create space for experimentation with AI and lead with fallibility instead of fear.
• Why the future of work depends on creating space for learning, building trust, and valuing human craftsmanship in an AI-powered world.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter: https://aiandwork.beehiiv.com/subscribe
• Connect with Brian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/belliott/
• AI fun fact article: https://ashugarg.substack.com/p/nvidias-ai-factory-bet
• On How To Deliver IT Service To The Legal Industry: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jim-mckenna-serial-cio-and-legaltech-expert-discusses/id1476885647?i=1000624398232

Dr. Martin Goodson is the founder and CEO of Evolution AI, a company he launched in 2012 to apply deep learning to optical character recognition (OCR). The company has received one of the largest AI R&D grants ever awarded by the UK government, along with investment from First Minute Capital. A former scientific researcher at Oxford University, Martin has led AI research across several organizations and was elected Chair of the Data Science and AI Section of the Royal Statistical Society in 2019.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Martin Goodson’s journey from researching biological data to founding Evolution AI and pioneering deep learning for document understanding.
• Why traditional OCR missed the mark, and how combining visual and linguistic context unlocked a new frontier in document intelligence.
• The evolution from data extraction to true financial analysis, and why domain knowledge is essential for reading statements like income reports.
• The risks of LLM hallucinations, especially with numerical data, and why accuracy still requires combining techniques across model types.
• What Martin believes intelligence really is, and why language alone may be the wrong benchmark for AGI.
• Why recreating human intelligence shouldn’t be the goal of AI research, and how we can build systems that support, not mimic, human thinking.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Martin on LinkedIn
• Check out the YouTube channel of the London Machine Learning Meetup
• AI fun fact article
• On How to Ovecome Imposter Syndrome
• Past episodes mentioned:
  • On Why doing Taxes is like finding the Best Route on a Map with Daniel Marcous
  • On Making AI Smarter Without Harming Humans with Peter Voss

Scott Stevenson is the CEO and co-founder of Spellbook, a legal tech company transforming how attorneys review contracts with AI. Since launching in 2018, Spellbook’s AI copilot has been adopted by more than 1,700 legal teams and helps review over a million contracts annually. Scott recently led the company through a $20 million Series A backed by Inovia Capital, Thomson Reuters Ventures, The Legaltech Fund, and others. Before Spellbook, he founded Mune, a startup at the intersection of music and technology, and holds a BS in Computer Engineering from Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Scott Stevenson’s journey from building electronic instruments to launching Spellbook, the world’s first generative AI copilot for lawyers.
• Why contracts, not court cases, were the ideal entry point for legal AI and how Spellbook now helps 3,000+ legal teams review over a million contracts a year.
• How AI is expanding access to legal services by reducing costs and enabling lawyers to serve the 70% of clients who previously couldn’t afford help.
• Why AI won’t replace lawyers and how tools like Spellbook enhance human judgment rather than automate legal decisions.
• Why now may be the best time to enter the legal field as AI eliminates drudgery and creates more room for strategy and client work.
• What product-market fit really looks like and how Scott found it after testing more than 100 hypotheses before landing on a solution that clicked.
• Why the best AI products embrace controlled chaos over rigid structure and how leaning into complexity reflects how the real world actually works.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Scott on LinkedIn
• AI fun fact article
• On How to Build an AI platform that's growing faster than OpenAI

To coincide with International Human Resources Day (May 20th), this special compilation episode of AI and the Future of Work explores the promises and pitfalls of AI in hiring.

HR leaders are under pressure to innovate—but how can we automate hiring ethically, avoid bias, and stay compliant with evolving laws and expectations?

In this episode, we revisit key moments from past interviews with four top voices shaping the future of ethical workforce automation:

🔹 Sean Behr (CEO, Fountain) – Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/14183120

 🔹 Keith Sonderling (U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor, formerly EEOC Commissioner) – Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/15934483

 🔹 Guillermo Corea (Former Director, SHRM Innovation Lab) – Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/12706119

 🔹 Josh Drean (Futurist, Co-Founder, Work3 Institute) – Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/16473644 

💡 What You’ll Learn:

• How AI is already transforming the hiring process
• What compliance really means in the age of automation
• Why HR professionals must take the lead on responsible innovation
• How to balance efficiency with fairness and transparency

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter: https://aiandwork.beehiiv.com/subscribe 
• Data Privacy Day Special Episode: AI, Deepfakes & The Future of Trust: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/16554098 
• The Future of AI Ethics Special: Perspectives from Women Leaders in AI on Bias, Accountability & Trust: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/16733990
• World Health Day Special: How AI Is Making Healthcare Smarter, Cheaper, and Kinder: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/16935235

Matt Biilmann is the CEO and co-founder of Netlify, a platform that has raised over $200M to reshape how websites are built and deployed. A key figure in the open source web development community, Matt helped popularize the JAMstack architecture to improve performance and streamline developer workflows. Before launching Netlify in 2014 with Christian Bach, he built several startups and earned a degree in Musicology from the University of Copenhagen.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How Matt Biilmann coined the term “JAMstack”, and how it redefined the architecture of the modern web
• The evolution of Netlify from a bootstrapped side project to a platform used by 6M+ developers
• Why the future of web development includes designing not just for humans but also for AI agents, with a focus on Agent Experience (AX)
• The rise of low-code creators and “vibe coders” who build sophisticated projects by prompting instead of programming
• Why the open web matters more than ever in the age of AI, and what’s at stake in the battle between open and closed platforms
• Matt’s reflections on leadership, delegation, and what still drives him after more than a decade of building tools that empower other builders

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Matt on LinkedIn
• Read the new blog from Matt: Biilmann Blog
• AI fun fact article
• On the future of automation in B2B sales

Dave Marchick is the Dean of American University’s Kogod School of Business and a seasoned leader with experience across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. He spent over a decade as Managing Director at The Carlyle Group, where he served on the management committee and advanced the firm’s sustainability and diversity efforts. In government, he held senior roles in both the Biden and Clinton administrations, including leadership positions at the State Department, the White House, and the Development Finance Corporation. Dave directed the Center for Presidential Transition during the 2020 cycle and later launched the Transition Lab podcast and co-authored The Peaceful Transition of Power. A dedicated advocate for civil rights and historical preservation, he has served on the boards of the Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National Park Foundation. Dave holds degrees from George Washington University, the LBJ School at UT Austin, and UC San Diego.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How Dean Dave Marchick is helping to infuse AI across the curriculum at American University’s Kogod School of Business.
• The resistance and cultural shifts required to get faculty on board with AI adoption.
• How students are learning to prompt, critique, and collaborate with AI from their first semester (and how it’s reshaping classroom dynamics).
• Why professionalism, communication, and negotiation are now prioritized as “skills of the future”.
• How Kogod is thinking about measuring the real-world impact of AI education beyond the classroom.
• Lessons from U.S. presidential transitions and what they reveal about leadership during critical moments.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter: https://aiandwork.beehiiv.com/subscribe 
• Connect with Dave on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-marchick/ 
• AI fun fact article: https://www.psu.edu/news/campus-life/story/cheat-thon-contest-explores-ais-strengths-and-flaws-higher-education 
• On what it was like to co-author a book with ChatGPT: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bob-rogers-ai-expert-physicist-author-and-ceo-of-oii/id1476885647?i=1000606108950 
• Other episodes mentioned in the show:
  • Episode with George Sivulka [Hebbia CEO]
  • Episode with Tom Wheeler [Former FCC Chairman and author of Techlash]
  • Episode with Chris Caren [Turnitin CEO]
• Read Dave Marchick’s book: The Peaceful Transfer of Power: An Oral History of America’s Presidential Transitions 

Snehal Antani is an entrepreneur, technologist, and investor. He is the CEO and Co-founder of Horizon3, a cybersecurity company using AI to deliver Red Teaming and Penetration Testing as a Service. He also serves as a Highly Qualified Expert for the U.S. Department of Defense, supporting digital transformation and data initiatives for Special Operations. Previously, he was CTO and SVP at Splunk, held CIO roles at GE Capital, and began his career as a software engineer at IBM. Snehal holds a master’s in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a bachelor’s from Purdue University, and he is the inventor on 16 patents.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Snehal Antani’s path from software engineer to CEO, and how his father's quiet example of grit and passion continues to shape his leadership style.
• How a “LEGO blocks” approach to building skills prepared Snehal to lead, and why he believes leadership must be earned through experience.
• Why Horizon3 identifies as a data company, and how running more pen tests than the Big Four creates a powerful AI advantage.
• What “cyber-enabled economic warfare” looks like in practice, and how a small disruption in a supply chain can create massive global impact.
• How Horizon3 built an AI engine that hacked a bank in under 60 seconds, showing what's possible when algorithms replace manual testing.
• What the future of work looks like in the AI era, with a growing divide between those with specialized expertise and trade skills and those without.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter: https://aiandwork.beehiiv.com/subscribe 
• Connect with Snehal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/snehalantani/ 
• AI fun fact article: https://venturebeat.com/security/ai-vs-endpoint-attacks-what-security-leaders-must-know-to-stay-ahead/ 
• On the New Definition of Work: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dr-john-boudreau-future-of-work-pioneer-and/id1476885647?i=1000633854079 

Gou Rao is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of NeuBird, where he's building Hawkeye—an AI-powered site reliability engineer designed to identify, diagnose, and resolve IT infrastructure issues. He previously co-founded Portworx, which was acquired by Pure Storage for $370 million in 2020. In 2024, NeuBird raised a $22.5 million seed extension from M12, Microsoft’s venture arm, following a $22 million seed round led by Mayfield, Stepstone Group, and Prosperity7 Ventures. Gou holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Bangalore University and a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Gou Rao’s journey from late-night support calls to co-founding NeuBird and building Hawkeye, an AI-powered site reliability engineer.
• Why diagnosing IT issues is 99% of the problem—and how Hawkeye helps SREs move from noise to actionable insight in minutes.
• The shift from chatbots to agentic systems—and why reasoning, not just automation, is the next frontier for enterprise AI.
• How AI can reduce burnout by eliminating repetitive incident response tasks, freeing teams to focus on creativity and automation.
• The importance of transparency, explainability, and human oversight in deploying AI systems with agency.
• Gou’s reflections on entrepreneurship, including why “mistakes are an asset” and how jumping into the unknown can lead to your biggest breakthroughs.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter: https://aiandwork.beehiiv.com/subscribe 
• Connect with Gou on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gouthamrao/ 
• AI fun fact article: https://www.hrdive.com/news/anthropic-report-AI-software-engineers-automation-augmentation/739833/ 
• On becoming an investor and discovering amazing companies: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/7446373 

Ravi Malick is the Global CIO at Box, where he leads IT strategy, compliance, and customer advocacy for the enterprise content management platform. Before joining Box, he served as SVP & CIO at Vistra Corp., where he oversaw the integration of three major acquisitions that more than doubled the company’s size. Earlier in his career, he held leadership roles at Energy Future Holdings, including VP of Business Technology at TXU Energy. Ravi earned a BA in Political Science from Brown University and remains active in philanthropic efforts outside of work.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Ravi Malick’s nonlinear path from investment banking and consulting to becoming Global CIO at Box—and how each chapter shaped his leadership style.
• What makes Box’s “people-first” culture stand out in Silicon Valley and why Ravi believes authenticity and inclusion are key to long-term success.
• The challenges of leading IT at a company with 3,000 tech-savvy employees—and how Ravi balances innovation with governance.
• How he’s approaching AI adoption internally, from quick wins to long-term strategy, while keeping a sharp focus on business outcomes.
• What the “agentic workforce” could mean for scalability, productivity, and the structure of tomorrow’s teams.
• How Ravi sees the future of work: multi-role careers, voice-first workflows, and AI-powered teams built around passion and outcomes.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter: https://aiandwork.beehiiv.com/subscribe 
• Connect with Ravi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravimalick/ 
• AI fun fact article: https://www.engineering.com/rip-saas-long-live-ai-as-a-service/ 
• On how AI supports thousands of employees at a rapidly growing global company: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/parul-saini-ubers-global-head-of-enterprise-apps/id1476885647?i=1000599377300 

Rafie Faruq is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of Genie, a platform launched in 2017 to make high-quality legal documents accessible through open-source tools. 

Since then, Genie has served over 100,000 users across 120 jurisdictions and recently raised an $18M Series A from Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures. Rafie holds an MSc in Machine Learning, has advised the Law Policy Commission, contributed to the Law Society, and represented the Ministry of Justice on international trade missions. 

He also teaches meditation and is a mentor to many seeking meaning and clarity in life.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Rafie Faruq’s unconventional path from bond trader to AI entrepreneur and what drove him to apply machine learning to legal access.
  
  
• How his early research on generative models led to new ways of thinking about document creation and automation.
  
  
• Why he believes the current definition of intelligence is outdated—and what a more human-centered version could look like.
  
  
• The role of emotional intelligence, purpose, and social connection in a future shaped by automation.
  
  
• What it means to build a business rooted in spiritual principles—and how Rafie applies concepts like rhythm, balance, and nature to team building.
  
  
• His reflections on power, responsibility, and why founders should see themselves as stewards of broader societal change.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter: https://aiandwork.beehiiv.com/subscribe
• Connect with Rafie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rfaruq/
• AI fun fact article: https://www.mixonline.com/blog/mix-blog-who-wrote-that-ai-and-copyright-law
• On Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/linda-rottenberg-endeavor-co-founder-and-ceo/id1476885647?i=1000517670973 

To mark World Health Day, we’re revisiting powerful conversations with innovators using AI to improve healthcare access, reduce costs, and return empathy to the patient experience.

In this special compilation episode, you’ll hear from five leaders at the intersection of healthcare and emerging technologies—sharing how AI is already reshaping how we deliver care and what’s next for clinical innovation.

🎧 Featuring insights from:

 🔹 Boe Hartman (Co-founder, Nomi Health) – Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/16185843

 🔹 Punit Soni (Founder, Suki) – Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/16339101

 🔹 Dr. Brigham Hyde (Co-founder, Atropos Health) & Dr. John Halamka (President, Mayo Clinic Platform) – Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/12797551

 🔹 Dr. Shiv Rao (CEO, Abridge) – Listen to the full conversation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/12739445

🩺 Why It Matters:
 AI is helping solve some of healthcare’s most pressing challenges—from clinician burnout and inefficient workflows to gaps in clinical data and access to care. But real transformation depends on how we design and deploy these tools—with responsibility, empathy, and transparency. 

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter: https://aiandwork.beehiiv.com/subscribe 
• Data Privacy Day Special Episode: AI, Deepfakes & The Future of Trust: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/16554098 
• The Future of AI Ethics Special: Perspectives from Women Leaders in AI on Bias, Accountability & Trust: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/16733990

Dr. Craig Wheeler is Professor Emeritus of Astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin and a former department chair. He has published nearly 400 scientific papers, written books on supernovae, and authored two novels. A frequent speaker and award-winning educator, Dr. Wheeler has served on advisory committees for the NSF, NASA, and the National Research Council. His research explores topics from exploding stars and black holes to the technological future of humanity.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How supernovae and black holes shaped Dr. Craig Wheeler’s career—and what they reveal about the universe’s expansion.
• The singularity debate: Will AI surpass human intelligence, and if so, what happens next?
• Machine consciousness vs. human intelligence—why the future of AI might be more alien than we expect.
• The rise of AI in leadership roles—could AI replace CEOs, and what does that mean for the future of work?
• The ethics of AI-driven decision-making, from hiring to autonomous weapons, and the challenges of regulation.
• Why exponential technological growth is inevitable—and how humanity can prepare for its accelerating impact.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter: https://aiandwork.beehiiv.com/subscribe 
• Connect with J. Craig Wheeler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-craig-wheeler-94024a97/ 
• AI fun fact article: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/robots/a63057078/when-the-singularity-will-happen/ 
• On AI Job Creation & Predictions for AI in the Enterprise: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/15873523 

Dheeraj Pandey is a visionary entrepreneur and philanthropist best known for founding and leading Nutanix from its inception to becoming a publicly traded company valued at approximately $16.5 billion on NASDAQ. In 2020, he launched DevRev, an agentic AI company focused on unifying data to enhance customer experiences, securing over $100 million in funding from Khosla Ventures. Beyond his contributions to technology, Dheeraj co-founded Param Hansa with his wife, Swapna, to advance human life through science and technology. He holds a Computer Science and Engineering degree from IIT Kanpur and a master's in Computer Science from UT Austin.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why data is the backbone of AI and how DevRev is leveraging knowledge graphs to transform customer support and product management.
• The evolution of enterprise AI—why businesses must integrate AI with human workflows rather than replace them.
• The future of customer support—how DevRev combines real-time conversations with ticketing systems to improve response times and reduce inefficiencies.
• The ethical challenges of AI adoption—how bias, security, and machine reliability shape the future of AI-driven business operations.
• How DevRev raised over $100M, including an unconventional approach using blockchain and decentralized funding models.
• Dheeraj’s vision for AI’s next frontier—why the real challenge isn’t intelligence, but making AI work seamlessly with human decision-making.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter:  https://aiandwork.beehiiv.com/subscribe 
• Connect with Dheeraj Pandey on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpandey 
• AI fun fact article:  https://hackernoon.com/next-time-you-hear-someone-say-ai-will-replace-call-center-agents-run 
• On The Path To 500M+ YouTube views:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/301-william-osman-on-the-path-to-500m-youtube-views/id1476885647?i=1000668882327 

How has the dynamic between employees and employers shifted over the past 18 months? And what does the future of work look like in a world defined by AI?

In this special live episode, recorded at Transform—the conference at the intersection of the People space and the tech industry—Dan Turchin sits down with Bryan Power, Head of People at Nextdoor. 

Bryan took the stage at Transform to share insights on "The Power Shift: Navigating the New Employer-Employee Dynamic," where he explored how evolving expectations are reshaping the workforce.

Bryan has spent his career shaping workplace culture at some of the most iconic tech companies, including Google, Square, and Yahoo. Now, as the leader of People Operations at Nextdoor, he’s at the forefront of redefining work in an era of rapid change.

In this conversation, Bryan and Dan discuss topics such as:

• How the employee-employer relationship is evolving—why job loyalty is declining and what it means for the future of work.
• The rise of hybrid work and its impact on company culture—how Nextdoor navigates the balance between flexibility and connection.
• Why culture must be intentional—lessons from Google, Square, Yahoo, and Nextdoor on shaping a workplace where people thrive.
• The role of AI in HR and leadership—how AI is disrupting traditional people operations and what leaders must do to stay ahead.
• Bryan’s biggest leadership lessons—what he’s learned from building teams at some of the most influential tech companies.
• The future of HR in an AI-powered world—how the Chief People Officer role is shifting as AI and automation reshape the workplace.

Resources

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter:  https://aiandwork.beehiiv.com/subscribe 
• Connect with Bryan Power: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanpower/
• Learn more about Transform: https://transform.us/conference/

Scott Wharton is a visionary entrepreneur and CEO making waves in the solar industry as the leader of Tandem PV, where he’s developing solar cells that are about 30% more efficient than current market options. Previously, he spent eight years at Logitech as a general manager, revolutionizing how businesses use consumer tech for productivity and collaboration. Before that, he was the CEO of Vidtel, which was acquired by Fidelity Investments in 2013. A bold thinker and risk-taker, Scott is known for his leadership and innovation across industries. He holds an MBA from Yale and a bachelor’s degree from Binghamton University.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How solar energy has become the cheapest and most scalable power source —and why most people haven’t caught up to this reality.
• The breakthrough potential of perovskite solar cells and why they’re set to replace silicon as the industry standard.
• Why the U.S. must invest in solar manufacturing – and how bringing production back from China strengthens energy security.
• The evolving synergy between solar and battery storage —how new advancements are making 24/7 renewable power a reality.
• Common myths about solar’s limitations and why concerns about cost, reliability, and land use no longer hold up.
• Scott’s journey from leading video conferencing at Logitech to revolutionizing the solar industry – and what motivated him to take on this challenge.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter:  https://aiandwork.beehiiv.com/subscribe 
• Connect with Scott Wharton on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottwharton/
• AI fun fact article: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/23/data-centers-powering-ai-could-use-more-electricity-than-entire-cities.html 
• On how AI can be used to provide fact-based impartial answers to scientific questions: https://www.buzzsprout.com/520474/episodes/11574063 

Mona Sabet is the co-author of Sail to Scale: Steering Startups Clear of Mistakes from Launch to Exit and currently serves as SVP, Strategy, Projects, and Operations at GCG. With a track record of driving growth and strategic transformations, she has held executive roles at VulcanForms, UserTesting, and Cadence Design Systems. At UserTesting, she played a pivotal role in securing $100M in funding, leading acquisitions, taking the company public, and negotiating its $1.3B sale to Thoma Bravo. Beyond her corporate leadership, Mona is a passionate advocate for women in tech, law, and policy, having co-founded ChIPsNetwork.org and leading HiPower, a community dedicated to empowering executive women shaping the future of technology.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• The critical mistakes startups make at different growth stages—Mona shares insights from Sail to Scale on why companies struggle to scale and how to avoid common pitfalls.
• How founders should "fire themselves" to scale effectively—Why transitioning from founder to CEO requires a mindset shift, and the biggest mistakes leaders make in this process.
• The AI bubble: hype vs. reality—Mona explains why overfunding in AI-first companies mirrors past tech bubbles and what it means for the future of the industry.
• Why acquisitions should be a long-term strategy, not a last-minute decision—The importance of planning exits early and why companies that wait too long often fail to sell at the right valuation.
• The evolving landscape of M&A and IPOs—How companies can differentiate themselves in a crowded market of late-stage startups waiting for an exit.
• The unseen biases keeping women out of leadership—Mona’s perspective on why brand bias impacts diversity in tech and what leaders can do to create real change.

Resources:

• Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work Newsletter
• Connect with Mona on LinkedIn 
• AI fun fact article
• On How to how AI is changing the entertainment industry