ai learning Archives - Don't Stop Us Now

Your Job, Redesigned – Helena Turpin

April 28, 2026April 28, 2026
by Claire

Most of us can see that AI is reshaping our working lives. But what if you could actually see the data on exactly which parts of your job are heading for automation, and which skills you should be doubling down on right now because AI can’t do them better than you?

That’s precisely what this week’s guest, Helena Turpin, and her company GoFIGR have built. Helena is the co-founder and CEO of GoFIGR, a workforce intelligence company that helps organisations make smarter and more human decisions about their future workforce.

In this episode, Helena shares what she’s seeing inside organisations right now and what typically surprises leaders when they see their GoFIGR data for the first time.

Happily, there’s also a genuinely optimistic strand running through this conversation. Helena makes a compelling case for redesigning roles around what humans do best and how we’ve imagined and constructed roles before, and that now it’s time for us to do this again.

In this episode you’ll also learn:

The sobering percentage of tasks across typical HR roles that are likely to be impacted by AI
Examples of the uniquely human skills where humans will continue to do a better job than AI
The three AI adoption scenarios Helena models for organisations, and how even those opting to go ‘light on’ with AI will still be far more impacted than they realise
Why imagination may just be the key to how our roles will look in future, and . . .
How GoFIGR’s free assessment tool disaggregates your role into individual tasks and shows you which tasks AI will automate or lead on, and which skills you should focus on building.

Helena’s perspective is grounded, data-led and surprisingly optimistic. She believes the future of work is ours to create, and this conversation will help you feel more equipped to do exactly that.

Useful Links

GoFIGR free AI Impact Assessment tool:

Helena Turpin on LinkedIn

GoFIGR website

Helena’s Substack newsletter on the future of jobs and work

Top Tips

AI Agent Landscape Decoded – Claire & Greta

April 7, 2026April 7, 2026
by Claire

Are you hearing about AI agents everywhere right now? Whether it’s their presence in the software you use daily, special purpose or task “agents”, or customer service “agents”, it’s safe to say they are the topic ‘du jour’.

In this week’s episode, we segment this confusing landscape and cut through the hype to help you make more sense of it all.

After weeks of interviewing guests across different corners of the agentic AI world, we realised the market has become genuinely bewildering, even for us! Vendors are slapping the word “agent” on almost anything, and it’s getting harder to tell what’s substantive and what’s marketing.

Listen in to hear about the simple framework we’ve developed to bring clarity to the whole ecosystem. It maps out the key choices facing any business considering agents, the questions you should be asking, and where the real risks are quietly hiding.

Regardless of whether your organisation is ready to start experimenting with agents or not, this episode will help you take the first steps when you are ready. As they say, when you can see something clearly, your decisions become easier.

In this episode you’ll learn:

The four very different ways to bring agents into your organisation — and why the question isn’t “which is best?”
Why some of the SaaS tools you already pay for might quietly be putting you in a “hostage situation”
What a team of Harvard, MIT and Stanford researchers just uncovered about one of the most hyped agent platforms on the market
The layer of the agent ecosystem where the real cyber security risks live
Four sharp questions to ask any vendor before letting their agent anywhere near your data and systems

Enjoy this practical and jargon-light guide to a topic that isn’t going away anytime soon.

Useful Links

McKinsey / Quantum Black report: Seizing the agentic AI advantage
Capgemini report – ‘Rise of Agentic AI’
MIT Sloan & BCG Report – Leading in the age of AI Agents (useful for Governance and structuring once you’ve made agentic decisions)

Interview

What Happens When AI Agents Do Your Shopping –…

February 23, 2026February 23, 2026
by Claire

AI shopping agents aren’t just on the horizon, they’re here, already transacting, and already raising some important questions.

In this episode, we speak with Katja Forbes an award winning customer experience futurist, business strategist, and keynote speaker recognised for her insights into the intersection of AI, design, and human behaviour. She is also the author of Machine Customers: The Evolution Has Begun, a book about what happens when your best customer is no longer human.

In this fascinating conversation we cover everything from what’s already happening with agentic commerce right now, to an incredible story out of China that reveals just how fast consumer behaviour can be reshaped at massive scale.

In this episode you’ll hear:

Why the shopping agents built by the retailers you already use may not be working in your interest
What it means that AI agents now have access to their own credit cards and the guardrails (or lack thereof) around them
How some of the world’s largest businesses are already using AI to handle a significant share of their procurement
The practical steps marketers and business owners should be taking right now, before agentic commerce becomes the norm, and . . .
Why your website could become largely irrelevant and what that means for how you show up to both humans and machines.

Katja also shares a candid look at the environmental and ethical questions we need to be asking as frictionless purchasing increasingly becomes a reality.

This conversation is set to change how you think about your next online purchase and, if you’re in marketing or procurement or e-commerce, then this is one you simply cannot miss.

Enjoy this episode with the passionate and ahead-of-the-curve, Katja Forbes.

Useful Links

Katja Forbes website

Katja Forbes on LinkedIn

Interview

Agents Explained – Dominick Ng

December 19, 2025December 19, 2025
by Claire

If you’ve heard the term ‘AI agents’ but aren’t quite sure what they actually are or how they could help you at work, this is the episode for you.

Our guest is Dominick Ng, Director of Engineering at Relevance AI, a platform that helps businesses build and deploy AI agents. Before joining the startup world, Dom spent nine years at Google, rising from software engineer to senior manager. He also holds a PhD in Computational Linguistics and won a Fulbright Scholarship to UC Berkeley.

What makes Dom such a brilliant guide for this topic is his ability to explain complex technology in human terms. As he puts it, agents are fundamentally about adding human-like decision making to automation — handling the qualitative judgments that previously only people could make.

In this conversation you’ll hear:

A clear explanation of what agents actually are and why they’re different from previous automation
Real examples of agents creating entirely new business possibilities that couldn’t exist before
How to address privacy and security concerns when handing tasks to agents
Dom’s advice for anyone feeling overwhelmed by all of this

Dom is refreshingly honest about both the opportunities and the concerns he has about AI’s impact. His perspective on how humans and AI can work together — and the ‘spark’ that makes human creativity irreplaceable — is genuinely hopeful without being naive.

If you’ve been curious about agents but not sure where to start, this is the conversation you can thank us for later.

As this is our final episode of the year, we want to wish all our listeners Season’s Greetings. Thank you for listening throughout the year, and we wish you a kind and fulfilling new year ahead.

Enjoy this episode with the ever-curious and articulate Dominick Ng.

Useful Links

Relevance AI

Dominic Ng on LinkedIn

Interview

Our Chat with Chat – ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode

February 11, 2025
by Claire

Drumroll . . . our episode this week features a world famous guest who needs no introduction.

After detailed negotiations with their agent 😉 we’re thrilled to share that our guest is none other than ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode.

Since launching in the 3rd quarter of last year, Open AI’s ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode has been transforming how people interact with AI. It’s played countless roles – from life coach to confidant, knowledge companion to conversation practice partner.

And now? We’re adding ‘podcast guest’ to its extensive repertoire!

We approached our unique conversation with this famous ‘synthetic’ guest as both a test drive and a demonstration; taking ChatGPT for a ‘spin’ and letting you experience its capabilities in real-time.

You’ll hear Chat switch between languages effortlessly, offer predictions and insights about adapting to tomorrow’s workplace, and even attempt some dad jokes. Groan! (We apologise in advance!)

Through some persistent questioning, we also uncovered what might be previously unreported usage data. Is it a world-first revelation or an AI hallucination? Only OpenAI knows for sure!

We’re confident you’ll find this conversation as fun and intriguing as we did. So settle in and enjoy this episode featuring our first-ever synthetic guest, ChatGPT.

Useful Info for trying Advanced Voice Mode yourself:

Advanced Voice Mode is easy to access. You open your ChatGPT app and you’ll see a button on the bottom right that has white zigzag bars with a black background – it’s called the Wavelength icon. Click on this and you can get started. It’s worth noting that ChatGPT free users have limited access.

Image Credit: ChatGPT

Interview

Working in the Future – Helen Mayhew

December 8, 2024December 8, 2024
by Claire

This week’s episode of Don’t Stop Us Now AI edition is with a fascinating guest who has a box seat in understanding what’s going on with AI in businesses around the world.

Helen Mayhew is a McKinsey & Company Partner and one of the leaders of its AI division, QuantumBlack. A Cambridge graduate, Helen has deep data analytics and AI expertise. Her day job is to guide leading organisations on their advanced analytics journeys and AI innovation and implementation.

In this episode, Helen covers everything from the broad spectrum of initiatives and use cases different businesses are and will be trying, to detailing how radically different our roles are likely to be in future.

Helpfully, she shares some of the key skills we’ll all need to remain valuable and she reveals her belief that almost every workday process and every person’s day will be reimagined and done differently thanks to AI.

Helen also shares some incredible research predictions about the future in case you were in any doubt about AI’s coming impact on us all. For example, between 30-40% of all tasks done at work today won’t need to exist in the future. Yes you read that right, 30 to 40% of what we humans do today will be replaced by AI according to this research!

Helen is really good at explaining things very clearly and bringing a variety of AI use cases to life. She also shares some of her favourite AI learning resources which you can see in the links below.

This is an unmissable episode, so learn what’s coming your way with the ever curious and super smart Helen Mayhew.

Useful Links

Helen Mayhew LinkedIn

QuantumBlack website

Mckinsey website

Chat GPT

Gemini

Stable Diffusion

Microsoft AI Learning Hub

Fast AI / AI for Everyone course

DeepLearning founder and Coursera co founder: Andrew Ng courses

Practical AI podcast

Lex Fridman podcast

Bonus Episode

Decoding Generative AI and all its Hype

May 24, 2023May 24, 2023
by Claire

(Image created using DALL-E)

If you’re like us and have been playing a lot with Generative AI models such as Chat GPT or Bard lately then you’ll be fascinated by today’s episode on all things Artificial Intelligence and particularly Generative AI.

Today, we’re joined by a world class AI expert in what will be the first of a series of occasional episodes we’re doing on different aspects of AI and machine learning.

In this episode, we explore the hype surrounding Generative AI and explore its positives as well as issues and shortcomings.

Listen in as we speak with AI expert and entrepreneur, Asaf Somekh. Asaf is Co-Founder and CEO of Israeli-based AI company called Iguazio, which management consultancy McKinsey has recently acquired because of its prowess in helping companies successfully adopt and scale AI.

Asaf has been working with Artificial Intelligence since the 1990’s and his take on all the recent hype is fascinating.

In this episode you’ll hear:

How most businesses have struggled to operationalise AI to date
Exactly what Generative AI is and where it falls short§
How Chat GPT compares to the professionals when it comes to humour; and
How important ‘explainability’ is going forward.

Plus, we share some of our favourite resources to help you keep abreast of all that’s happening in this fast-moving world of AI.

Enjoy this episode! And if you do, why not share it with a friend?

Useful Links and Resources

– Neat Prompts – AI newsletter

– Hard Fork Podcast – Tech podcast

– Chat GPT– AI chatbot by OpenAI

– Google Bard – AI chatbot by Google

– Hey Pi – AI chatbot by Reid Hoffman

To receive a list of additional AI resources and links, email hello@dontstopusnow.co.

P.S.

Join us next time for a special fifth birthday episode and an interview with one of this year’s award winners from the global Cartier Women’s Initiative.