articifical intelligence Archives

AI Should Make Us Better – Dr. Vivienne Ming

June 24, 2026June 24, 2026
by Claire

If you’ve ever had a nagging feeling that the way you, and most other people, are using AI right now might actually be doing you harm, our guest this week has the research to back that hunch up.

Dr. Vivienne Ming is a theoretical neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and author who calls herself a ‘Professional Mad Scientist’ and she means it!. She co-founded Socos Labs, a think tank dedicated to the future of human potential, and has spent nearly 30 years working with AI, long before it became a household word.

Vivienne has founded six startups, served as chief scientist at two others, and her latest book, Robot-Proof, When machines have all the answers, build better people, argues the vast majority of us are using AI the wrong way increasing our risk of cognitive decline and even dementia.

She outlines the right way to use AI so that it makes us sharper versus hollowing us out.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why having an army of robot minions is not the goal and what to aim for instead
The skills that predict who thrives with AI
Why the best decisions are ones neither human nor AI could reach alone
About Vivienne’s ‘nemesis’ prompt and why it makes her work sharper, and …
What Vivienne would say directly to the founders of the big AI companies.

We were pretty blown away by the span and purpose of Vivienne’s work, and how she frames thinking about AI. As she says it’s NOT about fear of AI replacing us, it’s about AI defining us.

Enjoy this conversation with the unique, funny and whip smart Dr. Vivienne Ming.

Links

Socos.org

Vivienne’s book: Robot-Proof, When machines have all the answers, build better people

Interview

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

Interview

Where Luxury Travel Meets AI – Sean Seah

February 6, 2026February 6, 2026
by Claire

Most conversations about AI implementation come from consultants selling solutions or vendors pitching tools. This one doesn’t.

Sean Seah is SVP of Strategy, Technology and Innovation at Langham Hospitality Group, where he’s leading AI adoption across a global luxury hotel portfolio. With over two decades in digital transformation at Microsoft, HSBC, and Zuji, Sean brings a rare perspective as he’s living inside the messy reality of making it actually work.

What emerges from our conversation is a refreshingly practical playbook for AI implementation. Sean reveals why the “boring stuff” nobody discusses—data infrastructure, change management, measurement frameworks—determines whether AI delivers business value or not. He advocates starting small, proving value in weeks rather than years, and letting success create momentum for long term transformation.

We explore how Sean balances short-term wins with long-term strategic vision, how he thinks about his AI strategy in a global context, and why luxury hospitality, with its complex blend of human service and operational efficiency offers surprisingly universal lessons for AI implementation across industries.

In this episode:

How Sean’s approach to long term tech transformation includes the necessity that it must deliver short term value as well.
Why one of Langham’s first major AI investments is customer facing and how it’s faring
Examples of how they practically trained their AI agents and staff, and
How Sean’s ensured Langhams isn’t reliant on any one large language model

Whatever sector you’re in, Sean’s boots-on-the-ground experience offers a practical roadmap for leaders navigating the gap between AI potential and AI reality.

Enjoy this episode!

Useful Links:

Sean Seah on Linkedin
Langham Hospitality Group

Top Tips

NAIL your 2026 Planning

January 13, 2026January 13, 2026
by Claire

Happy New Year to you dear listener!

Have you ever felt that familiar January anxiety either because you’re feeling guilty that you don’t have a perfect set of goals for the new year or because you’re second-guessing if your goals are ambitious enough, structured enough, or even the right ones? If that’s you then this episode is for you. (Happens to us every year!)

They say it takes one to know one 😂so as 2026 began, we both wanted to help ourselves (and hopefully help you too) get the year off to a great start.

We got busy on our laptops and in this episode, we share our personal experiments where we used AI to reflect on 2025, as well as help us set meaningful goals for the year ahead.

We road-tested ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.

The results were super interesting . . . and helpful. One model delivered a remarkably accurate summary of Greta’s entire year (likely because she’d used it most consistently), while another coached Claire through building a custom Project that will track her goals throughout 2026.

In this episode we discuss:

The tension between letting AI lead your thinking versus using it as a thought partner
How to set up an AI project (or GPT, Gem etc.) that coaches you through goal-setting
How you can quickly create vision boards and mind maps, and . . .
How AI may just change how you frame and think about your entire year.

Whether you’re a seasoned AI user or just getting started, listen now for practical approaches you can try out right away.

Wishing you an intentional, productive and fulfilling 2026!

Useful Links

Claude – Anthropic’s AI assistant

ChatGPT – OpenAI’s AI assistant (try “show me my year” for your personalised review)

Google Gemini – Google’s AI assistant (find Nano Banana here by looking in the prompt window on the bottom left and clicking on ‘tools’ then choose ‘create images’.“)

Notebook LM – Google’s interesting AI tool that will allow you to create a Mindmap, an audio episode, presentations, flashcards, and many other forms of content from uploaded files. Definitely worth a play.

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

Strategy, AI & Human Judgement – Ross Dawson

September 23, 2025September 25, 2025
by Claire

This week we explore how AI is transforming the way we approach and develop strategy – not just in boardrooms, but in so many of the myriad of decisions businesses and leaders need to make almost daily.

Our guest is Ross Dawson, a globally recognised futurist, keynote speaker, and strategy advisor. Ross is the bestselling author of ‘Thriving on Overload’ and founder of the Humans + AI community. Ross’s clients around the globe have included Google, Microsoft, American Express and Procter & Gamble.

Ross’s work today is focused on what AI can do to augment and support humans in a positive, value-adding way. He neatly combines both the big-picture vision of a futurist and the practical insights of someone experimenting with these tools daily.

What struck us most about this conversation was Ross’s articulation of how AI can be used across four distinct domains of strategy and how he’s observed few organisations have sharp clarity on each of these distinct and important elements. He also shares how AI is prompting forward thinking leaders to think about their strategy development and decision processes in different ways now AI can be injected into the process.

In our conversation, you’ll also hear Ross share:

The technique Ross learned from Nvidia’s CEO for optimising AI outputs using multiple models
Practical examples of AI being used in boardrooms including a unique conversation ‘monitor’
The 2 most important human skills Ross believes we all need in an AI-augmented world, and . . .
How threatened entry-level jobs can be completely reimagined to create value for both the individual and the business.

This is a thought-provoking exploration of how humans and AI can work together to create better strategies and better outcomes, so enjoy this episode with the forward-thinking Ross Dawson.

Useful Links

Ross Dawson’s website

Humans + AI Community

Ross’s book – Thriving on Overload

Interview

Ahead of the AI Curve – Jim Lecinski

September 8, 2025September 9, 2025
by Claire

Imagine you’re a marketing professor who saw the AI revolution coming years before ChatGPT hit the scene, wrote the definitive book on AI marketing in 2021, and now find yourself at the epicentre of one of the most dramatic transformations in history.

This is the very position this week’s guest, Jim Lecinski, finds himself in. Jim is a Clinical Professor of Marketing at Northwestern University’s prestigious Kellogg School of Management, where he teaches AI in Marketing and has won Professor of the Year.

Adding to Jim’s canny foresight is his prior, 13-year career as a VP at Google. As a result, Jim brings both the practitioner’s real-world experience and the academic’s analytical rigour to one of the most important questions facing leaders and marketers today: how do you harness AI not just for efficiency gains, but for genuine competitive advantage and growth?

In our conversation, you’ll also hear about:

Jim’s 2×2 framework for thinking strategically about AI applications in marketing
Use-case examples from brands such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and IKEA where AI is used to revolutionise everything from creative development to customer service
Why businesses need to prepare for the shift from search engine optimisation (SEO) to “generative engine optimisation” (GEO), and what that means practically
The emerging world of AI agents and how this will fundamentally change how we all shop, and
Jim’s essential learning resources for those who want to stay ahead of the curve.

We loved the way Jim shares his own wisdom and insights as well as sharing many examples of what market leaders are actually doing with AI.

We know you’ll enjoy this conversation with the whip-smart professor who saw the AI future ahead of the crowd.

Useful Links

Jim Lecinski on LinkedIn

AI Marketing Association

Marketing AI Institute

Andrew Ng’s AI for Everyone course on Coursera

Interview

Life Inside an AI-Native Success Story – Donna Thomas

August 20, 2025
by Claire

Ever wondered what it’s really like inside one of the world’s fastest-growing AI companies? This week we get unprecedented access to the inner workings of Leonardo AI through their Chief Commercial Officer, Donna Thomas.

Leonardo AI is a Gen AI-powered image and video generator and it’s one of Australia’s AI success stories. It scaled from zero to 19 million users in just two years before being acquired by Canva last year.

At ‘Leo’ as they call it, Donna plays a central role overseeing customer, marketing, sales and enterprise adoption, as Leo charts its evolution from a fast-growing creative AI platform to an enterprise-scale solution.

Donna takes us behind the scenes and shares what hypergrowth feels like from the inside. She says Leo has redefined her understanding of speed itself.

In such a fast moving environment, the challenges of managing and sustaining teams through constant change become critical and Donna shares the specific structures and rituals Leo uses to maintain team stability while moving faster than she’s ever experienced.

In this conversation, you’ll also discover:

The key differences between working at a traditional tech giant versus an AI-native startup and what skills become essential
The “listening muscle” required to synthesise signals from customers, competitors, and tech developments in real-time
Practical strategies for managing and sustaining teams through hypergrowth and hyper-fast work rhythms
Why Leonardo embeds AI across everything from customer service to engineering and HR, and how they manage the complexity of using multiple different AI tools internally; and . . .
Donna’s advice for professionals wanting to become more AI-fluent and free up time for deep work.

Whether you’re curious about life inside a cutting-edge AI company or looking for practical insights on adapting and leading in our rapidly changing work environment, this conversation offers a rare glimpse into how a world-leading AI-native organisation is managing these challenges and opportunities.

Enjoy this episode!

Useful Links

Leonardo AI