Latest / 10X AI with Julius Neil / Why 70% of Your AI Budget Is Being Wasted on the Wrong Thing ft. Ex-Google (Fitbit) Executive
Transcript
- Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Good day everyone, I'm back here at 10xAI with Julius Neil I am here with a special guest who has years of experience in technology and consulting. He used to work in Accenture. His name is Jaison Williams. So Jaison Williams, can you introduce yourself and give us the background for our viewers and listeners right now? Jaison Williams: Yes, hey everybody, thanks for listening. I am Jaison Williams. I am a leader in talent learning, organizational development, culture and engagement. And have a career working at a number of well-known brands this work. As Julius mentioned, I started career at Accenture, but I've also worked at Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, American Express, Fitbit. which is now acquired by Google. was also head of talent for Expedia, Warner Discovery, as well as the Light Solution. So I've been in a number of industries ⁓ doing work, which is my passion. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, So you have a very diverse, you have pharmaceutical, you have entertainment, you also have consulting. So it's ⁓ very good background of So ⁓ currently, so you have talent strategy through multiple tech waves. you have cloud, mobile, digital transformation, what fundamentally feels different about AI right now compared to those shifts. Jaison Williams: Yes, the fundamental difference I think between those technologies and AI was those technologies, I will say, you had to use them because they became the workflow. Right? And so in order to follow the workflow, you had to learn to use them. There was no if, ands buts. difference with AI is a couple of things. ⁓ is ⁓ a level of individual competence that everyone needs, and that varies. And so if I was using an ERP, a certain amount of competence. I'm not a super user, but we had a super user group that you could ask questions to. ⁓ now being in a role where you have to kind of learn it on your own. There's not a super user group that you can ask how to do it. And someone ⁓ doing job could be very well skilled. at writing prompts and doing things better than you. And there's an individual aptitude that drives the impact and effectiveness of how people use AI in the workplace that is not something that really impacted people in the past in the same way. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, do you think this is hype or true inflection point? Jaison Williams: I believe it's an inflection point for a couple of reasons. One is, you know, there are a number of providers from all angles, you know, not just ⁓ the names you That's one. Second is ⁓ every ⁓ platform you in an organization is introducing AI into that platform, which means there's no right? And so those LLMs don't all... think or act the same. Yes, there's some commonality, but if I'm using one application and then moving to another to do work, I've got to change some elements of how I'm interacting with them because it's not standard across. And I think that's introduced a level of complexity. I would also say the pace in which organizations have gone out and bought implemented AI systems is unprecedented. We didn't see organizations, I think as fast, lean into the internet ⁓ internet of things. And I don't think we saw even the adoption of ERP systems or you name it, go as fast as it is now. Before it was who had the money and who was willing to be an early adopter. ⁓ now people are racing to be or organizations are racing to be early adopters. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Why do you think that a lot of organizations now are into the adoption ⁓ What is the real reason behind it? Is it Is it organizational or structural? What do you think is the reason? Why? Jaison Williams: Honestly, my opinion is they don't want to be left behind because it is moving so fast. Before, if was implementing SAP as an example, I could wait to see how worked with my competitors, or I could watch and monitor an organization in a different market to see how it goes. Organizations don't have that time right now. That luxury is gone. And so they need to get it in as quickly as possible. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay. Jaison Williams: Before, ⁓ if I was implementing SAP as an example, I could wait to see how that worked my or I could watch and monitor an organization in a different market see how it goes. Organizations don't have that time right now. That luxury is gone. figure out how to use it. And this year, which I've also written about, is trying to now turn that investment back into some type of tangible ROI. Whether it's revenue, return on invested capital, customer retention, something shows that we haven't just implemented AI, it's actually giving us an organizational benefit that we can quantitatively value. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: So you already mentioned about the return on investment. if an organization is implementing AI, terms of financial, it's very financially it's very expensive. What are the other things that organizations should look at when those organizations who are not yet implementing that because of financial constraints? What are the things that they need to look at besides financial? Jaison Williams: Yeah, there's this model called 10-20-70. It's actually flipping the 70-20-10 and development model ⁓ its head. But the premise of that model is the 10 and 20%, you add that together, that's 30 % of investment towards making AI work is the technology itself. The 70 % is still on people and practices and culture. there's this model called 10-20-70. It's actually flipping the 70-20-10 learning development model ⁓ on head. But the premise of that model is the 10 and 20%, you add that together, that's 30 % of investment towards making AI work is the technology itself. The 70 % is still on people and practices and culture. In my opinion, all companies are not approaching that 70 % with the fervor that is needed. An example would be, made AI training available for individuals in our company. That's great, but that has not gotten to the level of how does my ⁓ change? What workflows now should be different? know, have we been able to now quantify what work should be automated, what work requires a human to do it with an agent, and what work is solely in the purview of just human creativity. And I think that 70 % ⁓ is really where the challenge is. And the last part I'll mention, it's just kind of the leadership alignment in terms of the vision that they're casting and then the operational execution. Many times senior leadership, they've got a vision that's out, and it's far ahead of what the operational reality is in the company. And so that takes intentionality. Again, it's part of that 70%, but we also need organizations to start being focused on what are the levers that are gonna bridge the gap between that executive vision and then that on the ground operational execution in the day-to-day lives of their employees. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: So you mentioned about leadership, that is a very, in my previous podcast, it's already an ⁓ about leadership. they ⁓ AI as a technology-driven projects or ⁓ but in reality, it's like what you said, it's 70 % people. But the only ⁓ is the people who going to be trained for this, they're also fearful or scared about implementing AI in their work or task. So because they're thinking maybe they're going to get... laid off in the future. So if AI is going to automate tasks rather than jobs, so what do you think should be the talent strategy in a world where roles are constantly changing? Jaison Williams: Yes, this is I think the million dollar question. I would start by saying. Don't be scared of AI. And the reason I'm gonna say don't be scared of AI, because it's everywhere. It's not just in work. It's on your phone. It's in the apps in your phones. When you call your bank or utility company, AI is being used to screen and route your phone calls. So it's actually pervasive in life. So you actually can't hide from it. ⁓ would suggest leaning into it and a of things. ⁓ One is out how are you good at using it? Because you've got to build some skill and also some self-confidence. So that is number one. Two, ⁓ you look at the work that you do, everybody has elements of work that they don't like doing or they wish could get done faster. How can you or your team or whoever is really good at writing prompts or creating an agent help to... ⁓ figure out, ⁓ let's automate this. These are areas where you need to figure out how to work with AI to get to work done. how can you ⁓ out the most valuable work for where you can be creative, where you can use experience, where you can use collaborative partnerships with ⁓ team members from across the company ⁓ get it done? ⁓ don't think you'll ever be able to... ⁓ do enough to allow yourself to potentially be laid off if an organization has made that decision, right? Because there are different factors that go into that decision. But I do believe that you can make yourself the most impactful, the most efficient, and one that is demonstrating value if you the time to learn it and figure out what are the right applications for and your team. And actually, believe it's probably better to do it at a team level than just at an individual level, because at an individual level, you're alone. At a team level, you have community, you have camaraderie, and collectively, most teams are gold against kind of the same objectives or outcomes that they need to deliver. So if you work it as a team, I think that makes you a bit stronger. And lastly, Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Ha ha ha. Jaison Williams: It is very possible to a new skill or capability that you have that could take you in a different direction in your career. And so I don't think we've got enough examples of that happening, because right now everybody's just trying to learn how to use it in their current work. But I do believe that we'll start to unlock other opportunities, and ⁓ just have to figure out where do those lead you in terms of a career. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Do think the companies are underestimating how much AI adoption is a culture problem rather than technology problem? Jaison Williams: Absolutely. was talking to an leader the other day and she telling me, Jaison, it's still the old adage of, know, what is What's the number? Is it 70 % of change efforts fail, right? ⁓ there's not enough emphasis on moving people through the different of upskilling ⁓ you know, teaching leadership new behaviors. I mean, all the elements of culture, ⁓ I are things that need to either be tweaked or ⁓ in age, especially since we don't know what the next five, you know, where we're going to be in the next five years, but we are anticipating that AI is going to continue to. grow and change things in an unprecedented way. we have to start having more of a forward looking element to our culture, to ⁓ to we think about work in our organizations to begin to the culture now so that it's at a place of sustainability in the next three to five years. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: So there are also, asked a lot of people about their organizations and there are also organizations like what we are talking about, are already, you know, early adopters, they wanted to implement AI. But there are also, you know, who are not yet adopting or they're still wait and see. So what can you say about those organizations who are just not even started or not even in their plan, ⁓ or implementing AI transformation? Jaison Williams: Mm-hmm. So I think there's actually the element of an advantage here depending how you view it. Because let's a mid-sized company. Let's just say there's a company of 10,000 people and they're spread across 13 countries. Driving change at that scale around AI, just like any other change, is a massive undertaking. In that organization, let's say they've invested in AI technology and their current vendor partners have AI features to the platforms they already have. So you've already got a complexity in terms of making that transition. However, a company that's slow to adopt could just say, you what, ⁓ we've three core platforms. ⁓ You I'll make these up Workday, ServiceNow, Slack may not be a good example, but I'll throw it in there. ⁓ If of those providers have ⁓ added elements, let's just focus on getting good at what's in the tools we're already using. Let's not think about this at an enterprise wide level. Let's start working on it at a job and team level. ⁓ I they will have a little bit of an easier path. because they are approaching it in a slower but contextual driven change approach, right? Which is how does this change the work that I do? How does this change what we're trying to achieve on our team as opposed to what's the top down imperative that everybody in the organization is trying to go after. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: So yeah, that's, I agree with that. But currently, for example, in an organization, there are two things that having, you know, they are implementing. Like for example, they wanted to have a high performance team. And then at the same time, because AI, there's also future ready workforce. So how do you, how would you identify both? Is it intersection of the future workforce or is it? Jaison Williams: Yes. Mm-hmm. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Only high performance or is it future ready? Because when you implement high performance projects, it's a little different from AI, right? So what do you think about it? Jaison Williams: think it's two different, maybe three different things, right? So I'll with the third. The overall goal is to get to a high performance culture, right? So that's the high level goal. Part of that is driven by, we have performing leadership teams? Do those teams exhibit high performing behaviors that can be replicated by the teams and individuals that report to them? Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Jaison Williams: That is a practice that I believe needs to be facilitated by a human, right? Someone who can observe, coach, provide feedback. Yes, you may use some frameworks. Yes, you may use 360 feedback assessments as part of that process, but in order to become high performing, it's something that I believe you need to be counseled through. And As you start to make improvements, you should start to see other examples of that show up the parts of the organization that report up into that team. ⁓ So one, and that's a project that can take. 12 months, 18 months, it depends on where the team is starting. And that was one of the things that me and my team did at Accenture, not Accenture, Accenture, sorry, at Expedia, is that we were working with the C-suite teams to help those leaders become high performing. So then there could become a cascading effect, because most organizations are look up, I look up, I see what the leaders are doing. Are they doing good? Are they doing poor behaviors? We want the good behaviors replicated. On the other side is future of work. That is more of a process that I think can be AI enabled, but there are definitely steps that need to happen in your talent and workforce strategy to get there. One is some level of workforce planning. And is that a skills-based approach to workforce planning as opposed to doing head count? It's the approach that I would suggest. being able to align where the business is trying to go with the skills that are needed, the roles that are most critical for those skills, and then working backwards through to how many actual people do we need, how do you segment that work, what can be automated, what can be augmented, or what purely needs to stay human? And what's the development or upskilling that occurs, you know, and also to ensure that there's a future ready workforce. also how does that ⁓ upline impact the recruitment of external talent? You know, if you don't have the ability to get that those pulls from within your organization. So I think it's it's ⁓ two ⁓ One you have to keep working on the high performance and effectiveness the leadership teams. The other is for the future ready workforce. I say you know, kind of human and AI workforce planning that's based on a skills architecture. And the combination of those two things will start to move the needle towards a high performance culture overall. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: How do you see a future ready workforce in maybe 5 to 10 years? Or even 2 to 3 years? Because of the fast phase of advancement. Jaison Williams: I had a premise a number of years ago that has not yet come true. It's come true in the fact that we have a gig economy, but that gig economy is largely through services. And so I would reframe that idea, which is in the age of AI, we have a greater ability to get to a point where people become gig workers, particularly for work that is Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Jaison Williams: Seasonal is the only word that comes to mind, but let's just think about, work in finance and we know we have to do quarterly results because we're a public company and close the books. Maybe my gig is I just rotate from company to company and help them close the books either at the end of the quarter or end of the year. I think, know, gigs within an organization are going to... significantly rise. Similar to how I started my career in consulting, what happens if you moved around an organization on your skill set and what projects needed you? ⁓ that is a way I feel that we will start to see a shift. Secondly, is organizational structure is likely to change over time from a pyramid shape to something maybe that's more akin to a diamond ⁓ as there may be fewer entry-level roles. The middle of the organization may swell a bit, but I think that's where we will see a lot of internal mobility and people working on multiple projects and maybe staying less departmentally siloed. And it's their technical skill and capability that ⁓ allows them to move across the organization. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, there's one guest that I had like four weeks ago ⁓ he said that it was a different take about the middle management. He said that the middle management, because of AI, AI can analyze ⁓ lot of things for the middle managers, that the middle management will disappear. But on your analysis, which is the diamond structure, the middle will be a little bit bloated. So what can you say about that take from his side? Jaison Williams: Mm-hmm. Yeah, well, talked about the role of the manager. I didn't explicitly call out the role of the manager because ⁓ going to be a couple of different approaches at stake. So if I'm just working on a project, maybe I have a project manager. That project manager could be a human, that project manager could be a Gentic AI, right? So... Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay. Okay. Jaison Williams: that's going to be a big shift in of itself. How does a human now become the direct employee or team member of an automated agent as opposed to a human? I we have to, we have to, even as look over the next couple of years, we have to be mindful that there are some psychological changes that are going to have to happen as part of that. And so maybe we'll see more pods emerge and the role of a manager is more of a community manager. Think about companies who have community managers that organize their clients in groups, or what they call them, like a success manager. We may see managers move into more advisory and supportive and community engagement type roles as opposed to... I just lead a team of X amount of people. And again, that's because there will be some that will be choir human managers and there'll be some that will be managed, sad to say it, but by an agent. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: yeah, that's a good thing. Yeah, it can be it can be it can be now again because some people are already like for example the solopreneurs or just one man or one woman CEO they have this agents already looking that they have this in c-suite level they have these agents that's helping them with the decision making and day-to-day and the daily work so as in a corporate setting so we have already talked about in this is ⁓ be having an agent so how should leaders sitting performance management when ai tools are quietly doing 30 to 50 percent of the ⁓ knowledge work you know what i mean Jaison Williams: Mm-hmm, yes. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: right? So if AI can analyze things for you, are we going to have this performance? How are we going to align with the KPIs based on his or her work job when in just a few seconds he or she have already this data? Jaison Williams: Yes, no, I think about this. This is one of the questions I wrestle with and I've wanted to write an article and I've been struggling sometimes to land on a core thesis to write the article on. So a couple of things. ⁓ is ⁓ talked to ⁓ colleagues recently through this past performance cycle and they said, AI wrote my performance reviews. It was great. ⁓ saved me so much time. And I'm like, Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. Jaison Williams: That's fine. mean, depending on the manager, they can spend one minute on a performance review. They can spend an hour on a performance review, right? It just depends on the individual. But that's actually not been the problem, right? The problem has been actually then having the conversation with the employee, planning development, keeping them engaged, having better alignment between they were assessed. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. Jaison Williams: and how they are incentivized in terms of reward and So those things still have not been fully solved for. But I think ⁓ monkey wrench for me that performance management going forward so challenging is the fact that if I have a team of five people, I may have two that are highly proficient at using AI. And so they are getting, let's say, more work done, they are demonstrating more efficiency than the other three people, but it's because of their individual intelligence and capability, because they're not trying hard. And so ⁓ do you then view performance through a lens ⁓ they got more work done because they're better at using AI, but the other people were trying hard, but they're just not as good at using AI? I think that's going to be, you know, one of the key challenges that leaders are going or managers are going to have to wrestle with. And then what does incentive look like when now part of the work is done by an agent and part of the work is done by a human or I'm a manager and I'm managing a team of agents, not humans. All right, so there going to be a few, know, maybe we can boil it down to Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. Jaison Williams: you know, three to five kind of core scenarios we'll need to start planning for and then ⁓ able to take a step back and maybe just blow up the design of performance management and say going forward, how do we think we need to assess value ⁓ of contribution to the organization? But it's a hard, it's a hard question. ⁓ Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, it's also, I know, it's an interesting question. It's also connected with, example, ⁓ example, two people who ⁓ more AI fluent, right? They have this ⁓ good prompt engineering and then the other guys are doing the other works. And how are you going to structure their salary? For example, because you know in HR we have salary grade if they're all engineer one, for example And these guys are not very good at prompt engineering and the prompt engineering guys are very good at what they're doing And then these guys were saying okay, we're very good at technically but how come our salary is the same? Do you think there will be a terriblm? Jaison Williams: Yes. Right? It's like driving, right? You can pass the test to get a driver's license. You can drive on the road, but everyone who drives, are some who are really good and maybe they become Formula One drivers, right? But average they can be good enough. Maybe they don't get in any accidents. They don't get any speeding tickets. But, you know, Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Ha ha! Jaison Williams: how do insurance companies then compare and contrast the goodness of drivers? And so they are actually trying to use more data by giving you plugs into your car so they can see, are you speeding more? Are you coming to hard stops? And so maybe there will be some. new approach to identifying and tracking performance value that will help us. And maybe also I think the name. I think we will probably need to shift away from performance management. Is it performance activation? Is it performance engagement enablement? But I think some other terminology needs to also lead the way with this shift. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, yeah. So if, for example, if AI becomes a coworker, like what we are talking about, what we are discussing right now, so not just as tool. So how does that change accountability and ownership? Who gets credit on who gets the blame? Or this? Jaison Williams: Well... That's a, that's... Who gets the credit and who gets the blame? I think there's opportunity. one is, you know, many organizations are training people to get to some level of AI fluency. I think there will need to be an organizational baseline that companies have. And so this is the standard. If you can't pass that standard, maybe you can't work here because we need everyone to be able to reach that standard in terms of AI fluency. I think that's number one. I think two, Depending on the work that you are doing or your team is doing in an organization, may need to think about is work value differently so that you can better reward the value that work is delivering. So for example, maybe if you are, you know, helping create launch products, that your customers use on the amount of use, maybe that drives a higher type of reward structure versus, ⁓ know I'm gonna get in trouble for probably saying some example, but you know, a wellness program, right? ⁓ There's different of organizational value on ⁓ those two of work. And so maybe we start to think about how do we Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Jaison Williams: bucket and group work, we still have salary bands, but maybe the variable becomes ⁓ bonus level, RSUs if you're giving RSUs. And we would also then have to do from a learning standpoint is offer the opportunity to evaluate themselves on other skills. So if they wanted to move to a higher value add area. there's the ability to understand where am I starting from, what's my gap, and what are some personalized recommendations in terms of both formal learning and hands-on experience that can help me start to shift there. But that's a hypothesis, but I mean, it seems plausible because also some of that work will go away. At some point in the same way that the agents have, you may have recently heard this, created their own social media platform. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, just recently, yeah. Jaison Williams: Right, so you can imagine that maybe some will get together and go, we're gonna create a wellness marketplace. so no longer have to dedicate a human towards finding wellness ⁓ or plans for an organization. So then it's how do we turn those individuals based on their skill and capability to higher value work. That may also free up some capital in the company as well ⁓ to to sustain. ⁓ a reward salaries in an organization because the lower work has become automated, so the cost is fractional. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Have you, in your experience, have you seen an AI adoption damage trust internally? Jaison Williams: Wow. I don't think I've got an example of it damaging trust. I think the damage that I see right now not specifically AI. It is the impact of AI. So let me explain what I mean. A lot of well-known have spent a on AI and have started laying off people. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yes. Yeah. Jaison Williams: and have started eliminating roles. And I think we're going through this process and it's still happening right now is where organizations are making tech first decisions. They are not making decisions that are in ⁓ human And not that it has to be 50-50, ⁓ but it's hard right now to see where the human element is. ⁓ We're all and now you're saying, We told you we need computer scientists. You go get a degree in computer science and now you can't get a job, right? Where's the love for humanity? And I think that's the disruption and trust that we're seeing, not the technology itself. It's been the reaction of leaders. And so, you I wanna be involved in how do we start to ⁓ and organizations start to move more towards Maybe it's a blend, know, human plus tech, you know, maybe we can get to a 60-40 or 55-45 split where it's, you know, a little bit more on the humane side and not completely being driven by tech for decisions that impact people. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: You Yeah, so on to, you know, because we're talking about, you talk about the tech first, because this is a leadership decision that they see AI as a tech first. So what new leadership capabilities become non-negotiable ⁓ an AI first organization? Jaison Williams: Mm-hmm. And an AI first organization, empathy needs to ⁓ higher on the list because humans. are made created to do some type of labor. Even recently there was the video of the tribe in the Amazon, I believe, that was taken. They don't have technology, they have pay, but they are laboring in order to live and survive. ⁓ I that's a core element that ⁓ needs be moved up higher. the leadership rung in the age of AI. I also say that adaptability or agility ⁓ needs to moved up. We're asking a lot ⁓ of ⁓ right to learn and adopt a lot of new things ⁓ now, specifically regards to AI. But again, I mentioned it's ubiquitous through life. I they're talking about you won't have to drive anymore, there'll be autonomous cars. So you can't drive, your food gets delivered by a drone, these things, your children are being taught by an agent, all of these things are changing. So it's not just a work change, it's a fundamental ⁓ change. And so I think people who are thinking about others' agility and ability to manage Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Hahaha. Yeah. Jaison Williams: ⁓ through all of this complexity. think that needs to be higher on the list as well. And if I could pick one more. I would just say. you know, either values or community. I don't, we all have to coexist together, whether it's at work or outside of work. And I think leaders need to also think about what type of community or village am I forming, leading, care of. And so the empathy and agility fall that. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, so you already mentioned about, you know, and then, you know, diversity and then, so currently right now, a lot of organizations, even though we're always talking about inclusion, we're always talking about diversity and ethics, a lot of organizations are still struggling to do that, to have this equality ⁓ inclusion. So as AI promises objectivity, for example, in hiring, but we know algorithms have inherent bias in it. So in your view, is it more likely to reduce? Jaison Williams: Mm-hmm. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: or amplify inequality. Jaison Williams: I think it's going to amplify inequality. Let's go back to the example ⁓ ⁓ ⁓ differences their ability to use AI. So if I'm applying for a job, right, if I'm really good ⁓ at AI, I can figure out what are the triggers for an ATS to read. My resume or my CV moves higher in the list. of talent being considered, right? That doesn't help in terms of, you know, a diverse and inclusiveness because it boils down to capability. There are still going to be based on relationship, right? I know someone in the organization, I know someone in leadership and that connection bumps you up. And I don't think that's something that AI can override. right, because a human is going to advocate for a human no matter what technology ⁓ platform says. And I'm to ⁓ go a limb here, but I think, and actually I see this right now. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. Jaison Williams: Technology on our senses. Let me give you an example. When I turn on Netflix on my television and says, are your suggested shows. I'm a black African-American. I see a lot of snippets from that show me the black person in the show. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Jaison Williams: and say, maybe I watched the show and that it's an hour long show, but that person's only in the show for three minutes. What the AI and machine learning did was it figured out somehow my racial ethnic identity and it played on that to get me to watch a show. So that goes to your point of there's bias built into the system. gonna take human ⁓ creativity ⁓ be able to unravel those things in order for inclusive and diverse ⁓ to be able to flourish. People are going to have to be intentional. And I don't think that's something that we can just hand over to AI to I think we're still going to targeted ⁓ outreach, targeted and different types of efforts to ensure that we've got good representation from females, that we've got good representation across racial, religious, socioeconomic areas. And also, ⁓ live in a global environment, right? We live in a global world. How organizations can be successful if they don't have perspectives at minimum from the major continents or populations around the world? Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, yeah, so I agree with this. I asked this because when I was in Sweden, have this, it's a startup, a big startup, European-supported startup in a battery industry. And we have around 110, 170 nationalities in that company. And we are very, very diverse. And I was so surprised that all of us, whatever you're Asian, American, Swedish, or from Iceland or whatever, we think the same. know, the division, we all believe in division and we you know, leaving the values. ⁓ that's why it's the first time in my whole career that I have seen that 80 to 90 percent of the people are so homogeneous that they think the same. You know, the values are the same. you know the the personality is almost the same so even if you're talking with polish or some you know english it's the same you know every every so i thought that okay their talent acquisition team is very very good Jaison Williams: Yes. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Because like for example, in Asian, we have some Malaysians too, we have some Indonesian and different religions and we are, you know, it's like a culture, melting pot of culture in that organization. That's why I was so surprised about it. then now I was thinking if ⁓ ⁓ is going to filter out these people, because I believe that the reason why they were able to filter out these people because they were able to talk to them, you know, like this. We talk, you feel, okay, this guy is a culture fit. ⁓ Jaison Williams: Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: what do you think? How do ⁓ ensure AI doesn't quietly encode cultural beat bias at scale? Jaison Williams: Yeah. So one of the things I learned when I was leading and actually I started working with a design is figuring out how to design for inclusion and diversity from the beginning, as opposed to making it an add-on. There's likely someone working an LLM that is targeted towards for inclusion from the beginning. Maybe it's designing a workforce for inclusion from the beginning. Maybe it's designing a marketing strategy for inclusion from the beginning. I think it's probably going to take first a customized LLM that's focused on, you know, diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, kind of ⁓ all those things. And hopefully that will start to gain some traction and become as maybe the wrong word, but the only word I can think of, ⁓ it becomes part of major ⁓ language models. So then it doesn't just exist as a separate platform, but starts to permeate the AI ecosystems of organizations. So it shows up in all the functional ⁓ and is an influencer on the work. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: So you work also in Warner Brothers Discovery, so PG Entertainment. So in entertainment, where know this, right? Where creativity is everything. So now you see this AI now is doing a lot of good ⁓ or creative designs and all this, even cloning Hollywood stars. So do you see AI's creative amplifier a threat to human originality? Jaison Williams: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's a threat. And the reason I tell you this is we have a friend who writes movies, television shows, and what she has been saying to us for the past, you know, at least two years, if not three years, that there's a formula now. And, you know, the companies look for does the story fit into the formula? And it's because they have data. And so they're less interested in ideas that break from the formula because the formula has a track record. But what that does is it does stymie creativity and what it forces. fortunately, we've got some examples of where it's led to success, ⁓ I think it's now getting harder is that forces those creative people. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Jaison Williams: to YouTube, it forces them to TikTok, those Instagram, those are also very saturated social spaces. So they really have to get a mass following to shine. So I do think in the near term, ⁓ it is to degrade some elements of ⁓ creativity, at least what we consume in terms of music. know, television shows, maybe even, you know, news writing. But my hope is that those individuals won't take no for an answer and they'll use one of these other platforms and they'll cultivate an audience until it gets to a point where, ⁓ know, the ⁓ companies cannot ignore it they have to embrace it and adopt it. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: nailed it right that it's already there. They cannot avoid it anymore. So how should companies protect creative talent while still leveraging generative AI for efficiency? in the entertainment industry, I Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jaison Williams: Create? Oh, in an entertainment industry. I mean, I think creative talent, let me back up. Humans understand humans the best. I don't think that while technology can give you data, it doesn't create anything that is completely new because it works from a factual set of data. We're as humans, you and I can talk and we can come up with an idea that neither you nor I thought of, right? And then we can whiteboard that out and figure out what to do with it. I don't think anything replaces that. And so maybe what are doing more of ⁓ helping creatives to nurture their creativity together kind of technology free. And then bringing in technology when it's time to further that idea, know, turn it into a script to write a pitch document, you know, those things, and then it can help you button it up. But I don't think that technology understands humans better than humans do. And so I want to just continue to nurture. creatives and also I'm going to go back because you asked me question about leadership, the creativity and the value of creativity is something that leaders really need to Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. Jaison Williams: better, more strongly focus on. Because it's not just what do we think is creative with technology. Humans have continued to show that we create, invent new ways, new ideas all the time that have revolutionized the workplace, that have also revolutionized our lives. And so that's where it would start. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: in the near future do you think there will be because right now we have this generative AI and there are AI avatars that if you even if you have a if you have a business you don't want to talk to your customers or you have you want to create a video you can just select you know the faces of your company so do think there will be a new industry like an AI Hollywood where the movie stars you know the movie stars are created you know they don't even exist but it was created by AI Jaison Williams: Mm-hmm. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: They are beautiful, perfect, know, handsome. You know what I mean, right? You know what I mean. Jaison Williams: Yeah, I do. I do. While I don't feel I'm qualified to answer this question, I will say that there have been one, maybe there were more, but ⁓ year ⁓ was a musical artist that was completely AI that was generated. You can Google this. The had songs on the radio, they had a name, they had a social media following. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: You Jaison Williams: and people found out it was completely AI generated. There's two camps here. think there's gonna be one camp that rejects it and says, no, I want humans. Why do I wanna look at a screen and see something that is completely fake? And there will be others who will be open to it. I think ⁓ I don't know that we'll get past those two things, but I think that ⁓ where we land. And ⁓ I what you said also has huge implications for, ⁓ you Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Jaison Williams: your next manager is going to be an agent. If your next manager is going to be an agent, do you just wanna interface with that in a text-based interface? Or you prefer an avatar to give you some semblance of I'm talking to a person though you're not? I think some of those human senses are going to demand. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. Jaison Williams: that we adopt some of those techniques within organizations we become more reliant on tools to enable us to work and perform successfully. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: So if you are, for example, if you are going to advise a CEO or CHRO, so one piece of advice about leading through AI era, what would it be? Right now. Jaison Williams: My first piece of advice would be manager, so not leadership. Talking about the average manager who has ⁓ people on his team. That where you need to spend time to drive true adoption ⁓ and of AI. Because that's where the rubber meets the road between what we need to deliver and how we get it done. And unless are helping managers cope with that complex change and how they need to do their work, you know, re-evaluating, rewriting their roles, taking some things off their plate, because we've put a lot of things on their plate, and helping ensure they have the right both capability with AI that they can coach and if they can't, where can they go? ⁓ think that's going to be the biggest piece because that's also where community and the feeling of belonging starts within companies is how do I feel with my manager? Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Correct. Yeah, so thank you for that. So we are now moving on to the last round, which is the Rapid 10X. So I'm going to ask you, going to thank you very much for all the insightful. It's very a new take. I learned a lot from you. I like our conversation because we dealt into different parts of the conversation, which I haven't had the conversation before. So I was very, very insightful and I'm glad that you were here, but we are moving on to the last part. It's almost an hour now because of our discussion is too exciting and too Jaison Williams: Okay. Okay. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: interesting in discussion so I'm going to ask you 10 questions about your personal personal view about AI. So what's one AI tool you actually use every day? Jaison Williams: I use Gemini every day. I've created gems and two, gems are kind of agents, but I've actually created two apps, although I'm struggling to actually get them to work. They seem to be created correctly, but I use ⁓ Gemini every single day. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: huh. Okay, so what's one task AI has already 10x'd in your life? Jaison Williams: My ability to, I've been writing a series on AI and talent strategy since last year. It has really helped me synthesize lot of articles, research, so I don't have to spend as much time doing it. I can drive the core idea. I can find a couple articles in the research. So it helps me with that. And it has helped me with. formulating, I'd say, a cohesive around main thesis that still includes me. Because I try to write mainly from ⁓ this my experience with AI opposed to this is what I think about AI. So that has helped me tremendously. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, what's one human skill AI can ever replace? Jaison Williams: One skill. Oh gosh, I don't even know how to quantify the skill. Love is not a skill. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jaison Williams: one skill that AI cannot ⁓ I'm going to say, you know, effective communication. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: So if you could automate one annoying thing forever, what would it be? Jaison Williams: me, I know this is going to not sit well with a lot of people. We have a dog and I don't like walking the dog. If there was a way to automate walking the dog, that would be fantastic. And picking up the poop. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Ha ha ha ha. what's the biggest misconception about AI right now? Jaison Williams: I'm go back to what I said before. There's an assumption that everybody can use AI well or equally well. And I think that is a big misconception. And we're going to continue to see going to be broad differences in people's capability with it. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, what advice would you give someone who wants to be 10x starting today? Jaison Williams: In order to be 10x starting today, identify the two to three things, because it's not going to be more than that, two to three things that you are so both passionate and skilled at, that to not do them would make you sad and figure out how AI can help you in each of those areas. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: would you tell your younger self about the future? Jaison Williams: It is not like you thought it would be watching Buck Rogers. So growing up, you know, we thought by this time we would have flying cars and, you know, super walkie talkies ⁓ that it's not going to be that way. But what I, gosh, what I would have said is... Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. ⁓ Mm-hmm. Jaison Williams: I took a class in C++ in graduate school. I think I got a C. I probably would have told myself, keep trying. ⁓ Keep trying and understanding how to write some code because although now we can talk to AI conversationally, I do think there's some deeper level understanding. Think of like an if then loop or something that Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Jaison Williams: can help accelerate your capability. And so if I told my older self, I'd probably say, I know you didn't do as great in that C++ class, but maybe take another class in a ⁓ programming language and just try again. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: So what's one book, podcast, or resource that shaped your thinking about AI or innovation? Jaison Williams: I would just say I'm... I'm a person with a lot of high goals. And so things change, I try to adapt quickly and set high expectations for how I'll do the thing that changed at a higher level. So ⁓ not a book, just... Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. personal motivation or your, know, right? Yeah. If you had to bet on one AI trend that will be massive in three years, what is it? Jaison Williams: Yes, personal motivation. I think self-driving cars. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Hmm. I think it's gonna happen. Yeah. I think it's gonna. Yeah. Jaison Williams: It's gonna happen. I think the rub is that people like, I like driving my car. So I think we'll just have to figure it out. You know, I don't know that it takes over, but I think we're gonna be very, very close. And I like the idea of it, especially every time you hear about it and an accident, I think everyone, and especially one that is fatal, everyone's heart churns, you know, imagine something that happens all over the world. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Ha Mm-hmm. Jaison Williams: having a higher likelihood of decreasing the probability accidents while driving. autonomous driving. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, okay. in one sentence, what does 10x mean to you personally? Jaison Williams: means to me, it's mindset at the most exponential level. So there's probably only one thing in life that, or maybe two things in life that I'll be able to ⁓ 10X, but is because there are where my growth mindset is just, I'll call it exponential or extreme, meaning I'm willing to keep going the extra distance ⁓ because I'm ⁓ you know. connected to it, passionate about it, love what it is. I think that the combination of those two, the growth mindset and just kind of the exponential effort is the 10X unlock. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Thank you very much for that insightful rapid 10x fire. And if our viewers or our listeners wanted to talk to you about anything about AI or other consulting things that they wanted to ask you. So how do they connect with you? Jaison Williams: Mm-hmm. wow. So on X, am at talent chief on X C H I E F all one word. And then on you can me Jaison Williams, Jaison is spelled J A I S O N. And if you probably just type in Jaison Williams Fitbit, you will get me. ⁓ Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Ha ha ha! Alright, thank you very much for that insightful. It's over one hour now, so I don't usually go over one hour, but I wanted to ask a lot of questions for you, but it's already one hour, so I wanted to cap it to one So it's very interesting. I'm very happy that you graced event now and this activity that we have, this conversation. I learned a lot from you, and I hope our viewers also, or our listeners will also learn a lot from you. ⁓ Jaison Williams: Awesome.