Latest / King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights / How Founders Build AI First Organizations and Partner with Machines + Steve Brown

Transcript

How Founders Build AI First Organizations and Partner with Machines + Steve Brown · King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights

0:00
The final step is where you stop thinking about how do we use AI
0:05
and instead you ask the question, how do we build the
0:08
entire organisation around AI at the centre?
0:11
How do you put AI? Make the AI the engine of your
0:14
business. That doesn't mean that you're
0:15
replacing people. It means you wrap people around
0:19
that engine and they are there to steer and guide it, oversee
0:22
it. And if you can do that, that
0:24
unlocks so much potential instead of thinking, well, I'm
0:27
going to grow my business by 15% next year or 20% or 25% now you
0:33
can say I'm going to grow my business 100 percent, 1000% next
0:37
year. Because by using AI at the core
0:40
of your business, you're able to collapse the constraints of time
0:44
and money and re reimagine how you go to market so you can
0:49
start playing a different game than your competitors.
0:51
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1:36
Ladies and gentlemen, you once again welcome to the Kingdom's
1:39
podcast and diary of a CFO. And today I've got will be a
1:43
very, very special guest fighting out of Portland OR
1:49
Mcwalkin. This team, I feel like I'm about
1:56
to get a. Piercing match with an
1:58
introduction like that. Yeah, that is a fear that that
2:00
is a Bruce Buffer introduction in the UFC.
2:03
So I'm a very, very deep fan of the UFC and, you know,
2:06
interesting, you know, growing up in Nigeria when I was
2:09
younger, a lot of people thought, oh, we're competing
2:12
this one because I was a skinny kid and then I took to martial
2:16
arts to learn self defence. And also interestingly, you've
2:20
had world champions in boxing and MMA on on the podcast as
2:25
well. So OK, we also now we have a
2:28
champion in, in, in the AI space and a champion futurist.
2:32
So sit back while I read your introduction.
2:36
So true, Ladies and gentlemen, today's guest is someone who
2:40
doesn't just talk about the future.
2:42
He helps leaders build it. Steve Brown is a globally
2:46
recognised AI futurist and formerly tech teacher Google,
2:50
DeepMind and Intel. He is one of the most trusting
2:54
voices guiding organisations through the Intelligence age.
2:58
But over 25 years at the forefront of technology and
3:02
innovation, Steve has advised Fortune 100 companies,
3:06
governments, and global brands on how to turn artificial
3:10
intelligence into real competitive advantage.
3:14
What makes Steve different is simple.
3:16
He does not deal in hype. He delivers clarity.
3:20
He translates complex AI into practical strategy that leaders
3:25
can actually use to grow, scale, and stay relevant.
3:28
In this conversation, we go beyond buzzwords.
3:32
We break down what AI really means with your instance, your
3:36
career, and your future. Steve Brown, welcome again to
3:41
the podcast. Wow, thank you.
3:44
That was a mark. Happy to be here you're.
3:46
Welcome. You're welcome.
3:47
That's. Quite the intro, yeah.
3:50
Of course, your career is a globe fool actually, so you
3:54
deserve it. In my country, Nigeria would say
3:56
give honour to whom honour is due.
3:58
And of course, you know it's very nice.
4:00
Earned the stripes, you've earned the stripes.
4:02
So let's actually go to the origin story and of course, you
4:07
know the mindset. You've actually worked at the
4:11
highest levels of AI innovation. Please take us back to the
4:14
beginning. What just pulled you into this
4:17
space? Back to the beginning, I've been
4:19
fascinated by technology in the future since I was a little boy.
4:23
My dad was a university lecturer in the 70s.
4:27
I'm an age myself here and he would bring computers home from
4:30
the office, from university and I got to play with them.
4:34
You know, kids play with computers when they're quite
4:36
young now, but that back then that was a bit unusual for a 10
4:40
year old to be, you know, playing around with computers.
4:42
And I could see then they were going to change the world.
4:44
And I've been fascinated with them ever since.
4:46
I got a couple of degrees to learn how to make them, how to
4:49
build them. So there was a time when I could
4:51
design computer chips and motherboards and and write
4:54
software. I don't do any of that now, but
4:56
I've just been fascinated by the future and had a future
4:58
orientation my entire life, and particularly the intersection of
5:03
technology and culture. How does technology change the
5:06
way we live our lives? What does it make possible and
5:09
what do people want from technology in the future?
5:11
So I became one of Intel's two futurists.
5:14
So thinking about what the world's going to be like 5-10
5:17
and 15 years out from here. I was with Intel until 2016 and
5:23
then I I realised as one of Intel's two futurists that Intel
5:26
had a bit of a bleak future. Things were going to get
5:29
difficult there for a while. So I part a company with Intel
5:32
and started out as an independent and I've been
5:35
helping businesses to figure out how is technology going to shape
5:40
their future And now more specifically, how is AI going to
5:43
shape their future and how will they use that to become AI first
5:46
organisations. And I took a little detour on
5:49
the way. I got to do an assignment in
5:52
London. I live on the West Coast as you
5:53
mentioned, but I went back to London and recharged my British
5:56
accent and worked for Google DeepMind for a bit.
5:59
DeepMind is Google's AI research labs based in London and one of
6:02
the roles I had for them was also as their in house futurist.
6:05
So that's. Far amazing, amazing, amazing.
6:09
But you know at what moment or what was that aha moment that
6:14
you realise that AI was not just another technology but a
6:18
defining source for the future? You know, I wrote a book in 19
6:23
and it was called The Innovation Ultimatum and it was about 6
6:27
technologies and how they were going to reshape the world of
6:30
business. And the biggest and the 1st
6:32
chapter was AI because I realised that was, you know,
6:35
outsized difference. But I would say it became really
6:39
crystal clear for me when I was at Deep Mind in 2021, and I had
6:44
early access to some of the stuff that they were building
6:47
there. So I got to see the Google
6:49
equivalent of ChatGPT before ChatGPT came out in the world in
6:54
November 22. And was just blown away by what
6:57
large language models could do and the potential there.
7:00
And you know, my future's brain just shot forward and I thought
7:04
this is going to change everything about the way we do
7:06
work, the way that people live their lives.
7:08
That was probably the big aha moment.
7:10
AI has been around for 15 plus years.
7:13
It's not like this is new new. It just it had an A smaller
7:17
impact. Let's say it's been there to
7:19
optimise the back offices of global business for 15 years.
7:24
And it, you know, does patent matching and sorts data.
7:27
But it was really that breakthrough with generative AI
7:30
that that made me wake up and realise, oh, we're going to have
7:33
digital employees in our lives. Robots are actually going to be
7:36
a thing in my lifetime. This is going to change
7:38
everything. The Gentek AI in the speed of
7:42
the British culture as have a cup of tea.
7:45
A cup of tea never hurt anyone, so they say.
7:48
Being British, I'm I'm powered by tea, but I've, I've had my,
7:51
I've had my quota for tea today, so I'm on the water now.
7:55
OK, interesting. What disease is the most healthy
7:59
drink on the planet? You know, so many people
8:02
actually feel overwhelmed by AI. What might achieve separates
8:06
those who try from those who get left behind?
8:09
I think AI can be scary for people, either because they've
8:12
watched The Terminator too many times or they're worried about
8:18
being replaced by AI. It's threatening to our
8:20
identity, but also we worry about our livelihoods and that
8:23
maybe AI can get smart enough to replace us and do some of the
8:26
things that we do. So I understand the fear, but I
8:30
encourage everybody to be curious about AI, not to think
8:34
of AI as a way to replace a task or to offload.
8:37
But how could I partner with AI to build something either better
8:42
than I could build on my own or to build something I could not
8:45
build myself and to use AI as an amplifier?
8:48
So I think that's the mindset shift is, is not seeing AI as a
8:51
threat, but seeing, being curious about it, seeing it as
8:54
an amplifier and then having the bold vision and the courage to
8:58
actually use it to do something amazing.
9:02
I love that. You know, I do have an episode
9:05
titled Humans Best AI Next. That is the approach that I
9:08
believe in. But a lot of people are AI
9:11
doomsayers. Did you ever see the Speaking of
9:15
the movies? Did you ever see the movie Ex
9:17
Machina? Of course, say one of my
9:19
favourites. Oh, interested that that's still
9:22
my favourite AI movie till date. And of course, you know you've
9:27
actually seen a lot of waves of innovation.
9:30
What makes AI fundamentally different from everything before
9:34
I? Think the main difference is
9:36
that previous technologies have been ingredients or tools.
9:41
AI can be those too, but what we're talking about is unlimited
9:46
intelligence on demand, and that complements us in ways that
9:50
technology has not been able to do in the past.
9:52
That's the big difference. Amazing.
9:54
For for me, I feel like the the speed is very, very outrageous.
10:01
Like I have never seen any technology with this level of
10:05
efficiency before in my lifetime, you know?
10:08
Yeah, like that, the efficiency is outrageous.
10:14
Is it, is it media features, you know, you know, like cutting
10:18
through the noise is something that you are well known for,
10:22
right. And if you had to explain AI in
10:26
the simplest way to a founder or executive, how would you define
10:31
it? I suppose it's the term I just
10:33
used. It's, it's unlimited
10:35
intelligence on demand. And what makes it so powerful is
10:39
the cost of that intelligence is plummeting.
10:42
So it's now cheap unlimited intelligence on.
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Extremely, extremely cheap. And of course, I think that that
10:50
still speaks back to the efficiency, like achieving the
10:53
highest possible outcome with the least possible of resource
10:57
being shoot, you know, and you know, there's been a lot of
11:00
noise in the marketplace about AI.
11:04
But what are the biggest misconceptions about AI right
11:08
now? I think the thing I come up with
11:11
most when I'm working with CEOs, you know, I'll go into a
11:14
company, I'm going to help them understand AI and the CEO will
11:18
come over and they'll be so proud because they say, oh,
11:20
we've, we've got a Co pilot licence for the enterprise,
11:24
right? We basically they're saying
11:25
we've bought AI tools for our employees and they're so proud
11:29
because they think that's it. That's all they have to do.
11:32
And that's the biggest misconception because honestly,
11:35
enabling it is, is necessary. You have to do that.
11:39
You want to make sure that all the tools that your employees
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are using, you know, you've got the AI bells and whistles turned
11:45
on because you want the best tools for your employees who can
11:49
do the best work. But honestly, that's 2% of the
11:52
effort and probably 2 to 3% of the impact.
11:56
So it's understanding that there are steps beyond that and there
11:58
are two more steps you have to go through to get to the point
12:01
where you could say we're fully utilising AI and getting the
12:04
biggest value from it. Interesting.
12:07
So I'm quite curious, what are those two sets right.
12:10
But before you give us those two steps, right, yeah.
12:14
It's interesting that either sort of aligns with the
12:17
philosophy of this podcast, the philosophy of this broadcasters
12:20
mindset, skill sets, then tool sets.
12:24
Because the tool set is the last thing for you to achieve, you
12:28
know, reasonable success in any endeavour, right?
12:32
You need to get the right mindset, then equip yourself
12:35
with the right skill set and then when you get equipped with
12:39
the tool set. But I think a lot of people
12:41
place a lot of premium and make a lot of noise about the tool
12:45
sets because the tool sets are only as good as, you know, the
12:50
human using that tool set. So I'd like for you to talk
12:53
about the steps before adopting the AI tools.
12:59
Yeah. So let me walk you through that.
13:01
And then I thought I can actually link it back to your
13:03
three steps, but in the reverse order.
13:05
So the first step is enabling enable your team with AI powered
13:10
tools. Got to be done.
13:12
Necessary but insufficient. Step 2 is to look at every
13:16
workflow you have, every business process that you have,
13:20
break it down to tasks, and then ask the question, which of these
13:23
tasks is still best done by a human?
13:25
There'll be many that are. Which of the tasks can now be
13:28
better done by an AI agent? And if you have a physical
13:32
component to your work, a robot. And then how do I gracefully
13:36
coordinate all of those three groups?
13:39
So people, agents, digital employees and robots, how do
13:44
they work together so they can hand off tasks to each other?
13:46
How do they work effectively as a team?
13:48
So that's really about re engineering your organisation in
13:52
your parents, maybe that skill set and then the final step.
13:56
And, and then by the way, that's probably about 30% of the work
14:00
and maybe 30-40 to 40% of the impact.
14:02
The final step is where you stop thinking about how do we use AI
14:08
and instead you ask the question, how do we build the
14:11
entire organisation around AI at the centre?
14:15
How do you put AI, make the AI the engine of your business.
14:18
That doesn't mean that you're replacing people.
14:21
It means you wrap people around that engine and they are there
14:25
to steer and guide it, oversee it.
14:27
And if you can do that, that unlocks so much potential.
14:31
Instead of thinking, well, I'm going to grow my business by 15%
14:34
next year or 20% or 25% now you can say I'm going to grow my
14:39
business 100 percent, 1000% next year.
14:44
Because by using AI at the core of your business, you're able to
14:48
collapse the constraints of time and money and IT reimagine how
14:53
you go to market so you can start playing a different game
14:56
than your competitors. And that's probably the mindset.
15:00
So tool set, skill set, mindset, but in that order.
15:03
Just get your. AI tools in place get the skill
15:06
set. Yep, exactly.
15:08
Get the skill set there to be able to coordinate humans and
15:12
machines working side by side in effective teams.
15:15
And then eventually get the mindset of how do we become an
15:18
AI first organisation, Collapse those constraints and use AI to
15:23
amplify our people so they become superhuman.
15:27
Amazing, amazing. And, you know, it's, they say
15:30
great minds think of life. And I love the fact that you are
15:34
able to connect with, you know, with our philosophy.
15:37
And, you know, it's really crazy how a lot of organisations are
15:41
now claiming to be AI native. We had Ron Shevlin on the
15:46
podcast in the last episode. Ron Shevlin is actually the
15:49
chief research officer of Cornerstone Advisors.
15:52
And he was named in the top 10 fintech influencers globally by
15:58
the Fintech Magazine for 2026. And he expressed his displeasure
16:04
at, you know, people now taking being AI native, like the new
16:09
buzzword. And he also talked about how
16:13
Jack Dorsey laid off 40% of the staff at Lock, which is formerly
16:20
known as Square. I would like to, you know, know
16:24
what your take is on CEOs, you know, on the C-Suite, you know,
16:32
now easily replacing humans, right with AI back what what
16:41
what is happening in the world to be.
16:42
It just feels like the layoffs are really scary.
16:45
And I think that's what makes a lot of people, you know, have
16:49
that phobia for AI because it feels like nobody's job is safe
16:54
any longer. So what's your?
16:56
Take let's recognise first like that there's some yeah, there's
17:01
some AI washing going on. You know, there are certainly
17:04
some leaders who have over hired or, you know, they just need to
17:08
cut anyway and they blame it on AI, right?
17:11
It's a nice cover story because if you say, oh, we over hired
17:15
and then you let people go, your stock price takes a hammering.
17:18
These bozos don't know what they're doing.
17:20
If you let go of people and say, oh, it's AI, then you get
17:25
rewarded on the stock price because people think, oh,
17:28
they're they're doing all the things well done, right?
17:30
So there's some of that going on and we need to recognise that.
17:33
That said, I think there are, there's, there's an old way of
17:37
thinking and there's the right way of thinking.
17:40
So let me talk you through what I mean by that 20th century
17:43
thinking. 20th century advice would be to use AI the way we
17:47
have used every other technology.
17:49
Use it for productivity gains and efficiencies, save costs,
17:53
all right, Get rid of some heads and that'll make the
17:55
shareholders happy. And so when a new technology
17:58
like AI comes along, if you're a seasoned leader, you think I
18:02
know what to do, I'm going to use this for productivity,
18:05
efficiency and to lose some headcount.
18:08
That is a absolutely the wrong thing to do.
18:11
What you need is fresh 21st century thinking, which
18:14
recognises AI is different. Sure, you can use it to replace
18:20
people, but AI is different because not only does it boost
18:24
productivity, it can amplify your employees creativity, their
18:28
intuition, boost their decision making abilities, expand their
18:32
knowledge and so on. So what you should really be
18:34
doing is finding ways to partner your people with machines to
18:39
amplify them. That's what the unlock is so
18:43
that you can start to grow your business 30% and 50% rather
18:48
than, OK, let's cut some headcount and save some cost and
18:53
let it let go of some people and stay at the 10% growth mark,
18:57
right? It's, it's thinking about how do
18:59
I amplify the business. Jensen Wong has this right.
19:02
He was asked late 2024 what his plans were for employees and he
19:08
said, oh, we've got about 32,000 employees right now and over
19:12
time we plan to grow that to 50,000 people supported by 100
19:18
million AI assistants across every group.
19:21
So he's thinking about workforce planning in a completely
19:24
different way. He didn't say I've got 32,000
19:27
employees today and I'm going to reduce that to 25,000 by using
19:31
lots of AI. He's thinking about amplifying
19:35
the impact that they collectively have by partnering
19:39
people with machines. And that is the right way to
19:42
think about it. I think I I totally agree with
19:46
that approach, but what would you say people are getting wrong
19:50
about generative AI and AI agents?
19:54
I mean, generative AI isn't just there to create text and images
19:59
and video. I think generative AI can
20:01
generate a lot more than that. So at the heart of generative AI
20:05
is, is the transformer. That's what's in a large
20:07
language model. That's what translates between a
20:10
question and answer. Or a caption and an image,
20:13
right? You think about like a
20:14
translator. We can get much more
20:17
sophisticated than that. There are people building
20:19
generative AI to translate between the desired properties
20:24
of the material and the crystalline structure of a
20:28
material that has those properties so that we can
20:30
develop new materials. These are the types of
20:33
applications which we really focused on.
20:35
And I think when people think generative AI, they're much more
20:37
bounded. They're thinking about a chat
20:39
bot, whereas in a we can find all of these amazing
20:42
applications. That's probably the a big one.
20:44
And when it comes to agents, people think of agents as just
20:48
being for offload. So I've identified there are
20:50
three types of agents, AI agents, offload, elevate and
20:55
extend. Offload agents just take a task
20:57
that you don't want to do and they handle it right?
21:00
Booking a flight or organising a meeting, whatever it might be.
21:03
They take the suck out of your job is kind of the idea of that.
21:06
And most people think that that's the only type of agent
21:08
there will be. But there will also be agents
21:11
that elevate. They work in partnership with a
21:14
human to elevate that person's performance at a task they could
21:18
already do themselves, but they're just going to help them
21:20
do it better. Then there are extend agents
21:23
that partner with a human and through that partnership they
21:26
enabled the human to extend their abilities so they can do
21:30
things they could not do before, turning them into superhumans.
21:34
So those are the things I think people have not really thought
21:37
about with agencies. How do I partner them with a
21:40
human so they can do more or do something incredible they could
21:43
never have done before in their lives?
21:46
Amazing. I love, I love that illustration
21:49
because, you know, personally I've been able to, you know, use
21:54
the AI agents in those three ways.
21:56
So actually he's a home broker and putting you on the spot as a
22:01
futurist. Where would you say we are in
22:05
the AI revolution? Are we early?
22:08
Are we in the mid stage or are we late in the AI revolution?
22:13
I mean, in the grand scheme of things, the term AI was invented
22:16
in the 50s and it's been used by most businesses for the last 15
22:21
years. So, you know, as time goes,
22:24
yeah, we're probably mid, maybe late, but in terms of the
22:28
impact, early, early, early, because, you know, we ain't seen
22:32
nothing yet. We're going to be living in a
22:34
world of 10 billion humanoid robots and probably a trillion
22:40
AI agents. And they're going to change the
22:42
way that business operates, the way that people live their
22:45
lives, the fabric of the world we live in.
22:48
I'll be, I'll look out the window and see robots walking
22:50
down the street. The world is going to feel very
22:53
different just five years from now.
22:55
And so in that regard, we're still very early.
22:59
Interesting, you know. And of course, Speaking of the
23:01
impact, let's talk about the business impact.
23:04
You have actually advised global organisations.
23:07
What are the smartest companies doing differently with AI today?
23:14
I mean, back to those three steps of enable Reengineer,
23:17
reimagine, they're the ones that have already moved into that
23:19
reengineer phase. They are figuring out how do my
23:23
workflows change, where do where can I use AI alongside my people
23:28
and how do I amplify my people using AI.
23:31
They're the ones the smartest companies are doing that and the
23:34
really the smartest ones. They are figuring out how do I
23:37
become an AI first company, putting AI as the engine of the
23:41
business and wrapping their people around it.
23:44
Interesting. So Speaking of returning
23:46
investment, what would you say are the highest ROI use cases
23:52
for AI that every business should explore right now?
23:55
You know, because it's really crazy.
23:57
Everybody's adopting AI, but they are not, it seems like a
24:00
lot of people are not thinking about the return on investment
24:03
and then you just invest in before even evaluating what is
24:08
that return like what are the highest IOI use cases right now?
24:13
It. Really varies by industry and I
24:16
work with every industry out there from, you know, mining to
24:19
banking to retail and everything in between.
24:23
I mean, customer support is an obvious one that most people
24:27
have leaned into and a find finding some good returns
24:30
supporting their customer support humans with AI that
24:35
works in partnership with them to help them be more productive.
24:39
There's some customer experience stuff, but I think the real
24:42
opportunity is going to be with agents figuring out how to
24:45
partner agents with humans to elevate their performance.
24:48
The companies that are thinking about it that way, that are not
24:51
thinking the wrong headed way to think about this is all right,
24:55
we've got to get some AI in it. Where do we start?
24:57
Let's put some AI here and some AI there that's the wrong way.
25:01
You always start with people, whether that is a customer or an
25:05
employee. And you're asking the question,
25:08
how could we use AI to make their life easier so they can do
25:12
more? Whether that's, you know, making
25:14
a customer journey easier on a website or making it easier for
25:18
an employee to create and deliver value by partnering with
25:22
an AI. Amazing.
25:23
You know, it's quite interesting to see how people just being
25:27
that when you slap the name AI on any product or any project,
25:33
it just makes it more fancy, more attractive.
25:37
And interestingly, in London, I do know a fellow founder, like
25:43
new founder and you know, in the healthcare industry, he was
25:47
working on something and he was like, oh, my product is AI
25:52
enabled. So it's different from the
25:54
others in the market. Excuse me, I don't get it.
25:57
But you know, it's crazy to see how like most AI transformation
26:02
projects feel. But why do they feel?
26:06
And how can leaders avoid that truck?
26:08
Oh, they fell for a number of reasons.
26:10
The big one is, I mean, AI is powered by data.
26:14
And if you haven't got your proprietary data clean and
26:17
organised so that you can connect your AIS to it, it's
26:20
garbage in, garbage out, right? So that's the number one reason
26:24
is just not being ready. If you have data engineers, data
26:27
scientists increase their pay because you need to keep them.
26:31
They're going to help you be successful with an AI
26:33
transformation. So that's reason #1 you know,
26:36
people just don't have the data ready.
26:38
It's either incomplete or it's mismatching, right?
26:41
They have a customer database that says customer name, this
26:44
one says client name, and they just don't match up.
26:46
So, you know, you've got to do all of that cleaning before you
26:49
can really implement AI successfully.
26:51
Another one is not bringing people along.
26:53
It's, you know, it's classic change management stuff.
26:57
I had a client who was so proud because they'd rolled out some
27:00
AI agents to their teams and the teams hated them.
27:04
And some of them threatened to quit and in fact did quit.
27:07
They said, I'm not working with AI.
27:08
And I asked the client and I said, so when did you involve
27:13
employees in the design process for these AI agents?
27:18
And they looked at me like we didn't think of that.
27:21
Just crazy stuff because there's two reasons why you include
27:25
people. One, you're trying to get
27:28
people's buy in to say, hey, this is going to be great for
27:30
me. I can see why AI in my life as
27:33
an employee is going to be better.
27:35
I'm going to enjoy my day when I go home.
27:38
At the end of the day, I'm going to be happier because I've been
27:40
using AI. It's helped me offload the
27:42
things I don't want to do and helps me be more successful at
27:45
things I do enjoy doing. It's what you're trying to do
27:48
there is create supporters rather than saboteurs.
27:52
So that's the big one. You just include people out of
27:54
human decency to bring them along for the ride.
27:57
The other reason is the way that management thinks work gets done
28:02
or the way it's written in the manual is not the way work
28:05
actually gets done. Humans are very adaptable and
28:10
they figure out different ways to do things.
28:12
And so if you design an AI solution for the way you think
28:16
work is being done, when you go to deploy it, you'll find it's
28:19
actually you've designed for a world that doesn't exist.
28:22
And so that's the other reason needs to engage your employees
28:26
in the design process to make sure you're designing something
28:29
that will actually work. Amazing, amazing.
28:33
You know, I've said this on the podcast before in order to
28:36
achieve change, there are three things you know, the people, the
28:39
processes and the C stands. But I will take you on, on the
28:43
data, on the data point, right? Because it feels like you, you,
28:49
you were eavesdropping on the last episode's conversation with
28:53
LeBron Scheblin. And I'm going to quote Bronch
28:55
Scheblin here. He says if your data quality is
28:59
low, your AI strategy will blow. And I I love that.
29:05
Yep, that's right. So guys, go get your data in
29:09
order, right? So how should ACEO think about
29:14
AI today? Is it a tool, a strategy, or a
29:18
complete business redesign? Yes, here's the answer.
29:23
And it depends what which of those 3 stages I described
29:27
you're in. If you think of it as a tool,
29:30
you're stuck in stage 1. If you can make it to that re
29:33
engineering phase, then you figured out, oh, this is a
29:37
strategy now if you make it to AI first, then you've realised,
29:41
oh, this is a mindset change. I have to completely redesign
29:44
the business and build it around AI.
29:47
So the answer is yes. It just depends which step in
29:50
the process you're at. Interesting.
29:53
You know, let's talk about the practical.
29:55
If you see if you're CEO, you better be thinking about the
29:58
long game. So let's say you should be
29:59
thinking about it as a complete business redesign.
30:02
There you go, There's my, there's my final answer.
30:05
It's just, you know, big like a futurist, not like a now East.
30:11
There you go. But you know, I'm really, really
30:14
blessed, you know, just to speak with the, the brilliant minds of
30:19
my generation, you know, and for me, I always say that gratitude
30:23
is good attitude. You know, growing up in Nigeria,
30:26
I, I was privileged to have a father that had a massive
30:31
library. I still today, I said, describe
30:33
myself as a nerd, right? And I own it, you know, reading
30:38
the likes of Aristotle, you know, the ancient Greek
30:41
philosophers, you know, Plateau, even up to some contemporary
30:48
ones like Immanuel Cannes, you know, Bertrand Russell and even
30:52
the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
30:54
A lot of people do not realise that Winston Churchill won a
30:57
Nobel Prize for literature. And, you know, bring up, I
31:01
usually feel like how I wish I could have a conversation with
31:05
these great minds, but now I'm frivolous, you know, with
31:08
technology to have, you know, interactions with the great
31:11
minds of my time. So from me to you, it's, you
31:14
know, it's a big appreciation, you know, and to like, I feel
31:17
very blessed and grateful like having these interactions and,
31:21
you know, talking about the practical execution, you know,
31:25
and let's make this practical. If someone listening to us today
31:29
wants to start using AI today, what is the step one for the
31:33
average person? I mean, we all need to boost our
31:36
AI acumen. The best thing anybody can do is
31:39
to invest in themselves and learn how to use AI.
31:42
And that means practising, you know, you get better at it the
31:45
same way, you know, when I was your age, I had to learn how to
31:49
use Word and Excel and PowerPoint and all that kind of
31:53
garbage, right? And you know, you, you amplify
31:56
yourself by being better and in master those tools.
31:59
The same is going to be true with AI.
32:01
So you just have to lean in and try it.
32:03
Now I get asked this question a lot, so to help people out, I
32:07
actually created an online resource for people to help them
32:10
on this journey. So if you go to my website,
32:12
Steve Brown dot AI very easy to remember Steve Brown dot AI
32:17
we'll have. That at the bottom.
32:18
You'll see it. Yeah, There you go.
32:20
So you Scroll down to the bottom and you'll see this thing called
32:23
artificial wisdom. And if you click on that, it
32:26
gets you to a Notion page I created.
32:28
And it's got AI books you might want to read, podcasts you might
32:32
want to listen to, like focus on AI, YouTube channels to watch,
32:36
and most importantly, AI tools to try organised by different
32:41
genres. So AI tools to make music, AI
32:44
tools to make presentations, AI tools to help you programme,
32:47
whatever it might be. So check that out.
32:49
Artificial wisdom, my free gift to everybody that's listening to
32:52
this podcast. Amazing, amazing.
32:54
And of course we should have our own podcast as well added on
32:57
there. Quick one.
32:59
So I've actually seen a lot of law on the Internet lately.
33:05
You know, people saying oh, Saturday AI challenge, Saturday
33:10
AI adoption, blah blah blah. That's a day AI plan.
33:14
So what does a simple 30 day AI adoption plan look like for a
33:20
business? I I wish it could be that
33:23
simple. Wish it could be that simple.
33:24
Yeah. I I don't think, I don't think I
33:27
can give you 1. I mean, if you've only got 30
33:29
days, this is going to be a multi year effort.
33:33
If your first 30 days, it's just build your AI acumen, get smart
33:37
about what the possibilities are, and then you've got maybe
33:41
the first step of the journey under your belt.
33:44
But that's that's all you can really hope to get in 30 days.
33:47
But really start thinking about those 3 phases I described and
33:51
what would it take to build an AI first organisation?
33:54
What does that look like? If you can achieve that in the
33:56
1st 30 days, you're golden. Interested.
34:00
Please try another laugh because I just remembered some adverts
34:04
I'm always seen on YouTube that is always annoying me.
34:07
You know it starts with most people over the age of 14.
34:11
Only use ChatGPT. You can become you can become an
34:17
AI expert in 30 days by following this plan.
34:21
I don't like who are these? People this money, Yeah, yeah.
34:27
Yeah, it's, it's, it's really crazy.
34:29
So how should you know teams be structured in and an AI first
34:34
organisation? Good question.
34:37
And the difference between them, it's probably worth thinking
34:40
back to the Internet days, right?
34:42
25 years ago, you could, you could organise companies into 3
34:46
buckets. There was traditional companies,
34:48
Internet first companies and Internet native companies.
34:52
So your Internet first here in the US where I live, it would be
34:56
your Sears and JC Penney's, right?
34:58
Brands that just faded away at your Internet first companies
35:02
would be target.com, walmart.com, right?
35:06
They were retail companies that made the jump and they've made
35:09
Internet the centre of the way they fulfil go to market.
35:13
All of it invented Omni channel retail.
35:15
And then the canonical example of an Internet native retailer
35:20
would be Amazon, right? So that no one could be Amazon
35:23
because they weren't starting from the beginning of being
35:26
natively Internet focused. So Internet first was the best
35:29
you could hope for. We're repeating that all over
35:31
again now. You're going to have traditional
35:33
companies, AI first companies, which are traditional companies
35:37
that put AI at the centre of what they do.
35:39
And there will be some AI native businesses.
35:42
So the only way to inoculate yourself against an attack from
35:46
an AI native company that is built from the ground up around
35:50
AI is to become AI 1st. And how do you do that?
35:54
You put you make AI the engine of your business.
35:57
For most companies, people are the engine of their business.
36:00
So you make AI the engine at the centre of the business and then
36:04
you wrap people around. It doesn't mean you don't need
36:05
people anymore. The people are there to oversee
36:08
direct. It means that the people you
36:10
have shift from doing work to designing work and then
36:15
overseeing that work. So it's a mindset change.
36:19
But I'll give you an example of a company that's moving in this
36:22
direction, cleveland.com, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which is
36:28
a newspaper in Ohio and they have a digital website,
36:30
cleveland.com. Their editor is moving to be an
36:33
AI first organisation. He's realised that reporters,
36:38
human reporters are best at reporting and writing has been
36:44
sort of it became part of their job.
36:46
But you can have an AI do that. AI is a very good writers now.
36:51
So free up the humans to become reporters and then have another
36:56
AI that generates leads for them.
36:59
So it feeds them leads by looking at event calendars,
37:03
listening to the police radio, watching Twitter and feeds the
37:07
reporters a lead. So they can do the, the very
37:10
human thing of working with sources, getting quotes, fact
37:14
checking, you know, pulsing their own sources for
37:17
information, doing investigative journalism.
37:20
And then they pull all of the information, all the facts, They
37:24
hand it to an AI that writes the story very quickly.
37:27
They oversee that to make sure the AI doesn't get it wrong, and
37:31
then they move on to the next story.
37:33
So you're creating this flywheel where the AI is generating lots
37:37
of great leads, finding great stories.
37:39
The humans report and then the AI writes it, and you get more
37:44
stories and better investigative journalism because you're
37:47
freeing up people to do the hard work that an AI can't do.
37:51
And of course, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's a lot of
37:53
heavily beliefs in rubber. And again goes back to my point
37:58
of efficiency, like the efficiency is unimaginable but
38:03
what skills will become non negotiable in the next five
38:08
years? Depends who people I mean.
38:10
Certainly entrepreneurialism will be a very valuable skill.
38:13
The ability to grow businesses using AI, of course.
38:17
The ability to use AI to get things done.
38:21
But I think a big one will be change management.
38:24
Can you, can you help other people navigate through what
38:27
will be the fastest change in human history?
38:31
And can you successfully navigate that change?
38:34
So you have to be adaptable. And I think just having that
38:36
boldness of vision, that will be the skill that really separates
38:40
great leaders. Do you have the curiosity to
38:43
constantly learn the boldness to come up with audacious visions
38:48
and then the courage to use AI to execute on those audacious
38:53
visions? I think that's what will really
38:55
separate the true leaders from the wannabe leaders in the next
38:59
five years. Interesting.
39:01
I love that. And of course, you know, you're
39:03
reminding me of the episode where Brett King, I think, yeah,
39:06
that's about one year ago. And, you know, this year he was
39:10
named in the top ten global features list by Global Gurus.
39:15
And we're talking about how I've been able to express boldness
39:22
and, you know, like ask questions and, you know, speak
39:25
with, you know, elite level leaders in the world.
39:29
And he told me something that Elijah, what you said is that
39:33
what you need to tell people is you are that person with the
39:37
curiosity to ask the right questions.
39:40
And it is what it is. It's amazing.
39:42
It's amazing. Like to look at, I look at Mike
39:45
Harvey on podcasting, but we're globally, we're currently
39:48
globally brand that is in the top 2% of the world, two
39:52
podcasts, the first global top 2%, the second global top 3%.
39:58
And interestingly, the Diary of the CFO.
40:01
Thank you very much, Sir. And Diary of a CFO clocked 100
40:05
countries today. So it means we have audience in
40:09
100 countries. And when I think about it, we
40:13
only started nine months ago, Diary of the CFO, the Kingdom's
40:16
podcast two years ago. And it's massive.
40:20
It's scary what you could do with AI.
40:23
Yeah. It's, it's, it's really, really
40:26
scary. And you know, but importantly,
40:29
like prohibiting your point. We, we as humans need to realise
40:34
that we need to have that boldness.
40:36
We need to have that curiosity to ask the right questions.
40:39
And the place of human judgments will never be replaced by AI.
40:45
Do you agree with that sentiment?
40:46
Yeah, I mean, you want to try and keep.
40:49
Yeah, You want humans in the loop to provide oversight,
40:53
right? We want the ultimate the the
40:55
arbiter, the decider to be a human being.
40:58
There will be times when you know you want AI to be out in
41:02
front because they can do things better than humans can.
41:06
And we already are in a situation where an AI will
41:10
diagnose disease better than a doctor can because an AI has
41:15
read every medical paper out there and it can look at all of
41:19
these different pieces of the puzzle and find patterns in that
41:23
that maybe a human will miss. That said, I don't want an AI
41:27
doctor because I want a human connection, someone who
41:31
understands what it is to be human to tell me, hey, Steve,
41:35
you've got stage 3 liver cancer, or you've got a hard time coming
41:39
or whatever might be right. You still want the human to
41:43
oversee that, but you want that human to be elevated by a
41:47
diagnostics AI that helps them to catch disease that probably
41:52
the human wouldn't. Not interesting.
41:54
You know is actually also came up with in that conversation
41:58
with Breaking. He was like very soon when you
42:02
ask a person when they go to the doctor and he asked them, did
42:08
the doctor use AI and the person says no, Hey, you black you and
42:13
that doctor must be really crazy.
42:17
So it's it's interested, it's really interesting.
42:20
But you know, Speaking of the future of work and society, you
42:25
talk about agents being digital coworkers.
42:29
What does the future actually look like for the day-to-day?
42:34
Well, agents are at the moment. It's a tech space interface.
42:39
So with an agent like an open Claw, whichever is excited about
42:43
right now, or Nemo Claw or whatever the the 24/7 agent
42:49
running on the computer might look like initially, that's a
42:51
text interface. Very quickly, I think later this
42:54
year, you're going to see that become voice 1st and these
42:57
agents will have voices and you can just speak to them and have
42:59
a conversation. And soon after that they're
43:02
going to have faces. They're going to feel like
43:05
forever remote employees on a Zoom call that you can see but
43:09
never meet, and they're going to feel like human beings.
43:12
And I think that is where we're going very, very quickly.
43:15
You already have companies like Synthesia that are helping
43:18
people to build video, what they call video agents.
43:21
And over time, when you see that videos technology and a
43:25
technology like Open Claw start to merge, that's what it's going
43:28
to feel like. Synthetic humans that are just
43:31
part of your team. It's just then I think even
43:35
companies like Mac or Micro one are already using that,
43:41
especially in like the recruitment industry and it's
43:43
really amazing to see. But like, what industries do you
43:48
think will be the most disrupted by AI, you know, or would I say
43:53
in terms of the speed, yeah, which ones will be the most
43:56
disrupted and which ones will be the most resilient?
43:59
There is nowhere to hide. Every industry will be
44:02
disrupted, so there's. Going.
44:05
To be just yeah, every industry will be disrupted, every role
44:09
will be changed, whether you're ACEO or a frontline worker,
44:13
right. AI will change the way you do
44:15
your work for sure. Now are they going to be some
44:18
areas which will be changed more than others or more quickly than
44:21
others? Sure.
44:23
You know, one that's often chosen as accountancy.
44:26
Accountancy may fall to automation much more quickly if
44:36
it's the basics of accounting. Yeah, it's coming for you.
44:40
I'm sorry if it's the broader thinking and, you know, the
44:43
oversight stuff that still needs to be human in the loop.
44:46
But the things that will go slower, probably the regulated
44:49
industries. So things that are heavy,
44:51
heavily regulated healthcare, you know, that's which
44:54
ironically is the place where it can probably help the most.
44:57
But we're going to have to have that discussion as a as a
44:59
society, as a culture of how quickly do we want to have AI
45:03
come into these parts of our lives?
45:05
Education is another one. Lots of unions, lots of
45:09
regulation. And quite rightly so.
45:11
You don't experiment on our children.
45:13
But there's so much that we could do differently and better
45:16
by bringing AI into education, into healthcare.
45:19
I just hope it happens sooner than than I actually anticipate.
45:23
Sooner than later? Well, should people be worried
45:27
about job loss or excited about new opportunities?
45:31
Yes. So there will of course be some
45:35
job losses if you're able to make your teams more effective.
45:39
Maybe you needed ten people before, maybe you only need 7
45:41
now. This is all going to come down
45:44
to the conversation we had about 30 minutes ago about 20th
45:48
century versus 1st century thinking.
45:51
If you're in that, if your leadership team is in that 20th
45:53
century mindset, let's cut costs, let's use AI to displace
45:57
headcount, yeah, that's going to lose some jobs.
46:00
If they're able to make the leap to 21st century thinking and
46:03
instead use AI to amplify the people that they have and
46:07
recognise that the people they have are actually the biggest
46:10
differentiation they have in their brand, then yes, then I
46:14
think we can see more excitement about those new opportunities
46:18
and less worry about job loss. But it's going to come down to
46:21
leadership teams and their vision or lack of it.
46:25
All right, interesting. So what does the AI native
46:29
company of the future look like? It's probably 5 savvy people who
46:35
have figured out how to harness the power of AI to build entire
46:40
teams of digital agents that are well directed, well organised.
46:45
And they're building a new business that you to do
46:48
something you could not do before or at a price point you
46:51
could not do before. And they're probably developing
46:54
a new business model which undercuts everybody that they're
46:58
competing with. I think that's what an AI native
47:01
company looks like. They're small, they're lean, and
47:05
because they are scaling themselves with digital
47:09
technology, with digital employees, AI agents, they're
47:12
not only the Internet helped companies to appear bigger than
47:16
they really were online, right? And and then play on the global
47:20
stage. AI native companies will act and
47:24
have an impact that is bigger than the number of employees
47:27
they have because you've maybe got five people who are
47:30
amplifying themselves to act like 50,000.
47:34
That's the opportunity for an AI native company starting today.
47:38
Interested. You know, I did have a webinar
47:42
earlier today with a cyber security expert in your neck of
47:45
the weeds And she, she, she, she was asking me to explain to the
47:49
audience what is an AI agent or, or what does an AI agent feel
47:54
like? And then, you know, I said,
47:56
think about yourself as a professional being amplified and
48:01
working with 1000 or a million other professionals like
48:06
yourself who can work faster than you.
48:08
And I think you're aligned with that narrative.
48:11
It's interesting. It's interesting to see.
48:13
But let's talk about leadership and responsibility.
48:16
What does leadership look like in the age of AII?
48:20
Mean great change management. I love what Simon Sinek says.
48:23
His definition of leaders said leaders need only one thing,
48:26
followers. That's it.
48:28
That's what defines a leader is if people follow you.
48:31
And so I think what I've talked about with the people I coach
48:35
who are leaders is that they need to show up in a different
48:37
way. Now they leaders get to the
48:40
position they're in because they've been around the block a
48:42
few times, right? They know where the bodies are
48:44
buried. They know how to get stuff done.
48:46
They just have lots of experience and knowledge that
48:49
they've accrued over decades now.
48:51
And and that's given them this identity as a sage, right?
48:54
They know a lot of things in the era of AI.
48:58
We are figuring this stuff out as we go, right?
49:01
Leaders are operating by the seat of their pants these days
49:06
and they're figuring out because AI is moving so quickly and
49:09
there are, there are not many great examples of AI first
49:13
companies out there yet where they can identify what they need
49:16
to do. So very often they're going to
49:18
be making it up as they go along.
49:20
Now that is a very different identity as a leader.
49:24
I'm no longer the sage who knows everything.
49:26
I'm now the leader who says, you know what?
49:28
I don't have all the answers, but I'm going to lead you anyway
49:33
and we're going to figure this. Out without a map, not the gates
49:36
without a. Map you may have a compass, you
49:38
know, but because and and you're going to use your experience
49:42
still, but you have to be much more humble and say, I don't
49:45
know the answers. I'm going to we're going to
49:47
figure this out together as a team.
49:48
And so it's an identity as a philosopher explorer, a
49:52
thoughtful explorer that leads people to, you know, a better
49:56
place. And it means you have to have a
49:58
strong vision for what you're trying to build and get people
50:01
excited about that so they will follow you into an exciting
50:05
imagined future. That's that's the big
50:06
difference. All right, I love that.
50:09
I love that. But you know, how do the leaders
50:12
balance Peed with responsibility when deploying AI?
50:17
I'm not an advocate for move fast and break things.
50:20
Especially when you're working with AI, you need to be
50:23
responsible. Responsible means is the data
50:27
I've got something that I have the rights to?
50:29
Am I honouring people's privacy appropriately?
50:33
Is there bias inherent in my data, which when I train an AI
50:37
will mean that my AI is biassed in a way that doesn't represent
50:42
our brand? Are we building this safely?
50:44
Have we trained everybody to bring them along for this, for
50:47
this ride? So there's a lot, a lot of
50:51
aspects or dimensions of responsible AI.
50:54
You need to go as fast as you can while being responsible.
50:58
Because if you're not, you'll trip over your feet and you'll
51:03
end up going slower because you've got to go and go back and
51:06
clean up all the mess you made by not being responsible because
51:09
it will come and bite you in the butt.
51:12
Amazing. Amazing.
51:13
And you know with responsibility also comes ethics, right?
51:18
So what? Ethical lines should never be
51:21
crossed, no matter how powerful AI becomes.
51:24
I don't think there's anything particularly different about AII
51:28
mean the ethics that you would stick by.
51:30
Whatever business you're in, whatever technology you're
51:33
using, you should still stick with AI does let you surveil
51:37
your customers at scale. So you know, should you be using
51:41
sensors and cameras to do deep surveillance on your customers
51:47
using AI? Just because you can doesn't
51:50
mean you should. So that one of the things I talk
51:53
about in my book is the 2 by two matrix of things you can do and
51:56
things you can't do and things you should do and things you
51:59
shouldn't do. And I think the biggest
52:02
challenge for leaders is when you get empowered with AI,
52:07
there'll be a lot of things that you can do now that you couldn't
52:10
do before, but should you do them?
52:13
And if you shouldn't do them, but you can do them, that's the
52:17
box which says resist temptation in big flashing letters.
52:20
Because this is about continuing to build long term value for
52:25
your brand, whether that's your personal brand or your company's
52:28
brand. If you make decisions that
52:30
violate that, you will destroy that brand value and a
52:34
heartbeat. There's a whole chapter on
52:36
responsibility and ethics in my book.
52:38
Can encourage any leader to check it out because there's a
52:41
lot to think about. Oh wow, amazing.
52:44
And he, he, you know something. When I look at the demographics
52:48
of this forecast, the the highest population in terms of
52:54
the age group are those between the ages of 28 to 34 and the
53:02
ages of 35 to 44. That forms about 50% of the
53:10
population of the people who listen to this podcast.
53:13
And I'd like for you to provide advice to these young
53:19
entrepreneurs and professionals. How should they position
53:23
themselves for the next decade? Find a big problem that you're
53:28
passionate about solving and solve it with AI.
53:31
Become an AI native company. Support AI at the heart of your
53:35
business from day one, and figure out how to show up in the
53:38
world and behave like, you know, a giant enterprise because
53:43
you're using AI and using that to scale the talent that you
53:46
bring. So be fearless, be bold, have a
53:51
big vision, and figure out how you can solve a problem for
53:55
people using technology in a way that no one's doing before, or
53:59
in a way that's significantly better than anybody has thought
54:03
to do before. Perhaps because you have a
54:04
different business model, but that's the advice I give people.
54:07
So you need to become super AI savvy.
54:09
Doesn't mean you need to know how to build it, but you need to
54:12
know what the possibilities are to fuel that vision and then go
54:16
and make a difference in the world.
54:19
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. So, speaking about your personal
54:24
edge, what beliefs about the future do you hold that most
54:28
people disagree with? Well, that's a tough one.
54:31
That's a very tough one. I mean, there's some simple
54:35
little ones like I think, I think robots are coming a lot
54:37
faster than most people do. Even some futurists will tell
54:40
you, oh, we're not going to get a robots in the home for another
54:43
decade. I think it's going to come much
54:44
quicker than that. What's the belief about the
54:46
future that most people disagree with?
54:49
And I suppose the majority of people at the moment are pretty
54:52
negative about the future. They're worried about a pretty
54:54
dystopian future, perhaps because they've seen too many
54:57
Hollywood movies or they just turned on the news.
55:00
Because then the news, the news isn't much fun to watch these
55:03
days. See What sci-fi?
55:05
I'm very. Yeah.
55:08
Well, most sci-fi is dystopian because if if the Terminator had
55:12
dropped through a hole in the future and then just shook
55:14
everybody's hand and said, hello, nice to meet you, and
55:17
wasn't a killing machine going after Sarah Connor, it would be
55:20
a very boring movie. So you have to know that
55:23
Hollywood has skewed things somewhat because it makes for a
55:27
much more interesting couple of hours in the movie theatre.
55:30
But I'm very positive about the future.
55:32
I think the opportunity with a is to perhaps move us into a
55:36
third stage of humanity, Stage 1, survival, subsistence
55:40
farming. Just want to try and get through
55:42
till tomorrow. Phase 2, the era of work, right?
55:47
As an economy, we're all creating value, we're exchanging
55:50
value. We all work hard.
55:52
We maybe get a bit of retirement to the end of our lives.
55:55
Stage 3, If we can get it right, work becomes optional.
56:00
We get to liberate ourselves to focus on the things that truly
56:03
make us happy. And for some people, that will
56:05
be still working in some regard, taking care of people or
56:08
inventing things, whatever it might be.
56:10
For others, it'll be creating great works of art, exploring
56:13
the universe, discovering more about science, whatever your
56:15
thing might be. And so that's what I'm excited
56:18
about, is getting to that third phase of humanity where we all
56:22
focus on acts of service, whether that's for other people
56:25
or for exploring the universe. Interesting active service and
56:31
words of affirmation. So we're going to focus it on
56:34
our love languages. That's just sort of like to do
56:37
so. What has been your biggest
56:39
personal shift as you have worked with AI?
56:43
Biggest personal shift, I suppose when I figured out that
56:46
AI is not just a tool that it is, we should start thinking
56:51
about it as a as a collaborator, as an opportunity to amplify
56:55
what we do and to start treating it with some respect.
56:59
I mean, sure, they're machines, but they're growing to the point
57:05
now where they already feel like people.
57:09
And I think that's going to become more and more the case.
57:12
So that's been a big shift for me is just the sort of the way I
57:17
frame thinking about AI is not just a dumb tool in a box now,
57:22
but there's, it's almost like we've captured some kind of
57:24
magic and put it in a bottle. And that's that opens up
57:28
opportunities for me because my expectations of AI have gone up
57:33
exponentially as a result. I totally agree with you.
57:37
And you know, it's amazing, you know, how like the level of
57:41
respect that I have for AI grows exponentially as time goes on
57:47
because it's really amazing that the learning capabilities are
57:51
basically. And of course, I feel like if
57:53
you are a person who is a lifelong learner by attitude,
57:58
you would definitely would, I say, develop that respect for
58:03
for for this kind of a tool. And, you know, Speaking of
58:08
respect, like me, I respect your body of work.
58:10
And of course, I'm like really, really grateful having that
58:13
opportunity to speak with you today.
58:15
Thanks, man. So you're welcome.
58:17
And you know, towards the end, we usually put our guests in the
58:22
quick fire round and that's five questions.
58:26
OK. Before I put you through the
58:30
quick fire round right, we have a tradition.
58:34
At the end of the podcast you tell me two guests you would
58:37
like to see other podcasts, 1 you would invite yourself and
58:41
one I should invite myself. So who would you like to see on
58:45
the podcast? Two names.
58:47
My name is. Partner in Crime?
58:50
Yeah, I've got one that immediately came to mind.
58:52
Brian David Johnson, when I was at Intel, working Intel labs as
58:56
a futurist. He was the other futurist.
58:58
He was the first futurist. I was #2 He's a really
59:00
interesting dude. He's well worth chatting with.
59:02
And he's got a he comes up from a design standpoint, I come at
59:06
it from a technology standpoint. So he's different in the way he
59:09
looks at things, but he's a really great human being.
59:12
Oh wow amazing, So I think I should I should send him would I
59:17
say a connection request on LinkedIn and you'll do your
59:20
thing? So who should I invite?
59:22
Yeah, or you e-mail me and I'll connect you to him.
59:26
Who should you invite? I mean, do I get to vote for
59:29
Brian David Johnson twice? OK, OK, amazing that is.
59:34
He's not just amazing, it means he's a super amazing guest.
59:38
So shout out to him. We hope you see this.
59:40
Yeah, we will keep this and ensure that you see this.
59:42
Wow. So there we go and press into
59:46
the Creek fire. Round five questions, quick
59:48
answers. So #1 is AI will create more
59:53
jobs or eliminate more jobs? In the short term, it'll create
59:57
more jobs. In the long term I think it will
1:00:00
eliminate more jobs, but at that point things will be much
1:00:04
cheaper. We'll we'll be rewiring society
1:00:06
and it'll be OK. Interesting take it so #2 what
1:00:11
is 1 AI tool everyone should try right now?
1:00:14
There's so many. I mean, personally, I like
1:00:17
Gemini. It's so flexible.
1:00:22
Well, yeah, I. Used ChatGPT.
1:00:25
Mostly, well, yeah, I worked at Google.
1:00:28
But what I was going to say is I use ChatGPT most of the time.
1:00:33
That's my go to day-to-day. But I like Gemini more and more
1:00:37
and I'm starting to move more to Gemini just because it's more
1:00:41
flexible. I can create video, it's got
1:00:43
nano bananas. It creates better images now.
1:00:46
So I'm starting to move that way, if I had to pick one.
1:00:49
But Lovable's great. Suno's great for making music.
1:00:52
There's so many. You know, it's interesting.
1:00:56
I was telling somebody something I think last week that last year
1:01:02
I was primarily using charity, but I don't understand, it feels
1:01:07
like Gemini just came from behind and just like sort of
1:01:11
overtook charity because the, the level of improvements that
1:01:16
I'm seeing on Gemini, I'm like, oh, this thing is on steroids.
1:01:21
This thing, you know, it's on PEDs, you know, performance
1:01:25
enhancing drugs. That that's just what I'll say.
1:01:27
You know, I'm not paid by, I'm not paid by Google or open AI.
1:01:32
But I just have to say the truth, right?
1:01:34
Gemini has made massive, massive improvements in like very recent
1:01:38
time. And you know, I'm happy with it.
1:01:41
So #4 What is the biggest mistake that founders make with
1:01:46
AI? Probably thinking it's a tool
1:01:48
and not recognising it as an amplifier and a Co worker.
1:01:51
That's the big one. It's the it's the framing.
1:01:54
They're not thinking about it the right way.
1:01:57
Interesting, so #4 what is 1 skill that will dominate the
1:02:01
next decade? Entrepreneurialism.
1:02:04
AI is a creates a lot of opportunity for frustrated
1:02:10
entrepreneurs who were not able to get funding, not able to
1:02:12
build what they what their vision was, because AI makes it
1:02:16
so much easier to do both. It helps you build value very
1:02:21
quickly, to scale very quickly, and it also unlocks funding for
1:02:25
you. Yeah, very, very cheap.
1:02:27
And of course the last one is in one sentence.
1:02:31
The future belongs to who? The future belongs to people.
1:02:38
That's as simple as it. And that's how I end all my
1:02:40
keynotes. I explained this dramatic
1:02:43
landscape of change. And at the end of it, my closing
1:02:46
line is the future is still human, assuming that we all
1:02:50
decide to make it. So if we do this right, we're
1:02:54
going to we're going to amplify humanity.
1:02:57
We're going to liberate people and free people up to do more of
1:03:01
the things that they enjoy doing.
1:03:02
One of the things that AI could do is it's it's very
1:03:06
deflationary. It could drop the cost because
1:03:09
the most of the cost of goods and services is labour.
1:03:12
If you remove labour from that equation, then things get much
1:03:15
cheaper and much more accessible to all of us.
1:03:19
Elon Musk talks about universal high income.
1:03:22
We could get to a point where we're all living like kings and
1:03:26
that could happen quite quickly if we get this right.
1:03:30
Amazing, amazing tape. And of course, you know, for
1:03:33
those people who want to learn more about your body of work and
1:03:37
explore ways to collaborate with you, where is the best place to
1:03:41
connect with you? You just want to find me is my
1:03:43
website Steve Brown dot AI. You can find me on LinkedIn.
1:03:48
There are many Steve Browns. I do not have a very unique
1:03:51
name, so look for Steve Brown, AI Futurist, or you can go to
1:03:55
linkedin.com/IN/future Steve and that's how you'll find me.
1:04:01
And the third way, check out my book.
1:04:04
I wrote this for leaders who need help figuring out this AI
1:04:07
transformation thing. It's written in plain language,
1:04:10
straightforward, and it walks you through with recipes on how
1:04:13
to do AI transformation and how to maintain relevance and thrive
1:04:18
in the AI era. So I hope you'll enjoy it.
1:04:21
Amazing SLR. I hope the book is available on
1:04:24
Amazon. Can we have the Amazon link in
1:04:27
the description? Oh yeah, I'll get that to you.
1:04:29
No worries. OK, OK, amazing.
1:04:31
So I always say this when a person shares their time with
1:04:36
you, they share their life with you because the SI unit for
1:04:40
measuring life this time and of course gratitude is good
1:04:44
attitude. So for me to you.
1:04:46
It's a great way to put it. And respect, thank you very much
1:04:50
for for sharing your time on your life today.
1:04:52
Thanks man, I really enjoyed that.
1:04:53
That was great fun. I really enjoyed chatting with
1:04:55
you. Thanks for having.
1:04:56
Me OK, thank you very much and of course to the audience, you
1:04:59
know what to do guys like subscribe, share with your
1:05:02
network and of course always go for something in your lives
1:05:05
right and see believe strata pride and go achieve.
1:05:10
Till next time it's bye and of course from Steve Brown, it's a
1:05:14
goodbye as well. Take care guys.