Juliette Powell is the founder and managing partner of Kleiner Powell International [KPI], a New York City-based consultancy. As a consultant at the intersection of responsible technology and business, she has advised large companies and governments on how to deal with the accelerating change underway due to AI-enabled technological innovation coupled with shifting social dynamics and heightened global competition. She’s also on the faculty at New York University and teaches in the Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Art Kleiner is a writer, lecturer, and consultant with a background in management, interactive media, corporate environmentalism, scenario planning, and organizational learning. He is a co-author (with Pete Senge et al.) of the best-selling Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, The Dance of Change, and Schools That Learn; and author of Who Really Matters: The Core Group Theory of Power, Privilege, and Success. Since 1986, he has taught in New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Juliette and Art co-authored a new book, The AI Dilemma: 7 Principles for Responsible Technology.

Listen and learn

• How Juliette and Art started their careers
• The Principles of Responsible Technology
• What could happen if AI became sentient?
• How can we prevent AI from reinforcing negative biases and discrimination?
• How people and organizations can practice better ethics when leveraging AI?
• What will it take to engrain more ethical, equity-oriented thinking into business education?
• Much more

Dave Kellogg is an advisor, director, consultant, angel investor, and blogger focused on enterprise software startups.  He’s the executive-in-residence (EIR) at Balderton Capital and the principal of his own eponymous consulting business.

He brings an uncommon perspective to startup challenges having 10 years’ experience at each of the CEO, CMO, and independent director levels across 10+ companies ranging in size from zero to over $1B in revenues.

Dave also authors the Kellblog which covers topics related to starting, leading, and scaling enterprise software startups including strategy, marketing, positioning, messaging, management, go-to-market, SaaS metrics, and venture capital financing.

Listen and learn

• How Dave did with last year’s predictions
• What’s ahead for the venture capital ecosystem in a post ZIRP environment
• How CIOs are investing in automation
• What to expect from the big LLM vendors
• What’s ahead for AI and copyright protection in 2024
• And much more…

References in this episode…

• Kellblog — https://kellblog.com/
• Amr Awadallah, Vectara CEO, on AI and the Future of Work

Navrina Singh is the Founder and CEO of Credo AI, a Governance SaaS platform empowering enterprises to deliver Responsible AI. A technology leader with over 18+ years of experience in Enterprise SaaS, AI and Mobile, Navrina has held multiple product and business leadership roles at Microsoft and Qualcomm.

Navrina and the team have been on a mission to help organizations create AI that adheres to the most ethical standards since March 2020. Credo has raised over $13 million from an impressive list of investors that includes Decibel Partners, Sands Capital Ventures, and the AI Fund, among others. Navrina is a member of the national AI advisory committee and is a world Economic Forum global leader. Prepare to be inspired.

Adam Wenchel is the CEO of Arthur, a company with a platform that gives you an immediate comprehensive AI performance solution across LLMs, Computer Vision, Tabular Data, and NLP.

Adam and the team have been making AI observable for almost 5 years with Arthur. Arthur has raised over $60 million from a legendary group of investors including Index Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Work-Bench, and others. An equal list of impressive customers they’ve served includes Humana and Plaid, among others.

Wipro is one of the largest providers of tech and tech services in the world with more than 250,000 employees. It was started in 1945 and is now the third largest software company in India with a market cap of more than $27B.

We’re lucky to be joined today by the leader driving Wipro’s technology vision. Subha Tatavarti joined Wipro as Chief Technology Officer in March 2021 after a distinguished career in tech leadership roles at companies like Walmart and PayPal where she led the product, data, and infrastructure teams. Subha holds a Masters in Computer Science. She’s an avid hiker and enjoys trail running and books on philosophy.

Sean Behr is the CEO of Fountain, the company transforming the hiring process for hourly workers. Sean and the team have helped more than 80M applicants in 75 countries at places like Stitch Fix, sweetgreen, and gopuff. Fountain has raised $225M to date most recently through a $100M series C last June from an amazing list of investors including B Capital Group, SoftBank, DCM, and Uncork Capital.

Sean joined Fountain as CEO in 2020 after founding fleet infrastructure platform Stratim, serving as SVP of Adap.tv through its acquisition by AOL, and holding various management roles at Shopping.com.

Listen and learn…

1. How Sean is creating opportunities for frontline workers around the world
2. What’s uniquely challenging about hiring frontline vs. knowledge workers
3. How long before robots will replace human frontline workers
4. The ethical implications of using AI in hiring
5. What biases are embedded in the hiring process… without AI
6. Why the future of hiring… is more human thanks to AI

References in this episode…

1. May Habib, Writer CEO, on AI and the Future of Work
2. Josh Bersin, HRTech pioner, on AI and the Future of Work
3. Why every organization needs a Chief Ethics Officer

Dr. John Boudreau is a luminary in the future of work academic community. He has published more than 50 books and articles. His scholarly research is published in Management Science, Academy of Management Executives, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Personnel Psychology. Features on his work have appeared in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Fast Company and Business Week, among others.

Dr. Boudreau helped  establish and then directed the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS), at Cornell University, where he was a professor for over 20 years, before his current position as Research Director for the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California.

Thanks to friend of the podcast David Creelman for the intro to Dr. Boudreau!

Listen and learn…

1. How Dr. Boudreau got his start as an academic in HRTech
2. What inspired Dr. Boudreau to make work life better for employees everywhere
3. How Dr. Boudreau defines work (the most enlightened definition we’ve heard)
4. How to build high-functioning teams
5. Why diverse teams don’t perform better
6. How alternative work and workers are redefining the labor force
7. Why jobs don’t equal work and degrees don’t equal jobs
8. What does it mean to be human when your colleague is a bot
9. Why ATM machines led to more human bank tellers being hired
10. About the rise of internal talent marketplaces
11. Which skills AI will never automate

References in this episode…

• Mark McCrindle on AI and the Future of Work
• Bryan Talebi from Ahura on AI and the Future of Work
• Kamal Ahluwalia from Eightfold on AI and the Future of Work
• Work without Jobs, Dr. Boudreau’s most recent book
• The Center for Effective Organizations 
• Using AI as a co-pilot for songwriting

Amr and I met on a genAI panel and everything he said was both insightful and contrarian. Immediately, I knew I wanted to introduce him to you. Amr is a legend in the search space who, by the way, also founded Cloudera which went public in 2017 at a valuation of over $5B.

Dr. Amr Awadallah is a luminary in the world of information retrieval. He’s the CEO and cofounder of Vectara, a company that is revolutionizing how we find meaning across all languages of the world using the latest advances in Deep Neural Networks, Large Language Models, and Natural Language Processing. He previously served as VP of Developer Relations for Google Cloud. Prior to joining Google in Nov 2019, Amr co-founded Cloudera in 2008 and as Global CTO. He also served as vice president of product intelligence engineering at Yahoo! from 2000-2008. Amr received his PhD in EE from Stanford University, and his Bachelor and Masters Degrees from Cairo University, Egypt.

Listen and learn…

1. How Amr discovered the power of “talking to software” via LLMs while at Google
2. About the history of new computing modalities
3. About the current state of generative AI
4. The technical explanation for hallucination in LLMs
5. How do we mitigate bias in LLM models and prevent copyright infringement
6. Why a semantic understanding of queries is the next frontier in search
7. The challenge faced by search providers of making money incorporating ads into LLM-based answers
8. How “grounded search” will fix the hallucination problem
9. What is a “fact” in the era of ChatGPT?
10. How long before we have “antivirus sofware for fact-checking” genAI propaganda
11. How should AI be regulated… and who is responsible for AI regulation
12. The next big idea in genAI Amr and I are ready to fund
13. Amr’s advice to entrepreneurs… and to himself

References in this episode…

1. Eric Olson, Consensus CEO, on AI and the Future of Work
2. D Das, Sorcero CEO, on AI and the Future of Work
3. Seth Earley, Earley Information Science, on AI and the Future of Work
4. ChatGPT for searching scientific papers

Today’s guest is one of the most respected thought leaders in the HR and HRTech space. Josh Bersin’s name is synomous with HR thought leadership. He first started covering the space in 2001 before selling Bersin & Associates to Deloitte in 2012. His current namesake company, The Josh Bersin Company, hosts the popular annual conference Irresistible and is a prolific publisher of content related to the future of work, talent management, corporate learning, and leadership.

Josh is also the author of the popular book Irresistible: The Seven Secrets of the World’s Most Enduring, Employee-Focused Organizations, which was published in 2022. Oh, and he also hosts a great podcast. I always enjoy his candid commentary on HRTech.

Listen and learn…

1. The single employee behavior that most impacts productivity
2. What people practice surprised Josh most about what distinguishes leading from lagging companies
3. How “taking care of people” saved many companies during the pandemic
4. The HRTech innovation that improves the employee experience most
5. Why employees took back power from employers… and insisted on better tools
6. Where are there opportunities to innovate in HRTech
7. How AI “meets people in the flow of work”
8. How talent intelligence is assisting HR leaders
9. Why employees shouldn’t feel threatened by AI
10. Why what Josh calls “organizational ingenuity” is more important than having the best tech skills
11. The future of work, according to Josh

References in this episode…

• Mark McCrindle on AI and the Future of Work
• Dr. John Boudreau on AI and the Future of Work
• Gary Bolles on AI and the Future of Work
• Josh’s book Irresistible
• Josh’s podcast
• Why are LLMs getting dumber?

Today’s guest is a General Partner at Foundation Capital, one of the most iconic venture capital firms in the world. Foundation has found and funded companies like Netflix, Solana, Jasper, and the list goes on.

Joanne Chen began her investing career at Foundation in 2014 and has sourced and advised an incredible group of companies including Tonkean, Tubi, and CaptivateIQ. Joanne received her BS in EE and CS from Cal and her MBA from the University of Chicago. She’s also a popular TEDx speaker.

Today we get a master class on how the best are adapting to one of the most challenging venture investing climates in decades. Joanne and I met on a panel discussion a few months back . I’ve been looking forward to introducing her to our community.

Listen and learn…

1. Joanne’s perspective on the euphoria surrounding GenAI
2. What’s different about investing in AI post-ChatGPT
3. Why AI tools are increasing the pace of innovation
4. The difference between crypto and AI investing
5. What responsible AI means to Joanne
6. Joanne’s advice to “AI entrepreneurs” pitching venture investors
7. How long before AI will take Joanne’s job

References in this episode…

1. Ashu Garg on AI and the Future of Work
2. Joanne’s TEDx talk: Confessions of an AI Investor
3. Joanne’s TEDx talk: Why AI Promises a Brighter Future
4. The ethical implications of using AI in healthcare

BRUCE FEILER is one of America’s most thoughtful voices on contemporary life. He is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers, including LIFE IS IN THE TRANSITIONS,  THE SECRETS OF HAPPY FAMILIES, and COUNCIL OF DADS. His three TED Talks have been viewed more than four million times, and he teaches the TED Course HOW TO MASTER LIFE TRANSITIONS. His latest book, THE SEARCH: Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World (May 2023), is a bold new roadmap for finding meaning and purpose at work.

A longtime columnist at the New York Times, Bruce now writes the popular newsletter THE NONLINEAR LIFE. He has appeared in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and Gourmet, where he won three James Beard Awards. A former circus clown, he has been the subject of a Jay Leno joke and a JEOPARDY! question, and his face appears on a postage stamp in the Grenadines.

Listen and learn…

1. Bruce’s search for meaning in the face of setbacks and challenges
2. How to reconcile our complicated relationship with work and our personal search for meaning
3. Bruce’s “three lies and a truth about work”
4. How to identify what brings you meaning
5. The four historical changes in the nature of work
6. Why it’s important to “ignore the lessons of your parents”
7. The one thing we know about AI and the future of work

References in this episode…

• Bill Davidow on AI and the Future of Work
• Dr. Meredith Broussard on AI and the Future of Work
• Linda Rottenberg on AI and the Future of Work
• How soon before LLMs replace human comedians?

Josh Drean is Co-founder & Director of Employee Experience at The Work3 Institute, AI + Work Advisor at the Harvard Innovation Labs, and Co-author of Employment is Dead (Harvard Business Review Press, 2024)

His work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company, and The Economist and he has made appearances on The Today Show, NBC, and FOX Business. He speaks internationally to bring work tech insights to digital-first leaders who value human-centric work experiences.

Listen and learn…

• How AI is changing our relationship with work
• Work 3… vs. work 1 and work 2
• How the metaverse is enabling a global talent marketplace
• What RTW is doing to the relationship between employees and employers
• Why “employment is dead”… but we’ll soon enjoy work more as a result
• “There are two camps… those who are embracing AI… and those who will become obsolete.”
• Why employee surveillance is the wrong approach
• Why “passion is future-proof”

References in this episode…

• Josh Bersin on AI and the Future of Work
• Gary Bolles on AI and the Future of Work
• James Lawton from Zebra on AI and the Future of Work
• AI Snake Oil by Princeton Professor Arvind Narayanan
• Josh Drean on YouTube

For the past several years, Paul Allen has been on a new adventure having founded Soar.com in 2017. He and the team are connecting employees to stories from trusted sources to help them make better, more informed decisions.

Soar indexes millions of hours of video and audio content in domains as diverse as academic lectures, political hearings, and stump speeches. Not surprisingly, he and the team are using AI to make all that content discoverable and accessible.

Paul is a sought after speaker, a director of the Human Justice Foundation, and is one of the most mission-driven entrepreneurs of our generation.

Listen and learn…

• Paul’s number one business lesson
• How Paul “uplifts humanity” with AI
• Why the “factory education system” doesn’t work
• Why AGI won’t be the end of civilization
• How an AI studio for audio transcription works
• The role of CitizenGPT… and why it won’t hallucinate
• How AI is restoring lost human connections
• How to detect and mitigate the danger of deepfake video content using a blockchain
• What it means to be an ethical publisher of content in the age of AI
• Paul’s (not so obvious) secret to success

References in this episode…

• Guillermo Corea from SHRM on AI and the Future of Work
• The current state of AI ethics
• Sanchez’ WHY Institute
• Sarah Allen, acclaimed author (and Paul’s daughter)
• The autobiography of Booker T. Washington

Today’s guest is making that vision a reality. Denise Hemke is the Chief Product Officer at Checkr, the amazing company making employee screening more fair for everyone. Checkr has raised nearly $700M since its founding in 2014. Denise heads up product management, design, and program management after having served in various leadership roles at Workday, including most recently GM for Analytics. Denise is also the San Francisco chapter lead for the excellent organization Products That Count started by friend of the podcast SC Moatti.

Listen and learn…

• How to fix the broken background check process
• How to give candidates with non-traditional backgrounds access to the labor force
• How technology is making the hiring process more fair and helping workers get paid faster
• How to use AI to reduce bias in hiring decisions
• How AI used for background checks should be regulated
• What Denise learned about building customer communities as a General Manager at Workday

References in this episode…

• Mustafa Suleyman’s new Turing test
• Kamal Ahluwalia, former President of Eightfold, on AI and the Future of Work
• Giselle Mota from ADP on AI and the Future of Work

Tyler Foster is the CTO of Evolv AI, a platform that helps brands improve conversion and experiment faster. He started the company with CEO Michael Scharff in 2019 and together they’ve grown it into an early leader in AI-first digital experimentation having helped brands like Safelite, DirectTV, and Verizon. Prior to Evolv AI, Tyler was the founding CEO and Chief Architect of Senient Systems and an early Software Engineer at Cloudera.

Listen and learn…

• How a farmhand and SCUBA diver became an AI developer
• How AI is helping brands target consumers
• The tradeoff between personalization and data collection
• How to eliminate bias in automated decisions
• Will AI eliminate creative jobs?
• How society needs to adapt to new definitions of work imposed by AI
• Why we need to disconnect ideas from tools and processes
• What does it mean that we’re entering a “post-truth” era?
• Why AI is more fair than humans

References in this episode…

• Meredith Broussard on AI and the Future of Work
• Diane Keng from Breinify on AI and the Future of Work
• Are AI-generated ads more or less effective?
• Evolv.ai

Sierra has one of the strongest future of work and AI portfolios that includes companies like Paro, Krisp, and SupportLogic which acquired Emtropy Labs which was founded by great former guest Harish Batlapenamurthy. In full disclosure, Sierra and I are both investors in ArmorCode.

Listen and learn…

• Why the most successful venture investors were previously entrepreneurs
• Tim’s thesis for investing in gen AI customer journey company Simulate
• How Tim identifies “gen AI whitewashing” when hearing pitches
• Why gen AI is more than just another platform shift
• How gen AI startups can beat Big Tech incumbents
• Why all companies are ultimately “financial products”
• Sierra’s primary data from CIOs: “…they’re spending money on use cases that unlock employee productivity”
• What Tim means by “build horizontally but execute vertically”
• Which jobs AI will eliminate vs. augment
• Tim’s “one that got away” pitch from his early days at Sierra

References in this episode…

• According to CNBC, 69% of U.S. adults are uncomfortable with AI that can mimic human thinking
• Ashu Garg from Foundation Capital on AI and the Future of Work
• Rory O’Driscoll from Scale Venture Partners on AI and the Future of Work
• Sierra Ventures

Since then, he and the team have enabled organizations like Cisco, Credit Karma, and ByteDance to collaborate in shared workspaces.

Adam has raised more than $40M to date across two rounds from a legendary group of investors that includes Floodgate, Tiger Global, and General Catalyst. Prior to Almanac, Adam did his undergrad at Duke and he received his MBA from Harvard. He’s also an active volunteer for The Salvation Army.

Listen and learn…

• How being a product manager at Apple and Lyft inspired Adam to start a company to avoid wasting time at work
• What’s unique about remote-first work
• Why remote teams need structure and transparency to be productive
• How to eliminate time wasted in meetings without losing opportunities to build trusted relationships
• How to charge for new LLM features in SaaS products
• Why we tolerate LLM hallucinations
• Where there’s a gap in the market for a better collaboration experience
• What Adam has learned from his entrepreneurial journey

References in this episode…

• Jordan Husney from Parabol  on AI and the Future of Work
• Darren Murph from GitLab on AI and the Future of Work
• Why we need to shut down AI development to prevent AGI
• Almanac.io

He holds 57’ patents, is a senior member of IEEE, received his PhD in ’98 from UCLA, and was awarded Qualcomm’s IP excellence award. Durga’s list of accolades and accomplishments goes on for days. We’re all fortunate to learn from a wireless pioneer and true tech legend.

Listen and learn…

• Durga’s insights from more than 25 years pioneering wireless technology
• An insider’s view of Qualcomm’s formula for success
• How networks and chips enabled the birth of the smartphone
• Qualcomm’s AI roadmap
• How soon we can expect LLMs running locally on phones
• How AI takes advantage of the unique capabilities of 5G networks
• How to figure out what transactions happen on the device vs. in the cloud
• How LLM fine-tuning may soon happen on the edge of the network or on the device
• What size LLMs can be run locally while managing power consumption
• How to improve consumer trust in LLMs

References in this episode…

• JP Vasseur from Cisco on AI and the Future of Work
• Rene Steenvorden from Randstad on AI and the Future of Work
• How OpenAI’s code interpreter is disrupting the field of Data Science