S1:Ep88 AI Doomers vs. AI Optimists: Shaping the Future of Human Civilization

Let’s take a closer look at how we are shaping the future of human civilization together with my amazing guest from Philadelphia, the United States – Geoffrey Klein, a TED Talk speaker, best-selling author, professor, and expert in AI, visual communication, and storytelling.

Geoffrey holds an executive certification from MIT in AI and its Implications for Business Strategy and teaches at Temple University, and the Wharton School,  continuously exploring the intersection of communication, creativity, and technology.

As the President & CEO of Nine Dots Media, Geoffrey helps brands and leaders communicate more effectively through the power of story and design – transforming complexity into clarity.

Geoffrey is a part of the Diamond Executive Council of the AI Game Changers Club - an elite tribe of visionary leaders redefining the rules and shaping the future of human–AI synergy.

Geoffrey's mission is simple yet profound: to make communication better and connections deeper.

Key topics discussed:

• AI Doomers vs AI Optimists
• Human–AI coexistence
• AI ethics and responsibility
• Leadership in the AI era
• Storytelling and technology narratives
• Emotional intelligence and AI
• Human-centric AI design
• Media influence on AI perception
• Future of work and civilization
• Conscious AI adoption

🔗 Connect with Geoffrey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ggklein/

🔗 Check out Geoffrey's TEDx: https://geoffreyspeaks.com/ 

🔗 Learn more: https://ninedotsmedia.com/

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Guest Introduction
• 2:17 Jeffrey’s Path: Story Meets Tech
• 4:42 Anxiety, Excitement, And The AI Shift
• 7:43 Choice, Responsibility, And Long-Term Thinking
• 10:43 Media Narratives And Making Hope Compelling
• 13:52 Balanced Storytelling And Reducing Polarization
• 16:47 Guardrails, Regulation, And Common Sense
• 19:24 Leadership Values: Rewarding EQ And Ethics
• 22:15 A 2030 Vision Of Human–AI Synergy
• 25:24 Unlearning Efficiency-Only Thinking
• 28:00 People First, AI Forward, And AI Ready
• 30:18 Closing Reflections And Invitation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hello and welcome to Digital Transformation and AI for Humans with your host Amy. In this podcast, we'll delve into how technology intersects with leadership, innovation, and most importantly, the human spirit. Each episode features visionary leaders who understand that at the heart of success is the human touch, nurturing a winning mindset, fostering emotional intelligence, and building resilient teams. AI doomers versus AI optimists. Which side are you on? Let's take a closer look at how we are shaping the future of human civilization together with my amazing guest from Philadelphia, the United States, Jeffrey Klein, a TED talk speaker, best-selling author, professor, and expert in AI, visual communication, and storytelling. Jeffrey holds an executive certification from MIT in AI and its implications for business strategy and teaches at Temple University and the Wharton School, continuously exploring the intersection of communication, creativity, and technology. As the president and CEO of Nine Dots Media, Jeffrey helps brands and leaders communicate more effectively through the power of story and design, transforming complexity into clarity. His mission is simple yet profound to make communication better and connections deeper. Welcome Jeffrey. I'm so happy having you here today.

SPEAKER_01: 1:36

Thank you very much for having me, I mean.

SPEAKER_00: 1:39

Let's start the conversation and transform not just our technologies, but our ways of thinking and leading. If you are interested in connecting or collaborating, you can find more information in the description. And don't forget to subscribe for more powerful episodes. If you are a leader, business owner, or investor ready to adapt, thrive, and lead with clarity, purpose, and wisdom in the era of AI, I would love to invite you to learn more about the AI Game Changers, a global elite club for visionary trailblazers and change makers shaping the future. You can apply at AIGamechangers.club. Jeffrey, to start with, I would love to learn more about your journey and hear more about you. Could you please share a few words about what brought you to where you are today and all of your passions?

SPEAKER_01: 2:33

Thank you so much, Emmy. I think about what brought me here today is I guess the combination of my love of story and technology. For me, I'm a big fan of movies, and so I've always found stories to be compelling. Growing up, my father and grandfather were judges, and we would have dinners almost once a week. And in the dining table, they would sit across from each other at both sides and swap stories. And so this was their way of connecting with one another. And I got a seat at the table. So as a little kid growing up, I saw the power of how stories can really transform conversations and thinking and feel it. It really has the ability to tap into all the different parts of what makes us human. And so I've been fortunate that I've worked in the film industry. I produce videos. My world is about the power of story, and I love that. But I'm also kind of an early adopter. I love technology. I actually have a term for myself, an NTG, which is a non-technical geek. Because, well, I'm not a coder and I'm not a designer. I love what technology, I love what creativity can do. And so for me, that's always been a driving force about thinking about what's possible. You know, I consider myself an idea guy. And what I love about technology is I can take these sometimes crazy ideas and you know execute them out and see whether they really were a good idea or not sometimes. But as I've developed my interest and skills in telling and shaping stories, it has been a parallel journey in terms of my interest in technology and what it can do to help tell those stories.

SPEAKER_00: 4:16

This is such a beautiful story of your life and how you came to what you are doing today, but that's so true. Those areas are truly captivating, and uh I have a lot of passion for them myself. So I understand why you are focusing on those areas because they are truly impactful and truly exciting. Jeffrey, as we move toward 2030, we're seeing both anxiety and excitement intensify around artificial intelligence. It's difficult to look forward five years ahead, but from your perspective, how do you interpret these global trends and what do they reveal about where humanity truly stands in its relationship with technology?

SPEAKER_01: 5:10

We are at a very interesting time. We're in a you know human transformation and transition. So that in 20 years from now, we'll look back at this period of time and it'll be like one of those shifts, whether it was, you know, think about the industrial revolution, think about the internet age, and then we'll have you know the age of technology or AI. And we're living through it, and it's kind of like being in the eye of the storm where you can't necessarily see what's coming, you know, it's swirling around fast, and you're trying to kind of stay calm, and there's a lot of unknowns, which that's where I think a lot of the anxiety comes from is the uncertainty, is like, I don't even know if I'm gonna have a job, or I don't even know what you know my life is gonna look like. And I think about all the different times that people have fought ahead, and you have people who are kind of the visionaries who can see one version of the of the future, but most of us can't get past what I'm doing tomorrow, let alone what's happening in three years from now. So I think there is excitement and there is uh anxiety, and in any big moment of change, you those two things are gonna operate sometimes at the same time with the same person. There's a very fine line between excitement and fear. Um, and I think they are versions of the same kind of emotion change, you know, something is going, is shifting, and we're not quite sure how to handle it emotionally, uh, let alone all the other ways that we deal with it. But I think the shift is inevitable. And that when I hear people who are, you know, kind of AI doomers, my feeling about it is the genie's out of the bottle. You know, we don't have a choice to put them back. You know, it's moving fast, and there's enough momentum from a lot of people with power and money and opportunity that if we don't embrace it, you're gonna end up going the way of the dodo, you know, extinct, uh, whether that's in your business. So I think the choice is we have to evolve, you know, and it's kind of that, yeah. I think about it almost in those kind of human uh biological perspectives, you know, the kind of um Darwinistic kind of how do we adapt and change to survive? Uh, I would look at tweaking that, you know, he could his book was called Survival of the Fittest. And so for me, the the challenge is no, I don't want to survive, I want to throg. So, how do we learn to use these tools to make life as great as we can imagine? And I think that's the big change, too, is now it's about we can imagine things that we couldn't have up until the last few years. Some of those science fiction type things, uh, good and bad, are now possible.

SPEAKER_00: 8:26

I agree with everything you just mentioned, and I still think we have to dig one step deeper and highlight that it's not only about learning how to use those tools, but it's also about learning how to take responsibility for using those tools and how to think long-term, not only in terms of tactical activities and roadmaps, even if they cover longer periods of time, but we need to start seeing the bigger picture and understand how those technologies can change our life one way or another, because right now we are at the crossroads, and I feel that the evolution from here can go both ways. So, still most of those who are using AI they are using it applying the old paradigm of thinking, of acting, of running business, and that's something we have to work on, and uh that's why I'm doing what I'm doing, and appreciate what you're doing because I feel that you are also bringing a lot of light into this space where we really have our choice still, a certain extent at least, to how we are going to rewrite this story.

SPEAKER_01: 9:58

Yeah, I love I love the fact that you're talking about the choice, because in every circumstance, in every situation, I believe one of the things that kind of makes us human is that ability to make a choice. And sometimes choice is not making a choice, there's not doing anything. Sometimes making a choice can be about going to the unknown, taking that leap of faith. So I think in every situation where there's big change, we have a choice to embrace it, we have a choice to ignore it, and if we embrace it, we have a choice how we're gonna embrace it. So I think in terms of yes, I want to clarify we need to not only learn how to use AI, but we need how to learn to use AI for the most benefit to humanity. And that's you know, talk about big picture. But that that is how people, so you know, especially people in leadership roles who are looking to make this change, need to look at it with the most optimistic positive results they can. Uh, I often, you know, I'm a very positive person, and my my feeling is that there's enough negativity in the world, I choose not to add to it when I can. And so I think we need to A use our critical thinking skills to think about okay, what is the desired scenario? And then reverse engineer how do we get there? What can we do proactively about how we approach these things, about how we develop these things, about how we share these things with people so that we get to the best scenario and minimize the risks that are inherent in them. There are challenges to new technology, they're challenges to everything. Well, you have to kind of lean in and put your best foot forward and both plan and then have it, the flexibility to adjust. Well, you have you have a guide of where you're gonna go, and then oh wait, something's come up now. You need to kind of shift a little bit, um, but always with the the goal in mind of what you want the future to look like.

SPEAKER_00: 12:09

Totally, and adaptability is so important today and even more so tomorrow. And it's not just about choosing how we want to agree doing things, but sometimes it is about disagreeing and refusing applying AI to certain cases in certain situations and still keeping some areas of our life more human, more connected in a different way outside of the digital space. So I think now we can choose what to accept and what to not accept, and uh that's also the beauty of it. And maybe we are already on the edge of that history where there are not as many choices as we can imagine, but still we have some choice, and it's up to us to decide how we want to move forward.

SPEAKER_01: 13:12

I think we have more choice than people recognize. So I think that some of the kind of fear-mongering that's going on with the hype of AI and the fear of AI makes us feel like we don't have the ability to do something, and we always do. Um, I think it's gonna be, yes, we probably can't go backwards in some ways. But I actually think that some things that have been meaningful for us for a long time that maybe we've lost sight of, you know, not forget about AI. If you think about digital technology and how that's made us more disconnected because we're staring, you know, at our phones and all the rest of it. There's opportunity to shift how we approach generally how we behave in the organized society, and the AI is a part of how we approach that, to make those choices to elevate humanity and the role of connecting with people.

SPEAKER_00: 14:10

This is so precious, and uh, I totally agree with you. Jeffrey, you've built your career helping people communicate with purpose and impact. How do the stories we tell about AI influence what humanity ultimately chooses to create? Speaking about choices, I like this conversation. So tell us more, please.

SPEAKER_01: 14:36

So storytelling is super powerful, and I believe it's the best way to communicate to to connect with people, therefore, there's a responsibility for us to choose the right stories and the way that we share it. That is, you know, you have optimist, you have pessimist, and then you have realist. And I think that's what's missing sometimes is we we as a society more and more seem to go to the the polarization of whatever idea it is. So I think the the power of storytelling needs to be applied to give a realistic view, a balanced view, that doesn't you know deny the risks and the challenges, but also celebrates the possibilities and the positivity that it can have. It's not easy.

SPEAKER_00: 15:37

This is not easy, but at the same time, it is critical. So we truly need to work on developing this ability and uh just focusing in a purposeful way on what really matters. So what you just highlighted is very important, and it's up to us to choose how we are going to navigate this space. But still, it is also important to support each other because we are still not aligned in this story, and I see that somebody's running faster, somebody is very much behind, and the reasons are different, but still we should think about how great it is to create the future all together for all of us, and uh still make sure to not create that huge gap while we have those powerful technologies, because today the gap might become bigger than ever, and that's what we already see is a gap between different generations, between different cultures, between different values, between different approaches, and it's very different from the times we were born and uh were children. These times are so different, and we've seen the world without digital solutions, we've seen the world with the beginning of this shift, and today it's incredible what we are witnessing, and actually we are leading the change, so it's also about our responsibility and uh the bigger picture, what we want to create. And in this case, fear tends to sell. We see a lot of fear, a lot of scarcity, a lot of rage, which is creating those uh cliques and that hype. But hope inspires action. When we look at AI doomers versus AI optimists, which narrative do you believe will define this next chapter of human evolution and why?

SPEAKER_01: 17:54

Well, I certainly hope that the narrative about hope you know triumphs over fear. Uh I have uh uh heard in my kind of realm of the power of story is facts tell, stories sell. So therefore, it's about what it you need to make sure that the hope story is powerful and it needs to be one that embraces all the sides. So I don't think being optimistic means that you ignore the risks and the challenges, it's that in spite of the risks and the challenges, you believe in the best outcome. And I think that's the story that we'll win in the end, one that acknowledges that there are things we need to be mindful of. We need to acknowledge that there are risks, and then we need to embrace the challenge to get to the possibility of all the powerful things that can be created, developed, uh, and achieved with this incredible technology. So I I kind of think that there's a the story that wins is kind of maybe I often say cautious optimism. So it's not, you know, it's not blind optimism where we just go, everything's gonna be great. Um we go, yeah, there was definitely some challenges, but we're gonna make sure that we push ahead to make this a positive, beneficial, you know, ending to the story.

SPEAKER_00: 19:31

I'm looking forward to this, and uh you described it in such a beautiful way. I think this caution's optimism is really what we need to apply because uh it is important to keep high frequencies while rewriting the narrative and creating our future, but at the same time, we have to keep in mind that this is a powerful tool, a powerful. Toy we're playing with, and it can be used in different ways, in the same way as anything else, actually. So so much depends on our fantasy, on our creativity, and on our goal setting. So, what do we want to achieve? How we want to see the change that will define a lot of how the future will look like. In that context, I'm thinking directly about media influencers and business leaders. They are all shaping the collective story. How can they move from amplifying fear and hype to cultivating awareness and responsibility in a genuinely human-centric way?

SPEAKER_01: 20:47

To me, this is one of the biggest challenges for people understanding, embracing, and leveraging the power of AI. Because while journalists and newsmakers for many years were kind of arbiters of truth, and they would just tell the facts and they wouldn't have too much of a political bent one way or the other. That's just not the case as we are here. Again, the the media is doing, in my opinion, more harm than good because of the nature of clickbait of headlines, uh, of things that don't share the larger nuances, the deeper story. We're you know, we're a sound bite, you know, scanned culture, or we'll read a headline and accept it as truth without ever really questioning it. And I think that therefore, while I believe media leaders, influencers, and general business leaders have that responsibility, I don't think they're all taking it seriously. And I'm not sure how that's gonna change because attention is the you know the most precious commodity. And unfortunately, we sometimes pander to the kind of negative fear mongering tactics because they've been shown to be successful in capturing that attention. So we have to think of new and innovative ways to make hope sexy, as weird as that may sound, to make hope, you know, worthy of our attention. And I think it's you know, sharing really genuine human stories. We need to have more stories about how AI has really transformed a society, a culture, a city, an organization in the best possible way. And, you know, I think one of the things that if you look at that doesn't get as much attention as I think maybe it should, you know, about the scientific breakthroughs in terms of what AI is gonna do. It is, in my I believe AI will cure diseases. I think that's an inevitable or at least helped accelerate our ability to cure diseases. We don't hear about that story that much, you know, despite the fact that you know Demas Asabis, who the founder of Google DeepMind won a Nobel Prize in chemistry because of the AI work and Alpha Fold and all these things that are advancing things in ways that couldn't have been done and definitely could not have been done. It's being done in a fraction of the time to help humanity on those very basic things. But no, we're looking at, you know, oh look, you know, here's here's a silly video about Sam Altman, you know, screaming and shouting, those kind of shiny objects that kind of distract us from the deeper stories. And I think eventually it's a need for educational systems, for individuals, for leaders to push to have better stories. And that that's the reality is to have better stories about AI. We need to start sharing stories that are balanced and positive because there's a there are a lot of them, you know, in terms of whether it can help with uh curing diseases, scientific things, just you know, human. There's plenty of good that's coming out of AI, and I feel like the media is A looking for the negative, as they do in any area, and B sharing one element of a story that doesn't really do justice to what's going on. It's a big problem. I don't know. My feeling again is that we individually and collectively, those of us that really care and are in a position to share, need to talk about the stories of where AI has been positively impactful.

SPEAKER_00: 24:58

And I feel that this, our conversation, is one of those small steps where we can really at least highlight the opportunity of focusing more on what is really beneficial for humanity and creating that change so that others can also start looking at something what is really creating that change we want to see in the world, because I agree, rage and anger and fear they are creating a lot of reaction and a lot of activities around. And they are also very impactful, but at the same time, we need to learn how to react to the right type of triggers and not not react probably and start filtering something that is not really impacting us in a very positive way, so that we can open up as well more for seeing with gratitude and amazement the world around us because it's not just dark and negative, there is so many fantastic, incredible things going on and surrounding us. So I think we should focus more on all that magic around us.

SPEAKER_01: 26:24

Yeah, I was I was smiling because I was thinking about news in general. So when I think about any kind of news that's broadcast, and people say, Oh, have you seen the news? And I think of I don't call it news, I call it, oh, you mean bad news? Because so much of what is shared, the percentage of news stories on any news outlet, that's negative versus positive, uh, is out of proportion. And I think again, it's gonna take lots of voices to change it, and it's gonna take both people's commitment to what kind of world do they want to live in, one where everyone's cynical and depressed and upset. And we we're in a space where we have the opportunity to really little by little get to a place where we start to it's slow, it's gonna take a while to do it, but and it's gonna take a lot of people together, all doing their part to try and help shift the narrative.

SPEAKER_00: 27:28

But I absolutely love your idea that it's about time to make hope sex again and introduce more positivity. It made me think about one of my keynotes. About five years ago, I just met just two days ago, one of my ex-colleagues where we were standing at the stage together, and she was standing and uh presenting again there five years later. So we were laughing that five years ago I was talking about making data sexy again on the St. Valentine's Day, and five years later, I feel that it's time for me to highlight and have this conversation with you to remind humans that it's about time to choose what we want to focus on and prioritize in a more positive way as well. But if storytelling has always been humanity's mirror, what kind of story could help us move beyond polarization toward a shared vision of co-creation between humans and AI to create that synergy?

SPEAKER_01: 28:43

I I think it's a continuation of what we're talking about in terms of focusing less on the polarization, finding ways to bring people in together. Uh you know, in the US, it seems as if over the last I'll say 10 years, the country has gotten more and more polarized. And I think often the extremes are problematic. You know, I'm I'm a common sense, practical, realistic kind of thinking, and I think that's most of us, but I think the polar, the the two you know, extremes are loud, and we need to get that middle section to be louder, as the kind of common sense, and this is on both sides because you know I I created something called the world AI spectrum, where you have the different elements and you have the doomers on one side, the optimists, you know, and then you have the effective accelerationism, and they're just as problematic because their their belief is that AI at all costs, and it doesn't matter if it means the end of humanity. Oh, and by the way, no regulation because the market will just figure it out, and I can't buy into that. I I think we need to, like any you know, powerful technology, we need to have guardrails. You know, you think about some, especially for you know young kids and things like that, that are we've seen instances where tragic things have happened. We need to then also start to share what are some of the triumphs that have happened, and so it's again bringing people together, connecting people through a shared belief in what the best of humanity is. The stories of triumph, the stories of hope, the stories of collaboration, and you know, talking about co-creating. I think there's two two things about co-creating: co-creating human to human, co-creating human and machine. You know, where has there been something that wasn't possible without the machine AI, but it also wasn't possible without the human? And it's that AI human synergy. Uh that I think is is the answer to how we succeed in becoming the best version of ourselves.

SPEAKER_00: 31:23

So brilliant. And uh you just highlighted so many important points where we truly can find the answers to many questions which are going to define which direction this development is going to take. But still it's up to us to prioritize and choose and focus on what matters most for us and is best aligned with our values. When I think about it, I want to ask you what can leaders and educators do to nurture the emotional intelligence and ethical grounding, imagination required to navigate this transformation wisely in some ways I think it's fairly simple.

SPEAKER_01: 32:16

Reward behavior that you want to see, basic human nature. If we do some behavior and reward her for it, we'll do it again. So if you're showcasing the importance of emotional intelligence, again, instead of you know, empathy, you know, the human qualities that matter so much, if leaders start to value that and reward it, then we'll get more of it. If we value making money or productivity or whatever else it is at the cost of empathy, support, collaboration, we need to make sure that the values that we nurture are the ones that support the behaviors we want to see, and then reward that behavior so that it continues to grow. As I often say, is it's simple but not easy. But at least you need to start with the idea that if we enable people to understand, like, hey, if you do this behavior, if you showcase, if you lean into these values and beliefs and characteristics is gonna get you ahead, then people are gonna start to learn, oh, this is what I need to do. So we need to create a culture and an environment where that's valued and celebrated.

SPEAKER_00: 33:39

I truly appreciate the clarity of your vision and the way you're connecting it to the human values. So let's stop here and uh unpack your vision even a little bit more. Fast forward to 2030. If you could script the narrative of human AI coexistence and synergy, what would you want that story to sound like?

SPEAKER_01: 34:09

So there are some people who are talking about you know abundance and everything that needs to, you know, we we don't need to work as much, and the machines do everything, and and there's some challenges to that vision because I think at the moment, and as things are, AI capabilities, tools is not evenly distributed. So as an American who believes in kind of capitalism and you know working hard to achieve what it is you want to do, I don't think necessarily everyone should have the same. There, there's you know, but if AI can help, you know, for me, and 2030 may be a little short of the distance, but here's what I would say. My vision is that we're well on our way to having shifted that narrative to the positive elements of AI. We've set up the guardrail to protect against the negative potential, and people are curing diseases, there is greater abundance generally, so that you know we're feeding the world in a way, you know, all the all the biggest problems we have in the world are less so. That's the the vision I hope is that we're more connected. So I talked about, you know, one of the things is people are disengaged and disconnected. If AI can help, my hope would be that it works in a way where people are using these tools that enable them to spend more time connecting meaningfully with both the people at their job, the people that they serve. Family is the most important thing of anything. So if there's a ways to make family life better, to have more time with your children, your your family, that to me is is the kind of working towards that utopia. Um, and I don't know that we'll ever achieve that, but I I think it's a matter of uh degree. So if we were to assess society now as a comparative thing and say, okay, are people generally more happy, connected than they were 20 years ago? My hope would be that in the next five years we see the path, we see the vision, and we are on the journey to make things better for everyone in fundamental, foundational, transformative ways. It's gonna take a lot of work, and it's gonna take uh people a lot smarter than me to come up with how to implement and do these things. But it would it would be a beautiful thing if we're at least on our way, and so for me, it's about embracing curiosity, celebrating creativity, and having that deeper connection with people across the board.

SPEAKER_00: 37:07

This is so future-ready and uh actually so beautiful. I while I've been listening to you, I was thinking how happy I am that you found me to have this conversation and share it with others because it is a beautiful vision and uh it is a very human-centric vision based on really important, really valuable core ground pillars which we probably should reconnect better to and um move forward in a way which can help us see what you just described in reality and be a part of this transformation. Thank you so much. This is truly impressive.

SPEAKER_01: 38:00

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 38:02

What is one fact or one truth we all need to unlearn to move forward consciously in this world? And that's probably my favorite question because it might enable us to get so much capacity and resources to do something instead when we just get rid of what is holding us back.

SPEAKER_01: 38:31

I think there's a belief that AI is either going to be our untimely demise or the miracle of humanity. And I think it's neither. Uh, I think it's a really powerful tool, but those outcomes depend on our human desires and choices, how we train it, how we how we're trained to do it, which path we decide to follow. And in particular, one truth I think that is Nathaniel Whitmore, who has the AI daily podcast, who I think is really he came up with this idea that I want to flesh out more. And he talks about the distinction between AI efficiency and AI opportunity. And I think right now a lot of people are like, oh, it can save time. And I think that that is a limited way of looking at AI and and technology in general, is that oh, I can do something faster, I can do something, you know, with less people, less energy, and you know, when you talk about the jobs, and and I think it's really about no, no, no, what can AI help you do that you couldn't do before? What's the possible now that wasn't possible before the advent of these tools? And therefore, it's not just about oh, how can we do things more efficiently, but how can we grow? It's about that productivity, it's about that opportunity to do things that avoid. The way that we do things, what we can do, how we can accomplish, all ofin a human-centric. How can we make our workers in America disengagement at work? There are way more people who are actively disengaged than engaged. How can we look at AI as an opportunity to increase engagement, to increase the way that we take emotional intelligence and make it more valuable? What are the ways that we can look for that opportunity for growth and prosperity? Not just, oh, we can do this faster. I think that there's an element of yes, AI can make you do something faster. But there's two ways to grow. You can reduce some of the waste, or you can grow bigger. And I think too many people are looking at it like, oh, well, where can we shape and carve out things? That's part of it. But it needs to be coupled with, and now that we've saved that time, how do we use that savings for something great, for something bigger than we thought we could do? That's gonna serve us and our community, customers, etc.

SPEAKER_00: 41:18

This is such a game-changing perspective, and uh this is something truly important to take a moment and uh think about. This is very deep, and we are used to rush, to run forward, to become more efficient, but we don't have this time to really think about how are we going to use that time, which is actually the most valuable resource humans have in their life, when we are going to save that time through AI applications, how are we going to use that time for our present, for our future? What are we going to do with it and how is it going to reflect in our reality? Because there are so many hyped definitions which so many leaders and businesses and people overall are supporting and repeating, and it becomes just a copy-paste of a story which is sometimes misleading, sometimes not complete. But we should really start thinking about what this means? What do we want? And how do we want to come there? And of course, it's also about reconnecting in a new way so that we can use all those technologies and the human to human connections in a completely different way. What is your one piece of advice for leaders and humans navigating the AI era to not only succeed but preserve their greatest advantage, being human?

SPEAKER_01: 43:05

Double down and embracing positive possibility in a human-centered way. I think leaders need to think about okay, how can I use this technology to enhance what we're doing rather than replace? And that's a big thing about jobs and things is we want to enhance the workers, not replace them. And I think it's a distinction between being AI first and AI forward. Now, I there's people who wrote a book called AI First, that's a great book, but I think the title is a little misleading in how what their beliefs are. Because if it's AI first, that means people second. And I think it's more about people first, AI forward. So, how can we use this technology, this incredible powerful tools to enhance how we are being more human, where we embrace connections that we have to grow on a business perspective and on the personal perspective? I think they are not mutually exclusive, and we need to look at that human and in the same way that human and machines are not mutually exclusive. It's about that human machine synergy, what I like to call connected intelligence.

SPEAKER_00: 44:29

This is beautiful, and I also feel we probably need the third definition: being AI ready, when our mindset is truly ready to see all the opportunities and to move forward in a responsible way where we can create so many amazing things for us as individuals and for us as businesses as well.

SPEAKER_01: 45:00

100%. I love that. AI ready.

SPEAKER_00: 45:03

Thank you for sharing your wisdom, your insights. I truly appreciate you, and it's been such a pleasure being here in the studio and having this conversation with you today. Thank you, Jeffrey.

SPEAKER_01: 45:14

Thank you. It has been a real pleasure for me.

SPEAKER_00: 45:18

Thank you for joining us on Digital Transformation and AI for humans. I am Amy, and it was enriching to share this time with you. Remember, the core of any transformation lies in our human nature, how we think, feel, and connect with others. It is about enhancing our emotional intelligence, embracing a winning mindset, and leading with empathy and insight. Subscribe and stay tuned for more episodes where we uncover the latest trends in digital business and explore the human side of technology and leadership. If this conversation resonated with you and you are a visionary leader, business owner, or investor ready to shape what's next, consider joining the AI Game Changers Club. You will find more information in the description. Until next time, keep nurturing your mind, fostering your connections, and leading with heart.