#129 - How to Lead AI Transformation Without Losing the Humans

What does it actually take to lead AI transformation without creating fear, resistance, and cognitive overload? Melanie Steinbach, founder and CEO of L Advisors and a four-time chief people officer, has spent her career helping organisations navigate major change. Her view is that successful AI adoption needs clear top-down direction paired with bottom-up learning and experimentation, because neither works on its own. In this conversation, Melanie walks through her four R's for building an AI org charter: refine, retain, redesign, and recommit. She explains how to identify a real business problem for AI to solve rather than fabricating one, why you have to name the human moments you're protecting, and why leaders must explicitly decide what people will do with the capacity AI frees up.  If you're rolling out AI and worried about what it's doing to your people, this conversation gives you a framework and a starting point.

As AI reshapes work, who's actually getting the transformation right, and what are they doing differently? Victoria Pelletier has a rare vantage point on that question. An author, keynote speaker, and executive coach, she spent roughly 180 days on the road last year inside CIO and CEO rooms, watching companies try to become AI native. She earned the nickname "the CEO whisperer" because she tells clients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear, and she comes at AI without a traditional tech background, which is exactly what lets her see what the technologists in the room miss. The reframe at the centre of this conversation is deceptively simple: most companies measure AI by usage, while the ones getting it right measure outcomes, even when usage looks low. Victoria explains why so many AI transformations are failing, why the people side can't be an afterthought, and why reimagining processes matters more than automating the ones you already have. She also gets into the harder questions this opens up, including what happens to the work and the people when the tasks get automated, and whether companies will choose to redeploy talent or simply cut it. If you're leading an AI initiative and want to know what separates the companies getting real value from the ones shelving projects, this conversation is a good place to start.

If AI can gather the evidence, run the analysis, and make the recommendation, what's left for you? Harry Laplanche, Head of AI Strategy and Transformation at Panasonic, believes the answer is judgment, and that it's the one thing we can't afford to outsource. Harry's roots are in consumer insights, psychology, and behavioral science, which gives him a rare lens on why AI adoption actually fails: giving people access to tools is nowhere near enough. Adoption depends on connecting AI to the real work people are measured and rewarded on. In this conversation, Harry shares what it looks like to lead AI transformation inside a global hardware conglomerate, why the change has to come from the top down and bottom up at the same time, and his idea of the missing middle, the space between a big transformation vision and the messy reality of making decisions day to day. The highlight is his decision architecture workflow, where AI gathers all the evidence but withholds its recommendation until Harry has made his own call, so he can compare the two and build his judgment like a muscle. He walks through it in enough detail that you can build your own version. If you're worried about outsourcing your thinking to AI, or wondering how to help your people keep making good decisions as AI does more of the work, this episode gives you a practical way forward.

What happens when everything you've worked for comes down to one moment and your body just stops working? For Scott Landers, CEO of Achievers, that moment came on a college baseball mound, and what followed changed the trajectory of his life. In this conversation, Scott shares the decision that turned his lowest point into a turning point: "I hold the pen. I'm going to write the story." He explains how he deliberately walked toward everything that scared him, saying yes to opportunities that terrified him, and how that hard-won sense of agency shaped him into the leader he is today. He also gets honest about why the fear of failure never goes away, and why becoming comfortable in your own skin can trump it. That same belief in agency sits at the heart of Scott's take on AI: only 1% of CFOs are seeing ROI from it, and he argues it's because AI is happening to people, not with them.Press play to hear how one moment of panic became a philosophy for leading through the biggest transformation of our time.

How do you reconcile the speed of disruption with the time it takes to build human capability? In this episode, Kahina shares why people leaders need to get comfortable being behind, why vulnerability might be the most important leadership behavior of this moment, and how Workleap is building AI capability through company-wide experimentation.Drawing on her unique journey from law and humanitarian diplomacy into people leadership, Kahina brings a deeply human perspective to AI transformation. She explores why high performers may be more at risk of cognitive overload, how AI is turning individual contributors into mini-managers, and why critical judgment may be the defining capability of our time. Kahina makes the case for shared language, context, and precision as the foundations for teams to work effectively with AI and each other. If you're navigating AI transformation and looking for a refreshingly honest take from someone in the thick of it, this episode is for you.

What does AI transformation actually look like once it moves past experimentation and becomes part of how a company works every day? Satu Salminen has been building with AI since the early ChatGPT days, and for the past year she's led AI transformation for HR at ZoomInfo, making her one of the earliest pioneers in the space. In this practical conversation, Satu walks through her journey from building a simple manager feedback coach to designing full end-to-end HR workflows. She shares how she identifies use cases worth investing in, why documentation and workflow design matter more than the technology itself, and how bringing legal and HR into the process early saves you from costly rebuilds. Satu also gets into the human side of adoption, explaining why critical thinking and systems thinking are the skills that matter most, why you can't outsource accountability to AI, and how ZoomInfo reached nearly 100% daily AI adoption across the company. Her advice for leaders is refreshingly direct: don't wait. If you're trying to understand what real AI transformation looks like inside a company, this conversation gives you a practical place to start.

What does it really take to grow from a good individual contributor to a great one? In this special edition of The Learning Culture Podcast, Andrew Barry sits down with talent leaders for short, sharp conversations about the mindset shifts, hard-won lessons, and small moves that separate ICs who plateau from those who keep climbing. ICs matter more than ever as AI reshapes how work gets done, and these episodes are built for anyone navigating that path or helping others walk it.In this episode, Scott Sylvia talks about the freedom that came with realizing he didn't have to know everything to be valued, why he sees careers as marathons of relationships rather than races to the next title, and how he helps high-potential ICs make the jump from tactical execution to strategic thinking.If you're an IC looking to grow, or a leader responsible for developing them, this episode is for you.

What does it really take to grow from a good individual contributor to a great one? In this special edition of The Learning Culture Podcast, Andrew Barry sits down with talent leaders for short, sharp conversations about the mindset shifts, hard-won lessons, and small moves that separate ICs who plateau from those who keep climbing. ICs matter more than ever as AI reshapes how work gets done, and these episodes are built for anyone navigating that path or helping others walk it.In this episode, Whitney Barlow traces the shift that changed everything for her, from believing flawless execution would speak for itself to realizing visibility, alignment, and stakeholder influence matter just as much. She shares what two different managers told her about why they hired her, the advice she'd give her younger self about not waiting for permission to think bigger, and how she helps high-potential ICs connect their work to revenue and outcomes.If you're an IC looking to grow, or a leader responsible for developing them, this episode is for you.

What does it really take to grow from a good individual contributor to a great one? In this special edition of The Learning Culture Podcast, Andrew Barry sits down with talent leaders for short, sharp conversations about the mindset shifts, hard-won lessons, and small moves that separate ICs who plateau from those who keep climbing. ICs matter more than ever as AI reshapes how work gets done, and these episodes are built for anyone navigating that path or helping others walk it.In this episode, Frank reframes what it means to be an individual contributor entirely. He walks through the deal that taught him to get the CEO and every senior leader in the building working for him, the LinkedIn post he was talked into writing that changed his career trajectory, and why he believes everyone has a to-do list but almost nobody has a people plan.If you're an IC looking to grow, or a leader responsible for developing them, this episode is for you.

What does it really take to grow from a good individual contributor to a great one? In this special edition of The Learning Culture Podcast, Andrew Barry sits down with talent leaders for short, sharp conversations about the mindset shifts, hard-won lessons, and small moves that separate ICs who plateau from those who keep climbing. ICs matter more than ever as AI reshapes how work gets done, and these episodes are built for anyone navigating that path or helping others walk it.In this episode, Kia Beckford shares what prioritization looked like coming out of an academic environment that just kept piling more on, why the role she didn't want turned out to be the one that shaped her most, and how supporting the people behind you on the ladder gets noticed in ways most ICs underestimate.If you're wondering what separates the ICs who plateau from the ones who keep climbing, this episode is for you.