Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work (formerly Qonversations)

Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work explores what leaders need to see, ask, and own as artificial intelligence reshapes work, decisions, culture, trust, and human value.Formerly Qonversations, the podcast continues Brian Gorman’s long-running exploration of leadership, change, and the future of work—now with a sharper focus on the age of AI. This is not a show about chasing tools or predicting the next technology trend. It is about the human work AI makes more urgent: discernment, accountability, governance, ethical judgment, workforce trust, and wise decision-making.Each episode features thoughtful conversations with leaders, thinkers, practitioners, and change-makers who are looking beyond AI hype to what work is becoming—and what leadership must become in response.For leaders, founders, executives, coaches, consultants, HR professionals, and anyone asking how AI can help make work more human, not less.

Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work (formerly Qonversations) is a business podcast hosted by Brian Gorman, Host, with 189 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Brian Gorman, Host hosts Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work (formerly Qonversations), a business show with 189 episodes published.

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  Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work (formerly Qonversations)

  When AI Gives an Answer, Be Curious

  Oct 1, 202633 min

  Artificial intelligence can synthesize information, surface possibilities, and accelerate work. But some of what matters most still lives in people: experience, relationships, intuition, and an understanding of what is actually happening. In this episode of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work, Brian Gorman speaks with Tim Lidman , co-founder and CEO of Clyde, about what it means to deliberately bring artificial intelligence and human wisdom together. Clyde is one example of a larger leadership question: what should technology do, what do people still need to contribute, and how can the two strengthen one another? Tim and Brian explore how curiosity helps leaders move beyond the problem as first presented and uncover what is actually going on, how AI can help leaders examine multiple perspectives without replacing human discernment, and why complex leadership challenges often require both/and rather than either/or thinking. They also turn to the realities of continuous change. As organizations introduce AI into the work, success requires more than deploying the technology. It requires involving the people doing the work, drawing on what they know, and helping them build the capacity to use AI well. In This Episode Why some of the knowledge that matters most still lives in people The role of curiosity in getting beneath the presenting problem How AI can support multiple perspectives without replacing human discernment Why both/and thinking matters in complex leadership decisions What continuous change means for traditional approaches to change Why AI adoption requires participation, not simply direction from the top About Tim Lidman Tim Lidman is the founder and CEO of Clyde AI, an enterprise AI company focused on helping teams think, decide and work together more effectively with AI. Before founding Clyde, Tim spent four years as a Managing Director at Accenture, following its acquisition of ThinkTank, where he served as President and helped scale the business globally. Earlier in his career, he held leadership and commercial roles at companies including Cisco, SAP and SuccessFactors. His work has centered on how technology changes the way organizations collaborate, make decisions and deliver complex work. At Clyde, he is now focused on bringing AI directly into the flow of client delivery, combining firm knowledge, methods, human judgment and AI in a shared working environment. He has worked extensively with large professional services organizations and enterprise teams navigating the practical realities of AI adoption. Tim is based in Denver, Colorado. About Brian Gorman Brian Gorman is an executive advisor, author, speaker, coach, and host of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human wisdom, helping CEOs, founders, boards, and senior leadership teams think clearly about AI, change, decision-making, culture, trust, and the future of work. His book, Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, explores how leaders can move beyond intelligence alone and bring deeper wisdom to the decisions shaping people, organizations, and society. To Continue the Conversation If anything you hear in this podcast sparks a conversation or a question you want to explore, reach out. Tim LinkedIn: Tim Lidman Website: Clyde Brian Email: Brian@TransformingLives.Coach Phone; +1 917.653.5198 Website: TransformingLives.Coach

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  Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work (formerly Qonversations)

  When AI Does More, Human Connection Matters More

  Sep 24, 202627 min

  This episode of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work does not spend much time talking directly about artificial intelligence. That is why the conversation matters now. Brian Gorman speaks with Stephen Baer , author of Stickology, about what causes people to connect, contribute, innovate, and care about the organizations they work for and buy from. Drawing on examples from Trader Joe’s, Ritz-Carlton, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft, and Home Depot, Stephen makes a consistent point: people do their best work when they are trusted, empowered, and encouraged to contribute creatively. AI raises the stakes of those choices. As organizations automate more tasks and pursue greater speed and productivity, leaders have to decide what they are trying to create. Technology can remove friction. It can also strip away the human interactions through which trust, loyalty, belonging, creativity, and discernment develop. Stephen argues for workplaces where people throughout the organization are empowered to think differently, contribute ideas, and act rather than simply follow scripts. As AI takes on more predictable and repeatable work, the opportunity is not simply to do the same work faster or with fewer people. It is to create more space for the distinctly human work that strengthens organizations. AI does not determine which future we create. Leaders do. The question is whether greater technological capability will make work thinner and more transactional for those inside our organizations and their customers or create more opportunity for people to connect, contribute, and thrive. In This Episode Why human connection becomes more important as more work is automated What Trader Joe’s, Ritz-Carlton, Delta Airlines, and Southwest Airlines teach us about employee empowerment and customer loyalty How trust, collaboration, and belonging support stronger business performance Why innovation depends on giving people throughout the organization permission to contribute and think differently How leaders can use AI to create a more human and humane workplace rather than simply pursuing more speed and productivity About Stephen Baer Stephen Baer is a leadership expert, entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and author of Stickology: How to Build Unbreakable Connections with Employees and Customers for Life. For more than 30 years, his work has focused on connection, motivation, engagement, and the relationship between employee experience and customer loyalty. He is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Engagency and previously co-founded and led The Game Agency, which was acquired by ELB Learning. Earlier in his career, Stephen held sales and marketing leadership roles at Atari and General Electric. His work today centers on helping organizations build cultures where people feel valued, connected, and empowered to contribute—and where those human connections translate into stronger business performance. About Brian Gorman Brian Gorman is an executive advisor, author, speaker, coach, and host of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human wisdom, helping CEOs, founders, boards, and senior leadership teams think clearly about AI, change, decision-making, culture, trust, and the future of work. His book, Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, explores how leaders can move beyond intelligence alone and bring deeper wisdom to the decisions shaping people, organizations, and society. To Continue the Conversation If anything you hear in this podcast sparks a conversation or a question you want to explore, reach out. Stephen Email: stephen.baer@gmail.com Website: stephenbaer.com Brian Email: Brian@TransformingLives.Coach Phone; +1 917.653.5198 Website: TransformingLives.Coach

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  Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work (formerly Qonversations)

  Design AI at Work for Agency, Not Dependency

  Sep 17, 202619 min

  As artificial intelligence becomes embedded in how work gets done, leaders face a question that goes well beyond efficiency. What kind of relationship with AI are we designing? In this episode of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work, Brian Gorman speaks with psychotherapist and executive coach Marina Tudor about creating workplaces in which artificial intelligence serves human beings rather than quietly creating new forms of dependency, friction, and burnout. Marina argues that effective AI integration requires more than choosing the right tools. Leaders need to think about where decisions belong, which work technology should take on, where human wisdom remains essential, and how the entire system affects human agency and dignity. AI brings speed and scalability. People still provide meaning, direction, and discernment. That distinction has implications for organizational design. Brian and Marina explore what happens when routine work can be handled differently and decisions can move closer to the people with the knowledge to make them. Instead of funneling more decisions upward, organizations have an opportunity to rethink responsibilities, reduce leadership bottlenecks, and create greater autonomy throughout the system. Their conversation also challenges assumptions about the traditional workweek. If AI meaningfully reduces friction and unnecessary work, simply filling the reclaimed capacity with more tasks misses the larger opportunity. The question becomes what leaders choose to do with the capacity that is created. Ultimately, Marina offers a practical test for the systems we build. Do they increase autonomy or dependency? Strengthen agency or manipulate attention? Reduce friction or simply move it somewhere else? Those questions may tell us more about wise AI adoption than another measure of productivity ever could. In This Episode Why AI systems should be designed around human agency and dignity, not just usability and performance How AI can help move decisions closer to the people with the knowledge to make them Why speed and scalability without the right decision and execution pathways can produce worse outcomes faster How reducing routine work could lessen leadership bottlenecks and burnout Why leaders should ask whether AI is creating greater human autonomy or greater dependency About Marina Tudor Marina Tudor is a psychotherapist and executive coach whose work explores human behavior, decision-making, identity, and change. In her work with leaders, she brings a human-centered perspective to questions of technology, organizational systems, and how people navigate increasing complexity. About Brian Gorman Brian Gorman is an executive advisor, author, speaker, coach, and host of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human wisdom, helping CEOs, founders, boards, and senior leadership teams think clearly about AI, change, decision-making, culture, trust, and the future of work. His book, Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, explores how leaders can move beyond intelligence alone and bring deeper wisdom to the decisions shaping people, organizations, and society. To Continue the Conversation If anything you hear in this podcast sparks a conversation or a question you want to explore, reach out. Marina Email: marina.tudor-kaough@waldenu.edu Website: https://www.marinatudor.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinatudor/ Brian Email: Brian@TransformingLives.Coach Phone; +1 917.653.5198 Website: TransformingLives.Coach

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  Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work (formerly Qonversations)

  Stay in Charge. Make AI the Apprentice.

  Sep 10, 202638 min

  In this episode, Brian Gorman speaks with Jonathan Schaeffer , founder of Synsira Software Solutions, inventor of Kind, and an AI pioneer who has spent more than 40 years working at the forefront of artificial intelligence. For Jonathan, the arrival of ChatGPT was not the beginning of AI. It was the moment when decades of largely invisible development suddenly became visible to everyone. He sees enormous potential in what comes next, from advances in medicine and education to safer transportation and greater access to knowledge. But he is equally clear that the technology we have today remains imperfect, and that its rapid advancement is outpacing our ability to fully understand, govern, and use it responsibly. At the heart of the conversation is a different way of thinking about our relationship with AI. Jonathan prefers augmented intelligence to artificial intelligence: using AI to extend what people can do rather than simply using it to automate work away. His metaphor is powerful. Make AI the apprentice. Let it gather information, surface possibilities, summarize data, and offer perspectives you might not have considered. But stay in charge. Understand the context. Question what comes back. Verify the facts. Decide what matters. And take responsibility for the outcome. Brian and Jonathan also explore what happens when people turn too much of their thinking over to AI. If technology takes on work that once developed analytical ability, writing skills, and leadership capability, organizations have to become more intentional about how those capabilities will be developed. The answer is not to reject AI, but neither is it to unquestioningly accept whatever AI produces. The conversation closes with another dimension of staying in charge: the data we give AI access to. Jonathan discusses privacy, accuracy, environmental impact, and why those concerns led him to develop KIND, an AI tool designed to work locally with a user’s own data. AI can do extraordinary things. That does not make it the expert, the decision-maker, or the accountable party. Stay in charge. Make AI the apprentice. In This Episode Why ChatGPT represented a seismic shift after decades of largely invisible AI development How augmented intelligence reframes AI as a resource for extending human capability rather than simply replacing work Why treating AI as an apprentice keeps context, discernment, decision-making, and responsibility with the human How leaders can use AI without allowing important human skills and capabilities to atrophy Why accuracy, privacy, data ownership, and environmental impact matter in deciding how and where we use AI About Jonathan Schaeffer Jonathan Schaeffer is the inventor of KIND and has been at the forefront of artificial intelligence for more than 40 years. An AI researcher, entrepreneur, and inventor, he has spent his career building practical AI systems designed to solve real problems with greater accuracy, transparency, and trust. KIND was first conceived in 2017 while Jonathan was teaching full-time and responding to hundreds of student emails. He created an AI system that interacted only with documents he explicitly provided, giving him a way to generate reliable, explainable answers grounded in trusted information. After years of personal use and refinement, that system evolved into KIND, a downloadable desktop application that allows users to curate their own data, interact with it in depth, and uncover insights without sacrificing privacy. Today, Jonathan is focused on advancing a more trustworthy model for AI that gives users greater control over their information and reduces dependence on opaque, cloud-based systems. Through KIND, he is working to make AI more private, accurate, and useful for individuals and organizations alike. About Brian Gorman Brian Gorman is an executive advisor, author, speaker, coach, and host of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human wisdom, helping CEOs, founders, boards, and senior leadership teams think clearly about AI, change, decision-making, culture, trust, and the future of work. His book, Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, explores how leaders can move beyond intelligence alone and bring deeper wisdom to the decisions shaping people, organizations, and society. To Continue the Conversation If anything you hear in this podcast sparks a conversation or a question you want to explore, reach out. Jonathan Website: https://kind.synsira.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-schaeffer-phd-frsc-aaai-fellow-3318015/ Brian Email: Brian@TransformingLives.Coach Phone; +1 917.653.5198 Website: TransformingLives.Coach

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  Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work (formerly Qonversations)

  The Resistance Beneath AI Adoption

  Sep 3, 202636 min

  AI adoption is often treated as a technology challenge. Choose the right tools, train people to use them, and improve the workflow. But resistance to AI runs deeper than the resistance that accompanies most workplace technologies. In this episode of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work, Brian Gorman speaks with Dr. Gleb Tsipursky , founder of Disaster Avoidance Experts and author of The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results, about the psychology beneath AI resistance. Gleb identifies three forces that distinguish AI adoption from more traditional technology change: fear, threats to professional identity, and shame. Employees may fear that using AI means helping train their replacement. They may resist handing over work that has long been part of how they define their professional value. And even those who use AI may hide that use from colleagues, limiting the ability of teams and organizations to learn from one another. Brian and Gleb explore why successful adoption begins by involving people rather than imposing solutions on them. One practical starting point: use AI first to take away the work people find frustrating, repetitive, or burdensome, not necessarily the work they value and want to keep doing. As people experience the benefits and organizational norms begin to change, adoption can expand. The conversation also looks ahead to how roles themselves may evolve. Gleb argues that middle management will remain important, but its work will change as employees increasingly supervise AI agents. Coordination, collaboration, guardrails, and governance become critical leadership responsibilities. And because the technology continues to evolve, continuous learning and unlearning become essential. Ultimately, AI adoption is not simply about what the technology can do. It is about understanding how people experience the change and creating the conditions in which they can move through it. In This Episode Why fear, professional identity, and shame can drive resistance to AI How “shadow AI” can increase individual productivity while limiting organizational learning Why involving employees in deciding where AI can help creates stronger buy-in How the role of middle managers may shift as people increasingly supervise AI agents Why continuous learning, unlearning, and human wisdom become more important as AI capability grows About Gleb Tsipursky Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, called the “Office Whisperer” by The New York Times, helps leaders turn AI hype into measurable results as CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts. He is the author of eight books, including the forthcoming The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results from Georgetown University Press, and his work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Time, Forbes, and The New York Time. About Brian Gorman Brian Gorman is an executive advisor, author, speaker, coach, and host of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human wisdom, helping CEOs, founders, boards, and senior leadership teams think clearly about AI, change, decision-making, culture, trust, and the future of work. His book, Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, explores how leaders can move beyond intelligence alone and bring deeper wisdom to the decisions shaping people, organizations, and society. To Continue the Conversation If anything you hear in this podcast sparks a conversation you want to have or a question you want to explore, reach out. Gleb Email: gleb@disasteravoidanceexperts.com Phone: +1 614-407-4016 Website: Disaster Avoidance Experts Brian Email: Brian@TransformingLives.Coach Phone; +1 917.653.5198 Website: TransformingLives.Coach

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