Episode 4: AI, Snowboarding & Why Your Organisation Is Losing Months It Can’t Afford
Neil’s back from the slopes. Slightly heavier, considerably happier, and absolutely buzzing with new ideas. Kieron’s been up since six and already done a social work podcast panel before lunchtime. It’s business as usual at Leading AI HQ.
This week the lads dig into some genuinely thought-provoking territory:
The speed paradox 🎿 While Neil was carving powder in the Alps, AI kept moving at a frightening pace — new models, new capabilities, new everything. Meanwhile, one of their customers has lost three months of productivity gains to internal politics. The gap between organisations moving fast and those stalling is getting wider every week. Which side are you on?
Can AI empathise? Kieron spent the morning as the sole AI voice on a social work podcast panel, and came away with a fascinating insight — social workers are essentially professional relationship builders. So where does AI fit in? And is the “AI can’t empathise” argument as solid as it sounds? (Spoiler: there’s a brilliant book recommendation in here.)
Writing with AI — are we killing a skill we don’t need anymore? Does using AI to write stop you from thinking? Kieron argues there’s a crucial difference between writing with AI and writing for thinking. And then asks the genuinely provocative question — do we even need to learn to write anymore? (He didn’t say that bit on stage. Wisely.)
Product of the week 🎵 Two big ones this week — Shared Chats (share your entire AI conversation with a colleague, including your prompts and thought process — brilliant for bid writing and social work case reviews) and more on Local Vectorising and Excel Stitching, which is quietly threatening to make data warehouses look very old-fashioned indeed.
Procuring AI — the 10 risks you need to know Kieron went to two Tech UK events while Neil was away. One was a bit of a head-scratcher. The other — on AI procurement for public services — was genuinely excellent, covering liability, governance, and why AI insurance might be the thing that finally forces organisations to get serious about compliance.
Next week: Kieron and Neil are off to a geopolitical briefing on Wednesday. The tin hat may or may not make an appearance.
Two mates. A bar. Thirty years of business between them. And all they want to talk about is AI.
Pull up a stool — we’ll get the beers in. 🍺
