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Elevate Your AIQ

Elevate Your AIQ

Auteur(s): WRKdefined Podcast Network
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 Bob Pulver is helping each of us navigate our respective journeys with artificial intelligence (AI) effectively and responsibly. Bob chats with AI and Future of Work experts, talent and transformation leaders, and practitioners who provide diverse perspectives on how AI is solving real-world challenges and driving responsible innovation.All rights reserved by WRKdefined Développement commercial et entrepreneuriat Entrepreneurship Gestion et leadership Économie
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  • Ep 113: Leading with Business Strategy to Deliver Sustainable AI Value with Charlene Li

    Ep 113: Leading with Business Strategy to Deliver Sustainable AI Value with Charlene Li
    Apr 10 2026
    Charlene Li, analyst, author, and disruptive leadership expert, returns to Elevate Your AIQ to discuss with Bob her newly released book Winning with AI, co-authored with Dr. Katia Walsh. Charlene makes the case that most organizations are failing with AI because they treat it as a technology initiative rather than a strategic one — and lays out a 90-day, 12-step framework for building a foundation that creates real enterprise value. The conversation revisits themes from her Fall 2024 appearance, including responsible AI and the human-AI partnership, and explores how the landscape has evolved. Key topics include AI fluency as an organizational imperative, workforce reinvestment over workforce reduction, and the emerging concept of integrated intelligence — where human and AI capabilities combine to create something genuinely superhuman. Keywords Charlene Li, Winning with AI, Katia Walsh, AI strategy, AI fluency, AI literacy, integrated intelligence, superhuman worker, workforce planning, reskilling, pilot purgatory, responsible AI, ethical AI, governance, human centricity, talent transformation, future of work, organizational disruption, values-based AI, co-intelligence Takeaways Lead with business strategy, not AI technology — the question is never "what can we do with AI?" but "how can AI help us accomplish what we're already trying to do?" AI fluency, not just literacy, is the goal — fluency means reaching for AI naturally, trusting it, and using it to learn how to use it better, like chopsticks becoming second nature Organizations stuck in pilot purgatory are procrastinating real decisions — pilots give everyone an excuse not to commit, and that dooms projects from the start Successful examples show a better path: use AI to raise workforce quality first, then expand customer value, then reinvent the business entirely Reskilling requires both organizational imagination and honest values — the IKEA story turned 8,500 displaced service reps into a $1B design business Integrated intelligence combines AI's speed and scale with uniquely human traits — empathy, judgment, intuition, self-reflection, and wisdom — to create superhuman capability AI fluency in hiring is shifting from a red flag to a baseline expectation — how candidates use AI reveals curiosity, creativity, and adaptability far better than traditional interviews Responsible AI governance done right isn't a compliance burden — a gold-standard internal policy means regulation becomes a checkbox, not a crisis Quotes "You don't need an AI strategy — you already have a business strategy. Figure out what of your business strategy could really be impacted with AI." "Automating a broken process is the definition of madness. Because of AI, could we do this in a completely different way?" "AI can only be as creative as your questions are. It can only be as empathetic as you are." "We should stop doing pilots. It's just another way to procrastinate having to say yes or no." "The first thing they said was, we are not going to use AI to cut people. That is not the intent going in." "You aim for a higher level than any regulation would ever want. You go for the gold standard and whatever they ask of you, of course you do those things." Chapters 00:03 Welcome and guest introduction 01:27 Catching up since Fall 2024 and the impetus for Winning with AI 02:45 The 90-day framework and leading with business strategy 05:46 Reimagining work versus automating broken processes 09:22 AI fluency as an organizational imperative 14:06 Making AI practice habitual and learning in community 17:54 Embedding AI in the flow of work and escaping pilot purgatory 20:07 Workforce reinvestment and a recent case study 26:35 Reskilling, redeployment, and the IKEA story 29:54 Getting C-suite and boards to embrace a human-centric approach 33:38 Starting with customers and thinking beyond efficiency 38:30 Building AI fluency fast and making the investment 41:38 AI fluency in recruiting and hiring for AI capability 47:52 Integrated intelligence and the rise of the superhuman worker 50:42 From individual productivity to team and organizational impact 52:14 Values-based AI and imbuing organizational values into AI systems 55:53 Responsible and ethical AI as a strategic advantage 59:38 Goldilocks governance and the 90-day blueprint 01:00:21 Closing thoughts and book information Charlene Li: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charleneli “Winning With AI”: https://winningwithaibook.com/ For advisory work and marketing inquiries: Bob Pulver:⁠⁠ https://linkedin.com/in/bobpulver⁠⁠⁠ Elevate Your AIQ:⁠⁠ https://elevateyouraiq.com⁠⁠⁠ Substack: ⁠https://elevateyouraiq.substack.com⁠
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    1 h et 1 min
  • Ep 112: Architecting the Human-AI Partnership to Turn AI Strategy into Results with Oded Dubovsky

    Ep 112: Architecting the Human-AI Partnership to Turn AI Strategy into Results with Oded Dubovsky
    Apr 3 2026
    Bob Pulver reconnects with former IBM colleague Oded Dubovsky, founder of STRAIX (Strategy for AI Execution), an advisory practice helping organizations adopt AI thoughtfully and effectively. Oded shares a career journey spanning over two decades at IBM Research's Haifa Lab — where he led pioneering cognitive computing and computer vision projects — through applied AI work at Intel, and into independent consulting. The conversation explores why 95% of organizations struggle to move beyond AI aspiration to real execution, and what it takes to build a solid foundation before layering in AI. Bob and Oded also reflect on the enduring value of human ingenuity, originality, and orchestration in an increasingly AI-assisted world. Keywords Oded Dubovsky, STRAIX, AI strategy, AI execution, AI adoption, cognitive computing, computer vision, IBM Research, Haifa Lab, Watson, automation, generative AI, vibe coding, AI-assisted coding, responsible AI, human centricity, AI readiness, orchestration, innovation, shadow AI Takeaways Only about 5% of companies successfully adopt AI — most struggle with where to start, what tools to use, and how to build the right foundation before scaling AI is the "penthouse" built on top of decades of IT, software engineering, and automation experience — that foundational knowledge remains critical The human role is shifting from execution to orchestration and architecture — developers and knowledge workers are becoming "team leads" directing AI agents Responsible AI development means thinking through security, data, scalability, and governance from the start — not as an afterthought Slowing down to think carefully before prompting or building — echoing Einstein's 55/5 rule — leads to better, more scalable outcomes Early cognitive computing projects at IBM (food recognition, augmented reality for remote guidance) were ahead of their time, foreshadowing capabilities now taken for granted Human originality and the ability to generate truly novel ideas remain a distinctly human trait that AI has not replicated Quotes "AI is kind of the top level, like the penthouse on top of all of that." "95% are just saying we need AI — they kind of don't know how to absorb that, how to start using it." "Once I crossed the line, I couldn't go back." "Think about it — you just got a promotion. You're a team lead now. You don't micromanage. You give them the bigger picture." "If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about the solution." — Einstein, as quoted by Oded "Slow down to speed up." Chapters 00:02 Welcome and introductions 01:04 Oded's background and career journey from IBM to Intel to STRAIX 08:08 Early cognitive computing at IBM — the Watson era and the "What Did I Eat?" project 13:01 From research to product — augmented reality, 3D cameras, and lessons learned 17:54 How AI adoption is accelerating and compressing what once took a decade 20:14 Why 95% of organizations struggle to execute on AI 24:54 How STRAIX works — mapping pain points, building a heat map, and guiding implementation 29:47 Automation tools, vibe coding, and the value of foundational experience 33:13 Human readiness and the mindset shift required to embrace AI 37:22 AI agents, social networks, and the human as orchestrator 44:20 Responsible AI development — building with guardrails from the start 51:26 Asking better questions and thinking architecturally before building 53:31 Closing thoughts and how to connect with Oded Oded Dubovsky: https://www.linkedin.com/in/odeddubovsky STRAIX: www.straix.biz For advisory work and marketing inquiries: Bob Pulver:⁠⁠ https://linkedin.com/in/bobpulver⁠⁠⁠ Elevate Your AIQ:⁠⁠ https://elevateyouraiq.com⁠⁠⁠ Substack: ⁠https://elevateyouraiq.substack.com⁠
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    55 min
  • Ep 111: Building and Managing AI Agents to Shape the Future of Work with Jacob Bank

    Ep 111: Building and Managing AI Agents to Shape the Future of Work with Jacob Bank
    Mar 27 2026
    Bob Pulver sits down with Jacob Bank, Co-founder and CEO of Relay.app, whose career arc — from Stanford's Multi-Agent Systems Lab to founding Timeful (acquired by Google in 2015) to leading Gmail and Google Calendar product teams — represents one of the most continuous threads in AI agent development. Jacob frames AI agents not as software to configure, but as employees to hire, coach, and manage, arguing that great people managers are naturally suited to the AI era. He maps out a three-tier AI stack everyone should adopt and explores how knowledge work will be restructured, why AI literacy is non-negotiable, and how small businesses can now compete at scales once unimaginable. Keywords Jacob Bank, Relay.app, AI agents, agentic workflows, autonomous workers, workflow automation, small business, AI literacy, people management, Timeful, Google Calendar, Gmail, knowledge work, G&A, go-to-market, responsible AI, human-in-the-loop, SaaS evolution Takeaways The right mental model for AI agents is employee management: give them a job description, set expectations, provide feedback, and apply the same code of conduct as any team member Everyone needs three AI tools: a chatbot for conversation, a copilot for real-time task delegation, and an autonomous agent platform for proactive, repeatable work Relay runs on 9 humans and ~60 AI agents — and Jacob sees a path to serving 100x more customers with roughly the same team size AI levels the playing field for small businesses, enabling work at a scale previously only achievable by much larger organizations Jacob's three-level delegation progression: tasks you already do, tasks you're capable of but never have time for, and tasks you'd otherwise hire an expert for AI literacy is not optional — it's becoming a baseline requirement for effective work, equivalent to basic computer literacy Quotes "We're all managers now — that is the skill set we need." "If you have a job that is just to write the blog post about X, that job is not going to exist anymore." "It's not optional. This is going to be a requirement of being an effective worker in the future." "Whenever I have an AI agent doing a classification task, I always ask the AI to explain its rationale — because then you can correct it for next time." "At some point you'll cross this tipping point where you don't have to tell yourself to go use AI — it'll suck you in." Chapters 00:02 Welcome and introductions 00:56 Jacob's origin story and agent-oriented programming 02:54 From Timeful to Google 04:41 Pre-LLM AI features in Gmail and Calendar 06:15 AI coworkers vs. productivity tool nudges 07:39 Early agent research and org disruption 09:24 Restructuring knowledge work 11:45 Evolving human roles and AI literacy 13:32 The social complexity of scheduling 15:16 Credentialed jobs at risk 17:24 AI leveling the playing field for small business 18:17 Inside Relay — 9 humans and 60 agents 19:41 The three-tier AI stack 22:38 Relay as intelligent workflow automation 23:42 SaaS selection in the agent era 26:47 Platform consolidation and SaaS business models 28:13 Deploying agents across G&A, GTM, and R&D 33:16 Agent collaboration and human oversight 34:21 When to build vs. buy 37:56 Three levels of AI delegation 39:50 Scaling AI readiness across organizations 42:22 Responsible AI and the employee management lens 44:14 Evaluating agents vs. testing software 45:51 The blast radius problem 48:09 Bias, coachability, and correcting agents 49:29 Closing advice — go one step further 50:45 What's next for Relay Jacob Bank: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobbank https://relay.app For advisory work and marketing inquiries: Bob Pulver:⁠⁠ ⁠https://linkedin.com/in/bobpulver⁠⁠⁠ Elevate Your AIQ:⁠⁠ ⁠https://elevateyouraiq.com⁠⁠⁠Substack: ⁠https://elevateyouraiq.substack.com⁠
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    53 min
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