AI Speeds Up Everything And Forces Hard Decisions

Send us a text

Welcome to Coaching Conversations

We have created a NEW and Innovative line of books called Workplace Coaching Books. These books use QR codes with embedded audio and video lessons speaking directly to the reader. Each book comes with assessments and journal based coaching pages where they document what they've learned and what they've applied. In addition each book comes with the self analysis link that prompts them to share what they've learned and what they've put into action leading to greater learner application a

Coaching Talks is a dynamic leadership development speaking series customized to your needs. Need help spreading the value and application of workplace coaching? Let us help:

We provide many styles of speaking services:

• We provide virtual keynotes
• We specialize in 4 part virtual series (we always customize)
• We have a unique feature called "Speaker Tracks" where we send to all audience members reinforcement lessons after the talk (to the pc or cell phone), thus keeping people on track after the talk

Get More Info Here: https://form.jotform.com/241193119118149

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
The logistical nightmare of artificial
intelligence.
AI is going to provideincredible productivity
opportunities for people and forcompanies.
Let me just start out by sharinga very unique perspective.
I am not cautious about AI.
I have great admiration for AI.

(00:21):
AI has helped our companytremendously.
But at the same time, I've alsoseen, I'm going to use a really
rough term, the carnage.
When I look at learning anddevelopment teams, typically I
report through LD or training orhuman resource teams, and I'm
watching some of the carnage.
I'm starting to see more andmore layoffs in learning and

(00:42):
development.
Let me give you an example.
When I think about theopportunity of what AI presents
from a productivity standpoint,let's just take a simple job,
and I'm not trivializing thisjob, but somebody who answers
the phones and somebody who uhschedules for doctors or

(01:05):
schedules meetings if it's abusiness that has, you know,
appointments as the mainstay ofthe revenue source.
Today a bot can handle that.
I can tell you I haven't had aphone system in probably eight,
nine years.
I use my cell phone.
I typically email clients.
I can automate the delivery ofmy emails.
As simple as that technologyperspective comes off, it really

(01:28):
teaches us that what AI is goingto do is be unbelievably
disruptive and has beendisruptive.
Let me give you another example.
You know, when I would build acourse and people who I know
inside my client sites who arein instructional design, when
they build courses to assemble,to design, to lay out the
curriculum, that's still there.

(01:50):
But the tools to build it becomefaster and faster to complete
the task.
Let me give you another example.
You know, I just built a courseand I went to ChatGPT.
I said, please outline thiscourse, build me a slide deck,
took the slide deck, put it overinto one of my slide decks, put
it up into a site calledbeautiful.ai, and it retrofitted

(02:10):
it to a brand image that Iwanted.
Pretty contemporary lookingslide deck.
I recorded over it.
All of it took me less than 50minutes to do.
I had built a course.
Now, that blows me away.
I used to have a person almostfull-time who built slide decks
and would set these courses upfor me to record.

(02:34):
And I thought to myself, wow,this is going so fast.
And even Sam Altman, the founderof ChatGPT, recently came out of
October 2025 and said, we needto slow things down because it's
going so fast.
You now have companies likeModerna just announced they're
going to non-individualcontributor teams.

(02:55):
They're going to have an AIassistant, they're going to have
an AI coach, they're going tohave a human being on these very
small teams.
Think about that.
Now, do I think that's going toeradicate our need for
leadership?
Of course not.
But at the same time, thinkabout the impact.
It is great for the bottom linefor a company.
So it's going to present costsavings, productivity gains for

(03:20):
corporations.
Now it's going to have an impacton people.
So let's look at that from threedifferent perspectives.
Number one, the employee.
I just had this conversationwith a friend of 27, 28 years,
works at one of her clientsites, just wants to retire.
We've got about six years leftbefore retirement.
She cannot retire before that.
And she said to me straight out,I don't want to get involved in

(03:43):
the AI.
I go, I'm going to leave youwith a thought.
You do not have a choice.
No sooner than 30 days later,they asked her, What else would
you like to do with the company?
We're going to be automating thereceptionist position.
And she was dismayed.
And I said, You have a choice.
You're at the fork in the road.
You have no time to ponder.
You have to choose the AI road.

(04:05):
I'm not saying you should loveit.
I'm not saying you should agreewith it.
What I'm saying is you do nothave time to fight.
And that's a hard transition forsomebody in their late 50s.
Now, I hate the stigma of oldpeople, they can't learn
technology, they can't learn newthings.
That's just not true.
But that has an impact in thatperson.
Now, where does that impact go?

(04:26):
That impact can also betransitioned to friends of hers
because they might see whathappens to her and her reaction
and certainly take the decisionout of context.
And then the story starts tounfold inside the corporate
walls.
Number two, that puts the leaderin a really tough position.

(04:46):
You know, when I think aboutartificial intelligence and an
employee simply going up to aboss, and I had this two years
ago at a newspaper that we wereworking with.
And with ChatGPT and editing,you know, editors today.
I'm not saying they've gottencommoditized.
What I'm saying is some of thepunctuation, the grammar, all of
that stuff can be done in amatter of seconds now.

(05:08):
Take tools like Grammarly, thatis now has an AI component.
Look what happens.
When that was going on, one ofmy friends who was an editor at
this paper went to the headpublisher and said, Are we okay?
And the guy goes, Yeah.
And at that time, he did notknow of any layoffs.

(05:29):
Two weeks later, he had to layoff two editors.
They were furious.
So what happens?
What happens?
People lose sight.
They lose sight of how fast thisis going.
So then the leader was coined asnot telling the truth.
In the moment he was telling thetruth.
He didn't know.
That has had a dramatic impactin that workplace.

(05:51):
Now, number three, it's theorganization.
I think what you're going tosee, and this is a prediction of
AI in the workplace, I thinkyou're going to have people,
literally, much like thepandemic, crave human
connection.
I mean, I don't think we canargue about engagement.
That I think AI is not going tofacilitate more engagement, but

(06:14):
I do think AI is going toprovide productivity.
But how do we get people stayingconnected to the mission of
their work, the mission of theorganization, the mission of the
team that they represent, whenit's going to be fractured at
some point with AI?
Jobs are going to change.
Jobs are changing.
Now, when I think about backoffice, I think about my credit

(06:35):
union clients.
You know, one of the things thathappened is when you think about
what happened years ago.
And you think about onlinebanking.
What did everybody say?
Oh my gosh, why did we build allthese branches?
I talked to my credit unionclients.
They all say, people are cominginto the branch now more than

(06:56):
ever.
I can deposit my check online.
Do you know?
I still go into my local creditunion, summit credit union in
Wisconsin.
I still go in there because Iknow John, the president, the
local president.
I know some of the people thatwork in those uh organizations
that I'd like to go see.

(07:16):
I'm like, but I could be so muchmore efficient.
What it teaches us is peoplewant to be around humans.
The pandemic proved that.
We found out we could be really,really productive working at
home.
Very few people thought that waseven a viable thing.
And now all of a sudden, peopleare working at home.
So what happens?

(07:37):
We work at home, and all of asudden people are like, this is
great.
I'm not spending money on gas.
I'm not, you know, I'm not intraffic, I'm saving time.
The water cooler talk subsided,obviously.
So people were working five anda half to six hours, having more
time for their family.
But guess what happened twoyears later when the pandemic,
or three years later, when thepandemic started to subside?

(08:01):
People wanted to come back tothe office.
Oh, they wanted to come backwith conditions.
And those conditions are what?
I don't want to be in the officefull time.
I don't want to be at the homefull time.
I want this hybrid model.
That has forced leaders andorganizations into some very
tough conversations.
AI is going to have that sametype of impact.
The conversations are going tobecome more and more important.

(08:24):
What are your thoughts?