Humans of AI: Presented by WRITER

WRITER
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WRITER's Humans of AI takes listeners behind the business of AI and into the intimate stories of those at the forefront of the AI era. Listen to leaders as they navigate how generative AI is changing their work, and lives.

  1. The $10 billion culture gap: Jevan Lenox, Chief People Officer at WRITER

    1D AGO

    The $10 billion culture gap: Jevan Lenox, Chief People Officer at WRITER

    What's the difference between a $10 billion company and one that fails? The technology? The timing? The IP? According to Jevan Lenox, Chief People Officer at WRITER, it comes down to culture. And in the age of AI, that gap is about to get much wider. In this episode of Humans of AI, Jevan shares why AI doesn't just change your processes—it amplifies everything, including your cultural dysfunction. From his experience leading people teams at Insitro and Stitch Fix, he's learned that the companies that win aren't the ones with the best AI—they're the ones with cultures built for what's coming. You'll learn: • Why AI adoption is fundamentally a cultural problem, not a technical one • How to shift from efficiency culture to resilience culture • Why everyone in your organization now needs strategic thinking skills that used to be management-only • How to help employees navigate identity shifts as AI changes their roles • The difference between AI as replacement versus AI as amplification This isn't about rolling out another tool. It's about building the invisible architecture that determines whether your AI transformation succeeds or fails. Subscribe to Humans of AI on your favorite podcast platform and check out the video version on YouTube. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com. **Download the Agentic Compact:** WRITER's framework for building AI-ready organizations at https://go.writer.com/the-agentic-compact Subscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    27 min
  2. The hybrid human-agent workforce with Matan-Paul Shetrit, Director of Product Management at WRITER

    JAN 7

    The hybrid human-agent workforce with Matan-Paul Shetrit, Director of Product Management at WRITER

    Picture this: You're 21 years old, just started your first job at Israel's Ministry of Finance. They sit you down in a corner office. No one else has access. For the next three years, you'll work on restructuring the entire social security system. If word leaks, careers end. This is Matan-Paul Shetrit. Today, he leads product design at WRITER, building and scaling agent-based AI for enterprise. In this episode of Humans of AI, Matan-Paul shares why the technology isn't the product — the transformation is. He reveals the surprising truth about which industries are actually leading the AI revolution (hint: it's not Silicon Valley startups), why managing AI agents requires an entirely new skillset, and what happens when a 1,000-person company suddenly becomes an 11,000-employee organization overnight. You'll discover: • Why regulated industries like healthcare and financial services are more ready for AI than you think • The critical difference between observability and supervision in AI systems • Why we're all about to become managers — whether we've managed before or not • How AI is teaching us to be critical thinkers and editors, not just writers • Why businesses run on exceptions, not happy paths Matan-Paul warns: "If you take everything AI says as gospel, there's a problem. These machines, by definition, make mistakes." The real challenge isn't building agents — it's scaling them responsibly and managing a fleet of humans and machines working together.  This is a conversation about humility, systems thinking, and understanding that the real bottleneck to AI adoption isn't technology. It's people, processes, and accountability. 🔗 For enterprise leaders: Download The Agentic Compact — A framework for building trust and control in the human-agent enterprise: https://writer.com/blog/agentic-compact/ 📖 Read more from Matan-Paul Shetrit: The Enterprise as a Living Brain: https://writer.com/engineering/enterprise-as-living-brain/Orchestration Graphs: https://writer.com/engineering/orchestration-graph/From Employee to Manager in the Age of AI: https://writer.com/engineering/employee-into-manager/Supervising the Synthetic Workforce: https://writer.com/engineering/supervising-synthetic-workforce/Subscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    31 min
  3. When AI acts autonomously, who's accountable? With WRITER’s General Counsel Rowan Reynolds

    12/17/2025

    When AI acts autonomously, who's accountable? With WRITER’s General Counsel Rowan Reynolds

    What does accountability mean when AI can make thousands of decisions before a human even notices? That’s the question Rowan Reynolds, General Counsel at Writer, is tackling.  Rowan shares how his background in philosophy and law taught him that legal frameworks aren't just about what's legal—they're about what's right. And in the age of agentic AI, building those frameworks before disasters happen means treating AI agents like privileged users who work at far greater speed and scale than any employee. Rowan discusses the three core principles that make AI trustworthy (transparency, human-centricity, and security), and why companies are worried about the wrong things when the real challenge is organizational change. From the difference between "Big G" enterprise-wide governance and "little g" day-to-day deployment, to why we're building this in real time with no established playbook, Rowan offers a framework for building AI systems right instead of just asking what could go wrong. Subscribe now so you don't miss an episode!  Check out our YouTube channel to watch the full interviews.  Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.  Subscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    26 min
  4. What's Your Company's AIQ? Featuring J.P. Gownder, Forrester VP and principal analyst

    12/03/2025

    What's Your Company's AIQ? Featuring J.P. Gownder, Forrester VP and principal analyst

    Why are organizations throwing money at AI without investing in the people who use it? And where is the disconnect between technology adoption and real business results? On this episode, we hear from guest speaker J.P. Gownder, one of the world's leading analysts on the future of work. With a background in history and political science and as VP and principal analyst for Forrester’s Furture of Work team, J.P. brings a unique, human-centric perspective to the world of technology. For over a decade, he has guided leaders at billion-dollar corporations through immense change, urging them to focus on the human side of AI and automation. Listen to learn about Forrester’s concept of "AIQ" (Artificial Intelligence Quotient) as a measure of an organization's readiness for AI. He explains why the old rulebooks for technology rollouts don't work for generative AI and provides a masterclass in effective training‌ — ‌from social learning and champions programs to creating proprietary content that reflects your company's context. He also debunks the myth of mass job replacement, arguing that AI is far more often an augmentation technology than a replacement one. Subscribe now so you don't miss an episode!  Check out our YouTube channel to watch the full interviews.  Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.  Subscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    17 min
  5. Special Episode: How a Broke College Student Co-founded a VC-Backed Edtech Startup

    11/26/2025 · BONUS

    Special Episode: How a Broke College Student Co-founded a VC-Backed Edtech Startup

    This Thanksgiving break, we wanted to share an episode from our friends at Fund/Build/Scale. As AI continues to reshape education, many are wondering how it will impact learning and what new skills the emerging workforce will need to thrive in this tech-driven landscape.  We're sharing a fantastic episode from our friends at Fund/Build/Scale. It's a conversation with Nectir co-founder and CEO, Kavitta Ghai who shares how she transformed her frustration as a student into a fast-growing VC-backed edtech startup – building an AI-powered tool for the classroom.  Kavitta discusses the leap from student to founder, how she built an AI tool without a technical background, and the tactics that helped her and her co-founder land paying customers early. She also opens up about navigating the venture world as a first-generation founder and reframing risk as a competitive advantage.  Learn more:  NectirKavitta GhaiHow to Crash the Silicon Valley Party, kavitta.comCalifornia Community Colleges Launches Groundbreaking Pilot with Nectir AIPaul Graham essaysWhat is FERPA?, U.S. Dept. of EducationEntrada VenturesSubscribe now so you don't miss an episode!  Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.  Subscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    1h 2m
  6. Systems, Not Models with WRITER’s Head of AI Dan Bikel

    11/12/2025

    Systems, Not Models with WRITER’s Head of AI Dan Bikel

    Are we trying to build AI, or are we ready to operationalize it? While the world chases bigger models, the real advantage lies in building systems that work reliably, safely, and at scale. On this episode, we hear from Dan Bikel, Writer's Head of AI. With a thirty-year career spanning nearly every major AI lab — including IBM, Google, LinkedIn, and Meta — Dan has shaped the field of natural language processing. He helped build the semantic parser behind Google Assistant, worked on safety for Llama 2, and has published foundational research papers. But then, he moved to a startup. Why? Listen to learn why leaders should shift their focus from "what can this model do?" to "what does this business need?" Dan shares his core philosophy of building strong systems, not just powerful models, and distills his AI strategy into three words — Scale, Speed, and Specificity. He offers practical insights for leaders on hiring talent, making smart investments, and pursuing "Absolutely Manageable Intelligence" over the hype of AGI. Dan’s vision for the future is an "agentic age," where AI systems don't just respond — they act, coordinate tasks, and explain their thinking. He argues that the next great leap in AI won't be in consumer chatbots, but in enterprise systems that are auditable, accountable, and indispensable to the business. Subscribe now so you don't miss an episode!  Check out our YouTube channel to watch the full interviews.  Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.  Download The Agentic Compact to get the complete framework for building trust into agent-human collaboration. Subscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    14 min
  7. The security paradox of agentic AI with Eric Freeman, CISO at WRITER

    10/29/2025

    The security paradox of agentic AI with Eric Freeman, CISO at WRITER

    What if securing AI agents wasn't just about preventing breaches, but about creating a competitive advantage? On this episode, we hear from Eric Freeman, chief information security officer (CISO) at WRITER, who shares his unconventional journey from being a line cook to becoming a leading figure in enterprise security. Eric's unique experience, including teaching himself to hack using Metasploit in a restaurant kitchen, has shaped his approach to security in the era of agentic AI. Listen to learn Eric's framework for securing AI agents, including the concept of "purple teaming." This is where AI agents test and harden security systems, The Agentic Compact — a new framework for managing the human-agent workforce — and how security transforms from a cost center into a velocity multiplier for businesses adopting AI. Eric’s vision for the future of security in the age of agentic AI is rooted in reimagining human systems of trust and accountability and in navigating the complex landscape of AI security to turn it into a strategic advantage. Download The Agentic Compact to get the complete framework for building trust into agent-human collaboration. Subscribe now so you don't miss an episode!  Check out our YouTube channel to watch the full interviews.  Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.  Subscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    15 min
  8. The metagame of marketing: Diego Lomanto, Chief Marketing Officer at WRITER

    10/15/2025

    The metagame of marketing: Diego Lomanto, Chief Marketing Officer at WRITER

    What if the key to success in the age of AI is forcing marketers to become more human, not less? Season 4 begins with Diego Lomanto, Chief Marketing Officer at WRITER, who explores the intersection of human intuition and artificial intelligence in modern marketing. Diego shares his unique journey from coding as a teenager to becoming a leading figure in AI-driven marketing strategies. Learn how Diego's experiences as a poker player have influenced his approach to marketing, and about his framework for "the metagame" - a deeper strategic layer that's crucial for success in AI-driven business environments. Diego dives into the paradox of AI, the three core principles for building AI-ready marketing organizations, and the role of AI in the future of work as an "organizational orchestrator." Subscribe now so you don't miss an episode!  Check out our YouTube channel to watch the full interviews.  Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.  FEATURED GUIDE: From adoption to agency: The business leader’s guide to agentic AI RELATED CONTENT: Agentic AI for marketing teams: Use cases from content generation to campaign orchestrationBuilding with words: Retail storytelling with WRITER’s Ranjan RoyAI gets serious: A CMO’s take on the new reality at Cannes Lions 2025Subscribe to Humans of AI for more stories from people navigating the intersection of business and artificial intelligence. Watch the full video interview on the WRITER YouTube channel for bonus content and deeper insights. Learn more about WRITER at writer.com.

    20 min
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WRITER's Humans of AI takes listeners behind the business of AI and into the intimate stories of those at the forefront of the AI era. Listen to leaders as they navigate how generative AI is changing their work, and lives.

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