Humanity Working

Humanity Working
  • 5.0 (15)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Semiweekly

Humanity Working is a podcast focused on how new technology such as AI is changing the experience of work, and how humans can thrive in this new world. Each episode we explore what is changing, how it is affecting the way work gets done, and the impact it has on the people doing work - with a particular focus on those who have a creative aspect to their work. The podcast is hosted by Paul Slater - Principal AI Technologist at Adobe Systems, often alongside Matt Neal - Innovation Leader at BeOne Medicines. We frequently feature authors, business leaders and top tier academics. Join us as we navigate the ever-changing landscape of work.

  1. 2d ago

    Are We Holding AI Back With Our Instructions?

    Matt and Bill join Paul for a conversation about a counterintuitive question at the heart of how we work with AI: does giving AI more information and instructions actually make it better? They begin with standard operating procedures, or SOPs, and the tension between consistency and autonomy. They explore why SOPs and checklists can be essential in environments like aviation, healthcare, and the military, while also considering whether applying the same thinking to AI could unnecessarily constrain what these systems are capable of finding. The conversation then turns to what Paul calls the “flip” side of design fixation: not only can AI influence the way humans think, but the context humans give AI can constrain its thinking as well. Through examples involving chess, StarCraft, and AI-assisted debugging, they explore what happens when AI is given an outcome rather than a prescribed process, and whether removing context can sometimes lead to better or more unexpected solutions. Paul, Matt, and Bill also dig into AI and creativity, questioning what it actually means for AI to be creative when human creativity itself is shaped by conventions, trends, biases, and limitations. They explore experiments with Suno, the difference between highly prescriptive and minimal prompts, and why giving AI only a few words can sometimes produce something more compelling than a carefully engineered set of instructions. The conversation examines the role of imperfection in human creativity through examples from music, including John Bonham and Wichita Lineman. They consider whether the imperfections, mistakes, and unexpected decisions that make human-created work memorable might be precisely what AI struggles to reproduce, while also asking whether AI could eventually create something genuinely remarkable by being given enough freedom to surprise us. They ultimately return to the question of when humans should constrain AI and when they should deliberately step back. Paul challenges the assumption that more context always produces better results and proposes an experiment: give AI the same outcome twice, once with minimal information and once with everything available, and see what emerges. The episode ultimately asks whether the future of working with AI may depend as much on knowing what not to tell it as knowing what to tell it.  Resources Mentioned: The Dot and the Swarm by Ethan Mollick Article: Read here! The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande Amazon: Get the book here! Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, and Chris Fussell Amazon: Get the book here! Humanity Working is a podcast focused on helping individuals, teams and organizations be ready for the future of work by maximizing their human potential. For more information, and access to our weekly newsletter, visit us at humanityworking.net.

    Are We Holding AI Back With Our Instructions?

  2. Oct 8

    How Do You Incentivize Teams to Architect Their Own Extinction?

    Matt and Bill join Paul for a conversation about the rapidly changing AI landscape, and a question that is becoming harder for organizations to ignore: how do you get people to embrace technology that could ultimately change or eliminate the work they do? They unpack the recent gathering of AI leaders around a new “moral agreement,” questioning whether the public show of unity represents meaningful cooperation or simply another layer of messaging and positioning. They also explore the shifting levels of trust surrounding companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google, and why the rapidly changing interests of these organizations make it difficult to understand what they actually stand for. Paul, Matt, and Bill then turn to the convergence of AI, automation, and robotics, and why the physical world may be the missing piece in the AI story. They discuss how increasingly capable robots could move beyond specialized tasks into general-purpose physical work, potentially putting pressure not just on knowledge workers but on many forms of manual labor as well. The conversation examines the tension inside organizations that are trying to automate work while still relying on the people whose jobs may eventually be affected by that automation. They explore where AI genuinely makes sense, why repetitive processes and administrative work may be good candidates, and why organizations need to think carefully about what humans should do with the time and capacity that automation creates. They also question whether today's AI systems are actually reliable enough for the roles we're asking them to perform. Through examples involving AI agents, standard operating procedures, broken links, missing context, and Paul's attempt to build a personal chief of staff, they explore the fundamental tension between AI's impressive capabilities and its lack of transparency and consistency. The episode ultimately asks whether we're using AI because it is genuinely the best tool for the job, or simply because we've become convinced that AI should be the answer to everything. Paul, Matt, and Bill argue for a more deliberate approach: strip away the hype, understand what AI actually does better than humans or existing technology, and use it where it creates real value while preserving the uniquely human capabilities that matter most. Resources Mentioned: On-boarding Your AI Intern by Ethan Mollick Article: Read here! Bonus Episode: Navigating the Age of Chaos, Featuring Bob Johansen Podcast Episode: Listen here! Humanity Working is a podcast focused on helping individuals, teams and organizations be ready for the future of work by maximizing their human potential. For more information, and access to our weekly newsletter, visit us at humanityworking.net.

    How Do You Incentivize Teams to Architect Their Own Extinction?

  3. Oct 6

    Five Theories for Why the AI Conversation Suddenly Changed

    Matt and Bill join Paul for a conversation about the sudden shift in the AI narrative, and why the companies building the technology are now openly talking about existential risk. They unpack how a single warning about AI potentially destroying humanity quickly became the dominant story around AI, and why the people immersed in the technology seem to be processing that risk very differently from everyone encountering it for the first time. They also explore the power of narrative, and how science fiction, fear, and the novelty of AI shape the way we imagine what could happen next. The conversation examines several possible reasons behind the recent change in tone from AI companies, including the Hugging Face incident, the possibility of near-term risks from recursive self-improvement, and the growing difficulty of predicting what happens when AI systems become capable of improving themselves. They also question whether the industry's warnings are partly driven by business incentives, regulation, risk management, and the enormous expectations surrounding AI's potential. Paul, Matt, and Bill then look at the geopolitical dimension of AI, including the growing competition between the US and China and the unusual fact that a technology with potentially enormous societal consequences is being developed primarily by private companies rather than governments. They explore what this means for governance, political influence, and who ultimately gets to shape the future of the technology. The episode ultimately comes back to a more fundamental question: can we trust the companies telling us that AI will either transform everything or potentially destroy us? As AI usage rises while trust declines, they consider what the erosion of institutional trust means for the future, and why rebuilding trust, transparency, and community may be just as important as the technology itself. Resources Mentioned: Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies — Nick Bostrom Amazon: Get the book here! Rage Against The Machines: Yuval Noah Harari On Surviving AI, The History Of Information, And The Future Of Humanity Podcast Episode: Listen here! Humanity Working is a podcast focused on helping individuals, teams and organizations be ready for the future of work by maximizing their human potential. For more information, and access to our weekly newsletter, visit us at humanityworking.net.

    Five Theories for Why the AI Conversation Suddenly Changed

  4. Sep 23

    100 Episodes In: What Humanity Working Has Learned About AI and the Future of Work

    Matt and Bill join Paul for the 100th episode of Humanity Working to look back at how the podcast has evolved from Way Too Busy to Making Remote Work and ultimately Humanity Working, and to explore where the conversation about work, AI, and human agency goes next.  They revisit the early days of the podcast, from the chaos of working through COVID to the rise of remote work, and how quickly the nature of work has continued to change. They also reflect on the new kind of busyness created by AI, as increasingly powerful tools change what people are expected to accomplish and raise new questions about how humans stay in control of their work.  The conversation then turns to AI's growing role in the mainstream, including the increasingly prominent debate around existential risk and whether advanced AI could pose a threat to humanity. Paul, Matt, and Bill explore why extreme narratives are so compelling, how our ideas about AI are shaped by the stories we've already seen in movies and television, and why assigning precise probabilities to unprecedented events is so difficult. They also discuss the importance of human judgment, reflection, and the ability to pause before acting as AI systems become increasingly capable.   Finally, Paul announces the next chapter for Humanity Working, with Matt taking a more active role in interviews and Bill joining the podcast as a regular voice. Together, they look ahead to a broader conversation about how humans can maintain agency as technology transforms work and society, and why long-form conversations and multiple perspectives may be essential to navigating what comes next. Resources Mentioned: Leading Change in the Era of AI — Bill Kirst Amazon: Get the book here! Coffee & Change with Bill Kirst Podcast: Listen here! Operations Utopia with Matt Neal Podcast: Listen here! Peace of Chaos with Matt Neal Podcast: Listen here! Humanity Working is a podcast focused on helping individuals, teams and organizations be ready for the future of work by maximizing their human potential. For more information, and access to our weekly newsletter, visit us at humanityworking.net.

    100 Episodes In: What Humanity Working Has Learned About AI and the Future of Work

  5. Sep 18

    Bonus Episode: Why AI Doom is Counterproductive, featuring Geoffrey Moore.

    Geoffrey Moore is an author, strategist, and longtime technology thinker whose work has focused on how technologies are adopted and how businesses adapt to technological change. He holds a doctoral degree in medieval and Renaissance literature and began his career in academia before moving into the software industry, where he worked in training, sales, and marketing. He's the author of seven business books, including Dealing with Darwin, and The Infinite Staircase, a philosophical exploration of emergence, human behavior, and what it means to live and act as human beings. In this episode, Paul and Geoffrey dig into the narratives shaping how we think about AI, including claims that advanced AI could pose an existential threat to humanity. They explore why humans are so susceptible to powerful stories, why critical thinking is essential when evaluating extreme predictions, and why Geoffrey sees malicious humans using AI as a more immediate concern than AI itself developing destructive intentions. They also examine what society can learn from the rise of social media, including how technology can amplify polarization and outpace our ability to adapt. The conversation then turns to ethics and responsibility, as Geoffrey lays out how AI companies can balance the needs of customers, their workforce, investors, partners, and communities, and why values such as trust and customer success should guide those decisions. They close with a deeper question about how technologies like AI are changing the way we think, behave, and understand what it means to be human. Resources Mentioned: The Infinite Staircase — Geoffrey Moore Amazon: Get the book here! Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution — Geoffrey Moore Amazon: Get the book here! Navigating the Age of Chaos: A Sense-Making Guide to a BANI World That Doesn’t Make Sense — Jamais Cascio and Bob Johansen Amazon: Get the book here! Humanity Working is a podcast focused on helping individuals, teams and organizations be ready for the future of work by maximizing their human potential. For more information, and access to our weekly newsletter, visit us at humanityworking.net.

    Bonus Episode: Why AI Doom is Counterproductive, featuring Geoffrey Moore.

  6. Sep 15

    Four Years with AI: Are We getting Smarter or Dumber?

    Matt joins Paul for a follow-up conversation on a question that has become even more urgent four years into the generative-AI era: is AI making us smarter or dumber? They revisit concerns around cognitive offloading, lost skills, and the ease with which increasingly capable systems can do the thinking that once helped us learn. But Paul also makes the case that the story is more nuanced—and more hopeful—than it first appears. AI can take curious people down valuable learning rabbit holes, helping them explore topics and build knowledge they may never have encountered otherwise. Paul and Matt explore why the decline of prompt engineering may matter more than it seems: as AI becomes better at interpreting what we mean, we may no longer need to practice the questioning, iteration, and precision that earlier tools demanded. They also discuss the difference between AI’s original “chat era” and an emerging “builder era,” in which people use AI to create apps, tools, and eventually physical things. The conversation examines the importance of time in developing human wisdom, judgment, taste, and expertise—capabilities that cannot simply be downloaded or instantly acquired. They consider why AI may be making some people less capable in certain ways while helping a smaller group of active builders develop powerful new skills. The episode ultimately asks whether we can remain intentional about what we outsource to AI, preserve the capabilities that matter most, and ensure the next generation develops the wisdom needed to stay meaningfully in control of an increasingly powerful technology. Resources Mentioned: 7BQAAI Question Two: Is AI Making Us Dumber? Article: Read here! The AI-Ready Human: Your 90-Day Program to Stay Relevant as Technology Transforms Work — Paul Slater Amazon: Get the book here! Humanity Working is a podcast focused on helping individuals, teams and organizations be ready for the future of work by maximizing their human potential. For more information, and access to our weekly newsletter, visit us at humanityworking.net.

    Four Years with AI: Are We getting Smarter or Dumber?

  7. Sep 4

    Bonus Episode: Building a Culture of Excellence, featuring Kyle McDowell

    Kyle McDowell is a leadership speaker, advisor, and the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of Begin With WE: 10 Principles for Building and Sustaining a Culture of Excellence. After more than two decades in corporate leadership including leading a 15,000-person, $7 billion program. Kyle stepped away from the fear-based leadership habits he had learned and developed the “10 We’s”: a practical framework for creating cultures where people take ownership, treat one another well, and perform at a high level. In this episode, Paul and Kyle go deep into all 10 principles behind Begin With WE, beginning with the personal reckoning that led Kyle to create them. They explore why meaningful culture change starts with honest self-reflection, why simple leadership ideas are not necessarily easy to live out, and why a keynote or mission statement alone will not transform an organization. They also unpack principles such as doing the right thing always, leading by example, embracing challenge, obsessing over details, and explain why the real power comes from practicing all 10 together, every day. Resources Mentioned: Begin With WE: 10 Principles for Building and Sustaining a Culture of Excellence — Kyle McDowell Amazon: Get the book here! Begin With WE — Interactive Program Link Here! Any Dumb-Ass Can Do It — Garry Ridge & Martha I. Finney Amazon: Get the book here! Humanity Working is a podcast focused on helping individuals, teams and organizations be ready for the future of work by maximizing their human potential. For more information, and access to our weekly newsletter, visit us at humanityworking.net.

    Bonus Episode: Building a Culture of Excellence, featuring Kyle McDowell

  8. Sep 2

    Why Do Big AI Rollouts Keep Failing?

    Matt joins Paul for another episode in the “Seven Big Questions About AI” series to explore a provocative question: why do big AI rollouts keep failing? They unpack whether the widely reported failures of generative AI projects are really about the technology itself, or whether organizations are approaching AI with the wrong expectations, metrics, and assumptions about what transformation actually means. The conversation explores why traditional measures of ROI may not fully capture the value of AI, particularly when organizations expect immediate, measurable business results from a technology that is changing how work gets done. They also examine the enormous hype surrounding AI, the fear of falling behind competitors, and the growing backlash against AI from people who see it as disruptive, unnecessary, or simply producing “slop.” Paul and Matt discuss how these reactions can obscure a more important question: what are organizations actually trying to transform? They then compare AI transformation with the digital transformation that preceded it. While digital transformation was largely a technology transformation with a human component, Matt argues that AI transformation fundamentally reverses that relationship. AI is a human transformation with a technology component, because it has the potential to change what people do, how they work, how teams operate, and ultimately how organizations are designed. The conversation explores why simply adding AI training or asking employees to adopt new tools is unlikely to be enough, particularly when many people never wanted the technology in the first place. Paul and Matt also discuss the risks of approaching AI transformation through the same playbook used for digital transformation, including the tendency to treat people as an afterthought and the temptation to reduce headcount before understanding how AI will actually change the organization. They explore why organizations may be better served by slowing down, understanding the value of the capabilities they already have, and resisting the constant pressure to deploy the newest AI technology simply because competitors are doing so. The conversation ultimately turns to what organizations may need to look like in an AI-driven environment. Matt argues that traditional organizational structures may need to become more flexible and adaptable, with teams forming and disbanding around specific problems and opportunities rather than remaining fixed indefinitely. Using the movie industry and Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” as an example of this kind of “swarming,” they explore how AI could enable organizations to assemble focused teams around ideas, create value quickly, and then reorganize for the next challenge. The episode ultimately argues that big AI rollouts fail not because organizations lack access to powerful technology, but because they are approaching a fundamentally human transformation as if it were simply another technology implementation. Resources Mentioned: Understanding Organizations...Finally! — Henry Mintzberg Amazon: Get the book here! Designing for Change: Time for a Future of Work Executive Article: Read here! Humanity Working is a podcast focused on helping individuals, teams and organizations be ready for the future of work by maximizing their human potential. For more information, and access to our weekly newsletter, visit us at humanityworking.net.

    Why Do Big AI Rollouts Keep Failing?
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5
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About

Humanity Working is a podcast focused on how new technology such as AI is changing the experience of work, and how humans can thrive in this new world. Each episode we explore what is changing, how it is affecting the way work gets done, and the impact it has on the people doing work - with a particular focus on those who have a creative aspect to their work. The podcast is hosted by Paul Slater - Principal AI Technologist at Adobe Systems, often alongside Matt Neal - Innovation Leader at BeOne Medicines. We frequently feature authors, business leaders and top tier academics. Join us as we navigate the ever-changing landscape of work.

Information

  • Creator
    Humanity Working
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    149
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Humanity Working
  • Show Website
    Humanity Working