The AI-Driven Leader

Geoff Woods

Welcome to The AI-Driven Leader, the podcast dedicated to helping you harness AI to build better leaders, better businesses, and better lives. Hosted byGeoff Woods, author of the #1 international bestseller The AI-Driven Leader.

  1. OCT 28

    Season One Finale — From Curiosity to Courage

    What does it take to move from “I don’t know where to start” to “I’m going to lead this”? That’s the journey we’ve taken together in Season One of The AI-Driven Leader. Across 12 episodes, you’ve heard from six executives who began where so many leaders are today — curious, cautious, even skeptical. And you’ve witnessed their transformation: from hesitation to bold action. In every interview, they shared the doubts, turning points, and decisions that changed everything. And in every CRIT™ session, you saw what happens when AI stops being a gimmick and starts acting as a true Thought Partner — surfacing non-obvious solutions in minutes, not months. The lesson is clear: you don’t have to be an AI expert to lead in this new era. You just have to become an AI-driven leader. Someone willing to think differently, cast a vision, and lead change with the courage to act before the playbook is written. As Season One closes, keep the momentum going: Subscribe to our newsletter at AILeadership.com for weekly case studies and prompts.Read The AI-Driven Leader and put it in your executives’ hands.Explore how we help C-level leaders train their teams, join the Collective™, and tie AI strategy directly to enterprise value creation. Because here’s the truth: the future doesn’t wait, and neither should you.

    4 min

  2. OCT 23

    CRIT™: Harnessing Abraham Lincoln to Write Your AI Manifesto

    In our last episode, he showed how vulnerability and courage turned skepticism into company-wide adoption. But in this CRIT™ session, the challenge was different: how do you keep excitement from stalling out in confusion? Through CRIT™, AI acted as a strategic advisor to his executive team. It surfaced the need for structured listening, a weekly AI narrative, and clear success gates. It pushed him to elevate a “big bet” team into a startup studio — not just to use AI, but to sell with AI. And then came the extraordinary moment: Abraham Lincoln, on his AI board, challenged him to write a human constitution for AI: “Man shall not be replaced, but released into his greatest potential.” The clarity that emerged in minutes would’ve taken months of consultants. His reaction said it all: “Outstanding, mind blowing at times.” Today’s AI-Driven Leader is Geoff Gilmore, President, CEO, and Director of Worthington Steel.

    36 min

  3. OCT 21

    12. Shifting the Mindset of an Enterprise Workforce with Geoff Gilmore

    Imagine going from saying, “AI has no place in steel manufacturing”… to declaring, “It is my expectation that you use AI” across 6,000 employees — all in under six months. That’s exactly what happened when one leader flipped the switch. At first skeptical, he was convinced AI couldn’t touch a 65-year-old steel company. But a persistent senior leader put the right books in his hands — Co-Intelligence and The AI-Driven Leader — and suddenly, curiosity turned into conviction. Within months, he vulnerably admitted, “I wasn’t an expert, but I led anyway.” That courage gave his people permission to act. Pilots surged: predictive inventory, machine reliability, contract analyzers, and more — initiatives powerful enough to potentially move stock price. And through it all, he kept a people-first philosophy: “Work-life balance matters as much as stock price.” Today’s AI-Driven Leader is Geoff Gilmore, President, CEO, and Director of Worthington Steel.

    45 min

  4. OCT 16

    CRIT™: How to Reinvent Your Business Model with AI

    In our last episode, they showed how AI liberated their team to focus on presence and strategy. But in this CRIT™ session, the stakes were higher: what happens when AI threatens to disrupt the very business model itself? Together, we put HireBetter’s flagship Strategic Talent Planning service under the microscope. Today, it’s a full-day, whiteboard-heavy, manual process. But through CRIT™, AI reimagined it as a real-time, AI-augmented copilot — powered by live financials, KPIs, and org charts. The result: strategy that updates continuously, while leaders provide the irreplaceable human trust and safe space for execution. Velveth captured the moment best: “Wake up. Do you know what we could do? This changes everything.” This is what happens when leaders stop fearing disruption and start using AI to redefine their value.

    38 min

  5. OCT 14

    Building an AI-Driven Culture at HireBetter with Velveth Schmitz & Amy Ancira

    Imagine collapsing hours of client-note consolidation into a single minute — and freeing your team to focus on what only humans can do. That’s exactly what happened when two leaders decided to experiment with AI, not as a side project, but as a cultural transformation. One led with fearless curiosity, modeling adoption before asking her team to follow. The other paired process-driven creativity with custom GPTs that unlocked efficiency, strategy, and presence. The result? A recruiting firm that turned skepticism into advocacy, wrote its own AI policy, redesigned training with predictive data, and built a culture where automation handles the busywork — so people can show up more human, more connected, and more strategic. Today’s AI-Driven Leaders are Velveth Schmitz, CEO of HireBetter, and Amy Ancira, Chief Experience Officer.

    46 min

  6. OCT 9

    CRIT™: Building Your Leadership Playbook for Growth

    In our last episode, he showed how AI doubled capacity, built new product lines, and reshaped his leadership at work and at home. But behind the success was a deeper challenge: how do you scale leadership itself, so growth doesn’t bottleneck around one person? That’s the question he brought into CRIT™. In this live session, AI stepped in as a strategic operator — taking the context of his leadership challenge and building a playbook to systematize what had only lived in his head. The outcome? Blind spots revealed, dashboards built, and a roadmap that made his leadership scalable across the company. The takeaway? With the right framework, AI doesn’t just design processes — it amplifies leaders, turning instinct into systems and vision into execution. Today’s AI-Driven Leader is Brian Lang, CEO of UpsideCFO.

    27 min

  7. OCT 7

    Scaling Your Leadership Team Using AI with Brian Lang

    What if you could add ten senior-level teammates for just $20 a month? That's exactly what one CEO did. His breakthrough came after realizing AI wasn't just for emails and edits — it could be a thought partner. He built an internal suite of AI personas: a virtual CRO that recovered lost deals, a business coach tailored to his style, and a system called the "Clarity File" that transformed an 80-hour process into a 4-hour playbook. The result? Hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing collateral generated, operations scaled without new headcount, and a new way of showing up as a father. His lesson is clear: AI isn't just a tool — it's a compounding force multiplier for leadership, business, and life. Today's AI-Driven Leader is Brian Lang, CEO of UpsideCFO.

    45 min

  8. OCT 2

    CRIT™: Recruit Your Legendary Board with "Steve Jobs"

    Most leaders come to CRIT™ with a problem. Rusty Cagle came with a vision: 100YearImpact.org — a nonprofit designed to help nonprofits build endowments and channel billions toward humanitarian causes. At first, he asked AI for strategies. But very quickly, the real challenge emerged: how do you recruit a Dream Team Advisory Board that could guide a movement for 100 years? Through CRIT™, AI drafted a world-class board invitation — then stress-tested it with role-play feedback from “Steve Jobs.” The verdict: “Too polite. If you’re going to shape history, build a revolution, not a charity.” The breakthrough was more than tactics. Rusty realized, “This board isn’t honorary. It’s legendary.” And his emotional payoff was clear: “I want to be part of my own board.” This is what CRIT™ makes possible — turning a vague idea into a movement with the power to last a century.

    43 min
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Trailer

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About

Welcome to The AI-Driven Leader, the podcast dedicated to helping you harness AI to build better leaders, better businesses, and better lives. Hosted byGeoff Woods, author of the #1 international bestseller The AI-Driven Leader.

Information

  • Creator
    Geoff Woods
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 Geoff Woods
  • Show Website
    The AI-Driven Leader

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