At the Intersection: Insights for Thriving at the Crossroads of Change

Craig Francisco
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Management

At the Intersection is a podcast for CEOs and leaders navigating one of the most important shifts in modern business: the rise of Human + AI organizations. Hosted by Craig Francisco, CEO of AI23, the show explores the crossroads of leadership, strategy, and artificial intelligence — where executive decision-making, organizational alignment, and emerging technology meet. Through short solo insights and candid conversations with experienced operators, Craig focuses on the questions leaders are asking right now: • Where should we actually start with AI?• How do we align our leadership team around strategy?• Where can AI create meaningful leverage in our organization?• What does a realistic path to becoming an AI-enabled company look like? This podcast is designed for leaders who want clarity before launching AI initiatives — not hype, tools, or scattered experimentation. If you're a CEO or senior leader trying to make sense of AI inside your organization — where to start, what to prioritize, and how to actually create momentum — I offer a focused 1:1 advisory session where we work through this together. You can learn more here: https://stan.store/craigfrancisco/p/ai-strategy-session-for-business-leaders-ifb4xrz8

Episodes

  1. Jun 18

    How Family Businesses Can Win With AI

    Everyone can get AI now, so “we’re using AI” isn’t a strategy anymore. After a talk with HR leaders at the University of Toledo Family Business Center, we’re stuck on a bigger question: what actually makes a family business or privately owned company win when the same tools are available to your competitor down the street? We dig into the human reality behind AI adoption inside organizations. The CEO or president feels the urgency to drive strategy. The people doing the work feel the risk, and sometimes real fear, about what changes mean for their jobs. Then HR leaders, CHROs, and talent directors sit right in the middle, trying to translate vision into action while keeping trust intact. That tension isn’t a side note, it’s the work. The heart of the conversation is knowledge versus information. Information is abundant. Knowledge is judgment, especially when the manual runs out and a decision still has to be made. That judgment lives in your domain intelligence: the hard-earned context in your people’s heads, the patterns your teams learned over decades, and the “moat” that helped your business survive tough cycles. We end with a grounded way to approach AI: go back to what made you successful, get clear on what makes you unique, then start small, earn early wins, and let the results compound. Enjoying the show? Subscribe, share this with a leader in your organization, and leave a review with the biggest AI question your team is wrestling with. I'm Craig Francisco, CEO of AI23. I help privately held and family businesses turn their hard-earned domain intelligence into an advantage AI can't hand your competitor down the street. If your team is wrestling with where to start, the best place to begin is a conversation: www.craigfrancisco.com

    6 min

  2. Jun 12

    Why AI Adoption Will Shift From Tech To People

    AI is getting cooler by the week, but I think the next big shift has nothing to do with the newest model or the slickest demo. After spending time at a packed AI event in downtown Cleveland where 500 people chose between four different workshops, I walked away with a clear takeaway about what leaders want today and what they’ll desperately need tomorrow. Right now, most attention goes to the technology. People gravitate toward sessions with “Gen AI” energy because it’s thrilling, tangible, and it feels like a shortcut to transformation. Meanwhile, human centered conversations about how teams actually partner with AI tend to get less love, even when the content is practical and grounded. I get it. The tech is impressive. But the moment companies try to scale beyond experimentation, the real friction shows up fast. My prediction: within the next 12 months, that preference flips. Organizations are going to feel overwhelmed by AI implementation and start “starving for support” on the human side. How do you get teams to understand the tools, trust them, and use them well? How do you structure the organization for adoption, governance, and real value? That is the work that determines whether AI becomes a competitive advantage or an expensive curiosity. If you’re navigating AI strategy, change management, or scaling AI across your business, this short episode is built to challenge your assumptions and sharpen your focus. Subscribe, share it with a leader who’s wrestling with AI adoption, and leave a review with your take: are we heading toward a human first AI era?

    4 min

  3. Jun 3

    Why The AI Boom Forced A Five Month Reset

    AI is moving so fast that even seasoned leaders are admitting something they rarely say out loud: this is hard to get your arms around. I’m recording from my car for this quick return, and I want to be candid about why the show went quiet for five months. The acceleration in AI tools, products, and company claims wasn’t just “a lot to track” it was genuinely unsettling, and I needed time to process what it means for real businesses making real bets. What I keep hearing from CEOs and operators is the same double fear: nobody wants to get left behind, but nobody wants to make the wrong move forward. Add the nonstop stream of “new AI workflows” for accounting firms, customer service centers, and every other function, and you get confusion instead of clarity. So we talk about the mindset shift that matters most right now: getting comfortable saying, “I don’t know,” and using that honesty to ask better questions, test smarter, and lead teams through uncertainty. Going forward, I’m committing to practical information over theory. You’ll hear real stories from conversations with companies that are implementing AI, debating AI adoption, and learning where it truly helps and where it doesn’t. Episodes may be short, and they’ll come more frequently only when they bring you clear value. If you want grounded AI leadership insights without the hype, subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a quick review. What’s the one AI decision you’re wrestling with right now?

    6 min

  4. 11/07/2025

    Rise Of The Potential Era

    The room buzzed with possibility at the Great Lakes AI Conference, held on the beautiful campus of Bowling Green State University and that energy sparked a message leaders need right now: the fastest way to harness AI is to slow down, listen, and design it around your people. We, at AI23, call this shift the Potential Era—a move from rigid processes to adaptive systems where humans and AI partner to amplify judgment, creativity, and speed. I share the story of AI23 that chose research and learning over rushing products, and why that discipline builds better instincts for real-world impact. We map a pragmatic path for executives and operators: clarify outcomes, observe how great work actually happens, co-design pilots with domain experts, and scale what sticks. Instead of jamming shiny tools into fragile processes, we focus on culture, shared literacy, and human-in-the-loop guardrails that protect quality and trust. You’ll hear how leaders can signal courage and curiosity, how to avoid the trap of complexity theater, and where to start with narrow, high-friction workflows that benefit most from augmentation. We get practical about metrics—cycle time, error rates, employee sentiment, and customer value—and about building cross-functional squads that bring legal, data, and frontline operators together from day one. The result is a workplace where people do more of what only humans can do, while AI carries the repetitive load that kept their best ideas stuck. If you’re a CEO, team lead, or builder wondering how to bring AI in without breaking what already works, this conversation offers a clear blueprint and a cultural north star. Subscribe, share with a colleague who’s wrestling with AI adoption, and leave a review with the one change you’ll make this quarter. What’s your first step into the Potential Era?

    9 min

  5. 10/18/2025

    Designing Adaptive Organizations for the Human–AI Era

    If you’ve felt the ground shifting under your feet, you’re not imagining it—the rules of building and leading organizations are changing in real time. In this episode, we sit down with strategist and organizational architect Erica Ishida and human performance coach Ellen Palmer to explore what it takes to design truly adaptive organizations—where humans and AI collaborate to unlock dormant potential. We trade top-down hierarchy for living networks, and the obsession with efficiency for efficacy—solving real problems, discovering new opportunities, and measuring value beyond tasks. Erica breaks down the grounding principles that replace the myth of a universal roadmap: build radical trust, design for bi-directional learning, redefine value as potential realized, and treat AI as adaptive intelligence—a partner in navigating messy systems. Ellen brings the human foundation into sharp focus: regulated nervous systems, quality sleep, presence, and healthy device boundaries aren’t indulgences—they’re the infrastructure for better decisions, clearer thinking, and sustainable performance. Together, we explore the hard truth about leaders who refuse to evolve (irrelevance is inevitable) and why magnetic cultures attract top talent by honoring creativity, calm, and contribution. You’ll also hear candid personal stories: Ellen’s forced slowdown after injury that clarified her priorities, and Erica’s courageous pivot from corporate executive to founder, guided by love, trust, and inner wisdom. Walk away with practical starting points—set a new commitment, protect restorative rituals, reorient around trust and learning, and partner deeply with AI—so you can shift from survival to potential and build teams that are both humane and high-performing. If this conversation sparks a rethink, share it with a leader who needs it, hit Follow to catch future episodes, and leave a review with the principle you’ll adopt first.

    35 min

  6. 10/11/2025

    Curious, Not Scared

    A single rushed request turned into a turning point. Jessica Smith—Deputy Chief of Business Development at The Connection—shares how a quick AI-assisted draft became a signed training contract and reshaped her team’s approach to creativity, analytics, and everyday operations. We walk through the human-first playbook she’s built inside a large nonprofit serving reentry, housing, behavioral health, and shelter programs—where ethics and guardrails matter as much as speed. We dig into what “human in the loop” actually looks like: coaching AI like a new colleague, checking its work, and using it for first passes that free people for deeper thinking. Jessica explains why bans backfire, how to set practical policies for HIPAA and confidentiality, and where AI gives immediate lift—meeting agendas, minutes, brainstorming lists, catalog taxonomy across 600 courses, and automated performance summaries. The secret isn’t magic prompts; it’s a mindset of curiosity, clear examples of “good,” and small wins that stack into culture change. You’ll hear candid stories of missteps, fast pivots, and the difference between generic content and work that reflects your voice and standards. We talk about agility in policy (because six months can make your rules obsolete), how to create safe forums for sharing use cases, and why the cost of waiting now exceeds the cost of careful experimentation. If you’ve felt overwhelmed or skeptical, consider this your practical onramp—treat AI like an assistant you’re onboarding, start with low-risk tasks, and build from there. Enjoy the conversation, then tell us: what’s the first task you’ll offload to AI today? If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a quick review to help others find these conversations. Your support helps us bring more human-first stories of AI at work.

    34 min

  7. 10/08/2025

    The Fastest Way to Win with AI is Slower: Fix Culture First

    The race to adopt AI is on—but the real advantage isn’t in the tools, it’s in the trust. In this solo episode, Craig Francisco, host of At the Intersection, shares insights from a recent conversation with the leadership team of a Fortune 500 client—where the takeaway was clear: culture decides who wins with AI. When people can challenge ideas without ego, when curiosity beats fear, and when cross-functional partners collaborate by default, new technology plugs into a living system that’s ready to learn fast. Craig breaks down what readiness looks like in practice: clear communication, psychological safety, and teams that show up hungry to improve and help one another. You’ll hear why low-trust environments turn AI initiatives into complexity and confusion, and how a strong foundation flips that script—accelerating pilots, aligning stakeholders, and turning experiments into results. He also shares a practical 30/60/90-day approach to culture change: run a focused survey, listen deeply to the work as it happens, redesign a few high-leverage rituals, and model the behaviors you want from the top. With those moves, you can build the operating system that allows AI to create durable value. If you’re a leader weighing pilots or a team owner navigating change, this episode offers a simple filter: people first, then platforms. Treat AI as a human-technology partnership and you open space for faster learning, safer governance, and better outcomes. Subscribe for more candid, field-tested insights from Craig Francisco, and share this with a colleague who’s planning an AI rollout. Leave a review to tell us where your culture is strong—and where you’re building next. ext.

    6 min

  8. 10/02/2025

    How Word Pairing Sparked the AI Revolution

    In this first episode of At the Intersection, host Craig Francisco sits down with Mike Rojas, a seasoned AI strategist and technology leader who has spent decades helping organizations understand and apply emerging technologies. Mike has been at the forefront of artificial intelligence adoption, guiding executives and teams through the shift from traditional analytics to the new Human + AI era. Together, Craig and Mike unpack the fascinating journey of artificial intelligence — from Alan Turing’s early breakthroughs to the transformational leap in 2022 with large language models and generative AI. They explore: The 80-year history of AI and why October 2022 marked a turning pointHow generative AI tools like ChatGPT are augmenting human intelligence, not replacing itWhy AI should be seen as an “Iron Man suit” for leaders and workersThe truth about AI “hallucinations” and how models are improvingHow business leaders can embrace Human + AI to unlock new valueIf you’ve been curious — or even cautious — about how AI is reshaping work, this conversation will give you both context and confidence. At the Intersection is the podcast for leaders navigating the Human + AI era. Subscribe, follow, and share to stay ahead of disruption and thrive at the crossroads of change. #ArtificialIntelligence #GenerativeAI #Leadership #FutureOfBusiness #HumanPlusAI #AI23

    30 min
  • 8 Episodes

About

At the Intersection is a podcast for CEOs and leaders navigating one of the most important shifts in modern business: the rise of Human + AI organizations. Hosted by Craig Francisco, CEO of AI23, the show explores the crossroads of leadership, strategy, and artificial intelligence — where executive decision-making, organizational alignment, and emerging technology meet. Through short solo insights and candid conversations with experienced operators, Craig focuses on the questions leaders are asking right now: • Where should we actually start with AI?• How do we align our leadership team around strategy?• Where can AI create meaningful leverage in our organization?• What does a realistic path to becoming an AI-enabled company look like? This podcast is designed for leaders who want clarity before launching AI initiatives — not hype, tools, or scattered experimentation. If you're a CEO or senior leader trying to make sense of AI inside your organization — where to start, what to prioritize, and how to actually create momentum — I offer a focused 1:1 advisory session where we work through this together. You can learn more here: https://stan.store/craigfrancisco/p/ai-strategy-session-for-business-leaders-ifb4xrz8

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