The AI-Driven Leader

Geoff Woods
  • 4.9 (34)
  • Technology

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. 1d ago

    The Hard Truth About AI and Jobs | Shane Driggers

    What happens when the executive responsible for people strategy at a Fortune 50 company decides AI is a wave you either ride or get crushed by? In this episode, Geoff Woods sits down with Shane Driggers, former Chief Talent Officer of T-Mobile, to unpack how one of America's largest companies moved from AI theory to AI practice: from individual adoption, to leadership training at scale, to fundamentally redesigning how work gets done. Shane shares the moment at a TED conference that changed everything, why T-Mobile's highest rated leadership session of the year wasn't a celebrity speaker, and what happened when his leadership team stopped talking about changing the way they work and actually did it in a single day. In this conversation: The "ride the wave or get hit by the wave" moment that redefined Shane's career Why using AI as a thought partner™, not an assistant, changed how T-Mobile leaders think How a leadership team aligned in one day on decisions that used to take months Why old org structures create material risk in the AI era The hard truth about job loss, job creation, and the coming war for talent Why soft skills and human-centered leadership are about to skyrocket in value What every new grads and every people leader needs to hear about agency Whether you lead HR, a team, or an entire enterprise, this episode is a blueprint for leading workforce transformation while keeping humans at the center.

  2. Jul 20

    How a Non-Technical CEO Made His Company AI Driven in 6 Months | Manuel Diez

    Most CEOs hear about AI and delegate it to IT or HR. Manuel Diez did the opposite. In this episode, Geoff Woods sits down with Manuel Diez, CEO of Grupo Diesco, the Dominican Republic-based leader in plastics packaging and non-alcoholic beverages operating across the Caribbean, Central America, South America, and the southeastern US. Manuel had already budgeted for an AI hire when he had a realization: if AI was going to transform the business, it couldn't be delegated. So he told his executive team, "I just hired that person. That person is me." What followed was a six-month transformation, from a non-technical CEO learning to use AI as a thought partner™, to rebuilding how the executive committee runs, to embedding an AI driven execution system across the company. In this conversation: The Eric Schmidt moment that convinced Manuel AI is underhyped, not overhyped Why he cancelled the AI hire and took the job himself How the leadership team validated an AI driven strategy in two hours instead of months The humbling meeting report that exposed the company's biggest bottleneck Why the executive committee, not a use case list, was the first thing to fix The 20% discipline: using AI and CRIT™ (Context, Role, Interview, Task) to focus on what actually drives the business Real ROI: budget projections that used to swing wildly now landing within 2 to 3% You'll learn: Why delegating AI is the most common mistake CEOs make How Manuel got past the fear of being non-technical: the only way to start is to start The blunt outside report that made him defensive, then changed everything Why they said "not now" to 150 AI use cases and fixed one meeting instead The 20% discipline and the CRIT™ prompt (Context, Role, Interview, Task) any leader can copy today The results: budget projections that used to miss wildly now landing within 2 to 3% If you know AI is the future but feel behind, Manuel's advice is simple: it's never too late to start, but every month you wait, you lose time you can't get back. Get The AI-Driven Leader: https://aileadership.com/book

  3. Jul 13

    How Herbalife's CEO Uses AI to Run a $5B Company | Stephan Gratziani

    Stephan Gratziani spent 32 years as a Herbalife distributor before becoming CEO of the $5 billion global company. When he stepped into the corporate world, his first earnings call went so badly he slept in the office. His second attempt was nearly a disaster. Then he found a better way: using AI as a thought partner™ to take everything he needed to communicate and deliver it in his own voice. In this episode, recorded live in Vienna after Geoff and Stephan trained 4,000 top Herbalife distributors, they discuss what it takes to drive AI transformation from the top of a global organization. You'll learn: How Stephan went from AI skeptic's process to holding his executive team to an AI-driven standardThe moment his writers went from fearing replacement to refusing to work without itHow Herbalife used Speed to Alignment™ to align global market leaders in 2 hours, a process that used to take monthsThe strategy behind transforming a 45-year-old direct sales company into a health and wellness platformWhy the winning move is building AI that makes the human irreplaceable

  4. 10/28/2025

    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.

  5. 10/23/2025

    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.

  6. 10/21/2025

    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.

  7. 10/16/2025

    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.

  8. 10/14/2025

    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.

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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 - 2026
  • Episodes
    18
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Geoff Woods
  • Show Website
    The AI-Driven Leader

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