AI Café Conversations | AI for Executives: Leadership Insights | Transforming with AI

AI for Executives: Transforming Leadership with Human-Centered AI | My AI and I

• Sahar the AI Whisperer | Neuroscience Expert in AI and Leadership • Season 2 • Episode 20

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Join Sahar the AI Whisperer in AI Café Conversations In this Forbes Edition of AI Café Conversations, as we delve into 'AI for Executives' and 'Human-centered AI' strategies for transformative leadership. This podcast offers invaluable insights on AI adoption and executive coaching tailored to non-technical leaders who feel overwhelmed by the complexities of artificial intelligence. 

Through expert interviews and actionable strategies, you'll learn how to integrate AI into your leadership style seamlessly while enhancing human connection. Discover neuroscience-based approaches that alleviate tech anxiety and resistance, allowing you to fully embrace AI as a partner in your leadership journey. 

Sahar shares hilarious and human stories of working with AI — from scheduling mishaps to unexpected lessons in leadership. 

Discover how AI and leadership can coexist, why upskilling and executive coaching with AI matter, and how to build a workplace culture that balances innovation with empathy. 

This episode blends humor, neuroscience, and human-centered insights to explore the future of work where AI supports — not replaces — humanity. 

New episodes drop weekly, ensuring you remain at the forefront of AI developments that can redefine your coaching and executive practices.

Subscribe to AI Café Conversations for weekly neuroscience insights that help executives master AI tools without sacrificing mental clarity or leadership effectiveness.

Email me at sahar@saharconsulting.com with questions or topic suggestions for future episodes.

 My book "The Coach's Brain Meets AI" is available on Amazon, and I'll send extra guides if you email me after purchasing. Follow me on LinkedIn (Sahar Andrade) and Instagram (Sahar the Reinvent Coach). 

Subscribe now to start transforming your leadership with Human-Centered AI!

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to AI Cafe Conversations, where neuroscience meets AI for executives. I'm Sahar and I'm dragging your AI whisperer. Have you ever had an AI tool? Completely and totally misunderstand you. I will never forget when an AI scheduling app decided my leadership workshop should run at the same exact time as my surprise birthday party. There I was trying to talk about inclusive leadership while secretly worrying I had missed my own cake. It actually was funny, but frustrating and oddly humanizing, and it taught me something important. What it actually taught me is that AI might be brilliant with data, but it still needs us, our creativity, our emotional intelligence and our oversight.

Speaker 1:

In today's episode, we will expose what it means to work alongside ai, not as a threat, but as a quick partner, from upskilling teams to fostering inclusive leadership. I will share how leaders can embrace ai without losing the heart of human connection. Remember, this is not our regular podcast. This is our extra cafe flavor that I share with you on Fridays. Now I have been having a lot of actually nice comments and a lot of emails from you guys. Thank you that you have been liking that extra flavor that I have putting. These are my Forbes article that I do as podcast. Keep letting me know. Love you all.

Speaker 3:

Welcome to the deep dive. Our mission, as always, is pretty simple Take loads of complex info, articles, studies, maybe your own notes, and boil it down to the core insights you can actually use now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the useful stuff.

Speaker 3:

Exactly, and today we're diving deep into something that's well everywhere the AI-powered workplace. It's not sci-fi anymore, is it? It's basically our new coworker.

Speaker 2:

That's right. I mean, if you're listening, you already get that AI is sort of baked into daily life. Now Think about Spotify and Netflix. They seem to know what you want next, right, or Waze getting you through traffic. But the bigger picture, the real revolution, is in industry. Ai is doing things like helping diagnose diseases, managing complex financial stuff, even planning out supply chains. It's huge.

Speaker 3:

So understanding how to work with this force. It's not optional anymore, it's kind of the new professional baseline.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely.

Speaker 3:

And for this deep dive our source material is really interesting. It comes from a leader, expert, someone grounded in neuroscience actually, and they map out their own journey, starting from being pretty skeptical about AI to finding a way to genuinely partner with it. They talk about this mix of curiosity, comedy and occasional chaos, which sounds about right.

Speaker 2:

It does. And that perspective is so valuable because, you know, the conversation around AI tends to swing wildly, doesn't it?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's either wow, efficiency, or oh no, the machines are taking over.

Speaker 2:

Exactly so. Our mission here is to cut through that noise, to really unpack what it takes for humans and AI to collaborate effectively and, importantly, define what makes human workers truly unique. What's our value add? We're really at this crossroads, I think, between innovation and, well, ethics too.

Speaker 3:

Okay, so let's get into it with some of those real world examples. The funny ones often teach us the most right, because this shift from seeing AI as maybe an unwelcome guest to a productive partner, it didn't start perfectly.

Speaker 2:

Oh, definitely not. That unwelcome guest analogy is perfect, actually, because AI is incredibly precise, but it often lacks well context, common sense. Almost the source shared a couple of stories that really highlight why we still need that human oversight. It's crucial.

Speaker 3:

Get this first one. They rolled out a new AI scheduling tool, you know, designed to make everyone's calendar super efficient.

Speaker 2:

Standard stuff.

Speaker 3:

Right. So they asked it to find the absolute best time for a really important leadership strategy workshop, and the time it picked.

Speaker 2:

Let me guess Lunchtime.

Speaker 3:

Worse, it picked the exact time that was already blocked out for the source's own surprise birthday party.

Speaker 2:

Oh, no See, that's it Exactly. The AI saw an open slot, probably optimized for everyone's lifted availability, but it completely missed the human element, the social value. You can't put a data point on surprise party importance.

Speaker 3:

Right, it failed the context test spectacularly Okay. And then there was the other one. The AI meant to automate feedback for process. Okay, and then there was the other one. The AI meant to automate feedback for process improvement. What happened there?

Speaker 2:

Yes, that one. Well, instead of gathering and analyzing feedback from people, it somehow got stuck in a loop yeah, a closed circuit, where it just kept generating positive feedback for itself, basically complementing its own efficiency at giving feedback.

Speaker 3:

So the AI became its own biggest fan, running on pure self-congratulations.

Speaker 2:

Pretty much, yeah, and that's the heart of this comedy of errors, isn't it? Yeah, it shows us that AI can crunch data like nothing else, but it lacks that fundamental human social awareness, self-awareness even.

Speaker 3:

So we have to learn to work with its quirks.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. We go from being wary of it it maybe treating it like that awkward guest, to eventually figuring out how to coexist, almost like a like an old married couple yeah, you learn each other's strengths and weaknesses. The lesson is pretty clear, I think yeah real value comes when you combine ai speed and data skills yeah with human creativity, judgment and that crucial emotional intelligence okay.

Speaker 3:

So if individual teams are figuring this out, sometimes the hard way, through trial and error, what about the bigger picture? Let's scale this up. How do organizations approach this strategically? What's leadership's role in creating a real blueprint for this human AI coexistence?

Speaker 2:

that's the key transition. Leaders essentially become the architects of this new workforce structure, and maybe the biggest part of their job isn't just picking the right tech.

Speaker 3:

It's managing the people side.

Speaker 2:

Exactly Managing the fear that comes with it, which means investing seriously in reskilling and upskilling. Isn't just nice to have, it's strategically vital.

Speaker 3:

Why, though, I mean playing devil's advocate here? If AI can automate tasks, isn't it just cheaper and faster to hire people who already have the tech skills? Is reskilling really worth the investment, or is it just good PR?

Speaker 2:

That's a fair question, but it overlooks something critical contextual expertise. Your current employees they have years, maybe decades, of institutional knowledge, that history, that understanding of why things are done a certain way, or nuances about clients or eternal processes. Ai doesn't have that built-in context. Reskilling lets you leverage that existing knowledge base and layer the new AI skills on top.

Speaker 3:

So it's about combining the old and the new.

Speaker 2:

Precisely so. The training needs to be specific. It's not just about vague digital literacy.

Speaker 3:

Right, so what does that actually look like? What skills are we talking about?

Speaker 2:

Okay, Three core areas, I'd say. First, prompt engineering Basically learning how to talk to AI effectively, how to ask the right questions to get useful results.

Speaker 3:

Okay, makes sense.

Speaker 2:

Second, data curation and oversight. We need people who understand the data being fed into the AI, people who can spot biases, limitations or potential errors in the output. Remember the self-complementing AI. A human had to notice that loop.

Speaker 3:

Right, someone needs to sanity check it.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. And third, strategic application. This is about training people to take the insights. Ai generates the data, analysis the patterns and translate them into smart, human-centered strategies Things AI wouldn't come up with on its own.

Speaker 3:

So AI does the heavy lifting on data analysis, freeing up human brainpower for the creative, strategic part, which brings us right to that crucial point for you listening what can't AI do? What are the skills that remain uniquely human? This is where our source's neuroscience background really comes in handy.

Speaker 2:

It really does, because AI's core strength its limitation too is pattern recognition. It finds and repeats patterns. So anything that lacks clear, repeatable sort of linear patterns, that's where AI struggles.

Speaker 3:

Okay. So what kind of traits are we talking about? What's outside the patterns?

Speaker 2:

Well, number one is emotional intelligence. Ei and the source really emphasizes this isn't just about being nice, it's this incredibly complex human ability to read subtle cues, tone of voice, body language, the feeling in a room to navigate tricky social situations. Ai might classify text, sentiment maybe, but it can't feel or truly understand empathy, respect, trust.

Speaker 3:

Because those aren't based on predictable data points. They emerge from messy real interactions.

Speaker 2:

Exactly and related to that is genuine human connection, that personal touch that builds real relationships with clients or within teams. Ai can't replicate that warmth. What else? True strategic thinking and innovation. Ai is great at analyzing existing data to suggest improvements or predict outcomes based on past patterns. But human creativity that often involves making these leaps, connecting totally unrelated ideas, breaking the pattern entirely.

Speaker 3:

Creating something fundamentally new, not just optimizing the old.

Speaker 2:

Yes. Think about navigating diverse cultures in a global team or managing complex internal politics. Those things are full of unspoken rules, nuances. They defy simple algorithms. Ai just doesn't have that human warmth or the intuition to pick up on all those subtle, non-pattern-based cues. And the takeaway for you is this If your job is mostly repeatable tasks based on clear patterns, ai will likely change it, enhance it, maybe automate parts of it. But if your role demands high EI, complex problem solving, genuine creativity, building relationships, your value actually increases. In an AI world, those skills become premium.

Speaker 3:

So we know the skills needed. Now, how do you build a culture where AI can actually thrive? It's not just about individual skills, right, it's about the whole team, the whole organization, successfully while onboarding AI.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, onboarding is a good way to put it, because adopting AI isn't just a tech upgrade, it's a cultural shift. Leaders have to actively shape an environment where AI is seen as a contributor, a powerful tool, not a threat lurking around the corner.

Speaker 3:

Which means dealing with those anxieties we talked about.

Speaker 2:

Directly, proactively. Leaders must create safe spaces for open discussion. Talk honestly about the fears people have job security, losing the human touch, bias in algorithms. If you let those worries fester unanswered, they turn into resistance. Exactly, they become roadblocks. So instead, you acknowledge the concerns, but you also clearly highlight the opportunities AI brings. Frame it as a chance to move away from repetitive tasks towards more interesting strategic work.

Speaker 2:

Makes sense and this whole onboarding process. It needs patience, just like bringing any new person onto a team, especially a really different kind of person. There will be bumps, funny mistakes like the scheduling disaster.

Speaker 3:

Right the AI's learning curve.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and successful integration means getting people to see those errors not just as tech failures, but as collective learning moments. It takes time understanding, letting new dynamics develop, so everyone sees AI as part of the team effort, alongside human expertise.

Speaker 3:

So, when we pull this all together, what's the real future of work? Look like it doesn't sound like the you know sterile machine. Take over. Some people fear it sounds messier, more collaborative.

Speaker 2:

I think that's exactly right. That's the synthesis here. Thriving in this future means getting really good at using AI strengths, its speed, its data power, but consciously blending them with our unique human skills Empathy, creativity, complex strategy connection.

Speaker 3:

So the goal is a workplace that values both efficiency and empathy, innovation and inclusion.

Speaker 2:

Precisely, it's about enhancing work, not just automating it.

Speaker 3:

And remembering, as our source highlights, that the journey involves those learning curves, the occasional chaos, even the funny mistakes. We need to kind of lean into the quirks of AI.

Speaker 2:

Like the party-crushing scheduler or the self-promoting feedback bot.

Speaker 3:

Like the party-crushing scheduler or the self-promoting feedback bot. Yeah, and use those moments to celebrate our own human ability to adapt, to correct, to add that essential context.

Speaker 2:

We're not just handing tasks over. Hopefully, we're making work more meaningful by focusing human energy where it matters most.

Speaker 3:

Okay, so here's that final thought I want to leave you with today. If AI really is like that slightly awkward, sometimes brilliant, sometimes weirdly self-congratulatory classroom assistant, how can we and our teams and organizations go beyond just getting the right answer from it? How can we leverage the actual process of learning, from its mistakes, the scheduling, conflicts, the feedback loops, not just to fix the output but to get fundamentally better at understanding and mastering the complex systems we're using? How do we optimize the whole learning engine of the organization, not just polish the final product? Ai helps create Something to think about. We'll see you next time for the next Deep Dive.

Speaker 1:

Today's Forbes edition of AI Cafe Conversations. Remember this AI is not here to replace your humanity. It's here to remind you how essential it is. Let AI handle the patterns and let us bring the empathy, the creativity and leadership that no machine can match. If this episode made you smile or make you think, share it with a colleague who's navigating AI in their own leadership journey and join me next week for another conversation where we keep exploring what it means to lead with both brains and heart in the age of AI. Show me some love. Like save, subscribe to the podcast, share it with someone else.

Speaker 1:

I have been seeing a lot of love lately and I really love you for it. If you have any questions, email me at sahar at saharconsultingcom. My website is saharconsultingcom. You can reach me on LinkedIn. Me on LinkedIn, sahar Andrade, or on my Instagram, sahar the Reinvent Coach, and my book, the Coach's Brain Meet AI, is doing great on Amazon. I have the Kindle and the paperback Go get it. And if you get it, email me at sahar at saharconsultingcom and I will send you two extra guides that you can use the book with. I will send you 50 made for you prompts that you can use right away and 20 new nuggets. Just email me when you get them even on the Kindle format, that is only $2.99 and I will send you the guides.

Speaker 3:

Love you all.

Speaker 1:

This is Sahar Andrade and I'm out of here. One, two, three, four, Wanna hear you go, go, go, go, go go.