Digital Transformation & AI for Humans

AI & Gamification 2.0: Unlocking the Future of Learning, Collaboration & Co-Creation in Professional Services

• David Galea • Season 1 • Episode 42

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In today's episode, we explore AI & Gamification: how to Unlock the Future of Learning, Collaboration & Co-Creation in Professional Services, together with my fantastic guest, Bestselling and Award-Winning Author of 'Digital Made Simple', Keynote Speaker on AI & Human Insight Optimisation - David Galea from Malta.

David is a Council Member of the Technology Council at the EU Tech Chamber of Commerce and a subject matter expert for the United Arab Emirates Government. David brings deep expertise in digital, financial, and human resource enablers. He is also co-author of SWOT Analysis and PESTLE Analysis papers (receiving more than 1 million reads and citations) in the Wiley Encyclopedia of Management.

Key Topics:

✔ The biggest challenges in integrating AI and gamification into professional services – and how to overcome them
✔ Untapped opportunities for leaders to leverage AI and gamification for innovation and growth
✔ The latest trends redefining professional services over the next 3-5 years
✔ How AI-driven gamified experiences enhance collaboration, engagement, and learning
✔ Real-world examples of AI and gamification transforming learning and teamwork on personal and organizational levels
✔ The importance of keeping AI-powered gamification human-centric, fostering emotional intelligence and meaningful connections
✔ A game-changing piece of advice for leaders ready to embrace AI and gamification

Tune in to gain valuable insights and discover how AI and gamification can unlock new possibilities for professional services.

🎧 Level up your approach to learning, collaboration, and co-creation!

Subscribe and join us for this thought-provoking exploration that promises to open up new perspectives on transformation, innovation, tech and leadership.

David's book is available for purchase on Amazon: Digital Made Simple: Practical insights for successful digital programs.
Download a sample chapter of the book
Find out more about David: https://david-galea.com/
Connect with David on LinkedIn
Learn more about the AI-HI Summit


About the host, Emi Olausson Fourounjieva
With over 20 years in IT, digital transformation, business growth & leadership, Emi specializes in turning challenges into opportunities for business expansion and personal well-being.
Her contributions have shaped success stories across the corporations and individuals, from driving digital growth, managing resources and leading teams in big companies to empowering leaders to unlock their inner power and succeed in this era of transformation.

📚 Get your AI Leadership Compass: Unlocking Business Growth & Innovation 🧭 The Definitive Guide for Leaders & Business Owners to Adapt & Thrive in the Age of AI & Digital Transformation: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DNBJ92RP

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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to Digital Transformation and AI for Humans with your host, amy. In this podcast, we delve into how technology intersects with leadership, innovation and, most importantly, the human spirit. Each episode features visionary leaders who understand that at the heart of success is the human touch nurturing a winning mindset, fostering emotional intelligence and building resilient teams. In today's episode, we explore AI and gamification how to unlock the future of learning, collaboration and co-creation in professional services, together with my fantastic guest, best-selling and award-winning author of Digital Made Simple, keynote speaker on AI and human insight optimization, david Galea from Malta. David is a council member of the Technology Council at the European Union Tech Chamber of Commerce and a subject matter expert for the United Arab Emirates government. David brings deep expertise in digital financial and human resource enablers. He is also a co-author of SWOT analysis and PESEL analysis papers receiving more than 1 million reads and citations. Welcome, david, I'm happy to have you here.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, Emi, for having me on your podcast. It's really great to see you.

Speaker 1:

My pleasure, david. Let's start the conversation and transform not just our technologies but our ways of thinking and leading. If you are interested in connecting or collaborating, you can find more information in the description. Subscribe and stay tuned for more episodes. I'd also love to invite you to get your copy of AI Leadership Compass Unlocking Business Growth and Innovation the definitive guide for leaders and business owners to adapt and thrive in the age of AI and digital transformation. Find the Amazon link in the description below. David, it's such a great pleasure to have you in the studio again, and I absolutely loved the previous episodes where we were discussing many incredibly important topics. But today here we are, and I would like you to tell a few words about yourself, about your journey and about what brought you to where you are today, so that we can share all the insights and golden nuggets with our listeners and viewers.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, amy. We had some quite interesting discussions in the past and I'm looking forward again to continue our discussions discussions particularly on today's topic, which is about gamification and AI. My journey has been somewhat mixed, in the sense that I have originally started my career in transformation, as opposed to technology. Transformation is mainly about human transformation, where I have basically supported organizations in creating change. So I've been on a trajectory where I've supported large scale organizations, including a major energy company, including the leading insurance organization, as well as companies such as one of the big oil and gas companies in the UK, to their endeavor to look at best practices in digital enablement and financial enablement of several public sector institutions to make them more efficient at what they do. So what we did there was they had a benchmark analysis using what is called an EFTL model, and we were tasked basically to assess the quality of these public sector organizations, rate them against the scale and provide recommendations on how they can improve.

Speaker 2:

Basically, I'm also an accountant by profession, but I do not really work much as an accountant, but I use my professional background and competence in accounting to support me in any type of digital transformation change, because, at the end of the day, digital transformation costs money. There needs to be a viable business case and clearly the accounting field helps me to sensitize, also make sense of the feasibility of those change processes that are so essential in those organizations. I've also been involved more recently on projects related to the development of a quantum technology roadmap. At the moment, I'm helping a consortium just called Prism Europe UCI, which is a consortium of several partners coming from telecommunications, large public for audit firms and also technology startups, to develop the first quantum communication infrastructure in Malta to eventually link with the European grid, whereby we are going to try and test out a number of nodes to basically create one of the first quantum internets in the foreseeable future. So this is one of the starting points where we are creating a new innovative concept which could overcome parts of the threats of cybersecurity that quantum computing is creating in the first place. First place, I also was involved in the creation of a strategy in the development of a regulatory technology cluster in Ireland. Basically, this involved the creation of a business incubation center and a super innovative cluster that is involved in the development of regulatory technologies for automation which automate, basically, compliance processes across several fields, particularly making the most of the requirements and additional regulatory complexities created by brexit. So this was quite an interesting project and in fact we have submitted an application with the irish government for grant funding to start the whole process.

Speaker 2:

Moving forward, I've set up my own firm which is basically looking at the bridge between artificial intelligence and human insights, specifically for professional service firms, where we're helping organizations, particularly in professional services, to make the most and leverage not just efficiencies but also knowledge processes by blending the human with the artificial intelligence. I got into the space quite a few years back when I was on holiday with my family in France and we visited a very interesting museum of the house of Leonardo da Vinci and I was extremely impressed by the talent of this human being. I stood really in awe on this human being. You know he was ahead of his time and you could see that his inventions were things which we are using today. They are very innovative and one of his secrets of success was looking at nature, and I feel that the best way of looking at organizations and also at technology is for us to also look at nature and to look at the human being in its whole composition from a biological concept, and apply the same principles to an organization. In fact, at the moment we're creating the model which is called an AIHI digital maturity model, which blends a series of biological concepts into a technological concept. Just to give you an example, we carried out a benchmarking study. Around 100 companies participated in this benchmarking study and we shall be launching the results into an AHI conference, which will be held on the 28th of January, where it looks at the brain and the heart of an organization and it tries to emulate in a certain way the human brain and the heart of a person, because those are the real organs that make a human being live sustainably and, at the end of the day, also an organization to live sustainably.

Speaker 2:

So we have structured this model into four main areas. So one, you've got what we're calling the command center, which looks at the coordination of the various components of the brain. There is the part which is called the left brain, which is the more logical part, and the the right brain, which is the creative part, and at the center is the heart, which is the customer. And by bringing all these elements together, measuring performance across several criteria, we chart out the trajectory of an organization from like an infant organization to a mature or an old organization and depending on the type of which side of the brain they use most when they're decision making. And this blends the technology element with the human element together to create the best possible knowledge possible for the organization, but to serve the customer, which is at the heart of everything they do. And the customer is not just the end user, the client, but also the human resources stakeholders to whom the organization is there to serve with a purpose in mind. And this is our vision.

Speaker 2:

At the moment, we're trying to dissipate this vision, to make it successful, by comparing the biological concepts into a technological concept. Because what better way of looking at organization other than looking at it from nature? Because nature is perfect at the end of the day, and the perfection of nature lies in our imperfections, because if we were all perfect, we would be all the same, and the very fact that organizations are different from each other that makes them special, because if they were all perfect, there would be perfect competition. In economics we know the concept of perfect competition. It's a big problem because you cannot really differentiate, whereas if you are imperfect, then there is possibility for supernormal profits. And this is, in a way, where the beauty of nature and the beauty of emulating nature in the concepts of organizations, the concepts of organizations.

Speaker 1:

This sounds absolutely amazing. I am impressed by your innovative approach and I'm so looking forward to participate in the summit the 28th of January, where I'm also going to speak about the importance of human factor and leadership for the AI development. Now we are in the phase where it's time to scale up. The organizations are moving from the stage of piloting into a stage of rolling out everything and scaling up the business based on the AI technologies, and it is a great time to discuss these topics and your concept sounds absolutely amazing. Speaking about those AI integrations, what are the biggest challenges businesses face when integrating AI and gamification into professional services? What practical steps can leaders take to overcome these hurdles?

Speaker 2:

Let's start from a conceptual aspect, right. Traditional management was about division. It was about division of labor. It was about, in a sense, karl Marx labeled it alienation, so it is about specializing in one task and doing it as perfect as possible. I had clients, for example, whose employees I had one employee responsible just for painting a wall in black, another one was responsible just for painting a wall in white, and that type of specialization might be very efficient, but it alienates workers and we have traditionally organized ourselves into silos, and one of the biggest problems of organizations is that these silos create lack of communication.

Speaker 2:

Division creates segmentation of work into individual units, do not communicate each other, but typically report to a center, whereas gamification creates a radical paradigm shift. Why? Because whereas the traditional theory is about economies of scale, which is is about division, gamification is about competition and collaboration, because games create interaction, and the interaction between, first yourself, so it's competition also against yourself, to improve competition against other members, but it's a healthy competition. It's not a destructive competition, mind you, just to make it clear but also collaboration at the same time, so we can create an environment where we are co-creating something together by creating interactive tools which make it more vivid and more real to the real world. And, essentially, once we create that world, which is very similar to the real world because a human being is, at the end I I refer to it earlier on to emulate nature and, by nature, human being is there for collaboration, creativity and innovation. He's not there to specialize, uh, on something very narrow. It's against human nature the the way it is, unfortunately. Yes, it's efficient, but it does not create the right environment. It is not in tune with the real scope of human nature. So, by creating this competition and collaborative environment where we're making work more interesting for everyone as opposed to alienating everyone, then people are more productive in the creation of new knowledge, they can learn better and there can be better improvement.

Speaker 2:

But the biggest challenge for organizations, coming back, this is on twofold one, it's from a human perspective, because it involves a changing mindset, from one where we are trying to be as efficient as possible in dividing processes to creating, as such, an inefficient and interactive process where you've got iterative streams of learning, where you need to win a game, you can win, sometimes you lose, but even when losing you're winning because you're learning. So this is a very important concept, whereas, uh, in an economies of scale environment. Losing is very difficult, because you learn a specific skill and you're creating it at all the time. You're perfecting it, but through gamification and creating the right tools and environment through AI not just AI, but also augmented reality and virtual reality where you're creating and touching all the senses as much as possible and creating a very similar environment to what is real then you're creating the right ingredients for a person to fulfill the best of himself.

Speaker 2:

So, whereas the previous management model was about economies of scale, here in decay, in the new gamification model, it's about economies of creation, which involves allowance for people to make mistakes, allowance for people to fail, but also allowance for people to learn and improve, and I think this is one of the most important things and it is one of the key areas where it is difficult to overcome from an organization point of view, because, until they reach their full potential, there is a huge learning curve where performance might go down in the initial stages, but then, once there is learning, there will be an exponential increase, improvement in the processes.

Speaker 2:

This is all about economies of creation as opposed to economies of scale and clearly technology, particularly AI, vr and AR, provide tools, necessary tools to help it make happen. There's another issue, obviously that is quite important to consider, because these tools to create the right interactivity. At the moment it creates quite a lot of time, because to create an interactive environment obviously there is a lot of coding involved, there is a lot of time that needs to be put in place, and simulating a real environment is no easy feat. Now, with the Gen AI, it's becoming even more feasible as a process, as a concept, and amalgamated with sensory tools like augmented reality and virtual reality, gamification is becoming a more real possibility in the organization world.

Speaker 1:

This sounds so intriguing and trailblazing because I see those challenges in so many organizations and your approach is going to help them moving forward in a very sustainable way so that they create a new reality for themselves and for the world, and this is really amazing. So I just wonder what are the most exciting untapped opportunities for leaders in professional services to harness AI and gamification, and why do you think these opportunities are still being overlooked?

Speaker 2:

It's a very good question. Initially, most efforts on gamification has been on learning and recruitment, because those are the easiest to gamify. Why? Because learning you can create like a case study, for example, of a real world and you can practice in an environment which is relatively safe. You are learning a new skill using elements of play. For example, there are some universities that have created case studies which are based on a competition basis, where students compete against each other on a game and based on that game, they get a result.

Speaker 2:

You know, but I see a very important opportunity that to date remains a bit untapped is knowledge co-creation. What do I mean by knowledge co-creation? By knowledge co-creation, I am implying that you can create a gamified environment where you can facilitate innovation and development of new products and services and process improvement opportunities for organizations by creating an environment of collaboration and competition amongst different players, amongst different stakeholders, who can put forward their ideas and through these ideas, through elements of play, they can come up with new products and services which are better and they are incentivized because they. There are simple things like badges, like points to set, very basic at the very least, but then you can create, obviously, levels, you can level up, for example, you get better titles and you can go with. It's practically like a normal game that you play on a PlayStation or Wii, like my kids do, but using that talent of play and it's entertainment. It's exciting and by having something which is exciting and getting your full involvement into this, then the creativity is stimulated to create something new.

Speaker 2:

I always say that most organizations focus on motivation. Motivation is overrated. What we mean to focus is on commitment, because commitment is there all the time, whereas motivation is there based on how you feel like today. So commitment ensures consistency in results across people within organizations to create a unified and common factor to understand what they need to achieve in terms of a new product or a new process.

Speaker 1:

Well, I so agree with you that motivation and inspiration they come and go, but commitment, that's something that has to be there and consistency is the key to the growth. Exactly Okay, david. Gamification has evolved drastically over the last three to five years with the rise of AI and other powerful technologies. What trends are currently shaping this space and how do you envision these innovations redefining professional services over the next three to five years?

Speaker 2:

Thank you, amy, for this question. This is also a very interesting area, I see. One of the areas where there could be potential is particularly for professional service firms is to create new method tools and methodologies. In fact, I am part of a company just called Scenario Services Limited where we created the concept which is called a playbook and a playpen. What is the difference between this? A playpen is an environment where you can engage into play to create a playbook. So you have all the necessary ingredients to create something new, to create a new tool, a new methodology, using the traditional elements of competition and collaboration getting the badges, getting competitive elements inside but also everyone contributes his ideas to create a new tool or methodology and that methodology then is automated and it can be applied in practice. We are still at a very teething stage of the process, but we aim to eventually include more tools and more interactivity in the process, to make it more state-of-the-art and using more visualization.

Speaker 2:

Playbooks in themselves. An example of a playbook would be, for example, a process to create a digital transformation. So you've got all the steps in the playbook. You can have all the roles assigned in the playbook and just by uploading a playbook and assigning the roles within the organization. You have a roadmap of how to basically manage a digital transformation process and you can track the progress of the digital transformation process using this playbook, which involves the clients and involves also the resources, the way I see. However, more evolution in the next stages would be an element of personalization, where we will be seeing interfaces which adapt and learn specifically to basically provide a unique experience to the customer. I've had a client, for example, in the gaming industry, who created a concept which is called the concierge, for example, and this concierge would actually interact with the customer at any point in time it's entering into a conversation, recommend to him the type of games to play and what are his habits and opportunities. It takes care of him because if he's finding himself, for example, gambling, for example, he says be careful, don't gamble so much, you know, and it gives him a unique experience that is tailored to his specific needs. So personalization, I think, is an area where we will see a lot of development in the space, in gamifications, the way, similar way we see in normal games, because everyone has his style of working and the style of playing, and this will be. There will be adaptations of of the plays, the playbooks or the adaptation of tools that support you in the gamification process.

Speaker 2:

Also, what I see as well could be the application of blockchain. This might be a bit more in the distant future, because blockchain has not yet really kicked up so far, unfortunately, where, since blockchain involves a democratization process where you have a large number of different players who need to arrive to a common decision, by creating a blockchain in the supply chain of professional services, where you've got contractors, subcontractors, you've got management consultants and clients, they can interact and you can see all the traceability of all the decisions and the plays that they make across the whole spectrum. So, using a proper system which uses a decentralized leisure technology, I think there could be something which could be a very interesting area. The most obvious development and I think there could be something which could be a very interesting area. The most obvious development and I think where we are closest is the enhanced sensory experience, because this is very fundamentally important through improvements in virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, where we will be seeing more and more use of this technology, also in business, as the cost of headsets are decreasing and they are becoming even more economical and more accurate, it would be possible. For example, let's say you want to create a new software development, right, you can put on a headset and you can envisage and you can move the codes with your hands.

Speaker 2:

It's a bit science fiction type of element, but we're approaching that. You know, you imagine like the Matrix when you're seeing all that stuff going from one place to another. The matrix when you're seeing all that stuff going from one place to another. But putting in the sensory elements creates more feelings, even to the clients. You can.

Speaker 2:

You can create simulations. So, for example, if you're giving advice to a client, particular client, especially in business, of projections, for example, of a business, you can see the production of a manufacturing plant, for example. You can see how it is being produced and put it to the test of different forces and you can see those forces, how they play on it and whether it is resistant to different things. In a way it has been used. Like in the airline industry, you see pilots doing flight simulators, learning how to actually fight certain things and making sure that they are up to scratch in doing that, and I see these type of play elements getting more and more involved in the process of making sure that professional services become more engaged with their customers, but also becoming more engaged with their human resources.

Speaker 1:

This is very interesting and this is the future. I love that you have such a broad vision around how it can be applied and all those areas they are different can be applied, and all those areas they are different, but when you put them together and slice and dice, it becomes really a universal experience and an amazing solution which can be applicable to all the above-mentioned areas and so much more in the future. This is absolutely amazing, david. Thank you so much for sharing your vision around that, and I'd like you also to share a few compelling examples of how AI and gamification have already transformed learning, collaboration and co-creation in professional services, both on a personal level and on a team level as well.

Speaker 2:

Well, on a personal level, I've actually prepared all my methodologies through playbooks. So my methodologies on AIHI are now playbooks. And it's interesting because these playbooks apply the combination of gen, ai and human intervention. So we have the tool, create a playbook and then, clearly, with all the tasks, but then obviously you have the adaptation of your individual human insight to create that in an appropriate format. Then we, what we did, was we collaborated with others, we tested it with others and they tried it out through a simulated in a simulated environment and it was very successful. They made improvements to the process through version control as well, and everyone earns badges accordingly to what has been done in the process. So that was quite an interesting journey.

Speaker 2:

I've got around 40 playbooks specifically on AIHI tools and methodologies and they cover different areas. They are structured into four. One is basically more on a strategic level. There is another part is on development. There is a third area which is related to co-creation. Fourth one is on execution and it goes into the different functions of a professional service firm. So it's sales, business development, pipeline management. It's time management, billing. It looks at CRM. It looks at crm. It looks at, for example, project management, service management using itil project management based on prince tool. So again, they have all these elements together and they are in a gamified environment. We have been working also on other areas. We have developed the methodology which is called OMDMLS, which is basically an operating model which is also certified tools to launch not just training programs but also co-creating environments for companies to use this platform to their advantage.

Speaker 1:

This sounds so good and I feel, finally. Finally, these technologies are going to expand our human experience and add up so much value to the future interactions and the process of learning and development. How can leaders ensure that AI-powered gamification remains human-centric, fostering genuine connection, emotional intelligence and a sense of purpose? In professional environments? Usually, there is so much technology involved and I see, unfortunately, that oftentimes the human factor is left behind and it's not at all a priority at this moment in time. So how can human centricity be highlighted and get more power through these gamification solutions?

Speaker 2:

The heart of gamification is the human Because, yes, there is a lot of technology involved, but the scope of the technology is to make life interesting for the human, essentially To get the best creative power out of the human being. That is the main objective of gamification in my view. If that is objective is not achieved, then that is not gamification. Gamification is not automation of a process. Gamification is the incentivization of knowledge creation. Essentially that that is the main scope of gamification and that can only come out from a human being. So what the technology does is it creates the right environment and the right tools to help the human being to excel. If anything, it puts the human being into the spotlight.

Speaker 1:

I love this. It's so heartwarming to hear that you see it this way and you are working on its development exactly like this, because it is a big promise to humanity when we are introducing all those AI solutions and technologies. David, to wrap up today's fantastic conversation, I'm enjoying it so much, but this is the last but not the least question to you today If you could give one critical piece of advice to leaders who are ready to embrace AI and gamification, what would it be and why?

Speaker 2:

The biggest advice and the biggest challenge I see is to allow people to fail. If our leaders don't allow an environment for people to fail, then no amount of technology will help them to co-create and use gamification as a means to improve the organization. You need to get people out of their comfort zone. But to get them out of the comfort zone you need to give them space to experiment, and experimentation means failure, always. By necessity.

Speaker 2:

Failure, however, is a step closer to success, so it depends how you the ultimate failure is stopping. So once you start to fail, the next time that you fail you fail a little less until you achieve your ultimate objective. So you have to realize as leaders, that that achieving innovation consists of a series of battles that you might lose in the initial stages, but progressively, when time goes by, you win the ultimate war and you create the ultimate knowledge which is so important and so precious for you. But ultimately, at the end of the day, all organizations are knowledge-based organizations. So, if you think about it, today you don't compete on product, you compete on knowledge anything, because products mostly you can have the same basic product, but knowledge makes or breaks your organization. So it is very important to create that knowledge and innovative environment organization and the biggest challenge for leaders is to allow people to fail, obviously sensibly, with a view to eventually achieve longer term success this sounds absolutely amazing.

Speaker 1:

thank you so much for sharing this wisdom and knowledge with us today, and I love the fact that we have Leonardo da Vinci as a role model, because, you know, I also was so impressed by his depth and his visionary approach.

Speaker 1:

When I was in museums of Leonardo da Vinci in Milano. When I was in the museums of Leonardo da Vinci in Milano and that pushed me to record another episode on this podcast with Leonardo da Vinci, we were discussing exactly all those questions around the importance of humans and nature and innovation, and it is a very interesting conversation, and today's dialogue it feels like a logical next step. So I'm really grateful for today's conversation and it's such a great pleasure to have you here today. David. Thank you so much for being here with us.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for having me. It was a great pleasure and I really enjoyed the discussion.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for joining us on Digital Transformation and AI for Humans. I am Emi and it was enriching to share this time with you. Remember, the core of any transformation lies in our human nature how we think, feel and connect with others. It is about enhancing our emotional intelligence, embracing the winning mindset and leading with empathy and insight. Subscribe and stay tuned for more episodes where we uncover the latest trends in digital business and explore the human side of technology and leadership. Until next time, keep nurturing your mind, fostering your connections and leading with heart.

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Emi Olausson Fourounjieva

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