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At the Intersection: Insights for Thriving at the Crossroads of Change
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
At the Intersection: Insights for Thriving at the Crossroads of Change
Why The AI Boom Forced A Five Month Reset
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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?
Recording From The Car
Hey everyone, this is Craig. I'm recording this from my car, so bear with me if there's some audio challenges. I have to tell you, I've taken a pause on this podcast for five months. And the reason I did it truly was because the change in pace within AI and within our business particularly, what we were seeing happening was just so massive and truthfully scary, concerning, you know, causes anxiety. I think if if all leaders out there that I've talked to were honest, they would tell you that this uncertainty and speed of change within this tech is really challenging to get your arms around. Most
Why I Hit Pause On AI
leaders that I talk to are afraid of getting behind naturally, but they're also afraid of making the wrong move forward. So that puts you in a really challenging spot, super challenging. And every single day, I mean, all you have to do is just flip through your LinkedIn. Every single day there is a new product or products or tools or companies that are AI related that are being released. If you're an accounting firm or you're a customer service center, every day there's a new tool that claims that it can do workflows better than the one before. So
Leaders Fear Falling Behind
this creates a lot of confusion. And for somebody that's in this every single day, like myself, who is reading what's happening, talking to CEOs and leaders every single day, our engineering team who are the brains behind what we do, you know, they're they're working with all of this. And it is truly something that we have never seen before. And that is the reason that I took pause. I needed to kind of just get my mind straight on what was really happening so that I could better frame going forward conversations that I felt would be meaningful to the listeners that would bring you value. Because at the end
The Daily Flood Of AI Tools
of the day, you know, if you're doing a podcast and your main goal isn't to bring value to the listeners, then you're doing it for the wrong reasons, in my opinion. So I was at that moment, right? That crossroads where I was like, geez, I could continue to have guests on here, I could continue to give my opinions and share stories, but I personally still wasn't in a in the right spot, right frame of mind.
Reframing The Show Around Value
So I feel a lot better. Um, I'm okay to say I don't know, right? That takes takes a while for somebody that you know has 25 years of experience, been an executive, you know, run global companies, like typically people would come to me for answers. And the power of saying, I don't know, let's talk about it together, let's let's think, let's ask better questions. That is so powerful. And I'm so glad that's where I personally am today. So going forward in these episodes, I am going to share practical, practical information, stories,
The Power Of Saying I Don’t Know
not theory. These are real stories from my conversations with companies that have either implemented AI, thinking about implementing AI. You know, they are definitely looking at moving forward with this new tech. And I think there's a lot of stories. Actually, I know there's a lot of stories that as a listener, if you pay attention and you know, follow, make sure you follow this podcast if you haven't. I mean, that's obviously step number one, but I have so much information now that I've captured over the last five months that my plan is to release
Practical Stories And A Faster Release
these, release these episodes on a frequent basis. You know, I don't know if it'll be two or three a week, but I have the possibility to do that as long as I know I'm bringing all of you value. The episodes could be short, it could be just a specific message, but I will not belabor the topic just to try to say we've got a 30-minute or an hour-long podcast, right? This needs to be for you valuable. So, anyway, I wanted just to say that that's where this is going. Thank you for for all the listeners that that followed us right out of the gate at the you know, fourth quarter of 25. Now you know why we've put this on pause. Now you know why I'm ready to take this thing forward, and I'm super excited for what this looks like.