Why Human Intuition Still Matters in the Age of AI

In this episode, I sit down with Bruce D. Randall — AI advisor, business strategist, and author of The AI Human Paradox — to talk about something I didn’t expect this conversation to become about:

Human intuition.

Yes, we talk about AI, automation, and where technology is headed. But underneath all of that is a much more human conversation about decision-making, awareness, and what happens when we rely too heavily on logic while ignoring what we feel.

Bruce believes that as technology becomes more powerful, humans need to become more self-aware — not less.

And that balance between thought and feeling may matter more than ever. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

When I'm dealing with something, I have my mind that thinks about it, but I don't let my mind overpower my feelings. And I get a balance there so I can see how I feel about that and how I think about that. And it's a combination that allows me to make better and smarter decisions than just thinking with your mind, which is more ego-based.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Welcome to the I am without with the biggest questions in fair and listening. We the collective list of industry leaders and innovators. I'm Dr. Lark Burke, and here we explore the intersections of AI, fair delivery, and through the lens of those who are reshaping. This is not just about theory. It's about lived experience and real industry insights. Let's dive in and get wiser together. Welcome to today's episode of the I am Wiser Podcast with Dr. Laura Purdy, where I explore the real stories behind groundbreaking healthcare innovations and the human impact they have on patients and providers. On that note, I'm delighted to welcome Bruce D. Randall, a visionary, an AI-driven business strategy, and a leader in helping organizations unlock human potential through technology. Bruce combines deep technical expertise with a profound understanding of the inner self, showing us that the future of innovation isn't just about tools. It's about how we as humans engage with them to thrive. Welcome, Bruce.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Thank you, Dr. Purdy. I'm pleased to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Wonderful. Well, let's set the foundation for this episode today. I'm hoping you can share with us just a little about yourself. Who are you, what you do, and why you do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Sure. I have what's called a portfolio career where I work with different companies to help them in different aspects of what they're used to, whether it's a fractional or whether it's working with AI and getting into that or just, you know, marketing, sometimes fundraising, you know, rever referring them to fund people who can fund them. And I've gotten that through the years of working, you know, in different careers and different levels, a couple startups. And I'm using my expertise that I've gained from business and the inner expertise I've gained to help help companies and help people get to the next level, or give them a better foundation to go to the next level.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

That's beautiful. And when you say portfolio of companies, do you mean like a consultant? Like you're a consultant to them, or do you serve different roles and wear different hats? How does that how does that work?

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Yeah, I I typically don't like the word consultant. I'd like to say I advise companies. So I'm an advisor to a new um security, cybersecurity startup that is nothing like what's out there in the industry right now. In fact, it's going to turn the current cybersecurity upside down because it's zero trust across a whole platform. I call it a blockchain in security. So that's one company. Another company is uh is a company that that has an AI super app that I'm working with in the US to get them a foothold. And if this another another company I'm working with is a drone company to help to get them to get to the next level by introducing them to somebody that can partner with them, both financing and combining products to get to the next level. So that gives a taste of what I do.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

So it's a little bit of everything. It sounds like you have such a broad skill set that you can help companies from a variety of different industries with a variety of different problem sets because really you are an expert in business strategy, business development.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Yeah, I would I would say that definitely now.

unknown 3:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Fantastic. A lot of years of experience has created that.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

What what's your do you have a primary industry? Like did you did you come from tech or what primary industry have you worked in?

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Yeah, I've I've started in manufacturing, but it was tech manufacturing, and then I've gone into um digital technology and then into software, and that's where everything just changed. It went from premise to cloud to AI, and you know, we're we keep going.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Yeah, it really does keep going. I feel like we're on the verge of yet another revolution as AI is becoming pervasive into everything that we do. It's in every technology that we touch and every company that we're involved with. It seems like AI is at every turn. Are you finding that as well?

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Yeah, and I'm what I've seen when I was when I was in software, we had AI in apps before it was called AI. That's why these apps were so good.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

What was it called?

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Everything's in AI now.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

That's hilarious. What did we call it? What was the what was the version one of AI? Do you remember what what did what was it called?

SPEAKER_01 5:00

They were called intelligent applications. They had a lot of capabilities, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

But now it's all AI.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Now it's AI because it's term.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

That's right. That's the buzzword these days. Everybody, everybody, you know, and actually people ask me that. I I run a digital health tech company, it's a care delivery system, and they say, Do you use AI? And I say, probably. I'm sure I think everyone uses AI at some point. Now it's right. It's unavoidable. Yes, I we all use AI these days. But when you're working with the companies that you are working with, is it from a perspective of they are an AI company, like the service that they provide is AI in nature, and you are helping grow their business? Or do you work with maybe companies that are at that are at a position where they need to update their systems and processes, they need to modernize, they need to use AI. So you are helping them choose the right tools, or do you do all of the above?

SPEAKER_01 6:01

It's actually all of the above because one company is an offshore company that wants to come in with their AI app. So I'm helping them develop the base here in the States. But then in the States, I help I help companies get into AI from a non-threatening point that will add value so that they have a good experience and then they can build from that level. Because the only thing you can do wrong is not starting AI in this in this economy. You have to start somewhere just to understand what it can do.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Right. You have to take the first step. Now, when you say the term non-threatening, what was that? You said non-threatening.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

What does that mean? I tell me, tell me what that means.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Well, you've there's a lot of companies that, and smaller companies, not larger companies, that are more afraid of AI because they don't understand it. And they don't know what to do with it. You know, they understand how to do it.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

I fall into that category.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

There's a lot of there's a lot of people like that out there.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

So it's a matter of understanding their business and understanding where we can put AI in there that's in a non-threatening way that can add value to them and help help, you know, the ROI in some way. And then going from there because you have to start, and you have to start in a way that's non-threatening and that is going to show a positive result.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

What do you find? So you're looking, so let's say you're talking to a company and you're looking for those non-threatening ways. What are your low-hanging fruit? Do you have low-hanging fruit that you say this is a good place to start? Like what's the least threatening way to go?

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Well, it there's many different types of companies, but one, it could be just a simple chatbot that's going to deal with customers or answer questions. Or it could be an AI that is going to cleanse data because they're having serious data problems. And those are both low-hanging fruit and and don't have a lot of risk, but they provide different values to different companies depending on what the need is.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

So your job is to assess their systems, assess their points of friction, and look for ways to make their operations more lean, more streamlined by using AI workflows.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Yeah. And I actually address the pain points and gauge the pain points and what is short-term and long-term and what's going to have the biggest impact now that's meaningful for them. And that's usually where I start.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

That sounds really exciting. I mean, I, as a business owner that has a lot of manual systems and very little AI, I mean that that sounds very appealing. So I can understand why there would be enough demand that you can sustain a fractional portfolio of different clients. Do you, of course, you can de-identify it, but do you have any really cool success stories of companies that you can say, this is what we did and this is how we benefited them? Like, do you have any numbers or use cases that you can share?

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Yeah, it's and I have I have the use cases I have are for one of the apps that I built. And I built an AI app uh last last spring just to to go through the experience to understand what's involved in it. And and that's been very good. So I can put a website in there and it can do an SEA search in a matter of seconds and spit out what you need to do to make your website come up in your local area. And to me, that was a pretty simple app to build. Wow. And with companies, it's usually it's a it's it's months, months of of getting data to show the results. And that's really what it is once you get the AI in place and structure it, and then you train it to do what you need it to do. And then it grows from there. So it takes a while to get that, but once you get it, you just you just tweak it here and there and it keeps going.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Wow. I mean, that's mind-blowing. That's really mind-blowing. But I can see how it could be game-changing for companies that come out of this last era where so much was either manual or it was in the middle ground, right? Like you have to build your analytics for so many months to use this example. So how do companies know? I mean, short of calling you and becoming a portfolio company, but for for the average business out there that's looking to automate, how do we know? I mean, there are, I'll give you a personal example. Now that I have conversations in my workday and I'm talking to marketing and finance and administration about how to make our workflows more automated, I get all these Instagram ads, I get my LinkedIn mailbox is blown up with everybody and their brother has now invented an AI that I'm sure would make my life a million times easier if I choose to buy them all. But how do how do we, as non-tech people, because I am not a tech person, I don't come from tech, how do we become good consumers of the high volume of options that are in front of us to know which ones are worth it?

SPEAKER_01 11:13

That's a really good question. And they do proliferate out there, and and some of them are are AI driven. Um and I can tell you a story about that if you want to hear it. Well, so I do. So what well, I I have my I have a long driveway and I have my driveway sealed in the spring, and I went out for a quote. I fill out a form online, and then I got a phone call. And I was I said, hi, this is this is this so-and-so from this comp paving company would like to talk to you about your quote you suggested. And I'm talking to them for probably a minute to 90 seconds, and then I said, Am I talking to a person or an AI agent? And the answer I got was, I'm here to give you the best experience you can get at all, you know, and and I'm here to get the answer so we can give you a nice quote. They didn't answer with the answer they gave me, they were an AI agent. And that took me 90 seconds, right? 60 to 90 seconds. So I said, What when a human gets this, please have them call me because I have a unique driveway that needs attention. And then I got a and then I got a call from somebody the next day. So you never know who you're connecting with. And with AI the way it is now, if you see a video or you get a phone call, you really have to pay attention to see if it's a person or or if the video is real, because a lot of them aren't real nowadays.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

My next question comes from a place of ignorance, but are there not laws or regulations in place that state that we have a right to know if we're talking to a human or an AI agent? Like, is that do you think that'll ever be a thing where there's a regulation that says you must disclose or it must be disclosed to the person that they are not speaking with the human? Is that even relevant? You have to do that in medicine, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Right. Yeah, my wife's a doctor, so I understand that. So, and but that's a really good question because right now, the rules that we have is that if you have an AI program with over a billion bits, you have to register it with the government and you have to take copious notes on your development. That's it. That's all we have for regulation. And because AI is is really the game changer between the countries right now, everybody's racing to develop as fast as they can. And what's being developed behind closed doors and what's out in public, there's two different worlds. And we're all trying to grapple with the AI that we have, the agents and so forth. And of course, the military and the government, they have these other programs that they're trying to learn how to manage so that they can introduce them into the mainstream.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

So the answer is no. It's not a regulated, it's really not a regulated industry, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

It's it's not, it's starting to get that way, but they're not interested in regulating it because they want to make as much progress as they can in the short term.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

It really reminds me of the way that healthcare has gone over the last two decades, right? Like the delivery of care systems evolves and then the laws come in, and then the people who were practicing in this way got regulated, and the ones who were moving from there learned from the lessons of the people who got regulated and then moved forward. That's really interesting. But I agree with you. At some point in time, I'm sure there's going to have to be some parameters that are put into place because I mean, my my personal opinion is that people probably do have a right to know, I would imagine, if they are talking to a human or not.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

I think, I think they should know, but you know, if I wasn't astute in listening to the way this entity was talking, I wouldn't have caught it. But because I'm so involved in it, I I knew and I said, Oh, that sparked something that I know. I don't think this is a person. But most people wouldn't have noticed that. And they would have had a good exchange because they would have gotten a quote and be happy. Somebody would have come out and they never would have known.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Or the quote would have been wrong, right? Because you said you had a unique driveway that was gonna you knew it was gonna require a human to know the information to give you a proper estimate to dispatch the right person with the right materials at the right time and the right amount of labor. So I could see where that could have resulted in potentially poor customer service if if they weren't able to get the right information at the right time.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Right. That's correct. That's correct. So there are some risks with it. You know, but it's a matter of with AI right now, you don't have to get it perfect, but you have to get it good enough where you can get where you want it to go.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Oh my goodness. Well, I guess we'll see over the next few years as technology evolves, as regulations come into place, as the do you call it the AI race? I don't know, as the as the AI race evolves, I guess we'll see how it turns out.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Yeah, I think it's a global race, you know, like most things, with AI being the forefront of of all technology now. That's that's that's the big race. And you know, we're we're at uh we're at agents right now. The next level we go to is general insurance general intelligence, and we can't agree on how to define that. So who knows if we're gonna get there. We have to define the first.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

We have to define it first.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Right. We just can't agree on a definition yet. So what's probably gonna happen is we're we're gonna get it piece by piece, and somebody's gonna say, hey, this is general intelligence, and they're gonna say, okay, that's what general intelligence is.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Yeah, probably a regulator will come in and say, this is how we legally define general intelligence, and therefore here's the parameters by which you are bound. That makes sense. I I look forward to watching that evolve. Um okay, well, so my next kind of series of questions, I would like to slightly pivot to talk about the wisdom, right? So this is the I'm Wiser podcast. Thank you for helping me fill in some of my gaps in my foundational knowledge on AI because I have more gaps than I have understanding when it comes to AI. And I've learned from reading about you and from listening to you that you are a huge proponent of knowing the inner self. And you believe that there are some tie-ins between the inner self, knowing the inner self, having mastery of the inner self, and the intersection of technology and AI utilization. So that sounds like a really interesting conversation. And I would love to talk about that for a few minutes. So tell me, tell me about the inner self and and how it matters.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Sure. It's as simple as if you remember going out the door someday and you you you think to yourself, I should bring an umbrella and you look out and you say it's beautiful, and you don't, and then you get caught in a downpour and you say, I should have listened to myself, right? That's kind of the inner self that's that's communicating with you. And as you develop that, you get more from that. You get a gut feeling, which some of us get now anyway, and you get a feeling of knowing. And that's that's through Reiki. I'm a Reiki master, and I've been meditating for for quite a few years. I've had an intervention where I've saved the life. So I'm pretty in tune. And when I'm dealing with something, I have my mind that thinks about it, but I don't let my mind overpower my feelings. And I get a balance there so I can see how I feel about that and how I think about that. And it's that combination that allows me to make, I think, better and smarter decisions than just thinking with your mind, which is more ego-based and, you know, this is what I want, therefore I'm gonna go for this versus a more balanced approach. And that's my view on it.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

That's really fantastic. I mean, I understand what you're talking about. One of the one of the phrases that I use sometimes is past me takes care of future me. And I say that in in sort of joke, like, oh, thank you, pass me. But you're right, there can be an intuition, and some of it is innate, right? Like our kids have, our babies have intuitions to keep themselves safe. Some of it we are born with, and some of it we learn through experience, through following our gut, through listening to our gut, through having experiences out there in the real world, maybe learning the hard way, which is uh, you know, one of the things that I say. But intuition can play a role in business. How so how do you see that playing out in technology? What is the intersection? And and honestly, how how do people respond when you're talking to someone about AI and you say, well, let's talk about our inner selves? Like, how does that come up in your work life or does it?

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Well, it depends who I'm talking to, because I I kind of know who to who to mention that to or if somebody mentions it to me. But just to frame it a little bit, you've got companies that are doing brain computer interfaces right now, and there's quite a few of them that have been done where they put a chip on the brain in between the skull and the brain, and you can operate a computer with your thoughts through the chip. So that's here now, and they've done they've done about nine of those and a number of others, and they're thinking that they can they can hook up AI to the ocular nerve and restore sight and maybe give you X-ray vision at the same time or other types of vision with that, because the technology can allow that. Now, this hasn't been done yet, but this is what they believe they can do. So when you talk about the intersection of technology and humans, you can get as granular as you want, or you can talk about it, you know, as a feeling when you're working with technology, which is what I do. And there's a balance in that. And that's that's really framing it in as one extreme to the other, and you know, anything in between.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Wow. I mean, I guess it actually applies with the story that you told about your driveway too, right? You didn't just blindly listen to and follow what was being put in front of you. You had an intuition that said something doesn't feel right here. Something doesn't feel right with this. Right. That's so interesting. So as you are working with your companies, right, you can kind of gauge varying levels of interest or understanding in these things, but you can lead from an intuitive place that is supported or backed, you could say supported by the facts and the technology and what you're experiencing in your real life, but leading from that place of intuition to give them your best practices.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

That's right. And I I sense I'm pretty good at questioning and I've developed that. So I can ask the press question through. Right questions, and I'm not afraid to ask any question to get to a point where I understand where they're coming from and what their needs are and what's important to them. Right. So what's important to them may be a little bit different than what I think is best. And if we get somewhere in the middle and they get the benefit they want, that's really a win-win.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Amazing. But that's why it's important, I think, for people to understand that there is value in working with someone who has the experience that you do. Right? There's lots of different companies you can work with out there. Out-of-the-box solutions, people who believe that there's one way and that's the only way. But I'm going to assume that that is not how you operate. I don't think you're going to be a one-size-fits-all kind of advisor.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

No, you you have to go in and understand who you're working with and understand their their needs and their wants and usually take care of the needs first. And then find out how you can have the best positive impact for them that's going to impact their ROI, which is most important to them. And then you go from there. And it's it's kind of a dance, but it's a conversation, and you have to have the depth of knowledge to have that conversation. And that's why you mentioned the out-of-the-box solutions. They don't have the depth typically. So you need somebody with that depth to say whether that's going to work or not. And maybe something else works better.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

To be a good consumer of what you see coming through the door or what you see coming at your clients. Fantastic. Well, I honestly I really admire what you're doing because I think as a business owner who has worked with a lot of vendors, advisors, consultants, have come across a lot of people. It's actually really rare, and I'm sure you know this. It's really rare to come across someone who genuinely puts the interest of the business first and wants to see you succeed and wants your business to excel. Not just wants your business to pay their retainer or pay their invoice or pay their hour or put you on their resume or have them put you on their resume, but to work with someone who genuinely has a heartfelt concern for the success of your business is very rare, but it sounds like you have that.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Well, thank you. And my philosophy is if you do, if you do the right thing and you do the best you can do, everything else follows. So I don't worry about the payment side because if I do the job I'm supposed to do, the payments just gonna come, right?

SPEAKER_00 24:33

I love it. Well, it will come as a result of the work that you are doing.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Not as a result of the invoice you have issued.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

That's correct. That's correct. That's very true.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

Both the end the end point is the same for both, right? But the the route that you take and the higher level benefit that you have to get there is different. So on behalf of Business Owners Everywhere, thank you for that because that's hard to find.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Well, thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

Wonderful. Okay, I have one last question for you before we wrap up our interview today. And I thought this draws from your experience and also from your wisdom. Can you tell me what are, let's say, the top three landmines? If you can choose three, what are the top three landmines that business owners, CEOs, startup founders that you see as they start to embark upon the integrating AI into their workflows, into their strategy, into their wherever they're putting it? What are the top three landmines that you see time and time again that if you could advise business owners, you would advise them to try to avoid?

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Well, what I would say is you have to start with the proven strategy for your business. And it's that doesn't fit every business, but for your business. And I've seen a lot of companies that start with something and then start with something else, and then the third time they they can't tie them together, but they want to, but they can't. So that's where that that strategy works, where you have you know a one, three, five-year plan, and you can change it, but you have to have that and you have to have the expertise to know what's best for that. That's the first thing. The second thing is if if you're not in AI right now, you should really think of how you can get into it in an in a way that's gonna benefit you and be a low threat for you. Because you need to start, because what I tell people is if you're not in AI right now and your competitors are, in another year or two, you're gonna be looking beh from behind because they're gonna be ahead of you. That's the advan that's a competitive and comparative advantage that they have with AI if used properly that you don't have if you don't use it. So those are the two things. And then I I think the third thing is if you don't understand AI, get somebody on your team that does understand it so they can advise you from your side what's best for you. Because you you're absolutely right. When you get the salespeople coming in, they want to make a sale and they can get it to fit, right? And that's their goal. But the owner wants it to fit what they want what they need instead of instead of what they want to sell them, and they don't always align. So you have to be careful with that.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

Those are great. Those are great. You have to have a strategy, you have to get in there, or you're gonna become obsolete, right? Like you will become the phone book or the landline. If you don't use AI, you're gonna become a phone book eventually over the next couple of years. And then if you don't know, get some help. I fall into that category.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

The qualified help. We have to get people that know what they're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Qualified help who really know what they're talking about and aren't just trying to get their invoices paid. That's right. That's right. Oh my goodness. Bruce, thank you so much for meeting with me and talking with me today. I'm hoping you can share with us, in case we have anybody listening to this who thinks I need to be one of Bruce's portfolio companies because I need some help. Where do we find you? How do we get a hold of you? Where are you located?

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Sure. Um, there's two places. One is my website, theaihumanparadox.com, that has the book that's being released um before the end of the year. And then my LinkedIn is my main contact for Bruce D. Randall on LinkedIn, and it's Bruce D. Randall USA.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

Perfect. Bruce D. Randall USA. Thank you, Bruce. I have loved this conversation. I learned so much. I am definitely wiser than I was 30 minutes ago. So thank you for spending some time with me today, and I wish you all the best.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

Thank you, Dr. Pretty. I appreciate your time, and it was a pleasure being in this podcast.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to the I Am Wiser Podcast, where each episode brings us closer to a wiser, more human approach. If today's conversation inspired you or sparked new ideas, share it with someone who's ready to rethink computer. And if you have a story or innovation that could light the way for others to reach out, we'd love to hear from you. This space is yours too. Don't forget to follow, rate, and review us on your favorite platform. Until next time, stay curious, stay courageous, and stay lighter.