Episode 331 The Trust Algorithm with Alice Sesay Pope (Part 1)

John talks with Alice Sesay Pope about building trust with customers and employees, Agentic AI and Generative AI, and why we shouldn't be afraid of AI. Alice also talks about her newly released book The Trust Algorithm: How Leaders Build Trust with Generative AI. About Alice Sesay Pope: Alice Pope is a Fortune 100 Customer Experience and Operations executive who helps enterprise organizations transform CX into a measurable driver of revenue, retention, and loyalty — while modernizing cost-to-serve through digital enablement, automation, and GenAI. She leads at the intersection of customer trust, operational excellence, and innovation — because the organizations that win at scale don't choose between efficiency and empathy. They build intelligent systems that deliver both. With more than 30 years of executive leadership in complex, global environments, Alice has led large-scale transformations that connect the full CX ecosystem — product, engineering, analytics, care, and field operations — turning customer insight into sustained business performance. Listen to this episode to learn more: [00:00] - Intro [00:52] - Alice's bio & backstory [04:00] - Why companies must care for employees first to truly serve customers [05:56] - How feeling excluded earlier in life shaped her leadership style [07:15] - Ritz-Carlton example of empowerment and kindness [09:30] - Agentic AI and Generative AI [10:56] - Should we be afraid of AI? [12:44] - How to use AI tools to grow your career [16:47] - Why our education system needs to evolve with AI [20:44] - Normalize failing as a learning tool [22:55] - What are the best ways to build trust? [25:56] - How dynamic pricing and algorithms affect trust [28:57] - Why is building trust so difficult? [30:34] - Why trust is the currency in the AI era [32:44] - The Trust Algorithm book NOTABLE QUOTES: "Experience is the best teacher." "If you're not taking care of your people first, you're not going to have a company in order to help customers." "Agentic AI tools can make decisions for customers, but sometimes they don't understand those moments that matter, and they don't rarely understand the human touch. And that's why I believe humans are still important to delivering a great experience." "There's a human component to trust that just can't be made." "Customers won't leave a brand that they trust. Instead, they will increase their overall loyalty." "When you do the right thing for your employees, they will go to heights you can't even imagine to do the right thing for customers and to represent a company." "There are various companies that may or may not invest in the time or the money that it takes to reskill associates. So we all have to take control of our careers. We have to be more deliberate about how we think about how we want our careers to be." "Our educational system has to change. It must change, especially in the world of AI. Our education system has to evolve to teach students to be critical thinkers, and also to be more creative to generate new ideas, processes that perhaps don't exist today." "There are some schools that say they ban AI tools. I believe that's wrong, because in the real world, people are using them. There's so much value to utilizing these tools to accomplish so much more, faster." "Generative AI can be a very good thing if it is implemented in a fair and ethical way." "We can't resist the change. The change is here. Can't resist it, but we can implement it in a way that's value-driven." USEFUL LINKS: https://alicesesaypope.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicesesaypope/ https://www.instagram.com/alicesesaypope/ https://x.com/Alicesesaypope https://www.youtube.com/@alicesesaypope The Trust Algorithm: How Leaders Build Trust with Generative AI - https://a.co/d/0aKOKLBw Transformation From The Inside Out - https://a.co/d/0esUYdS0 CONNECT WITH JOHN Website - https://iamjohnhulen.com    LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhulen Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/johnhulen    Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/johnhulen    X - https://x.com/johnhulen    YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@iamjohnhulen    EPISODE CREDITS Intro and Outro music provided by Jeff Scheetz - https://jeffscheetz.com/