The Currency of Trust, with The Christian Post’s Dr. Christopher Chou

So this one is about trust, and why it might be the only thing left that AI can’t manufacture for you. I sat down with Dr. Christopher Chou, the CEO of The Christian Post. We got into why people don’t adopt AI when they don’t trust the leaders handing it to them, what it cost his team to stand by a story when the platforms told them to apologize, and the one thing a human brings to the table that a model never will. If you lead anything right now, this is the conversation I’d point you to.Outline(00:00) – The value of trust(01:07) – Saying yes, and praying for the newsroom(03:03) – Translating trust from relief work to a newsroom(07:42) – Adoption is a trust problem, not a tool problem(08:53) – The team member who heard “AI” and felt fear(10:53) – Why it’s a brutal moment to run a newsroom(12:48) – Not negotiable, not adjustable, not for sale(16:39) – Op-eds from both sides, and nine months off Twitter(20:46) – When AI summaries took 20% of search traffic(23:07) – What a human brings that AI can’t(29:46) – Journalists who are Christians, not Christian journalists(32:50) – Three books worth your timeMy TakeawaysAdoption is a trust problem before it’s a tools problem. When I talk to CEOs trying to bring AI into their organizations, the biggest misconception I see is that people will adopt a tool just because it’s good. They won’t. If your team thinks you brought in a new tool to replace them in six months, it doesn’t matter how good it is; they’re never going to touch it. Chris kept the human piece at the center of the whole thing: “Even when we’re talking about AI, it still has to be about people.”Trust gets built brick by brick, and it comes apart fast. Chris said there’s no shortcut: “It’s day by day, story by story, brick by brick, you have to build.” Then he told me what that actually costs. The Christian Post got suspended from Twitter for nine months over a post they believed was true, with 180,000 followers on the line, because they refused to apologize and call it wrong and hateful. “Those are the moments you need to stand by your convictions.” They ate the loss. That’s what a track record looks like when nobody’s watching.The fear in the room is real, so name it. Chris told me about encouraging one of his team members to use AI more, and the immediate reaction was fear that it would replace them. His read was that you can’t skip past that. “You have to address the worries. You can’t just force it.” You meet people where they are, or you don’t get to the next step at all. I’ve watched leaders try to sell their way past that fear, and it never works.The thing a human brings is the thing AI can’t. Chris framed it as a question his team keeps asking: “What is it that a human person brings to the table that AI is not going to be able to bring?” Lived experience. Relationships. Knowing what’s going to matter tomorrow. He put it in a line I’m still going over: “The Bible tells us birds don’t worry about tomorrow. But people do.” That worry, that human stake, is exactly what AI doesn’t have. It’s also the easiest way to tell whether something was written by a person.If you’re a leader trying to bring AI into your team without breaking the trust you’ve spent years building, that’s most of what I do in my coaching work. You can start here.One Question to Sit WithIf anybody can now produce infinite content for almost nothing, what are you putting out that someone would actually choose to trust?Watch the full conversation above, and go subscribe to TCP Leaders, Chris’s Substack for Christian leaders. And check out The Christian Post, free to read, because they believe news is a public service. About Dr. Christopher ChouDr. Christopher Chou is the CEO of The Christian Post, one of the largest Christian news outlets in the country, where he has led since 2018. He writes TCP Leaders on Substack, built to help Christian leaders navigate the work of leading. His newsroom defines itself by a simple line: journalists who are Christians, not Christian journalists, with a first duty to the facts and the truth. Subscribe to follow his work.About meJoel Salinas is an Executive AI Coach for leaders at small and mid-sized businesses and nonprofits. 1:1 coaching, team workshops, and AI strategy work built around amplifying what your team is already good at. Creator of the AI Leadership Triad. He writes Leadership in Change. If you want help thinking through your own AI strategy or online presence, start here.Written by a human, for humans. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit leadershipinchange.com/subscribe