AI Made Simple

Most organizations invest heavily in AI upskilling - and then wonder why adoption stays flat. The missing piece isn't more training. It's understanding whether your workforce is psychologically ready to change how they work. In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Wendy Rasmussen - licensed clinical psychologist, U.S. Navy veteran, and founder of Alpenglow Insights - who developed a diagnostic that measures the hidden psychological barriers blocking AI adoption across organizations. We discuss: Why "I don't have time" often masks deeper fears about identity and job securityThe four conditions that must be in place before any AI upskilling can stickHow mandatory training programs can actually activate resistance instead of adoptionWhat two types of AI champions your organization needs - and how to deploy them differently Connect with Dr. Wendy Rasmussen:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendyrasmussenWebsite: https://alpenglowinsights.com/Connect with Valeriya:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriya-pilkevichYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aimadesimpletalksPodcast: https://aimadesimple.buzzsprout.com/Need help building AI capability in your organization? Book a call. 

Most companies treat AI governance as a compliance exercise. But if your teams can't even agree on what counts as AI, your governance framework is built on sand. In this episode, I'm joined by Sarah Mathews - Global Responsible AI Manager at the Adecco Group - who leads AI governance, ethics, and literacy across 60 countries and millions of hiring decisions. We discuss: Why AI governance must start with a shared definition, not an inventory of toolsHow Adecco built role-based AI literacy training that reached 44,000 employees voluntarilyWhy distributed governance ownership beats putting one team in chargeThe hidden danger of making AI too human-like and what it means for trust Connect with Sarah: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-mathews-87b481122/ Connect with Valeriya: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriya-pilkevich YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aimadesimpletalks Podcast: https://aimadesimple.buzzsprout.comNeed help building AI capability in your organization? Book a call. 

Most companies treat AI as an efficiency play. Cut costs, save time, do more with less. But what if that mindset is exactly what's holding them back? In this episode, I'm joined by Dave Drodge - digital transformation and AI strategist with 25+ years across Roche, Novartis, Sony, and Amadeus - who argues the real AI opportunity isn't about doing things faster, it's about reimagining what your people and business can become. We discuss: Why "human in the loop" often means "person who takes the blame"How IKEA turned AI-displaced customer service roles into $1.3M in new revenue The difference between experiment, exploit, and enlightenment in AI adoption What the EPOCH framework reveals about the skills AI still can't replace Connect with Dave Drodge: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davedrodge/ Connect with Valeriya:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriya-pilkevichYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aimadesimpletalksNeed help building AI capability in your organization? Book a call. 

Most organizations treat AI trust as a compliance exercise. Check the box, file the documentation, avoid the fine. But compliance and trustworthiness are not the same thing. In this episode, I'm joined by Tris Papakonstantinou - cognitive scientist, co-founder of the Digital Trust Council, and PhD researcher at UCL - who studies why people trust or distrust AI and what it actually takes to shift those beliefs. We discuss: Why people judge AI on outcomes but judge humans on intentions - and what that means for leadersThe difference between regulatory compliance and genuine AI trustworthinessHow cognitive offloading is quietly eroding critical thinking and decision-making skillsWhy the best AI adoption strategies start with framing, transparency, and long-term thinking Need help building AI capability in your organization? Book a call. 

Most companies invest millions in learning platforms - but the best learning communities are often built with zero budget and no permission.In this episode of AI Made Simple: The Transformation Series, I'm joined by Shakil Awan - Squad Lead and Product Manager for LEX at Deutsche Telekom - who transformed a simple idea into a 17,000-member peer-to-peer learning community with over 6,500 sessions per year.We discuss:Why self-organized communities fail without people given charge to lead themThe counterintuitive reason LEX started with yoga sessions, not business topicsWhat it actually takes to motivate employees to share knowledge voluntarilyHow to build learning culture when you have no budget, no project, and no management supportConnect with Shakil Awan:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shakilawan/LEX: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8754712/?highlightedUpdateUrn=urn%3Ali%3AgroupPost%3A8754712-7422684981958688768&q=highlightedFeedForGroupsConnect with Valeriya:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriya-pilkevichYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aimadesimpletalksPodcast: https://aimadesimple.buzzsprout.com/Need help building AI capability in your organization? Book a call. 

AI adoption is failing in most organisations - not because of technology, but because of psychology. Even when AI demonstrably outperforms humans, people resist it. The question is: why?In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Elisa Konya-Baumbach - Professor of Consumer Psychology at Bern University of Applied Sciences and Co-Founder of humest - who has spent years researching the irrational human reactions that block AI adoption.In this conversation, we explore:The psychology behind AI resistance - including "uniqueness neglect" and why rational arguments don't workWhy most AI training programs fail - and how to design literacy programs that actually drive adoptionHow reframing "AI" as "smart technologies" or giving AI assistants names changes employee behaviourThe four levels of AI acceptance - individual, organisational, societal, and technological - and what to fix firstNeed help building AI capability in your organization? Book a call. 

The EU AI Act is live, but most companies are still treating it like another GDPR. It's not. It's a fundamentally different kind of regulation, one that's tied to how your business operates, not just how it stores data. In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Benedikt Flöter - Partner at YPOG and head of their AI and Emerging Technologies practice - who advises leadership teams on building legally compliant, scalable AI governance that actually drives business value. We discuss: Why two-thirds of companies overestimate their AI risk classification The governance foundations every organization needs before scaling AIHow a recent German court ruling means your AI-generated content may not be copyright protected Why AI literacy is now a legal requirement and what "sufficient" actually looks like Check your company’s AI risk category and compliance obligations here: https://ai-act-service-desk.ec.europa.eu/en/eu-ai-act-compliance-checker Connect with Dr. Benedikt Flöter: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benedikt-floeter/ Website: https://www.ypog.law Connect with Valeriya: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriya-pilkevich YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aimadesimpletalks Podcast: https://aimadesimple.buzzsprout.comNeed help building AI capability in your organization? Book a call. 

AI is being rolled out at scale across industries - but the safeguards haven't kept up. Bias in AI has improved less than 5% despite years of awareness, agentic AI is amplifying risks faster than companies can manage them, and most organizations still treat responsible AI as a compliance checkbox rather than a strategic advantage. In this episode of AI Made Simple: The Transformation Series, I'm joined by Toju Duke - AI advisor, author, and former Google Responsible AI lead - who spent a decade at Google before founding Diverse AI, an organization building a 5-million-image dataset to represent communities invisible to current AI systems. We discuss: Why AI bias hasn't meaningfully improved and what's blocking progress The security and accountability risks of deploying AI agents without safeguards How underrepresented data creates real business risk, from recruitment failures to reputational damage Why responsible AI should be part of your AI strategy, not a separate initiative Connect with Toju Duke:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tojuduke/Website: https://www.tojuduke.com/Her Books: Responsible AI Building Responsible Algorithms Connect with Valeriya:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriya-pilkevichYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aimadesimpletalksPodcast: https://aimadesimple.buzzsprout.com/Need help building AI capability in your organization? Book a call. 

Most AI training programs fail not because of content, but because they ignore how people actually work. Shop floor employees, scheduled workers, and frontline teams need something radically different from desk-based learning. In this episode, I'm joined by Tatevik Mkrtchyan, Competence and Leadership Leader at IKEA Germany, who oversees learning strategy for 20,000 coworkers across 54 stores. We discuss: • Why AI training fails when it ignores frontline workers and shop floor realities• How to build AI communities that create movement instead of temporary change projects• The difference between skills-based organizations and traditional capability models• When AI avatars and conversational AI make sense for L&D - and when they don'tConnect with Tatevik:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tatevik-mkrtchyan-8a59b777/Connect with Valeriya:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriya-pilkevich/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aimadesimpletalksPodcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2558906Need help building AI capability in your organization? Book a call. 

Your employees can use AI tools, but do they understand their relationship with them? Most companies focus on "button-pressing skills" while ignoring the deeper question: are we building human capacity or accidentally outsourcing it?In this episode, I'm joined by Mila Devenport - AI ethicist, founder of Kigumi Group, and certified AI ethics assessor - who has spent over a decade working with digital natives, schools, and enterprises on digital wellbeing and responsible AI use.We discuss:Why soft skills and human intelligence matter more than ever in the age of AIWhat companies get wrong when recruiting and onboarding AI-native employeesHow to prevent cognitive offloading from turning your workforce into algorithm-dependent thinkersThe AI process journal framework that helps people understand where their thinking stops and AI's beginsConnect with Mila: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mila-devenport/Kigumi Group: https://www.kigumigroup.comConnect with Valeriya: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriya-pilkevichYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aimadesimpletalks Podcast: https://aimadesimple.buzzsprout.comNeed help building AI capability in your organization? Book a call. 

Most companies invest millions in AI tools but fail because they skip the foundation that makes AI work.In this episode, I'm joined by Ashu Bhatia - Global Head of Dexian and Season Technology, AI Transformation Leader with 25+ years at Accenture, Microsoft, American Express, and Siemens, and author of "Value Creation" - who reveals why 60-70% of consulting work still focuses on data foundations, not AI deployment.We discuss: – Why messy data gets exposed (not fixed) by AI– The three pillars 95% of organizations overlook when building AI readiness – Three critical leadership behaviors: clarity, simplification, and prioritization– How to escape "pilot purgatory" and move AI projects into production Connect with Ashu Bhatia: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashubhatia/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TechBytesWithAshHis Book: "Value Creation": https://www.amazon.com/Value-Creation-Information-Technology-Business/dp/1612540368Connect with Valeriya. Need help building AI capability in your organization? Book a call. 

AI adoption is failing in most organizations - not because of the technology, but because culture, governance, and people enablement often gets ignored.In this episode, I'm joined by Nufar Gaspar - enterprise AI consultant, former AI leader at Intel where she built a 12,000-member AI champions community, and head of research at Superintelligent - who reveals the exact playbook for building AI capability at scale and preparing for agentic workflows.In this conversation, we explore:Why AI ROI comes from improved decision-making and new capabilities, not just efficiency gainsThe CHANGE framework for leading AI transformation without stifling innovation or creating chaosHow to structure AI champions and builders across your organization (and why this matters for agent readiness)The governance sweet spot between being too permissive (creating chaos) and too restrictive (stifling innovation)Need help building AI capability in your organization? Book a call.