The Human Conversation with Doug Atkinson

Andreas Welsch has watched a new kind of problem arrive in corporate inboxes — reports that look like reports, summaries that look like summaries, and none of it says anything. The author of *The Human Agentic AI Edge* joins Doug to navigate the gap between AI promise and AI reality: why IBM reversed course and tripled its entry-level hiring after announcing 7,800 automated roles, why the DIY AI movement is quietly failing, and why the professionals most at risk this time — educated, screen-working, politically connected — are the first in history to face automation with actual power to push back. This is the episode for anyone who needs to lead through the AI transition, not just survive it.

Dr. Joe Perez has a warning: if we let AI do all our thinking, we won't be replaced by machines... we'll become them.The data analytics expert and international keynote speaker joins Doug to follow the economic logic of mass AI adoption to its quietly terrifying conclusion: companies eliminate every job, slash every cost, and discover too late that the people they fired were also their customers. Sharp, funny, and more honest than anything you'll hear in a boardroom. This is the conversation about AI that actually respects your intelligence.***********Dr. Joe Perez @DrJoePerezData  LinkedInDr. Joe's books***********The Human Conversation is powered by Insight JamJoin the human conversation around AI at https://insightjam.com/Sign up for our newsletter, The Human-AI Ledger

AI ethics researcher and keynote speaker Rebecca Bultsma joins Doug for an unflinching conversation about the seismic shift happening in AI right now, and what it actually means for workers, educators, and society at large. Rebecca shares why she can no longer in good conscience tell people there's "nothing to worry about," and what each of us needs to do to stay relevant in a world where 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs could disappear within a decade. From deepfakes and the collapse of epistemic truth to the crisis in higher education and the future of expert work, this is one of the most honest conversations you'll find about the AI moment we're all living through.

Social workers are burned out, understaffed, and drowning in paperwork. Is AI an unlikely lifeline? Dr. Marina Badillo-Diaz, founder of the AI Social Worker and professor at NYU and Columbia, joins Doug Atkinson to explore what happens when millions of people turn to chatbots for mental health support, whether human therapists are replaceable, and what the rise of AI means for a generation of kids who may never need to go to college. A grounded, urgent conversation about the human cost of the AI revolution from someone working at the front lines of it.

Are students cheating with AI? Or are they just using their resources?Courtney Bock is a K-5 library and technology teacher and AI implementation specialist who spent the early part of her career training natural language models and building enterprise chatbots. Now she's watching those two worlds collide inside the American classroom.In this episode, Doug and Courtney dig into the ed tech land rush and why not all tools are created equal, how teachers are already using AI to personalize learning in ways that weren't possible before, why kids raised on screens are showing up to school in what Courtney calls "dopamine withdrawal," and why school districts that ban AI entirely aren't playing it safe — they're just building an underground black market.

AI doesn't care about your credentials, your experience, or your billable hour. Doug sits down with BARC Research VP Kevin Petrie to ask the question nobody in enterprise tech wants to answer: what's actually left for us?They cover why data quality has vaulted to the #1 obstacle to AI success, how the arms race between OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google is going to force some uncomfortable business decisions, and whether consulting, legal, and other knowledge-work industries are really safe from disruption. Kevin also makes the case for why Anthropic is quietly pulling ahead on the corporate front — and what that means for the future of enterprise software.***********Kevin Petriehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinpetrietech/ @BARCGmbH  https://barc.com/***********The Human Conversation is powered by Insight JamJoin the human conversation around AI at https://insightjam.com/Sign up for our newsletter, The Human-AI Ledger: https://bit.ly/HumanAINewsletter

AI regulation is lagging. Companies are either paralyzed or moving too fast. And somewhere in the middle, real people are watching their career paths disappear. Doug sits down with Asha J. Palmer (AI governance, ethics, and compliance leader at  ⁨@skillsoft⁩ ) to have an honest conversation about what responsible AI actually looks like in practice. They dig into why businesses can't resist replacing headcount, what the collapse of junior coding and paralegal roles signals for every profession, and why upskilling it's a survival necessity. Asha brings both the legal compliance lens and the human one, and the result is one of the most grounded conversations yet about what it means to stay relevant in an AI-powered world.***********Asha J. Palmerhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/asha-j-palmer/***********The Human Conversation is powered by Insight JamJoin the human conversation around AI at https://insightjam.com/Sign up for our newsletter, The Human-AI Ledger: https://bit.ly/HumanAINewsletter

Is AI going to eat enterprise software whole, or are companies nowhere near ready to handle what's coming?Doug sits down with Sam Gupta, founder and CEO of ElevateIQ, to debate the real state of AI adoption in the enterprise. They cover the collapse of legacy ERP, the rise of AI-native platforms like Campfire and Everest, why 95% of companies are more inefficient than they realize, and whether consulting and education can survive the disruption. Sam challenges Doug's opinion on AI at every turn... and the answers aren't what you'd expect.***********Sam Gupta @ElevatIQ  https://www.linkedin.com/in/samguptausa/https://elevatiq.com***********The Human Conversation is powered by Insight JamJoin the human conversation around AI at https://insightjam.com/Sign up for our newsletter, The Human-AI Ledger: https://bit.ly/HumanAINewsletter

Tech influencer Evan Kirstel brings the optimist's view while Doug pushes back hard. Is AI a productivity boom or a Terminator that won't show pity? A spirited debate on job displacement, LLM limitations, and whether we're overvaluing human capabilities.

Dr. Priyanka Dave, workforce development leader at Oregon State University, joins Doug to explore the AI upskilling gap, why future leaders may never learn to lead, and whether humans can compete with technology that evolves faster than we can adapt.***********Priyanka Davehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/priyankadave-phd/***********The Human Conversation is powered by Insight JamJoin the human conversation around AI at https://insightjam.com/Sign up for our newsletter, The Human-AI Ledger: https://bit.ly/HumanAINewsletter

David Linthicum, former Deloitte Cloud Chief Strategy Officer and 35-year AI veteran, joins Doug to discuss why 90% of AI projects fail, which industries are most vulnerable to disruption, and what happens when the corporate ladder loses its bottom rungs.

I'm Doug Atkinson and I'll be talking with educators, researchers, practitioners, and thought leaders about the effect AI is having on work, learning, and society. Subscribe today! New episodes every Tuesday.