The AI Agency: How Bold Leaders Build Scalable, Human-Centered AI-Without Losing Their Soul

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed on the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests and not those of W four WN Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability, explicit or implied shall be extended to W four WN Radio. It's employees are affiliates. Any questions or common should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W four WN Radio. This is Beyond Confidence with your host, DV Park. Do you want to live a more fulfilling life? Do you want to live your legacy and achieve your personal, professional, and financial goals? Well? Coming up on ZVO parks Beyond Confidence, you will hear real stories of leaders, entrepreneurs, and achievers who have steps into discomfort, shattered their status quo, and are living the life they want. You will learn how relationships are the key to achieving your aspirations and financial goals. Moving your career business forward does not have to happen at the expense of your personal or family life or vice versa.

0:58 Learn more at www dot Gvpark dot com and you can connect with v ants contact dance gvpark dot com. This is beyond confidence and now here's your host, giv Park. Good morning listeners, It's Tuesday. I'm so thrilled to be here with you all. So today we are going to be talking about how we can scale with AI. How can leaders bring in AI into the organizations. If you're an entrepreneurial, how can you bring AI into your lives? How can you dance with AI without losing your soul? Because the key thing to remember is that at the intersection of AI and business, it is very important to have humans at the home because without humans, without us, AI is not anything. So as you scale or as you adopt, really crucial to have that in mind. So first of all, let's tackle and talk about the feelings and emotions that nobody talks about. Because when you're going for a adoption, people are going to be thinking yay, especially early adopters. There's a lot of excitement, enthusiasm, what more can be done? This could change everything? Then there

2:29 could be curiosity what's possible here? Because in twenty twenty two when open AI came in, people were just kind of getting to know and like thinking, h this is something new. But I want you to travel back a few years back. You know, we did not have GPS. We had those maps, and I still remember taking those big maps and going on trips and having fun. And then came GPS, then came email, then came automated voice messages.

3:09 So EI has been around, just not so much in the face. So the first thing is to take a step back and look at AI for what it is, coming to learn about AI, checking it out with curiosity what's possible here while knowing that it is not perfect. That is the critical piece to remember. And then sometimes what happens, especially if you're just kind of getting to know AI, or if you're a small organization, or even if you're a big organization, you bring in AI and then you have started tool, you're doing pilot, and while you're uploading some features, you are developing training programs. Every twenty seconds, there is that change, there is that oh mom, And then what happens is okay. The first question could be where do I even start? Another could be I've already started, I've already implied, and now there's hold this upgrade.

4:21 What am I going to do? And as a result, of that, it can create that uncertainty, that feeling of doubt as to am I behind And that's always going to be the case. What's going to happen is that there's always going to be new things. So regardless, if you're feeling all of that, it's okay because that's where you are supposed to be. And now the key things is it's important recognize the feelings because whether you are bringing in AF just for yourself, or whether you're bringing in AF for the organization, or you're bringing in for your business, or you are helping somebody else adopt AI, these are the questions to ask. And I just kind of tell a story. So one of my clients was leading a whole AI department in a very big, reputable company.

5:30 Thought his job was secure, his team was secure because they were the ones who had launched it. But what happened was and the reality is that they had made it so well that they could be eliminated. So he and his whole team was just let go. Who would have thought that an expert in artificial eelligence, that expert who had built the whole structure for the company, he and his team would be gone. So yes, they were laid off and guess what, because there were new updates, there were new changes. What happened was other people didn't know and then started crashing. So that is just one story.

6:24 And some companies they are bringing an AI without looking at the process. In some companies they have built it to a very good extent, but have taken the humans out of the equation. And that's where these are just a couple of examples. Their problems happened an AI adoption failed. I mean some parts were successful, some parts were failing. And then when my client came to me and said, Tavia, what do I do over here? He felt so disappointed. He felt disillusioned and just that feeling of emptiness and he was saying to me, I feel like I'm looking into abyss. I was so excited about it. So the key is knowing how to deal with AI. And that's where not only my disclient let's call him John, but a lot of my other clients where I've helped them work through the era of AI to make themselves future proof, to make the A adoption, integration and governance in such a way that it is our partner, not something that can take away jobs. That's why I wrote my book The AI Agency, and the thing is that what happens

7:59 is I want us to kind of look at some of these failures that I talked about. Companies are chasing tools instead of outcomes, that too many disconnected pilots. There's no clear ownership and there's no definition of success. So it's not about what AI can we used, it's not about which tool we can use. It's important that we stop talking about it over there. The key is what problem is words solving. And even before we go into what problem we are solving, it's important to talk about the AI governance. And when we talk about AI governance, is that what it's going to look like. Who's going to own the decisions? And Yes, there's so much to talk about that today. We're not going to go into all that details, but these are the things to remember, so think about it. Let's we talk about, like, Okay, which is the problem I want to solve. Whether you're in an individual entrepreneur, individual leader, or an organization, that's like the first thing we talk about. So let's say one of the problems is I'm just going to share a story where there's this team who had to do a lot of testing, and because they were testing the

9:32 same thing, a lot of Q testing is involved. It is an iterative process, it is mechanical, and it was taking people's motivation away. So what they did, and this is just one piece of the product I'm talking about. So as I was helping this team, what we did was we took all the processes that they had and out of that we narrowed down what was the most painful process for them. And from there, the painful process was where there was a lot of grind every day, day to day mechanical work, where people were not being challenged, there was no growth opportunities, no meaning, no satisfaction. And then we broke it down into chunk And when you take this process and break it down into chunks, then you take a look at it. You sit down and you assess how much time does it take for a human being to do it? Where will the automation help.

10:40 And then the key is starting out with a small pilot where it is a focused use case. Another important thing to remember is having clear metrics. And when you start out with a small use case, work through the problem, fix one thing, and you find that the results are good, then you move to the next space. And of course you can do multiple things at the same time too, but then you need to have multiple teams doing small pilots.

11:21 And the reason, the key thing is that one thing that I want to introduce in this is a business technology ethics framework. I call about the three things to work on business. Why does it matter that we are working on this problem? Super important? Okay, here was like you know, not only it's taking going back to that process. Not only it was taking them fifty hours, white matters if you take a look at it, it was using a lot of men power, and of course when it uses a lot of menpower, it impacts the profitability too.

12:02 So that was the business size. Now we look at the second piece of the framework technology, What enables it? Do we need to automate, do we need to create workflows, do we need to have agentic AI? What is it that we want to include. So then we took that part of the process and what they did was they took only painful pieces of the process to automate it. They built in a lot of humans in the loop. Yes, that's exactly what I mean. Because artificial intelligence will hallucinate, it has the confidence of the person of a person who may be wrong, but things that they're good. So yes, artificial intelligence can make mistakes, whether it's CHGPT claud if wich isnthropic, or even if if you have open Claw, or if you have a Gemini, or if you have the cowork which has been released from Claude for doing agentic work. You can have any of that and it can still make mistakes. So that is the key to remember.

13:16 So ethics is what protects the data, what protects the process, and what protects the people. So these are the key things to remember because remember if you don't have ethics, like when I'm talking about this framework business technology and ethics, if you don't have it, the risk can be your employees can get impacted. And I'm going to go back to that story. So that is from Sean and Chantel. I'm just going to share about these two people, you know, Sean and Chantell other characters in my book, and one time they are doing this pilot and what they're doing is that every step wherever there's a quality assurance testing, they're putting in a developers check where they're making sure that the AI is checking upon themselves and also humans are checking at certain levels and why human check is important.

14:26 So let's say if a decision comes in that is wrong, which AI may have hallucinated or skipped over a step, then a human being, let's say Sean had really good experience in the quality insurance testing. He knows he knows it in and out, and when something is wrong he can put a finger on it. He'll be able to identify it. And when he's able to identify it, guess what's going to happen. They are going to be able to fix it. Otherwise it can keep on looping and churning out wrang outcomes and wrong results. So going back to that process, what we did was they had put in a lot of checks and they ran the pilot for a quick twenty days, moved through a lot of failures, remove a lot of kings, but at the same time they reduced the human checks. So initially the human checks were let's sit ten at ten checkpoints. They kept it now at three pain points. But knowing that working with AI is iterative, you make it and then you find that where is it not doing it right? Where it can do better, just like any human beings. So think about it like you know, as a if you were a human resource professional or a human resource leader or a chief people officer, you are going to invest that training.

15:58 You are going to invest in those employees, in your succession planning, in your emerging leaders. You are going to allow them. You are going to give them the space to grow, to make mistakes. So same thing. Artificial intelligence is no different. So the key is like having those three elements because when you bring in ethics, when you bring in that governance, that Okay, how are we going to deploy how are we going to make sure that we keep our employees because their experience matters, the experience that sitting in people's heart and brain, the knowledge that's not on the web. So remember, yeah, it does not have access to everything. And when you are bringing in ethics, the risk to your employees, your top talent leaving your company, or your customers getting unhappy, or your brand getting stigmatized or your brand getting a bad name goes significantly low because you've tested it, you've tried it. The key thing to remember with artificial intelligence is that there will be at certain points, certain segments which you have tested, where you will trust it because there's still automation in the whole world. Yes, developers are doing the testing and all that, so it's no different than artificial intelligence doing it. So

17:29 when you apply the same principles what had gone in before, you will find that interacting with artificial intelligence will be successful. And that's you know, this is just one framework I'm talking about here. I've captured so many frameworks in the book and it addresses each and every area of artificial intelligence adoption to integration to scaling it at success. So another thing I'm want to talk about is thinking in loops not lines. So so many times what happens is most leaders are still thinking in projects. They may be thinking, oh, we want to, like you know, work on this initiative, we want to work on this pain point. No else, they stop right there. The key thing is to know that AI requires systems. The old thinking was okay, let's go it and start, we execute and when we end no, no no. So when I talk about in loops, the key thing is to remember you have to learn how it is learning. Because yes, a I can read, you have to understand it's reasoning. And one of the tricks to do it is if you're using thinking, let's say STRATEGPT thinking, just don't give it the work and walk away or go onto the next tab. Look at it.

19:00 How is it thinking? How is it talking to itself? Super important for you to understand how you learn about AI and how AI learns about you, and then you adapt. It adapts to your instructions, You adapt to how it is learning, and then once you adapted, it's important to improve upon it. This is a cyclical and repetitive process. It is an inerative process. And then you repeat, and as you repeat, see how it performs. You learn again from it, and then you keep on coming back. So let's also touch upon the culture a little bit. What is it that will make or break AI? Because those days are gone where you can think that, hey AI, I'll bury my head in the sand and amy go away.

19:53 It's not going to happen. We know for a fact where because of AI, thousands of people have been laid off. But that said, you can career proof, future proof your career because this type of thinking is absent. And with AI, critical thinking and building those skill sets, building the reflexive AI and metacognition are so much more important, more important than ever. And now let's say if you're launching there's going to be fear of AI, which is valid not only in the terms of jobs going, but not only that it could make mistakes what if it does. So there can be fear at different levels. But think about it.

20:46 When we used to talk about Internet that all Internet is coming here is going to take away jobs. It opened up so many more. So similarly over here, it's important to acknowledge the fear. It's important to address the fear and at the same time see what is possible, what. Could be done, what other areas could open up, How could we help people grow, How could we help them build their thinking so that as an organization you have the competitive edge with the experience of your top talent and. Rise in the industry. So a lot of people Another thing I want to touch upon during the culture building the culture, which is when we talk about a lot of companies are saying we want to be a first, we want to be a native. So we've talked about fear, some will be resistance. So bringing an AI in such a way that it helps people make their lives easier.

21:49 So I'm just going to share with you. I was working with a team where they used to have to write reports like constantly and they were tired and they were resistant, like, okay, what is AI going to do? And we built a simple workflow for them, nothing fancy, not automation, nothing like that, but a workflow of maybe like three hundred four hundred lines which would take complex material and spit out that report which they didn't like. So this was a marketing team. They had to provide updates or we changed this feature. We tried this new thing.

22:33 And not only that, what happened was when the air was brought in, the resistance melted. Why did the resistance melt because it was brought in in a way that freed them to do things that they like. And a lot of times people will be silent because they're afraid that oh v that you know companies going air native and I don't want to say anything again, but it's important to hear the voice, their feedback, like how AI could be brought in, because remember, your company is going to be different from any other company, Your culture, your ecosystem is completely different. So yes, AI can be general, but the key is to customize its adaptation to your needs, to your pain points. And when you do that, then human beings are at the intersection of business and technology, which is AI. The results and outcomes are beautiful. So remember that a lot of times people are already coming and using AI, just not where you can see it.

23:51 So create some AI labs in your company where you're aligning them for safe experimentation, giving them the ownership that hey, you know, these are the areas where you can do where it may not be talking to the other systems in the company, where it is safe for them to launch and they try and then they fail. So having those AL labs can be so so important. And one last thing that I want to share before we wrap it up is the one metric rule, because remember, if you don't have measurement, you cannot define the progress. So depending on your company, depending on if you're an entrepreneur or leader yourself, what is that one metric that defines the success for adoption? Is a revenue? Do you want to save? You know, revenue in the sense like a lot of people, a lot of entrepreneurs, I'll share that what happens is that they're spending a ton of time doing manual work. And if you automate, I have or made it almost sixty percent of my business. So if I'm saving that time. Like you know, let's say if I was spending fifteen hours a week on generating invoices fifteen and part of that invoices, like you know, creating the plan for the week, creating a follow up emails, what follow ups need to be done? Where the priorities?

25:24 You know, which project is running, which project is not. So that was the time taken away that I could be spending with my clients. So for me, that was time saved and revenue because if it frees up my time to go spend time with clients, that those are the buildable hours. So it's important for you to think through where is that measurement that's giving you the definition of your success? Is it cost reduction? Is it customer experience? Because remember, if you cannot measure sure the success, don't build the AI, don't do it super super important. So these are just few of the topics that I have talked to you about today. And if you are looking to have AI in your life verey it enhances your life, where it future proves your career, where it helps your organization gain that competitive edge, then this book is for you.

26:26 The AI Agency is available on Amazon Bands and Nobles and all the places where books can be found. Because remember, it is not about replacing people. It is about how you can elevate your thinking, your decisions, and how you lead. Remember you've got to be intentional as to how do you use AI and you can actually find out where you are in this AI journey if you get the book and take the quiz. So reach out to me.

27:15 Once you've bought the book, I'll appreciate if you can leave me a review and where you're at, and I'd be happy to sit down with you and guide you where you could bring it in successfully without losing your human touch, without losing the moral grounds, without losing our heart. So that's it for today and my wonderful audience. I thank you so much for being part of our show because without you, the show would not be possible. Reach out let us know how can we serve and support you, And also thank you on for always being there and taken thin with me. So I so appreciate you on well, be well and take on till next time.

28:09 Thank you for being part of Beyond Confidence. With your host d W. Park, we hope you have learned more about how to start living the life you want. Each week on Beyond Confidence, you hear stories of real people who've experienced growth by overcoming their fears and building meaningful relationships. During Beyond Confidence, Vapark shares what happened to her when she stepped out of her comfort zone to work directly with people across the globe. She not only coaches people how to form hard connections, but also transform relationships to mutually beneficial partnerships as they strive to live the life they want. If you are ready to live the life you want and leverage your strengths, learn more at www dot dvpark dot com and you can connect with vat contact at dvpark dot com. We look forward to you're joining us next week.