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AI is not a technology problem

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it fundamentally is a leadership problem.

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Some conversations around AI are loud

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this episode features Jon Hilton

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who is super grounded on the topic.

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Jon leads the AI practice at LBMC

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and spends his time helping organizations

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turn ambition into execution.

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He's a data scientist a former EY and Exxonmobil leader

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and a West Point graduate.

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Who served two combat tours and earned the Bronze Star.

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What I appreciate about Jon

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is how he brings structure to the chaos.

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He spent time talking about two things with me

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that really matter number 1

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why most AI efforts fail and 2

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what it actually takes to build AI

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that scales responsibly inside complex organizations.

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This is a conversation for leaders who want progress

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not hype so let's dive right in.

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We've been talking a lot about AI leadership

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really the thesis is right now

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AI is not a technology problem

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it fundamentally is a leadership problem.

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And some some recent

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statistics are really starting to back that up,

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a recent survey found that you know

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75% of C suite executives said their AI

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adoption has been going well over the past 12 months

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or been successful.

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And 45% of their people say the same thing

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and then 89 or 80 some plot plus percent of

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C suite executives are saying they have a clear AI

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strategy, and 57% of their people say the same thing.

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So something's wrong here

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and we are not going to get

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companies and organizations

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are not gonna get where they wanna go on AI

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if they don't start figuring this out and it's really

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really a misalignment.

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So that's that's a big leadership you know problem

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just trying to talk about how do you really solve that.

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I love that and this is a leading question

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but I'm gonna do it on purpose

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what are some

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maybe unique life experiences that you've had

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that you can bring to the table

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analogies that you can use?

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Yeah that's and that's part of it

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 and I know you gentlemen know me

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and some of my background.

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But you know I'm

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I'm a West Point graduate did two combat tours in Iraq,

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and then you know

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got out and got into corporate leadership. And 

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 a lot of what I've started to see is

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there's a lot of analogies of where we are

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as a society and an organization with AI,

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as you find yourself in a combat situation

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and it's not to be macabre or dark

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it's just what are the key things that you face

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when you're about to go on a mission.

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Or you're in those kind of environments

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you you face a lot of fear

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uncertainty and chaos at any time,

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something that's well planned

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could go completely sideways.

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You have an unknown of what's out there at all times

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and and you have to be the one to start

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to dictate the situation,

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requires a lot of planning and preparation and

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and being a leader is

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is one of the fundamental aspects.

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And so that's part of what I've started to say is hey

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there's some things here I've learned and

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you know

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that's the nature of even being in corporations

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of what you're gonna face as you

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you take on any initiative.

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And so it's really starting to think about

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how do I use my leadership principles here

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if we know it's a leadership issue

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not a technology issue you know

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what are some of the things that we can really apply

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to help move our organizations forward

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with AI in a meaningful way.

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In general 

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tell us something you're working on right now to

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to make that impact

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what are you being intentional about when it comes to

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 leveraging veterans to solve some of these problems?

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Yeah that's a great question,

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that's what we're really you know

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here trying to start up again as 

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the Greater Nashville Tech Council's

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peer group for veterans. Had a great showing there

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 in the pre covid era

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you know like many things

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covid tend to to sap some energy

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and so we're trying to launch

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relaunch that and

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 really start first and foremost with

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can we build a community for veterans

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as technology professionals.

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Well you've

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you've got a target rich environment here

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as they say in the military right

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we've got a Clarksville just up the street.

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A lot of the focus of educating leaders in a combat

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or a military environment relies on technology

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and I think maybe the competitive

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relative effectiveness of any armed force

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is going to be tied to its technology

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and its use,

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use and deployment in service of the mission.

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So you know how

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how does military technology in the Greater Nashville

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region

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how has Nashville done in the producing

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and creating and graduating of

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of technologies that wound up having a military use,

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either first or ultimately

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in your experience in this ecosystem?

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That's a great question.

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You know first

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I'll just kind of lay my I don't

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I'm not as

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involved in the military technology development.

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 Maybe I can speak to the development of the veterans

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you know with

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like I said with

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with Clarksville being such a large

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you know 101st Airborne being there

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and then others that are coming from

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from other bases around. You know

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I think it teaches you a lot about

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you know

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how to handle problems and understand and learn

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seek to learn right

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and become much better at that.

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And so I'll probably have to punt on the

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where are we what is being developed in Nashville

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for military technology to be fair

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some of it probably 

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is quite secret.

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 But

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you know obviously there's a lot of things that are

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that are you know

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the AI adoption in the battlefield

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is very important to the future of

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of warfare

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but that's not you know

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obviously not my my area of expertise.

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But I do think there is a lot that

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you know veterans bring to organizations

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in terms of their ability to adapt and overcome

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and to learn new skills and to be leaders in

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in a place where again

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you know this is really about leadership right now

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of how do I take this technology and

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and move it forward.

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You know one observation on that point is

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you know we're

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you know I talk in my role as a consultant 

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to a lot of you know

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C suite executives and and even CIOs, and

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 what we're finding is

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that they're getting overwhelmed with these demos. Cause

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you know

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everybody and their brother has an AI technology now

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I mean it's

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it's unbelievable like you

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you know pick up a rock and it's like

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oh we got this new AI tool. And so you

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the 

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if it is a leadership issue and not a technology issue

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there's plenty if I just went out right now and said

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I just need a I want to see AI technology

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I mean you'd

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you'd be flooded with thousands of emails and calls.

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Just to say hey look

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I got I got the next best

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you know tool that's gonna help you.

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But really

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that's not the problem you're trying to solve

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you know the analogy I make is

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you know would you

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you know just randomly go to Home Depot and say

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there's something in my house I need to solve

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but I heard there's really good tools out there

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you know

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let me just walk around and look at all the possible

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tools. That's a problem for me when I go to Home Depot.

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Fair enough, maybe some people are like that

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like I just need to go see what I need to do next.

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But you know you started about where you're like hey

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there's a real problem in my house

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I need to go fix it let's go find the tools next.

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And so that's really we're trying to help

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give the confidence to CIOs

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give the confidence to IT directors to say

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you don't have to just rush out there

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and look at all these shiny tools

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maybe let's take a step back

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and let's

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formulate some strategy and vision around this.

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And develop use cases that connect to problems

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and then that's what we're actually

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we're gonna go ahead and say okay,

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now it's time to open the door a little bit

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and see what tools can meet that problem.

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Maybe you build it maybe you buy it

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but at least that's a better strategy than

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than probably just sitting here taking calls all day.

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Cause they are they're getting overwhelmed

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they ask any CIO like how many of you you know

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how many AI tools come through your door

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I mean they're just like it's in some I've just stopped,

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I just I I can't anymore because it's too overwhelming.

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Sure.

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What what about AI as an attack surface? Or a I mean

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I hate to go back to the military thing,

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but that is one of the you've got good AI bad AI

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I've talked to a lot of people about cybersecurity.

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 You know

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the more you experiment with it

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the more flexible and dynamic your attack surfaces are

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as well, so. That's right, yeah,

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I mean from a cyber security standpoint

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I know they're they're struggling with that you know

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 there's not the 

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you know the Nigerian prince isn't writing you in

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in half-English anymore and dear sir.

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I mean it's gonna sound legitimate to you I mean

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 it's the scams are just going up and up and up.

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You know we 

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you know go post a job on LinkedIn right now

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related to some technology

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and watch how many applicants you get,

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They're not real applicants.

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Maybe they are,

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but they're there's something that is amiss

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right, is because they're just there's

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you know you have automated applications,

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you have automated email generation,

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you have agents that can call you

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and sound like they're your next door neighbor.

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And so the attack services are

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you're right it's it's quite

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prevalent and that's something.

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You know you're gonna have to really address,

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and really step back and start thinking about.

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You know on on the topic of of attack though

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that is one of the premises that I 

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I think is important you know

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maybe not on the cyber security side

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but I say on on the technology side.

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Which is right now is a time for

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for leaders to have courage in

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in the space of AI

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so if you do have a vision and a strategy

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and you've developed that clarity,

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 now it's time to have the courage.

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You know Patton essentially said

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"In absence of orders attack!" right?

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And that's been a theme

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of great leadership through history,

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is to attack a problem.

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Not with haste

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and there is a difference, and I could go into that,

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but doesn't mean you just hastily run off. But 

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I think now is a time for

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technology leaders to have the courage to move forward

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with attacking this problem of AI

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in terms of whether it's in cybersecurity

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or whether it's adoption

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and implementation in your company.

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It is the time to act

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and so if you're in times of

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kind of going back to the combat analysis analogy.

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You know if you're in a place of fear and chaos and

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and uncertainty

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the natural human reaction is to just have paralysis,

284
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or to make very small gestures towards a

285
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a goal or an accomplishment.

286
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But not really be moving forward

287
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and so that courage to attack is to say

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we gotta move forward

289
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we're gonna dictate our future

290
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a little bit and so that's been you know.

291
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I like how you brought up the attack element.

292
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I know you went cyber security

293
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but I do think I'm also telling people no.

294
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I think you'd be on the attack too

295
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I think it's relevant yeah.

296
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Very relevant. If you're gonna have a strategy

297
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you gotta have an underlying attitude. Right.

298
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And that and that's what a lot

299
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a lot has missed because paralysis and fear

300
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are what's gonna always keep you as a leader

301
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from doing what you need to do. And

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and what I'm telling people is it

303
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that again that's not haste,

304
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you know I had a battalion commander in Iraq who said

305
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"don't rush to failure".

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I kept that in my mind because you can

307
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you can rush to failure just as fast.

308
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But it is a matter of using all of your professional

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experience and planning

310
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and your leadership to say okay

311
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we're gonna still do something

312
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we're gonna move forward

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we're not we're not rushing

314
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and we're gonna do it deliberately

315
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against our use cases and our vision.

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Because

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that's what's going to move your people forward.

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I and I think

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the last point is really

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about a commitment to your people

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because your people are really scared right now.

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And so you're really gonna have to rally,

323
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you know if there's this big a disconnect

324
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so if you've set a vision

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you've

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you're starting to attack the problem with courage.

327
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And say hey

328
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we're gonna we're gonna go after these use cases

329
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you gotta get your people behind it. Because

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you know there is a

331
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there is a Luddite dilemma that

332
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that's kind of sitting out there right now.

333
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There are some surveys

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that are saying that there is a portion of your people

335
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that may be actively working against you in AI in

336
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in in sabotaging your efforts.

337
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You know how real that is

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I don't know but I

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I do think there is a sentiment of

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you know you're gonna have to

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bring people along.

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And then you're also gonna have to as a leader

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make some choices

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because if people don't wanna follow you along

345
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those are gonna become some dilemmas

346
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that leaders are gonna have to kind of

347
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face here as they go.

348
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And so really kind of put

349
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putting that all together is

350
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you know being on the attack

351
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but also

352
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who in your organization is getting behind you?

353
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How do you bring them along,

354
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and then what are you gonna do when some say

355
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I'm just not going to go along.

356
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You have a challenge.

357
00:12:33,066 --> 00:12:35,933
I know you've got a luncheon that you're going to

358
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for the the veterans peer group. Yeah.

359
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But for the last question

360
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I'd like to actually bring

361
00:12:41,033 --> 00:12:43,066
bring you back to that veterans peer group.

362
00:12:43,066 --> 00:12:44,833
And you've talked a lot about the

363
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sort of training and the

364
00:12:46,766 --> 00:12:50,333
the analogies that we've used here to explain this

365
00:12:50,333 --> 00:12:51,733
this crazy world of AI

366
00:12:51,733 --> 00:12:55,566
coming at us. And how really well prepared 

367
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veterans are to address some of these problems.

368
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But whenever a peer group gets formed

369
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there's always other problems that

370
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that are getting solved within that group.

371
00:13:05,300 --> 00:13:08,800
So for leaders that are looking to leverage veterans

372
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what are some of the things they need to be aware of

373
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that are challenges of veterans that are coming out of

374
00:13:15,566 --> 00:13:17,700
 the military and into the workforce?

375
00:13:17,700 --> 00:13:20,566
What are what are the three things that that are

376
00:13:20,866 --> 00:13:22,933
these are challenges that we're dealing with as

377
00:13:22,933 --> 00:13:24,033
as veterans. Yeah

378
00:13:24,033 --> 00:13:25,100
I think first and foremost

379
00:13:25,100 --> 00:13:28,133
is an understanding of what a corporate 

380
00:13:28,133 --> 00:13:29,700
leader or corporations looking for

381
00:13:29,700 --> 00:13:31,233
when you're recruiting a veteran.

382
00:13:31,233 --> 00:13:33,366
Because you're trying to translate what you knew

383
00:13:33,366 --> 00:13:35,966
and all of these acronyms and all of these things that

384
00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:37,033
 a lot of

385
00:13:37,033 --> 00:13:39,166
you know civilian leaders don't understand. And

386
00:13:39,166 --> 00:13:40,666
and in your mind you think you

387
00:13:40,666 --> 00:13:41,133
you know it's

388
00:13:41,133 --> 00:13:42,333
it's like I did a lot here

389
00:13:42,333 --> 00:13:43,166
you know there was very

390
00:13:43,166 --> 00:13:44,533
very a lot of responsibilities.

391
00:13:44,566 --> 00:13:46,366
So being able to translate that one

392
00:13:46,366 --> 00:13:46,533
I know

393
00:13:46,533 --> 00:13:48,433
there's a lot of organizations that can help that.

394
00:13:48,433 --> 00:13:50,166
Number 2 is a network you know

395
00:13:50,166 --> 00:13:53,066
people lose track of how valuable their network is

396
00:13:53,066 --> 00:13:55,833
as a young professional just being in a company, being.

397
00:13:55,866 --> 00:13:56,766
You know if you're a young person

398
00:13:56,766 --> 00:13:57,966
you're involved in some of the data

399
00:13:57,966 --> 00:13:59,300
meetups here in Nashville

400
00:13:59,300 --> 00:14:01,433
or in part of NTC and other places

401
00:14:01,466 --> 00:14:02,900
you're building an advantage over time

402
00:14:02,900 --> 00:14:04,566
just because you know people.

403
00:14:04,966 --> 00:14:06,033
You know as a veteran you

404
00:14:06,033 --> 00:14:06,733
you don't have that

405
00:14:06,733 --> 00:14:08,433
you've been moved around the country

406
00:14:08,433 --> 00:14:09,366
the world

407
00:14:09,500 --> 00:14:13,100
been potentially in combat zones and your network is

408
00:14:13,100 --> 00:14:14,266
is is strong, you

409
00:14:14,266 --> 00:14:16,433
you know your brothers and sisters and

410
00:14:16,433 --> 00:14:19,333
and in arms but you may not have known

411
00:14:19,333 --> 00:14:22,066
you don't know these others that that can help you.

412
00:14:22,066 --> 00:14:23,366
And it's a you know

413
00:14:23,366 --> 00:14:24,500
I know Johnny

414
00:14:24,500 --> 00:14:27,166
Johnny knows so and so and if I go to Johnny

415
00:14:27,166 --> 00:14:29,500
he might connect me. So that's part of it is the

416
00:14:29,500 --> 00:14:31,733
the second one being the network and

417
00:14:31,733 --> 00:14:33,766
and third is some of the technical skills is

418
00:14:33,766 --> 00:14:37,666
 knowing how to start just not the bridging the gap.

419
00:14:37,666 --> 00:14:42,633
You may not have done hands on Power BI dev

420
00:14:42,866 --> 00:14:44,966
Databricks or Snowflake.

421
00:14:44,966 --> 00:14:46,333
But these are needed skills

422
00:14:46,333 --> 00:14:48,933
and so how do I just say I know how to code

423
00:14:48,933 --> 00:14:50,733
or I know how to do something technical

424
00:14:50,733 --> 00:14:52,166
maybe I need to go get some certification.

425
00:14:52,166 --> 00:14:53,533
So what are those things that

426
00:14:53,533 --> 00:14:54,866
that companies would be looking for.

427
00:14:54,866 --> 00:14:56,733
And so I would say from my point of view

428
00:14:56,733 --> 00:14:59,866
and that's not exhaustive in any means

429
00:14:59,966 --> 00:15:00,700
that's some of the things

430
00:15:00,700 --> 00:15:02,633
I would encourage a veteran to think everyone.

431
00:15:02,633 --> 00:15:03,933
So that's what we're trying to do is bring

432
00:15:03,933 --> 00:15:05,700
bring us all together so others can say hey

433
00:15:05,700 --> 00:15:07,666
by the way build the network.

434
00:15:07,766 --> 00:15:09,733
These are the things people are looking for and

435
00:15:09,733 --> 00:15:12,433
and really help get them in awareness of some of that

436
00:15:12,433 --> 00:15:14,333
from a decision maker as well. Man

437
00:15:14,333 --> 00:15:16,166
you're talking about leadership commitment,

438
00:15:16,166 --> 00:15:16,966
yeah 

439
00:15:17,366 --> 00:15:19,966
community commitment 

440
00:15:19,966 --> 00:15:20,833
and you're bringing

441
00:15:20,833 --> 00:15:23,333
the type of personality to the table

442
00:15:23,333 --> 00:15:24,933
that understands commitment.

443
00:15:24,933 --> 00:15:25,633
Yeah thank you.

444
00:15:25,633 --> 00:15:26,100
Yeah that's right.

445
00:15:26,100 --> 00:15:27,233
Well thanks for the leadership.

446
00:15:27,233 --> 00:15:29,733
I'm ready to charge hell with a water pistol with you.

447
00:15:29,733 --> 00:15:30,733
Yeah well yeah.

448
00:15:30,733 --> 00:15:31,566
Let's go. Well

449
00:15:31,566 --> 00:15:33,233
appreciate you gentlemen appreciate you 

450
00:15:33,233 --> 00:15:35,266
you know taking time to sit down with me today

451
00:15:35,266 --> 00:15:37,033
and I really appreciate your support.

452
00:15:37,033 --> 00:15:38,433
I know both of you are supportive of

453
00:15:38,433 --> 00:15:39,833
of these veteran groups as well.

454
00:15:39,833 --> 00:15:41,533
So appreciate that and yeah

455
00:15:41,533 --> 00:15:43,133
look forward to to talking more.

456
00:15:43,133 --> 00:15:44,233
And thank you for your service.

457
00:15:44,233 --> 00:15:45,100
Thank you for your service

458
00:15:45,100 --> 00:15:47,600
It's an honor to serve is what I say so thanks