Ghost in the Machine

Why do AI projects fail before they create value?

Andrew DeGood and Liz Short trace the problem past the model and into the organization. Leaders buy broad promises, ask busy employees to carry implementation, and make technology decisions without the people who understand the work. That can mean chasing automated underwriting while processors still move files between systems and repeat basic clicks all day.

The conversation turns when Andrew asks what a CEO is actually responsible for during an AI transition. The answer is culture. Executives should understand the technology, but their first job is to communicate clearly, involve frontline experts, and give employees a reason to trust the change.

The practical strategy is smaller and more human. Pick one painful workflow. Bring the best person doing that work into the room. Solve the problem, prove the value, and build from there. AI adoption works when leadership starts with people.

What is Ghost in the Machine?

The AI conversation, without the noise.

Every week, Andrew DeGood and Liz Short sit down for a thirty-minute conversation about artificial intelligence. Andrew comes in as the optimist, a founder building AI products and betting his career on where this technology is headed. Liz brings the harder questions, the ones about what we lose, what we risk, and what we owe the people who didn't sign up for any of this.

They bring in the people actually shaping the field. Researchers, founders, ethicists, skeptics, builders. Real conversations about real implications. No hype cycles. No doom loops. Just two smart people and a guest trying to figure out what this moment actually means.

New episodes stream live every Thursday. Available on every podcast platform after.