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Exploring how humans connect and get stuff done together, with Dan Hammond and Pia Lee from Squadify.
We need groups of humans to help navigate the world of opportunities and challenges, but we don't always work together effectively. This podcast tackles questions such as "What makes a rockstar team?" "How can we work from anywhere?" "What part does connection play in today's world?"
You'll also hear the thoughts and views of those who are running and leading teams across the world.
[00:00:00] Dan: This episode is about ai. That phrase may evoke emotions of interest, boredom, or potentially trepidation. Many of our listeners will be working out how to lead this transformation in their organization and teams, but may feel hampered by lack of technical knowledge or the bewildering possibilities of where this might all be heading.
[00:00:21] Dan: This can leave us all stuck and left behind. Our guest on this episode is Steve Hunt, who has a way through. Steve is a not-for-profit founder, a technologist, AI advocate, a musician, and he knows the technology, but he also knows that this transformation is actually about humans. Maybe it's about how humans can even better connect to get stuff done together.
[00:00:50] Dan: Hello and welcome back to We Not Me, the podcast where we explore how humans connect to get stuff done together. I'm Dan Hammond.
[00:00:57] Pia: And I am Pia Lee.
[00:00:59] Dan: And, uh, you know, think, thinking about that, um, little phrase that we always start with exploring how humans connect to get stuff done together. I think that's probably in people's minds that I think some people are actually thinking that is coming to an end. You know, that AI is coming in and we're not gonna work together anymore. but this episode is all about the opposite. It's about, how. The AI transformation is a human transformation, isn't it? And we are in the middle of this right now, aren't we? Pier, because we've been doing some exciting
[00:01:26] Pia: we have, we have, we have launched, an agentic ai and if you dunno what that is, we'll just leave it there or just sound very clever and that's all that we've done. But if you are interested, it is a little bot that has a communication channel with each person anonymously and individually and uses a rich sea of information, which we have created an ocean of information, of knowledge, data, insights, our interviews from this podcast to actually create pretty unique knowledge base that can support any team anywhere, so you can ask the SquadBot questions about your team and about the way that you're operating to help you.: And it'll provide templates. It'll provide little workshops where, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't make dinner or wash the clothes so that.
[00:02:24] Dan: But the, the roadmap is young Pia, the roadmap young. But I think that, and the, I think the key thing that we've discovered, which is really interesting, I mean, even when we'd started talking to about AI to our coach community, it was sort of, hold on a second. What about us? Slightly? But what we found is that.
[00:02:42] Dan: It genuinely is augmenting coaches. I mean, I don't want to blow smoke, but you are an excellent coach Pier. I'll, I'll we take that outta the edit. Um, but um, but still you are using this to enhance your coaching sessions and to help you to prepare for it. I think it's so, I think it's, it's just getting the heart of this matter, which is that the human still really important and AI can augment us.
[00:03:06] Dan: And, um, and I think that's, that's a really exciting thing and should help us to move forward with, with excitement. I think the other thing that's happening, of course, and even coming into 2026, as we are, there is a need for. For an AI transformation in organizations, but people are still catatonic.
[00:03:25] Dan: A lot of companies are just stuck. They don't know what to do. some people are doing it individually, but there's, but I think there's a real, um, sticking point. And our guest today, um, Steve Hunt is an old friend, a friend of the show, and he's going to. Really expound his belief that this AI transformation is a human transformation and he really knows his onions.
[00:03:45] Dan: So, uh, why don't we get over and hear from Steve now and, uh, and yeah, this is a heartwarming conversation as always.
[00:03:56] Pia: And so wonderful to have you back on the show, Steve, and we're really excited to have this conversation, very appropriate for the start of 2026 when all things might change.
[00:04:08] Steve: Hell yeah.
[00:04:11] Pia: It's not doom and gloom, everyone, it's gonna be an interesting one, but I think it's the question of humanity in a, in an, in an AI world. So yeah, really looking forward to that. Dan 2026.
[00:04:25] Dan: 2026 and we, this is great. I was hoping for a red card for our friend Steve, actually. And we have one here. So, you know, we always start with the conversation starter cards, and they're different grades. which we interestingly, by the way, learned from a team who we lent. We used the cards with them.
[00:04:39] Dan: They didn't want difficult questions, so we graded them. the red one we have is, my biggest bias is what's your biggest bias?
[00:04:47] Steve: I actually would say, um, it's taken me a long time to address it, so I'm gonna be really honest. But age, uh, ironic talking to you guys 'cause you're older than me, but, um,
[00:04:59] Pia: You're old fart.
[00:05:00] Dan: just old. Yeah,
[00:05:02] Pia: yeah, but we're not, we're not bothered by that. Are we,
[00:05:05] Dan: no, it's fine. It's fine. Just carry on, carry on. See whatever. Go on.
[00:05:08] Steve: well, well. I started my, um, I started my career in, uh, fast growing, I guess tech businesses. And my first real boss that, um, that really sort of taught me how to lead was 30 at the time. And I was probably 27, maybe 26. And then I ended up leading my first company when I was, I was probably 29 or 30 and I wasn't allowed to hire, uh, people that cost money.
[00:05:40] Steve: So I hired grads. They were all 22 and 23, so I used to go to work with the, the kids and that were awesome, like sew up for it. And we had a great time and we, we did really well. We did great things. And then when I got moved to the US and I was in, um, it was particularly Los Angeles, I was there for a little bit and I had some, people who were much older and they had lives, you know, and I was just so used to sacrificing everything for, for the, the mission of the company. And so I was like, what are these people doing? They're not working very hard. And I kind of got this bias. Um, and I carried it back with me for a little while and um, and then got over it as I actually got into a proper corporate role, realized that actually. I'm one of these people too, and I want have a life and I can still deliver and do a, so yeah, suppose that's me being really honest. I'm ashamed to say, but it was, it was agist.
[00:06:39] Pia: Well, it, I think that's quite, I, I, I have this really interesting thing where, when I go into Sydney and I walk around, I for the first time, I really think, gosh, people are actually quite a lot younger than me. Like the median age is much younger than me, and I've never noticed that before. I think I've always just been either blissfully unaware or in denial or whatever it is, but
[00:07:02] Dan: Well, yeah. Oh,
[00:07:04] Pia: I still feel about 30 actually
[00:07:06] Dan: Well, I, I feel, I think, I think we stick ourselves at about 27. I think we stay, I, I tell you, the terrible thing happened to, to us. We were, we were in Leeds, at the weekend with some friends and we went, we were turning down an alley and there was lots of, there was a sort of group of about six lads, they're sort of drinking on the street and sort of, and I was sort of being, you know, my usual bon on me, all right lads, how you doing?
[00:07:27] Dan: You and, and one of them. And, and, um, and I said, and one of them said, you right granddad, can you believe that? So I tell you what, the, the bubble was burst, uh, immediately. So yeah, I think he had this, that same bias, I would say. Very rude. Indeed.
[00:07:42] Steve: Happens to us all
[00:07:44] Steve: age.
[00:07:45] Dan: How dare he? How dare he? Yeah. But it's, it is interesting. And as, as you move, it's, it's one of these things, isn't it? As you move through, you sort of get, you say, okay, now I'm, now I'm that person. Um, so Steve, you, you've given us a little bit of retro and I, and, um, you've, you've been on the show before.
[00:07:59] Dan: Give us a quick buy in the box of Steve, you touched on some of your journey there. Let us know where you're at and where, what you're up to.
[00:08:06] Steve: Well, funnily enough, in, in this age, day and age, I've reframed my, my retro a little bit. It's not untrue, but I've, um, I've re-categorized that. Well, I, I realized, put it this way, when I, um, I stepped out of my last CEO role, which was running a, a, an industry's charity called Unlimited and. I started to think about what I wanted to do next.
[00:08:29] Steve: I was in no rush to go back into a full-time job, and I thought, oh, maybe I'll just get back into consulting or, you know, do something. And, and I decided to set up a, uh, an online school just because I thought, oh, that'd be cool. You know, something that can tick over and make some passive income, and I've got my next job.
[00:08:49] Steve: Um, and then I was like, well, what would the, what would the school teach? And I decided to focus on ai. And then of course I had to think about, well, why would anyone wanna listen to me and hear about how they should use ai? There's so many people out there who are far more, credible.
[00:09:07] Steve: So as I looked back though, to the, to your point, I, I was able to thread right back to 2011 a career which has been working with or building or selling AI technology. And so. My bio in a box today is a serial entrepreneur. Started off my first company, was a not-for-profit when I was 24, and then I went into the media and marketing industry and had a good career at News Corporation and then into a startup with a 30-year-old boss. Um, but after that. I went into my first role when I was the 30-year-old boss with those young kids, and we were actually commercializing a technology which used machine learning and neural networks to target ads.
[00:09:53] Steve: And, and I was fascinated by talking to the engineers in that company about that technology, and they were sort of, we didn't really bother calling it ai, but that's I guess, what it is known as today, the early phases of it, right? And so that's where I begin my AI journey really. And we got that business public on Nasdaq before it was sold to Adobe. Uh, and then I went into help Universal Music Group with their digital transformation. And again, we were applying those techniques to massive data lakes of information coming out of spotlight music and so on.
[00:10:29] Steve: Uh, and when I left there, I started a proper AI company, uh, which was called Music Health. And we digitized music therapy, but we built a large language model as well as a large listening model. And what happened there was I was, um, CEO at the time. Uh, now what we all call AI was for the first time at your fingertips, but we were sort of building it in our startup.
[00:10:59] Steve: And we quickly became, at least from a technical perspective, well first empowered and then obsolete. It's like, why would, why would you need your own? Large language model, you can just rent these now. Um, but ha, we had a large listening model. Haven't seen that out yet.
[00:11:17] Steve: But yeah, sadly that business, uh, ran out of Puff and I had to leave. And then I, um, yeah, I took up the role with Unlimited, helping them through a transformative phase as CEO and um, and then started the Square Wave, which is what I'm doing right now. And as I said, this was. Started off as just a bit of a hobby project in between roles to, um, really get my head around AI properly and to reframe my reputation and everything, um, for what I, I believe is just the biggest opportunity we'll see in our lifetime as a career, but also as transformative and disruptive technology we'll see.
[00:11:54] Steve: So I always look at those words as opportunity, but it's, um, but make no mistake, it's, it's, it's pretty scary, right? For all of us, I think we, it's a very unknown future. But, um, but I reso I resolved, resolved I guess at that time too, that all I can do is be optimistic about it and, and make sure that I work really hard to use this technology for the, the most I can.
[00:12:19] Dan: Well, it's, it, it sounds like you've, uh, you've, you've done the Steve Jobs thing of letting, of having the dots make sense in reverse, you know, he always, he said, didn't he, it didn't, doesn't make sense except in reverse. So, well done. Well on you.
[00:12:31] Pia: So let, let's, let's start the conversation. So you talked about the opportunity of AI and how, and, and being excited about it. So we get a lot of sort of, you know, sometimes negative talk. But let's talk about what, so in your mind. What is this opportunity for our, for our generation and the next generation and next to come?
[00:12:53] Steve: It's hard to. Imagine where this will end up. And it, it's, it's easy to imagine the bad place. And as I said, I did wrestle with this before dedicating myself to it. Um, because on one hand I didn't want to be associated with something that we'd look back in hindsight and go, Ooh, that was.
[00:13:14] Steve: You know, you were part of that transformation. That was really bad. Um, and, and, and, you know, I was part of digital advertising, so you can, you, you, you could maybe, make me a tone for those sins as well, But that's why I do the charity work. Um, but anyway, but no, so, so ai, I suppose I'll, I'll just reframe the question by saying, first of all, it's really easy to imagine what could go wrong.
[00:13:36] Steve: You know, we could have, um, nuclear wars, they could take out the human race. We, they, it could erode our society and trust and all sorts of things. So that's really easy to imagine. But when I looked at all of those things. and considered them. I realized that almost all of it is completely outta my control.
[00:13:58] Steve: There's not much I could do to stop a bad actor using this for, for a bad purpose, but I also recognize that I couldn't stick my head in the sand because it is going to transform. Our lives completely. So therefore, the decision I had to wrestle with and resolve was to be eternally optimistic about the good it could do and to do whatever little part I can do to further that.
[00:14:25] Steve: So Pia, I guess if you want to get excited about where this could go, I think we're going to have an opportunity within our, our own lifetimes to live a much, not necessarily, um. Longer life for just the years, although I'm sure that we part of it, but a much more, um, fulfilling life where I'm already seeing my time freed up because of the way I can use the tools and I'm getting more time with my kids.
[00:14:57] Steve: I'm getting more time to exercise and focus on my health, and I'm able to analyze my health with someone who knows more than my doctor and is objective about that. A caution, just caveat it, like, don't put any personal information into these systems, um, unless you, you know, you feel
[00:15:18] Pia: Don't mind it being shared.
[00:15:20] Steve: Yeah.
[00:15:21] Steve: Um, but, but the potential is huge. I, I mean, I was just working on a healthcare startup, so I was, and I was working at end of Life and I can tell you it was mainly dementia. It was, um, it was tough, not just tough to operate in that environment, in a business environment, but also. Just the human toll. Um, so if you ever know anyone who works in aged care, particularly as a carer, you know, those people are heroes and deserve a big hug every time they leave work.
[00:15:53] Steve: Um, I, I was in their shoes for hours on, on end, maybe once or twice a week, and it was a lot to take home. So they do it every day. All every day. Um, that, that's exciting to me, is just making sure we live a better life. We get a more complete, I guess, um, bang for our buck out of our years. The other piece, um, is that knowledge is now on tap.
[00:16:21] Steve: So I think, and this is a big hypothesis, but I think it's gonna free us up to focus on creativity, which I love, and skills which are going to come forward as valuable are leadership, but it's going to be tested and things like sales, um, because that human element and even, um, recently I've been working with a law firm and, and you look at AI affecting law and you can on one hand say, oh, they're screwed. Like, you know, everything they do is text. AI can already write so well. It can, it can, it can do a lot of the job really well, but I can tell you there is no way in hell that our judicial system is going to accept, um, something that they know has come from a robot without a real lawyer, like at least signing it off.
[00:17:18] Steve: So the, it's so jobs are gonna augment and change. My biggest concern is really how do we train the next generation if all of the junior work is being done. That, that's a big concern. I don't have an answer for. But when, you know, grads can't be employed because it's cheaper to automate it with machines, then how does a grad ever become, or in the, in the law firm, you know, how do they ever get to be a partner, um, and get that experience?
[00:17:45] Steve: So that's a big concern. But, but I do think we end up in a place where we are able to. Address society's problems in a really effective, objective way. We're able to empower anybody to be an entrepreneur like that. to create a company. The barrier just came right down. Do it. You can code something up afternoon.
[00:18:07] Steve: So for my kids, I get excited about that, but, but it's going to be daunting. I think we'll end up in a world where entrepreneurship. The ability to engage other people, to be able to convince them of something and to sell it, and then to bring other people along for the ride. Those are the skills that will succeed.
[00:18:25] Steve: Um, and, and I think that's exciting. But as I said, not without its challenges and we will no doubt see plenty of those too, but what's in your control? And at the moment, I think for most of us, the main thing that's in your control is develop your AI literacy. Turn that into AI fluency and get yourself positioned to take advantage of all of this disruption. You've gotta turn disruption into an opportunity
[00:18:52] Dan: So let's dive into that, Steve. I, I know our listener will be, Well, I dunno, even I describe their mindset, but they, you know, the last few years have been very tough for them. These are the leaders of organizations, uh, leading teams and businesses. They are, they're already under a lot of pressure. And now. Which is an opportunity in as well. But also probably right now, AI is being seen as a sort of another job they've got to do. They've gotta figure out what this is gonna look like. and it is obviously their number one, not pre not just preoccupation, but their, their sort of responsibility.
[00:19:28] Dan: They're gonna have to do something with this. But, uh, but as we sit here, in the sort of very first part of 2026, uh, looking into it, then what, what, what's the, what's the sort of mindset they should adopt? How can they approach this with positivity? Um, and get start, start moving?
[00:19:46] Steve: Well, well, I think the first part to that is, don't panic. very easy to go, oh, no, I, I'm seeing it with some of my more established customers that there are AI first companies. So these, these are an entrepreneur who's begun a business, which is competing with them and, but they've started as an AI business and that that's a pretty scary prospect because you are trying to turn this big ship really slowly and authentically and do the right things. Meanwhile, you've got this nimble little one just like coming right up alongside you.
[00:20:30] Steve: So if that's happening, then that's quite daunting. But I think the main thing is. That there is a progression, and most companies are just at the beginning, so you're not really too late. And I think everybody who's been going ahead has been going ahead, uh, through murky waters.
[00:20:50] Steve: They've been having to test and learn, make mistakes, iterate, try again. And so you're seeing companies like a, a Canva, for example, um, or an atlassian. Salesforce, like these companies are very AI centric already at a large scale, but not without having made plenty of fumbles along the way. And some of them are very open about sharing those, but I think for most people, the advice would be to learn from those, those big companies that are paving the way.
[00:21:21] Steve: And my general advice is first and foremost, create a plan. The plan should be looked at every quarter and adjusted. So it's not a long-term plan because things are changing fast, but get a plan in place, communicate that to all of your team, and then your first port of call is to make sure that everybody from your board all the way down to whoever's on security and at the front desk have the same basic understanding of AI literacy. So I call it the foundations of AI literacy.
[00:21:59] Steve: And in my opinion, those are three skills and they're really easy to acquire. I've taught my parents who are retirees, I've taught my kids who are as young as nine. Um, they all were able to get handle on these three skills.
[00:22:29] Steve: That the first is researching. 'Cause it's amazing. It's a really fun skill. You can. If you haven't ever used it, try Notebook LM and just put in a website and create a podcast. It's a magical, magical experience that gets you a bit excited. And that's actually why I recommend that first, it just gives you that momentum to learn more.
[00:22:34] Steve: The second one is prompting. And prompting is, obviously everyone talks about it. It's, it's a little bit hard to learn how to do well. It's a little bit boring. So my cheat for prompting is go to something called Prompt Cowboy and give it your best and it will convert it into a good prompt. But in that process, you'll learn the difference between the crap that you just tried to ask and what a really well structured request is.
[00:23:01] Steve: And then the last one, which is a bit more advanced, is training. So you may not know, but Gemini or ChatGPT or Claude, these models are looking at all this massive amount of information they've been trained on. But if you want, you can take that model and apply it to just a very specific bit of information.
[00:23:24] Steve: And in ChatGPT, um, we call them custom GPS. If you're in Gemini, they're called gems and. And basically when you do that, you're able to create a specialist and you can create lots of them. And once you know these three skills, basically you put them together, you go and research a lot of knowledge that you want. You create a really clear set of instructions to train your custom GPT or your gem, and then you've got an expert in that particular thing at your beck and call.
[00:23:55] Steve: And the first one that I always teach people to build is their own AI tutor because then they've got someone they can ask to help build the rest of them. Um, but ideally you surround yourself with lots and lots of specialized gems or, or custom gpt. And that's, that's what I call AI literacy. It's the basic standard.
[00:24:16] Steve: And then when you learn how to use those things around you in a really fluid way, that's where, what I call AI fluency, and that's a skill that most people don't have yet. So I think last year I was trying to encourage people by speaking on LinkedIn to get that to that fluency level. Um, sorry, the, the literacy level. So next year, this year, 2026, it's all about fluency. Can you get to the point where you have augmented the way you work using these tools?
[00:24:46] Steve: And then I think you're in a pretty good place because you've got your whole company on this journey together. They're starting to explore things and share things with each other, and the whole business starts to move forward as one. If you don't do that, you've got people at home who are doing amazing things with these tools to augment their personal life and bringing those great skills they're learning into the business compared to others who are scared of it and got their head in the hand and don't want to touch it.
[00:25:13] Steve: And that's gonna fragment your business and you're gonna completely lose touch because at the end of the day, this is kinda like. Bringing a computer into an analog business for the first time in 1985. And if only you decided you wanted one and the rest of you went, nah, we're gonna stick to faxes and handwriting. At some point business is going to be in a mess.
[00:25:36] Steve: So these are skills and this is a technology that's not going away. And as a leader, it's the biggest test of your whole career. How do you manage your people from here to here and and manage to do it so that you keep cohesion, you keep everybody, you know, through?
[00:25:56] Steve: I love using Squadify with my clients. It's, it's the perfect compass because are we clear about that plan we set out? do we have the right climate? is everybody feeling safe in their roles? Most people feel like they're going to, like, if they play with AI too much, they're gonna lose their job.
[00:26:12] Steve: Um, and competence. Like, do they feel like they've got the right skills to be able to perform in their role, knowing that this technology is now being brought into? So you think about the three Cs, it's actually a perfect way to measure an AI transformation.
[00:26:28] Dan: That's a really pragmatic approach. I think that, that's so helpful. But, and where do people find, where, where are the blockers? Where do people stumble or hit, hit the, hit the buffers sometimes?
[00:26:40] Steve: The biggest problem I saw, when I first started working with customers, I was only offering the training. So I set out to create, um, what I said was the simplest path to AI literacy in the world. And it was an online course, but I was delivering it in person and, and I was really proud of it. It was very effective. Everybody who did it walked away going, okay, I get this now. And I'm, I feel empowered to move forward.
[00:27:06] Steve: But when I first was delivering this to clients, we would empower the team with the skills and then they'd go off and. Play with them, but there was no plan. So everybody was still like a little bit lost. And then again, we had this problem where some people are running off doing a project and other people aren't too sure what to do with it. And some people are still scared because they're worried they're gonna lose their job if they start using the skills.
[00:27:32] Steve: So I think the, the biggest learning, which, which I realized almost immediately probably by client two, was don't have first, then bringing this in might create more, more problems. So, so we always start with the clarity and work with, um, I actually tended to find that it was important for me to work with the ELT, the leadership team, and sometimes even the board. To make sure that they were comfortable with this? Well, first of all, the plan, but then secondly, I would often train them first so that when it did come to deploying training to the rest of the team, they could feel confident in what was happening and they felt like they still had a a leadership position within this project and this transformation and they, they were much more empowered to lead. So that wasn't uncommon either, but with smaller companies, they were just like, ah, don't worry. Let's just do it together. That's fine. Um.
[00:28:31] Steve: But yeah, but the biggest learning was we need a plan. We've gotta be very clear with everybody what's happening, give them assurances. I always recommended that we, you would write a policy, something to the effect that no one will lose their jobs, or their jobs won't be replaced by AI tools for maybe 12, 18 months or something if they wanted to put a time limit on it. But something to alleviate that fear. And then suddenly the, the staff are excited about learning, excited about playing, excited about innovating and, and free to get involved.
[00:29:06] Steve: But that was the other big blocker was fear and still is. Right? Um, and I think depending on your role. You might even see that the writing's on the wall that it's going to change or augment. Um, and a, a call center worker would be a good example. And so I think then you also have to, if, if you have a call center, you probably do have to have an honest conversation and go, well, you know, we're, we are committed to helping transition you into a different area of the business because perhaps now we're gonna need a lot of people who are checking facts or who are checking outputs, whilst some roles go, others are created. Um, and so, so it's tricky.
[00:29:48] Steve: And I think you'll probably hear me say it many times if you, um, if you follow me on LinkedIn that the biggest tagline that I think epitomizes the whole challenge here is that it's not an IT project, it's a leadership test. And it is not easy. But If you make it all about your people, because when I say that it's, the technology's there. I think we're all kind of getting to grips with it, but it just keeps changing. So it's just constant change management. On the technical side, I almost ignore it to an extent.
[00:30:23] Steve: To me, it's actually all about the people and how do we create an environment where they're excited, they're empowered, they're learning, they see a future for themselves, and also they can see the potential for their business as it's transformed. That's the test. And um, and it's, yeah, as I said, it's not easy and there, there will be hard decisions that have to be made almost regardless of what happens, whether it's downsizing or not. But it's probably reorging at the very least, at at some point.
[00:30:54] Dan: So Steve, it's a huge and changing world in ai. It's all about humans. For our listener, um, how can you cut through all this and help them to think about one thing they could do today, um, or if they want to draw breath tomorrow to to move themselves forward.
[00:31:12] Steve: Well, I think the simple answer is start. If you haven't started already, then you know this isn't a black and white binary thing. It's, it's a long journey of progressively building skills and capabilities. So you have to start, if you have started, then I think you want to start to get a very firm choice about the, the things you can control and the things you can't, and the things you can bet on, and the things.
[00:31:43] Steve: That you probably want to stay nimble on. So for example, I probably wouldn't put all my eggs in the basket of a ChatGPT or a Claude or a Gemini i'd. I'd wanna stay a little bit fluid between those things just to see in case one of them becomes much better fit later on. because they're all just one upping each other every week, but you know, it's probably safe to put a bet in either Microsoft or Google as your workspace, for example.
[00:32:09] Steve: So what's that list of things that you can control and that you can commit to? What's that list of things you can't control and forget about those, but also those things that you probably don't really want to commit to yet and, and those things are gonna change over time.
[00:32:27] Dan: I think that the thing that's happening for me is I've, I've realized that we, we've had a. We had some document to prepare yesterday and it's a very strong impulse to sit down and do write that. That's literally what I've done, sit the whole time I've worked, is to use my brain, turn it into words and send it to someone.
[00:32:48] Dan: And now you've got to start with, with, um. With, with, with ai, you've gotta see what it can do for you to accelerate that, haven't you? But it's a, boy that, that mental track of I will commit myself to this. And, um, I, one of my clients says, um, ChatGPT is the first app she opens every day and, um, and she works inside that.
[00:33:07] Dan: And so I think, I guess it's making that, even if you are not really good at the moment, is trying to make that transition to start, whatever you're doing, start there and see how that muscle can be built.
[00:33:18] Steve: I, I do have to say though, it's one of the things that's been really interesting in recent times is you're starting to see AI applied in places where there is a, a huge amount of existing context. And so an example would be notion click up, slack, those places, um, or even Gemini across your, your email.
[00:33:38] Steve: And you don't have to be so sophisticated in the prompt anymore with those types of ais because they do understand what you're talking about. And like Slack for example, I find it's plugged into a lot of things. So it really understands everything that's going on and everyone in my team and I can just say, Hey, what have I gotta do tomorrow? And it knows what I'm talking about, so. So I think the future of. Not needing to be a professional is coming. But that said, you still gotta practice, practice, practice and push the limits of what it can do for you.
[00:34:10] Dan: I had a classic on that front yesterday. I use CoPilot a lot and obviously it's got access to our Microsoft 365 estate. And, um, I started writing this email I thought, oh, just to get AI to gimme a bit of a hand, and it said to me, it looks like you are on the right track and it start this, this was in, it wasn't saved or sent it, it was just in progress is, looks like you're on the right track. I can see that you are writing this message and that that's really spot on. What you could do is augment this. Was she, you know, literally looking at my in progress emails. Now that's never happened before. It was pretty obvious it's gonna do that, but it was great to really suddenly have this part and say, yeah, keep going on this track. It
[00:34:48] Pia: Let's do, yeah, you are using your brain.
[00:34:50] Dan: Good for you. Little human. Well done.
[00:34:52] Pia: for that little pat on the shoulder. Little human.
[00:34:57] Dan: it. Yeah. I've got it set to patronize mode and it,
[00:35:00] Pia: Yeah, it sounds like it like that.
[00:35:03] Steve: No, I'm gonna, in that example, I think what, what we're all gonna find is in the end, the models are gonna be so powerful that they're almost commoditized, but context will be king. So the fact that it has access to what she writing, that email makes it valuable to support you. So it's, it's that access and, and, um. Yeah, context. We used to say content is king, but
[00:35:25] Dan: Yeah, context and I use it now for organizational memory. Very, you know, Pia, you'll know this, but you're in a professional service business or any business, you're Hold a second, didn't we do, didn't we write something about that? Did we do a module on so and so or what? Boom, it's there. You don't need to remember your, doesn't rely on the elders of the community, shall we say, to remember what we've done.
[00:35:48] Pia: Um, Hey Steven, what about a media recommendation? What's your thoughts there?
[00:35:52] Steve: Well, I think in a fast moving space, it's probably helpful to look at what's happening in the startup ecosystem. I think never has it been more important to look right down to that early stage because I theorize, and I think many people would agree that the big companies that exist today are many are likely to be disrupted by two people who are sitting in a bedroom right now building something and building it in a new way with this new technology.
[00:36:22] Steve: So I. the podcast I love to listen to is called Startups Decoded by Andy Walsh. Um, he's a good friend of mine that advised and invested in my startup Music Health and um, but he's over in New York and I believe it's been doing pretty well on the charts there. So, that would be my recommendation.
[00:36:38] Steve: And just in general, I would say to everybody out there like, get interested. Even what you are doing at Squadify. Launching SquadBot, it's phenomenal. And you know, that's completely disrupting a massive industry in itself. And so we've all gotta be looking at what's coming up because that is the future and more so than it's ever been, those, those small companies will challenge and will disrupt. So giddy up.
[00:37:02] Pia: Great. Yeah, abso absolutely. Fantastic, Steve. Um, this has been such an exciting conversation and, um, yeah, it, I think you've shed a really positive light, so I, I feel pretty enthused by what's ahead and, uh, we should be plugging away, keeping our brains going, but augmenting our human awesomeness with ai.
[00:37:26] Steve: I like to say that the, the future will be humans amplified, amplified employees, and, you know, but I'm a music guy, But that's, I do not see a world where people are getting, or good companies anyway are getting rid of good people. I see a co, a world where good people who are amplified by AI are hot property, so you want to be one of those and you'll find good companies will pay good money for you because you can do incredible work.
[00:37:52] Dan: And you can turn your people up to 11, which is, uh, which is good thing.
[00:37:56] Steve: tap.
[00:37:57] Dan: We'll, we'll, we'll probably best leave it there before we start quoting too much. Steve, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure as always. You've been, um, yeah, and this is an all, this is a, an e as Peter said, an encouraging view. But thank you so much for being on the show.
[00:38:10] Steve: No, you're welcome. Keep crushing it guys.
[00:38:15] Pia: You know when when we demonstrate SquadBot and show our current clients how it works, you can see a flicker in people's eyes of light. It's new, it's different. How? How am I gonna have the time? Can I befriend this? You know? And yet, two years ago, we have no idea what CoPilot was or ChatGPT and look how much it is integrated.
[00:38:37] Pia: So I think what Steve's. This conversation with Steve was, he's just taken down the barriers. He's made it exciting like it's, come on, come on peeps, get it, get in with this and give it a go. And where can you use it? That some people are gonna be prolific users and some people are gonna be light users, but give it, give it an option.
[00:38:57] Pia: I, you know, I used it the other day. I'm trying to think about different educational pathways for my daughter, and. I did the old fashioned look up in Google, and I thought, oh, you silly girl. Why? Why? Why don't you try CoPilot? And I did bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Like it was really really, really clear.
[00:39:18] Dan: Totally. And I think if we, I think that mindset of this is about us. I, I, I still have concerns because obviously we've talked about this on the show before, you know? This will go really well if AI's in good hands at the top of these tech companies. It largely isn't. Um, but let's, let's own this and say, actually this is about me having a better life. And if you have that positive mindset, um, you can take a lot of drudgery out of what you do. I was talking to, um, our, our good friend, I was gonna say old friend, he's not old, uh, but Vince Han, um, who runs Mobile Coach yesterday and he was, he's one of these people who's quite technologically able and he was using Claude Code. He's going to a conference and he's gonna sort of, you know, gotta analyze who's going and how it matches with his LinkedIn. You know, he's gonna write that in 30 minutes in Claude Code, a little app. Can you believe it? So he's at the top end of town. You don't have to be like Vince, but at the other end you can just start to use this, as you say, just to explore and help yourself.
[00:40:15] Dan: And I think if we see this as a human transformation, both in terms of this is good for us, but also if you're leading an organization. It's about the people don't get bedazzled by the, um, the technology. Or the other thing I feel that we can easily get stuck on is playing scenario bingo. You know, or this could happen. That could happen. No, you've gotta take that first step. And I think if you see it as beneficial and human, you are onto a good start. And it's, um, it's certainly gonna take a lot of drudgery out of our, our lives. Um, and let's see, see how it goes. But to step forward requires that mindset, I think.
[00:40:51] Pia: A hundred percent agree. Whatever age place you are in life, give it a go.
[00:40:58] Dan: On, on that note, we'll close this episode.
[00:41:00] Pia: We will. As two humans,
[00:41:02] Dan: As two humans, thank you, Pia. It's been a pleasure. It's been a pleasure as always. And We Not Me is supported by Squadify. Squadify helps any team to build engagement and drive performance. Um, you can find show notes where you're listening, and at squadify.net. And if you've enjoyed the show, please do share the love and recommend it to your friends. Me Not Me is produced by Mark Steadman. Thank you so much for listening. It's goodbye for me.
[00:41:25] Pia: And it's goodbye from me, the real me.