Human-AI Collaboration

Last week, I've shared that I’ve been training Claude to think more like me. The experiments that I have been doing with AI actually taught me a few things about creating values in our human work. As a result, I have developed an early process the we can use as a framework to help us navigate what we want to own and keep doing better, and what we want to get AI to assist so we can continue to do our best work. Tip #1: Defining What You as a Human Want to Own Ownership is about something that you choose to hold onto, take responsibility for & get better at it -- not something that you want to outsource or let AI do it for you. Before you can blend human & AI strengths, you need clarity on what you're not willing to hand off, regardless of how good the technology gets. This starts with naming the human values that define how you work. Here're some important ones: *Human judgement under ambiguity: When the data is incomplete, the client is unclear about what they want, or the situation has no precedent, someone has to make a call. That would be you. * Human empathy built over time: Consistency, follow-through & a willingness to be vulnerable with a client, these compound slowly & they can't be automated into existence. * Ethical accountability: When a campaign misfires or a strategy backfires, someone has to own it, explain it & make it right. AI doesn't carry that weight. * Human intuition in the room: The unspoken tension in a meeting, the hesitation in someone's voice, the moment a client needs reassurance instead of another uncertainty, this is a read-through emotion, not calculated from data. * Human perspectives shaped by lived experience: Your point of view is shaped by everything you've lived through. Human lived experiences bring texture that data alone can't replicate, and be honest with what they are. None of this is about resisting technology. It's about preserving and protecting the parts of you or your work that depend on human emotions & human perspectives in the first place. What's your list of human value non-negotiables when working with AI? Love to hear your comments below👇 …more

POV: Stop managing workers. Start augmenting them. The biggest AI leadership failure I see isn't a bad model choice or a stalled pilot. It's treating AI as a tooling decision when it's really a mindset shift. Here's the pattern. An organization buys the licenses, bolts AI onto its existing management paradigm, and waits for the productivity curve to bend. It doesn't. Six months later the tools are impressive and the results are flat — and everyone blames the technology. The technology isn't the problem. The paradigm is. Old management thinking is built around headcount: how many people do we need to get this done? AI-era thinking is built around augmentation: how much more can each person do when the work is amplified? Those are two different questions, and they lead to two different organizations. That shift doesn't start with the workforce. It starts with leadership. Leaders set the ceiling on how much value AI can create — through the questions they ask, the workflows they're willing to rethink, and whether they see their people as costs to manage or capabilities to expand. Winning in the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a leadership challenge before it's a technology one. That's the core argument I make in AI L4IR: Leadership and the 4th Industrial Revolution: https://www.amazon.com/AI-L4ir-Leadership-Industrial-Revolution/dp/B0FP2XVX21/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0 For your team, what's the hardest part of this shift — the mindset, the workflows, or the org design underneath? Follow along this month as I dig into each one. #AILeadership #FourthIndustrialRevolution #FutureOfWork #AIL4IR …more

Brian Solis argued at SXSW that augmentation is the new productivity: most people use AI to do what they already know. For founders this matters because the biggest gains come from changing how decisions are made, not just automating tasks. Three practical steps I use with startups: 1) Map core decisions and the inputs that drive them. 2) Prototype one augmented workflow in two weeks and measure decision speed and quality. 3) Standardize prompts, tests, and handoffs so the capability scales. If you want templates or pilot intros, send me a message. #AI https://briansolis.com/2026/03/worth-magazine-covers-brian-solis-keynote-at-sxsw-2026-augmentation-is-the-new-productivity/ …more

As covered in Forbes, Joe McKendrick summarizes Brian Solis' ServiceNow research on human + AI. The core mistake I see is treating AI agents only as task replacers instead of partners. From building startups and launching programs I learned three practical steps: map workflows to define human/agent decision points; measure quality and trust, not just speed; run small frontline pilots with clear handoffs and governance. Send me a message to discuss pilot designs. #AI https://briansolis.com/2026/03/forbes-publishes-brian-solis-latest-ai-research-the-biggest-mistake-companies-are-making-with-ai-agents/ …more

The webinar recording "Sentient and Us" is available now. It explores how AI is reshaping work, entrepreneurship, ethics, and human agency, and highlights that curiosity, critical thinking, and values will matter more than ever. https://www.santacruzworks.org/news/recording-sentient-and-us …more