Business Schooled Daryl Pereira

Chris Schembra started his business facilitating meaningful connections through dinner parties that sparked vulnerability and gratitude - qualities that are often undervalued in business. In this podcast episode he shares how qualities like empathy and gratitude are becoming recognized as powerful drivers of employee engagement, customer loyalty, and innovation across organizations. Chris describes the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in enhancing human capabilities through emotionally intelligent assistants that can understand context and tone to guide empathetic responses. Companies like Walmart and Siemens are already using AI for compassionate leadership.

Your host: Daryl Pereira, Senior Content & Brand Strategist, IBM

John Licata, Chief Innovation Foresight Strategist at SAP, discusses his role in making SAP and its customers more future-ready. With a diverse background spanning finance, marketing, and consulting, John takes a curiosity-driven approach to foresight that combines thought leadership with prototyping potential solutions. He is excited about the rapid evolution of Generative AI but stresses the importance of responsible, ethical, and sustainable AI that augments rather than replaces humans. He underscores storytelling as a key to making foresight concepts understandable, and emphasizes the importance of empathy and inclusion, to ensure new technologies create opportunities that level the playing field for all.

Your host: Daryl Pereira, IBM Senior Brand & Content Strategist

Peter Cardon, a business communication professor at USC's Marshall School of Business, discusses the impact of generative AI on business education and the workplace. He explains how generative AI has democratized AI capabilities, making them accessible to anyone rather than just experts. He describes USC Marshall's comprehensive approach to understanding and integrating AI into the curriculum across disciplines, addressing concerns around academic integrity and creating opportunities for deeper critical thinking. He also shares insights from surveys and interviews on global AI adoption trends, cross-cultural implications, and the importance of maintaining awareness and intentionality when using AI tools.

Your host: Daryl Pereira, IBM Senior Brand & Content Strategist

Connect with USC's Peter Cardon

Denise Hartsoch, an industrial psychologist and president of two companies, shares her insights on the intersection of psychology and business. She discussed her work developing career assessment tools like the Tech Type Quiz that match people's interests and strengths to potential careers, especially in technology fields. Hartsoch highlights the widespread applications of psychology in areas such as marketing, sales, learning and development, and organizational strategy. She explains the pivotal role of AI for understanding human behavior, as well as the ethical considerations around this technology that need to be taken into account.

Your host: Daryl Pereira, IBM Senior Brand & Content Strategist

Connect with Denise

Jessica Hanan, lead AI innovation strategist at Altruistic, discusses the importance of prompt engineering skills for effectively utilizing generative AI tools in business and academia. She explains how the Prompt Pilot tool provides real-time feedback as people interact with AI tools to improve prompting abilities, leading to productivity gains. Hannan advises embracing generative AI as the "democratization of digital transformation" accessible across backgrounds, while understanding its pros and cons. She emphasizes learning this "new language" of communicating with AI, which is crucial for individuals and organizations to fully leverage these powerful technologies as assistants rather than replacements.

Your host: Daryl Pereira, IBM Senior Brand & Content Strategist

Michelle Cavanaugh, an expert in AI-generated art, discusses her process of using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is typically used by health practitioners. She explains how AI can be used to create artwork depicting mental health conditions like depression in an empathetic way without stigma. Cavanaugh sees AI as amplifying human creativity rather than replacing it, reflecting the shift from the industrial era to the emerging "knowledge era" focused more on leveraging individual skills over rigid roles. She advocates for embracing technological change responsibly while emphasizing human traits like empathy.

Your host: Daryl Pereira, IBM Senior Brand & Content Strategist