2904: Heidrick & Struggles: Navigating AI's Impact on Leadership

[00:00:01] How is AI adoption transforming traditional career path and reshaping

[00:00:07] the future of technology leadership? Well on today's episode of The Tech Talks

[00:00:12] Daily Podcast I'm going to be speaking with Sam Berman, partner at Hydric and

[00:00:17] Struggles and they're a premier provider of executive search, corporate culture

[00:00:22] and leadership consulting services. But today Sam's going to be bringing with

[00:00:28] him a wealth of knowledge on the AI recruitment arms race, which is something

[00:00:33] that's disrupting established hiring models and propelling fresh talent

[00:00:38] directly from universities into influential leadership roles. So he's

[00:00:43] going to share how AI is creating new roles, changing compensation models and

[00:00:48] driving a renewed focus on ethical adoption. I'm also hoping we'll draw on

[00:00:54] some of his insights from the Hydric and Struggles latest report, Surveying

[00:00:59] Executives in AI and Data Analytics. And hopefully he will help us all understand

[00:01:05] how businesses can effectively and responsibly harness this power of

[00:01:10] technology. So buckle up and hold on tight as I beam your ears all the way right

[00:01:16] into the heart of Soho London where we will dive into this topic and learn more

[00:01:20] about how these emerging trends are impacting the future of tech leadership.

[00:01:26] So a massive warm welcome to the show Sam. Can you tell everyone listening a

[00:01:31] little about who you are and what you do? Thank you Neil, pleasure to be here.

[00:01:36] So I'm a partner at Hydric and Struggles. I sit in our technology practice

[00:01:42] and globally I lead our emerging tech practices. We have five of those today

[00:01:47] Neil. One of those is AI and the other four cuts across cyber, crypto, health

[00:01:52] tech and industrial tech. And I've been with the firm for eight years and I've

[00:01:57] been in the space for 15. And I know this is a tech podcast but straight away we've

[00:02:02] mentioned the AI word within two minutes so it's as you've gone there. I mean one

[00:02:07] of the things that attracted me to you and want me to get you on the podcast

[00:02:10] was I was reading Hydric and Struggles report on AI and executive leadership

[00:02:15] and there is a lot of excitement and also a certain amount of nervousness and

[00:02:19] anxiousness around this topic at the moment. So how are these insights shaping

[00:02:24] the future of talent acquisition in the tech industry? Because again it is making

[00:02:29] people a lot of nervous, there's a lot of tech layoffs that we're seeing as well. But

[00:02:32] what are you seeing in this report? We've been doing this report Neil for a

[00:02:36] number of years. Probably I believe the first executive search band to do this

[00:02:40] globally. And although you're referencing the 2023 report much of that

[00:02:45] is already outdate because this has been moving so quickly. So we're currently in

[00:02:49] the mode of publishing for 2024. Look I think you know some of the findings that

[00:02:54] we found were surprising and some were less surprising I suppose. The ones

[00:02:59] that were I suppose less surprising you know is that 10% of respondents overall

[00:03:06] felt their company does not have an AI strategy leader. I must admit I was

[00:03:11] expecting a higher number than 10%. I think there's a lot of concern over okay

[00:03:17] well AI is here, it's going to disrupt our company, gonna be risks and

[00:03:24] opportunities as well. But a lot of commentary around concern over lack of

[00:03:29] board exposure and knowledge of the topic of AI. So we're already seeing Neil

[00:03:36] in the US starting last year a number of companies are starting to to bake in

[00:03:41] AI representation on their boards. We've seen that less so over here in the UK

[00:03:46] and Europe but as we both know we typically follow suit of the US so no

[00:03:51] doubt we'll start to see that. We've seen the creation of advisory boards. We saw

[00:03:56] that a number of years ago when digital was the buzzword of the moment with

[00:04:00] digital advisory boards. We're seeing that as a construct play out as well. So

[00:04:05] like I say it's showing opportunities of new roles and new creations of roles,

[00:04:10] new exposure to boards. And as I say much of what we weren't surprised about

[00:04:17] is the fact that the compensation numbers are creeping ever ever northwards

[00:04:22] and to the extremes in some cases again the United States leading on that front

[00:04:29] and Europe following suit. So it's an ever-moving feast the 2024 report

[00:04:35] coming out later this year no doubt will look different to last year but it's

[00:04:40] certainly a fascinating time to be in the world of executive search focused on

[00:04:44] this topic of AI. It really is I mean if we go back to 2020 we saw remote working

[00:04:50] at scale completely changed the employment landscape and in the last two

[00:04:54] years I think we're starting to see another massive shift and no matter what

[00:04:59] industry people are listening in here that we're starting to use AI for a

[00:05:03] variety of things and as a result our roles are beginning to evolve them the

[00:05:07] way we work is beginning to change. So with AI reshaping those traditional

[00:05:12] career ladders in technologies I'm curious what are the new qualities and

[00:05:16] skills that you're seeing becoming critical for tech leaders to possess

[00:05:21] today? I'm seeing it with developers because they're working differently

[00:05:24] their skills are evolving but what are you seeing here? Yeah great question we

[00:05:29] actually did a bit of analysis on this probably only three or four months ago

[00:05:33] Neil where we looked at what are the pivotal experience and expertise

[00:05:39] criteria that the majority of our clients are seeking as it relates to not

[00:05:45] just technical leaders but business leaders more broadly and how has that

[00:05:49] sort of changed over the last 12 to 18 months. I would say and for the listeners

[00:05:54] who aren't aware of Hydrokin struggles we start at sort of VP level and work

[00:05:59] upwards to CEO and then board as well. It's a blend actually Neil so you've got

[00:06:06] technical competencies of course are becoming more and more pertinent in terms

[00:06:11] of toolkits specific around data science and engineering but then you've also got

[00:06:16] this requirement around business experience so what I mean by that

[00:06:19] digital transformation, business transformation, someone who can create

[00:06:24] follow ship, someone who can be a storyteller. If we think about AI as an

[00:06:29] opportunity within companies much of that is around telling the story of how

[00:06:34] AI is going to benefit the employees and benefit the company coming back to

[00:06:39] what I mentioned around opportunities. Definitely requires strong empathy as a

[00:06:44] leader that mixture of IQ and EQ ability to influence at an executive level again

[00:06:50] coming back to the storyteller point. Definitely a piece around transparency

[00:06:54] and trust especially on this topic of AI and having a leader who is being very

[00:07:00] transparent with their organization around how AI is going to be leveraged

[00:07:05] both commercially externally but also internally operationally in building

[00:07:11] that trust of the fellowship as a result. Then one big area we've seen especially

[00:07:15] with the AI native companies so those who are actually building the technology

[00:07:20] they're not short of talent that is technical and when they put out a job

[00:07:26] posting if that's the route they choose they will be inundated with

[00:07:32] technical competencies and what they really struggle more with is go to

[00:07:37] market how to actually commercialize the AI opportunity and so when we are

[00:07:43] getting involved with AI native companies again at that VP level and

[00:07:47] above nil at the moment it typically is around that go-to-market the

[00:07:52] commercialization opportunity more so than the actual building of the

[00:07:56] technology. And before you came on the podcast I was doing a little research on

[00:08:00] you and I had a great line by you and I'm paraphrasing here but I think you

[00:08:03] said that companies are now entering an AI recruitment arms race a cracking

[00:08:08] line but can you elaborate on what that means for the dynamics of talent

[00:08:12] acquisition and also some of the challenges that it poses to traditional

[00:08:16] hiring practices too? Yeah absolutely well look you know AI talent is

[00:08:22] definitely in short supply and in high demand as we all know that's true

[00:08:27] whether you're sitting stateside in Europe or further afield in APAC Middle

[00:08:32] East. I think there's also clearly this sort of mad rush by companies as somewhat

[00:08:38] of a knee-jerk reaction to go out and hire AI talent. I think many of our

[00:08:42] clients and companies more broadly are wrestling with the whole buy versus build

[00:08:47] versus partner scenario. You've then got compensation levels like I mentioned

[00:08:53] earlier on in our report are skyrocketing. I saw a recent article which

[00:08:57] we didn't publish Neil but it talked about AI researchers coming out to the

[00:09:02] top universities in the US who are going on to join you know the big tech giants

[00:09:09] as post graduates with limited commercial experience and their salary ranges were

[00:09:15] from half a million to a million dollars as post grad AI researchers. So that's

[00:09:20] really upsetting the applecart in terms of compensation levels and role families

[00:09:27] and structures within companies. Much of the talent required are more individual

[00:09:33] contributors with limited managerial experience yet they are being thrust

[00:09:38] into influential roles not necessarily people leadership although we are seeing

[00:09:43] that but influential in senior roles because they have the skill set around

[00:09:48] technical competencies which many others do not. However when you think about

[00:09:54] the future of AI I think we could probably both agree that you know it's going to be at

[00:09:59] everyone's fingertips. We're getting there now already but you know in 12 months 24 months it

[00:10:04] should be at everyone's fingertips and so the importance of leadership skills come back to my

[00:10:08] earlier point will become even more pronounced because you can have the technical competencies

[00:10:13] yes but if you don't have leaders who are collaborative empathetic great storytellers

[00:10:18] building that trust and transparency I mentioned being creative yeah how are they

[00:10:23] going to be able to navigate the disruption of AI you need to have that blend of leadership

[00:10:29] capabilities with technical yeah AI cannot determine cultural fit and leadership style

[00:10:35] in chemistry it can determine a number of things and you can use it for recruitment purposes which

[00:10:41] is perhaps where your question was also leading but it can't yet help you define those three

[00:10:46] things of cultural fit leadership style in chemistry so again I think as always it's

[00:10:52] going to be an augmentation from a hiring process perspective a talent acquisition perspective

[00:10:58] an augmentation of the human touch and the human side with the technology to help be more productive

[00:11:05] and more effective at acquiring talent. 100% with you and that cultural aspect is so often

[00:11:11] neglected so given the the rapid ascent of fresh graduates into significant roles too

[00:11:18] are there any long-term implications you think that trend will have on the development of

[00:11:23] future tech industry leaders because again so much happening in this space isn't it

[00:11:27] yeah absolutely I mean candidly I've got three young children so my wife and I started to think

[00:11:33] about you know where do we sort of push our children in what direction in terms of their

[00:11:38] education and they're miles away from from being a graduate to be clear but if you look at where

[00:11:43] we are today like I said you know there are young capable talent being thrust into senior

[00:11:51] leadership roles and that is becoming more of a norm although let's be clear that is more in the

[00:11:56] sense of the big tech companies versus wider industry and that can lead to great results for

[00:12:03] sure however and I would say this given the nature of my role and our company no matter the quality

[00:12:09] of the talent there is a certain amount of leadership capabilities that cannot be short

[00:12:14] circuited or replaced by time strong element of time served being coached and mentored by leaders

[00:12:23] who have got the battle scars and and being through changes and transformation periods like

[00:12:28] the one that we're in now so that the reality is on the whole the graduates that that we see and

[00:12:35] by the way I mentioned that hydro construct sort of begins their client focused work at vp11 above

[00:12:41] we have actually started tracking graduates coming out of the top ai programs globally for the

[00:12:47] reasons that I mentioned earlier a number of these graduates are now in a position whereby they're

[00:12:52] getting close to direct to vp level roles at least from a compensation perspective so we're having to

[00:12:57] rethink our own perspective on that talent pool so graduates but on the whole graduates are stepping

[00:13:03] into more technical roles versus pure leadership so I think it will have implications on the long

[00:13:10] term development because you can't cut corners when it comes to to leadership capability and

[00:13:15] building that kind of muscle memory around how to build fellowship how to be a storyteller around

[00:13:20] how to lead through transformation around how to pivot when times aren't quite as rosy as they are

[00:13:25] right now as it relates to uh ai and all of the capital investment going into it

[00:13:33] and you mentioned that your children are very small many years from graduating but in the future when

[00:13:38] they do reach that phase in their life do you think partnerships with top universities will become the

[00:13:44] norm transforming the way tech companies identify and cultivate emerging talent because it certainly

[00:13:49] seems like that's the way it's heading but do you have any examples of what you're seeing as

[00:13:54] maybe early successful collaborations of them yeah I mean there was a there have been um

[00:14:00] various press releases nil over the last couple of years where big tech companies are actually hiring

[00:14:07] for university lab departments which is causing a real problem because at the end of the day everyone

[00:14:14] within reason have their price and therefore when the big tech companies come knocking on the door

[00:14:20] with a large checkbook it becomes hard to keep them in education and so yeah on one end you've

[00:14:26] got the universities who if they face that problem I mean huge uh challenge frustration from their

[00:14:32] side because they're losing talent before they even complete university on the other side you've

[00:14:36] got let's just say i'm focusing on the big tech companies but the big tech companies are building

[00:14:40] the technology and need this constant ingestion of talent they have to go and look in places

[00:14:46] where perhaps they haven't looked consistently before and university labs especially those you

[00:14:53] know which are top of their game is a great place to search for that talent I mentioned earlier on

[00:14:59] we've been tracking talent coming out of these programs again stateside in europe and and further

[00:15:05] afield but other thought to ponder nil perhaps is you know if universities start to struggle

[00:15:12] to find you know capital allocation for the compute cost that it will need to drive the most

[00:15:20] cutting edge ai research within their universities then the question to put back on us at you as

[00:15:28] listeners is what will the future best ai talent necessarily come from these masters and phd

[00:15:34] programs or would actually they become directly out of big tech themselves because big tech will have

[00:15:41] the funds and the allocation to constantly drive this cutting edge technology which will be

[00:15:48] driven by compute cost and and and power as well again open question i don't know the answer to

[00:15:55] that but it is something to to think about in the future but yes right now it's a it's a top breeding

[00:16:02] ground for companies to to seek ai talent specifically on the tech side and specifically

[00:16:09] on the research side again less so on this leadership capabilities and credentials that

[00:16:15] we've been talking about and we have been on quite a journey over the last 12 months as a lot of tech

[00:16:21] conferences last year spoke with a lot of business leaders many were scared about ai some just banned

[00:16:27] it straight out of the traps there others were concerned about company data being used in language

[00:16:33] learning models but we've overcome many overcome many of those challenges and i'm now seeing

[00:16:38] business leaders being more open wanting to embrace it but again knowing what to do how to

[00:16:43] start that is a little bit nerve-wracking so in your view how should companies balance that push

[00:16:49] towards innovative ai technologies with the need to adopt these tools responsibly and ethically

[00:16:56] because it's quite a tricky balance isn't it absolutely yeah i couldn't agree more but it's

[00:17:01] very much a balancing act and certainly i'm a proponent of making sure that with any technology

[00:17:08] you're balancing it responsibly and ethically i think you mentioned there that initially you know

[00:17:14] companies and leaders were let's say more focused on the risks versus opportunities and being more

[00:17:20] apprehensive and pessimistic i thought it was interesting we as a firm attend davos every year

[00:17:27] and we have for as many years that as i've been here and beyond so going 10 years plus

[00:17:32] and coming out of davos um this year it was it was really interesting to see the sentiment had shifted

[00:17:39] from 2023 where every newspaper you open or every news outlet that you click on on your phone

[00:17:47] was talking about the the risks of ai and kind of the second coming of the terminator if you will

[00:17:53] um whereas in davos you know business leaders and government leaders much more balanced perspective

[00:18:00] coming into 2024 still thinking and discussing risks but counterbalancing it with opportunities

[00:18:10] and certainly for those who were representing non-tech native companies there was the sort

[00:18:16] of sentiment of you know what being a fast follower is a sensible approach to consider

[00:18:24] at this moment in time leave the driving forward of the r&d and the big ticket spending

[00:18:32] and the big ticket hiring to the tech builders who were leading the charge uh in moving the needle on

[00:18:37] the technology itself don't rush to go out and completely rip up the rule book of your company

[00:18:43] to completely tear up leadership structures um before you really understand as a company or indeed

[00:18:50] a government you know where you want to play which lane you want to focus in on rather than trying to

[00:18:56] to bore the ocean as it relates to leveraging ai within within your company so you know our

[00:19:02] advice to clients and certainly when it comes to you know human capital and how to apply that human

[00:19:09] capital to certain uh ai transformation strategies is select use cases first don't try and apply

[00:19:19] either a leader or a group of leaders to try and solve the entirety of the ai opportunity within

[00:19:25] your company hopefully you can get there where ai becomes a holistic focus of your company much like

[00:19:31] you know digital transformation did when that journey started over a decade ago pick use cases

[00:19:36] prove the value and then move into sort of company-wide adoption take that same approach

[00:19:43] with human capital we are starting to see and have done over the last few years the emergence

[00:19:48] of the chief ai officer or a job title which is similar to that again it might surprise you to

[00:19:55] hear me say this neil that's not necessarily the answer for every company it's not as a

[00:20:00] build a bullet but bringing in talent who at least can take ownership of your ai strategy

[00:20:07] whether it's one person or a collection of people is critical because otherwise you're going to have

[00:20:12] a bunch of sort of innovation speed boats flying off in different directions and they're not moving

[00:20:17] um towards the same goal so driving innovation forward you know in parallel with safety rather

[00:20:24] than letting safety restrict what you do with the innovation i think is probably a good way

[00:20:29] to look at it i heard that from a speaker at a recent ai event and i thought that was a really

[00:20:34] interesting way of of approaching the balancing that you speak of yeah it really does and looking

[00:20:42] back at the journey we've been on over the last 12 months from those early reactions to where we

[00:20:46] are now to ai it feels like almost a step-by-step walk through the kubler-ross change curve judging

[00:20:52] by some of the reactions but there is a lot of hype around this and it is easy to get distracted

[00:20:58] by shiny technology and less about the real world problems that we're solving here so

[00:21:02] yeah can you explore some of the most compelling use cases of ai that you've come across in your

[00:21:07] work and how these applications might be influencing strategic decisions in boardrooms because there

[00:21:13] are so many opportunities and benefits here and it'd be great to bring that to life with some of

[00:21:18] the things that you're seeing yeah i think most of our clients and again our clients range from

[00:21:24] from startups to enterprise from private capital to plc across every industry vertical and sector

[00:21:31] you can think of so we have a we have a wide array of clients who are approaching this in

[00:21:37] different ways i would say to you on the whole neil that most of our clients and organizations

[00:21:42] more broadly are approaching this in the way that i had mentioned just now which is looking at use

[00:21:48] cases um i mean customer service being being a key one i don't know if you saw the article maybe

[00:21:54] about a month ago you know planner did a partnership um with with open ai to create their own uh open

[00:22:02] ai powered chat bot which can do the work of 700 customer service agents which led to significant

[00:22:10] cost savings but a mass improvement in that promoter score for customers you know looking to

[00:22:17] seek answers the challenges that are having with the clan of product so not only does it

[00:22:22] cut cut the cost of the customer service agents and all that attach it actually lowered the

[00:22:28] the solve time forgive me for getting the numbers perhaps slightly off but it was solve time went

[00:22:34] from somewhere like you know 10 minutes down to two or something to that effect so customer service

[00:22:40] is a key one you know we do a lot of work with companies in the content creation uh industries

[00:22:46] and i remember reading you know press articles and and similar only five years ago which was

[00:22:54] talking about content creation will be one of the last industries to be disrupted by ai what the

[00:23:02] reality is we get to 2023 2024 and actually that's one of the first that has been disrupted so now

[00:23:09] we're we saw the work that we're doing with some of the content creators is really how do they

[00:23:13] actually not only leverage generative ai to be to create better content more more quickly

[00:23:22] more effectively better than doing it more cost effectively but how can they use it as a

[00:23:27] competitive advantage versus their competitors so that that's been a big piece around implementing

[00:23:33] gen ai into into content creation and then we've got come you know great clients who are to your

[00:23:40] point at the top of that question looking to solve big world problems whether it's using it to

[00:23:48] improve drug discovery with our pharma clients whether it's driving activities around climate

[00:23:54] change around addressing you know diseases like cancer global food shortages future pandemic

[00:24:04] preventions future war preventions even as well so you've got the big world problems which

[00:24:10] certain companies are running towards and then i would say the majority of our clients are focusing

[00:24:16] on the value add proving those case studies whether it's around product development whether

[00:24:20] it's around driving improvements in in customer service or better content creation for our content

[00:24:28] creating clients so many different examples but i would say they're more

[00:24:33] that they're very focused examples versus holistic company-wide change i think that will come in

[00:24:39] in due course again like we saw with digital transformation which started sort of a decade ago

[00:24:46] and from the conversations that you've been having with clients and at davos earlier this year i

[00:24:51] would imagine that it's quite inspiring to be around people who think bigger or enthusiastic

[00:24:56] about this space so what would you say are the most exciting or concerning trends that you

[00:25:01] foresee in the integration of ai within corporate leadership structures i would imagine that

[00:25:06] enthusiasm rubs off on you so what are you seeing here what excites you personally yeah no it is

[00:25:13] definitely exciting time to be in our in our position um and how we serve clients yeah we're

[00:25:18] right at the center of that which is uh super exciting what am i most excited about i do really

[00:25:24] like this i was going to say notion i mean it is now a thing but i do like the sentiment of co-pilots

[00:25:31] yeah i think that's really interesting and i and i say that in the context of for me personally

[00:25:37] you know uh as a as a talent executive we can use co-pilots but also how our clients

[00:25:43] can use co-pilots i think what's really interesting again i've read this uh you know

[00:25:48] the last six months i've heard at conferences this notion of the future ceo having a co-pilot

[00:25:55] this is not just co-pilots you know for for the masses within the company you know the foot

[00:26:00] soldiers this is co-pilots at the top of the house and i think you know the the concept of future ceos

[00:26:07] having a co-pilot to help them make better decisions i think that's a super exciting prospect

[00:26:12] um even thinking about co-pilots in the boardroom which is an interesting uh full process you know

[00:26:19] could you use ai to monitor boards consistently and to allow to enable boards to be more effective

[00:26:28] could they enable boards to be more uh constant uh versus episodic so that co-pilots it would be one

[00:26:36] um automation would be another i know that word gets thrown around a lot i you know automation

[00:26:42] worries a lot of people because they hear automation i'm going to lose my job yeah um

[00:26:47] i'm very much an optimist neil i think i probably should be in my line of work but

[00:26:52] genuinely an optimist um so for me personally i think automation can remove not only mundane tasks

[00:26:59] but but tasks that are not cost effective uh for humans to do it's actually more effective to take

[00:27:05] that human and apply them to more commercially orientated activities so when i think about

[00:27:11] automation again yes there will be roles that will be replaced but like every you know a revolution

[00:27:18] we've seen an evolution we've seen in technology from the agricultural to the industrial to you

[00:27:23] know um web 1.0 every time that happens there are more jobs than there were before and i do believe

[00:27:30] that will still be the case this time around i think it's just going to look quite different

[00:27:34] so automation to remove combination of mundane tasks but tasks that are not necessarily cost

[00:27:40] effective and you could have that human focus on more commercially orientation activities and then

[00:27:46] again thinking about us as a company how can we leverage um ai which which we are and i'm happy

[00:27:51] to share a few words on that but how can we leverage ai to be more effective at serving our

[00:27:56] clients i'll give you an example and this is all in the public domain um we have a partnership with

[00:28:01] eightfold ai super interesting business and we've created a product which we are now implementing

[00:28:08] with our clients called hydric navigator this is a really interesting succession planning tool

[00:28:15] powered by ai and delivered through a sas model so think about some of our largest

[00:28:22] clients they are global enterprises um you know globally dispersed um could be centralized could

[00:28:29] be decentralized but very hard for those size companies to really look at succession planning

[00:28:35] and manage succession planning effectively we've created this tool in recognition that many of our

[00:28:41] clients who are of that ilk really struggle to identify track map and promote internal successes

[00:28:51] if they're not close to the head office or they're not close to the um the heartbeat of the company

[00:28:58] this partnership with eightfold has enabled us to get more to get smarter or help our clients be

[00:29:03] more smarter with we're obviously looking at other ways uh to leverage ai within our assessment

[00:29:10] criteria of candidates and those can be murky waters because you have to be mindful of those

[00:29:15] things transparency and trust we talked about earlier but that's one examples of uh of how

[00:29:19] we're using it and how it will become more effective with serving our clients most concerning

[00:29:26] probably companies blowing up their leadership structures in a kind of knee-jerk sort of FOMO

[00:29:32] reaction um i talked earlier on about how davos there was this sort of shift in tides from

[00:29:38] being all about risk to managing risk and opportunity and being a fast follower so i

[00:29:44] think you know don't stand still but equally don't rip up the rule book um before you really survey

[00:29:50] the lie of the land and what's right for you and your company versus looking at the market leaders

[00:29:55] the tech builders who are on the whole very different to to most companies um across industries

[00:30:02] and then finally companies forgetting the importance of leadership and culture like i said ai cannot

[00:30:08] determine cultural fit leadership style in chemistry it could absolutely help you to be

[00:30:13] more effective at talent acquisition and to approach it in a different manner but it cannot replace

[00:30:18] those things so making sure that the focus and importance of leadership and culture remains

[00:30:23] at front of mind as well and i think they are powerful points to end our conversation on today

[00:30:30] and i know how incredibly busy you are and can't thank you enough for taking the time to come on

[00:30:34] here and share your insights with everyone today but i'm going to see if there's something we can

[00:30:39] do for you now as a small thank you because some of the biggest names in business vc funding and

[00:30:44] tech have either been guests or maybe even listened to this podcast so if there is one person that

[00:30:49] you'd love to have a private breakfast or lunch with who would it be and why he or she might just

[00:30:54] be listening to this and we'll see what we can manifest together but who would it be yeah um

[00:31:01] great question i'm gonna give you a name who um if he's listening great i imagine his calendar is

[00:31:09] somewhat busy um elon musk uh i know he does divide opinion and i have deep conversations

[00:31:16] with friends about this uh who perhaps uh are less supportive i'm a huge supporter of

[00:31:22] elon terms of what he's done i think you know the ability to sit with him over breakfast or dinner

[00:31:27] and just ask him questions around you know why what why why is he trying to solve all of these

[00:31:34] world problems himself you know tesla was one thing obviously spacex you've got solar city

[00:31:40] what he's doing around with neural link you know i just think it's incredible that

[00:31:44] one individual is looking to solve so many world problems and uh you've not asked me a question of

[00:31:50] what book would you read but the two books that i've read on him um the first one by ashley vance

[00:31:57] and then the one i'm currently reading now by uh walter isaacson just a really interesting

[00:32:01] insight into him as a leader just doesn't take no for an answer if anything that encourages him

[00:32:07] he's tackling some of the biggest world problems um in terms of electrification

[00:32:12] space travel and uh solar energy so that would be super interesting i'm guessing he's somewhat

[00:32:17] busy neil but if you can make it happen that'd be amazing well we'll throw it out into the ether

[00:32:23] into the universe let's see what we could manifest he does divide opinion but i would say whichever

[00:32:28] side of the fence you sit on you're good you would have a great night a great conversation

[00:32:33] and certainly walk away with a different point of view on this on a few things so

[00:32:37] i will see what we can uh manifest there but for everyone listening just wanting to find out more

[00:32:42] information we did mention the report i know you've got another one coming out later this year

[00:32:46] if anyone wants to check those out or contact you or your team where would you like to point everyone

[00:32:52] absolutely um if you go to our website um at hydra.com we have a dedicated

[00:32:58] ai section which has got all of our thought leadership some of which we've talked about

[00:33:02] today it's got my contact details and the broader team's contact details neil so hydra.com

[00:33:09] and go to the section on artificial intelligence which is right on the landing page um there's

[00:33:14] plenty of ip um that is there there is lots coming out including the 2024 report that i mentioned

[00:33:21] but we've got podcasts we've got thought pieces we've got opinion pieces it's a big area of focus

[00:33:26] for us as i say where the practice has actually been around since 2012 when we launched it to

[00:33:32] focus on big data and has evolved ever since so we've got you know 12 years worth of experience

[00:33:38] over 300 searches uh completed across an array of industries so plenty of hopefully helpful

[00:33:44] information for your readers to get their teeth into awesome i'll get all those links added so

[00:33:49] people can find you nicely easily we covered so much today from the way ai adoption pressures are

[00:33:55] changing the way tech leaders are hired transforming the traditional tech career ladder the face of

[00:34:00] tomorrow's boardrooms but also how businesses can use ai outlining possible use cases and exploring

[00:34:07] how companies can use this technology both effectively and responsibly so many big talking

[00:34:12] points i'd love to invite you back on when that 2024 um report is released i think would be a lot

[00:34:19] more to talk about then as well but more than anything just thank you for sharing everything

[00:34:23] with me today likewise appreciate the conversation and we'd be happy to come back on later on there

[00:34:29] so a big thank you to sam for giving us a comprehensive overview of how ai adoption

[00:34:34] is redefining leadership trends and also reshaping the tech talent landscape from the soaring demand

[00:34:42] for new skills and storytelling abilities to the rise of university partnerships and the emergence

[00:34:48] of roles such as chief ai officer i think it's clear that organizations have got to adapt swiftly

[00:34:55] and sam's insights today starting with focused ai use cases rather than upending entire structures

[00:35:03] i think they offer practical guidance in this transformative era but

[00:35:07] what resonates most is the need for companies to drive ai innovation while maintaining trust

[00:35:13] transparency and cultural alignment these are three things are absolutely crucial and often get

[00:35:20] missed when we're easily distracted by shiny new technologies but what do you think will be the most

[00:35:26] significant challenge or opportunity in ai adoption please share your thoughts join the conversation

[00:35:33] by emailing me tech blog writer at outlook.com twitter linkedin instagram just at neil c hughes

[00:35:40] let me know your thoughts on this but that's it for today we've got another great guest line up

[00:35:44] tomorrow i invite you to join me again but more than anything thank you for taking the

[00:35:49] time to listen today and until next time don't be a stranger