Writing on AI, leadership, and the work itself.
Field notes from rebuilding a business on AI, and from helping founders build an AI team inside their own companies.
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What Do You Say to a Team That's Afraid of AI?
Executive coach Julia LeFevre on what sits under your team's fear of AI, why logic doesn't reach it, and the words a leader can use instead.
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Two Ways to Hand AI Too Much
People hand AI too much in two ways: access to their email, files and CRM, and the thinking itself. This week's PHP emergency shows the first. A reviewer role for AI helps with the second. Here is how a 5 to 50 person firm sets limits on both.
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You Told Them to Use AI. Nobody Bought the Account.
You encouraged adoption and it worked. The work is now happening in personal accounts your organization does not own, under vendor terms nobody in the building has read. Here is what those terms actually say, checked this week, and the smallest fix that holds.
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Your Team Is Hiding It, and Your No Is Why
The hidden AI use inside your company usually starts with a leader saying no. The tool gets used anyway, and the refusal only decides whether you hear about it.
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The Genie Problem Doesn't Stay on One Desk
A genie doesn't misunderstand your wish. It grants it exactly. Now put that genie in front of your whole company, and the wish gets granted before anyone catches that the ask was wrong.
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The Stoic Case for AI Adoption
Every founder thinks this is the most disruptive moment business has ever seen. The Stoics say the panic is optional. Your response is the only lever you have.
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Tools Aren't Strategies
The question founders ask me most is which AI tool to use. It's the wrong first question. A tool is a part, not a strategy. Here's the durable layer to build instead, so the next tool is something you plug in, not something you rebuild around.
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Everyone's Job, Nobody's Job: What I Keep Turning Over After Watching a Product Exec Rebuild Her Company
A product exec rebuilt her company around AI in the open. Here's what stuck, and the one thing I'd push back on: the tools are not what make AI pay off. Your people are.
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Why Your AI Rollout Is Failing (It's Not the Tech)
Most AI initiatives don't fail on the technology. They fail because nobody changed how they work on Monday. AI adoption is a leadership problem wearing an IT costume.
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What AI Can't Do Is the Whole Point
Automation replaces people. Augmentation multiplies them. Eight months ago I rebuilt my own business on an AI team, and the part that worked was the part AI never touched.
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AI Vendor Risk Is a CAIO Decision, Not an IT Ticket
If your operation runs on one remote AI model, that vendor is a continuity risk. Here is how to own the ground your business stands on.