Episodes

Oct. 8, 2026

Purpose, Passion, and Artificial Intelligence

In this solo episode of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work, Brian Gorman challenges a familiar way of talking about artificial intelligence: AI is making us lazy. AI is weakening critical thinking. AI is making us work longer. AI is taking meaning out of work. When we say AI is doing these things to us, we surrender human agency. AI creates possibilities and makes some choices easier. What we do with those possibilities remains ours to decide. That leads to a more consequential question. What will we d...
Oct. 1, 2026

When AI Gives an Answer, Be Curious

Artificial intelligence can synthesize information, surface possibilities, and accelerate work. But some of what matters most still lives in people: experience, relationships, intuition, and an understanding of what is actually happening. In this episode of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work, Brian Gorman speaks with Tim Lidman, co-founder and CEO of Clyde, about what it means to deliberately bring artificial intelligence and human wisdom together. Clyde is one example of a larger leadership question: w...
Sept. 24, 2026

When AI Does More, Human Connection Matters More

This episode of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work does not spend much time talking directly about artificial intelligence. That is why the conversation matters now. Brian Gorman speaks with Stephen Baer, author of Stickology, about what causes people to connect, contribute, innovate, and care about the organizations they work for and buy from. Drawing on examples from Trader Joe’s, Ritz-Carlton, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft, and Home Depot, Stephen makes a consistent point: people do their best work w...
Sept. 17, 2026

Design AI at Work for Agency, Not Dependency

As artificial intelligence becomes embedded in how work gets done, leaders face a question that goes well beyond efficiency. What kind of relationship with AI are we designing? In this episode of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work, Brian Gorman speaks with psychotherapist and executive coach Marina Tudor about creating workplaces in which artificial intelligence serves human beings rather than quietly creating new forms of dependency, friction, and burnout. Marina argues that effective AI integration r...
Sept. 10, 2026

Stay in Charge. Make AI the Apprentice.

In this episode, Brian Gorman speaks with Jonathan Schaeffer, founder of Synsira Software Solutions, inventor of Kind, and an AI pioneer who has spent more than 40 years working at the forefront of artificial intelligence. For Jonathan, the arrival of ChatGPT was not the beginning of AI. It was the moment when decades of largely invisible development suddenly became visible to everyone. He sees enormous potential in what comes next, from advances in medicine and education to safer transportatio...
Sept. 3, 2026

The Resistance Beneath AI Adoption

AI adoption is often treated as a technology challenge. Choose the right tools, train people to use them, and improve the workflow. But resistance to AI runs deeper than the resistance that accompanies most workplace technologies. In this episode of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work, Brian Gorman speaks with Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, founder of Disaster Avoidance Experts and author of The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results, about the psychology beneath AI resistance. Gleb identifi...
Aug. 27, 2026

When AI Does the Task, What is the Work?

In this episode of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work, Brian Gorman speaks with Michael Privat, Chief Data and Engineering Officer at Availity, about a question reaching far beyond software engineering. When AI can perform more of the tasks that once defined our jobs, what does the work become? Michael challenges the assumption that the task itself is the profession. In software engineering, writing code has long been central to professional identity. But as AI becomes increasingly capable of writing th...
Aug. 20, 2026

When Intelligence Grows, Purpose Means More

AI is rapidly expanding what individuals and organizations are capable of doing. But greater capability raises a deeper question: What are we going to do with it? In this episode of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work, Brian Gorman speaks with Jeff Westphal, author of A Work Life Worth Living and former chairman and CEO of Vertex, about meaning, purpose, and the distinctly human choices that become more important as artificial intelligence grows more powerful. Jeff describes AI as a force multiplier for...
Aug. 13, 2026

Who Gets to Shape AI?

Artificial intelligence is often presented as a tool that will make expertise more widely available. But what happens when people can produce expert-looking work without ever developing the expertise behind it? Bo Young Lee, CEO of AI4ALL, joins Brian to explore why the future of AI depends on more than broader access to today’s dominant models. It also requires a wider range of people, cultures, experiences, and worldviews shaping the technology itself. Bo explains how concentrating AI develop...
Aug. 10, 2026

When AI Pulls Us Toward Either/Or

AI can produce answers quickly. Leadership rarely works that way. In this episode, Brian Gorman speaks with Cliff Kayser, Chief Learning Officer of Polarity Partnerships, about a challenge that becomes more consequential as AI moves deeper into our organizations: our tendency to treat ongoing tensions as problems that can be solved. Cliff shares an experience training an AI system to distinguish between problems that require either/or decisions and tensions that require both/and thinking. The ...
Aug. 6, 2026

AI and the Solopreneur

What happens when one person, working with AI, can accomplish work that once required an entire team? In this episode of “Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work”, Brian Gorman speaks with Dima Negodiuk, founder of Negodiuk.ai and a fellow solopreneur, about the opportunities and consequences emerging as AI expands what small businesses can do. Dima describes how AI allows solopreneurs and midsized companies to handle marketing, sales, customer support, research, and content creation with far fewer people a...
July 30, 2026

Beyond Coding: The Human Work Ahead

Artificial intelligence is not simply making software developers more productive. It is changing which skills have value, how teams are structured, and how many people are needed to perform work that once required years of technical specialization. In this candid conversation, Charles Fry, founder and CEO of digital product studio CODE Éxitos, describes what he calls the ”Post-Coding Era”. As AI automates more traditional development work, specialized skills that once provided security and prof...
July 23, 2026

When AI Removes the Work That Forms Us

In this solo episode, Brian Gorman explores a leadership question that is becoming more urgent as artificial intelligence moves deeper into everyday work. What happens when AI begins doing the very work that used to form people? Most organizations are looking at AI through the lens of efficiency. They are asking what can be done faster, cheaper, and with less effort. Those questions matter. But they are incomplete. Work has never been only about output. It has also been one of the primary ways...
July 16, 2026

AI Knows More. You Know Best.

In this episode, Brian Gorman speaks with Tim Harrison, founder and CEO of the Coaching Innovation Lab, about what it really takes to lead well in an AI-abundant world. As AI removes many of the external barriers that once limited what people could do — time, money, access, and technical skill — the deeper constraints become more human. The real questions shift toward clarity of purpose, willingness to change, judgment, character, and courage. Tim and Brian explore why AI may know more, but hu...
July 9, 2026

AI Adoption is a Human Change Journey

Artificial intelligence may be moving faster than any technology we have seen before. But AI adoption is still, at its core, a human change journey. In this episode, Brian Gorman speaks with Sue Bethanis, founder of Mariposa Leadership, about what it takes to lead wisely as organizations, teams, and knowledge workers learn to partner with AI. Sue brings a grounded, deeply human perspective to the conversation. She frames AI not as something to resist or blindly embrace, but as a “robot” partne...
July 2, 2026

No Playbook for the AI Era

AI is not just changing the tools we use. It is changing the nature of change itself. In this inaugural episode of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work, Brian Gorman is joined by Bill Kirst, change architect and author of Leading Change in the Era of AI. Together, they explore why traditional change management models are no longer enough in a workplace increasingly shaped by AI, automation, agents, and non-linear complexity. Bill explains why tools like ChatGPT and Claude are not simply faster versions o...
June 26, 2026

The Gap Between Leadership Intent and Employee Experience

Leaders often believe they are investing in their people. Employees often experience something very different. In this episode of Qonversations, Brian Gorman speaks with Keith Metcalfe, President of ACORN, a software and technology company focused on learning, performance, and capability development. Together, they explore the gap between leadership intent and employee experience, especially when it comes to feedback, performance reviews, career growth, and the everyday support people need to p...
June 19, 2026

Name Change: Qonversations is Becoming Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work

After more than 170 episodes as Qonversations, this podcast is entering its next chapter. Beginning with the July 2, 2026 release, the show will become Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. The new name reflects the direction the conversations have been moving for some time: beyond the tools, hype, and noise of artificial intelligence, and into the deeper human questions AI is raising for leaders, organizations, and the future of work. This is still the same podcast, hosted by Brian Gorman. The focus rem...
June 18, 2026

172: Don't Let Technology Be the Leader

AI is already changing the way we work. The question is no longer whether leaders will adopt it. The question is whether they will lead it. In this episode of Qonversations, Brian talks with Jim Spignardo, Director of Cloud Strategy and AI Enablement at ProArc, about why AI implementation is not primarily a technology challenge. It is a leadership challenge. Too often, organizations measure AI adoption by activity: who is using it, how often, and how quickly. But usage is not the same as value...
June 11, 2026

171: Into the Fog: AI and Leadership

In a world obsessed with speed, certainty, and fast answers, leadership often happens somewhere else entirely. In the fog. In this episode of Qonversations, Brian Gorman is joined by Pete Behrens, author of Into the Fog: Leadership Stories from the Edge of Uncertainty, for a conversation about leading when the path forward is unclear. Pete uses “fog” as a metaphor for the ambiguity and complexity leaders face when old answers no longer fit and new ones have not yet emerged. Brian and Pete expl...
June 4, 2026

170: Practical AI

AI is not just changing enterprise strategy. It is changing the daily experience of work. In this episode of Qonversations, David Dean, AI technologist, practitioner, and author of An Inbox Between Us, joins Brian Gorman to explore what it means to use AI wisely in real-world settings. David brings a practical behavioral lens to AI. He explains that every organization has an official system of processes, roles, and documentation, and an unofficial system revealed in inboxes, chat threads, meet...
May 28, 2026

169: Thriving in the Time of AI

AI is accelerating capability. But what if the real challenge is learning how to thrive alongside it? In this episode of Qonversations, Fred Marshall joins Brian Gorman to explore a question many leaders are only beginning to confront. How do we integrate artificial intelligence into our lives and work without losing ourselves in the process? Fred, author of Thrive: The Antidote to Future Shock, introduces a practical and deeply human approach to navigating rapid technological change. Rather t...
May 21, 2026

168: AI Isn’t a Technology Problem. It’s a Leadership One.

Most organizations are treating AI like a technology implementation. What if that is the wrong starting point? In this episode of Qonversations, Kathy Eastwood, Founder and Chief People Strategist of E Equals Why, joins host Brian Gorman to explore why artificial intelligence may be one of the biggest people and leadership shifts organizations have faced in decades. Kathy shares why some organizations are beginning to place AI under HR rather than IT, recognizing that the real challenge is not...
May 13, 2026

167: AI and Innovation

What if AI’s greatest value isn’t optimization, but innovation? In this episode of Qonversations, Jamie Cassar, Founder and Product Lead for Inspiru.ai, joins Brian Gorman to explore a question many organizations are missing as they rush to implement AI. What happens when artificial intelligence is used not simply to make work faster or cheaper, but to expand human curiosity, creativity, and problem-solving? Jamie challenges the growing tendency to view AI primarily through the lens of efficien...