What Top AI Keynote Speakers Are Really Talking About Behind Closed Doors #365

In this solo episode of the SuperCreativity Podcast, keynote speaker and AI advisor James Taylor reveals the real conversations happening backstage, in green rooms, and behind closed doors with global CEOs, board members, and fellow AI keynote speakers.

While public discussions about artificial intelligence often focus on tools, demos, and optimism, the private conversations are shifting to much deeper questions. This episode explores how leaders are redesigning organisations, rethinking decision-making, redefining value creation, and reimagining leadership itself in an AI-augmented world.

James outlines the five non-technical questions senior leaders are now asking about AI, why judgment and creativity are becoming more valuable rather than less, and why AI is no longer a strategy but an environment leaders must design for. This episode is essential listening for executives, senior leaders, and organisations navigating the human side of AI transformation.

 

---

 

Key Takeaways

• AI is no longer a topic or trend. It has become an environment embedded into everyday work.
  
  

• The most important leadership questions about AI are organisational and human, not technical.
  
  

• In an AI-augmented world, judgment, sense-making, and values matter more than raw information.
  
  

• When everyone has access to the same AI tools, value shifts to problem framing, imagination, and strategic choice.
  
  

• Leadership is evolving from expertise and answers to clarity, direction, and organisational design.
  
  

• AI does not replace creativity. It commoditises the easy parts and amplifies the hard ones.
  
  

 

---

 

Key Quotes

• “AI is no longer a topic. It’s an environment. It’s a way of working.”
  
  

• “This is not a technological problem. This is an organisational design problem.”
  
  

• “Leadership has never been about having the most information. It’s about sense-making.”
  
  

• “AI does not replace creativity. It commoditises the easy parts and amplifies the hard ones.”
  
  

• “AI is not the strategy. How you lead with it is.”
  
  

 

---

 

Timestamps

00:00 – What leaders really say about AI behind closed doors
01:45 – From ‘What is AI?’ to ‘How do we change how we work?’
03:30 – AI as an environment, not a slide deck
05:05 – Question 1: How organisations must be redesigned for AI
07:20 – Question 2: AI as collaborator, not just a tool
09:10 – Question 3: Leadership and judgment in an AI-rich world
11:05 – Question 4: Where real value is created with AI
13:10 – Question 5: What leadership really means now
15:20 – Why values matter more in the age of AI
17:10 – Final invitation to leaders: moving beyond the AI hype