AI For the C Suite with Chad Harvey™

You Don't Need an AI Strategy — You Need This Instead | AI For The C-Suite EP 64

What if everything you've been told about getting started with AI is wrong? In this episode, Chad sits down with Charlene Li — New York Times bestselling author, founder of Altimeter Group, and one of the most respected voices in business transformation — to challenge some of the most common assumptions leaders hold about AI adoption. Her new book, Winning with AI: The 90-Day Blueprint for Success (co-authored with Dr. Katja Walsh), cuts through the noise with a deceptively simple premise: you don't need an AI strategy. You need AI in service of the strategy you already have. Chad and Charlene cover a lot of ground in this one — and it moves fast. In this episode: * Why leading with an AI strategy is the wrong move — and what to do instead * The real reason organizations are drowning in pilots and not seeing results * Why readiness assessments and feasibility studies are just expensive procrastination * What "Goldilocks governance" looks like — and how mid-market companies can build it without dedicated headcount * The difference between responsible AI and ethical AI (and why it matters more than most leaders realize) * How to use AI to figure out how to use AI * Why speed is the new moat — and what that means for organizations that are still on the sidelines * The generational divide around AI adoption, and what the data from Stanford and the OECD tells us about what's really going on * What AI fluency actually looks like in practice — and how leaders can model it for their teams Charlene also shares the moment that made her throw out the readiness assessment she'd already built for the book, why shadow AI is more dangerous than adoption, and what the 20% is that AI still can't replicate. If you're a senior leader who knows AI matters but isn't sure where to start — this episode is the answer.   Get the book: WinningWithAIbook.com Connect with Charlene: linkedin.com/in/charleneli | charleneli.com

The Harness: Why the Model Is No Longer the Competitive Advantage | AI For The C-Suite EP 63

In your next vendor meeting, someone is going to say the word "agent" three or four times. You'll nod. Notes will get taken. And the word will do almost no actual work in the room. That's the problem this episode is built to solve. Chad's Jargon Watch covers 15 terms that have crystallized in the last 90 days (including "harness") and is organized around three layers every C-suite leader needs to understand: architecture, failure modes, and money and trust. The architecture terms (harness, context engineering, MCP, A2A) explain what actually surrounds the model and why that wrapper is the new competitive moat. One analysis from earlier this year attributed approximately 65% of enterprise AI failures to harness defects - not model deficits. The failure mode terms (context rot, the reasoning trap, memory poisoning, sycophancy 2.0, shadow AI agents) describe what goes wrong and why traditional monitoring often doesn't catch it. The money and trust terms (agent washing, AWU, the inference cost paradox, KYA, sovereign AI) carry direct procurement and governance implications — including why any per-seat contract signed in 2024 or 2025 may already be worth renegotiating. The broader point underneath all 15 terms: AI vocabulary in 2026 has stopped describing what the model does. It's started describing who's responsible when it does something wrong. That shift has real consequences for how you evaluate vendors, structure contracts, and govern the agents already running inside your organization. This episode gives you a working vocabulary and a set of practical moves you can use in your next vendor meeting, board conversation, or contract review... starting this week. AI For the C Suite™ podcast keeps C-Suite leaders informed and engaged in the world of AI for business. If you're a CEO, President, Owner, or C-suite leader looking to understand how AI will impact your organization, you've found the right podcast. AI for the C-Suite™ is a continuous learning and application experience that exists to unite, elevate, and equip leaders to navigate the Exponential Age. Join the AI for the C Suite community today: https://aiforthecsuite.com/ [https://aiforthecsuite.com/] #chadharvey #aiforthecsuite #aic

The Four Modes of Working With AI | AI For The C-Suite EP 62

Most organizations have rolled out AI tools and called it a strategy. They've issued logins, run compliance training, and watched adoption numbers tick up — while the actual quality of the work stayed flat. The problem isn't the tool. It's the mental model. If your people are treating AI like a search bar, they're only accessing a fraction of what's possible. Geoff Gibbins has spent close to 20 years helping organizations figure out what actually works at the intersection of strategy, technology, and human behavior. In this episode, he makes a sharp and practical case for shifting from AI as a tool to AI as a collaborator — and walks through a four-mode framework that gives leaders and their teams a real working vocabulary for that shift. You'll hear why a study of 450 people found that managers consistently scored lower than individual contributors on AI collaboration quality — and what that means for how you're modeling behavior on your own team. You'll also hear why workers in their fifties outperformed workers in their twenties, and what that data suggests about the habits we need to build deliberately. Geoff also introduces a three-part measurement system — Results, Relationship, and Resilience — that gives mid-market leaders a practical way to assess whether their AI investment is actually paying off beyond license counts and time-saved metrics. Geoff Gibbins is the founder of Human Machines and the author of Critical Intelligence, a book on strengthening human thinking in the age of AI. He previously served as a partner at Accenture and has worked with organizations including Walmart, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, and Vanguard. This episode gives you a concrete framework for evaluating and improving how your organization actually collaborates with AI — and three specific moves you can make starting Monday. AI For the C Suite™ podcast keeps C-Suite leaders informed and engaged in the world of AI for business. If you're a CEO, President, Owner, or C-suite leader looking to understand how AI will impact your organization, you've found the right podcast. Generative AI is the most disruptive General Purpose Technology we have seen in the last 45 years. It holds tremendous promise when leveraged properly and tremendous peril for those who disregard its existence. AI for the C-Suite™ is a continuous learning and application experience that exists to unite, elevate, and equip leaders to navigate the Exponential Age. Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/qeQ-ImaG-dI Join the AI for the C Suite community today: https://aiforthecsuite.com/ [https://aiforthecsuite.com/] #chadharvey #aiforthecsuite #aic

The Extended Cognition Layer: Why Your AI Posture Matters More Than Your Prompts | AI For The C-Suite EP 61

Most executives using AI today have a posture problem. They treat the tool like an Oracle, a search engine, or a writing assistant. All three postures have you standing outside the tool, trading instructions over a wall. None of them are getting the job done. In this episode, Chad unpacks the two commitments that define a working philosophy for using AI well. The first: AI is an extended cognition layer - an external component of your own thinking apparatus, not a source of answers but an instrument for better thinking. The second: you retain judgment. Every substantive decision still sits with you, regardless of how confident the model sounds. Together, these commitments form a pairing. Extended cognition without retained judgment becomes abdication. Retained judgment without extended cognition means you're leaving most of the value on the table. Most executives violate one of the two. Chad also names a third element that determines whether the pairing works at all: humility at entry. The "just do it, give me what I want" posture leaks quality from every prompt you write. Chad shows you what to do instead, including one specific move you can practice tomorrow that inverts the default and sharpens your thinking before the AI touches any actual work. If you've been frustrated by generic AI outputs, or if you've noticed your team starting to co-pilot its way through strategic work without enough critical examination, this episode gives you a framework for getting both the speed and the rigor. The tools aren't the problem. The posture is. AI For the C Suite™ keeps C-Suite leaders informed and engaged in the world of AI for business. If you're a CEO, President, Owner, or C-suite leader looking to understand how AI will impact your organization, you've found the right podcast.  Join the AI for the C Suite community today: https://aiforthecsuite.com/ [https://aiforthecsuite.com/] #chadharvey #aiforthecsuite #aic

Ondar Tarlow | AI Strategy Isn’t About Tools It’s About Workflow | AI For The C Suite EP 60

Most organizations in regulated industries aren't slow on AI because of compliance. They're slow because no one has decided to be brave enough to move. In this episode, Chad sits down with Ondar Tarlow — a marketing executive who led AI adoption inside financial services organizations before most CMOs were willing to have the conversation. Ondar's team deployed propensity modeling and machine learning to identify the next best product for existing customers, drove a 5x improvement in campaign performance, and cut production time by 75% using generative AI tools layered into their creative workflow. The conversation goes well beyond marketing tactics. Ondar makes the case that AI should never be compartmentalized inside IT — or any single department — and walks through a practical framework for how middle market leaders can get started: map the workflow first, identify high-leverage use cases, and treat AI as an assistant that helps your team do more in less time, not a replacement for the people already doing the work. You'll also hear Ondar and Chad dig into what it actually looks like to navigate the tension between moving fast and managing compliance risk in a regulated environment — and why the leaders who manage that tension best are the ones willing to align marketing, legal, and risk teams around a shared strategy before they start testing. Ondar Tarlow is a CMO and consultant with more than 20 years of experience in financial services, motorsports, and lifestyle brands. His hands-on experience with AI adoption in highly regulated environments makes his perspective directly applicable for middle market leaders who are ready to move past the conversation and into action. Walk away from this episode with a clearer starting point for mapping AI into your existing workflows — and a sharper sense of what's actually holding your organization back. Watch the full episode: youtu.be/VOyAn_BX3Qw Connect with Ondar: ondartarlow.org