Diary Of A Chief AI Officer Podcast

AI Won't Replace Trust. FACT

AI Won't Replace Trust | with Steve Cockram 🎙️ Diary of a Chief AI Officer takes over The Hack Podcast this bank holiday with an exclusive early release. What does it actually take to build an agentic powered business? Not the tech. The trust. In this special episode of The Hack, Leon McQuade sits down with Steve Cockram, co-author of The 100X Leader, 5 Voices, 5 Gears, and The Communication Code, Chairman of workplace.io [http://workplace.io], and Chief Performance Officer at Endava. Joined by Paul Longley and Dean Bulfield, they go deep on why AI adoption fails when teams aren't aligned first, and what leaders need to do about it before the wave hits. This episode is a pre-event taster for "Building the Agentic Powered Business: A Business Playbook for AI Leadership & Agents" on June 9th at the Aura Innovation Centre, Hull. Hosted by Think Cloud. Your Hosts & Guest Leon McQuade — Co-Founder and Chief AI Officer, Think Cloud. Entrepreneur in Residence, Hull University Business School. Writer of Diary of a Chief AI Officer. Paul Longley — Co-host of The Hack Podcast. Frontline perspective on SME digital transformation through Think Mental Health. Dean Bulfield — Head of Customer Success, Think Cloud. On the ground every day with 150+ clients navigating the shift to AI. Steve Cockram — Serial entrepreneur, co-author of The 100X Leader, 5 Voices, 5 Gears, and The Communication Code. Chairman of workplace.io [http://workplace.io]. Chief Performance Officer at Endava. Builder of leadership tools used by coaches and consultants worldwide. What We Covered The 100-Foot Wave Steve's metaphor for what AI feels like right now: you either learn to surf this wave or it wipes you out. The second wave of digital is bigger and more disruptive than the first, and most people are still unconsciously incompetent about it. The human tendency in fear is self-preservation. The leadership challenge is helping people move past that. Think Cloud's Shift: From Managed Cybersecurity to Managed Intelligence Leon talks about Think Cloud's evolution and why the move to "managed intelligence provider" is about more than a rebrand. It's a fundamental rethinking of what an MSP does for its clients in the agentic era. The IKIG-AI Adoption Model Leon walks Steve through the framework he's been building: Leavitt's Diamond System Model overlaid with Ikigai, mapping four domains for any organisation adopting AI: Structure, Work, Technology, and People. The big question it asks: what's your organisation's reason for being, and what's the individual's reason for being inside it? 5 Voices and Psychological Safety Steve explains why AI adoption always stalls without psychological safety first. The 5 Voices framework (Pioneer, Creative, Guardian, Connector, Nurturer) reveals which voices dominate a team and which get drowned out. Most teams only hear two or three of their five voices. If the Guardians and Nurturers don't feel safe to raise concerns, the adoption programme fails before it starts. The Spark Team Model Dean shares how Think Cloud built its own internal AI adoption steering group using Steve's leadership principles. The Spark Team includes people from across the business, including the most junior members, because the digital natives see things the leadership often can't. Cultural Blockers to AI Adoption Steve's three questions every leader should ask their team: What are you afraid of losing? What are you trying to hide? What are you trying to prove? Somewhere in those answers is your team's real attitude to AI. workplace.io [http://workplace.io]: Real-Time Culture Measurement Steve introduces workplace.io [http://workplace.io], his AI-powered platform that analyses the digital exhaust of an organisation (Teams, Slack, email) to surface real-time cultural signals. No surveys. No disruption. Over 1,228 cultural signals detected from the tools teams already use. The debate: is the market ready for this level of transparency? Paul Longley: The SME Perspective Paul shares his own experience of bringing AI into his business Think Mental Health [https://www.thinkmentalhealth.co.uk/]. His honest admission: "I haven't got the skill set to do it on my own." He brought in Think Cloud because he recognised the gap. His takeaway: you need a Sherpa. Domain Knowledge Is the Differentiator Leon shares how he took his former construction tender-writing experience, codified it into Markdown skill files, and used Copilot Cowork to produce 100+ tenders across two complex organisations in a single day. The AI is the same for everyone. The domain knowledge is what makes it work. Has AGI Already Arrived? Leon's provocative take: we've already achieved a practical form of AGI, not the sentient kind, but the kind where domain expertise combined with AI produces results that were previously impossible for a single person. Steve pushes back with the reality from Endava's dev team, where senior coders have declared they'll never write another line of code. The future is complex problem-solving, architecture, and creative direction, not manual execution. Dava Flow and Enterprise-Scale AI Steve describes how Endava's Dava Flow platform organises agents with humans governing the process, a shift from agile (organising humans for efficient software delivery) to flow (organising agents with human oversight). The biggest companies in the world are asking for this. What an AI-Confident Culture Looks Like Steve shares data from Endava's 12,000-person partnership with OpenAI: the top 20 users consume three-quarters of all tokens. The gap between super users and non-users is vast. The answer is simple demos, practical first steps, and meeting people where they are. The Financial Advisor Demo Steve's go-to example for getting people started: upload your bank statements and a budget spreadsheet into a context warehouse, and have an AI analyse your spending, flag overspends, and hold you accountable. Something a Guardian or Nurturer would spend three hours on every month, done in minutes. That's the moment people go "I could do that." Key Quotes & Moments Steve on the wave: "You're either gonna learn to surf this wave as an organisation or it is gonna wipe you out." Steve on trust: "Relational connection is becoming more valuable in business, not less." Leon on domain knowledge: "I took my domain knowledge and wrote a master file. Once I had five of those, I was able to do 100 tenders for two complex organisations." Steve on psychological safety: "If you actually create a place where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued, and is able to bring their contribution to the table, then we can begin to talk honestly about AI." Dean on buy-in: "As soon as you get that buy-in, the process just starts to unravel. It's been transformative so far." Steve on leadership maturity: "Maturity as a leader is knowing how do I bring people with me on the journey." The June 9th Event: Building the Agentic Powered Business A Business Playbook for AI Leadership & Agents Aura Innovation Centre, Hull | 10:00 am – 3:30 pm Speakers: Leon McQuade — Think Cloud's [https://www.think-cloud.co.uk] IKIG-AI Adoption Model, practical AI workflows, and the AI Elevate 360 Diagnostic Steve Cockram & Becky Barsellotti — GiANT's 5 Voices framework and workplace.io [http://workplace.io]'s real-time culture measurement Edd Buckland — Global Head of AI Capability, Endava. Enterprise-scale AI through Dava Flow Deb Millar OBE — Former Executive Director of Digital Transformation, Hull College. The education and inclusion perspective Now Founder of DaisyChain [https://daisychained.co.uk/] 👉 Join the waitlist: Register here [https://www.think-cloud.co.uk/building-the-agentic-powered-business/] Timestamps 00:00 — Introductions and Steve's new role at Endava 02:00 — Think Cloud's shift to managed intelligence provider 02:30 — Leon introduces the IKIG-AI Adoption Model 04:00 — Steve on the 100-foot wave and why most people are unconsciously incompetent 05:17 — "Somebody using AI who is five times more productive will end up doing your job for you" 06:01 — Leon's 50-tender demo for the University of Hull 06:25 — Dean on what clients are actually asking for 08:00 — Paul Longley's honest take on adopting AI as an SME owner 09:04 — The brain in a jar metaphor and connecting AI to real data 09:21 — Steve on why 95% of AI investment hasn't delivered ROI 11:05 — Trust is becoming more valuable in business, not less 11:33 — 5 Voices: why most teams only hear two or three voices 12:30 — Dean on culture measurement and workplace.io [http://workplace.io] 15:00 — The ethical debate: is real-time culture AI ready for the market? 16:56 — AI as a mirror for leadership authenticity 19:00 — Steve's three questions: What are you afraid of losing? What are you trying to hide? What are you trying to prove? 25:00 — Leon on technology literacy being at an all-time low 26:17 — The Spark Team model explained 28:00 — Cultural blockers to AI adoption 31:00 — Pioneers vs Guardians and the tension in AI adoption 32:00 — Leon's AGI provocation: have we already achieved it? 34:00 — Steve on Endava's dev team: "I will never write another line of code in my life" 35:00 — Dava Flow: from agile to agent-governed flow 36:00 — What an AI-confident culture looks like at scale 37:00 — Steve's financial advisor demo for getting people started 39:00 — Closing thoughts and the June 9th event preview 41:00 — Where to find Steve, final sign-offs Links & Resources Think Cloud: think-cloud.co.uk [http://think-cloud.co.uk] The Hack Podcast on Spotify: Listen here [https://open.spotify.com/show/2mpTcy7NfGLHG988lQoZf6] Steve Cockram on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stevejcockram [https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevejcockram/] Diary of a Chief AI Officer: Published weekly on LinkedIn workplace.io [http://workplace.io]: workplace.io [http://workplace.io] Endava / Dava Flow: endava.com [http://endava.com] GiANT Worldwide: giantworldwide.com [http://giantworldwide.com] Book: The 100X Leader by Jeremie Kubicek & Steve Cockram Book: 5 Voices by Jeremie Kubicek & Steve Cockram Book: The Communication Code by Jeremie Kubicek & Steve Cockram The Hack Podcast is produced by Think Cloud. Since 2019, Leon McQuade and Paul Longley have hosted real conversations with world-class athletes, business leaders, and change-makers about what actually drives performance, leadership, and growth. #TheHackPodcast #ThinkCloud #BuildingTheAgenticPoweredBusiness #AIAdoption #Leadership #5Voices #RaceTo2030 #DiaryOfAChiefAIOfficer This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit leonmcquade.substack.com [https://leonmcquade.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]