Rigid org charts are quickly becoming a barrier to AI-fueled business impact. Microsoft's CVP of Workforce Transformation joins WorkLab host Molly Wood to share how the most forward-thinking companies are breaking down silos, building teams around skills, and embracing constant change. Discover why adaptability, curiosity, and a willingness to reinvent are the new must-haves for leaders and employees alike—and how your organization can unleash human capability for the AI era. Show Notes WorkLab ...
May 13, 2026•28 min•Season 10Ep. 3
Rigid org charts are quickly becoming a barrier to AI-fueled business impact. Microsoft's CVP of Workforce Transformation joins WorkLab host Molly Wood to share how the most forward-thinking companies are breaking down silos, building teams around skills, and embracing constant change. Discover why adaptability, curiosity, and a willingness to reinvent are the new must-haves for leaders and employees alike—and how your organization can unleash human capability for the AI era. Show Notes WorkLab ...
May 13, 2026•28 min•Season 10Ep. 3
AI's promise is real. But the challenge to realizing its value isn't technology—it's people. AI scientist, entrepreneur, and investor Rana el Kaliouby joins host Molly Wood to explore what can stall progress. The conversation explores how emotional intelligence, empathy, and communication are essential for human–AI teams to thrive. Rana makes the case that leaders must foster trust and readiness, rethink workflows, and keep humans at the center to unlock AI's full potential and ensure sustainabl...
Apr 22, 2026•23 min•Season 10Ep. 2
AI's promise is real. But the challenge to realizing its value isn't technology—it's people. AI scientist, entrepreneur, and investor Rana el Kaliouby joins host Molly Wood to explore what can stall progress. The conversation explores how emotional intelligence, empathy, and communication are essential for human–AI teams to thrive. Rana makes the case that leaders must foster trust and readiness, rethink workflows, and keep humans at the center to unlock AI's full potential and ensure sustainabl...
Apr 22, 2026•23 min•Season 10Ep. 2
The ever-increasing capabilities of AI have everyone wondering what it means for their career. LinkedIn's Chief Economic Opportunity Officer Aneesh Raman joins Molly Wood to explore why curiosity, adaptability, and action now matter more than certainty. Drawing from his new book, Open to Work: How to Get Ahead in the Age of AI —cowritten with LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky—Raman makes the case that careers aren't being automated away. They're being reshaped for the AI era, by the people willing to ...
Apr 01, 2026•38 min•Season 10Ep. 1
The ever-increasing capabilities of AI have everyone wondering what it means for their career. LinkedIn's Chief Economic Opportunity Officer Aneesh Raman joins Molly Wood to explore why curiosity, adaptability, and action now matter more than certainty. Drawing from his new book, Open to Work: How to Get Ahead in the Age of AI —cowritten with LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky—Raman makes the case that careers aren't being automated away. They're being reshaped for the AI era, by the people willing to ...
Apr 01, 2026•39 min•Season 10Ep. 1
As AI moves from assistance to execution, the key challenge for organizations flips from adoption to judgement. Leaders are deciding what to delegate to agents, what must remain human, and how accountability works when machines start doing real work. This season of WorkLab examines the impact of those decisions inside organizations: how work gets redesigned, how leaders stay in control without slowing progress, and why human skills like direction and discernment matter more as AI scales. WorkLab...
Mar 27, 2026•1 min
As AI moves from assistance to execution, the key challenge for organizations flips from adoption to judgement. Leaders are deciding what to delegate to agents, what must remain human, and how accountability works when machines start doing real work. This season of WorkLab examines the impact of those decisions inside organizations: how work gets redesigned, how leaders stay in control without slowing progress, and why human skills like direction and discernment matter more as AI scales. WorkLab...
Mar 27, 2026•1 min
Economist and public thinker Tyler Cowen joins host Molly Wood to explore why AI adoption is so challenging for many employees, organizations, and educational institutions. As he puts it, "This may sound counterintuitive, but under a lot of scenarios, the more unhappy people are, the better we're doing, because that means a lot of change." Listen in for unvarnished insights on what leaders can expect as they push their organizations to reinvent how they operate and create value with AI. Show Not...
Jan 07, 2026•29 min•Season 9Ep. 4
Economist and public thinker Tyler Cowen joins host Molly Wood to explore why AI adoption is so challenging for many employees, organizations, and educational institutions. As he puts it, "This may sound counterintuitive, but under a lot of scenarios, the more unhappy people are, the better we're doing, because that means a lot of change." Listen in for unvarnished insights on what leaders can expect as they push their organizations to reinvent how they operate and create value with AI. Show Not...
Jan 07, 2026•29 min•Season 9Ep. 4
EY's Global Consulting AI Leader Dan Diasio joins host Molly Wood to discuss the future of work and how companies can reinvent themselves as AI-first Frontier Firms. Learn how AI is disrupting the consulting industry, why investing in upskilling your employees is now mandatory, and why the right combination of mindset, skill set, and tool set matters more than ever. Listen in to discover practical strategies for leaders to drive transformation and compete with AI-native disruptors. WorkLab | Sub...
Dec 10, 2025•30 min•Season 9Ep. 3
EY's Global Consulting AI Leader Dan Diasio joins host Molly Wood to discuss the future of work and how companies can reinvent themselves as AI-first Frontier Firms. Learn how AI is disrupting the consulting industry, why investing in upskilling your employees is now mandatory, and why the right combination of mindset, skill set, and tool set matters more than ever. Listen in to discover practical strategies for leaders to drive transformation and compete with AI-native disruptors. WorkLab | Sub...
Dec 10, 2025•30 min•Season 9Ep. 3
The journey to becoming a Frontier Firm requires leaders to reimagine every aspect of their organization—quickly and without a playbook. Harvard Business School's Raffaella Sadun joins host Molly Wood to explore what makes a Frontier Firm, why reskilling is so hard, and how leaders can build cultures that thrive on experimentation and human–AI collaboration. Discover actionable strategies for navigating uncertainty, driving transformation, and empowering every employee to become an AI-enabled in...
Nov 19, 2025•33 min•Season 9Ep. 2
The journey to becoming a Frontier Firm requires leaders to reimagine every aspect of their organization—quickly and without a playbook. Harvard Business School's Raffaella Sadun joins host Molly Wood to explore what makes a Frontier Firm, why reskilling is so hard, and how leaders can build cultures that thrive on experimentation and human–AI collaboration. Discover actionable strategies for navigating uncertainty, driving transformation, and empowering every employee to become an AI-enabled in...
Nov 19, 2025•33 min•Season 9Ep. 2
Agents can become essential team members at any organization—if they're deployed thoughtfully. In this episode, Pascal Bornet joins host Molly Wood to share practical frameworks for helping leaders design and implement agentic AI, run high-impact pilots, and build the human skills—creativity, critical thinking, and social authenticity—that set Frontier Firms apart. Bornet is a coauthor of the recent book Agentic Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work and Life . ...
Oct 29, 2025•40 min•Season 9Ep. 1
Agents can become essential team members at any organization—if they're deployed thoughtfully. In this episode, Pascal Bornet joins host Molly Wood to share practical frameworks for helping leaders design and implement agentic AI, run high-impact pilots, and build the human skills—creativity, critical thinking, and social authenticity—that set Frontier Firms apart. Bornet is a coauthor of the recent book Agentic Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work and Life . ...
Oct 29, 2025•40 min•Season 9Ep. 1
The AI-first future of business is coming into focus, and it's time for every firm to become a Frontier Firm—a human-led, AI-operated org that buys intelligence like it's electricity, deploys it across workflows, and compounds it like interest. The burning question for leaders: How do we get there? The latest season of the WorkLab podcast will light the way, kicking off on October 29 with Pascal Bornet, coauthor of Agentic Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work ...
Oct 22, 2025•1 min
The AI-first future of business is coming into focus, and it's time for every firm to become a Frontier Firm—a human-led, AI-operated org that buys intelligence like it's electricity, deploys it across workflows, and compounds it like interest. The burning question for leaders: How do we get there? The latest season of the WorkLab podcast will light the way, kicking off on October 29 with Pascal Bornet, coauthor of Agentic Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work ...
Oct 22, 2025•1 min
Rajesh Jha is Microsoft's EVP of Experiences + Devices, which means he oversees a wide range of products, from Microsoft 365 productivity tools and Surface devices to Copilot. Jha played a pivotal role in integrating AI into the company's offerings, and he joined the WorkLab podcast to share insights on navigating the complexities of becoming an AI-first organization. He also offers actionable advice on how leaders can adapt and compete while bringing their teams (and customers) along. WorkLab S...
Jun 18, 2025•39 min•Season 8Ep. 8
Rajesh Jha is Microsoft's EVP of Experiences + Devices, which means he oversees a wide range of products, from Microsoft 365 productivity tools and Surface devices to Copilot. Jha played a pivotal role in integrating AI into the company's offerings, and he joined the WorkLab podcast to share insights on navigating the complexities of becoming an AI-first organization. He also offers actionable advice on how leaders can adapt and compete while bringing their teams (and customers) along. WorkLab S...
Jun 18, 2025•38 min•Season 8Ep. 8
The beauty industry is massive, fast-paced, and hard to predict. There are 20,000 brands worldwide, and microtrends can spread around the globe in hours. That's the challenge facing Kalindi Mehta, Global VP for Consumer Foresight Strategy and Predictive Analytics at the Estée Lauder Companies. In the latest episode, she lays out how AI is transforming her industry, and explains how the technology can help all companies be more agile, improve their decision making, and reimagine their workflows. ...
May 30, 2025•20 min•Season 8Ep. 7
Cassie Kozyrkov created the discipline of decision intelligence, combining the power of AI with data science to enable companies to make better choices. She's now an AI advisor, and she writes the popular Decision Intelligence newsletter. Kozyrkov joined the WorkLab podcast to discuss how leaders can maximize the potential of AI and data, why having too many options is as unhelpful as having too few, and how to avoid falling prey to confirmation bias. WorkLab Subscribe to the WorkLab newsletter...
May 14, 2025•24 min•Season 8Ep. 6
AI has crossed an important threshold, says Microsoft CMO of AI at Work Jared Spataro: it now has remarkable abilities to think and reason. What does that mean for organizations? Intelligence is on tap. "You can now buy intelligence like you would purchase a commodity like electricity," he explains. Spataro joined the podcast to discuss what it means for business, how he already sees agents transforming workflows and team structures, and why leaders need to "hire their first digital employee" no...
Apr 30, 2025•28 min•Season 8Ep. 5
DJ Patil was the first-ever US Chief Data Scientist and has led some of the biggest data initiatives in government and business. He has also been at the forefront of leveraging AI to solve the thorniest problems companies face, as well as "stupid, boring problems in the back office." He joins the WorkLab podcast to discuss the potential of AI to change business, how leaders can drive technological transformation, and why it's vital for data scientists to never lose sight of the human element. Wo...
Apr 16, 2025•27 min•Season 8Ep. 4
A core component of every company's value proposition is its unique expertise. "But AI is lowering the cost of expertise," says Harvard Business School professor Karim Lakhani, and that will require leaders to rethink every aspect of their organization. Lakhani has spent his career researching digital transformation, and he joins the WorkLab podcast to share insights on how leaders can avoid "falling asleep at the wheel" with AI, and what they can learn from the AI-native generation of MBAs. Wor...
Apr 02, 2025•26 min•Season 8Ep. 3
"It's time to replace the old linear model of success with a circular model of growth, in which goals are discovered, pursued, and adapted," says Anne-Laure Le Cunff. She left a successful tech-marketing career to study neuroscience, and now writes the popular Ness Labs newsletter, which features insights about how our brains work that can help us navigate uncertainty and nurture innovation. She joined WorkLab to discuss what leaders can learn from neuroscience, and how to tap the potential of A...
Mar 19, 2025•28 min•Season 8Ep. 2
Azeem Azhar's mission is to help leaders stay ahead of the curve at a time when technology, especially AI, is evolving at an exponential rate. He founded the Exponential View newsletter, which offers insights and advice to an eager audience of 116,000+ people who want to get ahead in a rapidly changing world. He joined us to discuss the potential for AI to help business leaders navigate uncertainty and describe some of the ways that AI agents and deep research will fundamentally change the way w...
Mar 05, 2025•24 min•Season 8Ep. 1
AI is evolving at a mind-bending pace, reshaping every aspect of business. How can leaders filter out the noise to stay focused on transforming their organizations? How can they leverage the limitless potential of AI, agents, and deep research? How can they harness the latest technology to access untapped value, turbocharge their decision making, and maintain their organization's competitive edge? In the new season of the WorkLab podcast from Microsoft, we'll be exploring all of those questions ...
Feb 26, 2025•2 min
Learning how AI can help with a few tasks won't lead us to unlock its true power—for that, we need to fundamentally change how we think about the technology. So says Conor Grennan, Chief AI Architect at the NYU Stern School of Business and founder of the consulting company AI Mindset, who has studied the challenges that employees and organizations face in their AI journeys. He joins us to share insights about how making behavioral changes can help everyone get the most out of AI at work. WorkLab...
Jan 08, 2025•27 min•Season 7Ep. 8
Kevin Novak founded the AI-focused VC firm Rackhouse Ventures in 2021 after a decade of trailblazing leadership roles in data science. He works closely with the founders of the AI-native startups he backs, giving him a bird's eye view of how they're leveraging AI to reinvent business. He joined the WorkLab podcast to share some of his learnings, as well as insights about the promise of AI agents, how AI is transforming what we'll be able to do with our data, and the perils of how we think about ...
Dec 04, 2024•21 min•Season 7Ep. 7
