Are we stuck iterating when we should be innovating?  

Brian Solis, Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow, joins Phil Fersht on From the Horses' Mouth to unpack the AI paradox. Why is AI maturity declining even as capabilities explode? The answer lies in mindset—not models.   

Brian argues that leaders must stop using AI to simply optimize yesterday’s processes and start reimagining what’s newly possible. It's not just about doing things faster—it's about doing entirely new things.   

What You’ll Hear in 30 Minutes  

- Why AI maturity actually dropped in 2024—and what it signals  
- The difference between iteration and innovation in the age of AI  
- Why rethinking jobs and workflows is now mission-critical  
- How leadership must evolve from cost control to possibility design  
- What it means to become an “AI-native” organization  - Why the pressure to change needs to feel urgent—but be inspiring   

Guest Snapshots
Brian Solis is the Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow, where he leads a worldwide network of futurists and innovation officers focused on helping enterprises navigate disruption with clarity and purpose. A world-renowned digital anthropologist, Brian has published nine bestselling books and over 60 influential research reports on innovation, transformation, and emerging technologies. He’s been featured in HBR, Fast Company, CIO, and Forbes—and is consistently ranked among the top global voices in business innovation.   

Timestamps  
00:00 – Welcome & Brian’s Background    
01:30 – From Disruptive Tech to Enterprise Innovation    
03:25 – Brian’s First Generative AI Encounter    
05:00 – Building the AI Maturity Model at ServiceNow
06:40 – Why AI Maturity Scores Are Falling
07:50 – From Quick Wins to Business Transformation
09:35 – Connecting Silos with AI (Not Just Automating)
11:00 – Reimagining Work, Not Replacing It
13:20 – Helping Employees Become AI-Native
15:20 – Leadership’s Role in Inspiring AI-Driven Change
18:10 – Linear vs. Exponential Thinking
20:30 – Free Time, Dark Leisure & Organizational Curiosity
22:20 – Why Most Companies Still Think Like It’s Web 1.0
24:45 – Iteration ≠ Innovation    
26:50 – AI as an Extension of Human Creativity    
28:10 – Who Will Win: Services or Software?    
30:15 – Cost Center or Growth Engine? You Decide    
34:00 – Sign Off & Canine-Approved Conclusion      

Explore More  
• Brian Solis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briansolis/  
• Brian's Latest Book: https://www.briansolis.com/books/  
• ServiceNow AI Index Report: https://www.servicenow.com  
• Phil Fersht on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfersht/  
• More from HFS on Agentic AI: https://www.hfsresearch.com

Dogs, Dial-Up, and Disruption: My conversation with Brian Solis

Are we outsourcing too much of our thinking to AI?  

In this thought-provoking episode, Phil Fersht sits down with HFS’s own Dana Daher, a trained anthropologist and research leader, to talk about how GenAI is subtly reshaping how we think, work, and show up. 

Dana explores the idea of cognitive erosion—what happens when we rely so heavily on GenAI that we stop building our own creative, critical, and strategic muscles. She explains why this matters now, especially for the next generation of workers, and how leaders can protect what makes us uniquely human. 

This isn’t about resisting technology—it’s about learning how to use it without losing ourselves.  

What You’ll Hear in 30 Minutes 

1. The concept of cognitive erosion—and how it’s different from burnout 

2. Why younger employees may miss critical thinking milestones if they over-rely on GenAI 

3. How "co-creating with machines" can end up making everything sound the same 

4. The importance of cognitive resilience as a leadership capability 

5. The risk of workplace homogeneity in a world of AI-written everything 

6. How to balance efficiency with authenticity in the age of digital assistants  

Guest Snapshots 

Dana Daher is Executive Research Leader at HFS Research, where she blends her background in anthropology and IT to lead research across employee experience, agentic AI, DEI, and sustainability. Before HFS, she held leadership roles at Unisys and Info-Tech Research Group, helping public and private sector clients shape their digital transformation journeys. Dana holds both bachelor's and master's degrees in Anthropology from University College London, bringing a deeply human lens to technology’s impact on business and society. 



Timestamps 

00:00 – Welcome: Dana Daher and the Anthropology of Enterprise 

02:54 – What Anthropology Teaches Us About Tech Culture 

06:04 – What Is Cognitive Erosion and Why It Matters 

07:48 – Three Waves of Cognitive Offloading: From Google to GenAI 

09:16 – How AI Affects Judgment, Creativity, and Critical Thinking 

12:04 – Offloading Opinions vs. Gaining Insight: The Thin Line 

13:27 – AI’s Role in Creating a Sea of Generic Content 

16:17 – Teaching Cognitive Resilience in the AI Era 

18:07 – The Next Workforce Crisis: When Juniors Are Skipped for AI 

21:03 – Is the Soul of the Workplace at Risk? 

23:09 – Can AI Drive Us Back to Human Connection? 

25:30 – Tech Efficiency vs. Human Cost: Finding Balance 

26:52 – Closing Thoughts: Retaining Originality in a Machine World 



Explore More

🌐Dana’s Research on Cognitive Erosion: https://www.hfsresearch.com/analyst/dana-daher

🌐Learn more about Agentic AI at HFS: https://www.hfsresearch.com 

🔗 Follow Dana Daher: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-daher/ 

🔗 Follow Phil Fersht: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfersht/

Dana Daher: Reclaiming Human Thinking in the Age of AI Shortcuts

We don’t need more dashboards—we need more listening. 



In this episode, Phil Fersht sits down with Sandeep Dadlani, the Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Technology Officer at UnitedHealth Group, to explore what fundamental healthcare transformation looks like in the age of AI. 



Sandeep dives into how UnitedHealth is deploying ambient AI and agentic systems to reduce clinical burnout, improve access to care, and, most importantly, bring empathy back into the doctor-patient relationship. 



This is AI designed to serve, not replace. And it’s already in the hands of thousands of clinicians. 



What You’ll Hear in 30 Minutes 

- Why healthcare has a tech problem and a humanity problem 

- How ambient listening AI is giving doctors their time—and their focus—back 

- What “agentic AI” really means in clinical workflows 

- The risks of bad AI and the urgency of building trusted systems 

- How to scale AI in ways that respect patients, doctors, and outcomes 



Guest Snapshots 

Sandeep Dadlani is the Executive Vice President and Chief Digital & Technology Officer at UnitedHealth Group, where he leads the charge in rethinking how one of the world’s largest healthcare companies uses technology. With prior roles at Mars and Infosys, Sandeep brings a rare blend of consumer empathy and enterprise tech savvy. His current mission? Use AI to fix the system without losing sight of the people it’s meant to serve. 



Timestamps 

00:00 – Welcome and Introductions 

01:20 – Why Healthcare Needs a Reboot 

03:48 – What “Frictionless” Really Means in Care 

06:35 – Agentic AI: More Than a Buzzword 

08:12 – Ambient Listening: Letting Doctors Be Doctors 

12:47 – Creating Space for Human Connection 

14:40 – Scaling AI to 2,000+ Clinicians 

16:22 – Designing Tech That Actually Helps 

18:57 – Building for Real People, Not Just Processes 

22:10 – Where Healthcare Transformation Goes Next 

24:36 – Closing Thoughts: A More Human Future



Explore More

🌐 Learn more about UnitedHealth Group: https://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/ 

🔗 Follow Sandeep Dadlani on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sdadlani/ 

🔗 Follow Phil Fersht: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfersht/ 

🔗 More from HFS Research: https://www.hfsresearch.com

Sandeep Dadlani: Why Healthcare Needs AI That Listens—Not Just Learns

From Recipes to Reasoning: Rethinking Enterprise Orchestration for AI 

“We’re not futzing around with chatbots anymore. We’re bringing AI to the core.” — Vijay Tella 

In this episode, Vijay Tella joins HFS CEO Phil Fersht to challenge the outdated patterns of enterprise integration. As generative and agentic AI systems demand richer context and execution capability, Vijay explains why orchestration needs a foundational rethink—and what’s next for the enterprise stack. 



What You’ll Hear in 30 Minutes 

 • Why agentic systems need both rich context and reliable execution 

 • The mindset shift from “recipe thinking” to goal-based system design 

 • The rise of enterprise skills as a trust layer for AI 

 • How to “change the wheels while driving” toward modernization 

 • Why developers will become essential again—even in a low-code world 



Guest Snapshots 

Vijay Tella is the CEO and co-founder of Workato, where he pioneered the concept of enterprise orchestration—bringing integration, automation, and AI under one platform. With a background at Oracle and TIBCO, he’s spent his career simplifying complexity in enterprise systems. Today, Vijay is focused on enabling agentic AI by building the trusted infrastructure it needs to act, not just advise. 



Timestamps 

00:00 — Intro: Why Vijay Tella Thinks Integration Needs Reinvention 

02:10 — The Origins of Workato & the “Recipe” Approach 

05:52 — Are We Solving the Right Problems with GenAI? 

08:45 — The Agentic Burn: AI Hype vs. Real Outcomes 

10:30 — Recipe Thinking vs. Agentic Thinking 

13:47 — Why Enterprises Must Bring All of Themselves to AI 

16:16 — Enterprise Skills: The Trusted Execution Layer 

20:33 — Workato’s New Mission: AI That Can Be Trusted 

21:01 — The Hidden Integration Challenge No One Sees Coming 

23:23 — How to Modernize and Apply AI in Parallel 

25:28 — Why Developers Are About to Get Cool Again 



Explore More 

🌐 Learn more about Workato: https://www.workato.com/ 

🔗 Follow Vijay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijay-tella-1a410a8/ 

🔗 Follow Phil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfersht/

Vijay Tella: It’s Time to Rethink Enterprise Orchestration

The Agent Economy Is Coming—with Blockchain as Its Backbone.

“This is not about crypto hype. It’s about solving trillion-dollar problems.” — Paul Brody

What You’ll Hear in 30 Minutes

• Why blockchain is thriving quietly—through real enterprise use cases

• The new agent-to-agent economy and its AI + blockchain foundation

• How stablecoins could collapse cross-border fees and reinvent payroll

• Why security and privacy are prerequisites, not roadblocks

• The coming shift from demos to delivery in blockchain adoption

• Why simplification and use-case storytelling will define what scales

Guest Snapshots

Paul Brody is EY’s Global Blockchain Leader and Chair of the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance. From privacy-first payments to agent-integrated supply chains, Brody leads global efforts to evolve blockchain from pilot to production. Joining him is Saurabh Gupta, President at HFS, with over a decade covering blockchain's rise, plateau—and now rebirth.

Timestamps

00:00 – Where Is Blockchain Now?

02:16 – From Tech Obsession to Real-World Use Cases

04:18 – Is Blockchain Still Too Secretive?

06:55 – Can Blockchain Solve AI’s Security Problem?

08:53 – Agents, Predictive Maintenance & Blockchain Execution

10:34 – What Agent-to-Agent Economies Could Look Like

13:54 – Why Supply Chain Isn’t There Yet

15:22 – Blockchain Still Lacks an “Intuitive UX”

17:16 – The Stablecoin Surge & Bipartisan Regulation

20:48 – Streaming Payments and the End of Payday Loans

24:11 – Public vs. Private Blockchains: What Won

26:40 – What’s Next for Ethereum, Assets & Smart Contracts

 

Explore More

🌐 Learn more about EY Blockchain: https://www.ey.com/blockchain



🔗 Follow Paul: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pbrody/

🔗 Follow Saurabh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hfssaurabh/

🔗 Follow Phil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfersht/

Paul Brody: Why Blockchain Still Matters in an AI-Obsessed World

Lead Like You Mean It with Ethan Mollick, Professor at Wharton and Author of Co-Intelligence “You don’t need an AI course. You need to get your hands dirty.” — Ethan Mollick What You’ll Hear in 30 Minutes - Why AI is exposing leadership gaps more than technical ones - How LLMs are reshaping research, training, and decision-making - Why interns and junior roles are being replaced before we’re ready - What makes an effective internal AI lab—and why most aren’t - How AI’s personality could become a competitive differentiator - Why CEOs must experiment with the tools to lead with credibility Guest Snapshot Ethan Mollick is a professor at the Wharton School and author of Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI. Through his blog One Useful Thing, he helps organizations and individuals make sense of the generative AI wave. In this episode, Mollick shares how AI is challenging everything—from how we lead to how we learn—and why the best leaders are the ones who are hands-on. 

Timestamps: 

00:00 – Ethan’s Otter Test and the AI Acceleration Curve 

01:33 – Rethinking Research, Workflows & Analyst Roles 

04:53 – Apprenticeships Are Broken. Now What? 

06:30 – AI Is a Leadership Problem 

08:22 – Building an Internal AI Lab That Works 

10:41 – Why “Perfect Data” Is a Red Herring 

14:08 – How to Prep LLMs with the Right Prompts 

16:09 – AI Personalities and the Next Differentiator 

18:50 – The CEO's 5-Minute AI Briefing 

22:02 – No One Has the Answers—But You Still Have to Lead 

24:22 – Can Google Win? 

What Comes Next in the LLM Race Explore More 

📘 Co-Intelligence: https://amzn.to/3Yk0QYQ 

📰 One Useful Thing: https://www.oneusefulthing.org 

🔗 Follow Ethan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanmollick/ 

🔗 Follow Phil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfersht/

Ethan Mollick: Why AI Is a Leadership Problem, Not Just a Tech Problem

Rewrite the Rules or Be Left Behind 

with May Habib, CEO & Co-founder of Writer 



“This is GenAI’s COVID moment—don’t waste the crisis.” — May Habib 



What You’ll Hear in 30 Minutes 

• Why enterprises are still miles away from building real agentic systems 

• How Writer’s Palmyra X5 enables self-evolving AI agents with memory 

• What smaller firms can teach enterprise giants about speed and scrappiness 

• The new formula for promotions in the age of automation 

• Why “loving tech and loving people” is the ultimate success metric 



Guest Snapshot 

May Habib is the co-founder and CEO of Writer, an enterprise-grade LLM platform focused on AI agents that work. From translation tech to leading-edge self-evolving models, Writer’s Palmyra models power agentic AI for the world’s top brands—from Salesforce to Spotify. Habib shares how her early work in machine translation shaped Writer’s agent-first architecture and why the next leap in generative AI isn’t technical—it’s cultural. 



Timestamps:  

00:00 – What Sets Writer Apart 

 02:35 – From NLP Roots to Real-World Agents 

 04:35 – Why Now: AI Urgency & Enterprise Inertia 

 07:45 – Enterprise Adoption: Challenges & Gaps 

 10:31 – Agentic AI in Action (Mars, Prudential, Salesforce) 

 14:27 – The Rise of Digital Personas & AI-Augmented Work 

 18:59 – Redefining Leadership & Recognition in the AI Era 

 22:00 – Scaling Up: Funding, Talent & What’s Ahead 

 27:16 – Culture, Grit & Staying Close to the Customer 



Learn more about Writer: https://writer.com 

Follow May Habib: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayhabib 

Follow Phil Fersht: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfersht



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May Habib: Why Agentic AI Needs Guts, Grit - and the Human Touch

Hands-On Leadership in the Age of AI

with Pascal Bornet, author of Agentic Artificial Intelligence



“If your C-suite isn’t using large-language models to make decisions, you’re already behind.” — Pascal Bornet



What You’ll Hear in 30 Minutes

• Three competencies every leader needs now – AI-readiness, change-readiness, and uniquely human skills

• Why 15–20 % “experiment time” should be baked into every employee’s week

• How AI agents fuse LLM context with automation action—and what that means for ROI

• Taming “AI overwhelm” and choosing the right pilots

• Pascal’s journey from McKinsey & EY to 2 M+ social followers and a #1 Amazon AI bestseller





Guest Snapshot

Pascal Bornet is a former McKinsey and EY partner who built both firms’ intelligent-automation practices. His newest book, Agentic Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work and Life (co-authored with Jochen Wirtz, Thomas H. Davenport, Phil Fersht, David De Cremer & others), explores how agentic systems bridge the gap between powerful language models and real-world business automation. The title currently ranks at #1 in Amazon’s Robotics category and top-10 in AI & Semantics.





Timestamps

00:00 — Intro & Pascal’s origin story

02:48 — “Tech is nothing without people”

04:50 — The three future-proof competencies

15:25 — Why CEOs must fund a culture of experimentation

21:58 — Large-language models in the C-suite

28:55 — Agentic AI: the convergence of LLMs + automation

30:40 — Closing & next-step resources



Resources & Links

Book – Agentic Artificial Intelligence → https://a.co/d/9DD7S23



Follow Pascal on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascalbornet/



Follow Phil on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfersht/



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Episode 8: Pascal Bornet: Lead with Agentic AI — or Risk Being Replaced

Redesign Your Operating Model — Before AI Redesigns You

with Nigel Vaz, CEO of Publicis Sapient and author of Digital Business Transformation

"What you don't want is faster caterpillars; you want real butterflies." — Nigel Vaz

What You'll Hear in 35 Minutes



- Why AI is a chain of "sequential watershed moments," not a single leap

- The S-P-E-E-D framework (Strategy, Product, Experience, Engineering, Data & AI) behind Publicis Sapient's transformations

- Tackling the $1.5 – $2 trillion technical-debt mountain and flipping the 80/20 "run vs. change" budget

- How Slingshot and Bodhi bring agentic AI + industry patterns into the SDLC to kill "spaghetti code"

- Moving from "tools" to a digital-workforce mindset (Iron-Man-in-the-suit analogy)

- Culture shift: learn → unlearn → relearn as an executive super-skill



Guest Snapshot

Nigel Vaz has spent 25 years at Publicis Sapient and became global CEO in 2019. His best-selling book, Digital Business Transformation: How Established Companies Sustain Competitive Advantage, introduces the SPEED model that Fortune 200 leaders still use to frame end-to-end digital change. Vaz now spearheads the firm's agentic-AI platforms Bodhi and Slingshot, aimed at collapsing delivery cycles and slashing tech debt for Global 2000 clients.



Timestamps

00:00 — Origins: from early internet banking to CEO

03:30 — "Sequential watershed moments" & the post-Turing era

06:11 — Technical debt: why $2 T blocks innovation

11:00 — Fear vs. action: only 15% of firms truly embracing AI

14:45 — Inside Slingshot: combine-harvester for the SDLC

20:45 — Services-as-software: blending people, products, outcomes

24:55 — Operating-model redesign & the Iron-Man analogy

29:15 — Governance moves from review boards to real-time guardrails

34:30 — Closing thoughts: learning > knowing in an agentic world



Resources & Links



Book – Digital Business Transformation → https://www.publicissapient.com/insights/dbt-book-preview

Sapient Slingshot overview → https://www.publicissapient.com/solutions/sapient-ai/sapient-slingshot

Bodhi agentic platform → https://www.publicissapient.com/solutions/bodhi

Follow Nigel on LinkedIn → https://uk.linkedin.com/in/nvaz

Follow Phil on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfersht/



Enjoyed the episode? Follow, rate ★★★★★ & review From the Horse's Mouth so we can keep the bold, practical AI-transformation talk coming to your feed.

Episode 7. Publicis Sapient CEO Nigel Vaz: Redesign Your Operating Model Before AI Redesigns You

Inflection AI’s CEO, Sean White, takes us behind the scenes to explore why trust is the cornerstone of the AI revolution. With boardrooms and tech leaders demanding an “AI-first” strategy, he reveals how building human-centered, conversational systems isn’t just about technology - it’s about forging genuine trust and empowering people. Drawing parallels to the transformative shifts of the 90s and the rapid innovations seen today, he explains how agentic systems and AI-driven insights are reshaping everything from customer service to enterprise data analysis.

Ep 6. Inflection AI’s CEO on Why Trust Is the Future of AI

As technology rapidly evolves, the world has undergone a significant transformation. Society has shifted from being human-centered to a complex web of digital automation, AI, and human workers who support it. This rapid innovation outpaces regulations and threatens social mobility.

The rise of AI presents a critical challenge: how can businesses and policymakers ensure that AI enhances, rather than hinders, human creativity and innovation? Automating routine tasks could free up people for roles requiring creativity, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence, but it demands a focus on continuous learning and digital literacy.

The first season of From the Horse's Mouth: Intrepid Conversations with Phil Fersht explores the intersection of AI, work, and society, aiming to shape the future.

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