Fresh off an incredible few days in Brooklyn at The Conference Board’s AI Leadership Summit!
The discussions moved quickly past the hype, focusing deeply on the practical realities of governance, ethics, and strategic implementation.
I grabbed a few minutes between sessions to do a “stand-up” interview with Brandon Hogstad, Ph.D. to discuss one of the biggest tensions we’re seeing in the market right now: the balance between top-down governance and bottom-up innovation.
As we discuss in the video below, you need both. Employees need the flexibility to experiment with tools (bottom-up), but the organization must provide the safety guardrails (top-down) to protect the business.
At Process Distillery , we view this through a simple lens: People, Process, and Profit.
For the middle market specifically, there is a lot of fear that AI is coming to replace human capital.
We see it differently. We don’t view AI as a replacement for people; we view it as a toolset.
• The Goal: Automate the mundane and the manual.
• The Result: Freeing up human talent to focus on more meaningful, high-value work.
• The Caveat: It must be done ethically.
As we integrate these tools, maintaining an ethical framework isn’t just “nice to have”—it’s a critical part of the strategy.
Big thanks to The Conference Board for a well-executed event.
Check out the clip below for our take on navigating this balance. 👇
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