A wide-ranging, human-first conversation about scaling AI responsibly. Tracey traces her path from nursing to programming to CEO, explains why “good enough isn’t,” and lays out a practical playbook: pick the right problem, bring people along, then layer AI on strong workflows and platforms to unlock real innovation—not just busywork.
Our Guest
Tracey Cesen — Founder & CEO, Forever Human AI. Former President/CEO in professional services; earlier roles across healthcare, finance, and ed-tech. Advocate for human-centered tech, product thinking, and pragmatic change management.
What we cover
- Origin story: from nursing labs to coding and product leadership
- “Good Enough Isn’t” as a leadership lens (and why a little healthy pushback makes teams better)
- Human-first tech: what AI should automate, and what must stay human
- Platforms > one-off pilots: how workflow/data foundations enable GenAI value
- Why 95% of pilots stall (and how to be in the 5% that ship and stick)
- The “AI as a utility” model (quality–speed–cost) & what that means for builders and buyers
- Marketing implications: YouTube’s rising importance, AI disclosure, and audience trust
- Tracey’s “why”: help people be more than they think they can be, and make new mistakes
Resources & Links Mentioned
Connect with Tracey
Platforms & Tools
Hosts
Takeaways for Operators & Leaders
- Start with the right problem. Strong pilots solve meaningful problems, not just novel ones.
- People > tools. Adoption comes through excitement, not enforcement.
- Focus on platforms. Platforms like ServiceNow unify workflows and data, making GenAI possible.
- Think like a utility. Models are like electricity: optimize across quality, speed, and cost.
- Avoid vanity pilots. Ship useful tools, iterate quickly, and make new mistakes to learn and improve.
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