In this exclusive interview, Alison McCauley shares how generative AI is reshaping business strategy, why ethical adoption is key to long-term success, and how leaders can empower their teams to thrive at the intersection of human insight and machine intelligence
Named one of the world’s most forward-thinking artificial intelligence speakers, Alison McCauley is a bestselling author, strategist, and adviser helping organisations navigate disruption through trust-driven innovation.
In this exclusive Q&A, McCaukey explores ethical adoption of responsible AI and how businesses need to evolve in the coming months.
Q: As AI technologies accelerate in capability and adoption, what are the key ethical dilemmas that businesses must address to ensure responsible use?
This question is so important. Innovation is moving so fast in this space that we haven’t had time to catch up with the complex questions it raises. And that’s a really difficult position to be in. We haven’t caught up as people, as societies, as governments, or as organisations.
In my talks, I really emphasise how everything needs to be done with a lens of responsible AI. I have a slide that covers just a fraction of the many questions this surfaces, and new questions keep coming up faster and faster.
So it’s incredibly important that we learn: what are these new principles of responsible AI? How to act thoughtfully, how to move forward thoughtfully, and that we learn to keep an ear to the ground for new developments in the space.
This is something I highlight in every talk, and I often end up having a lot of follow-up questions and discussions with people in the audiences I speak to.
Q: Having worked in the AI space since its earlier stages, how would you characterise the sector’s evolution, particularly in how businesses are adapting to generative AI?
I started working in AI in 2010, and it was completely different back then. AI development has been around for a long time—the 1960s were even a really vibrant time for AI. But what happened a little over a year and a half ago completely changed everything. OpenAI launched ChatGPT, and suddenly everybody had access to really sophisticated AI at their fingertips.
The work they did falls into a space called generative AI, and the pace of acceleration since then has been absolutely staggering. It’s surprised everyone, even those deeply embedded in the field.
There are a couple of things to understand about this. First, this new kind of AI unlocks an entirely new class of business cases. These now allow us to use the power of these tools for open-ended tasks, to interface and interact with them in our natural language, and to do so across a variety of formats.
That’s a massive opportunity, but it also brings new challenges—challenges we’re only just beginning to navigate. Our existing structures and the way we work—our business processes, our organisational setups, our mindsets—are all designed around traditional software. Generative AI works differently. It works vastly differently.
So, we need to develop new ways of working with it. We need to learn new modes of interaction. We need to set new expectations around what’s possible with this kind of software—and that’s really hard.
In summary, I’d say this is a time of massive opportunity and uncharted waters. That’s why I place so much emphasis on the urgency to learn. Those who learn how to harness these truly powerful tools will be best placed to use them for competitive advantage. This is, without question, a critical learning moment.
Q: You often speak about the importance of ‘being human at the AI crossroads’. In practical terms, how can organisations centre human intelligence and values while deploying artificial intelligence?
There’s a lot of talk about this being all about machines or robots taking over or doing the work. But what isn’t talked about enough—and what’s really important—is that the real opportunity in this new form of AI lies in combining the unique power of the human brain with what is now possible through machine intelligence.
It’s in this combination—human intelligence and machine intelligence—that new potential is unlocked. This technology gives us the opportunity to supercharge what we can do as individuals, as teams, and as organisations. What stands in the way is that many of us don’t yet know how to interact with AI. We need to develop better human–AI communication in order to extract meaningful value from these tools.
The good news is that there is a practical way to approach this. There are things we can do to begin getting our arms around this technology and to draw value from it. In my talks, I focus not only on contextualising what is happening—why now, what has changed, what is now possible—but also on offering very practical guidance: how do I begin using these tools effectively? What do they mean for my organisation? How can we leverage them better?
With that blend of understanding and practical action, I try to help people get more out of these tools—to help them see how AI can truly serve them.
Q: When you speak at events, what core message or transformation do you hope your audiences leave with—particularly in how they approach responsible AI adoption within their organisations?
Right now, too few people really understand how to extract value from these tools. There are early adopters who have jumped in, and for them, it’s intuitive—they’re using AI to make themselves, their teams, and their organisations more capable.
But there are many others who don’t yet know how to reach that value. They may have experimented a bit—it may feel like a toy to them. They’re wondering: how do I actually make this useful?
What I try to do—what I hope to achieve—is to bridge that gap. I think it’s incredibly important for more people to understand what’s now possible. They need to know how to use these tools and how to think about the broader questions that come with them.
So, my goal is to close that understanding gap and to inspire more people to explore and better engage with this space.
