Diane Sadowski-Joseph, Co-Founder of Clarinet, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about why most AI adoption stalls at “talking the talk,” how to choose the right AI use cases using the “trifecta” and the Five Frictions framework, and how “click cutters” can unlock compounding gains by removing cognitive and workflow friction.

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Here’s everything Diane referenced: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/fivefrictions

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(07:08) Diane’s career story and path to founding Clarinet

(14:43) Why AI shows up in every episode and the “why companies are stuck” question

(15:58) Why AI adoption feels hard despite tool abundance (DIY, bandwidth, readiness)

(21:46) The “trifecta” criteria for identifying a good use case

(27:39) An example of a bad AI use case: what broke and why it was abandoned

(36:25) The “Five Frictions” framework and where to start

(42:50) Example 1: time-to-hire goal and candidate feedback GPT workflow

(47:03) Example 2: exec reporting and “hyper-personalized” dashboard pushes

(52:39) “Click cutters” and how to find them

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Past guests on MPL include Brené Brown, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian), Josh Bersin, Katie Burke (Chief People Officer, Harvey), Liz Fosslien, Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot), Dave Scott (Chief People Officer, ADT), Melanie Rossenwasser (Chief People Officer, Dropbox), Crystal Boysen (Chief People Officer, Sprout Social), and many more.