In This Episode:
We sit down with Monica Marquez, co-founder of Flipwork AI and the unofficial change management therapist every modern exec wishes they had on speed dial. Monica's resume is a "who's who" of places that love an acronym—NYU, Goldman Sachs, EY, Bank of America—so trust me, she's seen every flavor of corporate resistance to tech you can imagine.
Monica calls out the dirty little secret of AI in the enterprise: Buying the tech is easy; getting humans to actually use it (without mangling your workflows and ROI) is the real Olympic sport. She dishes on why middle managers are often the AI adoption bottleneck, how automation at scale can make your mistakes embarrassingly public, and why "working harder" stopped mattering the second AI walked in the door.
What We Cover:
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The very real gap between AI purchase and AI adoption—why executives fret and middle management digs in its heels
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How Monica's "Duolingo meets Deloitte" approach gets humans and agents collaborating, not colliding
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Why your old playbook is officially dead, and how agentic humans will reshape the org chart (bye, endless middle management layers)
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The sneaky cultural reasons why some employees see AI as "cheating" (and how to flip that mindset)
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How to AB-test workflows and build custom agents your team will actually use—because shelfware isn't a KPI
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Behind-the-scenes stories on avatars in HR, bias in screening, and why writing an erotic Victorian cover letter won't get you that ML ops job (but it might make you laugh)
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Monica's tactical stack of must-have AI tools: what she actually uses, what's just hype, and why you still need to get your hands dirty
Guest Bio:
Monica Marquez is the co-founder of Flipwork AI—a company that specializes in getting humans and AI to work together without burning the place down. A recovering head of talent and champion for diversity in tech, Monica spent 20+ years wrangling people problems everywhere from big banks to Big Four consultancies. She sits on the board of ALFA (Association of Latin Professionals for America, for Latinas in Tech) and publishes the "Ay Ay Ay AI" newsletter—because yes, she's always the first to kick the tires on new tools, and she's not afraid to tell you what actually works. If you want tips, tough love, and truths about closing the gap between AI hype and real change—Monica's your person.
Enjoy! This show is brought to you by Wrench.ai.
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X: https://x.com/mrdanbaird
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/themonicamarquez/
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Selected Links From This Episode:
People and Organizations Mentioned:
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Monica Marquez
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Flipwork AI
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EY, NYU, Goldman Sachs
Show Notes & Timestamps: 00:00 — Why "implementing AI" will break you if you skip change management 06:00 — The hidden ROI-killers nobody benchmarks 13:00 — Psychological barriers: cultural myths, effort vs. impact, and why your team thinks using AI is cheating 20:00 — Reinventing workplaces: agentic humans, clones, and eliminating monotony 30:00 — Bias in hiring, avatars in interviews, and why everyone suddenly has a "perfect" resume 40:00 — Tools Monica actually uses—and which ones are overrated 46:00 — Why middle management is now an endangered species 49:00 — How to find Monica, and why you'd better DM with something interesting