Lead Like You Mean It with Ethan Mollick, Professor at Wharton and Author of Co-Intelligence “You don’t need an AI course. You need to get your hands dirty.” — Ethan Mollick What You’ll Hear in 30 Minutes - Why AI is exposing leadership gaps more than technical ones - How LLMs are reshaping research, training, and decision-making - Why interns and junior roles are being replaced before we’re ready - What makes an effective internal AI lab—and why most aren’t - How AI’s personality could become a competitive differentiator - Why CEOs must experiment with the tools to lead with credibility Guest Snapshot Ethan Mollick is a professor at the Wharton School and author of Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI. Through his blog One Useful Thing, he helps organizations and individuals make sense of the generative AI wave. In this episode, Mollick shares how AI is challenging everything—from how we lead to how we learn—and why the best leaders are the ones who are hands-on. 

Timestamps: 

00:00 – Ethan’s Otter Test and the AI Acceleration Curve 

01:33 – Rethinking Research, Workflows & Analyst Roles 

04:53 – Apprenticeships Are Broken. Now What? 

06:30 – AI Is a Leadership Problem 

08:22 – Building an Internal AI Lab That Works 

10:41 – Why “Perfect Data” Is a Red Herring 

14:08 – How to Prep LLMs with the Right Prompts 

16:09 – AI Personalities and the Next Differentiator 

18:50 – The CEO's 5-Minute AI Briefing 

22:02 – No One Has the Answers—But You Still Have to Lead 

24:22 – Can Google Win? 

What Comes Next in the LLM Race Explore More 

📘 Co-Intelligence: https://amzn.to/3Yk0QYQ 

📰 One Useful Thing: https://www.oneusefulthing.org 

🔗 Follow Ethan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanmollick/ 

🔗 Follow Phil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfersht/