How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin

You've bought the licenses. You've made the announcement. And a few months later, you're staring at a workforce either ignoring the tools entirely or churning out AI-generated fluff that nobody's reading. The ROI? Nowhere to be found. 

The problem isn't AI. It's how organisations are rolling it out. 

In this How I AI episode, Neo and I share a recording from a live webinar we ran on why AI rollouts fail and what it actually takes to set yours up for success. We cover the most common mistakes we're seeing on the ground, the research that should change how you think about training, and the question every leadership team needs to answer before spending another dollar on licenses. 

Neo and I cover: 

• Why an unclear AI strategy at the leadership level creates confusion across teams, with some departments using the tools freely and others too uncertain to try. 

• The leadership credibility problem: when CEOs and senior leaders don't use AI themselves, the rest of the organisation takes it as a signal that they shouldn't either. 

• Why buying licenses without training can actually reduce productivity, producing a flood of low-quality, AI-generated work that slows people down rather than speeding them up. 

• The surprising finding from HBR research that the average time saving from AI is just 2.5%, and why vanity metrics like daily logins and token usage tell you almost nothing about real value. 

• The agent proliferation trap: why having everyone in your organisation building agents independently leads to duplicated, inconsistent, and unowned tools that create more confusion than clarity. 

• The cultural barrier of AI fear, and why people won't genuinely adopt a tool they believe is there to replace them. 

• AI brain fry, a distinct form of cognitive fatigue caused by constant context-switching and vigilance when managing multiple AI tasks simultaneously. 

• Why training to tasks rather than features is what actually shifts behaviour, and the research-backed minimum dose of five hours of hands-on training required to see any meaningful benefit. 

• The case for training close to license rollout to prevent bad habits forming before people know how to use the tools well. 

• A three-stage framework for AI adoption: access, literacy, and leverage (individual then organisational), with literacy positioned as an ongoing capability rather than a one-off event. 

• Why planning where time savings will actually go matters as much as achieving them, otherwise people simply fill the space with more work. 

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams. 

How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm.

Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.

My latest book The Energy Game is out on July 7, 2026. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M  

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)  

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)  

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/  

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.  

Get in touch at [email protected] 

Credits:  

Host: Amantha Imber 

Sound Engineer: Martin Imber 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sign up for Inventium’s AI Agent Bootcamp virtual or in-person.

Your organisation hit its AI adoption target. Eighty percent of staff have a licence, onboarding is done, and the usage dashboard looks great. So why does the work feel the same, or worse? Hitting an adoption target and actually getting value from AI are two completely different things, and most organisations are confusing one for the other.

The truth is that a team using AI badly can actually perform worse than one not using it at all. Buried in mediocre output, drowning in documents nobody reads, and no closer to a better result for their customers.

In this How I AI episode, Neo and I dig into what actually separates high-performing AI-augmented teams from the average ones, and why so many organisations are measuring the wrong things.

Neo and I cover:

• Why adoption metrics are almost always vanity metrics, and what to measure instead.
• The difference between AI literacy and AI leverage, and why teams need both but rarely get past the first.
• How poor AI training can actually make teams less productive.
• Why slotting AI into an existing process is only ever an interim step, and what it looks like to genuinely re-engineer workflows.
• The role of AI champions within functional teams, and why workflow architecture is a distinct and critical skill most people do not yet have.

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams.

How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm.

Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

Credits: Host: Amantha Imber

Sound Engineer: Martin Imber

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every time you open a new AI chat, you're starting from scratch. You type out the background, explain your role, describe the project. Then you do it again tomorrow. And the day after.

There's a better way, and it takes about 15 minutes over a cup of coffee.

In this How I AI episode, Neo and I walk through the briefing document - a single context file that gives AI everything it needs to understand your world before you've typed a single word.

Neo and I cover:

• Why context now matters more than a well-crafted prompt, and why even a clever prompt without background will give you a great average response rather than something targeted
• What a briefing document is and why recreating that context in every new chat leads to lazy, generic results
• How to use AI's advanced voice mode to interview you about your job so the briefing document gets built conversationally, not typed from scratch
• The exact interview prompt we give Inventium AI workshop participants
• Real examples from Neo's setup, including documents for Inventium's products and services, his AI programs, and a current client project
• Real examples from Amantha's setup, including documents for managing her team, the How I Work and How I AI podcasts, and her upcoming book
• Two ways to store and deploy briefing documents

The prompt for creating a briefing document:

“Run a short, adaptive interview that captures only what matters about my role, context, stakeholders, and how I work, then produce a single structured briefing that covers all information.

Be efficient, inquisitive rather than prescriptive, and tailor the depth and questions to my role and signals.”

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams.

How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm.

Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

Credits: Host: Amantha Imber

Sound Engineer: Martin Imber

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You are almost certainly doing most of your computer work the slow way.

Think about the last time you sat down to write an email, rename a file, or work through a tricky problem at your desk. Chances are, your fingers went straight to the keyboard. And you are not alone — when Neo and I ask audiences how much of their computer time is spent typing versus talking, almost everyone is close to 100% typing.

In this How I AI episode, Neo and I make the case for voice as a core part of your workflow, not just a novelty. We cover when talking beats typing, how the different voice modes in your AI tools actually work, and the specific software we both rely on day to day.

Neo and I cover:

• Why talking is faster than typing for most people
• The science behind why voice unlocks better ideas
• When talking is clearly better
• When typing still wins
• The difference between dictation mode and advanced voice mode in tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and Gemini, and which to use for different purposes.
• wisprflow.ai, Amantha's go-to dictation software
• Other dictation tools worth knowing about
• How to combine voice and typing in a one-two punch

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams.

How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm.

Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

Credits: Host: Amantha Imber

Sound Engineer: Martin Imber

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There is a moment most people have had in a meeting: the AI bot joins before your guest does, someone has to awkwardly ask if recording is okay, and the whole dynamic shifts. It is enough friction that most people just give up and go back to scribbling notes by hand.

There is a better way, and it does not involve anyone knowing a bot is even in the room.

In this How I AI episode, Neo and I do a deep dive into Granola.ai, the meeting transcription tool that has become non-negotiable for both of us at Inventium. We get into how it works differently to most recording tools, how we handle the privacy conversation with external guests, and why having every internal meeting captured has actually made us better at our jobs.

Neo and I cover:

• Why most AI meeting recorders create more friction than they solve, and why recording is still not the default for most people's meetings.
• How Granola transcribes meetings in the background without joining as a participant, recording no audio or video, making it far less intrusive than most tools.
• The way Granola combines your own real-time notes with its transcript, using what you type as a signal for what mattered most in the conversation.
• Why at Inventium, every internal meeting including one-on-ones is captured in Granola by default, and what that means for psychological safety and team culture.
• The simple line Amantha's EA includes in every external meeting invite to let guests know Granola is running.
• A free, open-source alternative called Hyprnote (hyprnote.app) for those who are budget-constrained or unable to install Granola.

Here are the tools mentioned in this episode:

1. Granola.ai — AI meeting transcription tool that runs in the background without joining as a meeting participant. Integrates with Google and Microsoft.
2. Hyprnote (hyprnote.app) — open-source alternative to Granola, available on Mac and Windows.

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams.

How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm.

Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

Credits: Host: Amantha Imber

Sound Engineer: Martin Imber

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Download Inventium.ai's anti-AI slop prompt here: https://amantha-imber.kit.com/d5f746bd3e

You can always tell when something's been written by AI. The LinkedIn post that opens with "in today's fast-paced world." The article that ends with "it's not about X, it's about Y." Technically fine, but somehow hollow. Like it was written by nobody in particular.

The frustrating part is that this can happen even when you're doing the real thinking. You write the ideas, hand it to AI for a cleanup, and it flattens your voice, packs it with em-dashes, and strips out everything that sounded like you.

In this How I AI episode, Neo and I get into the specific instructions you can give AI to keep your writing sounding human, and share some of the most overused AI words and phrases worth banning from your prompts entirely.

Neo and I cover:

• Why sounding like AI is a credibility problem, even when you've done the actual thinking and are only using AI to refine and edit your work.
• The single most important instruction to give AI when asking it to clean up your writing.
• Why em-dashes are so hard to eliminate from AI output, and the specific phrasing (including pasting in the actual dash character) that gives you the best chance of getting rid of them.
• Using a ninth-grade reading level as a brief to keep language plain, accessible, and free of jargon.
• Why it's fine to let AI start a sentence with "and" or "but" occasionally, and which stiff transition words (like "additionally" and "moreover") to ban outright.
• What "corrective antithesis" is, why AI overuses it, and how to cut it down with a simple instruction and example in your prompt.
• Amantha's process for building a mega anti-AI slop prompt.
• How to build your own personal banned-words list, so AI stops using words that don't sound like you.

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams.

How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm.

Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

Credits: Host: Amantha Imber

Sound Engineer: Martin Imber

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

That wall of industry newsletters in your inbox isn’t a reading list. It’s a stress list. 

You tell yourself you’ll get to them later. You don’t. And the pile keeps growing. 

In this How I AI episode, Neo and I explore how to use AI as a structured research assistant. Not just to summarise articles, but to filter signal from noise, prioritise what’s actually relevant to you, and automatically deliver regular briefings so you don’t even have to remember to run the search. 

Neo and I cover: 

• How to give AI the right context so it knows exactly what “new” means to you 

• Why vague prompts produce vague research – and how to fix that 

• How to define trusted sources and instruct AI where to search 

• Structuring your report so it highlights impact, availability and practical relevance 

• How to ask AI to prioritise credible sources over hype 

• Setting up scheduled searches in ChatGPT using “schedule this” so reports run weekly or daily 

• How scheduling works in Copilot and what to know about current limits 

• Creating sections like quick hits, watch lists and hype watch to make reports easier to scan 
• Why you should always request links so you can verify and dive deeper 

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn and via inventium.ai, where he leads Inventium’s AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams. 

How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm.

Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/ 

Connect with me on the socials: 
Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) 

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) 

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe 

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. 

Get in touch at [email protected] 

Credits: 
Host: Amantha Imber 
Sound Engineer: Martin Imber 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When your to-do list feels endless and everything seems equally urgent, it’s hard to know where to start. The overwhelm doesn’t usually come from one big task. It comes from trying to hold meetings, emails, projects and life admin in your head all at once. 

In this How I AI episode, Neo and I walk through practical ways to use AI to help you prioritise when your week feels out of control. Not by magically deleting tasks, but by giving you a clearer structure for deciding what actually matters today. 

We share two different approaches – one if your AI isn’t connected to your calendar, and one if it is. 

Neo and I cover: 

• How to use AI for a structured brain dump so everything on your plate is visible in one place 

• Getting AI to interview you to separate urgent from important, and clarify what really needs attention 

• Asking AI to estimate how long tasks will take so you can time box more realistically 

• Using AI to identify the single task that’s causing the most stress – and tackling that first 

• Why context matters – and how tools like Claude Projects or Copilot Notebooks can help AI understand your work 

• Using AI to prepare for meetings, cross-reference tasks, and spot work that hasn’t been scheduled 

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn and via inventium.ai, where he leads Inventium’s AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams. 

How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm.

Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/ 

Connect with me on the socials: 
Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) 

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) 

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe 

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. 

Get in touch at [email protected] 

Credits: 
Host: Amantha Imber 
Sound Engineer: Martin Imber 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rolling out Copilot or ChatGPT and hoping productivity magically improves rarely works. In fact, for many leaders, it creates more confusion, more noise and, in some cases, more work. 

In this How I AI episode, Neo and I unpack the single most important question leaders should be asking about AI adoption: how can I help my people be ready for AI? Because bringing AI into your organisation isn’t primarily a technology decision. It’s a people one. 

We talk through why simply handing out paid licenses without building capability often backfires, how poor AI use can actually reduce productivity, and the practical steps leaders need to get right from day one. 

Neo and I cover: 

• Why AI adoption fails when leaders treat it as a software rollout instead of a change process 

• How to clearly articulate the why so people don’t assume AI equals job replacement 

• Using AI to reduce administrivia and free people up for more meaningful work 

• Why “it’s intuitive” is a dangerous assumption when it comes to capability building 

• How untrained use can create AI slop, longer emails and organisational “Chinese whispers” 

• How searchable knowledge can unlock real productivity gains, and how poor permissions can create real risk 

• Why training change leads or team leads is critical to embedding AI into real workflows 

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn and via inventium.ai, where he leads Inventium’s AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams. 

How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm.

Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/ 

Connect with me on the socials: 
Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) 

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) 

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe 

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. 

Get in touch at [email protected] 

Credits: 
Host: Amantha Imber 
Sound Engineer: Martin Imber 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Download Inventium.ai’s custom GPT instructions to create your own Personal AI Reviewer Buddy here: https://amantha-imber.kit.com/51dd2a9719  

Producing high volumes of work isn’t the hard part anymore. Producing high quality is.  

In this How I AI episode, Neo and I walk through how to use AI as a rigorous reviewer of your work – not to replace your judgment, but to sharpen it. We go beyond a basic “please review this” prompt and share a structured way to pressure test emails, documents, slide decks and analysis before they leave your desk. 

Neo shares the exact system he uses, which he’s nicknamed Charles – a GPT designed to critique work properly, diagnose weaknesses and suggest stronger alternatives. And yes, we’re giving you Charles (via the link above!). 

Neo and I cover: 

• How to write a simple but powerful critique prompt that goes beyond surface-level polishing 

• What to ask AI to check for, including inaccuracies, weak support, bias, gaps, impracticality and verbosity 

• How to customise your review criteria for specific roles, policies or stakeholders 

• The quality gates Neo uses, including factual accuracy, logical soundness, completeness, relevance, clarity, structure, safety and practicality 

• How AI can improve its own output if you’ve used it to draft something in the first place 

• Why you should never treat a first AI response as gospel 

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn and via inventium.ai, where he leads Inventium’s AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams. 

And if you’re ready to move beyond basic prompts and start using AI as a genuine thinking partner, check out inventium.ai. We help individuals, teams and organisations turn GenAI into a real work superpower – saving 10+ hours a week and staying future ready. 

How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm.

Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/ 

Connect with me on the socials: 
Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) 

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) 

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe 

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. 

Get in touch at [email protected] 

Credits: 
Host: Amantha Imber 
Sound Engineer: Martin Imber 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.