What if AI transformation isn't really a technology challenge at all? Jess talks with OneDigital executives Mike Sullivan and Vinay Gidwaney about why they see AI as a talent, leadership, and workforce transformation challenge, and why L&D should be at the center of it, leading the transformation. They explore what it means to treat AI as talent, redesign work around human and AI strengths, activate leaders for new ways of working, and move L&D beyond content creation into a much more strategic role.

• Why AI transformation is fundamentally a talent and behavior change challenge, not simply a technology rollout
• What changes when organizations begin thinking about AI as talent
• Why giving employees access to AI is not enough to create meaningful adoption or business impact
• How leaders can accelerate AI adoption and behavior change across their teams
• Why the future workforce is a blended workforce of humans and AI
• How leaders can distinguish between reducible work that AI may handle and irreducible work that depends on human judgment, creativity, empathy, and experience
• Why organizations may need to stop tweaking existing job descriptions and instead completely rethink how work gets done
• The emerging leadership responsibility to manage both human talent and AI talent
• How L&D can help managers unbundle work, rethink roles, and redesign teams for an AI-enabled future
• Why people, not AI itself, may become an organization's greatest source of competitive advantage
• How L&D's role in capturing, codifying, and spreading organizational intelligence becomes even more valuable in an AI-enabled workplace
• What L&D professionals can do now to move from spectators of AI transformation to active leaders shaping what comes next

About Mike Sullivan

Mike Sullivan has spent more than four decades at the intersection of business strategy, mergers & acquisitions and all facets of an evolving American workplace. He has seen firsthand what separates companies that thrive from those that stall. As Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of OneDigital, he has helped build one of the most dynamic insurance and financial services firms in the country, guiding its expansion through acquisition, partnership, and entry into new markets. Outside OneDigital, he is an active investor and board member across a broad set of firms and industry verticals.

About Vinay Gidwaney

As Chief Product Officer (CPO) at OneDigital, Vinay Gidwaney is passionate about creating opportunities for employees and families to make better decisions around their finances through OneDigital's integrated offerings. He leads a strong team of technology experts and developers who deliver the latest in innovative products and solutions to OneDigital's customer base.

Find and Connect with Mike and Vinay

• Mike Sullivan LinkedIn
• Vinay Gidwaney LinkedIn
• Book: Workforce Intelligence: The PEOPLE-FIRST Playbook for Leading Your Company Through AI TRANSFORMATION

Find and Connect with Jess Almlie

• LinkedIn
• Website: www.jessalmlie.com
• Book: L&D Order Taker No More! Become a Strategic Business Partner
• L&D Strategic Business Partner Team Assessment and Team Development Roadmap
• Contact Jess

Leadership development has become far too complicated. In this episode, Jess and Matt Gjertsen strip away the jargon and return to the fundamentals busy managers can actually use. They explore the Minimum Viable Manager mindset, three core skills every leader needs, and why iteration matters more than perfection. You'll also hear how L&D can help employees navigate the career change into management, make feedback a daily habit, and combine high-impact in-person experiences with digital learning to create lasting behavior change.

Jess and Matt Discuss

• Why leadership development has become unnecessarily complicated
• How first principles thinking can simplify manager development
• The Minimum Viable Manager mindset and the power of iteration
• Three essential manager skills: building trust, setting expectations, and giving feedback
• How a clear definition of done prevents the delegation doom loop
• Why managers should ask for feedback before giving it
• Why becoming a manager is a career change, not a promotion
• How L&D can help employees decide whether management is right for them
• Why in-person learning still matters for behavior change
• How to reframe leadership development as a facilitated conversation

About Matt Gjertsen

Matt Gjertsen is the founder of BUILT, a leadership-development company focused on helping technical professionals become exceptional people leaders. A graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Matt spent nine years as an instructor pilot before leading training and development at SpaceX. With two decades of experience developing high-performing teams, he now helps organizations strengthen their managers, improve performance, and prepare leaders to solve complex challenges.

Find and Connect with Matt Gjertsen

• LinkedIn
• Website: BUILT Leaders
• Book: Minimum Viable Manager

Find and Connect with Jess Almlie

• LinkedIn
• Website: www.jessalmlie.com
• Book: L&D Order Taker No More! Become a Strategic Business Partner
• L&D Strategic Business Partner Team Assessment and Team Development Roadmap
• Contact Jess

Our learning design could be better if we understood how the brain is taking in and processing what we share. It would help us to know what's effective, and what's having the opposite effect. In this episode, Jess sits down with learning scientist Lauren Waldman to explore why neuroscience should be a foundational skill for every L&D professional. They discuss how memory really works, why most training never reaches long-term memory, how cognitive overload undermines learning, and practical ways to design experiences that work with the brain instead of against it.

• Why every L&D professional should understand how the brain learns
• The difference between content delivery and the biological process of learning
• How working memory limits affect learning design
• Why repetition and retrieval are essential for long-term memory
• How cognitive overload prevents learners from retaining information
• Practical ways to reduce distractions and guide learner attention
• Designing learning that supports focus instead of competing for it
• Using neuroscience to confidently push back on stakeholder requests that hinder learning
• A simple design question every L&D team should ask before building training

About Lauren Waldman

Lauren Waldman is a learning scientist, founder of Learning Pirate, and one of the leading voices bringing neuroscience into the world of learning and development. With advanced neuroscience studies from Harvard, Duke, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Michigan, she helps organizations design learning experiences that align with how the brain actually learns. Lauren is a sought-after keynote speaker known for challenging conventional thinking and making brain science practical, engaging, and impossible to ignore.

Find and Connect with Lauren Waldman

• LinkedIn
• Learning Pirate Website: https://www.learningpirate.com/

Find and Connect with Jess Almlie

• LinkedIn
• Website: www.jessalmlie.com
• Book: L&D Order Taker No More! Become a Strategic Business Partner
• L&D Strategic Business Partner Team Assessment and Team Development Roadmap
• Contact Jess

Additional Links from This Episode

• L&D Must Change Episode 22: Designing and Measuring on Purpose with Chris Taylor
• L&D Must Change Episode 45: Ensure Learning is Worth the Expense with Melanie Martinelli

What if the biggest thing holding L&D back isn't AI, but our data? Jess sits down with Nolan Hout to explore why Learning is often "data poor," why completion metrics aren't enough, and how stronger partnerships unlock the business data that proves impact. They discuss AI, measurement, ROI, cost efficiency, and practical ways to connect learning initiatives to business outcomes. If you want L&D to influence business decisions instead of simply reporting training activity, this conversation is a great place to start.

Jess and Nolan Discuss

• Why L&D is often "data poor" compared to other business functions
• The difference between learning activity and business impact
• Why SCORM data limits meaningful measurement
• How AI amplifies both good and bad data practices
• The business metrics L&D should pursue with stakeholders
• Why measurement begins before training starts
• Building partnerships to gain access to business data
• Using AI to create better business hypotheses
• Rethinking cost per learner and learning ROI
• Reinvesting AI efficiencies into higher-impact learning experiences

About Nolan Hout

Nolan Hout is the Senior Vice President of Growth at InfoPro Learning. He has more than 15 years of experience in learning, talent development, and workforce transformation, and helps global organizations align learning strategies with real business outcomes. He's also the host of The Talent Equation podcast, where he interviews leading voices in leadership, AI, and the future of work.

Find and Connect with Nolan Hout

• LinkedIn

Find and Connect with Jess Almlie

• LinkedIn
• Website: www.jessalmlie.com
• Book: L&D Order Taker No More! Become a Strategic Business Partner
• L&D Strategic Business Partner Team Assessment and Team Development Roadmap
• Contact Jess

What if L&D has been optimizing all the wrong things? Jess sits down with Brad Batesole, founder of Madecraft and former LinkedIn Learning leader, to explore why learning often feels harder than it should. They discuss designing learning that matches how people actually consume content, advocating for resources in budget-conscious organizations, using AI to personalize rather than replace learning, and setting realistic stakeholder expectations that move L&D beyond checking boxes toward creating meaningful business impact.

Jess and Brad Discuss

• Why L&D often optimizes for cost, completion, and volume instead of learning effectiveness.
• How poor learner experiences create compliance instead of engagement.
• Why workplace learning should mirror how people naturally consume content outside of work.
• Designing for "interstitial time" with short, meaningful learning experiences.
• Layering just-in-time, durable, and long-tail learning to support real skill development.
• How L&D can advocate more effectively for budget by connecting learning to business outcomes.
• Setting realistic expectations with stakeholders when resources limit what's possible.
• The role of AI in personalization, practice, and learner support without replacing human expertise.
• Why experimentation should be treated as a necessary investment for L&D teams.
• Small changes L&D teams can make today to create learning people actually want to use.

About Brad Batesole

Brad Batesole co-founded Madecraft in 2018 after two decades at the forefront of online learning. At Lynda.com and LinkedIn Learning, he created top-performing marketing courses that amassed over 20 million views and built a LinkedIn following of 96,000 professionals. An internationally recognized speaker and storyteller, Brad advocates for learning strategies that match how people consume content today.

Find and Connect with Brad Batesole

• LinkedIn
• Madecraft

Find and Connect with Jess Almlie

• LinkedIn
• Website: www.jessalmlie.com
• Book: L&D Order Taker No More! Become a Strategic Business Partner
• L&D Strategic Business Partner Team Assessment and Team Development Roadmap
• Contact Jess

Does the pace of new technology have you in a bit of a spiral? If the amount of tech and learning about tech coming at you these days is making you question your skills, your role, and the value of your expertise, or if you simply feel like you cannot possibly keep up, you are not alone. In this conversation with Betty Dannewitz of "If You Ask Betty," we dig into what Betty calls tech-induced imposter syndrome: the spiral that happens when a new tool makes you question your own value. You will walk away with practical, research-backed strategies to tame your inner critic, build confidence through action, and rethink how you design learning experiences so your learners can do the same.

Jess and Betty Discuss

• Why tech adoption is a confidence problem just as much as a skills problem, and what L&D needs to do differently as a result
• What tech-induced imposter syndrome actually is and why even experienced L&D pros are not immune
• Betty's story of a 3-day ChatGPT spiral that had her searching for jobs at Target (and what snapped her out of it)
• Practical tools to tame your inner critic when it's activated by technology
• Why confidence comes from action, not before it, and how to build "receipts" of your own capability
• How to stop losing the comparison game on LinkedIn and take control of your digital presence
• How to design learning experiences that build learner confidence early, before the fear takes hold
• Why measuring your value by speed is a losing game against AI, and how to reframe your human strengths around judgment, context, ethics, and relationships
• What it really looks like to be "in cahoots" with AI rather than in competition with it

About Betty Dannewitz

Betty Dannewitz is a speaker, learning innovator, and the founder of "If You Ask Betty" and host of the podcast by the same name. She has spent more than two decades helping organizations create better learning experiences through leadership development, immersive technologies, and innovative learning strategies. She's also a sought-after voice on topics like imposter syndrome, human-centered leadership, and the future of workplace learning.

Find and Connect with Betty Dannewitz

• LinkedIn
• Website: https://ifyouaskbetty.com/

Find and Connect with Jess Almlie

• LinkedIn
• Website: www.jessalmlie.com
• Book: L&D Order Taker No More! Become a Strategic Business Partner
• L&D Strategic Business Partner Team Assessment and Team Development Roadmap
• Contact Jess

If your SME projects keep stalling, it's possible the SME isn't the problem. Recorded LIVE at the ATD 2026 International Conference and Expo in Los Angeles, this special episode brings together influence strategist Tami Reiss and Sr. L&D Manager Jeff Daigle to tackle what can be one of the most universal frustrations in our field: working with subject matter experts. Together, Jess, Tami, and Jeff dig into why content overload kills clarity, how to position L&D as a true business partner, and what it actually looks like to stop persuading SMEs and start aligning with them. Plus, hear Jeff's rare perspective as someone who has sat in the SME seat himself.

Jess, Tami, and Jeff Discuss

• Why SME projects stall when L&D focuses on collecting content instead of defining clear learner outcomes
• The critical difference between persuasion and alignment, and why alignment gets SMEs to actually show up, engage, and champion your work
• How Jeff, as a former field SME, felt pressure to share everything, and what good L&D partnership looked like from that side of the table
• Practical strategies for earning and keeping SME time, including doing your homework before meetings and following through on every promise, even small ones
• The "need-to-know vs. nice-to-know" framework and why nothing the SME shares should ever get thrown away
• How to use AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot to build draft structures before meeting with SMEs, shifting their role from content creator to expert editor and reviewer
• Where SME partnerships are headed in the future

About Tami Reiss

Tami Reiss is a global speaker and trainer specializing in strategic influence and leadership communication. She has worked with professionals across industries to help them gain buy-in, lead without authority, and communicate with clarity. Tami is the creator of Just Not Sorry, author of a book on management, a respected authority on communication, and the voice behind the Confident Communicator GPT, a tool for leaders building executive presence and strategic influence.

Find and Connect with Tami Reiss

• LinkedIn
• Website: https://tamireiss.com/

About Jeff Daigle

Jeff Daigle is a Senior Learning & Development Manager based in Kenner, Louisiana. He bridges big‑picture strategy and real‑world execution, helping organizations turn complex goals into clear, practical learning that drives performance. Jeff specializes in competency‑based talent development, organizational frameworks, and technical training, with a knack for making complex concepts easy to understand. Known for his approachable style, he supports people while thoughtfully challenging them to grow, believing the best development happens when clarity, trust, and high expectations come together.

Find and Connect with Jeff Daigle

• LinkedIn

Find and Connect with the host, Jess Almlie

• LinkedIn
• Website: www.jessalmlie.com
• Book: L&D Order Taker No More! Become a Strategic Business Partner
• L&D Strategic Business Partner Team Assessment and Team Development Roadmap
• Contact Jess

Most L&D teams are using AI to write content faster, but the business doesn't care. Megan Torrance, founder of Torrance Learning and author of the upcoming AI Implementation Guide for L&D, joins Jess to make the case that L&D professionals are sitting on a goldmine of untapped superpowers, and it's time to use them where it matters most: inside the business's core AI strategy. From the AI Implementation Canvas to the WISE at AI framework, this episode will change how you see your role in your organization's AI future.

Jess and Megan Discuss

• Why L&D's current AI conversation (content generation, authoring tools) is largely invisible and irrelevant to the rest of the business
• The unique "superpowers" L&D brings to organizational AI strategy: workflow analysis, broad internal networks, and skilled questioning
• The AI Implementation Canvas: a 14-dimension framework across 4 categories that gives L&D a structured way to start strategic AI conversations
• How an empty dimension on the Canvas is actually data, and why silence signals a potential blind spot
• The three AI impact zones (L&D productivity, learner experience, and organizational transformation) and why L&D needs to push into zone three
• Why relationship power, not hierarchy, is L&D's path to being called upstream on AI initiatives
• Practical strategies for building those relationships: proactive curiosity, attending town halls, and asking "what else is going on in your world?"
• The WISE at AI framework (Wisdom, Inclusivity, Safe and Secure, Equitable, Accountable, Transparent) and how to operationalize it inside your organization

About Megan Torrance

Megan Torrance is the CEO and founder of TorranceLearning, where she leads a team of learning experience designers and engineers in reimagining workplace learning. Her firm has served Fortune 1000 companies, major research universities, global professional associations, and federal agencies for more than two decades. Megan brings a strategic vision that helps TorranceLearning bridge vision with execution—delivering innovative, data-informed, and learner-centered solutions.

Megan is active in the L&D community, frequently speaking at conferences and writing many articles. She has also written 3 books: Agile for Instructional Designers (2019), Data and Analytics for Instructional Designers (2023), and her newest book which comes out at the beginning of June 2026, The AI Implementation Guide for L&D.

Find and Connect with Megan Torrance

• Website: https://www.torrancelearning.com/
• LinkedIn
• Newest Book: The AI Implementation Guide for L&D (June 2026)
• Book: Data and Analytics for Instructional Designers (2023)
• Book: Agile for Instructional Designers (2019)

Find and Connect with Jess Almlie

• LinkedIn
• Website: www.jessalmlie.com
• Book: L&D Order Taker No More! Become a Strategic Business Partner
• L&D Strategic Business Partner Team Assessment and Team Development Roadmap
• Contact Jess

Most L&D teams are not struggling because they lack talent or effort. They are struggling because of the system they are operating in. In this episode, Jess sits down with L&D strategist Tracie Cantu to talk about why L&D's credibility problem is really an operating model problem, and what it looks like to fix it. They cover everything from governance and portfolio management to getting involved in strategic conversations, empowering others to create content, and the three-pillar Learning Operations Blueprint that can help any L&D team operate with the same rigor and intention as the business it serves.

Jess and Tracie Discuss

• Why L&D's traditional operating model is now a liability, not just a limitation
• What "running L&D like a business" actually means (and what it does not mean)
• Reframing governance and operational rigor as a superpower, not bureaucracy
• The difference between the business as your customer and employees as your consumers
• Portfolio management for L&D: making data-driven decisions about where to invest resources
• The Learning Operations Blueprint and its three pillars: people, process, and technology
• Why standardizing your intake process is the highest-leverage first step
• Becoming a connector and problem-solver across the organization
• Why over-indexing on content creation keeps L&D teams stuck
• Empowering SMEs to create content so L&D can focus on higher-impact work
• A simple first step any team can take: mapping current processes together

About Tracie Cantu

Tracie Cantu, MHRM, CPTD is an enterprise L&D strategist with 20+ years of experience building and transforming learning operations at scale. She has led learning functions across aviation, government, retail, and tech, including Director of Learning Technology at Whole Foods Market (Amazon) and Head of Learning Ecosystems at Meta, before stepping into fractional executive work and advising global organizations across financial services, legal, healthcare, and beyond. Her work is grounded in a single premise: L&D's credibility problem is an operating model problem.

As Chief Learning Strategist of Your CLO, she works with senior L&D leaders and the executives they report to on the infrastructure, technology strategy, and measurement systems that make learning functions perform like the business units they serve. Tracie is an international speaker and a regular presence at Learning, HR, and EdTech conferences. Her writing has appeared in publications such as TD Magazine, Federal News Network, and Training Magazine. Her book, Running L&D Like a Business: Drive Value with Learning Operations, published through ATD Press.

Find and Connect with Tracie Cantu

• LinkedIn
• Book: Running L&D Like a Business: Drive Value With Learning Operations
• Website: yourclo.net

Find and Connect with Jess Almlie

• LinkedIn
• Website: www.jessalmlie.com
• Book: L&D Order Taker No More! Become a Strategic Business Partner
• L&D Strategic Business Partner Team Assessment and Team Development Roadmap
• Contact Jess

Many L&D teams are being asked to "train the business on AI"… but what does that really mean? In this episode, Jess and Timothy Frost unpack the tension shaping AI in Learning and Talent Development: overreliance, resistance, and exuberance. They explore how these mindsets show up in your daily work, impact learning quality, and influence how you use AI. They also tackle the growing pressure on L&D teams to lead company-wide AI training and share a more strategic approach grounded in clear goals, data, and real use cases. If you are trying to figure out how to use AI without overdoing it or falling behind, this conversation will help you find your footing.

Jess and Timothy Discuss

• The "tri-linked crossroads" of AI in L&D: exuberance, resistance, and overreliance
• Why AI should be treated as a tool that enhances work, not replaces people
• The real reason behind resistance: fear, overwhelm, and reluctance to learn new tech
• How overreliance on AI can reduce learning quality and critical thinking
• The risk of turning L&D into a "churn and burn" content factory with AI
• Practical ways AI improves efficiency like brainstorming, email triage, and idea generation
• Why not all AI tools are equal and how to choose the right one for the job
• How to push back on executive pressure for cost savings without rejecting AI
• A simple framework for leading AI adoption: define the why, analyze data, design learning
• How to get started with AI through small, practical experiments
• The shift toward in-the-moment, personalized learning powered by AI
• Why L&D must focus on working with AI, not just using it

About Timothy Frost

Tim Frost is a digital learning and performance consultant who partners with organizations to solve real business problems, not just build training. With a background in education and enterprise healthcare, he specializes in transforming complex systems into intuitive, high-impact learning experiences. His work sits at the intersection of strategy, technology, and design, helping organizations modernize their learning ecosystems, improve adoption, and create experiences people actually want to engage with.

Find and Connect with Timothy Frost

• LinkedIn
• ATD Central Florida

Find and Connect with Jess Almlie

• LinkedIn
• Website: www.jessalmlie.com
• Book: L&D Order Taker No More! Become a Strategic Business Partner
• L&D Strategic Business Partner Team Assessment and Team Development Roadmap
• Contact Jess