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No Engineering Background. No Team. No Excuse. - with Aden Vaughan-Williams
One person. No team. No engineering background. And he's built more AI tools in six months than most departments have in two years.
Aden Vaughan-Williams ran people and culture at Informed Decisions, a 70-person B2B SaaS company. No CPO to bounce ideas off. No engineering resource. So he stopped thinking of himself as an HR person and started thinking like a product manager, with AI as his engineer.
That reframe changed everything.
In this episode, Aden and I talk about what it actually looks like when someone in a non-technical function picks up AI and starts building. Not theory. Not hype. Real tools, real results, built by someone who just got tired of wishing the software did more.
We cover:
- Why "product manager with AI as my engineer" is a more useful mental model than "HR person experimenting with AI"
- How Aden built an AI board of directors to pressure test ideas before the exec table
- What it means to train AI personas to be critical, not just encouraging
- The bias question: why unconscious bias training matters more now than ever
- Whether AI will replace senior leadership roles (and why Aden thinks judgment is the moat)
- The talent pipeline problem: Big 4 cutting grads by 40-50%, but what happens to the next generation of partners?
- The "build to enable" mentality and why the bottleneck used to be that you couldn't build it, but now you can
Aden has over a decade of experience in people and culture and tech recruitment at companies like Carsales and Informed Decisions. He's the kind of person who sat next to engineers and product managers every day, picked up how they think, and then applied it to his own domain. He's proof that you don't need a technical background to build with AI. You just need curiosity and a problem worth solving.
Connect with Aden Vaughan-Williams
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aden-vaughan-williams/
- Email: [email protected]
Connect with Amit Singh
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/au-amitsingh/
- Website: amits.com.au
Work with Amit
If you're a senior leader navigating AI decisions and want a thinking partner on strategy, governance, or where to focus first - that's what we do at evince Consulting. Our AI Opportunity Audit helps leadership teams get clear on priorities before committing time and budget.
Learn more: evince.ai
🔥 Join the AI Leadership Academy
Want to go deeper on AI strategy, leadership, and decision-making? Join the AI Leadership Academy on Skool - a free community for business leaders who want to stay sharp in an AI-driven world. Includes the AI Strategy Playbook, mini-course, webinar recordings, and weekly discussions.
Join free: skool.com/aileaders
🎙️ Be a Guest on Never Outdated
Got a story worth sharing? We're always looking for leaders with real experience and sharp perspectives. Register your interest to be a guest.
Apply here: amits.com.au/contact
🙋 Subscribe to Never Outdated
Never Outdated is where business and technology leaders go to stay ahead. Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode, and sign up to the newsletter for a monthly dose of practical insights on AI, leadership, and transformation.
Subscribe here: amits.com.au/neveroutdated
View all episodes
By Amit SinghOne person. No team. No engineering background. And he's built more AI tools in six months than most departments have in two years.
Aden Vaughan-Williams ran people and culture at Informed Decisions, a 70-person B2B SaaS company. No CPO to bounce ideas off. No engineering resource. So he stopped thinking of himself as an HR person and started thinking like a product manager, with AI as his engineer.
That reframe changed everything.
In this episode, Aden and I talk about what it actually looks like when someone in a non-technical function picks up AI and starts building. Not theory. Not hype. Real tools, real results, built by someone who just got tired of wishing the software did more.
We cover:
- Why "product manager with AI as my engineer" is a more useful mental model than "HR person experimenting with AI"
- How Aden built an AI board of directors to pressure test ideas before the exec table
- What it means to train AI personas to be critical, not just encouraging
- The bias question: why unconscious bias training matters more now than ever
- Whether AI will replace senior leadership roles (and why Aden thinks judgment is the moat)
- The talent pipeline problem: Big 4 cutting grads by 40-50%, but what happens to the next generation of partners?
- The "build to enable" mentality and why the bottleneck used to be that you couldn't build it, but now you can
Aden has over a decade of experience in people and culture and tech recruitment at companies like Carsales and Informed Decisions. He's the kind of person who sat next to engineers and product managers every day, picked up how they think, and then applied it to his own domain. He's proof that you don't need a technical background to build with AI. You just need curiosity and a problem worth solving.
Connect with Aden Vaughan-Williams
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aden-vaughan-williams/
- Email: [email protected]
Connect with Amit Singh
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/au-amitsingh/
- Website: amits.com.au
Work with Amit
If you're a senior leader navigating AI decisions and want a thinking partner on strategy, governance, or where to focus first - that's what we do at evince Consulting. Our AI Opportunity Audit helps leadership teams get clear on priorities before committing time and budget.
Learn more: evince.ai
🔥 Join the AI Leadership Academy
Want to go deeper on AI strategy, leadership, and decision-making? Join the AI Leadership Academy on Skool - a free community for business leaders who want to stay sharp in an AI-driven world. Includes the AI Strategy Playbook, mini-course, webinar recordings, and weekly discussions.
Join free: skool.com/aileaders
🎙️ Be a Guest on Never Outdated
Got a story worth sharing? We're always looking for leaders with real experience and sharp perspectives. Register your interest to be a guest.
Apply here: amits.com.au/contact
🙋 Subscribe to Never Outdated
Never Outdated is where business and technology leaders go to stay ahead. Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode, and sign up to the newsletter for a monthly dose of practical insights on AI, leadership, and transformation.
Subscribe here: amits.com.au/neveroutdated