What does it take to move from “I don’t know where to start” to “I’m going to lead this”?

That’s the journey we’ve taken together in Season One of The AI-Driven Leader. Across 12 episodes, you’ve heard from six executives who began where so many leaders are today — curious, cautious, even skeptical. And you’ve witnessed their transformation: from hesitation to bold action.

In every interview, they shared the doubts, turning points, and decisions that changed everything. And in every CRIT™ session, you saw what happens when AI stops being a gimmick and starts acting as a true Thought Partner — surfacing non-obvious solutions in minutes, not months.

The lesson is clear: you don’t have to be an AI expert to lead in this new era. You just have to become an AI-driven leader. Someone willing to think differently, cast a vision, and lead change with the courage to act before the playbook is written.

As Season One closes, keep the momentum going:

• Subscribe to our newsletter at AILeadership.com for weekly case studies and prompts.
• Read The AI-Driven Leader and put it in your executives’ hands.
• Explore how we help C-level leaders train their teams, join the Collective™, and tie AI strategy directly to enterprise value creation.

Because here’s the truth: the future doesn’t wait, and neither should you.

In our last episode, he showed how vulnerability and courage turned skepticism into company-wide adoption. But in this CRIT™ session, the challenge was different: how do you keep excitement from stalling out in confusion?

Through CRIT™, AI acted as a strategic advisor to his executive team. It surfaced the need for structured listening, a weekly AI narrative, and clear success gates. It pushed him to elevate a “big bet” team into a startup studio — not just to use AI, but to sell with AI.

And then came the extraordinary moment: Abraham Lincoln, on his AI board, challenged him to write a human constitution for AI: “Man shall not be replaced, but released into his greatest potential.”

The clarity that emerged in minutes would’ve taken months of consultants. His reaction said it all: “Outstanding, mind blowing at times.”

Today’s AI-Driven Leader is Geoff Gilmore, President, CEO, and Director of Worthington Steel.

Imagine going from saying, “AI has no place in steel manufacturing”… to declaring, “It is my expectation that you use AI” across 6,000 employees — all in under six months.

That’s exactly what happened when one leader flipped the switch. At first skeptical, he was convinced AI couldn’t touch a 65-year-old steel company. But a persistent senior leader put the right books in his hands — Co-Intelligence and The AI-Driven Leader — and suddenly, curiosity turned into conviction.

Within months, he vulnerably admitted, “I wasn’t an expert, but I led anyway.” That courage gave his people permission to act. Pilots surged: predictive inventory, machine reliability, contract analyzers, and more — initiatives powerful enough to potentially move stock price. And through it all, he kept a people-first philosophy: “Work-life balance matters as much as stock price.”

Today’s AI-Driven Leader is Geoff Gilmore, President, CEO, and Director of Worthington Steel.

In our last episode, they showed how AI liberated their team to focus on presence and strategy. But in this CRIT™ session, the stakes were higher: what happens when AI threatens to disrupt the very business model itself?

Together, we put HireBetter’s flagship Strategic Talent Planning service under the microscope. Today, it’s a full-day, whiteboard-heavy, manual process. But through CRIT™, AI reimagined it as a real-time, AI-augmented copilot — powered by live financials, KPIs, and org charts.

The result: strategy that updates continuously, while leaders provide the irreplaceable human trust and safe space for execution.

Velveth captured the moment best: “Wake up. Do you know what we could do? This changes everything.”

This is what happens when leaders stop fearing disruption and start using AI to redefine their value.

Imagine collapsing hours of client-note consolidation into a single minute — and freeing your team to focus on what only humans can do.

That’s exactly what happened when two leaders decided to experiment with AI, not as a side project, but as a cultural transformation. One led with fearless curiosity, modeling adoption before asking her team to follow. The other paired process-driven creativity with custom GPTs that unlocked efficiency, strategy, and presence.

The result? A recruiting firm that turned skepticism into advocacy, wrote its own AI policy, redesigned training with predictive data, and built a culture where automation handles the busywork — so people can show up more human, more connected, and more strategic.

Today’s AI-Driven Leaders are Velveth Schmitz, CEO of HireBetter, and Amy Ancira, Chief Experience Officer.

In our last episode, he showed how AI doubled capacity, built new product lines, and reshaped his leadership at work and at home. But behind the success was a deeper challenge: how do you scale leadership itself, so growth doesn’t bottleneck around one person?

That’s the question he brought into CRIT™. In this live session, AI stepped in as a strategic operator — taking the context of his leadership challenge and building a playbook to systematize what had only lived in his head. The outcome? Blind spots revealed, dashboards built, and a roadmap that made his leadership scalable across the company.

The takeaway? With the right framework, AI doesn’t just design processes — it amplifies leaders, turning instinct into systems and vision into execution.

Today’s AI-Driven Leader is Brian Lang, CEO of UpsideCFO.

What if you could add ten senior-level teammates for just $20 a month?

That's exactly what one CEO did. His breakthrough came after realizing

AI wasn't just for emails and edits — it could be a thought partner. He

built an internal suite of AI personas: a virtual CRO that recovered

lost deals, a business coach tailored to his style, and a system called

the "Clarity File" that transformed an 80-hour process into a 4-hour

playbook.

The result? Hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing collateral

generated, operations scaled without new headcount, and a new way of

showing up as a father. His lesson is clear: AI isn't just a tool — it's

a compounding force multiplier for leadership, business, and life.

Today's AI-Driven Leader is Brian Lang, CEO of UpsideCFO.

Most leaders come to CRIT™ with a problem. Rusty Cagle came with a vision: 100YearImpact.org — a nonprofit designed to help nonprofits build endowments and channel billions toward humanitarian causes.

At first, he asked AI for strategies. But very quickly, the real challenge emerged: how do you recruit a Dream Team Advisory Board that could guide a movement for 100 years?

Through CRIT™, AI drafted a world-class board invitation — then stress-tested it with role-play feedback from “Steve Jobs.” The verdict: “Too polite. If you’re going to shape history, build a revolution, not a charity.”

The breakthrough was more than tactics. Rusty realized, “This board isn’t honorary. It’s legendary.” And his emotional payoff was clear: “I want to be part of my own board.”

This is what CRIT™ makes possible — turning a vague idea into a movement with the power to last a century.

Imagine sitting in a room full of peers — some your age, some even older. Most dismiss AI as a fad. But one leader saw something different: a leapfrog moment. After reading The AI-Driven Leader seven times, he knew dabbling wasn’t enough. He drew a line in the sand: “In 90 days, we will be an AI-driven company.”

The stakes were real. Years earlier, he had lost a $200M client because his firm wasn’t big enough. That pain fueled his determination to reinvent ASE Private Wealth™ as a multi-entity holding company — and this time, with AI at the core.

In 60 days, his team cut $100K in software costs, streamlined efficiency, and reduced a tax optimization process from 6–7 hours to 90 minutes. More importantly, they shifted their mindset: instead of fearing AI, they asked, “How can AI help me do this?”

Today’s AI-Driven Leader is Rusty Cagle, CEO & Founder of ASE Private Wealth™.

Every founder faces it eventually: the moment you have to hand over the CEO seat without hovering. As Josh Wand put it, the transition is both “highly strategic and highly emotional.”

In this live CRIT™ session, Josh brought that challenge to the table. With Geoff’s guidance, AI acted as a world-class succession planner and operator — designing a weekly 30-minute execution review, a monthly strategic deep dive, and an AI-powered dashboard to clarify decision rights and surface progress in real time.

The breakthrough? AI became the daily coach, while Josh’s human coach provided quarterly oversight. The result was a new operating rhythm that shifted him, in his own words, “from instrument player to orchestra conductor.”

This is what it looks like when AI doesn’t replace leadership — it amplifies it.