Somewhere in your organization, an AI decision is sitting on someone’s desk right now. Who owns it? In most mid-market companies, nobody does — or rather, it’s landed on the IT leader who was already doing three other jobs.

In this episode of The Catalyst, we follow Jeremy Wight, CTO of CareMessage — a patient engagement platform serving 22 million low-income patients across the US — who had to write his organization’s AI policy himself. No committee. No playbook. Just the weight of getting it right for some of the most vulnerable people in the healthcare system.

Alongside Jeremy, we hear from Reid Blackman, author of The Ethical Nightmare Challenge and founder of Virtue, who argues that the standard policy-first approach to AI governance is already broken — and offers a framework any team can implement in weeks, not years. Olivia Gambelin, AI ethicist and author of Responsible AI, reframes the vendor selection question entirely: it’s not about auditing their product, it’s about whether their values align with yours. And Anthony Vinci, former intelligence officer and author of The Fourth Intelligence Revolution, draws an unexpected parallel — between the integrity required of a spy with no rulebook, and the integrity required of an IT leader doing the same.

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This episode is brought to you by HPE.

From AI to data center and network modernization, HPE delivers a cloud-like experience right on your own infrastructure — the full portfolio, from one partner. softchoice.com/technology-partners/hewlett-packard-enterprise 

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In this episode:

• Why the policy-first approach to AI governance is broken — and what to do instead
• A practical three-question framework any team can implement this week
• How to evaluate AI vendors by values alignment, not just product capability
• What it actually looks like when one IT leader has to make these calls alone — with 22 million patients on the line

Featured guests: Jeremy Wight (CTO, CareMessage) • Reid Blackman (Founder/CEO, Virtue) • Olivia Gambelin (AI Ethicist & Author) • Anthony Vinci (CEO, VICO) • Craig McQueen (VP Microsoft Practice, Softchoice)

#AIEthics #ResponsibleAI #ITLeadership #AIGovernance #TheCatalyst #Softchoice #MidMarket #HPE

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Show Notes & Resources

Guests

• Jeremy Wight, CTO — CareMessage: caremessage.org
• Reid Blackman, Founder/CEO — Virtue: reidblackman.com • The Ethical Nightmare Challenge (book, April 2025) • Ethical Machines (HBR Press, 2022)
• Olivia Gambelin, AI Ethicist: oliviagambelin.com • Responsible AI: Implement an Ethical Approach in Your Organization • Values Canvas framework — free download at oliviagambelin.com
• Anthony Vinci, CEO — VICO: anthonyvinci.com • The Fourth Intelligence Revolution (Henry Holt, 2025) • VICO forecasting platform: vico.ai
• Craig McQueen, VP Microsoft Practice — Softchoice, a World Wide Technology Company

Sponsor

• HPE via Softchoice: softchoice.com/technology-partners/hewlett-packard-enterprise
• Softchoice AI & Ethics resources: softchoice.com/EAS

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast dedicated to exploring the intersection of humans and technology.