We spend millions upgrading our technology infrastructure. We budget for servers, software, security. But what if the most critical infrastructure in your organization has no line item at all?

In this episode, Michael Fauscette sits down with Barbara Wittmann, Founder of Digital Wisdom Collective, to explore why "human infrastructure" should be on every CIO's budget, why change management is an outdated concept, and what it actually takes to prepare people for AI at the speed the technology demands.

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Introduction
00:48 - Barbara's 25 years rescuing broken digital transformations
02:46 - The moment she decided to flip the equation
03:54 - Human infrastructure: what it includes and why it belongs on the IT budget
05:23 - Why AI failures are almost always human failures
06:10 - Change management is dead; continuous upgrade is what works
07:15 - Lessons from SAP's Business Process Renovation team and Hasso Plattner
10:03 - Why workers still keep Excel backups next to their enterprise systems
11:39 - Survival of the wisest: wisdom vs. knowledge in the AI era
14:58 - Wayfinding artifacts: shared maps that give organizations a compass
17:52 - Adaptive agency: the skill nobody is training for
20:58 - Human in the lead, not human in the loop
22:26 - Values-based AI governance and the ego problem
25:17 - The biggest breaking point is on the human side, not the tech side
28:44 - What 5,000+ IT leaders say about their AI adoption struggles
31:36 - Continuous upgrade: why one-and-done transformation is broken
34:12 - Judgment as the fastest-eroding human capability
37:09 - Thought leader recommendation: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

ABOUT THE GUEST:
Barbara Wittmann is the Founder of Digital Wisdom Collective, where she helps organizations upgrade their human infrastructure for the AI era. With 25 years of experience rescuing broken digital transformation projects, including work on SAP's Business Process Renovation team alongside Hasso Plattner, Barbara brings a practitioner's perspective on why technology is rarely the problem and people always are.

CONNECT WITH BARBARA:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbarawittmann/
Company: Digital Wisdom Collective

ABOUT DISAMBIGUATION:
AI clarity for business leaders. New episodes every Wednesday.
Host: Michael Fauscette, CEO & Chief Analyst at Arion Research
Author of "Building the Digital Workforce"

SUBSCRIBE & follow for weekly episodes on AI strategy, agentic AI, and enterprise technology.

Website: https://www.disambiguationpod.com/
Arion Research: https://www.arionresearch.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mfauscette/

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