Work 2.0: The Podcast

AI slop is changing how professionals build trust, personal brands, and meaningful visibility on LinkedIn.

Rachel Wells speaks with Katie Carroll, LinkedIn’s Director of Editorial and Product Strategy, about using AI to sharpen your ideas without losing your voice. On this episode, recorded live at LinkedIn’s exclusive Verified Vault event at the Royal Society of Arts in London, they discuss authentic professional content, human judgment, workplace AI slop, and why showing real experience can help people and organizations stand out.

Who should listen

* Professionals using AI to write LinkedIn posts while protecting their personal voice.

* Founders, executives, and marketers building a credible online presence.

* Content teams trying to use AI efficiently without producing generic, low-value output.

* Job seekers and career changers who want their LinkedIn profile and ideas to inspire trust.

Read more on Forbes.

Work 2.0: The Podcast examines AI, power, and the changing economics of work, bringing researchers, executives, and technology leaders together to discuss what technological change means for organizations and the people inside them.

Follow the show for more conversations on artificial intelligence, agentic AI, the future of work, leadership, organizational transformation, and the changing relationship between humans and intelligent systems.

Featured guest: Katie Carroll, Director of Editorial and Product Strategy, LinkedIn

🎧 Available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts, and more.

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Your job candidate’s 30-60-90 plan may be excellent…it may also be AI.

So what happens when their first project goes sideways, the stakeholders are disappointed, and there is no polished document to hide behind?

Rachel Wells speaks with Megan Smith, Head of People and Culture at SAP Americas, about AI hiring, scenario-based interviews, performance management, and the early-career ladder that companies are dismantling.

They unpack SAP’s approach to developing future leaders, why relationship-building may become a premium career skill, and the dangerous difference between impressive output and real capability.

Who should listen

* CHROs and people leaders redesigning hiring and performance systems around AI.

* Talent acquisition teams dealing with AI-generated applications and interview credibility.

* Early-career and learning leaders building stronger leadership pipelines.

* Managers responsible for coaching, mentorship, and hybrid-team connection.

* And yes, even job-seekers seeking to sharpen their edge

Work 2.0: The Podcast examines AI, power, and the changing economics of work, bringing researchers, executives, and technology leaders together to discuss what technological change means for organizations and the people inside them.

Follow the show for more conversations on artificial intelligence, agentic AI, the future of work, leadership, organizational transformation, and the changing relationship between humans and intelligent systems.

Featured guest: Megan Smith, Head of People and Culure, SAP Americas

🎧 Available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts, and more.

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As AI makes software creation dramatically cheaper through vibe coding, what happens to the SaaS companies businesses have spent years paying for?

Rachel Wells sat down with Replit co-founder and CEO Amjad Masad at the opening of the company’s new London headquarters for an exclusive interview about AI skills, workforce readiness, and the pressure on software companies to keep innovating.

In this Work 2.0 conversation, Masad explains why ideas, judgment, and deep domain expertise may carry greater value as AI agents take on more execution work. They also discuss London’s AI talent, the future of coding, and what young people entering the workforce need to develop now.

Read the Forbes write-up here.

Work 2.0: The Podcast examines AI, power, and the changing economics of work, bringing researchers, executives, and technology leaders together to discuss what technological change means for organizations and the people inside them.

Follow the show for more conversations on artificial intelligence, agentic AI, the future of work, leadership, organizational transformation, and the changing relationship between humans and intelligent systems.

Featured guest: Amjad Masad, Replit CEO

🎧 Available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts, and more.

Don’t forget to rate, review, and share this episode with a co-worker or friend.

AI jobs are growing rapidly, salaries are rising, and companies are racing to secure technical talent. But according to LinkedIn research, women accounted for only 26% of new AI hires in 2025 and hold just 13% of technical AI leadership roles.

In this episode of Work 2.0, Rachel Wells speaks with Matthew Baird, economist at LinkedIn’s Economic Research Institute, and Sarah Steinberg, LinkedIn’s global public policy partnerships lead, about what is happening beneath the AI hiring boom.

They unpack LinkedIn’s “AI triple penalty,” the shrinking share of women in some of the fastest-growing technical roles, the degree barrier inside AI hiring, and why the most gender-balanced AI role may also be one of the least secure.

The conversation also examines skills-based hiring, sponsorship, STEM pipeline leakage, AI startup hiring, and why representation increasingly matters to business competitiveness, product development, trust, and economic growth.

For professionals trying to understand where AI opportunity is actually flowing, this episode asks: who gets to participate in the AI economy, and who gets to lead it?

Work 2.0: The Podcast examines AI, power, and the changing economics of work, bringing researchers, executives and technology leaders into conversations about what technological change actually means for organizations and the people inside them.

Follow the show for more conversations on artificial intelligence, agentic AI, the future of work, leadership, organizational transformation and the changing relationship between humans and intelligent systems.

Featured guests: Matthew Baird, Sarah Steinberg

🎧 Available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts, and more.

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AI search is reshaping where the best writing lives and who readers can trust.

Rachel Wells speaks with Tony Stubblebine, CEO of Medium, about how private publishing communities are gaining ground, why AI detectors cannot settle authorship, and why human curation is becoming indispensable.

In this episode, they examine AI-generated content, content quality, expert knowledge, provenance, and the rising value of lived experience as platforms decide what to surface.

The conversation is a must-listen for hobbyist writers, journalists, authors—indeed, anyone who directly or indirectly makes a living through publishing content online.

Work 2.0: The Podcast examines AI, power and the changing economics of work, bringing researchers, executives and technology leaders into conversations about what technological change actually means for organizations and the people inside them.

Follow the show for more conversations on artificial intelligence, agentic AI, the future of work, leadership, organizational transformation and the changing relationship between humans and intelligent systems.

Featured guest: Tony Stubblebine, CEO, Medium

🎧 Available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts, and more.

Don’t forget to rate, review, and share this episode with a co-worker or friend.

About 98% of organizations surveyed experienced at least one AI agent-related incident that disrupted business or the organization.

So what happens as companies hand AI agents more autonomy, access, and decision-making power?

In this episode of Work 2.0: The Podcast, Rachel Wells sits down with Kavitha Mariappan, Chief Transformation Officer at Rubrik, and Vaibhav Sahgal of Economist Enterprise to examine new research into the risks emerging as agentic AI moves deeper into organizations.

They unpack what an AI agent incident actually looks like, from unauthorized access and sensitive data exposure to corrupted business data, cascading agent-to-agent actions and threats that can spread at machine speed.

The conversation goes deeper into a problem many organizations are only beginning to confront: What happens when an autonomous AI system has already acted before a human can intervene?

Rachel, Kavitha, and Vaibhav explore:

* Why 98% of surveyed organizations reported disruptive AI agent-related incidents

* What happens when AI agents operate beyond their authorized permissions

* Why traditional enterprise security controls may struggle with autonomous AI

* Whether an AI “kill switch” can actually stop the damage

* The difference between stopping an AI agent and reversing what it has already done

* Why companies need visibility into every AI agent operating across the organization

* How least-privilege access, data minimization, and anomaly detection can reduce the blast radius

* Why third-party AI systems could become a major enterprise vulnerability

* What “assume breach” means in an AI-powered organization

* Whether companies could eventually be required to disclose major AI agent incidents to regulators, investors and customers

We discuss how organizations can remain resilient when software can reason, act and interact with other systems at machine speed.

Work 2.0: The Podcast examines AI, power and the changing economics of work, bringing researchers, executives and technology leaders into conversations about what technological change actually means for organizations and the people inside them.

Follow the show for more conversations on artificial intelligence, agentic AI, the future of work, leadership, organizational transformation and the changing relationship between humans and intelligent systems.

Featured guests: Kavitha Mariappan, Chief Transformation Officer, Rubrik; Vaibhav Sahgal, Economist Enterprise

Economist Enterprise produced the research discussed in this episode in collaboration with Rubrik.

🎧 Available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts, and more.

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Is remote work hurting Gen Z’s pay, professional development, and long-term career growth?

In this episode of Work 2.0, Rachel Wells speaks with Temple University economist and former recruiter Joshua Mask about his new research separating the effects of remote work from generative AI on entry-level jobs and young workers.

Mask’s research found that people entering remote-work-exposed occupations after 2020 earned about 1.8% less per hour and 2% less annually. On a $50,000 salary, that represents roughly $1,000 a year. But the explanation is more complicated than the headline.

The difference could reflect the money workers save by avoiding a commute. It could reflect pandemic-era learning loss. It could also reveal a deeper early-career problem: remote workers may receive less training, feedback, professional socialization and access to the relationships that help people progress.

Rachel and Joshua examine:

• Whether remote work is affecting entry-level pay• Why the first few years of a career are economically significant• The relationship between remote work, AI and entry-level jobs• Why remote-capable jobs are often highly exposed to generative AI• What young professionals may miss when beginning their careers fully remotely• How proximity, feedback and informal learning influence career advancement• Why relationship-building could become more valuable as AI automates routine work• How employers can develop young talent in remote and hybrid workplaces• Why companies still need a strong talent pipeline in the AI era• What leaders risk when they treat AI as a replacement for workforce development

This conversation moves beyond the familiar return-to-office argument. It examines how remote work is changing the way career capital, workplace relationships and professional credibility are built, particularly for graduates and early-career professionals.

WHO SHOULD WATCH OR LISTEN?

This episode is for:

• Gen Z professionals, graduates and people beginning their first job• Employees considering fully remote or hybrid roles• Parents, educators and career advisers supporting young professionals• CEOs, HR leaders and talent acquisition teams• Managers responsible for remote onboarding, training and development• Employers building entry-level talent pipelines• Anyone concerned about AI, remote work and the future of entry-level careers

Work 2.0 is the podcast about AI, power, and the future of work, hosted by Rachel Wells.

🎧 Available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts, and more.

Don’t forget to rate, review, and share this episode with a co-worker or friend.

The resume has long been the gateway to work. Now it may be failing the very people it is supposed to represent.

In this Work 2.0 conversation, Greenhouse CEO Daniel Chait explains the “AI hiring doom loop”: candidates use AI to submit more applications, employers use AI to filter the flood, and more qualified people struggle to be seen.

Chait shares with Rachel why recruiters are handling 412% more applications while teams are roughly half the size they once were, why he says about 97% of applications may never receive human attention, and how an earlier landmark study found identical resumes with traditionally Black-sounding names received 50% fewer callbacks.

Can structured, transparent AI interviews move hiring beyond credentials, college names, and keyword-stuffed resumes? Or will AI deepen the distrust already breaking the job market?

Listen for Chait’s case for skills-based hiring, candidate choice and transparency, third-party bias audits, and the durable skills graduates need as AI reshapes work.

This episode is for job seekers, recent graduates, career changers, recruiters, hiring leaders, and anyone frustrated by sending applications into a system that increasingly feels impossible to navigate.

Work 2.0 is the podcast about AI, power, and the future of work, hosted by Rachel Wells.

🎧 Available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts, and more.

Don’t forget to rate, review, and share this episode with a co-worker or friend.

Substack has partnered with Pangram to introduce AI text detection, reigniting the debate over AI-generated content, creator authenticity, and whether readers can still trust what they consume online.

In this solo episode of Work 2.0, Senior Forbes Contributor Rachel Wells examines Substack’s new “scan for AI text” feature and what it could mean for writers, journalists, newsletter creators, thought leaders, and the wider creator economy.

As platforms such as LinkedIn become increasingly saturated with generic AI content and automated engagement, Rachel argues that transparency will become one of the most important sources of credibility online. She explains why readers and paying subscribers deserve to understand how creators use artificial intelligence, particularly when they are purchasing access to someone’s expertise, perspective, and original thinking.

Rachel also shares her own AI writing workflow, including how she transforms original voice notes, ideas, reporting, and industry insights into structured Work 2.0 newsletters while retaining her distinctive voice. She contrasts ethical AI assistance with handing the entire creative process over to a machine and mass-producing content without genuine expertise behind it.

The episode also explores Rachel’s TRUST AI Framework, why transparency is essential for successful AI adoption, and how creators and organizations can use AI to improve their work without sacrificing human judgment, credibility, or trust.

Topics include:

• Substack and Pangram’s AI detection partnership• AI slop on LinkedIn and social media• Trust, transparency, and authenticity online• Ethical AI use for writers and content creators• The future of newsletters and digital publishing• Human expertise in the generative AI era• Rachel Wells’ TRUST AI Framework• How to use AI without surrendering your voice

Work 2.0 is the podcast about AI, power, and the future of work, hosted by Rachel Wells.

🎧 Available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts, and more.

Don’t forget to rate, review, and share this episode with a co-worker or friend.

Are you worried about the impact of AI on your workforce and on your wellbeing and mental health? Join Rachel Wells and guest Susan David, a leading psychologist, as they dive into the critical human skills needed for 2030 and beyond.

In this episode, we unpack why AI is commoditizing expertise and why “human-centric” leadership is now the single biggest predictor of successful organizational transformation. Susan shares actionable insights on:

* Building psychological safety in the workplace.

* Moving beyond basic EQ into Emotional Agility to manage ambiguity.

* The difference between “wounds” and “scars” in professional leadership.

* Why self-compassion is the ultimate antidote to shame during workplace layoffs and uncertainty.

If you are a leader, HR professional, or employee navigating the changing dynamics of work, this conversation provides the tools to stay grounded, resilient, and human in an automated world.

🎧 Available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts, and more.

Don’t forget to rate, review, and share this episode with a co-worker or friend.