Brian Evergreen is a globally recognised AI strategist and future of work thought leader. He has advised some of the world’s most influential organisations, from Amazon and Microsoft to NASA, guiding leaders through the challenges of digital and autonomous transformation.
As the author of Autonomous Transformation: Creating a More Human Future in the Era of Artificial Intelligence, Brian has become one of the most respected voices on balancing technology with humanity. His recognition as one of Edelman’s Top 50 AI Creators highlights the authority he brings to the conversation around leadership in the AI era.
In this exclusive interview with The Cyber Security Speakers Agency, Brian Evergreen discusses the biggest misconceptions about AI, how businesses can use it to empower their people, and the transformative shifts shaping the future of work.
Q1. Many business leaders are eager to embrace AI, but misconceptions remain. From your perspective, what are the most common misunderstandings executives have about artificial intelligence?
Brian Evergreen: “The biggest misconceptions that business leaders have around artificial intelligence often lie in the idea that data is the most important aspect of artificial intelligence.
“They’ve been told this by folks that are trying to sell data as part of their solution or part of their platform, which is very understandable that that’s what they would focus on. But when it comes to artificial intelligence, actually the most important element is expertise. The whole goal of AI is to recreate semblances of expertise that can be applied inside of a business context.
“And so data, yes, is an asset that can be a part of that. But if you start with your data as opposed to starting with your expertise, it’s sort of like reading the exhaust fumes of a car and trying to figure out where it should go next, as opposed to first starting with your experts and determining what is it that we want to do with our business.
“How are we going to apply intelligence, both human intelligence and machine intelligence, to be able to do that effectively? And then be able to build the actual solutions and products that you want to build to create value for your customers.”
Q2. There is often concern that AI will replace jobs rather than enhance them. How can organisations implement AI in a way that strengthens and empowers their workforce instead of diminishing it?
Brian Evergreen: “The way that organisations can implement AI in a way that empowers their workforce rather than replaces their workforce is a question I get all the time. And I think it’s a really important one.
What I’d say first and foremost is that cutting cost with AI is sort of like cave painting with AI.
“The real opportunity with artificial intelligence and these advanced technologies that we have at our disposal today is not just to cut costs on whatever existing value we’ve already created, but instead to raise and increase top-line revenue and add new value, create new value based on your core competency.
“That’s the first thing I say about how to double down on applying AI in a way that empowers your workforce. The second I would say is that it’s really a leadership question. People sometimes say, “Well, is AI coming for my job?” and the thing I always remind them of is AI has never knocked on, you know, come to a business and knocked on the door and said, “Hi, I’d like that person’s job and I’d like that person’s job.”
“AI is not coming, it’s not embodied, it’s not looking for a job. And so the real question of whether or not AI, and how AI, will be implemented inside of an organisation comes down to the leadership and the decisions that leaders are making. I always remind folks, if you’re wondering how your AI is going to impact your own work, look to your leadership.
“If they’re the kind of leadership that say, “Hey, as we look at this era of technology and AI that we’re now entering, we’re planning on using the same values that we always have and we want to augment and extend the amount of value that we can create with AI,” you know, you’re in a good place for the future of work.”
Q3. As workplaces continue to evolve in the era of AI, what major shifts should businesses be preparing for in the future of work?
Brian Evergreen: “The biggest changes that businesses should prepare for, I would say, one of the biggest ones is agentic intelligence. So we’re moving past the era of digital transformation into the era of autonomous transformation. Not where organisations autonomously transform, but where the mile marker has moved from going from analogue to digital now toward autonomous.
“By that I mean not fully autonomous, just like a business isn’t fully digital. There are still analogue assets and there are people involved in every business. The same will be true as organisations move toward more and more autonomy. And so one of the biggest changes is agentic intelligence.
“When you think about the work that you do today, most organisations have a lot of robotic process automation. They have different digital processes where you assign a task and you start something and then multiple different things happen online automatically.
“That’s going to come to a new level when we have agentic intelligence, where instead of just everything being automatically started by us or by something that’s triggered based off a certain condition, there will be AI agents inside our organisations that will be able to sense when things are going on or when different dynamics are changing.
“They’ll be able to engage us and, over the weekend, they can come to us first thing in the morning on Monday with a report: “These are all the different changes that have been noted. We’ve analysed this research question that you asked us on Friday. Here are all these different things that we recommend, recommended actions, and likely outcomes based on them.” And we’ll be able to approve or say, “No, actually, will you dig deeper into that?”
“That’s one of the biggest shifts. Another big shift that’s coming is that the way we work between organisations is going to completely change. Today, if I’m a manufacturer and someone says, “Can you manufacture us this many parts of this product by this date?” – depending on the size of the order, I might have to check upstream with my suppliers and call around. That can be very time-intensive to make all those phone calls and interact between organisations in an entire value stream.
“In the era of agentic intelligence, that can be answered in milliseconds, because an agent on behalf of my organisation can interact with agents on behalf of my suppliers. And they can, in a matter of milliseconds, come back to the customer and say, “Yes, that’s something we absolutely can do.””
Q4. When you step on stage to speak to global audiences, what core messages or takeaways do you most hope they leave with?
Brian Evergreen: “What do I hope that folks take away from my speeches? I would say the biggest thing, my highest-level goal when I get on stage and pick up a microphone or speak into a lavalier, is that I want people to walk away with value and with things that they can actually leverage that day. Things that they can immediately start doing to get on an even better path toward creating more value in their work.
“My approach to that is to provide context, educate, inform, and share new ideas and frameworks that will surprise people. Generally, folks find them surprising and realise, “Huh, I never thought about that before.” Then I want to give them tactical, tangible steps that they can take – the kind they might take screenshots of, or I’ll send the deck afterwards – that will really help them.
“They can then walk away and say, “Okay, that is really going to help me as I think through: what is my vision in the era of AI? What is my strategy? What is my process for making decisions? How am I going to lead, manage, and leverage storytelling to effectively ignite change in the direction I want it to go?””
This exclusive interview with Brian Evergreen was conducted by Mark Matthews of The Motivational Speakers Agency.
