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Most CEOs hear about AI and delegate it to IT or HR. Manuel Diez did the opposite. In this episode, Geoff Woods sits down with Manuel Diez, CEO of Grupo Diesco, the Dominican Republic-based leader in plastics packaging and non-alcoholic beverages operating across the Caribbean, Central America, South America, and the southeastern US. Manuel had already budgeted for an AI hire when he had a realization: if AI was going to transform the business, it couldn't be delegated. So he told his executive team, "I just hired that person. That person is me." What followed was a six-month transformation, from a non-technical CEO learning to use AI as a thought partner™, to rebuilding how the executive committee runs, to embedding an AI driven execution system across the company. In this conversation: The Eric Schmidt moment that convinced Manuel AI is underhyped, not overhyped Why he cancelled the AI hire and took the job himself How the leadership team validated an AI driven strategy in two hours instead of months The humbling meeting report that exposed the company's biggest bottleneck Why the executive committee, not a use case list, was the first thing to fix The 20% discipline: using AI and CRIT™ (Context, Role, Interview, Task) to focus on what actually drives the business Real ROI: budget projections that used to swing wildly now landing within 2 to 3% You'll learn: Why delegating AI is the most common mistake CEOs make How Manuel got past the fear of being non-technical: the only way to start is to start The blunt outside report that made him defensive, then changed everything Why they said "not now" to 150 AI use cases and fixed one meeting instead The 20% discipline and the CRIT™ prompt (Context, Role, Interview, Task) any leader can copy today The results: budget projections that used to miss wildly now landing within 2 to 3% If you know AI is the future but feel behind, Manuel's advice is simple: it's never too late to start, but every month you wait, you lose time you can't get back. Get The AI-Driven Leader: https://aileadership.com/book

Stephan Gratziani spent 32 years as a Herbalife distributor before becoming CEO of the $5 billion global company. When he stepped into the corporate world, his first earnings call went so badly he slept in the office. His second attempt was nearly a disaster. Then he found a better way: using AI as a thought partner™ to take everything he needed to communicate and deliver it in his own voice. In this episode, recorded live in Vienna after Geoff and Stephan trained 4,000 top Herbalife distributors, they discuss what it takes to drive AI transformation from the top of a global organization. You'll learn: How Stephan went from AI skeptic's process to holding his executive team to an AI-driven standardThe moment his writers went from fearing replacement to refusing to work without itHow Herbalife used Speed to Alignment™ to align global market leaders in 2 hours, a process that used to take monthsThe strategy behind transforming a 45-year-old direct sales company into a health and wellness platformWhy the winning move is building AI that makes the human irreplaceable

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.

Most leaders fear AI will make them less human. But for one founder, the opposite proved true: “AI doesn’t make me less human, it makes me more human.” Imagine drafting a bulletproof LOI during your son’s soccer tournament in just 2.5 hours. Or compressing quarterly strategy into biweekly sprints — while still showing up fully present for both your team and your family. That’s what happens when you stop seeing AI as a hype tool and start using it as a thought partner. In this episode, you’ll hear how one leader used AI to sharpen decision-making, accelerate EOS planning, and even assess executive team fit with a blend of skill and cultural alignment. The result? A leadership rhythm that zooms out for clarity, zooms in for focus, and makes space for what matters most. Today’s AI-Driven Leader is Josh Wand, Founder & CEO of ForceBrands, PINATA, and the Family Fund & Founder Community.

Imagine trying to track hundreds of grants spread across 500+ websites — each with its own windows, rules, and deadlines.  For one leader, this was more than an administrative headache. It was millions in missed opportunities for clients, and a scaling problem that seemed impossible to solve. That’s when he brought the challenge into CRIT™. In less than 20 minutes, AI built the blueprint: scraping sites, matching opportunities with Salesforce data, and triggering alerts. What once took weeks of manual work was transformed into a national-scale playbook that freed his team to focus on winning grants and building funder relationships. The leader who shared this breakthrough? Todd Schmiedeler, Founder and President of Thumbprint Consulting.

“What’s the business that could put you out of business—and why aren’t you building it first?” That simple challenge triggered a mindset shift that turned one leader’s entire model upside down. He realized he’d been treating AI like a glorified search engine, when what he really needed was a thought partner.The results speak for themselves: tripling revenue in the middle of a funding freeze, launching five new companies in just two months, weaving AI into the fabric of his culture, and even designing an AI clone of himself called Todd AI to exit day-to-day leadership of his company. Along the way, he discovered breakthroughs not just in business, but at home—like using a “seven-minute AI commute” to be more present with his family. Today’s AI-Driven Leader is Todd Schmiedeler, Founder and President of Thumbprint Consulting.