AI and Burnout: Making Room to Slow Down – with Sarah Downey

My guest is Analiese Brown, Chief People Officer at CampMinder. She has spent the last decade there helping build a company people want to work for, through acquisitions, leadership transitions, a pandemic, and the messy growth that comes with scaling a SaaS company. Most recently, she has been part of CampMinder’s company-wide AI rollout, helping stand up an AI Steering Committee and building the change management to help people adopt it in a human-centered way. When I first invited her, Analiese told me her expertise veers more cultural than technical. That is exactly why I wanted her on the show. Plenty of people are talking about the technical side of AI implementation. Far fewer are talking about what it asks of the people and the culture inside an organization. We explore how CampMinder is approaching adoption, from the steering committee and employee guilds to a tool that helps people navigate career paths and growth plans. Analiese shares how her team makes that guidance easier to access while staying involved when a question calls for human judgment or support. We also talk about the connections that can disappear when AI makes it possible to move faster. A person can now produce a polished plan without talking to the colleagues whose perspectives might change it. Analiese explains why she encourages her team to share ideas early, make room for disagreement, and pay attention to how people experience their communications, even when AI could help them move more quickly. One question Analiese asks of leaders has stayed with me: what do we want to be true about work, beyond what is technically possible? It is a useful question when the pressure to keep up is loud. It points us toward choosing where human presence matters and shaping AI adoption around the experience we want people to have. It's always a joy speaking with Analiese. If you’re a founder or People leader working through AI adoption with your team, I think you’ll find this one very useful. What you will take away How to involve employees in AI adoption and make useful tools available while keeping human support close. Why faster work can come at the cost of differing perspectives and everyday connection. How leaders can decide where to use AI by considering the experience they want to create for employees, candidates, and colleagues. Learn more at humanequilibrium.ai. How is AI changing the way you lead? The free Human Equilibrium Assessment helps you reflect on where AI is expanding your capabilities and where you may be offloading important judgment you want to keep. Take about 10 minutes to step back, see your patterns, and identify where to focus. ​Take the Human Equilibrium Assessment → ---- Editing by Earth Dog Films (earthdogfilms.com). Music by Dan Mahle.

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