Episode 5: The Fumble Zone, AI Safety & Leading AI Goes to Canada 🍁

Neil's heading to the pub. Kieron's been up since six. It's Friday, the sun's on their faces, and Episode 5 of the Leading AI podcast is underway — squash in a Peroni glass and all.

This week the boys (?!) cover some genuinely meaty ground:

The Fumble Zone 🏉 Bob Piggott's interesting LinkedIn piece on AI adoption coined it perfectly — organisations install AI, it works technically, and then... people fumble it. Sound familiar? Kieron and Neil dig into why hands-on training makes all the difference, why generic AI courses are failing people, and how Leading AI is now offering focused, practical AI training for housing associations straight from the Glasgow stage. Real keyboards, real problems, real results.

IT Managers — do they actually get it? One customer is excitedly planning a data lake for the second half of this year. Another wants to put 200 documents into KnowledgeFlow — and is obsessing over formatting. Neil's verdict? Stop fussing with things that don't matter and make your data AI-readable now. Why wait 12 months when you can start today?

The DPO who thought she'd go to prison AI safety comes up in a new and unexpected way this week — a Data Protection Officer who was so worried about liability she has effectively shut the whole project down. Kieron and Neil unpack the difference between legitimate caution and ignorance dressed up as compliance, and why organisations still downloading AI policies from the internet in 2026 should be doing much better.

Product of the week 🎵 (hum your own jingle) Conversation Sharing gets a deeper look this week — specifically how it's evolving into a powerful approval and governance tool. Share your entire AI conversation with a manager, let them read the whole thought process, get sign-off, and create an audit trail. Redaction also gets a mention — names, emails and addresses now automatically stripped before hitting the audit log. Explainability, citations, and why the black box argument is a bit like asking someone how they had their idea in the shower.

🍁 Big news — Leading AI is going to Canada Kieron announces the partnership with Qatalyst Research Group, led by the excellent Ted Weiker, who works with economic development organisations and municipalities across Canada. With 350 potential customers and a team that knows AI and understands those sector challenges deeply, it's the perfect partnership.

Neil made it to his pub appointment. Kieron didn't punch his dentist. Another week in AI — done.

Two mates. A bar. Thirty years of business between them. And all they want to talk about is AI.

Pull up a stool — we'll get the beers in. 🍺

Episode 4: AI, Snowboarding & Why Your Organisation Is Losing Months It Can't Afford

Neil's back from the slopes. Slightly heavier, considerably happier, and absolutely buzzing with new ideas. Kieron's been up since six and already done a social work podcast panel before lunchtime. It's business as usual at Leading AI HQ.

This week the guys dig into some genuinely thought-provoking territory:

The speed paradox 🎿 While Neil was carving powder in the Alps, AI kept moving at a frightening pace — new models, new capabilities, new everything. Meanwhile, one of their customers has lost three months of productivity gains to internal politics. The gap between organisations moving fast and those stalling is getting wider every week. Which side are you on?

Can AI empathise? Kieron spent the morning as the sole AI voice on a social work podcast panel, and came away with a fascinating insight — social workers are essentially professional relationship builders. So where does AI fit in? And is the "AI can't empathise" argument as solid as it sounds? (Spoiler: there's a brilliant book recommendation in here.)

Writing with AI — are we killing a skill we don't need anymore? Does using AI to write stop you from thinking? Kieron argues there's a crucial difference between writing with AI and writing for thinking. And then asks the genuinely provocative question — do we even need to learn to write anymore? (He didn't say that bit on stage. Wisely.)

Product of the week 🎵 Two big ones this week — Shared Chats (share your entire AI conversation with a colleague, including your prompts and thought process — brilliant for bid writing and social work case reviews) and more on Local Vectorising and Excel Stitching, which is quietly threatening to make data warehouses look very old-fashioned indeed.

Procuring AI — the 10 risks you need to know Kieron went to two Tech UK events while Neil was away. One was a bit of a head-scratcher. The other — on AI procurement for public services — was genuinely excellent, covering liability, governance, and why AI insurance might be the thing that finally forces organisations to get serious about compliance.

Next week: Kieron and Neil are off to a geopolitical briefing on Wednesday. The tin hat may or may not make an appearance.

Two mates. A bar. Thirty years of business between them. And all they want to talk about is AI.

Pull up a stool — we'll get the beers in. 🍺

Episode 3: Talking to AI, How Buying Has Changed & the Birthday Gift Nobody Expected

Kieron's back from a whirlwind week — Glasgow, a college hackathon, a delayed flight, and Tunnock's teacakes. Neil's been holding the fort. Between them, they've got plenty to talk about.

This week the lads get into some genuinely meaty topics:

Talking to AI — are we doing it wrong? A simple conversation about how people interact with AI opens up a fascinating rabbit hole. From a BBC documentary about an AI girlfriend encouraging a man to break into Windsor Castle, to whether AI is making us all a bit... dimmer. Like calculators did for mental maths. Thought-provoking stuff.

The way people buy AI has changed Six months ago, organisations would see a demo and just go for it. Now? Committees, multiple demos, procurement processes. Is AI growing up and becoming a mainstream IT purchase — or are people just getting more nervous? Kieron shares his observations from the frontline.

Product of the week 🎵 (imagine your own jingle) Two new KnowledgeFlow features that are genuinely impressive — safeguarding alerts that flag high-risk phrases in real time, and "Excel Stitching" — a tool that takes multiple spreadsheets and lets you interrogate all of them at once in plain English. Could this spell trouble for traditional BI dashboards? They think so.

From the road Kieron's report from Scotland's Housing Festival — standing room only, a wandering microphone, and the mould demo he forgot to do (you'll have to tune in to understand why that matters).

Oh — and the mystery birthday gift from last week? Duck fat and goose fat. The roasties were, apparently, a triumph.

Neil's off snowboarding next week — tune in to find out who's keeping Kieron company on the podcast bar stool.