#365 How to Successfully Lead AI Transformation in Your Organization

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (0:00)
Welcome to Embracing Digital Transformation. Before we dive in, I wanted to personally thank you for listening. Many of the ideas we discuss on this show inspired my new book, AI Augmented Teams. If you're looking for practical ways to combine human expertise and AI to achieve better outcomes, I think you'll find it valuable. Learn more at paidar.ai.ai.ai.ai.books. That is paidar.ai.ai.ai.ai.ai.books.
Now let's get started with the show.

**Jared Lucian** (0:31)
But with this modern tech and generative AI specifically, we're still learning.
We still have the training wheels on our bike. And so we're trying to make assumptions and guesses based on what we think we know and what's coming. But two, three years from now, we're going to learn that what we thought was happening and what we thought we were capable of, we were off.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (0:54)
Welcome to Embracing Digital Transformation, where we explore how people process policy and technology drive effective change. This is Dr. Darren, Chief Enterprise Architect, Educator, Author, and most importantly, your host. On this episode, how to successfully lead AI transformation in your organization with digital transformation expert Jared Lucian, Founder and CEO of Blue Tree Technology Group.
Jared, welcome to the show.

**Jared Lucian** (1:28)
Thank you very much, Darren. Happy to be here.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (1:31)
Hey, we're going to really hit hard on culture and change management and all that stuff today, especially with executive leadership and their role in that. However, before we get started, everyone that listens to my show knows that I only have superheroes on the show.
Every superhero has unique background and origin story. So Jared, what is your origin story?

**Jared Lucian** (1:58)
Wow. I could probably spend all day talking about the interesting life I've lived. I've been pretty fortunate. In business specifically, I started in college actually, doing what I think a lot of folks in Silicon Valley did, which was getting into computers. This is back when it wasn't very easy internationally for a lot of countries to get high-powered machines, modern machines, and so I started using eBay at an early age to help ship, build and ship laptops overseas to foreign countries.
I can't claim that it was wildly successful, but it worked for a few years. And after that, I got into quick service franchises, primarily Cold Stone Creamery in Southern California.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (2:59)
Oh, yeah.

**Jared Lucian** (3:00)
Yeah, yeah, that was fun. I had up to, I think, about 60 employees, mostly teenagers at that point in time, scooping ice cream all day. It was fun. It was a fun business to be in while it lasted.
Vending businesses, I've done that a little bit. Very profitable.
But today, I spend the majority of my time focused on Blue Tree Technology Group, which is a technology consulting firm. And I've been running this business now for about 15 years.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (3:33)
Wow, that's an amazing, I mean, obviously, an entrepreneur. Obviously, I mean, if you're dealing with teenagers as an employer, you have to be an entrepreneur.
Because there has to be an upside to it, right? Because teenage employees can be difficult at times.

**Jared Lucian** (3:53)
Yes. Employees in general, I think, at the end of the day, we're all humans and we're all dealing with our own issues, challenges personally and professionally. But teenagers are a unique bunch to manage for sure.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (4:08)
Yes, absolutely.
Well, so I'm just going to be brutal on this. What gives you cred to tell an executive how to do change management?

**Jared Lucian** (4:21)
Well, prior to, I talk a lot about the businesses I've been involved in, invested in and have run and operated. But I have also worked for a lot of other companies. And prior to starting Blue Tree, I worked for several large organizations in the high tech industry. And my role in each of those firms was both business development and consulting, working with executives to help them go through the digital transformation of varying types, shapes and sizes.
Most of those organizations that I worked with over the years were what I would consider enterprise level north of a billion dollars in revenue. And so I was fortunate enough to have access to and have an audience with high powered executives on a consistent basis. Learned a lot from them, but also was in a position to help them through the years to understand what was possible, what they weren't doing today, that they could be doing, what their competition was involved in, and how we could help them be more market competitive. And so through that experience, it allowed me to have the confidence to start my own company doing much of the similar things that I was doing before, just with a team that I get to handpick.