AI, Trust & The Future of Work | Silvia Leal on Innovation, Cybersecurity & What's Coming Next | Tomorrow Today

**Silvia Leal** (0:00)
I'm like Don Quixote. That was before, because I fight and fight and fight, because I want people to understand and feel what I feel.

**Shekhar Natarajan** (0:15)
What is the role of the government on technology? And what the EU has known in the rest of the world is, it's considered an innovation killer.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:28)
With artificial intelligence, everything is going to change again. It's starting to get at the beginning. We have a real skinning urgency, but nothing happens.

**Shekhar Natarajan** (0:44)
If I had to build the same company again, I would build it no more than having seven people in the company.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:54)
The problem is that they get in your company, they stay there, they wait, they wait, they spy, they get information, they get data, they know your projects, they know everything.

**Shekhar Natarajan** (1:39)
Welcome to another episode of Tomorrow, Today with Shekhar Natarajan. It's my great pleasure and an incredible honor to have my very best friend Silvia Leal on the show. Silvia is a futurist, an amazing tech communicator, super nice soul. You have won so many awards. You're considered one of the leading figures in Spain when it comes to technology.
You know, she's an influencer, thought leader, opinion leader. The list goes on and on and on. But beyond all of that, she's one of my best friends.

**Silvia Leal** (2:24)
And I'm very happy to be here with you Shekhar.

**Shekhar Natarajan** (2:27)
I'm like, I'm super honored to be here. So without further ado, like let's actually jump into like who is Silvia? And like what does she do? And what makes her unique? What is her special like, you know, secret sauce? I would love to go through all of that and get to know you more and have my audience know and appreciate who you are as a person.

**Silvia Leal** (2:51)
I will say that I'm a person who has a lot of passion for everything. And of course, I have a lot of passion for technology. I like what I do. I feel I'm very lucky communicating what I feel. I think we will have a nice time here.
Because we will be talking about technology, employment, about many things that I really love.

**Shekhar Natarajan** (3:20)
You love that. Yes. So tell me this, Silvia. So like, you know, like your degree is not in technology. It is sociology. Right. And so nothing to do with tech, nothing to do with change management.
But you're so fluent in all of this. And you basically represent OECD, you're part of the EU Council.
Like you're a futurist. How does that all happen? Like, this seems to be like so divergent, right? Sociology versus technology.

**Silvia Leal** (3:57)
It has sense because in fact, my degree is in economy and my PhD is in sociology. But my whole career is in technology. And I never decide that. But it was life that said Silvia, your place is this, your place is this one. And the point is the following one.
When you talk to an engineer, when you are working with an engineer in a digital project, they have a mind focused on data, coding, speed, and people with the sociology view.
We focus on feelings, we focus on people, lives, the impact on technology. And this is the blind spot in the project, because when a project doesn't get the expected results, 90 percent of the times is because of fear. So why I'm working with the European Commission, the OECD, and so many companies? Because I'm like a seatbelt for these projects.

**Shekhar Natarajan** (5:08)
Got it, got it, got it. So tell me more like how you got started in life, like what was your formative years?
Like how do you know technology so well? Where did it start for you?

**Silvia Leal** (5:25)
I started working for Bluestone Firestone, and then I changed to SAP.
I was working for SAP twice. I was working three times. I decided I needed new air, so I went to work for a company called Holthym, and then I got bored because I needed a lot of projects, energy, and everything else. So I went back to SAP. I'm from SAP to Banco Santander and Instituto de Empresa, i.e. Business School at the same time. So I was very happy because I have two jobs at the same time, Banco Santander and Instituto de Empresa. So then I wrote a book about technology. It was a best seller in Spain. I started to work like a sound speaker.

**Shekhar Natarajan** (6:16)
Got it. Got it. Got it.

**Silvia Leal** (6:17)
But very funny, very intense, and very hard.

**Shekhar Natarajan** (6:22)