Building Change that Lasts by Designing for People | ft. Prasanna Gopalakrishnan

In this episode, Brenda is joined by Prasanna Gopalakrishnan, former Global Chief Product & AI Officer at ADP and a veteran executive with over 25 years of experience leading digital transformation across tech, banking, and media. While much of today's conversation around Artificial Intelligence focuses on what machines will replace, Prasanna shifts the narrative toward a far more empowering question: What can AI make possible for human beings? Prasanna also shares where her optimism lands ten years out, from democratized superintelligence to breakthroughs in mental health and drug discovery, and what still keeps her up at night. If you're a leader, product builder, or HR decision maker trying to bring people along through AI change instead of running them over with it, this episode is for you. Connect with Prasanna on LinkedIn We Learned About Designing for People The Human Advantage Responsible AI & Trust Leading Through Transformation Chapters: 00:00 Welcome back to Be the Way Forward 01:51 Meet Prasanna Gopalakrishnan 02:06 When technology actually works for people 05:08 Three questions to ask before you build anything 07:00 Just because AI can, should it? 08:49 What stays true about people across every industry 12:11 Better at transformation, or just moving faster? 15:03 Customers want a kill switch, and that's okay 16:23 What she listens for when she walks into a company 19:34 How do you measure people when AI does the work? 21:28 The wrong question: what will AI replace? 26:18 Superintelligence in everyone's hands 28:30 The divide forming inside organizations 31:34 Sprint thinking in the middle of a marathon 35:36 The what, the how, and what actually gets rewarded 37:19 Work, roles, and tasks are not the same thing 44:43 Giving people room to figure it out 46:42 The moment leadership became a philosophy 50:19 The moral compass she never gave up 53:01 Straight talk and why women hear it differently 55:41 Ten years from now 58:42 What keeps her up at night 1:00:38 What being the way forward means #BTheWayForward #AnitaB #WomenInTech #AIEthics #FutureOfWork #Leadership #ArtificialIntelligence #ProductManagement #DigitalTransformation #InclusiveLeadership