Tag Archives: stem

Out of the Back Room: Why AI Wow! Is the Future at Work

There’s a particular smell to being left behind. A kind of intellectual smoke in the air. Maybe you’ve felt it – the thick, stale vibe of indecision, of panels and PDFs, of strategy decks filed and forgotten. The feeling of sitting around a metaphorical (or literal) table, waiting for permission. It’s the smell of the back room. And it’s time to walk out.

I’m thrilled to share something real, alive, and future-forward: AI Wow! is a new offering from the Content Evolution coLab.

I’ve been collaborating with this team of wild thinkers and grounded doers for years. We’ve been prototyping with AI in practice — not just theory — across enterprise, government, higher ed, and NGOs. Now we’ve turned that deep work into a structured, experiential journey for other teams to jump into and run with.

And let me be blunt: it’s time.

What Is AI Wow!?

It’s not a webinar. Not a lecture. Not another keynote about the power of AI, the risks of AI, or the myths of AI. We’ve heard it all. What we need now is applied capability.

AI Wow! is a facilitated cohort experience designed to:

  • Build real strategic clarity around AI – what fits, what doesn’t.
  • Unlock responsible, human-centered AI use inside your organization.
  • Prototype possibilities with tools and methods that stick.
  • Turn futures thinking into operational action.

It’s strategy you can feel.

Why Now?

We are standing at a threshold. On one side: status quo, jargon, and delay. On the other hand, the next phase of organizational capability. And the difference between the two is not just technology. It’s mindset.

The teams that will thrive in the age of AI aren’t the ones who master the tools first. They’re the ones who know themselves. Who understand their humanness in the process. Who build responsibly, ethically, creatively.

That’s what we’re doing in AI Wow!

It’s part of my personal mission to move futures knowledge out of elite rooms and into real communities, teams, and leaders who need it. No gatekeeping. Just deeply human work, delivered with clarity and imagination.

Who’s It For?

If you’re a leader asking:

  • “Where do we even start with AI?”
  • “How do we align AI use with our culture and values?”
  • “How do I help my team not be afraid of this shift?”

Then you are exactly who this is for.

We’ve designed it for organizations that want more than a slide deck; they want a path forward. And they want to walk it with smart humans who’ve been to the future, and come back with maps.

Let’s Get You Out of the Smoke

You don’t have to sit in that back room any longer. We built this for you – because we built it for ourselves for and know it works!

Let’s co-create your AI future. It’s time.


Email our CE leader, Kevin Clark, to book a conversation: ce@contentevolution.net
Learn more about CE at: https://contentevolution.net


Cyndi Coon, Applied Experiential Futurist
CoLab Member, Content Evolution
Founder, Applied Futures Lab

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The Rise of Secret Cyborgs

I have been hanging out in a lot of Generative AI (artificial intelligence) play spaces with people who are interested in and messing around with the tools. I noticed a compelling phenomenon – the rise of ‘secret cyborgs’ in workplaces. After Ethan Mollak introduced the concept through his article “Detecting the Secret Cyborg.”  These individuals aren’t entities in sci-fi stories but everyday professionals who are silently integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into their work. They represent a grassroots movement, a quiet yet significant revolution in how we approach productivity, creativity, and problem-solving in our professional lives.

This trend is not just about individual exploration or silent revolution. It’s a crucial wake-up call for organizational leaders and businesses. There’s an immense opportunity here to transform the workplace narrative around AI. Instead of viewing AI with apprehension, businesses can adopt a culture that supports and encourages AI exploration. This shift can transform secretive individual experimentation into a collaborative, innovative movement that benefits the entire organization.

The ‘secret cyborgs’ among us are potential vanguards of a new era in the workforce, where the integration of human intelligence and AI leads to unprecedented levels of efficiency, creativity, and problem-solving. Their story is a call to action for all of us in business to embrace AI with curiosity and openness, recognizing its potential as a transformative tool for human advancement.

As we navigate this exciting and uncharted territory, the key lies in fostering a culture where AI is not just accepted but actively integrated into our collective quest for innovation and excellence. Let’s embrace this change, leveraging AI to enhance our human potential and pave the way for a future where technology and creativity go hand in hand in shaping the next frontier of business success.

If you are interested in tips for leaders, I co-wrote this piece with my friend Shannon Mullen O’Keefe of The Museum of Ideas called:

How to Let the Secret Cyborgs Out: 7 Ideas for Leaders

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How To Build a GPT

Today, I was asked to provide a demo to a group on how to create a custom GPT using Open AI‘s ChatGPT-4. I put it up on YouTube so I could share it with folks. It’s a quick walk-through of the process of building, testing, adding knowledge, and saving public or private. If you are messing around in AI – ChatGPT isn’t the only game in town, but it is the easiest to date if you pay the twenty bucks a month for a subscription to Open AI. I am sharing this in case you are one of ‘the curious 18%’ of the population currently playing in Generative AI. If you are in the other 82%, bookmark this, and I’ll see you soon.

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