The big AI players – Gemini, ChatGPT, DeepSeek - get the spotlight, but Small Language Models (SLMs) are attracting the attention of AI leaders in the workplace. Lightweight and secure, they run on your internal data, speak your company’s language, and stay fully in your domain and control. For less money and compute, SLMs deliver speed, privacy, and precision for tasks like HR, legal, or IT support.
Build one in-house or start with a simple RAG setup. Not as powerful as Copilot, but faster, safer, and focused. What they are, why they’re good for some and what you need to build one.
READ: https://www.working-humans.com/ai/slm/
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Fiona Passantino is a professional speaker, trainer and coach, helping leaders and teams understand and integrate AI. The goal is to empower and equip the non-technical professional with knowledge and tools for the transformation ahead. Fiona is the award-winning author of Comic Books for Executives and the author of the book “AI-Powered Professional”. Visit Working-Humans.com to learn more.
NEW: the School for AI-Human Skills; get AI-Powered Today.
AI and the Customer Experience
While companies are automating customer service with AI bots to increase efficiency and cut costs, customers are reacting by switching brands. In the AI Age, the company that offers the best Human-first customer service will succeed. Humans are still the ones doing the buying, and Humans crave connection, empathy, creativity, and relationships. Five ways to build Human-first customer service.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE:
https://www.working-humans.com/ai/cx/
Thank you for listening to Working Humans! Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe and share.
Fiona Passantino is a professional speaker, trainer and coach, helping leaders and teams understand and integrate AI. The goal is to empower and equip the non-technical professional with knowledge and tools for the transformation ahead. Fiona is the award-winning author of Comic Books for Executives and the author of the book “AI-Powered Professional”. Visit Working-Humans.com to learn more.
New this autumn, the School for AI-Human Skills; get AI-Powered Today.
‘Which AI models should I use? Should I get a subscription to one, or more?’ The answer is: model surfing. Rather than committing to a premium subscription for a single large player, we look at the strategic use of multiple free accounts across different platforms, maximizing free token allowances and compare functionalities before making any financial commitment. AI subscription services for non-technical professionals can add up.
We compare pricing tiers and features across the frontier models and note that subscription prices are trending downward due to competition, particularly from free upstarts like DeepSeek.
READ: https://www.working-humans.com/ai/model-surfing/
Thank you for listening to Working Humans! Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe and share.
Fiona Passantino is a professional speaker, trainer and coach, helping leaders and teams understand and integrate AI. The goal is to empower and equip the non-technical professional with knowledge and tools for the transformation ahead. Fiona is the award-winning author of Comic Books for Executives and the author of the book “AI-Powered Professional”. Visit Working-Humans.com to learn more.
New this autumn, the School for AI-Human Skills; get AI-Powered Today.
https://schoolaihumanskills.com/
A new approach to software development where anyone can use AI to generate working code just by prompting specs and goals in natural language. Vibe Coding is a laid-back yet powerful way to create small, personal tech solutions quickly, without needing to read or write code.
While it offers incredible speed and accessibility, Vibe Coding only “mostly works.” A guide to what it is, how to prompt for it, and the safe way to AI code without the need for 2am emergency Human test-and-debug sessions.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://www.working-humans.com/ai/vibecoding/
Thank you for listening to Working Humans! Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe and share.
Fiona Passantino is a professional speaker, trainer and coach, helping leaders and teams understand and integrate AI. The goal is to empower and equip the non-technical professional with knowledge and tools for the transformation ahead. Fiona is the award-winning author of Comic Books for Executives and the author of the book “AI-Powered Professional”. Visit Working-Humans.com to learn more.
Introducing… The School for AI-Human Skills
67% of AI implementations fail because of mindset and engagement. Introducing a powerful new live program driven by two experienced trainers. At the School for AI-Human Skills, we teach both hard and soft aspects for a successful AI integration for the non-technical professional and leader: the Human mindset and confidence followed by practical AI skills you need for a successful transformation. Join Karina Klaassen and Fiona Passantino for an intensive, in-company training, on your premises, on your timeline. In Dutch and English.
What’s an AI swarm, how they work, what they’re good for and how to set them up in your organization? It’s the next step in our AI transformation. It means working with groups of AI agents to complete tasks across different platforms, relying on the collective intelligence of the group rather than the individual models in your own daily stack.
AI leadership means guiding all employees through change—supporting early adopters hungry to innovate, while engaging resistors who fear being left behind. Success depends on direct, human-centered leadership: one-on-one conversations, trust-building, and practical support, not just training programs or re-orgs.
Don’t have time to read?
Just listen.
Working Humans is a bi-monthly podcast focusing on the AI and Human connection at work. Available on Apple and Spotify.
Thank you for listening! Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe and share.
Fiona Passantino is a professional speaker, trainer and coach, helping leaders and teams understand and integrate AI. The goal is to empower and equip the non-technical professional with knowledge and tools for the transformation ahead. Fiona is the award-winning author of Comic Books for Executives and the author of the book “AI-Powered Professional”. Visit Working-Humans.com to learn more.
Throughout history, artists have borrowed and built on existing ideas, aesthetics and events and created new works of art. Never in a vacuum; writers, musicians have always been inspired and influenced by one another, each one adding to the collective Human culture at large. Now AI is here, the ultimate appropriator, generating unique content by remixing vast datasets. With AI-created works increasingly indistinguishable from Human-made ones, traditional copyright laws cannot keep up.
As AI reshapes creativity, the article suggests we may eventually need to rethink or even abandon the notion of intellectual property altogether.
Thank you for listening to Working Humans! Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe and share.
Fiona Passantino is a professional speaker, trainer and coach, helping leaders and teams understand and integrate AI. The goal is to empower and equip the non-technical professional with knowledge and tools for the transformation ahead. Fiona is the award-winning author of Comic Books for Executives and the author of the book “AI-Powered Professional”. Visit Working-Humans.com to learn more.
In the AI-Powered workflow, your “stack” is the selection of AI you use together to meet all your varied needs. There’s no time to road test every single one of these and still carry on with your full-time job. And, most of them carry a monthly subscription. What tools do you need, and what can you live without?
READ the article: https://www.working-humans.com/ai/stack/
Joined today by speaker, facilitator, podcaster and creative thinking expert David Chislett. Encourages us to Rebel, Reject, Create! That’s his podcast, where he explores how creativity can make this world a better place. His many books include “Unblock Writers’ Block” and poetry collections “B-Sides”, “With All of You” and more. If the only constant in life is change, how we deal with change is critical. David was born in Britain, raised in South Africa, resident in The Netherlands. Nowhere and Everywhere are home.
Thank you for listening to Working Humans! Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe and share.
Fiona Passantino is a professional speaker, trainer and coach, helping leaders and teams understand and integrate AI. The goal is to empower and equip the non-technical professional with knowledge and tools for the transformation ahead. Fiona is the award-winning author of Comic Books for Executives and the author of the book “AI-Powered Professional”. Visit Working-Humans.com to learn more.
The robots are here! We examine the rapid advancements in humanoid robots and their AI-powered brains. Figure 02, Atlas and Optimus as well as the exploding Chinese market. Why now? And what does all this have to do with AI? A lot; and it’s not slowing down.
The societal impacts of embodied AI, the future of work and the ethical considerations as we share our homes, factories and offices with a new kind of worker.
READ the article: https://www.working-humans.com/ai/embodied-ai/
Thank you for listening to Working Humans! Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe and share.
Fiona Passantino is a professional speaker, trainer and coach, helping leaders and teams understand and integrate AI. The goal is to empower and equip the non-technical professional with knowledge and tools for the transformation ahead. Fiona is the award-winning author of Comic Books for Executives and the author of the book “AI-Powered Professional”. Visit Working-Humans.com to learn more.
As a leader of an organization, team or department, getting serious about AI adoption is the ultimate change management challenge. Successful AI integration isn't just about learning to use the latest tools and training your staff; it's about aligning your entire organization to undergo a process of intensive learning, adaptation and the hardest thing we Humans do: change. A few tips for taking the first steps.
READ the full article: https://www.working-humans.com/ai/ai-leadership/
Working Humans is a bi-monthly podcast focusing on the AI and Human connection at work.
Thank you for listening. Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe and share.
Fiona Passantino is a professional speaker, trainer and coach, helping leaders and teams understand and integrate AI. The goal is to empower and equip the non-technical professional with knowledge and tools for the transformation ahead. Fiona is the award-winning author of Comic Books for Executives and the author of the book “AI-Powered Professional”.
Visit Working-Humans.com to learn more.
The Voice-Activated Workflow works differently; both the AI and Human leverage the strengths of their own brain-type. But this style of working is not for everyone. It might speak to younger portions of our working community and help make us old people seem more innovative than we actually are. A quick overview of what it is and how it works.
READ the article: https://www.working-humans.com/ai/voice-activated/
Thank you for listening to Working Humans! Don't forget to rate, review and share. Your engagement is greatly appreciated.
Fiona Passantino is a professional speaker, trainer and coach, helping leaders and teams understand and integrate AI. The goal is to empower and equip the non-technical professional with knowledge and tools for the transformation ahead. Fiona is the award-winning author of Comic Books for Executives and the author of the book “AI-Powered Professional”. Visit Working-Humans.com to learn more.
AI’s Insatiable Energy Demand
The rapid growth of AI is driving a significant increase in global energy demand. The technology simply requires far more power than traditional computation. As companies shift from CPUs to energy-intensive GPUs for AI development, the need for massive upgrades to data center infrastructure, including energy management and cooling, is growing. This poses challenges for meeting climate goals; there are no clear solutions yet on how to sustainably power the AI revolution.
READ the full article: https://www.working-humans.com/ai/energy/
Thank you for listening to Working Humans! Don't forget to rate, review and share. Your engagement is greatly appreciated. Working Humans is a bi-monthly podcast focusing on the AI and Human connection at work.
Fiona Passantino is a professional speaker, trainer and coach, helping leaders and teams understand and integrate AI. The goal is to empower and equip the non-technical professional with knowledge and tools for the transformation ahead. Fiona is the award-winning author of Comic Books for Executives and the author of the book “AI-Powered Professional”. Visit Working-Humans.com to learn more.
We all intuitively identify with the “Left-Brain, Right-Brain” model; some of us were better at math while others were linguists. Today’s AI algorithms use a "Mixture of Experts" structure that allows for narrow efficiencies in intelligence types. More than just our “logical friend”, AI is highly competent in understanding and generating emotional-relational content. It can help us in all the areas where we are less adept.
The AI-powered leader is called to understand their team's thinking strengths and consider using AI to augment and enhance abilities.
READ the full article: https://www.working-humans.com/ai/left-right
Thank you for listening to Working Humans! Don't forget to rate, review and share. Your engagement is greatly appreciated.
Fiona Passantino is a professional speaker, trainer and coach, helping leaders and teams understand and integrate AI. The goal is to empower and equip the non-technical professional with knowledge and tools for the transformation ahead. Fiona is the award-winning author of Comic Books for Executives and the author of the book “AI-Powered Professional”. Visit Working-Humans.com to learn more.
Working Humans is a bi-monthly podcast focusing on the AI and Human connection at work.
RAG AI - short for Retrieval-Augmented Generation - has redefined how we interact with AI by blending web searches with generative responses. With answers enriched by live data and backed by real-time sources, RAG AI may well change our traditional view of search engine like Google or Meta. We look at what RAG is, how to use it best and what upstart companies such as Perplexity can do for our workflows.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://www.working-humans.com/ai/rag
Thank you for listening to Working Humans! Don't forget to rate, review and share. Your engagement is greatly appreciated.
Fiona Passantino is a professional speaker, trainer and coach, helping leaders and teams understand and integrate AI. The goal is to empower and equip the non-technical professional with knowledge and tools for the transformation ahead. Fiona is the award-winning author of Comic Books for Executives and the author of the book “AI-Powered”. Visit Working-Humans.com to learn more.
Introducing the new book: "AI-Powered Professional: Awareness and Integration Guide for Non-Technicals" written by Fiona Passantino.
This latest title in the Comic Books for Executives series is a witty, fun, no-nonsense guide, created for the non-technical professional navigating the transformative world of Artificial Intelligence. Whether you're in communications, HR, sales, or marketing, AI-Powered Professional will help you understand what AI is, how it works, and how it can supercharge your job, making tasks easier, faster, and more fun.
Available now on Kindle, Paperback and (coming soon) audio editions.
https://www.working-humans.com/comic-books/
It is up to the non-technical community to force a pause and ask ‘why’ and ‘at what cost’. Staying engaged with a world that’s changing moment by moment puts us on the defensive, causes us anxiety, and removes our ability to think clearly. Learning to speak the language of AI enables us to understand what is happening now and see the clear picture of the road ahead. Becoming AI-Powered means that the non-technical professional has a seat at the table and can help design a future that benefits all of us.
In a world increasingly shaped by AI, the future of our most cherished Human skills - writing, designing and creating – is at risk. As AI generates more content, it reduces our language to a bland, uniform "vanilla," stripped of the richness, personality, and nuance that comes from lived physical experience. This shift could make our language feel more like a processed product than a living, evolving form of expression. The key is to remain aware of this transformation. We value and celebrate the unique, unexpected, and deeply Human aspects of language that AI simply cannot replicate.
GPT-o1, rolled out in September 2024, introduced chain-of-thought reasoning. This new model design thinks before it answers. Instead of guessing, it breaks problems into steps, double-checks its work, and delivers more accurate results, even if it takes longer. Aimed at developers, it’s smarter than most humans, with a 120 IQ, making it ideal for building better AI systems and apps. This makes it more like our own Human brains, interestingly.
Sentience
Are we on the brink of creating a sentient AI that not only thinks but feels, and knows the nature of its existence? We explore the creepy, eerie emergence of a non-Human consciousness in machines and look at a few unsettling real-life cases, like Bing’s “Sydney” and Google’s LaMDA and grapple with the ethics, rights, and potential dangers of sentient AI. A matter of time and engineering, a new reality beckons. Is our legal system ready for The Right to Internet, Electricity and the Pursuit of Training Data for Sentient AI?
READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://www.working-humans.com/ai/sentience/
Thank you for listening to Working Humans! Don't forget to rate, review and share. Your engagement is greatly appreciated.
Fiona Passantino is a professional speaker, trainer and coach, helping leaders and teams understand and integrate AI. The goal is to empower and equip the non-technical professional with knowledge and tools for the transformation ahead. Fiona is a UK Business Book Award-winning author of Comic Books for Executives and the author of the book “AI-Powered”. Visit Working-Humans.com to learn more.
Nothing is harder than delivering a “tight five” in a crowded bar. For a professional keynote speaker seeking to level up, stand-up comedy is the perfect training ground. Specifically, learning the tricks and techniques of comedians. What I gained from my time in the comedic Dojo and how I became hooked along the way.
READ: https://www.working-humans.com/leadership/standup/
Thank you for listening to Working Humans! Don't forget to rate, review and share. Your engagement is greatly appreciated.
Fiona Passantino is a professional speaker, trainer and coach, helping leaders and teams understand and integrate AI. The goal is to empower and equip the non-technical professional with knowledge and tools for the transformation ahead. Fiona is a UK Business Book Award-winning author of Comic Books for Executives and the author of the book “AI-Powered”. Visit Working-Humans.com to learn more.