Some CEOs are already replacing engineers and junior staff with large language models.

But what if the real risk isn’t that AI replaces your team — it’s that it doesn’t, and you’re left without a talent pipeline?

In this episode, Sophia Matveeva breaks down:

• Why cutting junior hiring today could sabotage your company in 3–5 years

• What IBM’s CEO gets right that others get very wrong

• How the hype around “AI-first” companies is creating poor decision-making

• What the S-curve of innovation tells us about the real pace of AI progress

• And why thinking long-term — not just cutting costs this quarter — is a strategic advantage

Whether you’re a government leader, innovation executive, or non-technical founder, this episode will help you make smarter, more resilient decisions in the age of AI.

Fortune: IBM’s CEO says ‘the first thing you can automate is a repetitive, white-collar job,’ but he’s not cutting workers: ‘I’ll get more’

Chapters

00:00 — The Real Risk Isn’t AI — It’s What Happens When It Doesn’t Work

02:45 — What CEOs Are Saying: Duolingo, Klarna… and IBM’s Contrarian View

06:30 — The Junior Job Crunch: Accountancy’s Mistake Repeats in Tech

09:15 — The S-Curve Explained: Why AI Progress Is Slowing

14:10 — Your Strategic Takeaways: What Smart Leaders Are Doing Now

If your organisation wants to drive revenue through innovation, book a call with us here.

Our workshops and innovation strategies have helped Constellation Brands, the Royal Bank of Canada and Oxford University.

For the full transcript, go here: https://www.techfornontechies.co/blog/AI-wont-kill-jobs-but-short-term-thinking-will

What does it really take to lead in tech without a technical degree?

In this episode, Jennifer Byrne, former CTO of Microsoft US, shares how she built a top-tier tech career starting with a psychology degree — and why understanding context, not code, is your key to success.

You’ll learn:

• How Jennifer transitioned from nonprofit work to tech leadership

• The difference between digital fluency and context (and why it matters)

• What cloud computing really is — minus the jargon

• How Microsoft handled global trust issues post-Snowden

• What CTOs actually do at big companies (hint: it’s not coding)

Whether you’re a founder, investor, or business leader, this episode will help you think more strategically about tech — and your role in it.

Chapters

00:00 – Why this episode still matters

02:30 – Jennifer’s path from psychology to tech

08:55 – Cybersecurity and the WikiLeaks era

14:40 – What cloud computing really is

25:25 – Digital context vs. fluency explained

35:45 – What a CTO actually does in big tech

If your organisation wants to drive revenue through innovation, book a call with us here.

Our workshops and innovation strategies have helped Constellation Brands, the Royal Bank of Canada and Oxford University.

For the full transcript, go to https://www.techfornontechies.co/blog/260-how-non-techies-succeed-in-tech-lessons-from-microsoft-s-cto

Think advertising is just TikTok, Instagram, or TV? Think again.

At Cannes Lions, a major industry summit, Big Tech set the agenda for what’s next in AI, branding, and attention. This is your insider's summary.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How offline spaces are powering smart digital brands

• What AI personas are, and how to use them to test product and brand ideas faster (and cheaper)

• Why most agencies are missing half the audience — and what that means if you’re building a mass-market product

If you’re building or marketing a tech product — whether you’re in a startup or a large org — this episode gives you a real-world edge, minus the fluff.

Chapters

FREE COURSE:

5 Tech Concepts Every Business Leader Needs To Know

If your organisation wants to drive revenue through innovation, book a call with us here.

Our workshops and innovation strategies have helped Constellation Brands, the Royal Bank of Canada and Oxford University.

For the full transcript go to https://www.techfornontechies.co/blog/259-big-tech-ai-and-the-future-of-attention-what-you-missed-in-cannes