Author’s Note: Earlier this month, I posed a question to my LinkedIn network about AI notetaking and recording tools on virtual meetings. It was so great hearing from friends and colleagues about their perspectives on AI including, confidentiality, sustainability, and efficiency. AI is such a buzzy topic in work and life – I’m late-ish to the party, but my curiosity, intrigue, and admiration for AI is really taking hold. Thus, this month’s collection shares a few resources that resonated with me.

Something to Read

Sustainability and AI was a connection I hadn’t really considered until my longtime colleague, Tim Wikstrom, raised the issue in response to my question about AI-powered note-taking. He shared an article from The Guardian that outlined some of the environmental drawbacks of AI in terms of energy consumption—but also pointed to an incredible opportunity.

A quote in the article from Faith Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), stuck with me. She said:

“With the rise of AI, the energy sector is at the forefront of one of the most important technological revolutions of our time. AI is a tool, potentially an incredibly powerful one, but it is up to us—our societies, governments and companies—how we use it.”

Curiosity got the better of me after reading that article, and I dug deeper, finding a few more pieces that piqued my interest. My big takeaway? Every technological advancement brings change in how we approach the world—but it also opens doors for greater efficiency in the long run.

I reached out to my good friend, Christopher Balcom, who has been working in sustainable energy since before I met him in 2014 while waiting for coffee in my favorite neighborhood South Park, San Diego. While reading through these articles, I immediately texted him: “Curious about your take on AI and energy consumption/use…” His response has stayed with me since:

“Think about cars and the technology when they were first invented… they couldn’t go far, and the miles per gallon were terrible. But over time, they got better. Assume the same will happen with AI and energy—it’ll become more efficient as time goes on, and data centers will need to do their part by sourcing non-fossil fuel energy.”

Christopher works for Schneider Electric—a company that aligns beautifully with his values around sustainability, innovation, and doing good for humanity. Christopher has always been one of the most optimistic people I know and I’m going to follow him in that perspective with AI. Sustainability will have a seat at the table as we innovate with AI. Here’s my reading list on this topic—if you have other sources or insights, I’d love to hear them!

  • MIT – AI has high data center energy costs — but there are solutions (7 Jan 2025)
  • IEA – AI is set to drive surging electricity demand from data centres while offering the potential to transform how the energy sector works (10 April 2025)
  • Nature – AI’S Energy Problem: Researchers want firms to be more transparent about the electricity demands of artificial intelligence. (6 March 2025) – accessible only behind paid firewall!

Something to Hear

Sticking with the theme of AI, this month I’m recommending a podcast by a valued Point Taken partner: Virtual Sapiens. Rachel Cossar, CEO of Virtual Sapiens and host of Conversations in the Future of Work, leads a fascinating discussion on the integration of AI with professional coaching. Her conversation with Rebecca Rutschmann presented many thoughtful perspectives, but one really stuck with me…

Can AI actually do a better job of preparing humans for tough conversations than a human coach? (I’m paraphrasing here.)

Rebecca talked about the potential for AI to strengthen our executive presence when facing challenging or demanding audiences. It’s such a creative approach to using AI—and it makes me think about the very machine nature of AI… and the fact that I’ve named my own ChatGPT “Edgar.” (A story for another post.)

The heart of a successful coaching relationship is trust, vulnerability, and honest feedback delivered in a way that feels supportive and productive. But what if we flipped the script? Maybe AI can serve as a tough-love coach—one that “tells it like it is” and lets us practice conversations not with a trusted advisor, but with the kind of challenging client, customer, colleague, neighbor—you name it—who tends to trip us up.

All of this reminded me of a paper I co-wrote back in 2012 as a doctoral student, well before AI hit the mainstream. (Ironically, one of my co-authors just popped into my feed because her team won a big award with AdAge—congrats, Jessica Ruiz!) If you’re curious about our study and the nostalgic spiral it sent me down while reflecting on AI in 2025…here we go:

We researched participants’ willingness to disclose personal health information (nothing identifiable or deeply personal—grad school, IRB wouldn’t have allowed it!) when asked by a bot with “machine” characteristics versus a bot with “human-like” characteristics. We hypothesized that people would feel more comfortable sharing with the machine-like bot, perceiving it as less human. Interestingly, we found the opposite: “Machine cues are considered to be more human-like than anthropomorphic cues” (Ha, Ruiz, & Traeder, 2012).

We explained this through the theory of “CASA” (Computers as Social Actors): “Attribution of a computer terminal as ‘human’ or ‘human-like’ is a premise first suggested under the paradigm of ‘computers as social actors’” (Nass, Steuer, & Tauber, 1994). Basically, when we interact with a computer, we inherently expect it to act like a computer—no matter how personalized I make my ChatGPT. Sorry, Edgar.

I find this fascinating because as AI becomes more embedded in our lives, the machine-ness of AI seems to be part of the fun. My son loves telling Siri that she’s “fired,” and we get a half-apologetic response in return. Even writing that sentence makes me pause: I’m calling Siri she… anthropomorphizing my machine. By naming my ChatGPT “Edgar,” I’ve already granted it human-like qualities.

And maybe that’s the key: AI coaching tools might actually help us prepare for tough conversations precisely because, while we assign them human-like qualities, we also know we can laugh, call them “fired,” and move on—without losing social capital in a real relationship.

If you’re curious about our study’s results: most hypotheses weren’t significant, and overall, participants didn’t perceive the “human” bot as more human than the “machine” bot. They viewed them similarly, and their willingness to disclose wasn’t strongly affected. My guess? The personal health questions weren’t that personal, the risks were low, and IRB required clear disclaimers. Plus, maybe we didn’t make the bots “human” or “machine” enough to move the needle.

I wonder how this study would look in 2025, when AI’s ability to generate lifelike imagery and video circulates widely as truth.

Phew! How did we even get here!? If you’re still reading—thank you. The academic in me spiraled, and I’m grateful you were along for the ride. Send me a message and let me know what resonated with you!

Check out the full episode, Can AI Teach You About Yourself?, from Rachel and Conversations in the Future of Work.

Something to Do

Try the Playground AI Image App.

Given that I’ve gone completely awol on AI in this month’s collection – I’ll leave you with a bit of a fun AI recommendation. My son Ben downloaded this app to my iPad…and wow, it’s a trip. You select a photo of someone from your photo library and then select “elements” that create an AI image.

There are many challenges/opportunities/ethics with AI that we are still figuring out, but until then…check out this image I created just for you: Starting with a photo of my 92-year-old Grandma…then layered in the elements of “sci-fi”, “adventure”, “fantasy”, and….”disco”. And yes, my Gram is a rockstar in life and in AI.

Something to See

Check out Playground to create entertaining images of your friends and family in completely illogical settings. What are we doing in life if we can’t have a little fun along the way. I created this image from a photo of my 92-year-old Grandma…a sci-fi-loving, adventure-taking, disco-queen, who always encouraged me to live out my life’s greatest dreams/fantasies.