FUTUREPROOF.
Welcome to FUTUREPROOF. We're the podcast that delves into the future. From Augmented Reality to Artificial Intelligence to Smart Cities to Internet of Things to Virtual Reality, we speak with some of the sharpest minds to better help you understand what the next few years may look like.Brought to you by author Jeremy Goldman (Going Social, Getting to Like).For booking inquiries: vie@futureproofshow.com
FUTUREPROOF.
The Workforce Is *Not* AI-Ready (ft. Ben Tasker, AI education leader)
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Everyone says they’re “AI-first.”
Very few organizations are AI-ready.
In this episode of FUTUREPROOF., we sit down with Ben Tasker, who is leading one of the largest workforce-scale AI education efforts in the public utility sector — upskilling 36,000 employees while advising global organizations on certification and governance.
Ben calls this moment the “AI Between Times.” The tools are evolving rapidly, but the AI-driven economy they promise hasn’t fully stabilized. That gap creates risk — and opportunity.
We unpack what actually breaks when companies try to move beyond pilot projects:
- Why buying AI tools is easy — and building internal capability isn’t
- The tension between augmentation and displacement
- What the 70/30 rule means in cost-constrained environments
- Why governance must precede implementation
- And how AI fluency is quietly becoming a new form of institutional power
Ben argues that AI strategy lives or dies at the human level. Not because technology isn’t powerful, but because incentives, culture, and leadership determine whether that power compounds or fractures an organization.
This conversation isn’t about hype cycles.
It’s about whether institutions can transform fast enough — without breaking trust in the process.
Because the future of work won’t be defined by who bought the best tools.
It will be defined by who prepared their people.