The Curious Advantage Podcast

AI is a contact sport: you learn it by playing with it, not by watching. Andy Baldwin, Senior Vice President of Offerings and Growth at IBM Consulting and Chair of the IBM UK Board, explains why this technology shift is bigger than any he has seen in 30 years of consulting.
Garrick Jones and Paul Ashcroft talk with Andy, formerly Global Managing Partner at EY, about what AI is really changing for organisations, for consulting firms and for the people inside them. He explains why most companies are "using a Ferrari to fetch the milk", how outcome-based pricing and digital labour are reshaping professional services, and why IBM expects everyone, from graduates to board members, to build real AI literacy. He also shares why he now has a 25-year-old coach who teaches him the latest AI tools every week.

In this episode:

Why AI is a bigger shift than the internet or cloud waves

Moving from AI pilots to scale, and the right model for the right task

Show, don't tell: how a software culture changes consulting

Leading people through AI change with curiosity and play

Quantum computing, agent-versus-agent cybersecurity and data sovereignty

The new book from Paul Ashcroft, Simon Brown and Garrick Jones titled "The Curious Imperative" will be available for pre order shortly. Find out more here
Watch on YouTube here
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Most organisations have adopted AI faster than they can govern it. Among the companies Duke CE works with, close to six in ten have embedded AI into their operations, but fewer than one in five have the governance to match.
Sharmla Chetty is chief executive of Duke Corporate Education, which works with leaders in more than 80 countries. She joins Garrick Jones and Simon Brown to argue that AI readiness is not a technology test. It is three tests: capability, trust and governance and organisations keep failing on the last two long before technology becomes the problem.
She makes a claim that sits at the centre of this show's argument: when machines hold all the answers, the human edge moves to the questions. The defining question of a career is no longer what you know, but how fast you can learn what you don't.
In this conversation:

Why leaders now run two workforces, human and digital with no playbook for either

The three tests of genuine AI readiness, and why fewer than one in five organisations pass the governance one

Why AI firms are hiring philosophy graduates over technology graduates

How Sharmla learned to build agents from her 18-year-old nephew, and what he told her about coding

Why curiosity is a leading indicator and performance is a lagging one

Trust as a strategic asset: what riding a 2am bus with miners taught her about a safety problem that turned out to be a trust problem

The bifurcation risk — and why leaving economies behind is a leadership failure, not an inevitability

Find Sharmla on LinkedIn and learn more about Duke Corporate Education
00:00 Introduction
01:14 Curiosity as a way of being
03:05 Leading two workforces
06:21 The skills that matter now
07:59 Learning agents from an 18-year-old
09:13 Who owns the AI conversation
11:05 Why AI firms hire philosophers
14:09 Can education keep pace
17:30 What AI-ready actually means
22:14 The bifurcation risk
25:38 Curiosity as a leading indicator
28:12 Performance intelligence
30:40 Trust as a strategic asset
32:53 Riding the bus with the miners
33:51 What CHROs are worried about
40:57 Sharmla's one takeaway
Learn more about iVentiv: https://iventiv.com/curiousadvantage

AI is not just another tool cycle. Dr. Michael Housman says it is the third digital disruption, and most organizations are still underestimating how fast it will reshape work, jobs, and competitive advantage.Simon Brown, Paul Ashcroft, and Garrick Jones sit down with Housman, founder and CEO of AI Accelerator and author of Future Proof: Transform Your Business with AI or Get Left Behind to unpack why curiosity, not just technology, is the real edge in an AI-driven world.Housman shares how a career built on following what was most interesting led him from data science and AI platforms into teaching executives how to adapt. He explains why companies should stop treating AI as a shiny add-on and start thinking in two modes: incremental wins that remove repetitive work, and transformational moves that prepare for AI-native competitors.
You’ll discover:

Why most people are still using AI like a glorified search bar

The “technology is easy, people are hard” problem that blocks adoption

How to build trust with agents by treating them like smart interns

Why leaders must model AI use themselves before expecting teams to change

How a 20% experimentation mindset can unlock real breakthroughs

The conversation goes deeper into the practical reality of future-proofing: data moats, subject-matter expertise, governance, culture, apprenticeships, and why junior talent may need a new path into expertise as AI changes entry-level work. The group also tackles one of the biggest open questions in business today: how much autonomy to give agentic AI, and when humans need to stay firmly in the loop.If you’re a CEO, leader, manager, or ambitious professional trying to make sense of AI without getting lost in the hype, this episode gives you a clear, grounded framework for what to do next. It is especially relevant if you’re responsible for teams, talent, or strategy and want to stay competitive while the rules keep changing.Perfect for anyone who wants to turn AI anxiety into action and curiosity into an advantage.
Learn more about iVentiv: https://iventiv.com/curiousadvantage

What makes a great question, and why might asking better ones be one of our most important human skills in the age of AI?
In this episode, Simon Brown and Garrick Jones are joined by award-winning author and innovation advisor Larry Robertson to explore the power of questioning, curiosity and intellectual humility.
They discuss why we are born questioning, how great questions help us navigate uncertainty, what humans need to retain as AI becomes more capable, and why sometimes the simplest way to go deeper is just to say: “Tell me more.”
A conversation about curiosity, AI, uncertainty and why the questions we ask may shape what happens next.
Learn more about iVentiv: https://iventiv.com/curiousadvantage

Paul Ashcroft and Garrick Jones are joined by Markus Bernhardt, founder of Endeavour Intelligence, to explore what is really changing as organisations adopt AI.
Drawing on his background in particle physics and his research into AI strategy and organisational transformation, Markus argues that the biggest shift isn’t simply the arrival of new tools. It is the quieter rewiring of how work gets done, how decisions are made and where accountability sits.
The conversation explores the difference between the visible “surface wave” of AI adoption and the deeper organisational undercurrent; why AI capability should not be confused with autonomy; the shift from AI literacy to AI fluency; and why human judgement may become more valuable, rather than less, as machines take on more execution.
They also discuss agentic AI, governance, the limits of large language models and why organisations may achieve more by redesigning one workflow well than launching another large-scale AI transformation programme.
Ultimately, Markus offers a practical starting point: don’t begin by asking where you can add AI. Look for where AI has already quietly changed the work, and redesign from there.
Find out more about Markus work:
Markus LinkedIn Page
https://endeavorintel.com/
https://endeavorintel.com/diagnostic/
The Curious Advantage explores curiosity and its growing importance in the digital age. From history, neuroscience, and anthropology to business and culture, it takes the widest possible view of curiosity. At its heart is the ‘Sailing the 7C’s of Curiosity’ model, a practical framework to help individuals harness curiosity as a power skill for growth and transformation.
The Curious Advantage Podcast is executive produced by Jessica Wickham and Aliki Paolinelis. Audio editing by Danny Cross and video editing by Jessica Wickham.