May 26th - May 30th, 2025 || From live dialogue to AI-crafted podcast

This past week, I facilitated a workshop for fellow facilitators on a topic that's rapidly evolving: collaborating with AI. It was an engaging session, filled with rich discussions and ahas. But what happened after the workshop added another fascinating layer to my own learning journey. I took the raw transcript of our three-hour session, fed it to an AI, and co-created a podcast episode that distills many of the core themes we explored. This process itself became a powerful "field note" on what it truly means to partner with these new technologies.

The workshop participants haven't heard this podcast yet; it was born from their collective voices and insights captured during our time together. The initial audio was recorded (we had a hybrid setup with one person on Zoom), transcribed in no time using Dembrane, and then I took that raw transcript – nothing else – into NotebookLM to shape it into the podcast dialogue you can listen to below.

🎧 Listen to the audio overview:

For me, the experience of listening back to the workshop through this AI-generated podcast format was profound. It allowed me to relive the session from a different perspective, noticing which of my intended elements landed and how the group's conversation flowed. It’s one thing to facilitate a session; it’s another to hear its essence reflected back to you by an AI you’ve guided.

One of the most significant themes that emerged during the workshop, and which is echoed in the podcast, was the participants' evolving understanding of AI. Many came in seeing AI as an advanced tool, but left with a sense of it being a potential "sparring partner" or "colleague."

For instance, one participant described a shift from initially treating AI like "an advanced Google" for quick answers to a realization that a more collaborative approach was possible. This reframing, they noted, also helped to alleviate some of the "shame" or hesitation sometimes associated with using AI, making the interaction feel more like a legitimate partnership rather than a shortcut. The simple act of engaging with AI more conversationally, even saying "thank you," started to feel more natural once the idea of collaboration took root.

Another powerful insight shared was the surprise at AI's generative capabilities, which went far beyond simple information retrieval. A facilitator recounted using AI as more of a "sparring partner" and asking it to envision future designs for citizen assemblies. The AI produced a concept that was not only novel but also made a lot of sense, projecting future possibilities based on an understanding of current issues. This wasn't seen as a hallucination but as a genuinely creative and insightful contribution, an "aha!" moment about AI's potential.

The value of a dynamic, iterative process with AI, rather than focusing solely on crafting the "perfect prompt" upfront, was a recurring theme. Participants found that starting with a general idea and then engaging in a back-and-forth dialogue was key. As one person put it, this "interactive process" is what leads to deeper understanding and new insights. The real value, another elaborated, emerges from "the interaction between human reflective intelligence and the AI," a process where both the user and the AI contribute to a richer outcome, and where, without that human reflection, neither would "go deeper."

Interestingly, even while recognizing AI as a tool that needs clear instructions, some participants found themselves relating to it in a more human-like way. One expressed surprise that, for effective collaboration, you almost "have to treat it like a person," engaging it conversationally.

This connected to the insight that AI doesn't "think" like humans. Another participant shared a key learning: the importance of abandoning the assumption that AI processes information identically to us. They realized that consciously breaking down requests and not "overstepping steps" in their instructions led to much better results. It made them "conscious that my thinking is different from the thinking the model uses," highlighting the need for clear, explicit guidance, much like one might offer a colleague with a different working style.

Reflecting on the workshop, the creation of the podcast, and the insights shared, my personal takeaway is this: the more AI-fluent people become, the more powerfully AI can be harnessed. I saw creativity and inspiration spark in everyone as they engaged more deeply, especially when they understood the value of providing rich context.

This ability to effectively collaborate with AI is rapidly becoming a vital skill. It feels like we're at a similar juncture to the early days of the internet; those who learn to navigate and partner with these tools will be able to move forward with significantly more power and insight. A year ago, workshops on working with AI were rare. Now, we're talking about collaborating with AI. It's a remarkable time to be alive and learning.

This journey of turning a live workshop into a reflective podcast, with AI as a key partner in the transformation, has been an experiment in itself. It underscores the potential for these tools not just to synthesize information, but to help us re-experience, re-interpret, and share our collective learning in new ways.