Most organizations assume their AI transformation is being slowed down by technology, tools or employee skill gaps. But after speaking with 16 senior leaders across organizations ranging from 50 employees to more than 100,000, Joe Diubaldo and Kevin Lau found something very different.
The biggest barriers weren’t necessarily technical. They were structural, organizational and human.
In this episode of The Next Moves, Joe steps into the guest chair as Kevin walks through the findings from Clarity Recruitment’s AI research. They unpack why company size doesn’t predict AI adoption, why simply training employees on new tools isn’t enough, and why the organizations making the most progress are creating small teams built around curiosity, experimentation and execution.
They also explore one of the biggest hiring problems emerging from AI transformation: companies are searching for a “unicorn” who understands business strategy, functional expertise, AI technology and organizational change — a person who rarely exists in a single hire.
Instead, Joe argues that organizations should think differently about the capabilities they need, identify the curious problem-solvers already experimenting inside their teams, and build AI transformation around real problems rather than technology mandates.
If your organization has invested in AI but still feels stuck, this episode will help you diagnose where the real bottleneck is — and determine what to do next.
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Watch the full interview and subscribe for more conversations with the operators behind the world’s most resilient businesses.
Connect with Kevin Lau on LinkedIn ➡️https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinhlau/
Connect with Host Joe Diubaldo on LinkedIn ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/joediubaldo/
Check out the FULL Report | We Asked 16 Senior Leaders Where AI Is Stuck
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🔔If this conversation resonated with you, like the episode and subscribe to stay up to date on future conversations with founders and operators.
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Joe Diubaldo, host of The Next Moves and Founder of Clarity Recruitment, has made it his life to help people build better careers and better companies. Along the way, there’s been one lesson that always stands out… We all get stuck. The Next Moves podcast has been curated to help you get unstuck; to help you plan the next move and then the move after that.
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CHAPTERS
00:00 – Why AI Is Really Stuck
01:51 – Inside the 16-Leader Study
03:36 – AI at the Front of the Business
05:54 – What the Research Got Wrong
08:55 – The Four AI Bottlenecks
10:37 – Why Skills Aren’t the Problem
12:39 – Curiosity and Frustration
16:20 – The AI Hire Everyone Wants
18:20 – Why the Unicorn Doesn’t Exist
20:22 – Building the Right AI Team
24:31 – What Leaders Should Do First
27:11 – Where AI Is Stuck at Clarity
31:36 – What Clarity Changed
33:15 – How Teams Should Use AI
36:16 – What Recruiters Need to Rethink
