EP-46 Trehan Stenton, If AI Is Changing Jobs. How Will the Next Generation Learn to Lead?

What happens when organizations introduce powerful AI tools before understanding the work they need to improve—or preparing the people who have to use them?

Trehan Stentonis an AI integration partner who helps organizations turn emerging technologies into operational change. Originally from New Zealand, he brings experience as a business owner, including building a multi-location dental practice, alongside work in marketing, sales, service, technology and change management.

Trehan believes AI represents a revolutionary change, but that organizations need to approach its implementation evolutionarily: understanding their objectives, getting the basics right, and bringing their people along on the journey.

In this conversation, he explains why introducing AI into a poorly understood process can amplify existing problems rather than solve them. Before automating work, organizations need to understand how that work is performed, where value is created, and what outcome they are trying to achieve.

We also explore a longer-term question: if AI takes over some repetitive tasks, how will younger workers develop the experience traditionally gained through entry-level roles? Trehan considers a future in which emotional intelligence, discernment, curiosity, customer understanding and cross-functional experience become increasingly important.

The central idea is simple: don't start with the tool. Start with the people, the process and the outcome.

In this episode:

00:00 – Introducing Trehan Stenton and AI integration02:53 – Why AI is revolutionary, but implementation must be evolutionary03:30 – Reinventing the business instead of simply automating tasks04:00 – Why AI can amplify broken processes05:18 – Governance, guardrails and building trust in AI07:08 – Curiosity, ambiguity and learning to ask better questions08:30 – Why leaders may need to slow down to go faster11:31 – Managing the “beautiful chaos” of modern work14:17 – Job security and explaining the purpose of AI adoption15:30 – Moving beyond cost-cutting toward better customer outcomes16:35 – Why people must challenge and validate AI-generated answers19:06 – Are organizations investing enough in the human side of AI?22:06 – Why AI pilots need realistic expectations and clear measures24:47 – The growing importance of change management26:00 – Teaching discernment and making experimentation safe29:26 – If entry-level tasks disappear, how will future leaders learn?31:03 – Emotional intelligence, career paths and cross-functional experience35:17 – Developing an entrepreneurial mindset inside organizations36:19 – Understanding customer needs as a source of business value40:53 – Trehan's advice for the future of work

Trehan Stenton is an AI integration partner with experience spanning business ownership, marketing, sales, customer service, technology and strategy.

The Future Was Yesterday explores how technological change is reshaping work—how work is organized, how organizations and society are affected, and how people can adapt.

Each episode starts with a person doing something interesting at the frontier of technological, economic or social change. From there, we explore what their experience can teach us about the world of work that is already emerging.

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Keywords: AI adoption, AI implementation, AI change management, future of work, business process automation, AI governance, AI integration, organizational transformation, human-AI collaboration, AI and leadership, employee engagement, AI job displacement, future of leadership, critical thinking, customer experience, digital transformation