Send us Fan MailWalk the floor at an event like Ai4 and most of the conversation is about what machines can now do on their own. The question that kept surfacing in our conversations was quieter, and harder: where do humans belong when machines can think?In this special compilation episode of AI and the Future of Work, we bring you three conversations recorded live at Ai4 2026 in Las Vegas. This is the first episode of our four-part Ai4 series.A talent marketplace, a data infrastructure company, and a 164 year old life insurer. Three businesses that could not be more different, and three leaders who arrived at the same answer from opposite directions. What connects them is not caution about automation. All three are automating serious amounts of work. What they share is that the requirement was built in on purpose, because the outcome depends on someone being answerable for it.Featured GuestsAndrew Rabinovich, Chief Technology Officer at Upwork. Full conversation coming Thursday, September 24, 2026Todd Barr, CEO at Axonis. Full conversation coming Thursday, October 1, 2026Kartik Sakthivel, Chief Information Officer at John Hancock. Full conversation coming Thursday, October 8, 2026Over the next three weeks we will release one full conversation every Thursday. As each episode goes live, we will add the link here.What You'll LearnWhat happens when you measure how much of a real job an agent can actually finish, and why that number should change what you let it do unsupervisedThe one line in hiring that should never be crossed, no matter how capable the technology becomesWhere human agency actually lives once the work itself is handed off, and why how it gets done may matter less than we assumeWhy collecting data and acting on it are two different problems, and what opens up once that distance closesThe question worth asking before any AI project starts, and why the answer is sometimes something far simpler than AIWhat to say to someone watching a machine learn to do the thing that made them valuable, and where the time that comes back should goInspired by something you heard in this episode?Share your favorite insight about where people belong in the systems we are building, and tag us on social.And don't forget to subscribe to AI and the Future of Work for more conversations with the leaders shaping the future of work.Other special episodes:SE 26: Designing AI for Accountability and Harmony with Leaders from Honeycomb, FieldAI, Archetype AI, and Zoom (Live from HumanX 2026 Special Episode)SE 27: AI and the Next Generation: What We Can Learn from Them (International Youth Day Special Episode)SE 19: AI and Education: How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Learning (International Day of Education Special Episode)Lessons from Four Unicorn CEOs Disrupting Massive Markets with AI (Special Episode)Ethical AI in Hiring: How to Stay Compliant While Building a Fairer Future of Work (HR Day Special Episode)AI and Safety: How Responsible Tech Leaders Build Trustworthy Systems (National Safety Month Special)Lessons from Leaders: How AI Is Redefining Work and the Human Experience (Labor Day Special Episode) -Join Dan Turchin and 4 seasoned technology and people leaders on Sept. 17 for an executive discussion on AI, leadership, and the future of work. Attendees will receive a complimentary personalized AI Maturity Industry Benchmarks Report ($499 value). Reserve your seat: https://go.peoplereign.io/virtual-event-when-intelligence-is-everywhere-intelligence-is-nowhere

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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