The AI tools arrived, the dashboards lit up, and the ROI… didn’t. Monica Marquez of Flipwork unpacks what actually drives meaningful adoption—and what kills it. The short answer: people and process, not just platforms. The longer answer: psychological safety, shared playbooks, and a clear path from micro efficiencies to measurable impact.

Monica walks us through the mindset shift from fearing replacement to becoming “people squared,” where AI handles the drudge work, and humans double down on judgment, taste, and lived expertise. From thawing the “frozen middle” of management to building agentic AI that connects steps across a workflow, we map a practical route to real ROI. Monica shares Flipwork’s 90‑day sprint, the Flip Factor readiness assessment, and “Flippy,” a non-judgmental change agent that helps individuals identify their "zone of genius" and teams redesign processes. Along the way, we spotlight case studies like IKEA’s upskilling strategy, and we explore how micro wins—clarifying requirements, synthesizing research, in-context coaching—compound into major gains.

Let's move past the hype and make AI a partner that elevates your craft. This conversation outlines the practices, mindsets, and tools required to achieve this goal.

Guest Bio

Monica Marquez is a workplace AI strategist, leadership, learning, and inclusion expert, and serial entrepreneur. She is the founder of FlipWork, Inc., the only enterprise-wide AI workforce transformation system that ensures Fortune 500 companies adapt quickly to disruptive change. FlipWork helps employees at every level adopt AI successfully by transforming how people see, think, and work so they can keep pace with rapid workplace change. She also publishes ¡Ay Ay Ay, AI!, a weekly newsletter that gives leaders five minutes of clear, actionable guidance on thriving in the age of AI.

Monica brings more than 20 years of executive experience spanning talent, learning, and inclusion at Google, EY, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs. At Goldman Sachs, she pioneered the Returnship and New Directions programs, setting the industry benchmark for helping experienced professionals reenter the workforce. At Google, she co-founded the Product Inclusion Council to shape more inclusive product design. She is also the co-founder of Beyond Barriers and has hosted more than 300 podcast episodes spotlighting transformative leadership journeys.

Recognized among Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 Women of Influence and ALPFA’s Most Powerful Latinas in 2024, Monica continues to champion equity, innovation, and leadership in every arena.

Show Credits

• Intro and outro music - Az
• Audio engineer - RJ Basilio

We kick off the new season by breaking down the “contractor mindset” for writing prompts — the key to getting AI to deliver to spec, not with unnecessary “flair.”

Chuck Nealis joins us to explore how to write high-impact prompts through the lens of storytelling. We dig into the simple but powerful guardrails that help navigate AI’s context window. Because as conversations grow, crucial constraints tend to fade — and that’s when prompt drift begins.

So what do you do when the whiteboard starts getting messy?

In this episode, we unpack:

• Explicit prompts with clear purpose, audience, and format
• Contractor mindset over poetic creativity
• Context window limits and the 80% summary handoff
• Labeling drafts and starting fresh threads
• Triangulated reviews across multiple AIs
• Verifying sources and rejecting fabricated citations
• Building repeatable, reliable prompt blueprints
• Why consistency leads to accuracy

Treat AI’s memory like a whiteboard, not a library — and start designing prompts that stick.

Guest Bio

Chuck Nealis is a seasoned instructional designer, Organizational Change Management lead, and AI prompt expert with over 20 years of experience helping organizations deploy practical AI‑powered learning solutions and training programs. Chuck is also an author and thought leader on effective AI usage, focusing on precision‑engineered prompting and learning design.

Show Credits

• Intro and outro music - Az
• Audio engineer - RJ Basilio

We unpack how structured content and metadata make AI useful, reliable, and traceable across complex organizations. Regina and Max join us to connect strategy and tech, from RAG fundamentals to governance that bridges silos and boosts trust.

Some highlights:

• How to define AI readiness
• Making metadata part of authoring, not an afterthought
• Why component content + semantic markup matter
• Data fabrics, ontologies, and harmonized vocabularies
• What are the barriers to tagging, and how to overcome them
• RAG for traceable answers and risk control
• A cancer information case study for empathy and speed
• Finding the sweet spot in tag granularity
• Audits, lifecycle, and content as a business asset
• Tools landscape: authoring, optimization, taxonomy, localization

Guest Bios

Regina Lynn Preciado is a Sr. Director of Content Strategy at Content Rules, with decades of experience in structured content, metadata, and content automation. She works with clients across life sciences, tech, manufacturing, and finance to make content findable, usable, and scalable. A skilled communicator and facilitator, she co-authored The Personalization Paradox, helping organizations succeed with personalized experiences at scale.

Max Swisher is Director of Technology at Content Rules, where he helps clients implement structured authoring and data solutions. With a background as a technical writer and system administrator, he bridges technical insight with practical execution. Max supports companies across diverse industries in transforming their content to be AI-ready and metadata-rich.

Show Credits

• Intro and outro music - Az
• Audio engineer - RJ Basilio