”A Copilot license is not an AI strategy.”
Anne Cantera has the t-shirt to prove it.
Anne is the founder of Elemental Intelligence. She's been inside enterprise AI projects that went sideways, mentors hundreds of designers, and has an unusually low tolerance for hype — she calls the last three years ”the messy middle,” and thinks we're finally on our way out of it.
In this conversation, we get into what leaders keep getting wrong about AI adoption, and what individual contributors should be doing right now if they're worried about staying employable.
What we cover:
- Why ”don't DIY your AI” is the whole message to leadership — and what hiring an expert early actually saves you
- The two things every AI strategy needs first: an outside expert, and a real governance plan. ”The strategy is the plan, and governance is the rules.”
- Why smaller companies are better positioned than enterprise right now — it's easier to turn a motorboat than the Titanic
- What Anne tells designers who are afraid the machines are taking their jobs (the risk isn't AI, it's static-screen thinking)
- Why upskilling beats applying: ”It is easier to upskill than it is to apply for thousands of jobs and never hear back”
- How to time box 90 minutes a day for learning without burning out — and why she calls it a mental health hack
- The number one AI skill nobody lists on a job description: knowing what to pay attention to
- How to tell an expert from an influencer in about eleven seconds
- Grooming your LinkedIn feed so it becomes free education instead of an anxiety machine
- Why your LinkedIn headline is SEO, and why you should never pay anyone to optimise it for you
- The unpaid day-and-a-half ”assignment” Anne turned down, and the three-day paid trial she thinks should replace it
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome00:30 What the AI hype actually got wrong02:45 The mistakes leaders keep making — ”don't DIY your AI”07:25 Start with governance: the plan versus the rules12:15 ”If we keep thinking in static screens, designers are not going to have work”12:45 Why upskilling beats applying to thousands of jobs18:40 The #1 AI skill: knowing what to pay attention to24:00 Experts versus influencers — how to vet who you follow25:00 Touch grass: it's a marathon, not a sprint26:45 Your LinkedIn headline is SEO30:00 Groom your feed35:55 The unpaid assignment, and a better way to hire39:00 Where to find Anne
Everything Anne recommended, all free:
- voiceofai.io — her upskilling site for designers. No email required; she makes nothing from it.
- https://agentics.org/— the Agentics Foundation. Their Friday hackerspace is a show-and-tell of what people are really building.
- Conversation Design Institute (https://www.conversationdesigninstitute.com/) — free and low-cost conversation design classes.
- Rosenfeld Media (https://rosenfeldmedia.com/)— her talk on the new design stack and omnimodal design, plus a lot of free material.
- DESIGNathon — Anne's podcast. Hard to find on YouTube (it lives inside the Swarm community), but it's on Apple and Spotify.
Connect with Anne: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-cantera/
Connect with Limor:Website: https://limorbergman.comPodcast: https://limorbergman.com/podcast/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/limorbergman/Substack: https://limorbergman.substack.com
Search terms: AI adoption, AI governance, AI strategy, upskilling, women in tech, career change, UX design, conversation design, job search, LinkedIn optimization, leadership