Navigating the enterprise AI battleground : Joseph Steele, Celonis

In this episode of The Changemakers, Dave Corlett, Business Director at Shaped By, sits down with Joseph Steele, Lead Brand Strategist at Celonis, to dive deep into brand, technology, and "anarchistic accelerationism".

How does a company like Celonis, which was already pioneering AI technology long before it went mainstream, adapt its brand positioning without getting lost in the "now with AI" enterprise noise? 

As well as tackling that thorny question, Dave and Joseph go deep into what makes Joseph so positive about the world of AI, why he thinks it's a great leveller of technology, and how internal creative teams can carve out space for their own 'Manhattan project'.

Joseph also shares a surprisingly profound naval history analogy to show where we are in the current evolution of AI.

This episode is a compelling, original conversation for anyone in the enterprise technology space looking to balance deep-seated brand consistency with rapid technological change.

🎧 Listen now

Timestamps

00:00 - Meet Joseph: Intro to Joseph Steele, Lead Brand Strategist at Celonis.

01:22 - From Midlands to Munich: Joseph’s journey from Burton on Trent to the German tech scene.

02:25 - Start with Why: How art school taught him to question everything (and apply it to business).

04:19 - Celonis in a Nutshell: Unlocking the value trapped in enterprise processes.

07:25 - The Optimist's Edge: Why Joseph is an "anarchistic accelerationist" on AI.

09:16 - Revolutionary Learning: How tools like ChatGPT are a "good leveler" of expertise.

12:14 - Allergic to Governance: Why AI is a chance to pursue a flatter, more democratic system.

15:58 - Surviving the Hype Wave: Celonis's strategy to talk about AI without becoming "Celonis.ai".

19:15 - The Punk Aesthetic: Why a $13 billion B2B company needs a gritty, unique visual identity.

24:57 - Dare to be Different: The Celonis ethos: be 10x better or completely different.

25:38 - Skepticism & Trust: Why a change-maker customer base trusts AI, despite failed pilot reports.

28:23 - Legal Blockers: Why internal processes—not technology—are killing creative AI adoption.

30:37 - The Manhattan Project: Why every creative team needs a secure space to mess around with AI.

34:17 - Embracing Inevitability: Why trying to stop AI image-making is absurd.

36:43 - The Dreadnought Analogy: Naval history explains exactly where we are in the AI revolution.

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