Content + AI

Lisa Welchman Over the past 25 years, Lisa Welchman has established and codified the field of digital governance. With an enterprise consulting career that spans the emergence of the web, the arrival of social media, and the rise of mobile computing, she is uniquely positioned to help digital practitioners, managers, and executives understand and manage the governance issues that arise with the arrival of generative AI. Lisa is the author of the leading book in her field, Managing Chaos: Digital Governance by Design. We talked about: her career in enterprise digital governance her concern about the lack of transparency in the existing governance practices at AI companies an analogy she sees between WYSIWYG and AI tools the contrast between more mature governance models like the UX field has developed and newer digital practices like the adoption of GPTs governance lessons that new tech implementers can always learn from prior tech eras her call to action for technical experts to alert executives of possible harms in the adoption of new technology the elements of her digital governance framework: understanding team composition and the organizational landscape in which digital practitioners operate having a strategic intent articulating governance policies establishing practice standards the range of digital makers she gets to interact with in her work the importance of accounting for the total business and organizational environment when jockeying for a seat at the table the responsibility of experienced digital makers and managers to call out potentially troublesome patterns in the adoption of new tech the importance for digital practitioners of staying aware of how much agency they have right now Lisa's bio Lisa Welchman is a digital governance trailblazer with over two decades of experience. She's passionate about helping organizations manage their digital presence effectively and sustainably. Known for her practical approach, Lisa has worked with a variety of clients, from global corporations to non-profits. She’s also a popular speaker and the author of "Managing Chaos: Digital Governance by Design." A mentor and educator at heart, Lisa is dedicated to helping leaders make the digital world a safer and kinder place for everyone. Connect with Lisa online LinkedIn Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/-UIj0YWxLaI Podcast intro transcript This is the Content and AI podcast, episode number 29. Whenever new technology like generative AI emerges, organizations have to deal with both the opportunities and the challenges that arrive with it. It often falls to practitioners like content strategists and designers to alert the C-suite of potential governance concerns that arise with the adoption of new tech. Lisa Welchman sees in this situation an opportunity for digital makers to take the lead on educating their organizations about these important issues. Interview transcript Larry: Hi everyone. Welcome to episode number 29 of the Content + AI Podcast. I am really happy today to welcome to the show Lisa Welchman. Lisa is a true legend in the field of digital governance. She pretty much established the discipline, I think it's safe to say, over the past 25 years. She wrote what I would argue is the leading book on it, Managing Chaos: Digital Governance by Design. But welcome Lisa, and the reason I wanted to talk to you this week is we're right in the middle of Rosenfeld Media is doing a conference on design and AI, and it seems like AI is an area that's really ripe for a conversation about governance. Does that make sense? Lisa: Yeah, it does. I will contextualize myself a little bit in saying that digital governance is a really broad term, and my focus is really around enterprise digital governance, how digital governance manifests inside of an organization that's making and putting things online.

Rob Hoeijmakers LLM-based conversational tools are revolutionizing all parts of the content ecosystem, including blogs by independent professionals. Rob Hoeijmakers is an independent web strategist based in Amsterdam. He's using AI tools like Whisper and Perplexity to streamline and improve his research and writing workflows. This lets him spend more time on his websites' information architecture and improves the business results he gets from his blog. We talked about: his work as a web strategist and his multiple blogs his happiness with being able to delegate tasks to his LLM colleagues the freedom that AI tools like Whisper give him to research, think, and ideate as he walks how the abundance of content that AI tools provide helped him abandon his old scarcity mindset around information the huge time savings he realizes from using AI-generated summaries of transcripts of interviews how he uses AI tools to draft his blog content his insight that the real value in his blog is in its information architecture his preference for using his own images over AI-generated ones the details of his content "knitting" which stitches together his current and prior content the analytics tools he uses to track traffic to his blog how he uses his blog as a conversation starter Rob's bio Rob Hoeijmakers is a passionate web strategist with over 30 years of experience. Known for his curiosity and love for recognising patterns, he excels in crafting engaging content and innovative web solutions. Rob writes insightful blogs and is a hands-on builder of content, chat, and messaging platforms. A dynamic public speaker, he frequently discusses web strategy, digital marketing, and AI, always focusing on enhancing user experiences and client success. Connect with Rob online LinkedIn Instagram Twitter Web Strategies Web Strategies (Netherlands version) Chat voor Bedrijven (Chat for Business) Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/FRaHqLRWT9k Podcast intro transcript This is the Content and AI podcast, episode number 28. Many of the stories you read in the media about the adoption of AI tools cover enterprise workflows and other uses in large organizations. It turns out that LLM-based applications can also help tiny, one-person companies. Rob Hoeijmakers is an independent web strategist based in Amsterdam. AI tools like Whisper and Perplexity have revolutionized his research and writing workflows, letting him focus on his websites' information architecture and the business of blogging. Interview transcript Larry: Hi everyone. Welcome to episode number 28 of the Content and AI podcast. I am really happy today to welcome to the show Rob Hoeijmakers. Rob is a web strategist based in, are you in Amsterdam? I forgot. Rob: Yes. Amsterdam. Larry: Amsterdam. Yeah, in Amsterdam here in the Netherlands. I'm also here in the Netherlands. And also as part of any web professional nowadays, he blogs a lot and we were talking at an event a few weeks ago about his blogging and I said, Oh, tell me more. And I'm like, wait, I have a podcast. Let's talk about it on the podcast. So anyhow, welcome Rob, tell the folks a little bit more about what you're up to these days. Rob: Yeah. My name is Rob Hoeijmakers. I'm a web strategist and for content marketing, I blog a lot. It's not only marketing, it's also way of learning and keeping up. I am into LLMs driven chat bots. I did it with the ReSViNET, which is on the, which is RS virus thing. So that's something I'm working on currently. And then of course for my blogging, I write a blog in English, I write a blog in Dutch and I have another one in Dutch on chat for companies. That's what I do. Larry: Oh, nice. And the main thing, you do a lot, like all of us these days, but what I really wanted, hoping we can focus the conversation around is the way AI has helped you in your blogging workflow.

Chelsea Larsson The arrival of generative AI gives content designers a whole new toolkit. As with any new set of gear, there's some learning that comes with the new capabilities that the tools afford. At Expedia, Chelsea Larsson is leading her team of content designers into the AI design future with fresh takes on the planning, design, and evaluation skills that designers have always relied on. We talked about: her work as a senior director of experience design at Expedia how she is facilitating with her teams the shift from product development design to AI design how she has identified new capabilities that AI brings and is incorporating them into product road maps how content strategists and architects help them decide whether to use generative AI or structured-content methods their shift from front-end content design to working with back-end engineers and architects how new LLM-driven applications of conventional content-evaluation criteria permit them to scale up their content design work their goal of creating good-quality content at scale how content designers are shaping the future of conversational ecosystems how AI lets content designers do more strategic thinking, in particular about how to apply their insights at scale her take on the recent rounds of tech layoffs one of the new roles that are emerging for which content professionals are well-suited, like the new position of model designer the origins of their AI program in a simple application of gen AI to partner content creation how to bootstrap the implementation of AI content practices in your org how to identify opportunities to help your customers by matching their content use cases with your AI capabilities her message to content designers: "don't be afraid" and keep learning Chelsea's bio Chelsea Larsson is a Sr. Director of Experience Design at Expedia Group where she leads the B2B Content Design team, partners on strategic design initiatives, and builds AI travel tools. Chelsea loves to chat about Content Design in genAI and UX design for travel. She shares her thoughts on both topics via the Smallish Book newsletter and conference stages around the world. Her favorite book to gift loved ones is the delightful Chirri and Chirra series. Her favorite sandwich is a turkey club. Connect with Chelsea online LinkedIn Smallish Book Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/qKr7o5aKQrM Podcast intro transcript This is the Content and AI podcast, episode number 27. The arrival of generative AI tools gives content professionals a whole new palette of design capabilities. Learning how to take advantage of these new opportunities so that they can shift from product-development design into content-driven AI experience design challenges many content folks. Chelsea Larsson sees these challenges as a chance for both her and her team at Expedia Group to stretch and grow and to scale their impact as design professionals. Interview transcript Larry: Hi everyone. Welcome to episode number 27 of the Content and AI Podcast. I am really delighted today to welcome to the show, Chelsea Larsson. Chelsea is a senior director of experience design at Expedia Group. And welcome Chelsea, tell the folks a little bit more about what you're up to these days. Chelsea: Thanks for having me, Larry. As you said, I'm a senior director of experience design. I lead the B2B content design team at Expedia Group. So we call that the partner content design team, because we work with Expedia partners. I also lead the Generative AI Experience Design Program, which we'll get into later and lean in on a couple of strategic initiatives at Expedia. Larry: Cool. And I think one way we were talking before we went on the air is we were talking about the idea of these AI learning machine, and that seemed to resonate with you as a way to describe what you're up to.

Patrick Stafford Like most tech professionals, content designers are extremely interested in how AI might affect their work and employment prospects in the future. Patrick Stafford and his colleagues at the UX Content Collective recently conducted research to explore the impact of AI on the future of the profession, as well as the attitudes and opinions of content designers about new AI tools and practices. We talked about: his work as the co-founder and CEO of the UX Content Collective the high-level findings of his recent research on the impacts of AI on content design the coincidental timing of the release of GPT-3 and the wave of layoffs in content design and other tech professions his take on the current content design job market, that it's now a more typical market comparisons of the job market in 2016-18, 2019-21, and and from 2022 through now the decline in corporate training budgets recently his take on working "with" AI as well as "for" AI products the emerging critical role of content designers in ensuring the ethical use of AI his observation that most of the new AI jobs being created are being staffed from within companies, not by hiring outside talent the growing importance stated in many job postings of being familiar with AI tools the main benefit of AI for content designers: the ability to scale the important role of content designers applying best practices and design sensibility to gen AI output how the UX Content Collective curriculum has evolved in response to the arrival of AI the surprising finding in their research that 80% of people either feel the same or more hopeful about the industry after the introduction of LLMs and AI the upcoming revival of his podcast Writers of Silicon Valley Patrick's bio Patrick Stafford is the CEO and cofounder of the UX Writers Collective. He is a former Lead Digital Copywriter for MYOB, the largest accounting software provider in Australia, and has consulted with several businesses on UX content strategy. Connect with Patrick online LinkedIn UX Content Collective The Future of AI and Content Design research report Writers of Silicon Valley podcast (reboot coming soon) Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/ijMMmsWQZKo Podcast intro transcript This is the Content and AI podcast, episode number 26. The arrival of GPT-3 and the explosion of interest in generative AI caught many in the content-design profession by surprise. Arriving as it did around the same time that mass layoffs hit the tech industry compounded the anxiety around this new tech. Patrick Stafford and his colleagues at the UX Content Collective recently conducted research to explore the true impact of AI on the profession, as well as the attitudes and opinions of content designers about new AI tools. Interview transcript Larry: Hi everyone. Welcome to episode number 26 of the Content and AI podcast. I'm really happy, today, to welcome to the show, Patrick Stafford. Patrick is the co-founder and CEO at the UX Content Collective, which you hope you've heard of. Anyhow, welcome Patrick. Tell the folks a little bit more about what you're up to these days. Patrick: Thanks, Larry. I'm really glad to be talking to you today. It's always a pleasure to speak to you. So yes, as Larry said, I'm the co-founder and CEO of the UX Content Collective. We started in 2019, and we offer a range of courses and workshops related to UX content. So that could be from a broad beginning in UX writing fundamentals to more specialist skills like content ops or even things like systems thinking, which is a workshop we have coming up, and a range of different courses in writing skills and accessibility, localization, a variety of different skills that content designers or content adjacent professionals may get something out of. So that's what we're doing and of course we have a very big interest in AI at the minut...

Wouter Sligter Figuring out how to best adopt new technology is difficult at any time for any organization. AI tech rachets up this challenge to new heights. Wouter Sligter helps companies understand the capabilities and limitations of LLMs and related technologies to create trustworthy experience-delivery platforms. Transparency is a key element in implementing solutions that evoke and support the authentic human experiences that underlie these systems. We talked about: his background as a UX-focused designer and his shift to conversation and AI design the growing number of business use cases that his work supports as well as the growing palette of tech tools that he has to work with how he creates authentic and trustworthy experiences with LLMs and adjacent tech the benefits of RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) the growing number of platforms that support building AI experiences the huge failure rate of conversational AI implementations, and how better design might improve the success rate the importance of being genuinely customer-centric when implementing AI projects how his background in language and music helps his AI design work, in particular the benefits of "being comfortable with the uncomfortable" the importance of companies being transparent about their AI implementations how localization manifests in the AI world the growing acceptance of chatbots by consumers his advice to jump into AI now, beginning with due diligence about how you'll implement it in your organization Wouter's bio Wouter Sligter is a Senior Conversation Designer and Generative AI Engineer. He has been a committed team lead and has consulted for a large number of Conversational AI implementations, most notably in Finance, Healthcare and Logistics. He has an innovative mindset and a sharp sense for understanding user needs. Wouter always looks to improve the conversational user experience by following iterative design patterns and verifying outcomes through data analysis and user research. Both predictive NLU and generative LLMs and SLMs are part of Wouter's toolkit. Wouter has a background in ESL and IELTS teaching at language centres and universities in Vietnam. He has developed a strong awareness for language and cultural peculiarities, with native fluency in English and Dutch and good conversational skills in Vietnamese, German, and French. Connect with Wouter online LinkedIn YouandAI.global Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/Ak0liSLR8_0 Podcast intro transcript This is the Content and AI podcast, episode number 25. One of main reasons that people have taken so quickly to AI tools like ChatGPT is their conversational nature. People like talking to each other - and to computers. In human conversation, we've developed skills and instincts that help us determine the trustworthiness of the person we're talking with. In tech-driven conversations, we often have reason to mistrust. Wouter Sligter helps companies build conversational systems that express the authentic humanity of their creators. Interview transcript Larry: Hi everyone, welcome to episode number 25 of the Content and AI Podcast. I'm really delighted today to welcome to the show Wouter Sligter. I met him in Utrecht in the Netherlands. He's in the co-working space we both work out of. There, he is a conversational AI consultant. He does conversation design and he's a generative AI engineer. He has his own company called You and AI Welcome, Wouter. Tell the folks a little bit more about what you're up to these days. Wouter: Hi Larry. Very good to be here. Thank you for inviting me. What am I up to? I think you mentioned the three things that I like most doing and that I do most often. I've come from being a self-employed freelance designer really, when in 2018, Facebook started with their chatbots on Messenger. I jumped in and quickly caught on and got a lot of cli...

Lasse Rindom Lasse Rindom both consults with enterprises on AI projects and talks with business and technology experts about their thoughts and discoveries. In both his consulting practice and his podcast conversations, Lasse has discovered both tremendous opportunities and potentially pitfalls when adopting enterprise-scale AI solutions. We talked about: his work as an AI leader at Basico, the origins of his AI-focused podcast, The Only Constant the unexpected opportunities that arise from the new ability to work with unstructured content that AI affords his quest for use cases that will help identify new governance structures and operational frameworks some examples of AI workflows that enable new business capabilities, like the ability for non-coders to query an agent that can write SQL queries for them his candor in his consulting practive about the possible pitfalls of AI tech, in particular the consequences of LLM hallucinations how current LLMs fall short of natural language, acting more like "chaotic code" the unfortunately common belief that generative AI can be applied one way that he is addressing the "lying robot" problem: using multiple AI agents to correct each other (instead of fine-tuning the models) the current strategic AI deficit in the market, resulting in consultants pushing untested engineering solutions the differences between how enterprises and SMBs consume tech solutions the importance of holistic thinking and staying focused on core problems as you explore AI solutions Lasse's bio Lasse Rindom is AI Lead at Basico and a leading expert on AI and automation. He has previously been global technology manager at facility management giant ISS and CDO of Baker Tilly Denmark. Lasse is a frequent debater on LinkedIn, a Gartner Peer Community ambassador and is host of the podcast “The Only Constant” in which he has deep discussions with global thought leaders on what AI and technology means for us as humans and as businesses. Connect with Lasse online LinkedIn Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/_fdAweq3Wuw Podcast intro transcript This is the Content and AI podcast, episode number 24. I generally focus these interviews on content practices, but I'll zoom out now and then to explore the broader strategy and technology landscape. Today I'm talking with Lasse Rindom, a thoughtful and knowledgeable consultant who works with enterprises on big AI projects. He's also a podcaster who talks with business leaders around the world about AI and tech. In his conversations and consulting work, he has discovered a world of lying robots, chaotic code, and strategic deficits. Interview transcript Larry: Hi, everyone. Welcome to episode number 24 of the content and AI podcast. I'm really delighted today to welcome to the show, Lasse Rindom. I'll have him pronounce his name correctly in just a minute. I don't speak Danish, apologies. But Lasse is the AI lead at Basico, a Danish consultancy that works with big enterprises in Denmark and other places, I'm assuming as well. But welcome to the show, Lasse, to tell the folks a little bit more about what you're doing there at Basico. Lasse: Hi, Larry, and thank you for having me on the show today. I'm really thrilled to be here. So my name is Lasse, Lasse Rindom. That's how you say it in Danish so people could know that. I always say it's okay to say Lasse. Everyone knows that, that's dog. Lasse: I am the a AI leader at Basico, which means I'm defining our go-to-market strategy and our products in the AI space, and we focus very much on the back office function. So that's your legal, facility management, finance, HR payroll and finance IT systems. So I'm defining how we want to approach the AI market in that space and primarily in Denmark. Prior to that, I've had stints at an analyst firm, very short stint, and I've been a chief digital officer and head of digital a...

Gerry McGovern As we navigate our paperless offices and admire our sleek compact computing devices, it can be hard to imagine the impact that our digital experiences are having on our communities and the planet. Gerry McGovern studies the environmental impact of the digital industry. He has uncovered an alarming story of unsustainable growth, toxic side effects, and human misery, which he shares in his book, World Wide Waste. We talked about: how he became an environmental activist focused on the impacts of digital the phenomenal pace of growth of digital infrastructure the impact on local communities of the big data centers that house cloud infrastructure how the compute-intensive nature of AI exacerbates his observation of the long-standing lack of transparency in the AI industry the "snake oil sales" aspects of AI the troubling use of "forever chemicals" by the semiconductor industry the material impact of computer chip manufacturing how human over-consumption and the environmental impacts of AI overlap his advice for actions you can take to mitigate your personal impact: slow down and use your brain more think local - local foods, local computer storage, etc. prefer text over images and other high-bandwidth communications Gerry's bio Gerry’s latest book, World Wide Waste, examines the impact data waste and e-waste are having on the environment and what to do about it. Gerry also developed Top Tasks, a research method used by hundreds of organizations to help identify what truly matters. Connect with Gerry online Mastodon LinkedIn GerryMcGovern.com Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/W5-BMTTEUik Podcast intro transcript This is the Content and AI podcast, episode number 23. It's easy to think of digital media and experiences - including our new AI explorations - as ethereal things that magically traverse the computing cloud to enlighten and entertain us. Gerry McGovern is here to remind you that that's far from the case, that "digital is physical." The data centers that power cloud computing are lapping up water and consuming electricity at an alarming pace, and the arrival of AI is accelerating these troubling patterns of overconsumption. Interview transcript Larry: Hi, everyone. Welcome to episode number 23 of the Content + AI podcast. I am really delighted today to welcome to the show Gerry McGovern. Gerry is the author of the book The World Wide Waste: How Digital is Killing the Planet and What to Do About It. He's also probably better known ... and I originally met him almost 15, 20 years ago when he was talking about customer care words, and subsequently out of that arose, I think, his work on top task methodology. So anyhow, Gerry's a well-established figure in the discipline, has a lot of important stuff to tell us about the environmental costs of AI. But welcome, Gerry. Tell the folks a little bit more about what you're up to these days. Gerry: Thank you, Larry. It's lovely to be speaking to you again. I suppose what I'm up to mainly is ... In a sense, I never thought it would happen, but I've become a type of environmental activist focused on the impacts of digital and how to use digital in a better way, in a less damaging way. I don't think digital can be green in any sense, but I think it can be used to help more our environment and at least to reduce the damage it causes to our environment. So, that's the main stuff I'm focused on. Larry: Yeah. Well, I got to say, I love the idea that you're an environmental activist now, because we need plenty of that. But one of the things about your work that I think has really driven home the point to me that we think of digital as this ephemeral thing happening out there in the ether. It's like no consequence. You can just throw stuff in a hard drive or share something. But this is still connected to the physical world, right? Gerry:

Mike Atherton Mike Atherton is well-known in the content world for his work at institutions like the BBC and Facebook and for his co-authorship of the influential book Designing Connected Content. His latest content project appears at first to be less serious. Newsbang is a daily AI-produced satirical news show. Its content is based on real historical news but delivered by AI-created stereotypical newscasters. The result is fun, but the process of creating the show has added real-world technical skills to Mike's professional toolkit. We talked about: his work as a UX writer and content designer his experiments with AI tools, including the suite of generative tools he's using to create Newsbang, a completely artificial daily news program how he accomplished his goal of creating an ensemble sketch comedy vibe his workflow for the daily production of the "news" show some of the surprising traits of his news characters that emerged as AI generated them lessons learned about the cost of producing AI programming, like the costs of prompting the variety of models he uses to build the show, including open-source models that have more lenient guard rails to permit more edgy comedic content how he creates his own guardrails to achieve the effect he's looking for in the show while still creating a family-friendly show how he developed the technical skills it takes to create Newsbang how his work with Newsbang helps in his day job his hope that more content professionals will follow him into the AI playground Mike's bio Mike Atherton brings years of experience to the UX, IA, and Content Design field, having tackled content challenges at big names like Meta and the BBC. Now, he's focused on developing UX writing systems, exploring the use of AI to do big things with tiny teams. As well as the day job, Mike is the creative mind behind Newsbang, a daily satirical news podcast that's both written and produced using AI technology. With Carrie Hane, he also wrote the book ‘Designing Connected Content’, sharing strategies for seamless digital experiences. Mike lives in the British countryside and loves working from home. Connect with Mike online LinkedIn Newsbang Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/lpDa8szujWo Podcast intro transcript This is the Content and AI podcast, episode number 22. Most of the news coverage and social-media conversations around AI and content feel urgent and important. This is serious business, but you can have fun with this technology, too. Mike Atherton has done content work at places like the BBC and Facebook, and he still does proper content design in his day job. Newsbang, his daily, AI-produced satirical news show, has given him both an outlet for his inner comedian and a venue in which to hone important new work skills. Interview transcript Larry: Hi, everyone. Welcome to episode number 22 of the Content and AI podcast. I am really delighted today to welcome to the show Mike Atherton. You might know Mike, he's probably best known as the... Well, he's best known for a lot of things, but he's worked at the BBC and a lot of other interesting stuff he's done. He co-wrote the book Designing Connected Content with Carrie Hane, which a lot of people in my world appreciate. But he's now a content designer and creative technologist based in the UK. Welcome, Mike. Tell the folks a little bit more about what you're up to these days. Mike: Well, hey, Larry, thanks for having me on. It's great to be back. Yeah, I'm a UX writer and content designer by day. I work with various product teams in different kind of companies to write everything from the microcopy, the words on the buttons, through to taxonomy and control vocabulary and all the good stuff that we UX writers like to do. And as part of that, for the last few years, I've been dabbling with these wicked AI tools that have come our way and seeing what I cou...

Elizabeth Beasley As AI is storming into content design and operations, Elizabeth Beasley is taking a patient and deliberate approach to adopting it in her practice. Elizabeth works on security and identity products at Intuit, so the experiences she designs have to be reliable and trustworthy, hence her identification as a "risk nerd." She has also navigated big business changes before, like the shift from cable broadcasting to video streaming, and saw in those transitions the benefits of being a cautious and curious adopter of new technology. We talked about: her role as a content designer working on security, identity, and fraud at Intuit how her background in media and technology have made her a slower adopter of new technology like AI how being a "risk nerd" informs her concern around reliability and trustworthiness in AI how her cautious approach to AI adoption may actually put her in a better position to develop trustworthy AI experiences the new collaborators she is working with as AI arrives on the scene her work on an industry standards body around new security technology the utility of having troops back at the fort to keep the old operations running as your org explores new tech like gen AI how her interest in history informs her approach to change the inherent risks in being first to adopt new technologies her "peaceful Wednesday" practice for preventing and coping with stress and burnout how times of rapid change like this can prompt useful career reflections the recent evolution of her thinking on the "seat at the table" issue Elizabeth's bio Elizabeth Beasley a Senior Content Designer with Intuit’s Identity team. She approaches life with a healthy balance of optimism and skepticism. Because everything is going to be okay, maybe. She used to have hobbies like performing improv comedy and ballroom dancing. Now she enjoys watching other people doing their hobbies on YouTube. Connect with Elizabeth online LinkedIn Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/Ny2l_mZgLXQ Podcast intro transcript This is the Content and AI podcast, episode number 21. It's easy to get caught up in the frenetic pace of generative AI technology adoption - unless you have already created rituals to help slow your life down. Elizabeth Beasley created her "peaceful Wednesday" ritual ten years ago to bring some calm to her increasingly fast-paced work life. That practice is serving her well now as she and her colleagues at Intuit develop their approach to incorporating AI tools while continuing to deliver trustworthy experiences. Interview transcript Larry: Hi, everyone. Welcome to episode number 21 of the Content and AI podcast. I am really happy today to welcome to the show Elizabeth Beasley. Elizabeth is a Senior Content Designer at Intuit, the big financial software company. Welcome, Elizabeth. Tell the folks a little bit more about what you're up to these days. Elizabeth: Hey, it's so fun to be here. Yes, I'm at Intuit. Financial services is my life lately, and I've worked in a fun space. I think it's fun, security, identity. I always describe it to my mom or my friends like, I do the part where you create your account, you sign back into your account, you manage your account and I make that easy for you with content design, they still don't quite understand that, but that's the space I work in and I really, surprisingly enjoyed. I worked in banking previously and got into security and now I'm sort of obsessed with security and identity and fraud and it's a fun, exciting space to work, and also I love it because everyone uses it, so it's very relatable and it affects many, many people. So it has a lot of impact. Larry: You can't do anything until you get past that experience that you're designing. Elizabeth: Yeah. Larry: Then you're in and then you can start doing stuff. But you sort of established your cred.

Maaike Groenewege Maaike Groenewege began her content career in technical communication. She is now a leading voice in conversation design for AI. Maaike draws on her technical writing background in her conversational AI practice, having observed that whether you're writing for humans or designing prompts for LLMs, you have to truly understand your audience and consistently provide clear and specific instructions. We talked about: her work over the past couple of years as a prompt designer how the instruction design principles from her days in technical writing and technical communication prepared her for her current role how her early exposure to help desk duties prepared her for the many question-answering responsibilities in her current role how her writing skills, her critical approach to generative AI, and her love of technology combine to give her a unique perspective on conversational gen AI content how retrieval-augmented generation drawing on high-quality content datasets can help set a base level of knowledge for LLMs her opinion that conversational chatbots are a transitory stage on the way to transactional chatbots that can provide self-service problem-solving the workflow for incorporating retrieval-augmented generation into LLMs the similar meaning of the concept of "chunking" in technical communication and LLMs the differences between how LLMs process language and how humans read - and the implications of this for prompt design and engineering the emerging structure for prompts: assigning a role, describing the task, providing a context the differences between conversational prompting, prompt design, and prompt engineering how she works with her engineering partners the difference between the logical inference that knowledge graphs do and the statistical inference that LLMs use how she keeps up with the rapidly changing developments in her field her invention: ALIs, application language interfaces how she uses ChatGPT in voice mode to capture and summarize her thoughts when she's out for a walk her prediction that "the future is bright for those who know how to write" Maaike's bio Maaike Groenewege is a conversation design lead, linguist and prompt designer with her boutique consultancy firm Convocat BV. She coaches both starting and more experienced conversational teams in optimising their conversation design practise, NLU analyses and team communication. Her main focus right now is on how LLMs can benefit enterprise conversational AI. Maaike is the founder of www.convo.club, an online community for more than 700 conversation designers. Connect with Maaike online Convoclub LinkedIn Connect with Maaike at these events European Chatbot and Conversational AI Summit, Edinburgh, March 12-14, 2024 UX Copenhagen, March 20-21, 2024 Unparsed Conference London, June 17-19, 2024 Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/3qxxb18BqFM Podcast intro transcript This is the Content and AI podcast, episode number 20. A false dichotomy has arisen in the AI world between conversational prompting in chatbot interfaces and prompt engineering under the hood. Maaike Groenewege works in the middle ground, in a role she calls "prompt design." She also draws on practices from her background in technical communication, after observing that whether you're writing for humans or designing prompts for LLMs, you have to truly understand your audience and always provide clear and specific instructions. Interview transcript Larry: Hey, everyone. Welcome to episode number 20 of the Content + AI podcast. I am super delighted today to welcome to the show Maaike Groenewege. Maaike is ... Well, she's a principal at Convocat, her company, and she's an actual genuine, prompt engineer. So, Maaike, welcome. Tell the folks more about what it's like being a prompt engineer at Convocat. Maaike: