Erica Farmer is a futurism and trends expert, AI speaker and Co-Founder of Quantum Rise Talent Group, where she helps organisations build the skills, confidence and literacy needed to work with emerging technologies.
She is also the Founder of EricaFarmer.ai and host of the AI for the Average Joe podcast.
With more than 25 years’ experience across learning, development, apprenticeships and leadership, Erica has worked with organisations including British Gas, Virgin, Specsavers and LV=.
Her work focuses on the human side of AI adoption: why people resist change, how leaders can build trust, and what skills teams need as work is reshaped by automation.
In this exclusive interview with the AI Speakers Agency, Erica discusses why AI rollouts must start with people rather than platforms, how critical thinking and learning agility will define the AI-ready workforce, and why business leaders need to win hearts and minds before expecting technology to transform performance.
Q1: What are business leaders still getting wrong about AI adoption, especially when the barrier is not the technology itself?
Erica Farmer: “I think it’s about what does AI actually mean and what does it not mean.
“There’s an AI fear. Whether that’s because, if you’re a geek like me, in the 80s you grew up with the Terminator movies or the Matrix franchise, or even the negative narrative that we see in the media, on the news, on the socials.
“People kind of suck that up and don’t even realise that it’s affecting their judgment on things.
“It’s about really understanding how we can utilise this technology, but also how we can enable people to be their best selves by doing that.
“Do I use it in my personal life? Do I use it in my professional life? What benefits do I get from it? And what does that mean in terms of how I feel about myself and my role?
“We’re missing a trick if we don’t go down the human route when it comes to AI and we just go down the tools and technology route.
“And that’s what a lot of organisations seem to be doing. ‘Oh, we’ve just rolled out Microsoft Copilot.’ And then they expect everybody to be using Microsoft Copilot in 90 days.
“Funnily enough, that doesn’t happen because we haven’t done the hearts and minds thing. We haven’t done the safety thing, the guard rails. How do people feel? Why do they feel that way?
“So, if you’re rolling out artificial intelligence, or any kind of change initiative or tools in your organisation, you’ve got to start with the people first. And where I see the gaps in the organisations is that they haven’t started people first.”
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Q2: As AI changes how work is done, which human skills will matter most for leaders trying to keep their organisations competitive?
Erica Farmer: “Everybody’s talking about artificial intelligence, and you do have a set of skills that come around that in regard to prompting, for example, and quality checking.
“But actually, the human distinctive skills that you need to collaborate with AI in the right way are things like critical thinking skills.
“How can you stop and say, ‘Why are we doing this, and is it the right thing to do?’ For example, rather than just go away on the automation train? Learning agility, things are changing so quickly in organisations.
“‘How do I put down what I’ve always done in my job, whether that’s mindset, skill set, tasks. And how do I learn to do something slightly different but apply that skill in record time so my organisation can pivot and move in ways to maintain its competitive edge rather than trying to move a tanker that takes a long time to do it?’
“Organisations will rely on their people to be able to pick up new workflows, new products, new services, new languages, whatever it might be. And we’ve got to be okay with that unlearning and that relearning.
“So, for me, critical thinking is number one. Learning agility is number two.”
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Q3: When an organisation starts taking AI seriously, why should leaders resist the temptation to begin with tools and platforms?
Erica Farmer: “Not with the AI.
“The number of clients and prospects that come to me and they’re like, ‘What tool should we be using?’ Like, ‘We’re doing a tool first strategy, a tech first strategy.’
“And I’m like, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. A, that stuff’s going to look different tomorrow anyway because it’s changing so quickly. If you don’t engage people’s hearts and minds, if you don’t do the people-first thing, you’re never going to get anywhere. You’re just going to fall over.’
“So, give people the time and space to think about, ‘What does it mean for me? What does it mean for my job? Am I worried about losing my job? Am I worried about implementing new technology into my role? Or is it time just to leave my role and retire,’ for example?
“And that’s totally fine as well. Hearts and minds, you’ve got to go people first. Give them the time, the headspace, the confidence, as well as the skills and the competence through AI literacy and training and things like that.
“But don’t just go straight into right, you’ve got access to ChatGPT now, off you go, because people are never going to feel comfortable and psychologically safe to adopt the technology to be the real unlock of transformation that you’re looking for.”
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Q4: When people leave one of your talks, what shift in mindset or behaviour do you want them to take back into their work?
Erica Farmer: “I want them to be excited about actually getting in there and doing something different.
“I don’t call myself an inspirational speaker because who am I to say I’m inspirational? Everybody will be inspired in different ways. It gives me the ick a little bit when I see ‘inspirational speaker.’
“What I want to be known as is someone who helped people get excited and get engaged.
“Whether that’s AI, whether that’s the future of work, whether that’s anything I’m having a conversation about, I want people to go away and say, ‘I’m going to do something different because that’s actually really exciting.'”
This exclusive interview with Erica Farmer was conducted by Tabish Ali of the Motivational Speakers Agency.
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