Episode Details

Cameron Price, Head of People & Talent at Medium, joined us on The Modern People Leader to discuss how people teams can lead AI change management through trust, curiosity, and human-centered design. 

We talked about AI fluency, balancing innovation with authenticity, measuring employee sentiment around AI adoption, and why humans-first leadership matters more than ever.

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(06:22) Cameron’s Career Story and Journey Into People Leadership

(07:20) From Poetry Degree to Startups and Customer Support

(08:18) Building Teams Across San Francisco, Dubai, and the Philippines

(09:10) Growing Through Recruiting, HR, and Leadership at Medium

(10:05) Biggest Lessons Becoming Head of People

(11:20) What Medium Does and Why Human Content Matters

(12:50) Content Businesses, AI, and Why These Times Feel Different

(14:10) Medium’s AI Journey: Observation to Transformation

(15:40) AI as Change Management, Not Just Tool Adoption

(17:05) Humans First: Medium’s Values and AI Philosophy

(18:45) What Humans First Actually Looks Like in Practice

(20:05) Knowing When Not to Use AI

(21:15) Balancing Human Creativity with AI Capabilities

(22:10) Creating AI Policies Without Top-Down Control

(24:00) Experimentation Culture and Building AI Guidelines

(25:20) AI as a Capability Expander, Not a Content Machine

(26:35) AI Fluency Expectations and Behavior-Based Frameworks

(28:15) Why Judgment Matters More Than Tool Usage

(29:00) Building an AI Culture Without Centralized Control

(30:10) The Role of Managers in AI Adoption

(31:10) Using AI to Make Management More Effective

(32:10) Rolling Out AI Fluency Expectations Through Managers

(34:10) Addressing AI Skeptics and Resistance to Adoption

(36:05) Staying Curious While Managing AI Concerns

(37:30) AI Skills, Career Development, and Job Market Realities

(39:15) Why AI Won’t Replace You, But AI Fluency Might Matter

(40:00) Development Responsibility and Proactive Learning

(42:10) Measuring AI Sentiment Instead of AI Spend

(43:10) AI Brain Fry and Managing the Pace of Change

(44:40) What Happens If AI Tools Disappear Tomorrow?

(45:30) Designing Medium’s AI Sentiment Survey

(47:00) Survey Findings: Friction, Slop, and Downstream Work

(49:05) Engagement, Satisfaction, and Employee Trust

(50:15) AI Overload, Burnout, and Context Switching

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