Free Session:Think Tank Thursday: When Organizations Lose Their Why: AI, Burnout, and the Crisis of Meaning at Work with Dr.Felicia Newhouse
"When Organizations Lose Their Why: AI, Burnout, and the Crisis of Meaning at Work" led by Dr. Felicia Newhouse, AI-Powered Women Founder & Chief Curator
As AI rapidly reshapes the workforce, many leaders are quietly asking deeper questions that rarely get discussed openly in traditional AI conversations:
What are we actually building?
What kind of humans are our systems creating?
Why do so many teams feel exhausted, disconnected, and reactive despite unprecedented technological advancement?
Whether you are a founder building products directly, or a corporate leader navigating transformation inside large organizations, many people are experiencing the same tension:
speed without reflection,
productivity without meaning,
and innovation without enough conversation about the human consequences.
Research increasingly shows that the biggest barriers to successful AI transformation are not technical — they are human.
Studies from organizations like McKinsey, Deloitte, Gartner, and the Chief x Harris Poll continue to point toward the same patterns:
high levels of burnout and workplace anxiety
employee disconnection from organizational purpose
fear and uncertainty around AI adoption
leadership struggling to balance speed with trust, governance, and human wellbeing
growing recognition that emotional intelligence, judgment, ethics, and systems thinking are becoming more — not less — important in the AI era
At the same time, many organizations are accelerating deployment without slowing down long enough to reflect on why something is being built, who it serves, or what unintended consequences may emerge socially, psychologically, economically, and culturally.
This Think Tank Thursday is designed as a reflective, interdisciplinary conversation exploring:
burnout and nervous system overload in the age of AI
the neuroscience of stress, creativity, sleep, and change
the growing crisis of meaning and disconnection at work
what history and anthropology can teach us about major technological transitions
healthy and human-centered approaches to AI transformation
what leadership must evolve into during one of the most consequential technological shifts in modern history
This is a space for thoughtful leaders, founders, researchers, creatives, technologists, and change agents to slow down, think deeply together, and explore what responsible, human-centered leadership looks like in the AI era.
BREAKOUT REFLECTION PROMPTS
Each breakout group will encourage meaningful cross-pollination of perspectives:
Where do you feel the greatest disconnect between speed, productivity, and meaning right now in your work or industry?
What human qualities do you believe are becoming more important — not less — in the AI era?
What do you think organizations and leaders are currently underestimating about AI transformation and its human impact?
What kind of future do you hope we consciously choose together as technology rapidly advances?