Greg Brisco 🙏🏾
CEO & Board Advisor | Engineering Leadership Models for the AI Era
March 18, 2025
Dear Humans,
Let’s start with the truth.
I don’t care what’s on your business card. I don’t care if you’re a “Chief Everything Officer” or an “Overqualified Unemployed.” I don’t care if you’ve got an Ivy League pedigree or a GED earned in between night shifts. I don’t care if your office is a corner suite or a corner booth at Denny’s.
What I care about is the person, not the persona, the you beneath the armor. The one who’s tired of performing. The one who’s suffocating under the weight of “professionalism.” The one who’s one missed promotion, one harsh email, one silent car ride home away from crumbling.
I see you.
Because I’m you.
When I first stepped launched Humanize Innovation, I didn’t sleep for weeks. I’d sit at my desk at 3 a.m. thinking, “What if I let everyone down?” Imposter syndrome isn’t a buzzword; it’s the acid in your throat when you’re asked to lead in a world that measures worth by logos on your LinkedIn.
But here’s the truth I’ve learned: You are enough. Not because of your title, your toolkit, or your tenure. But because you’re here.
Alive.
Fighting.
Showing up, differently.
The Armor We Wear: Titles as a Crutch
I had a conversation earlier this week with an executive who told me a story from three years ago. She was sitting in a hospital waiting room, clutching a “CEO” plaque like a rosary. Her father was dying. Her team was texting about Q4 targets. And all she could think was, “If I lose this title, who am I?”
We’ve conflated who we are with what we do. We introduce ourselves as “Senior Director of X” instead of “Dad who burns pancakes” or “Cancer survivor” or “Someone’s safe place.” We let LinkedIn headlines become tombstones for our humanity.
But here’s the secret no one tells you: Titles are Trojan horses. They promise validation but carry emptiness. They demand we trade our quirks for “executive presence,” our tears for “resilience,” our messy humanity for polished bullet points.
I’ve watched brilliant leaders:
Fire people via Zoom to “protect their authority”
Skip their kid’s graduation for a “can’t-miss” meeting
Lie about their age, their struggles, their doubts
All to preserve a persona that was never real.
AI as a Mirror
We’re told AI will erase jobs, dehumanize work, and make us obsolete. But what if it’s doing the opposite?
I have a client who introduced a mid-level manager to a new AI coaching tool, and broke down during a session. The AI detected tremors in her voice and asked, “Would you like to talk about the fear behind your frustration?” She later wrote: “That machine saw me as a person. Why can’t I?”
This is the revolution we’re igniting: AI that doesn’t automate humanity, it amplifies it!
Take Marcus, a truck driver who lost his job to automation. Using another AI platform, he built an AI tool that translates CB radio slang into real-time safety alerts for new drivers. No coding experience. No venture capital. Just a man who refused to let a title (“unemployed”) define his worth.
His tool now saves lives in 14 states.
AI as Your Guide in a World of Noise
We’re told AI will “disrupt” industries. That it’ll create millionaires, billionaires, and maybe even trillionaires, optimize workflows, and redefine innovation. And I believe it will (because I hope to be one). But if that’s ALL we focus on, we’ve missed the point.
Imagine navigating a sprawling, chaotic city, one you’ve never visited. The streets are a maze of dead ends, construction zones, and detours. Your GPS keeps rerouting, but the traffic is relentless. You’re late, stressed, and wondering if you’ll ever reach your destination. We live in a labyrinth of systemic poverty, healthcare deserts, educational inequity, and mental health stigma. These aren’t abstract “issues,” they’re the potholes and roadblocks in our city.
Now imagine your GPS isn’t just a map. It’s a collaborator that learns, adapts, and doesn’t just tell you where to go, but how to get there safely, efficiently, and with compassion. It connects you to others heading the same way, forming carpool lanes of collective action. It warns you about storms ahead and reroutes you around crumbling bridges.
This is the AI I believe in. Not the one that replaces drivers, but the one that transforms the journey.
At Humanize Generative AI, we’re building that GPS for humanity.
The Lie We’ve Been Sold About AI
We’ve been sold a story that AI is here to automate, replace, and optimize, to make the “machine” of society faster, leaner, colder. But what if we flipped the script?
Last year, we partnered with a rural clinic in Kenya. Their challenge? Diagnosing rare diseases without specialists. We didn’t hand them a robot doctor, but they built an AI tool that analyzes symptoms and connects local nurses to global experts via real-time translation. One nurse, Maria, told me, “This isn’t technology. It’s a lifeline.”
That’s the difference between automation and amplification.
Another example: A private school in Detroit built an AI platform to personalize learning for students traumatized by systemic neglect. The AI didn’t teach math, it helped teachers identify which kids hadn’t eaten breakfast, who needed a quiet room to decompress, and how to adapt lessons for healing minds. Test scores rose, but the “The real win, was watching a bullied girl teach the AI how to write poetry.
Now she believes her voice matters.”
This isn’t about machines getting smarter. It’s about humans feeling seen. That's true innovation.
AI's Return on Investment = Humanity
One of our clients, Raytheon, always talks about “era-defining innovation.” But let’s redefine “ROI.” At Humanize Generative AI, we calculate ROI by our Return to Humanity.
For every dollar earned by our company, a percentage goes directly to 501(c)(3) organizations tackling these human crises.
2,000 hours of free mental health counseling in LGBTQ+ shelters
Solar-powered AI hubs in Syrian refugee camps, teaching coding to teens
A microloan program for women in Appalachia to launch AI-assisted green farms
Why?
Because innovation without humanity is just noise.
Profit without purpose is exploitation.
This isn’t charity. It’s shared responsibility, a recognition that we rise together or not at all.
Our Shared Rebellion: You’re Already Ready
You don’t need another certification, mentor, or self-help book.
You need permission to be you.
So here it is:
From this moment, you’re allowed to:
Cry at work (tears are data)
Say “I don’t know” (certainty is a myth)
Prioritize your kid’s recital over a CEO’s ego (legacy > LinkedIn)
Your Invitation (No Pedigree Required)
This isn’t a sales pitch. It’s a plea.
If you’re reading this, I need you. Not your company, your budget, or your network (although please bring those too), but you! The person who still believes in good. The leader who’s tired of empty metrics. The human who wants to leave this world softer than you found it.
Here’s how we can start:
Comment below with one word: the challenge that keeps you up at night. “Healthcare.” “Education.” “Loneliness.” Let’s build a manifesto of real problems.
Connect with me directly. I read every email (greg@humanizegai.com). Last year, a single mother in Mumbai emailed me about her autistic son’s struggle to communicate. Today, they're beta-testing an AI speech tool they designed together.
Collaborate. Let’s co-create a project that uses AI not to replace humans, but to re-humanize the world.
The Future We’re Building (And It’s Closer Than You Think)
Ten years from now, I don’t only want to brag about our stock price. I want to sit in a classroom where a girl who’s never seen a doctor can diagnose her village’s outbreaks via AI. I want to walk through a homeless shelter powered by AI-driven job matching, where “clients” become colleagues. I want to walk softly into a world where we measure progress not in patents, but in parents who get to watch their kids grow up.
The Last Thing I’ll Say
You don’t need permission to matter. You don’t need a fancy degree to lead. You don’t need to be “ready” to change the world.
You just need to care.
And if you’re still reading this? You do.
So let’s stop asking, “What can AI do?” and start asking, “What can we collectively do?”
With passion, purpose, and a heart that's still learning,
Greg Brisco is a leading voice in human-centric AI implementation and organizational innovation. He helps organizations bridge the gap between technological capability and human potential.
#HumanizeGenerativeAI #ISPI #HeartMindedLeadership #LeadWithHumanity #Intelligent Transformation #InnovationReadiness
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