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AI is rapidly expanding what individuals and organizations are capable of doing. But greater capability raises a deeper question: What are we going to do with it?
In this episode of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work, Brian Gorman speaks with Jeff Westphal, author of A Work Life Worth Living and former chairman and CEO of Vertex, about meaning, purpose, and the distinctly human choices that become more important as artificial intelligence grows more powerful.
Jeff describes AI as a force multiplier for intelligence. It can research, analyze, synthesize, and help us make better-informed decisions. But it cannot decide what we should care about, what risks are worth taking, or what purpose all that intelligence should serve.
Their conversation explores what makes work meaningful and why meaning differs from one person—and one stage of life—to another. Jeff shares how his own experiences with mentors, leadership, family, and recovery taught him that wisdom is formed through lived experience and human connection, not analysis alone.
As AI increasingly becomes the smartest presence in the room, the traditional leadership advantage of having the answers begins to disappear. What remains is something more demanding: creating the conditions for people to bring their intelligence and wisdom together, deciding what matters, and resisting the temptation to turn AI into the decision-maker.
Ultimately, the opportunity AI presents may be larger than greater productivity or economic growth. With more intelligence and capability available than ever before, we have an opportunity to ask what kind of work, organizations, and world we actually want to create.
In This Episode
- Why meaningful work is deeply personal and why meaning can change throughout our lives
- Why AI can multiply intelligence but cannot determine what we should care about
- How greater technological capability makes purpose more important, not less
- Why leadership increasingly depends on bringing human wisdom together rather than being the smartest person in the room
- The need to recover our ability to choose what matters instead of allowing institutions, or AI, to choose for us
About Jeff Westphal
In the mid-1990s, Jeff Westphal worked his way up to run his father’s upstart sales tax software business and, over the next two decades, built it into a dominant industry leader with nearly one thousand employees. Under Jeff’s leadership, Vertex became an essential cog in the commerce machine, relied upon by more than ten thousand of the largest companies in the world.
- In July of 2020, after Jeff’s retirement as CEO in 2017, Vertex went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange and is now valued in the billions. It is a great American success story—but telling that story is not the purpose of this book.
- Behind this success story is another, more complex story of how a leader found, then lost and found again, meaning in his life and work—and how, by helping his employees create meaning in work as seemingly meaningless as sales tax software, he helped his company survive challenges and thrive.
Today, Jeff is a seasoned executive, entrepreneur, philanthropist, corporate culture enthusiast, and conservationist. In addition to leading Vertex for two decades, he has founded two new ventures—MeaningSphere® and Mosaic™—as he continues to give back and encourage others to create meaning in their learning and working lives.
About Brian Gorman
Brian Gorman is an executive advisor, author, speaker, coach, and host of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human wisdom, helping CEOs, founders, boards, and senior leadership teams think clearly about AI, change, decision-making, culture, trust, and the future of work. His book, Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, explores how leaders can move beyond intelligence alone and bring deeper wisdom to the decisions shaping people, organizations, and society.
To Continue the Conversation
If anything you hear in this podcast sparks a conversation you want to have or a question you want to explore, reach out.
Jeff Westphal
Website: www.jeffwestphal.org
Brian Gorman
Email: Brian@TransformingLives.Coach
Phone: +1 917.653.5198
Website: https://TransformingLives.Coach
