🎙️ This week on the Leadership Art Podcast, Art Robbins welcomes Nicolas Votano, Chief Business Officer at OJIN AI, for a powerful conversation on leading through disruption, building resilient teams, and keeping the human at the center of the AI era.

Nicolas has spent 20+ years driving innovation and digital transformation across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North America — today leading the global rollout of immersive AI experiences for brands like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Cartier. Few people have a closer view of where AI is actually creating value, and where it isn't.

❓ Why do so many AI projects fail and why does Nicolas call it a leadership problem, not a technology one?

🧠 What are the two values he looks for in every hire, and why does he believe emotional intelligence will always surpass raw intellect?

🚀 Nicolas shares hard-won lessons from the front lines of AI: why adoption stalls when employees don't know if the technology is there to help them or replace them, why he hunts for ”the purpose behind the purpose” in every person he meets, and why the real work isn't defining an AI strategy — it's redesigning how people work, one slice of the value chain at a time. He and Art also get into the concern that keeps him up at night: protecting human genius and critical thinking in a world where the easy answer is always one prompt away.

📈 And his takeaway for future leaders? Never pretend. Understand yourself, learn to read the human in front of you — because in the end, emotional intelligence beats intellect every time.

📅 Season 3, Episode 14

📍 Available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and Amazon Music

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