Better Leaders, Better Teams: A Google Insider on AI

Former Google AI executive Mary Gourley on where AI genuinely buys back time — and the human edge it will never replace.

Mary Gourley — over a dozen years in an executive role at Google — joins Matt Elliott and Susan Pearse to separate what AI genuinely does for leaders from what it quietly costs them. The AI-to-AI loop that only looks like collaboration, real-world examples of AI done well (real-time fraud prevention, bushfire prediction), why prompting is a skill most leaders use at a fraction of its potential, and the line at the centre of the conversation: the biggest risk of AI isn't machines replacing people — it's people starting to act like machines.

Hosted by Susan Pearse, Matt Elliott & Mary Gourley

Five things to take from this episode.

1. 01

   The biggest risk of AI isn't machines replacing people — it's people starting to act like machines

   Hours spent prompting AI tools quietly retrain how you talk to colleagues — transactional, brief, stripped of warmth. For a leader that's costly: the way you communicate sets the standard for your whole team, and when that standard turns mechanical, trust erodes quietly and culture follows. The 1% gain: before your next message to a colleague, ask — would I say this if I walked past them in the hallway? If not, rewrite it.

2. 02

   Saved time is only valuable if you decide where it goes before your calendar does

   When AI hands back an hour, it disappears into emails and the next demand unless you protect it on purpose. You cannot lead at your best from a state of depletion — the leaders performing at the highest level right now are using the time AI gives back to recover, think and show up for their teams with the energy real leadership demands. The 1% gain: the next time AI saves you meaningful time, block it in your calendar immediately — a coaching conversation, strategic thinking, or recovery. Protect it before anything else claims it.

3. 03

   The AI-to-AI loop is not collaboration — and it's quietly damaging your culture

   You use AI to write the memo. Your colleague uses AI to summarise it back to you. Neither of you has actually engaged with the other, but you call it collaboration. Culture is built in moments of genuine human exchange — replace enough of those moments with AI loops and the connective tissue that holds high performance together slowly disappears. The 1% gain: find one communication loop this week that has gone fully digital. Make it a real conversation instead — a call, a walk, a coffee.

4. 04

   Prompting is a skill — and most leaders are using it at a fraction of its potential

   The gap between a one-line prompt and a well-constructed one is night and day. The best prompts carry context, tone, audience and a challenge back — ask AI to stress-test your thinking or flag the risk you've missed. The quality of what you bring to your team is directly shaped by the quality of what you put in. The 1% gain: next time you use AI for something that matters, spend two extra minutes building the prompt — add audience, tone, one example of what good looks like, and ask it to flag anything unclear.

5. 05

   Writing things down by hand is still one of the most powerful performance tools available — even in an AI world

   When you review AI-generated content, writing your key changes and ideas by hand imprints the material on your brain in a way that typing never does. Deep understanding and genuine ownership of your ideas is the human edge that earns trust in a room and moves teams — and it's disappearing fastest exactly where leaders are outsourcing it. The 1% gain: before your next important presentation, write your three key messages by hand. Not to read from — just to lock them in. Your clarity in the room will reflect it.