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Melissa Cheals leads Smartly, a payroll and people management platform serving 24,000 small and medium businesses in New Zealand. In this conversation, she shares how AI is reshaping product development, leadership, and how organizations operate.
A key moment comes when her team estimates new features will take 12 months and $1M to build. Instead of accepting it, Melissa pushes back, using AI to better understand her team’s perspective and communicate the need for change more effectively. This becomes a broader shift in how she approaches leadership, using AI to think more clearly and navigate conversations with less friction.
The discussion expands into strategy. Companies now face a fundamental choice: become AI-native or continue building on existing systems. As AI adoption increases, it also exposes silos and bottlenecks. Melissa shares why cross-functional collaboration—and leaders actively engaging with AI themselves—is critical to navigating this shift.
Key Takeaways:
Smartly: smartly.co.nz
LinkedIn Melissa: linkedin.com/melissa-cheals
LinkedIn Smartly: linkedin.com/company/smartlynz/
00:00 Intro: Challenging AI Assumptions
00:28 Meet Melissa Cheals
01:17 The Spark For Change
02:36 Vision And Early Signals
03:48 Hiring For Transformation
06:12 Unlocking Data With AI
08:27 Breaking Silos Across Teams
10:39 Why Leaders Must Learn AI
13:42 Leading With AI And Clarity
17:05 The AI-Native Decision
21:45 Thinking Bigger With AI
25:23 Less Meetings More Writing
26:33 The Self-Disruption Imperative
29:11 Breaking Silos With Value Streams
31:28 Managing Fear And Change
32:50 Learning And Shipping Faster
34:58 Debrief
📜 Read the transcript for this episode: ai-native-or-not-the-defining-choice-for-companies-right-now-with-melissa-cheals-ceo-of-smartly/transcript
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Show edited by Emma Cecilie Jensen.
No transcript available for this episode.
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