Julie Peck: Reclaim Your Humanity

Podcast Show Overview

In this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times, Chris Schembra welcomes back Julie Peck—a seasoned tech and growth executive and current CEO of Talent Neuron, a global leader in workforce intelligence. Returning after a powerful first conversation (“The Gift of the Curvy Path”), Julie brings both lived experience and a front-row seat to how AI is reshaping work, leadership, and the talent market.

The conversation opens with the show’s signature gratitude thread: Julie re-centers her enduring gratitude for her mother—an “anchor” figure defined by generosity, steadiness, and wisdom. From there, the episode expands into a bigger thesis: we’re moving from a knowledge economy (being paid to “know”) to a wisdom economy (being valued for discernment, context, ethics, and humanity), right as AI accelerates technical capability faster than society’s ability to govern it wisely.

Julie explains what she’s seeing in real time—from the lightning-fast evolution of “prompt engineering” (job → skill → everywhere) to the rise of AI agents, “managers of agents,” and even early signals around digital twins / digital clones. The discussion is both exciting and sobering: the future isn’t just humans using tools—it’s organizations learning to coordinate human employees + virtual workers while wrestling with ownership, ethics, and identity.

They land the plane with an antidote: in a world speeding up, the advantage is learning to reclaim your humanity—through presence, boundaries, real conversation, and the ancient technology of the dinner table. Chris frames it as “slow food and fast cars” (Emilia-Romagna) and the “AND, not OR” mindset: use AI to amplify impact and protect what makes life meaningful.

Key Takeaways

• We’re shifting from “knowing” to “discerning.” AI can produce answers; humans are needed for wisdom, ethics, and context.
   
• The pace is the story. Roles like “prompt engineer” moved from nonexistent → hot → embedded in everything in about a year.
   
• Soft skills are becoming the real differentiator. Adaptability, learning agility, collaboration, and communication are what survive a fluid world.
   
• Digital cloning raises ownership questions. If your work footprint trains a “you,” who owns it—you or your employer/platform?
   
• Reclaim humanity through designed friction. Put the phone down, limit your digital exhaust, and build anchor points (like dinners) where real presence returns.
   

Memorable Quotes

• Julie Peck: “I call that reclaiming your humanity.”
   
• Chris Schembra: “The dinner table is truly the last thing that AI can get to.”
   
• Julie Peck: “The technical capabilities of AI are evolving far faster than the world’s ability to be wise about how we build it and interact with it.”
   
• Julie Peck: “Put the phone down and talk to each other and actually look each other in the eyes.”
   
• Julie Peck: “If you’re standing at Lake Geneva and you’re looking at the Alps, don’t try and take a picture of it. Just look at it.”
   
• Chris Schembra: “We’re living through the collapse of the knowledge economy… What if we’ve been playing the wrong game all along?”
   
• Julie Peck: “We don’t understand the rules of the game… and we’re unprepared for it.”