AI Adoption Starts With How People Think, Not Which Tools They Pick - with Royce Sin

Royce Sin spent a decade at HSBC automating things nobody asked him to automate. He didn't ask for permission. He just did it, showed people the results, and let the time savings speak for itself. That instinct, to question why things are done a certain way and then actually do something about it, is what eventually led him into the AI space. In this episode, Peter and Dave sit down with Royce Sin to talk about what it actually takes for AI to stick inside an organization. Spoiler: it's not about the tools. We get into the tension between flexibility and reliability, why most people are being set up to fail with AI, and what it means to think like a manager when you're not one. Royce also shares his MIND framework, a practical way to think about AI adoption that he developed through hands-on work across enterprise and startup environments. There's also a good conversation about the trades, no-UI as an ideal, and why the most dangerous move in transformation is knocking down fences you don't fully understand. This week's takeaways: Think of AI as a new type of employee. Set it up for success the same way you'd set up your staff. Design roles and processes to match what it's actually good at. Not every rule is a hard rule. Before treating a constraint as a blocker, understand what's behind it. Some fences are load-bearing. Some aren't. Know the difference before you act. Don't just bring in AI. Know what outcome you're after. If you can't tell whether it's working, you don't have a tool problem, you have a clarity problem. Chapters: 0:00 Welcome And Guest Introduction 1:20 Royce’s Path Through Big Tech 6:00 Automating Tedious Work Without Permission 10:45 Why Spreadsheets Still Run Everything 14:25 AI Flexibility Versus Reliability And Guardrails 18:55 Turning Unstructured Updates Into Trusted Data 21:45 The MIND Framework For AI Adoption 26:50 AI In Trades And The No-UI Ideal 30:40 Security, Governance, And Testing The Fences 33:05 Three Takeaways And How To Reach Us Have a thought on any of this? Reach us at [email protected]