When AI Levels the Playing Field, How Do You Stand Out? with Garret Westlake, Ph.D.

Episode Overview

When every business has access to the same AI tools, the advantages that used to separate leaders from the rest start to disappear. The real question is not whether your organization is using AI. It is whether you understand the limitations of AI well enough to know where human intelligence still makes the difference.

In this episode of Better Experiences by Design, Susan Quinn sits down with Dr. Garret Westlake, Executive Director of the da Vinci Center for Innovation at VCU and Google AI Faculty Fellow, to explore how AI is reshaping the competitive landscape and what it actually takes to stand out in a world where the playing field is leveling fast.

Garret’s career has never followed a straight line. From special education teacher to startup founder to innovation director, he has spent decades at the intersection of curiosity, technology, and human potential. That unconventional path is exactly what makes his perspective on AI so grounded and so urgent for business leaders today. He is not theorizing about a future that might arrive. He is building and experimenting with it every week, and translating what he learns into practical guidance for organizations navigating real decisions right now.

“The premium product will be AI plus human.”

AI is leveling the playing field in ways no one fully anticipated. Basic legal services, healthcare access, personalized education: these are becoming table stakes. And that is precisely the point. When AI can deliver competent answers to competent questions, competence is no longer enough. Understanding the limitations of AI, knowing where it falls short, where it lacks context, where it cannot replicate lived experience or earned judgment, is not a pessimistic view of technology. It is the strategic foundation for knowing what to invest in next.

What that means for professionals and firms is that the bar for what counts as distinctly valuable has moved. The question is no longer whether your organization uses AI. It is whether you understand what human intelligence still does better, and whether you are building around it deliberately. Westlake makes the case that the leaders who will stand out are not the ones chasing every new tool. They are the ones who are curious alongside their teams, clear about what human judgment brings to the table, and intentional about building a body of work that no model can replicate.

Key Insights

• Why the limitations of AI are not a threat but a signal to redefine your organization’s premium value
• How the “adjacent possible” drives innovation and why curiosity is a leadership strategy
• What the future of search and client discovery looks like in an AI-driven world
• Why personalized AI built on a rich body of human experience outperforms generic tools
• The best investment a leader can make in their team right now related to AI

If you are navigating how to lead, compete, and stay relevant as AI continues to accelerate, this conversation is essential listening.

About Dr. Garret Westlake

Dr. Garret Westlake serves as Executive Director of the da Vinci Center for Innovation at Virginia Commonwealth University, one of the country’s first product innovation programs built in close partnership with industry. A Google AI Faculty Fellow, Westlake has built his career at the intersection of entrepreneurship, education, and emerging technology. He has founded and sold a startup, mentored emerging companies, provided accommodation services for students with disabilities in higher education, and led front-end innovation at a major research university. His work challenges organizations to stay insatiably curious, run bold experiments, and design for what comes next.

Ways to connect with Garret

• LinkedIn
• Website