“AI Isn’t a Light Switch”: Kathleen Perley Says Business Leaders Are Getting It All Wrong
Staff Writer • 2025-06-06
AI hype is everywhere: strategy decks, investor calls, Slack threads. But real understanding? Not so much. That’s the message from Kathleen Perley, professor at Rice University and founder of DemystifAI, who has made it her mission to separate AI signal from noise. In her new book AI Made Simple: Results Made Real, Perley distills years of work with executives, startups, and students into one clear thesis. You don’t need to know how to code, but you do need to understand what AI actually is and what it isn’t. In a recent interview on the Stonks Go Moon podcast, Perley told host Rocco Strydom that too many corporate leaders treat AI as a one-click solution. “They think it’s like a light switch. You pick a tool, flip it on, and suddenly revenue, efficiency, everything improves,” she said. “But it’s not that simple.” Forget PhDs. Her students are the ones building for Mars and mental health Perley’s optimism about AI isn’t theoretical. Her students have already built working systems with real-world impact. One created an AI avatar to help her neurodivergent teenage nephew practice dating conversations and eye contact. Another, an engineer working in aerospace, built a chatbot trained on outdated International Space Station manuals to help astronauts troubleshoot critical systems when communication with Earth is delayed. He’s now securing funding for broader implementation. “These aren’t data scientists,” Perley said. “They’re people with no coding experience, solving actual problems.” Small companies might outpace enterprise giants in the AI race According to Perley, large corporations are mostly playing it safe. They set up AI task forces, buy a few licenses, and call it innovation. Meanwhile, smaller firms are pivoting faster and seeing results. “It’s the first time in a long while I’ve seen being a small business as a competitive advantage,” she said. “They can experiment, iterate, and implement AI without drowning in bureaucracy.” She points out that true adoption isn’t just about throwing money at software. It’s about culture. Letting leaders experiment, encouraging employees to use tools, and removing internal friction are key. Her first suggestion for execs: automate your HR binder When asked where overwhelmed companies should begin, Perley’s answer was refreshingly simple. Automate your employee handbook. “Every company has one. No one reads it. Everyone asks HR the same questions,” she said. “Build a chatbot. Let employees self-serve answers to PTO, benefits, maternity leave. It saves time and shows real progress.” It's a low-risk, high-return starting point that doesn’t require sensitive data access or expensive consulting. ADHD, margaritas, and nonlinear genius What makes Perley uniquely qualified isn’t just her résumé. It’s how she thinks. Diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, she was told she’d never make it through college. She ended up becoming a linguist, studying machine learning, and teaching future executives at Rice. “I think in nonlinear dots that don’t make sense to most people, but they connect in my brain,” she said. In her classes, she explains AI using margaritas. “If you start with bad tequila, no matter what you mix, it’s going to be bad. Same with data,” she explained. “Good inputs matter.” AI’s biggest power is finally helping nonlinear thinkers lead Perley says tools like ChatGPT and Replit are game-changers. Not because they eliminate thinking, but because they translate it. She records voice memos of half-formed ideas and uses AI to rewrite them in ways that make sense to linear thinkers. She calls this the golden era for neurodivergent professionals. “For the first time, my ideas aren’t trapped in my head,” she said. “AI lets me and millions of others build things we couldn’t before.” The next Excel Perley sees AI tools evolving the same way Excel and Word once did, quietly becoming a base-level skill. She jokes that she still uses ChatGPT “a ton,” and that her Operator agent now collaborates with her Replit agent to code working prototypes while she drives her kids to school. “Agentic AI will unlock productivity like we’ve never seen,” she said. “And the best part? Anyone can use it.”
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