From school election defeat to AI leadership: Insights from Paul Estes

What transforms a humiliating school election defeat - receiving just one vote, your own - to leading innovation at Dell, Amazon, and Microsoft?

In our latest #EdInfluence podcast, AI expert Paul Estes shares how that early setback taught him his career's most valuable lesson: "innovation isn't about the idea - it's about the how."

Practical AI experimentation

As Editor in Chief of Enterprise AI Today and author of the bestselling Gig Mindset, Estes takes a refreshingly practical approach to AI adoption.

Rather than following the hype, he advocates hands-on experimentation through "prompt labs, cross-functional hackathons, and shared libraries that build literacy and judgement."

Why AI projects fail at the last mile

The conversation reveals why many organisations have "almost there AI agents” that never quite deliver. The problem isn't technical - it's operational. Teams fixate on ideas while ignoring the ‘how’ - the culture, operating rhythm, and clear success criteria that turn concepts into results. Estes argues that borrowing expertise often beats building everything in-house.

He’s come to believe that, "Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the how and the persistence and the energy you put behind it that makes the difference."

Three pillars of innovation success

Drawing from his experience at tech giants, Estes identifies three essential pillars for innovation: 

• Mission clarity. 
• Operating systems. 
• Sharp success signals. 

Amazon's leadership principles show this approach - not as corporate slogans, but as daily decision-making tools. The paradox? Clarity feels smaller but unlocks more potential. 

On adopting an AI strategy, he advises, "Stop watching YouTube... go out there and actually practice... Start small, but start."

Building AI literacy beyond the hype

Estes distinguishes between "awe and adoption," noting how technologies like VR impress in demos but fail in real-world application. He shares his views on learning from failure, saying, "You try things, they don't work out, and you try again... You're gonna fail a lot, it's gonna hurt, but it's the mindset you bring to it and how you look at it." 

His advice for AI adoption is simple: stop doom-scrolling the hype and start using the tools. Create shared prompt libraries, document what works, and treat early results as scaffolding, not finish lines. 

The human side of technology leadership

Estes shares how real leadership shows up in small human acts - like a Dell manager who noticed his team working late, ordered pizzas, and handed over his own card for dinner. 

"Grand strategies matter less when people feel seen," he reflects. This human-centred approach extends to his personal productivity system: a simple weekly pad with three columns that keeps both work and life on one page.

Ready to learn more?

This conversation offers practical innovation leadership insights, from ecosystem thinking to responsible AI adoption in education. Estes challenges us to ask better questions: 

• What problem are we solving? 
• How will we actually do it? 
• How will we know we're winning?

Listen to the full #EdInfluence podcast episode to discover how that school election failure shaped a philosophy of "try, fail, learn, try again" - and why successful leaders balance ambition with boundaries, choosing clarity over noise.