Asana CIO | The Playbook for Human x AI Collaboration

Connect with Saket Srivastava: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saket-srivastava-84069711/

👉 Asana CIO Saket Srivastava joins Liam Lawson to unpack why the future is about **collaboration over autonomy** in AI. He shares how Asana’s Work Graph underpins AI features like Smart Chat, AI Studio, and the new **AI Teammates** (with human-in-the-loop checkpoints and enterprise controls), and explains the evolving role of the CIO from back-office technologist to strategy co-creator. Saket gets specific on IT–HR partnership for AI transformation, surveying employee readiness, building an internal AI council, balancing experimentation with measurable impact, and coaching teams through change. They also tackle job displacement realistically, discuss building an AI-first culture, and end with Saket’s personal motivations, strengths, and where he’d improve.

📚 Chapters

00:00 Welcome & setup

01:31 What Asana is & the CIO role

04:39 How the CIO role changed from 2024 → 2025

06:11 What makes a great CIO (three-level framework)

09:15 What are Asana AI Teammates?

12:42 Why autonomy isn’t the goal; context, checkpoints, control

14:48 Asana’s AI suite (Smart Chat, AI Studio, Teammates)

15:04 The Work Graph model & “pyramid of clarity”

18:31 Human-in-the-loop in practice (IT ticketing, campaign strategist)

20:50 Natural-language collaboration & explainability

22:01 Where AI Teammates underperform & the data hurdle

25:30 Change management & the IT–HR partnership

29:08 Baseline survey: excited-but-stuck employees

32:14 Bottom-up innovation + top-down direction

33:39 AI council, show-and-tells, and grassroots adoption

36:12 Balancing innovation with impact (don’t kill experiments with ROI)

37:24 Addressing fear vs. optimism; why leaning in matters

40:08 Generational readiness & learning paths

43:03 The future of work: augmentation over dystopia

44:31 Saket beyond tech; problem-solving DNA

46:45 Strengths & what he’d improve as a leader

48:59 Why Saket does what he does

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