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Why AI Leadership Starts on the Front Lines

Leading in the age of AI requires more than strategy from the corner office. Jason Salzetti, Chair and CEO of Deloitte Consulting LLP, and Sridhar Ramaswamy, Snowflake CEO, discuss why curiosity, hands-on immersion, and a willingness to ask questions are essential to building trust in AI. In order to rapidly advance what’s possible across industries, they argue that the most effective leaders learn alongside their teams.

Released on 01/13/2026

Transcript

[bright upbeat music]

We're in somebody's living room.

[laughing]

It's all about rolling up your sleeves

and getting on the front lines

and actually immersing yourself in the technology.

So as a leader, as a C-suite leader,

you can't sit in the office

and try and run things from the ivory tower, right?

You've gotta be on the ground, on the front lines,

with your clients, with your customers,

with your people, really being immersed in the technology.

I think curiosity is a key component.

That willingness to be open,

that willingness to ask the naive question

off of the 23-year-old that you know,

and say, How would you do it?

And let's face it, there's some anxiety out there,

but turning that anxiety into action,

modeling that behavior for everyone

in our organizations, right?

Being willing to test it out yourselves, gets back to,

do you have trust and credibility in the solution?

And then when people start to see that,

they experience that, then they get on board.

And where the real power of Snowflake and Deloitte

then come together is in being able to take these learnings

and apply them to different clients,

even to different verticals,

because we are rapidly advancing

the state of knowledge of what is possible.