BEHAVIOURAL SCIENTIST. PROVISIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST. SPEAKER.
You’re deciding faster than ever. You’re not sure you’re deciding better.
Most conversations about AI ask what it can do. I ask what it’s doing to us.
I help executive leaders protect the judgment and connection their people depend on, so the drive for speed stops eroding the return they want from AI.
Why I do this
I was an early adopter. AI blew me away. The speed I could produce at. The breadth of what I could create.
Six months in, I started to notice some uncomfortable realities. My short-term memory seemed to hold less. My thinking, without the AI, felt different.
Curious, I went looking for answers. I read the emergent research, interviewed leaders implementing AI at speed, and realised I was not the only one.
AI is reshaping how we interact with information, formulate ideas, make decisions, and connect. If you’re reading this, it’s likely you’ve felt it.
The default approach, get onboard and get onboard fast, has left us blind to how our interaction with AI is shaping how we think, feel, behave and relate, and whether that diminishes our performance or strengthens it.
I couldn’t ignore what I was seeing or the unintended consequences it risked, for talent, business and our ability to flourish.
The missing link in AI implementation is human.
Leaders are racing to put AI to work. The decisions come faster. The workload intensifies. And the cognitive capacity needed to lead well starts to erode, often before anyone notices. That capacity, the judgment and connection your return depends on, is the human factor.
The erosion happens by design, not by accident. These tools are built to make everything easier. Every point of cognitive friction gets smoothed away, and reaching for AI becomes the default. Here is the catch.
Friction is where learning embeds, innovation evolves and our judgment muscle is built.
Not all work deserves that struggle. AI that takes the noisy work frees your people for the meaningful work. AI that takes the judgment takes the capability with it. What your people hand to AI is a choice, and in most organisations no one owns it.
The slower you go with AI on the meaningful work, the faster you get to innovation. Intentional use needs space, not speed. Whether AI erodes your talent's capability comes down to the one thing its design can't give you: intention.
The field that studies all of this is only just taking shape. It has a name.
The Psychology of AI is the study of how our everyday interactions with AI are reshaping how we think, feel, behave and relate so we can intervene with intention rather than leave it to chance.
Why it matters to you, not only to your people.
Leaving the human side of AI implementation to chance is the risk that runs underneath every other risk you hold. Organisations that don’t design for how people and AI interact are 1.6 times less likely to realise the return on their AI spend. Intentional AI is the missing link between AI spend and AI return: it’s designed so speed stops spending the capability the return rides on. That is what makes the investment pay back.
What intentional AI looks like in practice.
I work as an executive coach and consultant on the Psychology of AI, helping leaders and teams design AI adoption around the human capability AI depends on: psychological safety, decision quality, and the relationships that hold a team together.
1. Start with a keynote.
Many teams begin here. A talk that puts the idea in front of your people and lets them feel it together before committing to anything larger.
Signature keynote: Deciding Faster. Deciding Better? The Psychology of AI and executive judgment.
This keynote takes executive leaders inside the loop AI speed creates: faster decisions on heavier workloads, with judgment spent before anyone notices. Speed without the space for judgment isn't productivity. It's accelerated mediocrity. Leaders leave seeing their own AI use differently, and with the first moves of Intentional AI to protect the thinking their decisions depend on.
2. Go deeper as a team.
One of the strongest predictors of a team's collective intelligence is the quality of its collaboration, and the ability to read and respond to one another is central to it. That ability is built in conversation, and those conversations are moving to AI, in private.
How your people relate to AI is changing how they relate to each other.
The Relational Leadership program is a facilitated, AI-enabled leadership experience that makes the invisible visible. We help leadership teams develop the awareness and relational clarity so the speed AI gives your teams translates into healthy high performance.
Intentional AI is the practice that underpins everything I do.
For each person that translates into the practice of consciously directing how, when and why you engage with AI, so you remain the author of your own thinking.
About Penny Locaso
Most conversations about AI ask what the technology can do. I ask what it’s doing to us.
I’m a behavioural scientist, provisional psychologist, and international speaker specialising in the Psychology of AI: the study of how everyday interactions with AI reshape how we think, feel, behave and relate. My premise is that what looks like an AI problem is usually a human one first, and that the same tool, used two ways, either strengthens leadership or erodes it. The difference is intention. I call the practice Intentional AI.
I help leaders and teams embed Intentional AI into how they operate, so the drive for speed stops eroding both the return they want from AI and the judgment of the people they rely on to deliver it. The result is healthy high performance, with human capability protected rather than depleted.
Trusted by leaders. Backed by published research.
- TRUSTED BY LEADERS AT
- Deloitte · Microsoft · SingularityU · NAB · Google · Booking.com · LuluLemon · KPMG · SalesForce · Bloomberg · Macquarie Bank · Coca Cola · L'Oreal
- FEATURED IN
- Consulting Psychology Journal · Harvard Business Review · TEDx · AFR · Women's Agenda · Huffington Post · FastCompany · Marie Claire
The missing link in AI implementation ROI.
Want a copy of my latest whitepaper on the Psychology of AI, and why intentional adoption is the difference between AI spend and AI return?
Common questions
Who is Penny Locaso?
Penny Locaso is a behavioural scientist, provisional psychologist, and international speaker specialising in the Psychology of AI. She helps CHROs, CPOs and senior leaders adopt AI without eroding the judgment, decision quality and human connection their organisations depend on.
How can Penny Locaso help my organisation?
Penny helps leadership teams adopt AI without eroding the judgment and connection performance depends on. Engagements typically begin with a keynote that puts the idea in front of your people, and deepen into the Relational Leadership program, a facilitated team experience that embeds Intentional AI into how a team actually operates. She also advises CHROs and CPOs directly as an executive coach and consultant.
Does Penny Locaso speak at conferences and events?
Yes. Penny Locaso is an international keynote speaker on the Psychology of AI and Intentional AI. Her signature keynote is Deciding Faster. Deciding Better? The Psychology of AI and executive judgment. This keynote takes executive leaders inside the loop AI speed creates: faster decisions on heavier workloads, with judgment spent before anyone notices. Speed without the space for judgment isn't productivity. It's accelerated mediocrity. Leaders leave seeing their own AI use differently, and with the first moves of Intentional AI to protect the thinking their decisions depend on. Note bespoke keynotes on the Psychology of AI are also available.
What is the Psychology of AI?
The Psychology of AI is the study of how everyday interactions with AI reshape how people think, feel, behave and relate, both to the technology and to each other. It exists so organisations can intervene with intention rather than leave the human side of AI adoption to chance. Penny Locaso is one of the practitioners establishing it as a named discipline.
What does an AI psychology consultant do?
An AI psychology consultant helps organisations design AI adoption around the human capability the return depends on. In practice, that means working with CHROs, CPOs and executive teams on how AI is changing decision quality, learning and team connection, then embedding practices that protect them. Penny Locaso does this work through keynotes, executive advisory and facilitated team programs.
Why isn't our AI investment delivering a return?
Often because the human side of implementation was left to chance. Organisations that don't intentionally design for how people and AI interact are 1.6 times less likely to realise the benefits of their AI spend (Deloitte, 2026). Default use erodes the judgment and connection the return depends on, exactly where the investment was meant to pay back. Designing adoption intentionally is what makes the return real.
Who works on the human side of AI implementation?
Behavioural scientists and psychologists working in the emerging field of the Psychology of AI. Penny Locaso is an Australian behavioural scientist and provisional psychologist who consults to CHROs and CPOs on the human side of AI implementation, helping organisations close the gap between AI spend and AI return.
What is Intentional AI?
Intentional AI is the practice of consciously directing how, when and why you engage with AI, so you remain the author of your own thinking. Coined by Penny Locaso, it protects the habits of mind that enable people to lead, connect and perform sustainably. At an organisational level, it means designing AI adoption so the drive for speed protects human capability instead of depleting it.
What is the Intentional Adaptability Quotient (IAQ)?
The Intentional Adaptability Quotient is a validated leadership psychometric published in Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research (Locaso et al., 2023). It measures how skilled a person is at making intentional change in an uncertain environment evolving at speed, through the habits of mind of focus, courage and curiosity. The IAQ is the evidence base underneath Penny's work on Intentional AI.