The work of being in the age of AI
I write and think about what it means to stay human while work becomes increasingly automated. This site is where I explore judgment, clarity, courage, and craft in a world where machines can do most of the "job."
I'm Paul Welty — philosopher by training, operator by experience. I help people and organizations rethink how they work in an AI-saturated world.
What I'm doing now
Consulting
I work with leaders and teams who want to navigate AI thoughtfully — not by chasing tools, but by rethinking how work happens. Strategy, workflows, capacity-building, and "let's get in a room and figure this out together" sessions.
Learn more →Writing: The work of being
I'm writing The Work of Being in the Age of AI, a book about why our real job now is working on ourselves. Many of the ideas are being drafted in public here on the site and in the newsletter.
Read more →Writing: The practice of work
A more tactical companion volume, collecting the lessons my teams say they learned from me: "Don't harden your categories," "If you're not scaring your boss…," "Do your action items in the meeting," and 200+ other pieces of practical wisdom.
Read more →Speaking
I speak and facilitate sessions on AI, work, and professional craft — especially for universities, knowledge organizations, and leadership teams.
Learn more →Polymathic
Essays, notes, and experiments — mostly about work, AI, and how to be a better human in the middle of all of it.
When your brilliant idea meets organizational reality: a survival guide
When your brilliant idea meets organizational reality: a survival guide Every CTO has faced this moment. The signatures …
The one-person company advantage: why coordination overhead is the new competitive liability
Introduction: The structural advantage hiding in plain sight Imagine a marketer who single-handedly rebuilt his …
From 11ty to Hugo: simplifying my blog stack
After running this blog on various platforms since 2007—WordPress, Jekyll, 11ty—I’ve landed on Hugo. The migration …
The 90% of Education We’ve Never Tried
the 90% of education we’ve never tried For decades, we’ve been operating with just 10% of education’s true …
The New AI Leadership Matrix: Building Trust Through Controlled Chaos
In the dynamic world of AI leadership, finding the right balance between control and creativity can feel like conducting …
Who I am (the short version)
I have a Ph.D. in philosophy and spent years in consulting and university leadership, most recently as Vice Provost for Academic Innovation and Executive Director of Continuing Education at Emory.
I've led digital transformation projects, built teams, launched initiatives, and, apparently, taught people how to think about their work in ways that changed their lives more than I realized.
Now I'm focused on writing, speaking, and helping people and organizations navigate the shift from "doing the job" to "doing the work of being" in an AI-driven world.