Leadership for a New Era | Bridging Defense, AI & National Readiness | LTG (Ret) Leslie

Special Edition | AUSA x The AI CEO Podcast

A Special Edition of the AI CEO Podcast featuring Lieutenant General (LTG (Retired)) Leslie C. Smith, Vice President (VP) of Leadership and Education, Association of the United States Army (AUSA)—in collaboration the AI CEO Podcast & ISCI

About the Special Edition: This collaborative episode commemorates two major milestones: ● 75th Anniversary of AUSA ● 10th Anniversary of DC Startup & Tech Week (2025) (@dctstartupweek)

Episode Focus: Anchored by a featured interview with LTG (Ret.) Leslie C. Smith—whose leadership at AUSA shapes the development of current and future leaders—this episode explores how leadership must evolve alongside rapidly advancing technologies.

Key Discussion Themes: Co-hosted by Seema Alexander and Claradith E.Landry, the conversation highlights: ● Public–private partnerships as strategic accelerators ● Leadership development in a technology-driven environment ● The intersection of innovation, readiness, and national resilience

Closing Insight: This special edition reflects a broader effort to bridge institutional leadership with entrepreneurial innovation, positioning cross-sector collaboration as essential for the next phase of national and global advancement.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN • How the Army defines "readiness" — and why every CEO needs this framework • How small businesses and startups can access DoD and US Army contracts • What the merger of Army Futures Command + Training & Doctrine Command means for tech vendors • How the Army runs AI feedback loops with brigade combat teams and what that means for startups • Why leadership presence not technology is the biggest competitive differentiator • How to speak to DoD decision-makers (Gen. Smith: "We're normal people. Speak English.")

TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction — Lt. Gen. Leslie Smith, AUSA 2025 & co-host Claire Landry 01:54 What is AUSA? The Army's largest defense industry convener explained 05:21 How the Army defines "readiness" — and why every CEO needs this framework 09:42 Army command merger: what Futures + Training Command fusion means for vendors 15:33 How small businesses get DoD contracts: certifications, APEX, and entry points 18:16 Army venture capital and the innovation acquisition process explained 19:38 Leading through chaos: the 9/11 story and the Army's uncertainty playbook 22:47 How CEOs should lead their teams through AI uncertainty right now 24:54 Human connection vs. AI: maintaining trust while adopting new technology 29:47 Rapid fire: Army vs. private sector, AI risks, and what to say to the DoD 32:35 Key takeaways: the process, the playbook, and the humanity of leadership

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT THE GUESTS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ● Lt. General Leslie C. Smith is the VP for Leadership & Education at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA). With 35+ years in the US Army, he is one of the foremost voices on readiness, leadership, and the intersection of military strategy and emerging technology. Website: https://www.ausa.org

● Claradith E. Landry is the Founder of Inclusive Security Collective Initiative (iSCI), a cross-sector platform operating at the intersection of defense, innovation, and culture. It connects leaders, ideas, and institutions across both public and private sectors. iSCI is redefining how leadership, business, and culture influence policy and diplomacy, while also unlocking emerging markets that are shaping the future of national security. Website: www.claradithlandry.com

ABOUT THE AI CEO PODCAST ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ● The AI CEO Podcast explores how artificial intelligence is transforming business, leadership, and the future of work. ● Hosted by Seema Alexander, an international keynote speaker on the future of AI and Business, the Founder & CEO of Disruptive AI , host of the AI CEO podcast and creator of AI BusinessCon--the show brings together CEOs, technologists, and innovators to help leaders understand what's changing — and what to do next. ●New episodes every Tuesday. Subscribe so you never miss one.

CONNECT ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ● Host: Seema Alexander | Founder, Disruptive AI | Host, The AI CEO Podcast ● Co-Host: Claradith E.Landry | Founder & CEO, Inclusive Security Collective Initiative ● Guest: Lt. General Leslie C. Smith | VP Leadership & Education, AUSA ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #TheAICEOPodcast #AILeadership #FutureofBusiness #AgenticAI #disruptiveAI #AUSA #leadership #voiceoftheArmy #SupportfortheSoldier #HonorwhoServed #ISCI #accessgranted #Honor #Legacy #UnitetheFuture