How AI Is Powering Knowledge Transfer In Today’s Workplace: An Interview With Donald H. Taylor

This blog post is a summary of the very first episode of The Business AI Playbook podcast.

Listen to the full episode on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts — or check it out below.
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We opened the first episode of The Business AI Playbook with a simple question:

Why is knowledge sharing still so broken inside companies?

To dig into it, I spoke with Donald H. Taylor, Chair of the Learning Technologies Conference. The conversation covered AI, organizational memory, and why so much of a company’s value still lives in people’s heads.

“People aren’t machines. They leave. And when they do, you risk losing the secret sauce.”

It’s a real problem — but also one AI might actually help solve.

Most of your company’s value lives in people’s heads

In the 1970s, company value was mostly tangible — buildings, equipment, stock.

Today, that’s flipped.

“Now, 85% of a company’s value is intangible — and most of it lives in people’s heads.”

But people don’t stay like they used to. Job tenure is down. Loyalty is transactional. And when someone moves on, what disappears isn’t always obvious.

It’s not the documentation.

It’s not the LMS.

It’s the stuff that’s hard to write down — context, judgment, real-world experience.

AI is exposing the problem — and helping us solve it

AI has made people more mobile. Skills are easier to monetize, and switching jobs is frictionless.

But it’s also giving us tools to finally capture and share knowledge at scale.

Some examples include:

• Enterprise AI systems that connect to Slack, docs, and CRMs to surface hidden insights.
• Organizational network analysis to uncover the real flow of knowledge inside companies.
• AI meeting companions that record, summarize, and structure team discussions.
• Creating digital replicas of experts to coach others or answer questions — even when they’re not around.

But Donald was clear: none of it matters without culture.

“The biggest blockers? People. Always the people.”

Some hoard knowledge. Some don’t realize what they know is useful. And some don’t trust where it’ll end up. This is where leadership, incentives, and systems come in.

You can’t codify everything

There was a great story Don shared:

In the 1970s, teams tried to replicate a laser based on flawless documentation — but failed.

Only those who’d seen it done could make it work.

“Sometimes knowledge can’t be written down. You have to be there.”

That’s still true today.

Yes, AI can help — but some knowledge will always need to be passed on through people, trust, and lived experience.

Where to begin

If you’re leading a company trying to prepare for this shift, here’s where Donald suggests you start:

• Go where the pain is obvious — Sales, support, and ops teams often feel knowledge loss first.
• Measure the right things — Not who writes the most docs — but who helps others learn.
• Make it urgent — Show leadership what’s at stake. This isn’t just about training — it’s about performance, retention, and strategy.
• Enable people to share — That means permission, trust, and structure. Don’t rely on “someone will document it eventually.”

“If your best people leave, and you haven’t captured what they know, you’re not just short-staffed — you’re behind.”

Final thoughts

This isn’t just a learning and development challenge — it’s a strategic one.

Organizations are at risk of losing their edge not because they lack content, but because they haven’t captured what people actually know — and they’re not set up to do it at scale.

“If we don’t solve this, someone else will — and we’ll fall behind.”

Donald’s message to executives, L&D leaders, and transformation teams was clear:

This isn’t something to park in a knowledge base or delegate to HR — it’s a business continuity issue. It’s a leadership issue. And yes, AI has a role to play — but only if we know where to point it.

He also challenged L&D teams to raise their game:

“You have to ask yourself: am I in the business of creating courses, or am I in the business of creating a strategic outlook for my company to assist it in the future?”

The companies that get this right won’t just preserve their knowledge.

They’ll be faster, more resilient, and better prepared for whatever comes next.

About the podcast

The Business AI Playbook explores how Generative AI is reshaping business operations, knowledge-sharing, and customer engagement. We invite industry leaders to talk about the real-world applications of AI, giving executives practical AI strategies and insights.

You can watch or listen to the full episode on YouTube, Spotify, or LinkedIn.

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