This episode we are joined by Ioanna Onasi, a pioneering entrepreneur in the realm of ethical AI sales. As the co-founder and CEO of Dex2go, Iona elucidates the significance of integrating human-centric AI into sales enablement, thereby enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of sales teams.

Our conversation delves into the evolving landscape of leadership and the imperative of fostering opportunities for women-led enterprises. Iona shares her personal journey, highlighting the pivotal moments that informed her entrepreneurial path and the necessity of adaptability within the startup ecosystem.

Ultimately, this episode serves as a clarion call for aspiring entrepreneurs to embrace resilience and innovation in their pursuit of success.

Takeaways:

• Ionna discusses her journey from fashion to technology, highlighting the evolution of her entrepreneurial aspirations.
• Dex2go employs artificial intelligence to enhance sales coaching by personalizing training for sales representatives using psychometric data.
• The conversation explores the significance of resilience for women founders as they navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship.
• AI can facilitate the development of essential soft skills, making it crucial for modern sales environments.
• The episode concludes with an emphasis on the importance of self-awareness and continuous learning in professional development.

Chapters:

03:57 The Journey of an Entrepreneur: Pivots and Lessons Learned

12:44 The Importance of Human Connection in AI Solutions

21:33 The Importance of Personalized Learning in Sales Training

30:44 Understanding Human-Centric AI

41:12 The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Its Impact on Women Founders

Burning Questions Answered:

1.What does it take to build a successful AI company without a tech background?

2.How can founders pivot without losing their core mission?

3.What is "human-centered AI"—and why is it the future of sales coaching?

4.Can AI actually enhance our ability to connect and communicate better as humans?

Favorite Quotes:

“AI should help humans connect better, not replace that connection.”

“The most resilient person wins. Period.”

Closing Thoughts:

Ioanna’s journey reminds us that real innovation isn’t just about building tech—it’s about building trust, clarity, and compassion into everything we do.

Whether you're in sales, tech, or just figuring it out as you go, this episode will make you feel seen and inspired.

Offers & Contact Information:

Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannemantzouridou/ 

Website: https://dextego.com/ 

Follow the #WisdomOfWomen show for more inspiring stories and insights from trailblazing women founders, investors, and experts in growth and prosperity.

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RSS Feed: https://feeds.captivate.fm/womengetfunded/ 

Coco Sellman, the host of #WisdomOfWomen, believes business is a force for good, especially with visionary women at the helm. With over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, she has launched five companies and guided over 500 startups. As Founder & CEO of A Force for Good, Coco supports purpose-driven women founders in unlocking exponential growth and prosperity. Her recent venture, Allumé Home Care, reached eight-figure revenues and seven-figure profits in just four years before a successful exit in 2024. A venture investor and board director, Coco’s upcoming book, *A Force for Good*, reveals a roadmap for women to lead high-impact, high-growth companies.

Learn more about A Force for Good:

Website: https://aforceforgood.biz/ 

Are Your GROWING or PLATEAUING? https://aforceforgood.biz/quiz/

1-Day Growth Plan: https://aforceforgood.biz/free-plan/ 

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The Book:  https://aforceforgood.biz/book/ 

Growth Accelerator: https://aforceforgood.biz/accelerator/ 

Welcome to the Wisdom of Women Show.

We are dedicated to amplifying the voice and wisdom of women in business.

A new model of leadership is emerging and we are here to amplify the voices of women leading the way.

I am your host Coco Sellman, five time founder, impact investor and creator of the Force for Good Business System.

Thank you for joining us today as we illuminate the path to unlocking opportunities and and prosperity for women led enterprises by amplifying the working wisdom of women.

Today we have such a trailblazer with us.

We have a leader in ethical AI sales and I'm so happy to have Iona Onasi who is a visionary Gen Z entrepreneur and an applied generative AI thought leader.

We're going to find out what exactly that means and she serves as the co founder and CEO of Dex2go, an innovative AI sales coaching startup.

With her rich background in psychology, rhetoric and strategic management, Iona empowers organizations to excel in the fourth and industrial revolution.

We we want to know about that too by integrating human centric AI into sales enablement.

Her startup Dexigo not only received the Cool EdTech Award, but was also a finalist in the Transform Awards showcasing the effective and ethical application of Gen AI in enhancing essential business skills.

A recognized figure in cross cultural education and a proportionate component of sustainable business practices, Yona has been honored with accolades such as the Young Leader Award and the Cross Cultural Educator Award.

Her ongoing work includes mentoring emerging startups and shaping future leaders through her influential writings and talks at prestigious institutions.

It is a pleasure to have you here today.

Thank you so much Coco.

The pleasure is all mine and I'm very excited for our conversation.

Wonderful.

So as our icebreaker, we always ask what is one book written by a woman that has significantly influenced your life?

It's a book I actually very recently read and it's called the ABCs of Self Love by Melody Godfrey who is amazing.

She writes in such a simple way about so deep topics such as self love.

And in short, the book was a compilation of, you know, all letters in the Alphabet and each letter was talking about a specific thing and a prompt.

So it allowed me to journal while learning and really put in practice the things I was reading.

So I would say it's definitely like my top one books about personal development.

Oh, I love that.

The ABCs of self love.

That sounds absolutely beautiful.

I'm going to pick that up.

It also sounds like could founders use that with their teams?

For sure.

I think it's actually, you know, what you said an icebreaker.

I think is so important to start every call with an icebreaker.

My friends sometimes hate it because I do it with them too.

Like even when we go out for food or whatever, I think it's just opens up people and it makes the conversation much more smooth.

Wonderful.

I love it.

So for everybody listening, check out the ABCs of self love.

I'm going to be sure to pick up my copy right after this call, so thank you for that.

Let's talk about you and your journey as an entrepreneur, a founder, and how you got to where you are and what got you to Dexaco and why it's so important to you.

Absolutely, yes.

Whenever I get asked about this, I always say I knew I want to be an entrepreneur.

When I was younger I could never see myself in one specific department, but I didn't know what type of founder I would be.

Definitely never thought of tech.

So it's very ironic.

But when I was younger I had a clothing company with my sister back home in Greece.

Started in fashion.

I love making handmade jewelry, unique pieces.

I'm very creative, I do art and I thought I would be in that space for long period of time.

And then when I came to the US for school, I got introduced during my master's into the world of HR and talent development.

I worked with this amazing professor at Pace who was the chair of the management department.

I mean he still is and we're talking about stars high performing employees.

I help him write three books and getting introduced to that world, I realized that it kind of compiled all my interests in psychology, in business because without identifying and developing the right people, you know, there no plan can be executed.

So it was a fundamental topic.

I think that I became a nerd about like I read a lot and I thought I was going to be my doing my PhD also in Organizational development.

And long story short, I thought I was going to work in consulting HR transformation.

I was applying to all these jobs in consulting firms and I wasn't getting any interviews.

Then I happened to apply it on LinkedIn as people do on various other roles.

And I get an interview while I was still doing my master's as an intern for a startup.

But I'd never thought of the startup world as a potential career because nobody around me was working startups and it just didn't seem like an option.

But I end up loving my internship there.

I stayed full time and in six months I became the victim of people.

And then six months after the chief of staff we were hiring internationally all different cultures from like Romania to Paris.

To London, to Lisbon.

And I was creating all these training programs and especially when it came to sales enablement, I was creating sales coaching programs and did all the role plays, the 101s, the SKOs.

I saw a lot of inefficiency around that process.

For instance, I was telling myself I can come up with all potential scenarios of what a client might say.

I'm super biased, like everybody is.

It's so different if we roleplay and you're familiar with me and you know how I tend to answer versus a random person in front of you and then you don't know what to say.

So it's like it doesn't necessarily translate to effectiveness and it's also not scalable.

How many role plays can I do in a day and how many one on ones can I have in a day?

All that started making me think we definitely need to use AI to improve this process.

Initially the idea around Exigo was about soft skills.

So using AI to develop soft skills for young managers, for people that don't have access to executive coaching.

And then it shifted to be sales related where we saw the biggest need and pain points.

And that's how we went from that idea of soft skills to being embedded in sales enablement.

Supporting sales teams to really have the conversation before they have it through role plays and personalized coaching that adjusts to their buyer's communication style.

So we give them psychometric data on their disc profile, ocean profile, how risk avert they are based on public data, previous discussions they had and customize it for their go to market their best practices to ensure they say the right value prop that resonates with the buyer.

That's high level how we came to be today.

Amazing.

Okay, I have a few questions.

I love that you had this sort of idea of what it was going to be and where it was originally going to be.

More soft skills and then you pivoted to sales and ambulance.

When I was doing some angel investing training myself as an angel investor, I heard that most companies pivot two to three times.

Right.

And so I want you to talk about that pivot a little bit, what that involved and why you did that.

For our listeners who may be thinking about pivoting or reflecting on their own pivots and why it's important to pivot.

First of all, I'm so glad you brought up the angel piece too because it is important for investors to know that especially those investing in pre seed and understanding that when you invest at that stage, you invest in the founder's ability to pivot, you don't invest in an idea whatsoever.

And honestly, all my advisors were very open and very understanding, so I'm grateful.

But also, the passion and the goal behind it never changed.

Whether it was selling to HR and helping young managers develop skills, or selling to sales leaders developing soft skills for their sellers to have better discussions with buyers and close faster and be able to basically shorten that sales cycle, it's still the same need, the same skillset we're developing, like negotiation skills, communication and qualification.

Like discovery in sales is very similar to, like trying to figure out if you want to, you know, work with a specific person.

And long story short, I explained that the core is still the same, but the market is telling us this is where the demand is.

When you have the proof, you can say, I spoke 100 HR leaders and 100 sales leaders and it's clear that the need is there, then there's no question about it.

And there is another point here, which is about timing.

Maybe that buyer is correct for that type of solution.

But back then it was Covid.

They were bombarded with many things, so it was not good timing to sell to that buyer Persona.

And that's also okay.

So maybe in the future, you know, market says, hey, you should go back to them, that's okay.

But as a founder, my job is to make sure we find product market fit before, you know, back and count is zero.

That's the only job an early stage founder has.

So again, say that again because I think it's so important.

Yeah.

Your job as an early stage founder is to find product market feed before your bank account goes to zero.

Yeah.

Before you run out of money, you gotta make sure you found a customer who will buy your product over and over again.

Yeah.

And it's extremely hard because it's a chicken and egg problem.

Right.

You need investment to be able to hire, to make the right R and D investments and develop a product that is good enough for that repeatability.

But an investor also wants to see that repeatability before they give you money.

It's very hard.

I'm not saying it's an easy thing, but that's where I think pivoting fast and failing fast comes very handy.

And if I was so enamored with the idea of what Dexigo was versus the problem we were solving, then I wouldn't be able to do that.

But I don't care whether it's software, hardware or painting, I want to solve the problem I want to solve.

So I have to tell myself it doesn't matter what it looks like, as long as it does what I wanted it to do.

That allows me to be more open to feedback too, or else the signs would be there and I would just ignore them.

So important.

And so your core purpose, your mission and vision with the organization didn't change.

Right?

You were able to make that pivot and you were able to do so quickly and you talked about numbers.

It wasn't just like, oh, I think, but you're a data oriented gal, right?

Exactly.

See it, you could see I'm getting more uptick.

Sales, engagement and yeah, for sure.

My vision has always been around soft skills development.

I truly think that we are in a crossroad where AI, unfortunately, on the one hand makes many things easier, but on the other makes this human connection harder and harder.

So yes, it's ironic we use it to make humans better, but it can be used in that way because as I said earlier, it's less biased, it is more scalable, it can be trained by so many different data points that I cannot spend enough years to study to become that perfect expert.

So it is, I think, like a must nowadays.

Like if you're doing a training program, whether it's onboarding, sales enablement or anything else, if you don't use AI to personalize the content so it's digestible and relevant to what that person is doing day to day, the information gets lost, it doesn't stick.

People forget, they don't care.

And you're spending time creating content that will never be read.

I have a pivot question here.

You didn't come with a whole lot of technology background and now you have a technology company.

How did you bridge that gap?

So the company I worked for before, where I was a VP of people and C of staff, was also an AI sales coaching platform.

Sorry, not coaching an AI sales platform, focusing on lead generation.

That's when I learned a lot about AI and I was literally a spawn.

Like I went to every single department wanting to understand everything and started reading about it.

And I realized that first of all, you don't have to be technical.

You need a technical co founder if you want to start.

So it was definitely about finding the right team.

But I think where I come in and the differentiation I'm bringing is my domain expertise.

You can have a technical person that knows how to code, but unless they have that empathy about the client's need and the understanding of how people learn, like my academic background, they can do more than an AI chatbot.

Is the synergy of these skills that made decks ago happen.

I don't think if I was like coming from a technical background I would have the insights I have to lead the product roadmap.

And I'm actually very hands on with product and I mean I did coding at school.

I honestly don't remember anything like I cannot code at all.

But I understand enough of the technicalities to speak to my product team and my CTO and have a game plan.

But the caveat I'll say is a lot of non technical founders don't understand how long things take to build because they think at the speed of thought, but coders think at the speed of code and there's a huge gap.

That's where trust is so important.

If you don't have that understanding and you expect something to happen yesterday and it takes two more months, you blame everybody on your team and you're stuck.

Unfortunately startups are always take longer and need more money to survive.

So how do you manage that?

What are some tips about whether you hire a co founder who's technical or you work with somebody?

You engage with a company outside to help you bridge a gap for technology and you want things fast and they can't produce it as quickly.

What is your guidance for wisdom that you'd like to share?

Firstly, I'm not a fan of working with agencies.

I rather hire someone internally and I think many founders will vouch for that because the interests are not aligned.

An agency will take longer because they need to keep you as a client and charge you more.

An internal person understands more also the pressure and especially they have stock ownership.

But definitely having someone that has worked in that space before is a must.

My co founder and CPO has worked in many AI companies.

Our team is coming from similar backgrounds and splitting them up.

Like I know some people are fans of okay, having this theme for front end, having that thing for backend, but I am more of a fan of the full stack approach.

Everybody knows a little bit of everything.

So if some person is off or is sick, the other person can continue the work.

So there's no gaps.

So one is not gatekeeping.

Right?

Everybody should know what everybody's working on.

So we have weekly calls like All Hands where I show everybody.

This is what each of you is focused on.

Do we agree?

Are we clear?

And I explain why we do things.

A big mistake I see is engineering teams being like a separate arm of the company and they're in the blind.

They don't know why they're building this feature, how it's going to be used how what they're doing affects the other engineers work.

So I definitely try to make a point to explain why we do things and how it's impacting the user acquisition, the user journey, client empathy that they don't have because they just don't speak to clients.

So I have to be that voice.

And I feel like if you translate this correctly they understand the urgency.

And not only they do what you say and they ask, but they will try to do more because now you let them be creative to fix the problem.

And I always say hey, that's my business requirement.

I don't know what the technical requirement is.

That's what the CDO will say.

I can help answer any questions if you find that hey, this cannot be done.

Joanna has that crazy idea, we can start and this is the version two that will come out.

So it's very collaborative.

You have to have that open line of communication and reiterate why you do things.

What you described of having everybody working together have those weekly meetings where you're together, the whole marketing and sales and tech, technology and finance gets a chance to be together service and, and then you understand what all the pieces and parts are.

Whenever I've worked with technology requirements, oftentimes we ask for things but the way that somebody hears it is different.

It's important to iterate quickly and to know fast whether or not you're on because otherwise they might technology wise go down a rabbit hole.

That's unnecessary and costly.

Wrong, right?

Oh 100 absolutely.

And also there's a continuous battle because the technical team will have some other things they need to get done on the back end that are not impactful for the client on the front end.

So you always have to find that balance.

Like as a non technical founder you might care so much about certain features but we need to make sure the data side this and that happens.

So it's always about balancing.

If you need to work on that, you'll work on it 20% of the time.

But 80% of the time has to be the client facing stuff because if we don't have that, nobody will use it.

So tell us about, let's go straight into the heart of Dex2go what it is, why it's important and what it brings to your customers.

Yeah, I'll give you the two angles of the learning and the leading.

Dextaguase is an AI sales coaching platform that injects data from world class sales experts, takes the clients insights so their playbook, their best practices and customize coaching for each seller.

Based on their pipeline.

So if I have a meeting with you and I go on your LinkedIn, Dexaco pops up, gives me insights on your personality, like are you a big picture thinker?

Are you like data driven?

And how I can change my value prop to resonate with you.

Now I can role play for a specific person, specific deal.

Like five minutes before the call it will give me actionable feedback on my non verbals and verbals, tell me what I did great, how I can develop my coachability score.

Like am I improving over time or I'm staying safe.

Now I'm much more likely as an end user, as a seller to remember because I did it five minutes ago and it's connected to something I care about.

If I close the deal, I can make a commission, right?

If I develop that relationship and you like me, maybe I can upsell you later on, maybe you renew.

It's first of all focusing on those human skills.

It's not like an AISDR telling you exactly what to say.

We're very against all that.

We believe the seller is the competitive advantage.

When you have all these junior sellers that work remotely don't have access to their like VP of sales every day at any point of time, they don't see others in the office to mimic them.

It's very hard to develop these skills and an online course won't do it.

Especially generic information tailored to my learning style.

Maybe I like video, maybe I like audio, maybe I like microlearning.

I can't just sit and watch a two hour course and say I became better in communications.

You have to practice it.

So experiential learning in the flow of work is very important.

It's also not replacing anybody because it takes what the sales enablement team has created, making it actionable.

I had this amazing conversation yesterday with a director of enablement who said I'm fighting with my VP of sales because he wants to give all content all at once.

When someone is onboarding and I'm trying to give it to them in pieces so they can actually remember it and I said that's it, you cannot give all this information.

Like I don't need to know how to invoice a client my first week, I need to know how I can pick up the phone and what to say to get them to book a call.

AI is very good at doing that, giving you the right coaching at the right time and then giving all these insights to the leadership team to coach you better.

When they have a one on one interaction because of the data all these patterns that they'll see over time and the insights they can get to improve their strategy.

Hey, based on all of the data we have, this is the person you need to hire and these are the skills.

And this is how fast they will ramp up because now we have something to compare it with.

Amazing.

I think you've said it, but I just want to hear it from you.

What is the primary problem, Dexter Coach?

Yeah.

It's the scalability and the lack of personalization of coaching in companies.

And to give you an example, most companies I talk to have a mix of junior and senior reps, right?

Yes.

And they'll say, okay, our senior guys are so good, but we don't know why.

Like, and what if they leave and then we don't know how to transfer that knowledge?

It just got it right.

First of all, they were not born like that.

They also develop the skills over time.

It is.

No one tracked it.

We don't know, you know, what were those inputs.

So by using our AI that tracks all these conversations and how they do what they do and understanding why it leads to success, now you can automatically coach the rest of the team.

So it really levels the playing field.

It makes it accessible 247 so you don't have to worry about different time zones and where your teams are.

You can really bring in the senior leader when it's fully needed.

Think of how many times a sales leader answers the same question to five different people.

You can take all the time back spent on high value tasks and have AI answer this for you like, what's your pricing and what do I say when that objection comes up and what's the next day?

All these things that you would go to a human to ask can really be automated, tailored to your day to day and have that leader just join when he can.

Or she can really add value because their zone of genius is not just repeating themselves.

No.

And I was thinking as you were saying this, that a lot of times those really good sales people are not good coaches or teachers.

They're really not.

They just don't think in that way.

It's almost like the tool Dexter can listen in and learn what is working for these people and make it teachable and then coach others in it.

You nailed this.

Actually at our desksagon Summit, you might have seen Steve's presentation who said not all size fits any way.

The point was that sales leaders do that.

You're a high performer, okay?

Now you can manage a team.

That should not be the natural progression of things.

It's a different skillset to be a manager.

You can continue to be a high performer in your role, but we've been doing it like this for so many years, it's hard to unlearn that trajectory.

The issue is you're trying to make everybody else look act like you and that gets them way too out of their comfort zone and it won't yield to results.

So when you onboard index to go, although we have all your playbooks and everything your manager has given us, we ask you how you describe the Value Pro, what resonates when you speak to a client.

It will be something very different and we'll try to find that middle ground so we don't just change this behavior to make it sound like a robot.

We want them to still be themselves, just improve their current skills.

I love that it's really powerful what you're building and it's also making me think about all the things that AI can do to support us at becoming better at our strengths, like just becoming higher performing overall.

There's an opportunity, maybe give us a case study or an example of a customer who you've been working with and how it's worked, how it began.

Walk us through that customer journey.

Yeah, I'll say.

One of the latest like case studies we posted on our website, it's Nixon Power.

It's a generator company that basically had that combination of junior and senior reps I mentioned.

They didn't know how to transfer that knowledge but also didn't do any role plays.

Like they basically gave a bunch of like playbooks and best practices to their users but didn't prepare with one on one role play before calls.

A lot of the information was lost in transition.

They would have an SKO or onboarding time and then there was no continuous coaching which I think is a huge missed opportunity.

Like nobody learns with one time.

Think about, you know, languages, like you know, how many languages I learned in high school, including coding, but I don't remember anything.

I learned the German.

I can't say one phrase because I never use it again.

I'm a real example of that.

I empathize.

But no matter your memory, you'll forget.

In sales there's a finite amount of objections people usually bring up, right?

It's pricing, it's change management, competition.

There is things you can really prepare for and nail.

The Value prop might sound different based on the person, but at the end of the day you have no excuse to not go 90% prepared in a call.

That's where we came in to help Them connect all these dots because they had that content just it was not distributed in a scalable way at the right time.

Therefore they couldn't ensure consistent messaging.

And that's the other problem.

If I as a buyer, let's say come to you, you tell me you do X and then I go to your colleague and they tell me you do Y.

I'm confused.

I feel like you don't know what you're talking about.

I'm not going to trust you.

The problem is you have so many stakeholders involved in a deal.

Unless everybody's aligned and clear, you cannot close.

To conclude with Nixon Power now double click on this.

They soon increased in close one rates by 15%.

Now they had basically created a way to scale the training and see the skills gap of the team so they can create more tailored content based on that.

We saw, for instance, there was a specific person struggling with the pricing objection.

So now their next 101, they focus on that it improved.

But unless you have that like coachability index, they understand where you can help them.

You can get lost with training because it's just a checkbox.

Okay, yeah, we delivered the training, but I have no clue if people actually got something out of it and how I can improve.

So you're stuck in the loop with complex sales and multiple stakeholders.

And of course you'll bring in your tech guy and your CEO and your CEO to ensure everybody's aligned because you don't want to take the risk.

Like what if I bring in a tool and doesn't work and then I get fired?

I want everybody to take that responsibility.

So it's becoming so hard for sellers to crack through a deal first and then even when they do multi thread correctly because they don't know who has to be involved and how to approach them.

And even if they do, let's say you're more junior.

You've never spoken to a CEO in your life.

Let's say you just came out of school.

How are you going to speak that person's language?

And that's how the deal is lost in that complexity before it even started.

So we try to align people, help buyers align the buyer committee, sorry, sellers align the buyer committee and really push the deal forward without missing somebody.

It's just complex.

And unless the sales leader calls you every day and says, hey Coco, did you call this person?

You call a person, you can't do it correctly.

So that's where we're coming.

That's great.

And you know, it also helps me understand when you talk about human centric AI, it's not taking away anybody's jobs, it's making the team function, helping the team function better.

You want to say anything more about that?

I know you're very committed to human centric AI.

Yeah, 100%.

It's what we call user centric learning.

It's all about understanding first how to deliver that information to the learner and then how do we equip the learner to deliver that information to the buyer.

And that's two different things.

So I can help you understand the concept, can help you understand what a good discovery is.

But for you to apply good discovery to your buyer is a different thing.

And we need to ensure that this is human centric in both ways.

Like you don't come to me as the buyer and then you sound like a robot.

Hey, Anna, do you have budget False is going to join on this decision?

Are you looking to competitors?

Like, I will know that you're reading through a script.

It needs to still be building a relationship, but you need to have developed those skills that can be transferable.

And that's why I'm also against, at least till today, those like tools that are violent.

The discussion, like popping up and giving me advice because it's so distracting and it's unethical in a sense because you're not meeting me, you're not meeting my genuine self.

It's like saying that for you to be a good performer, you have to fake it.

It's a very thin line and I just don't believe in it.

I don't think that type of tool is human centric.

When you see our AI coaches, we have like three main AI coaches behind the scenes.

One, focus on role play.

Tego, Esther, focus on inspiration.

Finn is the chat where you answer questions.

You can see they're like animated characters.

It's not a human lookalike.

And I think there is a lot to be said there because there's academic research that has been done around the negative effects of making AI look like a human.

And that is different.

That's not human centric.

I want to explain that because I see a lot of tools like AI is the are cold calling sdr, putting a human face and putting a human name like this is John.

And then it even answers in the email, but it's so confusing.

It says, this is John AISDR at XYZ company.

What are you trying to do there.

This is very confusing.

And for the younger generations, I'm talking about Gen Alpha and before that, living in a world where these lines are blurry can be very confusing for their development and it has to be separate.

This is an AI tool helping you.

This is a human helping you.

It's not a mix.

I love what you just said.

I think it's honorable to our development as humans and being a leader.

And how is the best way for us to apply this tremendous tool of AI into our lives?

And where are the lines?

Where do we, where do we.

You know.

So I, I appreciate what you're saying here and it's also helping me understand a little bit about what it means to use applied generative AI.

Right.

So talk more about that.

It's actually where you're learning and doing Okay, I took a test and I checked the boxes, but who knows if I'm going to go into the world and use what I just learned.

Yeah, exactly.

That.

That's applied knowledge.

The just to end the previous discussion, I think it's also the technical versus non technical founder.

They see it all the time and it's really sad.

And it's all about what the ecosystem investing, let's say VCs invest in certain founders.

This is the tools that the market sees.

This is the trend.

It's like clothes, it's like fashion.

I go to one store, I see that color, I see it everywhere else.

So unfortunately it has to be a personal choice, like the founder has to draw that line.

And I really think founders have that responsibility to, to create tools that actually help and not just automate.

Sometimes technical founders don't always understand that or they just ignore it because they're excited about the tech itself.

I want to build this.

I want to try this.

I'm not diminishing technical founders, I'm just trying to say that they have to think of that more.

Yes.

And then.

Yeah, for the applied.

So you're so right.

Coming from Greece, the educational system was all about non applied, no less.

It was just learn this by heart, go take a test.

You passed it.

Great.

You didn't redo it.

And that's why I didn't like it.

And actually I was coming to the US for summer programs every summer because they did much more experiential things and activities and then I could remember things better and I could connect the dots easier.

That is exactly what application of that knowledge means.

That okay, you're learning now.

You go apply that concept in a project, make a presentation about this.

You can transfer that knowledge to others.

And by using AI to do the same, we are able to cater to the learning needs of the person.

Because it's not just about teaching you something, it's teaching you what you care about.

And as an sdr, you have different needs than an ae, than a VP of Sales, than a Croft.

So meeting you where you are and not having you sit in a classroom where I talk about what sales is that no one will care about and half of the class will find it repeated, repeatable or irrelevant what they do.

You don't have that application.

Yes, well, and I just.

It's making me think too, because I'm not in the business of AI.

I am trying desperately to stay on top of it, or I should say, hold on to whatever I can grab onto the idea that a whole, whole sort of world using applied generative AI is going to open up and you are at the forefront of that.

With Dexigo, what I'm really loving is that interplay those experiences with AI where you're coaching and it's being able to detect whether you're learning or not and whether the information has been applied.

And that is like I think about, and I'm sure you think about this way more than I do, but the many places that this could be used is huge.

So what does the future look like?

What is your vision for Dexico and how can this applied generative AI, you know, propagate throughout industry and the world and humanity?

I think on an individual standpoint, it really helps us understand ourselves better.

That self awareness that we're all lacking because we don't take the time to reflect, it's kind of pushed to us through AI.

Like when Dexter is giving you your scorecard and tells you, this is what you did great, this is what you did wrong over time, these are your gaps and this is how you improved on that.

You take a step back, you're like, oh, interesting.

You know, I didn't think of that.

I remember the first times we had people record themselves.

Like they would think they were so extroverted and sounded so energetic.

And then Dexa was like, actually you were very monotonous.

You know, it makes them think, like your perception and the reality could be two different things.

So I'm very hopeful about that aspect in terms of how we're developing a society.

On the other hand, I definitely see that it's going so fast.

People are very confused and anxious around their place in the world because they can't find jobs and don't know how to incorporate to their jobs.

I really feel that.

I don't know what even call it.

It's not like pressure, it's just the uncertainty of where we're heading.

But I also am optimistic around the fact that AI can, as I said earlier, really equalize the playing field.

They can make us all, no matter where we are and our background, technical or not, come up with more skills and be more competitive in the job market.

But you have to put in that work.

If you just sit back, you're going to be replaced by someone else.

It's really on us as individuals to use it for good causes.

Now, big picture, I think certain areas where it will have a huge impact outside of education and workforce is healthcare.

I mean, longevity.

If you see all these topics being discussed right now and the fact that we'll be living for like 100 years healthy, that means we also need to work more.

So again, what skills do we need to develop to have that longevity?

In a way, that's a happy, good thing for us, a good life, a.

Well and happy and meaningful, engaged life.

Right.

To me, it's like a global thing.

It's discussion around global income.

It's about understanding.

Back to the ethics.

What type of AI is allowed in work?

What AI is not same for school.

Like now I see many schools have tutors, which is great because it's personalized.

We need to ensure these tutors still help with critical thinking and development of the kids, not just, you know, helping them solve the math problem.

So it's a lot of discussions that I think need to happen on a global level.

Unfortunately, the interests are not aligned across countries.

And that's the biggest thing.

Like if you remember the beginning of ChatGPT, like how Europe versus US talked about the limitations and the basically certification.

So they had to do.

I think we need some unity.

And if we did that during COVID and everybody agreed, hey, we're staying in, I'm sure we can do it for AI as well.

I love that.

And just maybe tie up for us what you mean by the fourth industrial revolution and how your vision is around where we are and what's happening.

And we'll tie it to what you just were talking about.

Yes, it has to do with Genii.

I mean, we know AI has been here for a while, but I think the accessibility of Genii is definitely this fourth revolution.

And instead of creating a world where you have people that have access to it and others that don't, my vision is that we all have access to it and have that good long Life.

But to do that, we just have to agree on what matters.

If we agree as humanity.

Hey, no, the like, working and hustling every day for what?

Like, doesn't make any sense.

Let's have AI do our chores and stuff and run businesses with a human in the loop.

Then we have more time to do creative things, you know, go to the beach and connect with nature.

Then this is all possible.

If we don't agree on the fundamentals of what it means to be a human and live for a limited time on planet Earth, then it will be very bad.

I hope we don't get there.

All I can do is make sure that what I create has these values in it.

Love it.

What is the final bit of wisdom you would like to offer to our women founders out there growing high impact, high growth companies?

What is your, what is your last bit of wisdom you'd like to share?

First of all, I see you, I see them all working hard.

It's definitely a fight, I'm not gonna lie.

But my word is definitely resilient.

Because no matter what you think, like whatever imposter syndrome the listener might be overcoming or whatever might be going through their head at the end of the day, just know that the most resilient person wins.

It doesn't matter.

Like you might be against someone very skilled, but they might give up tomorrow.

So just focus on that and that's something you can actually control.

Most resilient wins.

And women, I mean, come on.

We are resilient, right?

Exactly.

Oh my goodness.

So how can our listeners and viewers learn more about Decks to Go and you?

I'm on LinkedIn.

I'm pretty active as you know.

You can find me there on the Decks to Go from.

You can find us on our website, dexo.com no, we'll put the links.

We also have ungated demos there.

We have bunch of information and you can just book some time with me if you want to chat.

Always here to help.

So Dex to go.

D E X T a g o.com right?

Ego b x t e g o de gosh, gosh, gosh.

Thank you.

It's right here in front of me too.

On your screen.

D E X T E G O Check it out and learn about it.

Get yourself a demo.

Check out, you know, because, because this is something you could learn for yourself.

Like I'm thinking about how, how easy, much easier it's going to be to be coached because you aren't going to be feeling judged.

It's just a computer talking to you.

So give yourself that freedom to learn and grow in the safety of AI.

We actually do monthly bill clinics where people come in and meet the people that are helping like dexigo become what it is.

Like the experts can share, stack deals or any challenges they have and get free coaching.

So that's another way we can help and make what we do accessible.

But I definitely agree like female founders need to hold hone these skills because if you don't know how to sell, you cannot just think, you know, I'll hire someone and they do it for me.

It has to be a playbook you develop first and then you pass it on.

Absolutely.

Wow.

That's great wisdom.

And thank you.

Yona.

Thank you for joining us today on the Wisdom of Women Show.

Thank you for illuminating the path to unlocking opportunities and prosperity for women led enterprises.

We value your experience and your wisdom.

Thank you so much for having me.

Of course, of course.

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