The Reading Room

A virtual after-work club about AI for strategists, builders, designers and operators committed to thinking for themselves.

Hosted by Ariba Jahan·215+ talks and panels·Obama Foundation Leader·Global Top 100 Women of the Future in Emerging Tech

“Few people on this earth know how to shape a brilliant conversation like Ariba.” Amanda Ramos, CEO, Women in Innovation

SPOKEN AT & FEATURED IN

Hype and doom manufacture helplessness. Questioning together builds agency.

As machines grow more capable, we’re told the only rational move is to keep up with the latest. I don’t think so.

Learning the technology shouldn’t be where our participation ends. People decide what gets built, deployed, used and normalized. But the power to make those decisions isn’t shared equally.

AI opens up extraordinary possibilities. It also raises questions a product demo or a feed of hot takes can’t answer. What are we willing to delegate to machines, and what responsibility stays with us? Who benefits, who bears the costs, and who gets a say?

Bring conflicting perspectives, unresolved questions, and unfinished thoughts. Together, we’ll challenge assumptions and ask what we might try, change, or build.

Meet us in the Reading Room.

COG · AI & Cognition: How AI shapes attention, learning, memory, judgment, and our capacity to think.
CRAFT · AI & Craft: How AI changes skilled work, creative practice, authorship, originality, and taste.
SOCIETY · AI & Society: How AI changes relationships, culture, institutions, the economy, and everyday life.
POWER · AI & Power: How ownership, incentives, and tradeoffs shape AI, its benefits, and its costs.

What is expertise when AI does more of the work?

Judgment, taste, and how we develop them when AI does more of the producing.

AI & Cognition

November 18 · 5:00–6:30 PM EST
90 minutes · Virtual · $50

Join this session

There’s a version of working with AI where you direct the machine: deciding what it handles, checking what matters. Then there’s the version where you follow the direction and plan it proposes, and your work becomes checking its output and keeping the system going. These arrangements reflect choices about how work gets done and what we normalize. They also shape what we count as human contribution and innovation. Who makes those choices, and how do you recognize when you’re directing the work, adapting to the system, or doing both?

Doing the work and getting reps in has been part of how we develop judgment, expertise, discernment, and taste. As machines grow more capable, where do those opportunities for practice come from?

QUESTIONS WE’LL EXPLORE

What do we mean by expertise, discernment, judgment, and taste when we work with AI?
If doing the work helps us build judgment, where do the reps come from when AI does more of the producing?
Is a new kind of expertise emerging, and what role does AI fluency play?
As more people use the same tools, what makes someone’s work or an organization’s expertise distinctive?

How it works

An after-school club for grown-ups who never stopped nerding out and asking questions. I design every session end to end, from the curated reading to the follow-up conversations.

BEFORE

Curated multimedia
pre-read

I hand-select research, essays, podcasts and video for each session’s pre-read. Set aside 40–45 minutes to read, watch, or listen.

LIVE

Live briefing
from Ariba Jahan

In a live presentation, I connect the pre-read to further research and examples from business and culture. We’ll look at where the sources disagree and the questions that raises for our discussion.

LIVE

Facilitated
group discussion

Full-group conversation and smaller breakouts to compare perspectives and work through questions together.

AFTER

Recap, recording
and slides

Afterwards, I package up key ideas, insights and questions from the conversations and my presentation for you to revisit.

You don’t need to be an AI expert. Bring your curiosity and come ready to participate, listen, share, and bring out the best in each other's thinking.

ARIBA JAHAN · HOSTAI STRATEGY · PRODUCT · EXPERIENCE DESIGN · TRANSFORMATION

SUBSTACK LINKEDIN

Hosted by Ariba Jahan

I’m an executive who works across product, experience, AI adoption, and organizational change. I’ve built products and AI workflows, led innovation practices, and worked with leadership teams across startups, nonprofits, agencies, and Fortune 500 companies, including Google Shopping, TIAA, Ally Bank, and WeightWatchers.

I run The Reading Room because AI is changing how we think, create, and work, and those changes deserve more than a quick take. I draw on my bioengineering research background and years of teaching and facilitation to curate the material, build the briefing, and guide the conversation.

215+TALKS & PANELS

15+YEARS ACROSS SECTORS

6INDUSTRY AWARDS

SPOKEN AT

FEATURED IN

RECOGNITION

Obama Foundation Leader, USA · Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award for Community Service · Global Top 100 Women of the Future in Emerging Tech · Advertising Week Future is Female Award · Campaign US Inspiring Women Transforming Tech

MORE ABOUT ARIBA

The Reading Room brings that practical experience together with my background in bioengineering research, executive leadership, teaching, and facilitation.

I write and host Unmissables and developed Cognitive Endurance, a practice for keeping our judgment our own as we use AI.

She facilitated big conversations, moderated opposing opinions, and held space for the emotions of these transformational times.

REBECCA GROVES
CURATOR, LEADING DESIGN

Quick-witted, sharp, and insightful without losing a warm, welcoming presence and tone.

KYLE HAGGE
CHIEF OF STAFF, MORNING BREW

Her ability to humanize AI experiences made the topic accessible and relatable.

MICHELLE GREEN
VP OF INSIGHTS & INTELLIGENCE, PARAMOUNT+

Few people on this earth know how to shape a brilliant conversation like Ariba. With her genius guidance, that group helped us understand how to conquer the biggest challenges of our time.

AMANDA RAMOS
CEO, WOMEN IN INNOVATION

Coming up in the Reading Room

Join us in the Reading Room, or subscribe to hear when new dates open.

DECEMBER · Agentic commerceAI & Craft

As agents take on browsing, comparison, and buying, what happens to discovery, trust, and choice?

If an agent compares hotels and books for you, who decides what counts as the best choice? A conversation about convenience, discovery, brand relationships, and the influence built into recommendations.

JANUARY · Working togetherAI & Craft

When each of us has an AI collaborator, what makes us a team?

Two colleagues bring competing AI-generated recommendations to the same meeting. How do they work through the disagreement and arrive at a decision they both understand?

FEBRUARY · AI companionshipAI & Society

What kind of relationship can a person have with something designed to simulate a relationship?

People turn to AI for reassurance, relationship advice, or company at the end of the day. What makes these interactions matter, and what do they change about what we expect from other people?

MARCH · Work orchestrationAI & Power

When AI does more of the work, who is actually in charge?

A person sets the goal, an agent makes a plan, and several tools carry it out. Who decides when priorities conflict, when to stop, and who answers for the result?

ExpertiseAI & Cognition

What is expertise when AI does more of the work?

Judgment, taste, and how we develop them when AI does more of the producing.

November 18 · 90 minutes · Virtual

Join this session

Get session topic breakdowns and invitations to future Reading Rooms through Unmissables.

Questions

Are the sessions recorded?

Yes. Every session is recorded and shared with participants.

What if I can’t make it live?

You’ll still get the recap material, including the presentation and the recording.

Can I bring my team?

Absolutely. Email me about team seats.

The future isn’t inevitable.

I think it’s worth holding on to hope, pluralism, and a relentless creativity to build good in this world.

MEET US IN THE READING ROOM

Join us on November 18

5:00–6:30 PM EST · Virtual

Save your seat Can’t make it? Get on the list for the next one

The Reading Room

A virtual after-work club about AI for strategists, builders, designers and operators committed to thinking for themselves.

Hosted by Ariba Jahan
215+ talks and panels · Obama Foundation Leader

Hype and doom manufacture helplessness. Questioning together builds agency.

As machines grow more capable, we’re told the only rational move is to keep up with the latest. I don’t think so.

Learning the technology shouldn’t be where our participation ends. People decide what gets built, deployed, used and normalized. But the power to make those decisions isn’t shared equally.

Bring conflicting perspectives, unresolved questions, and unfinished thoughts. Together, we’ll challenge assumptions and ask what we might try, change, or build.

Meet us in the Reading Room.

COG

AI &
Cognition

CRAFT

AI &
Craft

SOCIETY

AI &
Society

POWER

AI &
Power

What is expertise when AI does more of the work?

Judgment, taste, and how we develop them when AI does more of the producing.

AI & Cognition

November 18 · 5:00–6:30 PM EST
90 minutes · Virtual · $50

Join this session

ABOUT THIS SESSION

Doing the work and getting reps in has been part of how we develop judgment, expertise, discernment, and taste. As machines grow more capable, where do those opportunities for practice come from?

QUESTIONS WE’LL EXPLORE

What do we mean by expertise, discernment, judgment, and taste when we work with AI?
If doing the work helps us build judgment, where do the reps come from when AI does more of the producing?
Is a new kind of expertise emerging, and what role does AI fluency play?
As more people use the same tools, what makes someone’s work or an organization’s expertise distinctive?

How it works

An after-school club for grown-ups who never stopped nerding out and asking questions. I design every session end to end, from the curated reading to the follow-up conversations.

BEFORE