Work In Progress (WIP) - is an newsletter brought to you by Conscious Talent that helps you keep a pulse on the intersection of inner work, consciousness, and new frontiers in how we work.
Every few weeks, we’ll highlight new job opportunities, funding announcements, breakthroughs in technology + research, and awesome people in our network we think you should know about.
As AI continues to accelerate, a quieter question is starting to matter more. Are the people building these systems developing at the same level as the technology itself?
This week’s Work in Progress reflects that tension. Across AI systems designed to understand human behavior, mental health platforms, and convenings like Human+Tech Week, a pattern is emerging…the next phase of innovation will not be driven by technology alone, but by the integration of human awareness, judgment, and presence alongside it.
As AI expands what can be done, the advantage shifts toward those who are clear on what should be done, and why.
🥳 Come hang out with us at Human Tech Week
Join us for an event on May 12th in San Francisco on The Future of Conscious Company Building, with Diana Chapman (Conscious Leadership Group), Dave Hersh (Metamorph Ventures), Cecily Mak (Wisdom Ventures) and Stacey Lawson (Positive AI Labs). Full details here.
If you're interested in going to the main events for Human Tech Week, as an event partner we have a discount code you can use here.
🔥 Featured Job Opportunities
Product Engineering Leader @ Slingshot AI, a company building AI systems that understand human behavior and cognition at the intersection of machine intelligence and human experience. You will lead the design and delivery of core product systems that translate complex AI capabilities into intuitive, real-world applications.
Senior Product Manager, Platform & Integrations @ Headspace, which began as a meditation app and has evolved into a comprehensive mental health platform integrating mindfulness, therapy, and clinical care. You will own and scale integrations across partners and platforms to expand access, improve interoperability, and extend Headspace’s reach through connected ecosystems.
Senior Mid-Market Sales Executive (Northeast) @ Calm, a consumer mental health company known for its meditation, sleep, and relaxation content, is expanding how it reaches organizations. You will own and grow a portfolio of mid-market clients by leading consultative sales cycles and helping employers bring mental wellness solutions to their teams.
Lead, Partnerships @ Roundglass, a global wellbeing company focused on holistic health across mind, body, and community, is building platforms and initiatives that support long-term wellbeing. You will develop and grow strategic partnerships that expand reach, deepen impact, and bring integrated wellness solutions to new audiences
🚀 Want to see more jobs supporting human consciousness? See other open opportunities.
Leader Spotlight
Nichol Bradford is the Founder of Human+Tech Week, AI + Human Intelligence Executive-in-Residence at SHRM, and Co-Founder of Niremia Collective, a venture fund focused on human potential technologies.
What problem is your company solving and what made you feel like this had to exist?
Human+Tech Week exists because the people building the technology that will reshape work, health, and cities are rarely in the same room as the people who have to live with what they build. AI researchers talk to AI researchers. Longevity scientists talk to longevity scientists. City planners talk to city planners. Meanwhile the actual question — how do we make sure this wave of technology expands human capacity instead of replacing it — sits in the gaps between those conversations.
I'm a plumber's daughter. I think in terms of what actually gets built and who has to fix it when it breaks. After founding TransformativeTech.org and watching it scale to 72 countries, I kept seeing the same pattern: brilliant work happening in silos, with no working venue for the cross-domain collaboration the moment requires. HTW had to exist because nothing else was doing this job. Five days, three summits, 5,000 contributors, all working on the same question from different angles.
What’s your favorite transformational resource, experience, or practice, and how has it impacted how you build the company?
Deep group work. Art of Accomplishment, CLG from the Conscious Leadership Group, the Hoffman Process. These formats are extraordinary. Putting people in a room and giving them real tools to look at what's actually driving them, with other humans witnessing it, does something that no book, podcast, or solo practice can replicate.
It's shaped how I build HTW more than almost anything else. The whole event is structured as a working convening, not a conference. Contributors, not attendees. Small rooms doing real work, not auditoriums absorbing content. I know from experience that the breakthroughs happen when people are actually present with each other, working on something that matters, with enough structure to go deep and enough trust to be honest. That's the design principle underneath the entire week.
What’s an unconventional belief you hold?
That AI is going to make human skills more valuable, not less. The dominant narrative right now is replacement — AI takes the jobs, humans figure out what's left. I think that's exactly backwards. The people who will thrive are the ones who get sharper at the things AI can't do: judgment under ambiguity, taste, knowing which problem actually matters, holding a room, building trust. AI handles the execution layer. Humans become more important at the orientation layer, not less.
This is why HTW is built around "expanding human capacity, not replacing it." It's not a slogan. It's the actual bet.
What's happening in the field
Ultrasound, Asceticism, and the Next Wave of Consciousness Science at Work - MIT researchers published a “roadmap” for using noninvasive transcranial focused ultrasound to directly perturb deep brain circuits implicated in conscious experience, moving beyond correlational EEG and fMRI studies toward causal tests of competing consciousness theories. This matters because it points to a next-gen experimental toolkit for consciousness science that could eventually inform precision mental-health and performance tools at work.
Psychedelics and Consciousness Science - Recent work on circular breathwork notes altered states of consciousness that resemble those induced in psychedelic-assisted therapy, emphasizing CO₂-driven physiological shifts as a mechanism. This reinforces breathwork as a low-cost, non-pharmacological path to therapeutic altered states that can be adapted for high-stress professional environments.
AI Mental Health and Conscious Tech - A recent overview of meditation apps in 2026 highlights how players like Headspace are rolling out AI companions that generate custom sessions from free-text emotional inputs. This trend matters because it normalizes conversational AI as a frontline guide for personalized contemplative practice tied to moment-to-moment work stressors
Funding and Market Moves - Updated mental-health funding data spotlight large capital flows into virtual psychiatry (Talkiatry), hybrid care (Grow Therapy), neuropsychiatry biotech (Gilgamesh), and AI-embedded assistants (Jimini). For conscious-leadership ecosystems, this signals that payers and investors are backing highly scalable, data-rich infrastructure that can carry inner-work tools into benefits design.
Inner Work in the Workplace - A recent review of digital tools for work stress shows AI-powered apps now outperform classic meditation apps for depression and anxiety, especially when combining tracking, coaching, and biofeedback. For inner-work leaders, it suggests the next step is integrating these tools with culture change and facilitated practice inside teams.
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