Deanna Leonard, MBA · Executive Change Leadership

The real leadership work begins after AI adoption.

Living at the intersection of AI, BI, and EQ.

I help Fortune 500 leaders, PE leaders, founders, and the women leading inside organizations move beyond AI adoption into the harder work of judgment, capability, and transformation.

Deanna Leonard on stage
The Point of View

The Five Shifts from AI adoption to transformation.

Most organizations confuse AI adoption with AI transformation. Adoption gets people using the tool. Transformation gets the organization to capture value from it. The path between the two is not a tool rollout. It is a leadership progression, and these are the five shifts it requires.

i.

Tools

Access
ii.

Trust

Confidence
iii.

Adoption

Integration
iv.

Capability

System
v.

Transformation

Reinvention
Read the full executive brief →
Work With Me

Three ways in, one point of view.

Each engagement draws from the same framework, adapted to the audience, the stakes, and the time you have.

i.

Keynote & Conference Speaking

The Five Shifts as a 45 to 60 minute keynote for executive audiences and women's leadership conferences. Lived case examples from inside a Fortune 100, and the leadership questions audiences can use Monday morning.

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ii.

Executive Coaching

One-to-one coaching for senior leaders navigating AI-era change in their organizations. Strategic, confidential, and focused on the leadership shifts, not the tool stack.

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iii.

Advisory & Consulting

Working sessions with internal executive coach teams, talent leadership, and AI transformation offices on applying the Five Shifts inside their organizations. Built alongside security, IT, and governance partners, not around them.

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Curated & Custom

Curated, customized sessions based on your industry, your team, and the outcome you need.

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Wondering where your organization stands in the Five Shifts?

Take the free assessment →
The Newsletter
A newsletter on AI-era executive leadership.

For leaders, talent executives, and women in the room where AI decisions get made. Each edition goes deeper into the Five Shifts and the leadership behaviors they require. Issue 01 is live, with over 1,000 subscribers on day one.

Selected Work

Two decades inside the rooms that decide.

Selected brands, clients & enterprise experience

Coca-Cola
Hanes
Target
Polo Ralph Lauren
Jockey
Vanity Fair
Disney
Lowe's
Wells Fargo
Warner Bros.
Mattel
Sara Lee
Carter's
Champion
Nickelodeon
StudioNow

AI Creative partnerships

LumaImagineArtFlora & FaunaCaimeraMinimax

Multi-Platform AI fluency

Microsoft CopilotCertifiedAnthropic ClaudeCertifiedGoogle AICertifiedFounderzMulti-disciplineGrowth SchoolMulti-disciplineAI ProCreative training

Selected speaking & teaching

Women's Leadership Conference of FloridaAI Empowered Mom PanelModeratorCareer Partners InternationalAI Marketing Pulse of AtlantaAI Atlanta WeekKeynoteAI Cincinnati WeekKeynoteUNCKeynote, Textile & Apparel ProgramGeorgia State UniversityFounderzStart Smarter: Courage, Clarity, CreativityAI Industry Rockstar CMOInstructor

Recognition & honors

LinkedIn Top 70 AI Creatives Globally & Top 100 AI Teaching2024 & 2025Times Square AI Art InstallationAI Film Awards VeniceAI Film & Art FestivalArizonaReligion Faith International Film FestivalAward-winning Art ExhibitionsBarcelona & AtlantaCreativa MagazineVolume 6SHE IS AI MagazineIssues 1, 2 & 3
About

The work behind the work.

Deanna Leonard, MBA, futurist, executive coach, and AI transformation leader, serves as an AI Creative Operations consultant within Coca-Cola Creative Studios through StudioNow and advises Fortune 500 leaders, PE leaders, founders, and the women leading inside organizations, doing the harder work of AI-era change.

Her career spans more than two decades inside Fortune 500 organizations, leading brand, e-commerce, product development and design teams at Hanes, VF, Carter's, and Holloway, with global licensing work across Polo Ralph Lauren, Jockey, Warner Bros., Mattel, and Disney, just to name a few. Today she sits at the intersection of three rare combinations: enterprise experience deep enough to know how change actually moves through scaled organizations, executive coaching practice as a C-Suite thought partner designing AI change management programs, and a creative practice spanning apparel design, AI filmmaking, and visual art.

She is the founder of The AI Adoption Paradox, a newsletter and point of view on the leadership work that comes after AI adoption. She also leads Bytes & Bites, an internal women's leadership program for female executives at Coca-Cola, and founded Her AI Hour™ and The AI Impact Circle, communities serving executive women in the AI era.

Recognized by LinkedIn as a Top 100 AI Creative Educator in both 2024 and 2025, her AI artwork has been featured at Times Square, the Venice AI Film Festival, and international exhibitions in Barcelona and Phoenix. She believes creativity, curiosity, and business discernment are future-focused skills that will drive innovation.

Deanna Leonard
MBA
·
Coca-Cola / StudioNow
·
LinkedIn Top 100
AI Creative Educator
Communities & Initiatives

The audiences behind the work.

Three communities, each serving a different room of executive women navigating AI-era leadership. Real-time signal from inside the audience most conferences want to reach.

Community

Her AI Hour™

One hour. What's next is hers. A weekly gathering for executive women learning AI together, in their own room, on their own terms.

Visit Her AI Hour →
Enterprise Program

Bytes & Bites

An internal women's leadership program for female executives at Coca-Cola, training in agent building and hands-on skills, with AI innovation and fluency at the center.

Internal program
Let's Talk

Start a conversation about your work.

Whether you are preparing for a keynote, building a coaching team's AI fluency, or navigating the harder questions of AI-era leadership inside your own organization, I would welcome the conversation.

Book a Conversation

Or email info@deannaleonard.com

Living at the intersection of AI, BI, and EQ.