Beyond the Black Box: Building trust with AI systems - EP12

🎙️ With Prof. Dr. Tina Weisser – Professor at Hochschule München (University of Applied Sciences Munich)

Summary

In this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with Prof. Dr. Tina Weisser about trust, systems thinking, and AI. Drawing on her path across service design, entrepreneurship, transformation consulting, and academia, Tina explores why “trust reduces complexity” and how that insight reshapes human–technology interaction - from multi-agent systems to the day-to-day realities of teams. The conversation moves from black-box AI to leadership futuring, psychological safety, and the practical redesign of processes so that humans stay in the driver’s seat.

🔑 Takeaways

• Trust reduces complexity and enables decisions under uncertainty

• AI’s “black-box” behavior demands experience, verification, and critical thinking

• Multi-agent systems shift from personal to team and workflow productivity

• Don’t “plug & play” AI - redesign processes with a systems lens

• Keep humans in the driver’s seat: transparency, orientation, competence

• Build psychological safety to experiment, fail, and learn

• Treat AI change as an adaptive challenge (not just a technical one)

• Bridge IT, HR, and leadership - it cannot be top-down or bottom-up alone

• Create time for deep strategic thinking (“leadership futuring”)

• Invest in training & enablement, not only tools

🎙️ Sound Bites

“Trust reduces complexity.”
“We need to stay in the driver’s seat - even with agents in the background.”
“It’s not a plug-and-play solution; redesign the system.”
“Build trust through experience - and keep your critical thinking.”
“Make space for deep thinking, not just meetings.”

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Curiosity, boundary-spanning, and systems thinking
03:14 Trust as a way to reduce complexity (Luhmann)
06:47 AI as a black box: probability over truth
10:19 Learning from early multi-agent experiments
12:27 From personal productivity to team workflows
14:49 Redesigning processes (not just “adding AI”)
16:26 Leading uncertainty: safety, training, enablement
18:17 Adaptive vs. technical problems (Heifetz)
22:38 Bridging culture and tech; capabilities leaders need
24:59 Haltung, self-regulation, and authenticity in leadership
27:02 Iteration over perfection; shorter planning cycles
30:24 “Stop the noise—start working”: a pragmatic toolbox
32:59 Leadership futuring: time for strategy, signals, foresight
36:36 In-between moments & reflections

🔭 Keywords

trust, systems thinking, leadership, AI, human–AI interaction, multi-agent systems, service design, process redesign, psychological safety, adaptive leadership, experimentation, foresight, leadership futuring

💻 Links

in-between trust on Instagram: @inbetween_trust
More about Hochschule München (HM): [insert link]
More about Prof. Dr. Tina Weisser: [insert link]