Speaking and workshop topics
- AI, empathy, and what it means to be human
- Organizational justice, fairness, and trust
- Ethical leadership and responsible AI adoption
- Human judgment and accountability in AI-supported decisions
- Building trust and navigating difficult conversations
I bring perspectives from behavioral research, law, ethics, teaching, and consulting to conversations with professional associations, leadership teams, universities, and wider public audiences.
AI Illusion of Empathy: The Revolution from Within
Watch on YouTube, like the video, and join the conversation →
When AI sounds caring, are we being understood, or are we experiencing an illusion of empathy?
In this April 2026 talk at Claremont Graduate University, Luciana Simion explores what AI-simulated empathy reveals about our longing to be heard, understood, and cared for. A reassuring encounter with an AI customer-service agent becomes the starting point for a deeply personal question: as technology learns to imitate care, how are we practicing it ourselves?
Exploring artificial intelligence, empathy, and human connection, this talk asks what it means to become more fully human in an age of AI.
Drawing on personal experience and the enduring influence of her great-grandmother, Luciana asks how empathy can deepen our humanity—and how our encounters with others can shape who we become.
At the heart of the talk is a framework for conscious human development: adapt, reinvent, and evolve.
ADAPT: Recognize how a changing world is reshaping our relationships, and choose to remain present. Every moment in which we move toward another person’s experience creates an opening for human connection.
REINVENT: Examine the habits and defenses that keep us emotionally distant. Practice empathy with enough intention and courage that it becomes part of how we live, especially when understanding someone requires discomfort, patience, or vulnerability.
EVOLVE: Allow connection to transform us. Another person’s joy, pain, and perspective can expand our understanding and deepen our capacity to care. Through these encounters, we participate in one another’s becoming.
This is the revolution from within: a lifelong process of becoming more fully human through the relationships we choose to nurture. It begins in ordinary moments, yet its influence can reach beyond a single encounter, a single life, or a single generation.
As AI becomes part of our emotional lives, what kind of human beings do we want to become? And what becomes possible when we take responsibility for that evolution?
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Has an AI interaction ever made you feel understood? Where did it help, and where did it fall short? Whose empathy has changed you—and what would your own revolution from within look like?
Share your experience, questions, or a different perspective in the comments. Suggestions for future discussions and opportunities for research collaborations or speaking are welcome.
CONNECT WITH LUCIANA
Website: https://lucianasimion.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucianasimion/
Copyright © 2026 Luciana Simion. All rights reserved.
#AI #Empathy #AIEthics
Selected speaking engagements
Human at the Core: Ethical AI and Employee Well-Being in the Consulting Room
Guest speaker for the Society’s town hall, hosted by Joanie Connell. The discussion connected organizational justice with fairness, trust, and responsibility in AI-supported employment decisions.
Leadership, AI, and workplace relationships
Workshops with regional business leaders:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a Leadership Skill — facilitated in March and October 2026.
- Building Trust — co-facilitated with Donna San Miguel.
- How to Have Difficult Conversations — co-facilitated with Richard D. Marks.
Research presentations and scholarly dialogue
My conference contributions connect empirical research with questions about empathy, fairness, leadership, and organizational life.
- 2026 · American Psychological Association Annual Convention, Washington, DC: The Authenticity Gap.
- 2026 · Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Philadelphia: Empathy by Algorithm. Poster proceedings entry.
- 2026 · SIOP Annual Conference, New Orleans: Coauthored presentation on conjoint analysis of implicit leadership theories.
- 2025 · Western Psychological Association convention: Research on crisis perceptions and leadership-customer unfairness.
- 2025 · SIOP Annual Conference: Contribution on observed unfairness and emotional labor to the New Directions in Organizational Justice symposium.
Earlier presentations addressed global leadership, multiracial leadership, cultural competence, and organizational justice at ILA, WAM, WPA, SIOP, the Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Leadership Symposium, and CGU’s Realizing Equity symposium.
Invite Luciana to speak
For a keynote, panel, workshop, or facilitated conversation, please share your audience, topic, preferred date, and format.