Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: BONUS - When AI Knows Your Emotional Triggers Better Than You Do — Navigating Mindfulness in the AI Age | Mo Edjlali

Episode Date: November 29, 2025
Host: Vasco Duarte
Guest: Mo Edjlali, founder & CEO of Mindful Leader, author of OpenMBSR: Reimagining the Future of Mindfulness

Overview

In this bonus episode, host Vasco Duarte interviews Mo Edjlali, former computer engineer turned mindfulness leader. They explore how artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming not just work, but the way we experience reality and engage in introspection. The discussion centers on the interplay between longstanding mindfulness practices and the accelerating influence of AI on human decision-making, self-awareness, agency, and even our sense of purpose. Mo draws on his technical and mindfulness background to critique the commercialization of mindfulness, envision new challenges and opportunities brought by AI, and offer grounded strategies for maintaining agency and healthy attention in a tech-heavy future.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. From Tech to Mindfulness: Mo’s Journey and Perspective

• Mo’s background as a computer engineer and experience with Agile methodologies significantly shapes his approach to mindfulness and organizational development.
• He applauds the Agile community for its focus on optimizing collective human potential and sees parallels between grassroots tech movements and authentic mindfulness practice.
  • Quote:

    "In human history, never have human beings figured out how better to work together than they have in the tech world."
    — Mo Edjlali [02:03]

2. Mindfulness: Liberation vs. Dependency

• Mo voices concern that mindfulness, intended as a practice of self-liberation, is increasingly commercialized and turning into a dependency on teachers, apps, and guided meditations.
  • Quote:

    "Nowadays…meditation teachers and consumers aren't taught to meditate, they're taught to listen to guided meditation."
    — Mo Edjlali [08:46]

• Contrasts his own introduction to self-reliant mindfulness at Vipassana retreats with current trends that link mindfulness to personalities, schools, and commercial products.

3. AI as a Civilizational Shift

• Mo describes AI as heralding a fundamental new era — potentially more impactful than the internet or mobile computing.
  • Quote:

    "We’re entering a new age...imagine just knocking the [chess] board over...we’re playing a new game, new rules, new everything."
    — Mo Edjlali [10:29]

• Highlights both optimism (potential for abundance, scientific advancement) and deep risks (existential uncertainty, mental health crises, identity and purpose loss).

4. AI, Purpose, and Societal Upheaval

• Predicts a world where work is decoupled from survival, and humans might even pay for the privilege of work for meaning:
  • Quote:

    "I see a future possibly where people pay for their jobs, not get paid to work, but pay to get to work."
    — Mo Edjlali [14:16]

• Challenges listeners to rethink the value systems that have underpinned modern society. Raises provocative questions about fulfillment, identity, and societal organization.

5. When AI Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself

• Vasco brings forward Mo’s provocative question: What happens when AI knows your emotional triggers better than you do?
  • Mo references Yuval Harari’s prediction that technology may understand us better than we do.
  • AI's increasing abilities to process biometrics, brain scans, and behavioral data could soon enable it to "read minds" or at least map and respond to our deepest emotional states.
    • Quote:

      "The implications are that we could read people’s minds using AI…this is just the beginning stages."
      — Mo Edjlali [17:52]

[Notable Segment: Self-Reflection With AI — 18:45]

• Mo shares his own experiments in asking AI about his strengths, personality, and blind spots; is surprised by its accuracy and insightfulness.
  • Quote:

    "I asked my AI, what are my blind spots? And the response was outstanding…even I myself would have had trouble [articulating it]."
    — Mo Edjlali [19:48]

6. AI in Coaching, Therapy, and Self-Awareness

• Discusses pros and cons of using AI for therapy, coaching, or personal insight:
  • Good therapists are rare; AI is not free from risk, but could democratize self-knowledge.
  • Dangers include over-trusting AI "autopilot," ignoring real-world feedback (users, clients), and failing to critically interpret AI's suggestions.
  • Quote:

    "We’ve got to be careful…AI has been extraordinary the ways I’ve used it…but still, we have to be careful when we’re weighing what humans…are saying to us versus the AI."
    — Mo Edjlali [24:18]

[Notable Segment: Chess, AI, and Human Learning — 24:59]

• Chess as an example: once humans couldn’t beat AI, the challenge shifted to understanding how AI arrived at the answer, and learning from it.

7. Agency, Mindfulness, and the Autopilot Trap

• Mindfulness is about shifting from autopilot to manual control of thoughts, emotions, and actions.
• Technology (e.g., self-driving cars) can free us for higher pursuits, if we use that freedom intentionally.
  • Quote:

    "Now when I drive to work, I’m not driving, the car is driving. I am on autopilot…which frees me up to experience the world around me in the way that I choose to."
    — Mo Edjlali [28:54]

• However, Vasco warns of the "dark side": social media and AI architecture that exploit and hijack attention, undermine agency, and sabotage relationships.

8. Strategies for Remaining Sovereign in Our Attention

• Mo identifies three core symptoms of our tech era:
  1. Attack on focus and attention
  2. Polarization (black-and-white thinking)
  3. Isolation (disconnection)
• Mindfulness isn’t just meditation; it’s practical training in focus, deep reading, creating silence, and intentional attention.
  • Quote:

    "Reading is now becoming a concentration practice…just turning off the radio…more silence, finding time alone with your thoughts."
    — Mo Edjlali [35:06]

• Advocates "community-centric" and open source models for mindfulness (akin to Agile), including group practice and open frameworks to resist cults of personality and isolation.
  • Quote:

    "I want to push towards what you have in Agile — community centric. Let the community help, make it open source, make it transparent."
    — Mo Edjlali [36:22]

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• [02:03] "Never have human beings figured out how better to work together than they have in the tech world." — Mo Edjlali
• [08:46] "Consumers aren't taught to meditate, they're taught to listen to guided meditation."
• [10:29] "We’re entering a new age...imagine just knocking the [chess] board over...we’re playing a new game, new rules, new everything."
• [14:16] "I see a future possibly where people pay for their jobs...not get paid to work."
• [17:52] "We could read people’s minds using AI...this is just the beginning stages."
• [19:48] "I asked my AI, what are my blind spots? And the response was outstanding."
• [24:18] "We’ve got to be careful…when we’re weighing what humans are saying to us versus the AI."
• [28:54] "I am on autopilot...which frees me up to experience the world around me in the way that I choose to."
• [35:06] "Reading is now becoming a concentration practice...finding time alone with your thoughts."
• [36:22] "Let the community help, make it open source, make it transparent."

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:11] – Introduction and Mo’s interdisciplinary background
• [06:55] – Commercialization & dependency in mindfulness
• [09:56] – AI as a transformative force; analogies to historical ages
• [13:06] – The social contract, work, and the changing purpose in the AI age
• [16:35] – “When AI knows your emotional triggers better than you do”
• [18:45] – Mo’s experience using AI as a self-reflection tool
• [22:30] – AI in therapy, dangers & democratization of insight
• [24:59] – The shift from "what" to "how" in learning from AI (chess analogy)
• [27:25] – Manual control vs. autopilot: balancing agency and surrender to AI
• [29:37] – Social media, attention hijack, and safeguarding attention
• [33:44] – Restoring agency: mindfulness practices beyond meditation
• [35:50] – Open, community-centered mindfulness inspired by Agile

Takeaways for Agile Practitioners & Mindfulness Seekers

• AI is not only changing work—it's redefining purpose, awareness, and agency.
• Mindfulness, when authentically practiced, can build resilience and reclaim agency, but must resist commercialization and dependency.
• Interdisciplinary thinking (tech + mindfulness) is essential for navigating the new challenges posed by AI.
• Practices that enhance focus, encourage real community, and emphasize both acceptance and improvement are going to be vital tools for thriving—not just surviving—in the AI age.
• Open source and community-led approaches can safeguard both Agile and mindfulness from centralization, isolation, and manipulation by technology.

For more:
Mo Edjlali's book — OpenMBSR: Reimagining the Future of Mindfulness (link in show notes)

This summary skips ads and focuses exclusively on the episode’s core content.