Barry Shields

About Barry Shields

My expertise spans multiple industries and business environments. From telecommunications giants (Charter Communications, AT & T) to cutting-edge SaaS platforms (Shopify, Elastic) to enterprise technology leaders (Cisco). I’ve built my career on the ability to adapt proven enablement principles across diverse business environments. Now I’m building agentic AI systems to rethink how we design jobs, measure impact, and develop people. AI success won’t come from bolting tools onto old structures. It requires re-architecting work, leadership, and learning for a fundamentally different future. I believe safety and trust models will determine our success in the new AI-driven world. I\'m committed to lead defining those new models.Specialties: Learning, design thinking, leadership development, agentic AI, Career development

Experience

1. Senior Manager, Ai Strategy & Future of Work People, Process, & Policy Org

   Cisco

   Mar 2026 — Present · Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, US

   Driving AI-for-internal-use strategy and execution across Cisco’s People, Policy & Purpose organization. Partnering with AI leads and business process owners to identify, prioritize, and deliver technology solutions to improve human intelligence / capability, automate work flows, and generate hypotheses rapidly to solve wicked problems.Targeted Outcomes: accelerated sense-making and decision quality across complex work; delivered time savings at scale by reducing handoffs, delays, and execution variance; enabled faster hypothesis generation and lower-cost experimentation through rapid pilot-and-iterate loops with measurable impact.

Education

• UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School

  HR Strategic Leadership Program, Management & Leadership

• Florida State University

  M.S., Instructional Systems

• Bethany College

  Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Economics

Skills

• Instructional Design
• Program Management
• Training
• E-Learning
• Strategy
• Learning Management
• Management
• Integration
• Needs Analysis
• Knowledge Management
• Vendor Management
• Blended Learning
• Instructional Technology
• User Experience
• Team Leadership
• Business Strategy
• Learning Management Systems
• Team Management
• Saas
• Education
• Call Centers
• Career Development
• Analysis
• Instructor-Led Training
• Social Learning
• Social Media
• Sales Enablement
• Enterprise Collaboration
• Taxonomy Development
• Sales Skills Training
• Informal Education
• Elearning
• Social Networking
• Virtual Teams
• Mobile Learning
• Leadership
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Leadership Development
• Call Center Development
• Organizational Learning