About me
Josh Penzell is the Founder & CEO of Imagination Applied, an AI transformation consulting practice. A professionally trained theater director with an MFA from CUNY-Brooklyn College and an MBA from the University of Illinois, Josh came to AI work sideways—through years of helping organizations change how people think, not just what tools they use.Before starting Imagination Applied, Josh held senior roles at Amazon Alexa, Zillow, and Skillsoft, where he watched up close how large organizations adopt new technology and how often they stall out at the surface. Same playbooks, same rollout decks, same “change management” frameworks that manage everything except the actual change. That pattern is what pushed him out on his own.The idea at the center of his work is Artistic Intelligence—the conviction that creative and performing arts hold lessons for the AI era that the business world hasn’t figured out how to use yet. Not “be more creative” as a platitude. Actual methods, drawn from theater directing and ensemble practice, for building the cognitive flexibility that AI adoption demands. His proprietary methodologies, TheaterThink® and Human Caffeine™, are how that philosophy becomes something a team can actually do on a Tuesday.Here’s the thing most people don’t expect: Josh builds. Not strategy decks—actual systems. React applications, xAPI courses, API integrations, multilingual AI-powered learning that reaches practitioners across more than 170 countries. He writes the code, architects the learning, and ships the product. In a field full of people who advise, he’s one of the ones who also makes things.His article “Prompting Is the Problem,” published in ATD’s TD Magazine, challenged the assumption that better prompts are the path to better AI adoption. He speaks at conferences including Training 2026, SHRM, ATD, and USDLA, and is completing his book Artistic Intelligence: A Manifesto.
