Founder Roj Reed sees merit in AI replacing tasks, not people.
The Duke University alumnus worked at Tyler Perry Studios from 2006 to 2010 as director of studio operations. Reed helped build its first studio, which opened in 2008. He credits that period with furthering his interest in technology.
“I was one of the two critical people in getting that done,” Reed told AFROTECH™. “So that meant learning everything from technology to contracts to how to navigate the city and architecture and engineers. It was a lot of responsibility and took a quick learning curve to pull all of that off. That time is what ushered me into technology.”
Modern Leverage
After leaving Tyler Perry Studios, Reed spent just over 16 years in corporate America. It was during the latter stages of his corporate career, he says he felt “like a caged lion,” believing there was more out there. He resigned from his last role after six months. Now he serves as founder and principal of Modern Leverage, an Atlanta-based AI and business consulting firm that builds AI agent organizations while ensuring “judgment stays with the people accountable for it,” he notes. The firm targets executives, leaders, founders, and practice owners. Its mission is to “give back the capacity that repeatable work takes from the people a business depends on,” he said in a statement shared with AFROTECH™.
“It doesn’t mean we replace this person. It means we use these systems that should be doing a task like digital filing anyway. Because a human being has greater capacity than just filing stuff into different folders … This can also train that person to do something better than what they know to do today,” Reed said.
“The reality is that it’s here. Automation has actually been here. Workflows, efficiencies, all kinds of technology. So, from the Industrial Revolution till now it’s been a thing. That’s nothing new. I think where I stand is how do we leverage it in a way that the focus is on helping people do more,” he added.
Reed details how his firm leverages AI agents named after examples of Black excellence. Its chief quality officer agent, which knows each other agent’s job function, description, and rules, is called Thurgood, after Thurgood Marshall. He also says the agents’ output routes through the chief quality officer, which then gives it a pass or fail. If it fails, the work must be redone to avoid what Reed calls “AI slop.” His chief of staff agent, which delegates tasks and routes them accordingly, is named after former President Barack Obama.
As of publication, his firm runs 24 AI “employees,” including a general counsel that can assist with legal documentation and research on new policy changes or new laws relating to businesses, AI, or the firm. The most recent addition is an inspector general that can audit processes and perform root cause analysis.
“There’s hallucinations that could occur. It can give improper output or things that don’t make sense, or sometimes rules were built, but the rules weren’t followed … So the Inspector General evaluates consistently and identifies when that happens … Anybody that works deeply with AI knows that’s a real problem,” he said.
While agents maintain similar functionality, Reed notes they are built from scratch according to each client’s business needs.
“It’s really about your brand, your voice, your identity, basically that business DNA. That’s fed into the system. That’s the foundation of building out your AI agent organization. So your standard operating procedures, your bottlenecks, your frustrations, what a good day looks like, why you don’t think the effort is getting the return that it should, what you’re trying to prioritize,” Reed acknowleged. “All these things the agents are getting to know very intimately about your business and what projects you have … The system knows you, and then based on that, we evaluate what you may need.”
Modern Leverage’s advisory work also extends to AI strategy; workshops and enablement; the Modern Leverage Diagnostic™, which assesses businesses losing capacity; and the Modern Leverage Strategic Advisory Retainer™, which is an advisory for leaders seeking a thinking partner, according to information shared with AFROTECH™.
