Swan Dive Backwards

The AI adoption book that helps you take the leap from AI curious to AI literate

Most AI books are written for tech people. This one isn't.

Swan Dive Backwards is for the leader who's been told to figure out AI with no roadmap, no clear training budget, and no time. For the founder, learning at 10pm after the kids are in bed. For the team that's been handed a tool and told to transform.

This book is the bridge between "I know I should be doing something with AI" and actually knowing what to do for the long term. Built from real conversations with people who are doing the work. An honest, practical, occasionally irreverent field guide to AI adoption that leaders actually need.

Who This Book Is For

FOUNDERS and ENTREPRENEURS

You know AI matters. You just don't have three months to figure out how. Start here.

LEADERS and MANAGERS

Your team is already using AI (whether you know it or not). This book gives you the map.

THE "SUSPICIOUSLY QUICK" ONES

You've been experimenting quietly. This book gives you the language and framework to go from hidden power user to recognized champion.

If you're building your AI skills in stolen moments between everything else, this book sees you. And it meets you where you are.

ANYONE LEARNING AT 10PM

What’s Inside

The Map

Auditing, training, and building culture (Chapters 4–8) — Audits, training that sticks, flywheels, culture as the operating system.

The Future

Creativity, ROI, equity, and hope (Chapters 12–16) — Creativity, real ROI metrics, the gender gap, job transformation, and the meta story of how this book was made with AI.

The Jump

Where AI literacy actually starts (Chapters 1–3) — Cliff archetypes, the experiment era, the literacy divide.

The Build

From strategy to systems (Chapters 9–11) — Buy/build/bolt-on, building your beehive, championing adoption.

The Voices In This Book

"What a beautiful time to be a woman."

Gazzy Amin

Helen Patterson

A warning about "credible fluff".

"I don't know any men who apologize for finding ways to do things better."

Chris McMartin

Suzanne Huber

“I put the chat in ChatGPT.”

Andrew Jenkins

The 35,000 jobs data point.

"The things that make you really good at AI are those underlying skills. Reasoning. Problem solving. Question asking. Empathy."

Shona Boyd

About Susan

Susan Diaz is the founder of Northlight, an AI literacy and implementation firm that helps leaders and teams actually adopt AI (not just talk about it). She hosts the ‘AI Literacy for Entrepreneurs podcast’, runs an AI implementation mastermind called AI Power Circle, and wrote her first book, ‘UNboring’, because she believed marketing didn't have to be painful. She wrote this one because she believes the same thing about AI.