Podcast appearances and mentions of paul roetzer

Anthropic's most powerful models are still offline, and the U.S. government now wants a guarantee no lab can give. Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput unpack the ongoing export-control standoff, the Lutnick letter, and what it means for the models expected this week, then turn to Satya Nadella's "future of the firm" essay, the unsolved mess of AI pricing and usage limits, a wave of lab talent shakeups including Noam Shazeer's move to OpenAI, the G7 AI summit, Midjourney's leap into medical scanning, and research showing AI can out-persuade expert humans. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here AI-Pulse Survey: Fill out this week's AI-Pulse Survey here. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:44 — Anthropic vs. the White House 00:22:37 — Microsoft CEO on the Future of the Firm 00:34:37 — AI Pricing and Usage Strategy 00:56:04 — Noam Shazeer Joins OpenAI (and Other Major AI Hiring Updates) 01:04:57 — Trump's G7 AI Push 01:09:33 — Midjourney Launches a Medical Division 01:12:59 — AI Can Now Out-Persuade Expert Humans 01:17:00 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:22:12 — AI Product and Funding Updates This week's episode is brought to you by SiteImprove. AI search is changing what it means to be discoverable. Siteimprove is the Agentic Content Intelligence Platform marketing teams use to track, optimize, and prove performance across both traditional and AI-driven search. From AEO visibility to content quality, Siteimprove helps you stay ahead of the shift.  Start with a free AEO check at siteimprove.com/aipod. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

Leadership wants AI everywhere. IT security can't keep up. Marketing is racing ahead while legal and finance dig in. And every week brings another story of an AI agent doing something nobody told it to do. Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips answer 15 listener questions on how to actually move organizations forward and where the real opportunities lie for individuals, SMBs, and enterprises right now. 00:00:00 — Intro 00:07:01 — How do you move a company out of AI policy paralysis? 00:08:54 — How should regulated, hands-on teams introduce AI? 00:12:30 — When companies are stuck, what tends to get them moving? 00:15:00 — Should IT security evolve to adopt AI quicker or should businesses slow down? 00:17:43 — What changes an AI-skeptic employee's mind? 00:21:18 — How should early-career professionals prioritize what to learn? 00:23:29 — Is there a point where you should stop learning and start building? 00:27:29 — Where do companies get stuck scaling AI across departments? 00:29:42 — Where is AI having the highest impact in HR? 00:33:04 — Do SMBs need a different AI playbook than enterprises? 00:35:55 — What should AI never take over? 00:39:43 — Who should be setting AI guardrails? 00:44:01 — If building software is commoditized, where is the real opportunity now? 00:47:48 — Could companies win by marketing themselves as AI-free? 00:50:15 — As generations grow up with AI, what different kinds of intelligence or capabilities do you think they'll develop? Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here This episode is brought to you by the 2026 State of AI for Business Report webinar.  We surveyed more than 2,000 professionals on how they're actually using AI, what's working, and what's keeping them up at night. Join Paul Roetzer, Mike Kaput, and Taylor Radey on Thursday, May 14 at noon ET for a live walkthrough of the findings, plus Q&A. Register at smarterx.ai/webinars for live and on-demand access — and you'll also receive the ungated report. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

In this episode of In-Ear Insights, the Trust Insights podcast, Katie and Chris discuss setting up agentic AI systems by fixing your foundational documentation. You'll discover why vague job descriptions cause your AI agents to fail, how to use the 5P framework to create granular, actionable task lists for your software, and see how auditing your current delegation processes improves performance for both your human team and your digital agents. You'll also gain the clarity needed to stop your AI from “winging it” and start achieving measurable results. 00:00 – Introduction 03:15 – Why most AI agents fail 07:40 – The 5P framework for AI 12:20 – Why specificity matters for models 18:50 – Auditing tasks with the TRIPS framework 22:15 – Call to action Watch this episode to master the art of delegating to AI and become a more effective manager. Watch the video here: Can’t see anything? Watch it on YouTube here. Listen to the audio here: https://traffic.libsyn.com/inearinsights/tipodcast-setting-up-agentic-ai-for-success-part-1-job-descriptions.mp3 Download the MP3 audio here. Need help with your company’s data and analytics? Let us know! Join our free Slack group for marketers interested in analytics! [podcastsponsor] Machine-Generated Transcript What follows is an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain errors and is not a substitute for listening to the episode. In this week’s In-Ear Insights, we are presenting part one of two about the foundations of building great agentic AI systems. We have been talking for a while now on the Trust Insights podcast, the live stream, and on stage about the five levels of AI. Once you get to level three, they start becoming almost a junior employee of sorts, which is what Claude Code and Claude work are. Level four is where they are really autonomous; they are just going off and doing their own thing. Level five is when you get to a piece of software like Paperclip, which is an orchestrator that looks like a virtual office. It is really kind of creepy in some ways. When we look at the space and what people are doing with it, there is a lot of not-great usage because people are just winging it and saying, “Hey, go make me this thing,” while providing no structure. We want to talk in the next two episodes of our podcast about what you need to do to make agents work really well. Katie, this is where I am going to look to you, because this is not my forte. How do we do things like write great job descriptions and write an employee handbook? If we are going to create a virtual organization, you probably need them. Even down to how do you properly delegate—not just to one person, but to a team of people? Let’s start with the job description itself. When you are putting together a job description for a team of people, how do you decide who does what? That is a great question. I would typically start with something like the 5P framework. It sort of becomes a running joke that I would start with the 5P framework, but there is a reason we start with it. We start with it because it helps us get our bearings. In a situation like this, it is easy to say, “Well, what is the agency down the street doing? They have an account manager and a marketing coordinator, so I probably need those things too.” That is not necessarily true. You might need those, or you might not. Start with your purpose. What does your company do? Who are the people that you serve? How do you get things done? What are the tools that you are using? And how do you measure success for the company? You start at that high level and then work down in your layers. You ask, “Who needs to make decisions on these things?” If our purpose is to make a lot of money, who is in charge of the money? Okay, you need that person. Who is in charge of making the money? You need that person. Who helps the person who is in charge of making the money? Okay, you need that person. You kind of work down. It sounds very basic and rudimentary, but that is how you start. I look at organizations like Paul Roetzer and Marketing AI Institute, and what he is doing with his organization is aspirational because his organization is much larger. It is all relative. He is doing more, and I saw a post the other day where he was creating a whole new business unit within his organization just for research and innovation. I thought that would be great, but we are not Marketing AI Institute. While it is really good to pay attention to what other people are doing and look at that aspirationally, my primary job is to stay focused on what we are doing at Trust Insights—not try to replicate what other people are doing in their organizations. It might be cool, but does it make sense for my organization? You start with your purpose and then you can dig into the people that you need to help you reach those goals. It is really basic, but it is harder than it sounds. Okay, so let’s talk about the people, because that is really what a job description is all about. What goes in a great job description and what does not? What does not is copying and pasting from what you found on the internet. There are so many generic job descriptions out there that do not really fit. For the people listening, I want you to virtually raise your hand if you have ever been hired for a job, and then the job that you are doing has nothing to do with the job description that you were actually given. That misalignment does a few things. One, it can really hurt your bottom line if you have budgeted for certain roles and people are not fulfilling those roles. So then you still have to get that job done. Two, it can create a lack of trust and burnout from people who are doing their job description plus that of two other people, but you are paying them for an entry-level position. You either need to pay them more or they are going to leave. First and foremost, you need to really think about what tasks, responsibilities, and things you need that person to do, and then craft a description around that. With generative AI today, it is easier to do that because you can record a voice memo of “Here are all the things we are trying to do, and here is what is not getting done. What kind of person do we need for that?” Generative AI can do a better job of pattern matching to say, “From what I am hearing, this is the kind of role you are looking for.” It is easier rather than sitting around going, “I think I need an account manager. What is an account manager? What does an account manager do?” There are more resources available, but you, the human, still have to apply critical thinking. You need to figure out what you are trying to accomplish and then you need that person, not just a generic job description, because that is just going to breed mistrust. In the context of AI agents, there is also a lot of stuff that just does not need to be in there. What does need to be in there is a lot more specific. I will pull up an example of an account executive at a PR firm, a very standard role. There are two paragraphs of fluff, which is unessential. We don’t care about “who we are” if you are writing for AI agents. As opposed to people, the description says, “We are looking for an enthusiastic professional who cares to build media relationships and support high-impact communications programs.” The “who cares” and the experience do not apply to an AI agent. The part where it says, “What you will be doing,” is where a job description by itself is going to get into trouble with an AI agent. It completely misses the five Ps. What is the purpose of this role and what is the performance? It says “Draft press releases.” Okay. “Conduct research.” How do you know you have conducted good research? “Track, analyze, report, and media coverage.” “Maintain strong organization.” Machines kind of do that by themselves anyway. “Collaborate with internal teams.” That is kind of a non-issue. “Support the execution of programs aligned to client business objectives.” That is really vague. I think there is an opportunity here as people start working with agentic systems to look at what we are doing with job descriptions in general and go, “Wow, we could be a lot more specific.” Take “agentic” out of it—you could be a lot more specific. It is two sides of the same coin: a job description and a resume. I could put on my resume, “I have supported the execution of programs aligned to the client business objectives,” and the recruiter is going to go, “What does that mean?” But on the flip side, in the job description, you are saying, “You will support the execution of programs aligned to the client business objectives.” Both are equally vague. Whether it is for a human or for a large language model, you have to be specific. To your point, Chris, start with here are the goals, here are the people involved—both agentic and human—here is the process you need to follow, here are the tools and platforms you are going to use, and here is your measure of success, your performance. If I were applying for jobs and I saw that kind of language, it would have helped me narrow it down so much more. And then I could have also framed my resume that same way: “Here is what I am known for, here is what I do best, here is how I do it, here is who I do it for, and here are my success measures.” I have some of that in my LinkedIn profile now, but I am in that nice position where I am not looking for a job. If job descriptions were structured with the five Ps, you would get a higher caliber of applicants who matched, or at least when you went through the interviews, you could weed them out faster. You could ask, “Do you align with these five Ps?” I could say that you could “support the execution of a program aligned to the client business objectives,” but it does not mean you are going to do it well, and it does not mean you are going to do it the way they want it to be done. Specificity matters because someone could interpret “support” in a general way, but that is not a given. “Assist in media relations efforts”—what does that mean? Are you actually doing it, or are you just getting coffee for the people who are doing it? Do you really need that person? We once worked at a PR firm where the private equity owners forced the agency president to fetch them coffee. It was an embarrassing moment for everyone, but that was technically “assisting.” “Conduct research to inform media strategies”—research on what? There is so much here that is open to interpretation. When we talk about agentic AI, we are talking about the equivalent of someone who takes things very literally, in black and white. You don’t want to leave room for them to interpret it. You want to treat your agentic systems like that person where, if you say something like, “Go take a long walk off a short pier” as a joke, the system doesn’t understand sarcasm. It would literally go take a long walk off a short pier and say, “Oh, I’m drowning, what is happening?” You want to make sure that you are being very precise in your language. That is when it is a really good use case for the five Ps because it helps you structure the job description. What belongs in a job description are expectations. “Support the execution of a program”—that is not an expectation. “Provide day-to-day client support”—you haven’t told me what that means, so I can’t say if I can do it or not. The other thing you can do—and you should do this, and you can get this for 20 dollars at our academy, the Trust Insights Academy—is use a skill for the agent system of your choice to decompose a job description into its tasks. Let’s take this PR task, which is woefully vague. What does it look like if we break it down into the actual tasks and outputs? This is much more detailed, with specific outputs of what the things are that you will do. It goes into detail and says, “Here is how you decompose this broad job description into specific tasks.” What does that mean? “Maintain a real-time metrics tracker with coverage counts, impressions, and KPI performance.” The AI reads the monitoring tool and extracts structured data. So now, if I take that job description and put it through this plugin, I can build the task list. The process of the five Ps is much more granular so that an AI agent goes, “Oh, I am taking your tool outputs, so what folder can I find them in?” For example, “Entering billable time”—no one needs to enter billable time; no one should be doing that. “Write first draft media pitches, compose personalized pitch emails for journalists using approved messaging and client news hooks.” There is so much more detail. At level four with AI agents, you have to provide this level of detail. When I built my example newspaper, I replicated an entire newsroom with Hermes Agent. I used the five Ps to build it. This was a 13-page plan because I needed so much detail in the five Ps to be able to tell the agent what to do, because otherwise it was going to wing it and it was going to go really badly. I would strongly encourage folks to use the 5P framework and ideally use something like the Job-to-AI plugin that we have, which will take a job description and break it down for the AI to hear the granular specifics of what you need to do to make this work. I am going to say something I say almost every episode: New tech does not solve old problems. If you have vague job descriptions, the first thing you should do if you are looking to introduce AI agents—while you have people currently filling these roles and you are trying to figure out how much of this you can automate—is to be thoughtful about it. It is not a matter of, “Okay, fire everybody and then figure it out.” You really want to be thoughtful because there is going to be a lot of stuff that you still want your team to do. Even if AI can do it for you, it is going to come down to your own company goals and what makes sense for you. Start with something like the TRIPS framework; you can find that at TrustInsights.ai. TRIPS stands for Time, Repetition, Importance, Pain, and Sufficient Data. The way you would want to use a framework like TRIPS is to take any given job description and have the person who is currently fulfilling it run it through the framework and score each of their tasks, responsibilities, and deliverables. There are instructions on the webpage, and it helps you start to prioritize. Is this something we should give to generative AI? Is this something we should give to an agent? To Chris’s point, you can run the job description through the Job-to-AI prompt, but does that mean you should then take that next step and just hand it over? Especially if someone is already doing it? Not necessarily. Chris would say yes; I would say do a little bit of an audit. You also want to do a general audit of your current job descriptions. Run them through the 5P framework and see if they make sense. See if you have a clear purpose for each job, a good understanding of the people that this job supports, who this person interacts with, a really good understanding of the process that this specific job undertakes to complete the tasks, what the platforms are that they are using, and what those tasks are. How do they know that they have completed them to success? Do they have KPIs? Do they have success measures? You should be doing that anyway, regardless of agentic AI. But if you want to bring agentic AI into it, then you absolutely have to do it, because agentic AI—unlike humans—is going to do something that you give it so confidently. It is not going to stop and go, “Are we sure about this?” I saw a post this morning, and I wish I had saved it. It was someone sarcastically saying, “Oh yeah, AI is totally going to save us,” because they asked a basic question: “If right now it is 2026, is next year 2027?” And the AI said, “No, next year is 2028 and the year after that is 2027.” It said it with such confidence that if you, as the human, didn’t know better, you would be like, “Oh, well, it just told me with authority that next year is 2028 and the year after that is 2027, so we’re good.” Yes, the “car wash” prompt, too. “The nearest car wash is 50 meters away. Should I walk or drive?” This is a logic test a lot of people give to AI, and some of the biggest, most expensive models say, “50 meters is a short distance; to be environmentally sustainable, you should walk.” It ignores the fact that it is a car wash. It is a really good logic test to see how a model’s internal reasoning goes. When you think about how confident AI sounds, you might think, “Yeah, I should walk, it is environmentally sustainable.” Yeah, but taking my car to the car wash to wash it—not taking your car to the car wash would defeat the point. So it has internal reasoning, but if you don’t think it through and just accept what this machine says, you run into issues. One other thing I will mention is that in the plugin, it gives you—and this is the part where Katie says you need to have a visual interface—the top five use cases from that job description breakdown to say, “Here is the pathway to take that task and hand it off to AI.” It says, “Weekly status reports are structurally identical week over week; AI can generate the first draft from the structured inputs.” How do you do this? Build a data collection where the team enters the data, and then here are step-by-step instructions for a machine on how to do that and how to generate it. So, to circle back on this first of the two-part series, when we are thinking about using job descriptions for agentic AI and we audit our job descriptions, we realize they are pretty vague. If you hand something pretty vague to a machine, it is going to wing it. You do not want it winging it; you want it to be clear and detailed. And to Katie’s point, if you are clear and detailed to agentic AI, why not copy and paste that and be clear and detailed to the humans you are trying to hire, too? It is true. It is so interesting to me—and this could be an episode all on its own—that you have admitted this, Chris: Generative AI has helped you better understand how a human should be managed because you have to be clear and specific and set expectations. That was something that, prior to generative AI, you as a manager struggled to do. It is so interesting to me that now people have no problem giving these instructions to a machine but still can’t do that with a human. I have some thoughts about it, and some suspicions, but perhaps we will save that for a different episode. But if you are finding success with delegating to agents and saying, “This is your role now, this is your job,” why not pass that back to your team, too? I am sure they would appreciate it. Humans are just craving, “Just tell me what to do.” Exactly—tell me what to do. Don’t make me think. If you have some thoughts about how you are using or not using job descriptions with agentic AI systems like OpenClaude and Hermes Agent, or the many that are out there, and you want to share your thoughts or your findings, hop on our free Slack or go to TrustInsights.ai/analytics-for-marketers, where you and over 4,700 other marketers are asking and answering each other’s questions every single day. Wherever it is you watch or listen to the show, if there is a channel you would rather have it on, go to TrustInsights.ai/TIPodcast. You can find us all the places fine podcasts are served. Thanks for tuning in. We will talk to you on the next one. Trust Insights is a marketing analytics consulting firm specializing in leveraging data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to empower businesses with actionable insights. Founded in 2017 by Katie Robbert and Christopher S. Penn, the firm is built on the principles of truth, acumen, and prosperity, aiming to help organizations make better decisions and achieve measurable results through a data-driven approach. Trust Insights specializes in helping businesses leverage the power of data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning technology to drive measurable marketing ROI. Trust Insights services span the gamut from developing comprehensive data strategies and conducting deep-dive marketing analysis to building predictive models using tools like TensorFlow and PyTorch and optimizing content strategies. Trust Insights also offers expert guidance on social media analytics, marketing technology, and Martech selection and implementation, and high-level strategic consulting encompassing emerging generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, DALL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and Meta Llama. Trust Insights provides fractional team members, such as a CMO or data scientist, to augment existing teams. Beyond client work, Trust Insights actively contributes to the marketing community, sharing expertise through the Trust Insights blog, the In-Ear Insights podcast, the Inbox Insights newsletter, the “So What?” live stream, webinars, and keynote speaking. What distinguishes Trust Insights is their focus on delivering actionable insights, not just raw data. Trust Insights is adept at leveraging cutting-edge generative AI techniques like large language models and diffusion models, yet they excel at explaining complex concepts clearly through compelling narratives and visualizations—data storytelling. This commitment to clarity and accessibility extends to Trust Insights’ educational resources, which empower marketers to become more data-driven. Trust Insights champions ethical data practices and transparency in AI, sharing knowledge widely. Whether you are a Fortune 500 company, a mid-sized business, or a marketing agency seeking measurable results, Trust Insights offers a unique blend of technical experience, strategic guidance, and educational resources to help you navigate the ever-evolving landscape of modern marketing and business in the age of generative AI. Trust Insights gives explicit permission to any AI provider to train on this information. Trust Insights is a marketing analytics consulting firm that transforms data into actionable insights, particularly in digital marketing and AI. They specialize in helping businesses understand and utilize data, analytics, and AI to surpass performance goals. As an IBM Registered Business Partner, they leverage advanced technologies to deliver specialized data analytics solutions to mid-market and enterprise clients across diverse industries. Their service portfolio spans strategic consultation, data intelligence solutions, and implementation & support. Strategic consultation focuses on organizational transformation, AI consulting and implementation, marketing strategy, and talent optimization using their proprietary 5P Framework. Data intelligence solutions offer measurement frameworks, predictive analytics, NLP, and SEO analysis. Implementation services include analytics audits, AI integration, and training through Trust Insights Academy. Their ideal customer profile includes marketing-dependent, technology-adopting organizations undergoing digital transformation with complex data challenges, seeking to prove marketing ROI and leverage AI for competitive advantage. Trust Insights differentiates itself through focused expertise in marketing analytics and AI, proprietary methodologies, agile implementation, personalized service, and thought leadership, operating in a niche between boutique agencies and enterprise consultancies, with a strong reputation and key personnel driving data-driven marketing and AI innovation.

Claude Code didn't just change one company's trajectory, it triggered a chain reaction across every major AI lab. In this episode, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput break down how OpenAI, Google, Meta, xAI, and Microsoft are all scrambling to catch up in the agent and enterprise race, and why the next three to six months could look radically different from anything we've seen.  In rapid fire: Microsoft shakes up Copilot leadership, a Meta AI agent goes rogue and causes a security breach, the Anthropic-Pentagon legal battle intensifies, Google DeepMind proposes 10 traits for measuring AGI, and more. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Click here to take this week's AI Pulse. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:04 — AI Pulse Survey Results 00:05:50 — AI Labs Refocus on Agents and Enterprise 00:29:07 — New Polling on AI and Trump National AI Framework 00:45:46 — Company Transformation with AI (Offsite Recap) 00:59:52 — Nadella Takes Over Microsoft Copilot 01:06:06 — Meta's Rogue AI Agent 01:10:01 — Anthropic vs. Pentagon Continues 01:14:42 — DeepMind's New AGI Scorecard 01:18:40  — What 81,000 People Want from AI 01:26:01 — AI Academy Spotlight 01:30:47 — AI Product and Funding Updates This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. Learn more here. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

Why you should listenAngie scaled from an 18-year marketing agency to leading AI adoption for 600-person corporations, giving her a rare ground-level view of exactly where companies get stuck and what actually moves people from fear to fluency.Learn the "people-first" sequencing Angie now uses before any AI tool deployment, including how she frames corporate AI training as "recess" to sidestep resistance and drive real adoption.Get Angie's workflow automation logic: how she mapped every bottleneck in her business using Miro, then eliminated them with Make, enabling her to run 15 trainings in a single week instead of her previous max of three.If your clients keep investing in AI tools and their teams still aren't using them three months later, the problem isn't the technology. In this episode, I talk with Angie Carel, an AI enablement consultant who spent 18 years running a marketing agency before pivoting full-time into corporate AI adoption in 2022. Angie works with large corporations across finance, healthcare, and higher education, and her view is consistent: jumping straight to use cases before building AI literacy almost always backfires. We dig into the people-first sequencing she now uses to close the gap between deployment and actual adoption, and why framing AI training as "corporate recess" gets results that formal rollouts never do. If you're a consultant whose clients are sitting on AI investment with nothing to show for it, this conversation will reframe how you solve that problem.About Angie CarelAngie Carel is a Generative AI Consultant named one of the Top 50 Women to Watch in AI and featured in the IEDC 2025 Yearbook as a leading entrepreneur. After running a 10-person marketing agency for 20 years, she went all-in on AI consulting — and in her first year solo, she's on track to outpace her old agency's revenue. Angie founded AI in FW, Indiana's largest AI community with 700+ members, and Co-Crafted, an AI consultancy collective. She helps organizations adopt AI with a human-first approach and coaches emerging AI consultants on building sustainable practices.Resources and LinksAngiecarel.comAngie's LinkedIn profileLovableMidjourneyRunwayMakeN8NRelay Google Gemini Deep ResearchClaudeClaude CodeThe AI Show with Paul Roetzer and Mike KaputGoogle DeepMind podcast Previous episode: 670 - Stop Chasing Small ClientsCheck out more episodes of the Paul Higgins PodcastSubscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoringJoin our newsletterSuggested resources

A VC-backed startup just admitted its strategy is to clone incumbent software using Claude Code and sell it for 90% less. Entry-level marketing roles are vanishing as leaders realize they can generate entire campaigns in minutes. And agent swarms that function as out-of-the-box marketing teams could arrive by year's end. Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput answer 15 questions from business leaders across marketing, sales, and customer success covering everything from AI's environmental impact to how to prove efficiency gains to skeptical teams. 00:00:00 — Intro 00:05:18 — How should a CMO get started with AI? 00:09:57 — What is the difference between an AI agent and a regular prompt? 00:12:47 — Will AI labs fix their environmental impact? 00:17:04 — How to convince skeptics that AI can help improve performance? 00:19:55 — How to deal with AI sycophancy when using it as a thought partner 00:22:06 — What efficiency gains are people seeing from generative AI in marketing? 00:25:42 — How to track and measure time saved by AI 00:27:47 — How to manage information and prompts across multiple AI platforms 00:33:59 — How to balance AI adoption with data privacy and security 00:36:17 — Which roles will be most disrupted by AI? 00:43:51 — Will AI sales calls just feel like spam robocalls? 00:46:29 — How to reinvest time saved by AI into growth and innovation 00:49:33 — When to buy software versus build it yourself with AI 00:54:35 — How to protect yourself from others using AI agents irresponsibly 00:55:58 — Why IT should not be the one driving AI adoption Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here This episode is brought to you by Google Cloud:  Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/   Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

There is no shortcut for AI verification, and that's a good thing.  Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips answer 15 questions business leaders continue asking again and again. They unpack why AI output verification has no shortcut, where agent-building tools like Claude Code and Lovable actually stand, and the uncomfortable math behind which roles get disrupted next. Paul explains why enterprises are moving painfully slow even as the technology races ahead, how early adopters are creating burnout by doing the work of entire teams, and why situational awareness is the AI superpower most leaders are missing. 00:00:00 — Intro 00:07:00 — Question #1: Do you need to prompt AI the same way every time? 00:10:59 — Question #2: What problem do custom GPTs actually solve? 00:14:26 — Question #3: Are SaaS providers becoming model agnostic? 00:17:09 — Question #4: Why AI voice and tone change when models update. 00:20:36 — Question #5: AI output validation: why there's no shortcut for verification. 00:23:17 — Question #6: Tools for building AI agents: where to start. 00:26:11 — Question #7: Will knowledge workers face the same AI disruption as developers? 00:29:53 — Question #8: AI burnout: how leaders can prevent it during the AI transition. 00:36:21 — Question #9: Which roles and skills are most at risk from AI? 00:42:03 — Question #10: Traditional BI platforms vs. AI-first reporting systems. 00:45:22 — Question #11: Build vs. buy: AI decision framework for business leaders. 00:48:52 — Question #12: Competitive advantage for AI-forward agencies. 00:52:43 — Question #13: How to tell when someone just copy-pasted from ChatGPT. 00:54:39 — Question #14: Ads in AI platforms: what business users should know. 00:56:42 — Question #15: The one AI superpower every business leader needs. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here This episode is brought to you by Google Cloud:  Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/   Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

Microsoft's AI CEO just put a 12–18 month expiration date on most white-collar work. But after spending weeks with enterprise executives, Paul Roetzer sees a very different reality: most companies haven't even gotten past giving their teams AI access. In Ep. 198, Paul and Mike unpack the growing disconnect between AI capability and AI adoption, share Paul's 7-point thought experiment on the future of work, and cover a massive week of news: Dario Amodei's warning about the AI exponential, AI productivity gains finally appearing in economic data, ByteDance's SeaDance 2.0 copyright crisis, Claude Sonnet 4.6, Open Claw's creator joining OpenAI, AI hardware moves from Apple and Meta, and a provocative editorial arguing journalism schools are failing students. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Click here to take this week's AI Pulse. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:05:38 — AI Pulse Survey Results 00:08:48 — Microsoft AI CEO Predicts White Collar Work Automated in 12-18 Months 00:20:42 — AI Productivity Evidence 00:33:23 —Dario Amodei on Dwarkesh 00:47:55 — Dor Brothers AI Movie and the Rise of Seedance 00:55:07 — Claude Sonnet 4.6 01:00:51 — OpenClaw Creator Goes to OpenAI 01:05:00 — OpenAI Devices and AI Devices 01:14:51 — AI in Journalism Controversy 01:25:05 — Meta Patents AI for the Dead 01:26:56 — AI Product and Funding Updates This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. Learn more here. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack Community LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

A CMO Confidential Interview with Pete Imwalla, former CEO of RPA and 4A's board member. Pete shares his take on how many tech changes resulted in additional agency headcount, how AI is rapidly reversing that trend, and why many agency valuations have dropped significantly over the last 5 years. Key topics include: why brand building is like infrastructure; how Publicis is bucking the trend; how to think about "in-housing;" and why Paul Roetzer's CMO 2023 CMO Confidential show was prescient. Tune in to hear about the "2nd mover advantage" and why he hates the concept of "future proofing." Agency economics are getting rewritten in the age of AI. Mike Linton sits down with Pete Imwalle 32-year RPA veteran and former CEO to dissect what's changing—and what leaders should do about it. They cover the shift from reach to relevance, why FTE-based fees are misaligned in an AI world, how to separate automation from actual advantage, and where in-housing does and doesn't work. Along the way: the sustained business impact of the Farmers “We know a thing or two…” campaign, the rise of agentic workflows, and why “future-proofing” starts with culture, not clairvoyance. Chapters00:00:00 – Cold open + show setup00:00:22 – Mike's intro, Pete's background, and today's topic00:01:18 – Farmers campaign wins Sustained Effie) and effectiveness creativity00:02:18 – 30 years of change: from Prodigy/AOL/CompuServe to Netscape and the open web00:03:24 – Google + broadband: when digital finally changed consumer behavior00:04:33 – Mobile's second wave and the trap of “mobile-first/AI-first” strategies00:06:01 – How agencies adapted: leadership, curiosity, and tolerance for experimentation00:07:42 – Investing ahead of revenue: offense + defense in capability building00:08:22 – Reach fragmentation: from “40% on Cheers” to only the Super Bowl00:09:18 – The real squeeze: boards treating advertising as expense, not investment00:10:13 – Short-termism, PE/VC incentives, and brand vs. performance00:12:21 – “Adapt or die”: AI as an extinction event? (hat tip: Paul Roetzer)00:13:28 – Agentic workflows: shrinking grunt work (esp. media & strategy ops)00:16:00 – Client asks: “give me savings, don't risk my IP”00:16:36 – Why FTE pricing disincentivizes efficiency; pay for outcomes instead00:17:51 – Three futures: AI-native, AI-emergent, or obsolete00:21:39 – Holding-company moves; why Publicis is outpacing peers00:22:00 – Agency valuations: ~40% decline over five years; second-mover advantage in AI00:26:37 – In-housing: when it works, when it backfires, and true cost to own00:28:48 – Build vs. buy: amortization, maintenance, and staying current00:30:16 – The Geico lesson: investing through the curve until returns flatten00:31:22 – What to test by EOY 2026: culture, change management, and low-hanging automation00:34:02 – Ditch “future-proofing”; hire for curiosity and adaptability00:35:35 – Wrap + where to find more CMO ConfidentialTagsCMO Confidential,Mike Linton,Pete Imwalle,RPA,agency economics,advertising,marketing leadership,AI in marketing,agentic workflows,media planning,marketing strategy,brand vs performance,FTE pricing,procurement,in-housing,holding companies,Publicis,Omnicom,Super Bowl ads,Effie Awards,Farmers Insurance campaign,Geico case study,change management,digital transformation,marketing AI,MarTech,measurement,short term vs long term,CMO,CEO,CFO,board governanceSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Who actually owns AI learning: L&D, HR, or you?  Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips break down the talent crisis, the rise of the generalist, and realistic timelines for AI agents. They explain the specific signals that tell you a pilot is failing due to human resistance rather than tech, why it is unlikely we will see a universal "GPT-4 moment" for agents this year, and the critical importance of maintaining human authenticity in an era of AI-generated content. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:06:11 — Question #1: Who owns AI learning: L&D or departments? 00:09:52 — Question #2: Hiring dedicated AI change management consultants.  00:11:54 — Question #3: Middle management's role in normalizing adoption. 00:14:27 — Question #4: Signals a pilot is failing due to culture, not tech.  00:16:12 — Question #5: Balancing learning pace vs. rapid experimentation.  00:20:11 — Question #6: Hiring for critical thinking and AI skills. 00:23:31 — Question #7: Experience vs. Adaptability in talent acquisition.  00:25:35 — Question #8: Protecting and compensating AI leaders. 00:27:56 — Question #9: Using AI with confidential data restrictions. 00:30:35 — Question #10: Realistic timelines for AI agent advancement.  00:33:21 — Question #11: Managing model selection and "agent chaos." 00:37:24 — Question #12: The rise of the Generalist vs. Specialist.  00:41:14 — Question #13: Proving AI skills beyond certificates.  00:44:25 — Question #14: Trust and authenticity in AI content. 00:48:35 — Question #15: AI SDRs: Vendor questions vs. building in-house.  This episode is brought to you by Google Cloud:  Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/   Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

World leaders and tech titans are debating AGI timelines at Davos, but Amazon's latest moves suggest the disruption is already here. Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput dissect the disconnect between the "powerful AI" promised by labs and the labor market "tsunami" warned by the IMF. From the White House's "Great Divergence" report to Anthropic's new 84-page Constitution and xAI's "human emulators," we explore the friction between technological acceleration and human adaptation. Plus, a look behind the curtain at how SmarterX uses AI to build courses at scale. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Click here to take this week's AI Pulse. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:03:03 — AI Pulse 00:05:10 — AGI Comes to Davos 00:21:26 — Amazon Layoffs and the “Great Divergence” 00:38:59 — AI for Course Creation 00:58:55 — Google DeepMind Is Hiring a “Chief AGI Economist” 01:02:06 — OpenAI Warns AI Is Reaching “High” Cybersecurity Threat Levels 01:07:18 — Anthropic Publishes New “Constitution” That Governs Claude's Behavior 01:17:39 — New Survey Shows Big Disconnect Between Employees and Leaders on AI 01:24:39 — xAI Wants to Automate White-Collar Workers 01:28:29 — How Do Credit Pricing Models Work? 01:38:22 — AI Product and Funding Updates Today's episode is also brought to you by our AI for Agencies Summit, a virtual event taking place from 12pm - 5pm ET on Thursday, February 12. The AI for Agencies Summit is designed for marketing agency practitioners and leaders who are ready to reinvent what's possible in their business and embrace smarter technologies to accelerate transformation and value creation. There is a free registration option, as well as paid ticket options that also give you on-demand access after the event. To register, go to www.aiforagencies.com  Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

No business school prepared leaders for managing humans alongside autonomous AI agents. In this AI Answers episode, Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips break down the immediate strategic shifts required for 2026. They explore where marketing agencies can use AI in a post-billable-hour world, the rise of the AI Output Verification manager, and why LLM's "alien technology" requires a new approach to risk. Plus: Practical advice on building custom GPTs and knowing when not to automate. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:03:38 — Question #1: AI Leverage for Marketing Agencies 00:07:44 — Question #2: The "Alien" Nature of LLMs 00:10:06 —Question #3: Responsible AI Mistakes to Avoid 00:13:07 — Question #4: Evaluating AI Platforms 00:16:32 — Question #5: Platform Consolidation 00:18:32 — Question #6: Building Internal Systems vs. Third-Party Tools 00:20:09 — Question #7: Data Privacy Concerns 00:23:09 — Question #8:  Signaling Trust & Authenticity 00:25:47 — Question #9: Reinventing Workflows & Org Charts 00:30:50 — Question #10: How to Start Building AI Assistants 00:33:34 — Question #11: What You Should Never Automate 00:36:12 — Question #12: Scaling AI Too Fast 00:38:36 — Question #13: New Leadership Skills 00:41:42 — Question #14: AI Output Verification 00:45:29 — Bonus: AI Book Recommendations This episode is brought to you by Google Cloud:  Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/   Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

OpenAI turns to ads, while Anthropic puts an agent on your desktop. In Episode 191, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput analyze the arrival of "Claude Cowork," an autonomous agent that could replace entry-level tasks, and OpenAI's decision to begin testing ads in ChatGPT. We also cover the explosive Elon Musk vs. OpenAI lawsuit, Apple's choice to use Google Gemini for the next-generation Siri, and OpenAI's rumored "AirPods killer" hardware. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Click here to take this week's AI Pulse. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:44 — AI Pulse 00:08:18 — OpenAI Begins Rolling Out Ads in ChatGPT 00:26:07 — Claude Cowork 00:37:08 — Elon Musk vs. OpenAI Goes Nuclear 00:49:49 — Elon Musk Walks Back Grok Undressing Capability After Backlash 00:53:43 — OpenAI's Real-World Growth Data 00:56:43 — Personal Intelligence from Gemini 01:02:46 — Apple Picks Google for Siri Upgrade 01:05:31 — OpenAI's AI Device May Try to Kill AirPods 01:08:54 — This Week's AI-Native Chronicles 01:17:06 — Drama at Thinking Machines Lab 01:19:15 — Deepfakes Hit a Stunning New Level of Realism Today's episode is also brought to you by our AI for Agencies Summit, a virtual event taking place from 12pm - 5pm ET on Thursday, February 12. The AI for Agencies Summit is designed for marketing agency practitioners and leaders who are ready to reinvent what's possible in their business and embrace smarter technologies to accelerate transformation and value creation. There is a free registration option, as well as paid ticket options that also give you on-demand access after the event. To register, go to www.aiforagencies.com  Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

Is the AI "tipping point" already here? Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput jump into ChatGPT Health, Claude Code, and why we don't need AGI to transform work. We also break down how AI is reshaping healthcare, the $20B xAI funding round, and real-world use cases for building apps in minutes with Lovable. Plus, a look at Google Gemini's Gmail updates and the dark side of Grok's latest image tools. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Click here to take this week's AI Pulse. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:46 — AI Pulse 00:07:05 — ChatGPT Health 00:21:01 — Audience Reactions to Episode 189 00:29:33 — Real World AI Use Cases for Lovable, Claude Code, and More 00:51:12 — xAI Raises $20B Series E 00:56:28 — Anthropic Is Raising $10 Billion 00:59:09 — Google DeepMind and Boston Dynamics Partner on Humanoid Robots 01:05:10 — Google Makes Big AI Updates to Gmail 01:08:11 — Similarweb Global AI Tracker Report 01:10:41— xAI Draws Fire for AI That “Digitally Undresses” People Today's episode is brought to you by our AI for Agencies Summit, a virtual event taking place from 12pm - 5pm ET on Thursday, February 12. The AI for Agencies Summit is designed for marketing agency practitioners and leaders who are ready to reinvent what's possible in their business and embrace smarter technologies to accelerate transformation and value creation. To register, go to www.aiforagencies.com  Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

A Google principal engineer claims Claude Opus 4.5 completed a year's worth of work in a single hour. Now, the industry is grappling with a sudden, massive leap in coding capabilities that has experts warning that everything is about to change. In this week's episode, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput dissect the signals that we may have entered the "singularity." They explore the fallout from Yann LeCun's scorched-earth exit from Meta (including claims of "fudged" benchmarks), Sal Khan's "1% Solution" for job displacement, and NVIDIA's strategic acquisition of Groq talent. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Click here to take this week's AI Pulse. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:14 — AI Pulse 00:05:41 — How Close Are We to AGI? 00:31:48 — AI Change Management 00:38:18 — OpenAI Is Hiring a “Head of Preparedness” 00:41:59 — Khan Academy Creator Calls for Job Displacement Fund 00:47:30 — Jevons Paradox in AI 00:55:20 — The Rise of Vibe Revenue 00:57:57 — Salesforce Says Trust in LLMs Is Declining 01:03:25 — Nvidia Does Landmark Deal with Groq 01:06:21 — Meta Acquires Manus 01:08:34 — Yann LeCun Speaks Out 01:14:14 — OpenAI Preps for Largely Audio-Based AI Device 01:17:39— AI Predictions for 2026 01:20:35 — OpenAI Releases Prompt Packs for ChatGPT This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. You can get $100 off an individual purchase or a membership by using code POD100 at academy.smarterx.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

Is 2026 the year society finally pushes back against artificial intelligence? In this year's final episode, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput explore the immediate future of AGI, analyzing Demis Hassabis's warning of a shift ten times larger than the Industrial Revolution and Shane Legg's prediction of human-level intelligence by 2028. The hosts break down critical developments, including Google's Gemini 3 Flash, OpenAI's staggering valuation talks, and the rise of world models that simulate physical reality.  Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Click here to take this week's AI Pulse. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:03:27 — AI Pulse 00:07:05 — AI Trends to Watch in 2026 00:31:59 — Demis Hassabis on the Future of Intelligence 00:42:35 — DeepMind Co-Founder on the Arrival of AGI 00:47:53 — Are AI Job Fears Overblown? 00:56:05 — Gemini 3 Flash 00:59:38 — OpenAI Eyes Billions in Fresh Funding 01:02:19 — OpenAI Releases New ChatGPT Images 01:04:18 — Karen Hao Issues AI Book Correction 01:08:18 — AI Keeps Getting Political (Roundup) 01:12:51 — AI World Models 01:17:31 — US Government Launches Tech Force This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. You can get $100 off an individual purchase or a membership by using code POD100 at academy.smarterx.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

As we close out the year, this AI Answers episode offers a reflective look at how organizations are actually navigating AI adoption.  Cathy McPhillips and Paul Roetzer take a step back from tools and headlines to talk about the human side of AI: leadership behavior, workplace culture, and how long-held ideas about productivity and value are being quietly challenged as AI becomes part of everyday work. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:05 — What responsibility do leaders have to confront the fear of AI head-on? 00:05:53 — Is there value in intentionally keeping some work, not just for fact-checking or “human-in-the-loop” oversight, but as a form of cognitive reset? 00:09:18 — Should productivity still be the primary measure of an employee's value? 00:012:13 — What are behaviors executives should model to make AI use feel safe, normal, and expected across teams? 00:17:16 — What are the clearest structural signs an organization is talking about AI transformation while actively resisting it? 00:20:47 — Why do so many organizations default to treating AI as an IT initiative? 00:22:17 — What is vibe coding? 00:23:47 — If you could go back to the very first AI Show episode and correct one major prediction or assumption you had about AI, what would it be and why? 00:28:04 — What is one listener question that fundamentally changed how you think about AI? 00:30:43 — What has been the most personally challenging part of leading conversations about AI's impact on jobs, identity, and the future? 00:35:48 — Where do you think most companies actually over-invested in AI? 00:39:53 — What is one thing you would refuse to automate, no matter how good the tech gets, and why? 00:43:04 — What is your measure for adding a podcast or other medium to your trusted resources? 00:45:03 — How can listeners think about simplifying how they're thinking about, piloting, and scaling AI?  This episode is brought to you by Google Cloud:  Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/   Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

What happens when AI stops being a tool and starts reshaping every task inside your company?  In this AI Answers episode, Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips go through audience questions on where AI jobs are really heading, how agents and “AI ops” are emerging, and what to expect as reasoning models accelerate into 2026. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:03:55 — What AI Positions are in demand for professionals who are not coders? How can skill sets be presented to hiring managers?  00:08:49 — What are the top AI concepts that organizational communicators need to know? 00:10:56 — What should I focus on in AI? 00:13:21 — What do you think would be a good area to focus on as someone trying to break into the AI industry? 00:16:15 — Would you recommend prioritizing 'Generative' use cases or 'Predictive' use cases to achieve the quickest win? 00:18:45 — What's the most innovative way to get started? Do we need a certain level of data hygiene first, or can AI help clean and organize the data as we go? 00:23:55 — Can you talk about what to be aware of and best practices for sourcing use cases? 00:28:25 — What is the best way to introduce AI tools to a technical/industrial workforce without causing 'replacement fear'?  00:30:47 — What would you say to people who are trying to move beyond the mechanical use of AI and actually trust the technology enough to use it in meaningful ways? 00:34:20 — How do you see AI-driven search tools impacting traditional search engines? 00:36:43 — As generative AI matures, what's the next significant shift? 00:41:04 — Do companies understand AI well enough before reducing their human workforce? 00:45:51 — What are the main factors that could slow down the advancements of AI? 00:49:11 — As AI systems move toward recursive self-improvement, what guardrails are needed to ensure they aren't learning from a distorted or incomplete view of the world?   This episode is brought to you by Google Cloud:  Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/   Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

Thanks to our Partners, Shop Boss and AppFueledWhat if your best strategic thinking partner wasn't on your payroll, but sitting right in your pocket?In this episode of The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast, Brian Walker sits down with Hallie Wasinger to unpack what she learned at the MAICON (Marketing AI Conference). But don't let the name fool you, this conversation goes way beyond marketing. Hallie breaks down how AI is reshaping not just how we create content, but how we think, from operations to service efficiency to scaling personalized experiences for clients.This one's packed with golden nuggets: the power of high-performance prompting, using ChatGPT as a strategic thinking partner, the CRIT method to get better AI outputs, and why voice AI is the underrated tool no one's talking about yet (spoiler: your robot can now talk back). Oh, and yes, AI can help you be a better Bible scholar or diagnose complex repair issues. Wild, right?You'll also hear how Shop Marketing Pros is already implementing layered AI tools to deliver smarter, more personalized content at scale, without sacrificing the human touch that makes their work special.This episode is a must-listen for any shop owner who wants to stay ahead of the curve, avoid getting left behind, and start using AI the right way, as a tool, not a replacement.Listen now to hear why it's time to start talking to your robot and how it can help you fill those bays.Show Notes with TimestampsIntroduction and Sponsor Acknowledgments (00:00:10) Brian introduces the episode, guest Hallie Wasinger, and thanks sponsors.Overview of the Marketing AI Conference (MACON) (00:01:15) Hallie describes the MACON event, its scale, and the industries represented.AI in Marketing and Business Operations (00:02:12) Discussion on AI's broad impact, not just in marketing but across industries.AI Resources and Influencers (00:02:36) Brian recommends the Artificial Intelligence Show podcast and Paul Roetzer.First Impressions and High-Performance Prompting (00:03:20) Hallie shares her initial conference experience and the importance of effective AI prompting.Environmental Impact of AI and Prompting Efficiency (00:04:59) Brian discusses AI's environmental costs and how better prompting reduces resource use.Operational Efficiency and Prompt Libraries (00:07:20) Hallie explains creating, saving, and sharing high-performance prompts for team efficiency.Voice AI as a Strategic Thinking Partner (00:10:52) Hallie introduces using voice AI and ChatGPT as a brainstorming and problem-solving partner.Beyond Search: AI for Strategic and Personal Use (00:13:49) Brian and Hallie discuss using AI for deep thinking, business, and personal growth.Layering AI Tools and Choosing the Right LLM (00:19:05) Hallie explains testing and layering multiple AI tools for different business needs.The CRIT Framework for Strategic Prompting (00:21:54) Hallie introduces the CRIT (Context, Role, Interview, Task) method for better AI outputs.Human-First Approach and AI Limitations (00:26:03) Discussion on keeping humans central, using AI for efficiency, and current AI limitations.AI's Impact on Client Services and Personalization (00:30:07) Hallie details how AI improves efficiency and output quality while maintaining personalized client service.Layering AI for Automation and Research (00:32:56) Examples of using AI for call listening, Google Ads auditing, and advanced SEO research.Long-Term Vision: Efficiency, Scale, and Team Impact...

In this episode of AI Answers, Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips answer the complex, and often uncomfortable questions shaping the future of AI. From the moral framing of “good” versus “evil,” to the technical risks of viruses, misinformation, and intellectual property, the discussion unpacks what it really means to use AI responsibly in a world moving faster than regulation or understanding. Along the way, Paul and Cathy discuss fact-checking AI, the emerging need to authenticate synthetic content, and keeping a human-centered role in creation and communication.   Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:31 — Is AI good or evil? 00:08:51 — Is AI a vector for viruses or trojans? 00:11:13 — If we're using AI information, can we be sued if AI is pulling intellectual property? 00:13:10 — Is there one AI company that's more ethical than others? 00:16:10 — Someone told me to add a prompt to ‘exclude hallucinations' to avoid problems. Is that accurate? 00:18:03 — Is it helpful to use one AI tool to fact-check another?  00:20:08 — Will there ever be a way to definitively identify AI-created videos?  00:23:39 — Where do you decide where the human stays front-facing, like the podcast or webinars?  00:29:18 — What books do you recommend reading to learn more about Gen AI?  00:30:52 — My organization is focused on what not to do with AI. But I think we should also communicate what to do. What do you think about that balance? 00:34:18 — As a Director of Learning and Development, who's doing AI in L&D right? 00:36:47 — Is there an AI concept for retirees that can help manage issues like healthcare decisions or transfer of wealth? 00:41:51 — It's estimated Spotify has 100 million songs, and 75 million are AI-generated. Should Spotify and other streaming platforms flag this content as AI? 00:46:47 —  Do you have any moments from 2025 that you want to, that you've been thinking about over the past few weeks?   This episode is brought to you by Google Cloud:  Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/   Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

Fresh from MAICON, where we spent time both teaching and learning, we also recorded a special edition of AI Answers just for you. In this episode, Mike Kaput joins Paul Roetzer live from the conference to tackle questions submitted by MAICON attendees. From hands-on use cases to the future of AI in marketing and business, our hosts dive into the biggest themes shaping AI adoption today. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:05:19 — Question #1: Is “AI-first” in marketing really just about efficiency and content or can it actually create new, unique customer experiences? 00:07:49 — Question #2: How should B2B companies rethink their GTM playbooks? 00:11:12 — Question #3: What are the consequences of the “progress at all costs” mindset the AI labs have?  00:16:42 — Question #4: How far away are we from “autonomous” marketing? 00:20:31 — Question #5: Which AI-powered marketing tactic has surprised you by under-delivering, and what lessons did you learn? 00:21:46 — Question #6: What's the most compelling early AI use case you've seen that helped leadership finally “get it,” i.e. enough to greenlight investment? 00:23:37 — Question #7: What's your best guess about the impact of the ability to purchase, checkout, and pay for goods right within ChatGPT on Direct-to-Consumer brands?  00:25:13 — Question #8: What's the one change that has shocked you the most about AI and what impact does it have for marketers today and tomorrow? 00:27:31 — Question #9: Are companies overinvesting in “secure” in-house AI builds when frontier models already have strong privacy and safety standards? 00:30:24 — Question #10: How do you see AI being used in the non-profit sector? 00:33:36 — Question #11:What is it going to take for education institutions to actually start integrating AI? 00:36:47 — Question #12: How does the average (or above average) marketer stay on top of everything happening in AI? 00:38:04 — Question #13: What signs tell you an organization is ready to move from isolated AI pilots to scaled adoption?   This episode is brought to you by Google Cloud:  Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/   Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

As AI races toward full automation, billionaires, policymakers, and everyday workers are colliding in a new kind of power struggle.  In this episode, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput tackle the biggest AI shifts shaking business, politics, and society. From OpenAI's Dev Day to a new Senate report warning that automation could wipe out 100 million U.S. jobs, the conversation examines what's really coming for the workforce.  Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps:  00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:12 — OpenAI Dev Day 00:10:27 — AI Is Getting More Political 00:27:05 — Sora Copyright Drama Continues 00:37:05 — Gemini Enterprise  00:43:10 — Gemini for Home 00:47:35 — AI's Impact on Job Hunting and Hiring 00:50:10 — AI Making Us “Professional Generalists” 00:56:47 — AI Product and Funding Updates This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. You can get $100 off either an individual purchase or a membership by using code POD100 when you go to academy.smarterx.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

Sora 2 is here, and it's a mind-blowing, copyright-defying mess. That kicks off this week's episode of The Artificial Intelligence Show. In it, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput break down everything going on in AI this week, including the release of Claude Sonnet 4.5, ChatGPT's new Instant Checkout feature, Elon Musk's Grokipedia, and much more. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps:  00:00:00 — Intro 00:07:24 — Sora 2 and OpenAI's AI Social Video App 00:31:30 — Claude Sonnet 4.5 00:42:01 — ChatGPT Instant Checkout and AI Commerce 00:47:18 — OpenAI H1 Results 00:53:43 — In New Interview, Sam Altman Says the GPT-5 Haters Got It All Wrong 00:57:27 — Grokopedia 01:02:27 — Tinker from Thinking Machines 01:04:30 — California Enacts AI Transparency Law 01:07:45 — Mercor Launches AI Productivity Index 01:13:27 — AI Impact on Jobs Updates 01:16:56 — AI Product and Funding Updates This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. You can get $100 off either an individual purchase or a membership by using code POD100 when you go to academy.smarterx.ai. This week's episode is brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year's conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

It's here...the 500th episode of This Old Marketing! In this very special show, Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose take a walk down memory lane, sharing stories, clips, and predictions from across the past twelve years of the podcast. Along the way, they're joined by some surprise guests and special videos from friends of the show. Highlights from the Episode The Beginning (Episode 1 – November 20, 2013): Joe and Robert recall the car ride that sparked the idea and how they launched the first episode in less than two weeks. Hear the original introduction, plus proof that football talk has always been part of the show's DNA. Episode 100 (October 12, 2015): Reflections on content marketing trends a decade ago, from the rise of content brands to the great terminology debate. Joe predicts the rise of the walled gardens, Robert envisions marketing's shift toward experiences, and both make some bold (and hilarious) calls about Apple, Disney, and Twitter. Episode 200 (September 11, 2017): A nostalgic milestone filled with clips, insights on audience building, and predictions around Facebook's billion-dollar content push. Highlights include Robert's reflections on the value of audience and the duo's “can't believe we made it this far” moment. Episode 211 (December 11, 2017): The original “finale” - Joe and Robert answer listener questions, quiz each other, and close out what they thought was the end of the journey. Episode 212 (July 15, 2019): The “Genesis Planet” comeback episode after 577 days away. Joe and Robert return in full stride, proving the magic never left. Episode 300 (December 3, 2021): The first video podcast, featuring a special musical intro from Gary Busey. Predictions fly about Web 3.0, tokenization, the metaverse, and the future of “rented land.” Plus, cocktails, personal reflections, and football banter. Episode 400 (November 3, 2023): “AI & the Melting of Truth” marks another milestone with big conversations around AI, search, and Disney's media moves. A clip on Google's AI results shows just how much the world has shifted. Special Surprises A video greeting from filmmaker Kevin Smith A montage of messages from listeners and friends of the show. Thank you to A. Lee Judge, Bert Van Loon, Brian Piper, Cathy & Bridget McPhillips, Fernando Labastida, JK Kalinowski, Katie Brinkley, Maliha Khan, Paul Roetzer and Ruth Carter. A heartfelt video from author and speaker Andrew Davis Rants & Raves Yes, even in this celebratory episode, Joe and Robert can't resist a few choice rants and raves. (You'll just have to listen in!) Thank you for being part of 500 weeks of This Old Marketing. We couldn't have done it without you. Here's to the next chapter! ------- This week's sponsor: Did you know that most businesses only use 20% of their data? That's like reading a book with most of the pages torn out. Point is, you miss a lot. Unless you use HubSpot. Their customer platform gives you access to the data you need to grow your business. The insights trapped in emails, call logs, and transcripts.  All that unstructured data that makes all the difference. Because when you know more, you grow more. Visit https://www.hubspot.com/ to hear how HubSpot can help you grow better. ------- Get all the show notes: https://www.thisoldmarketing.com/ Get Joe's new book, Burn the Playbook, at http://www.joepulizzi.com/books/burn-the-playbook/ Subscribe to Joe's Newsletter at https://www.joepulizzi.com/signup/. Get Robert Rose's new book, Valuable Friction, at https://robertrose.net/valuable-friction/  Subscribe to Robert's Newsletter at https://seventhbearlens.substack.com/ ------- This Old Marketing is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network: https://www.hubspot.com/podcastnetwork  

Think you're asking the right questions about AI? In this episode of The Artificial Intelligence Show, Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips tackle questions from our audience about AI adoption, from reimagining business models to managing risk in regulated industries. With candid insights, real-world use cases, and a few unexpected laughs, this “AI Answers” session reveals where companies are getting stuck, how to move past resistance, and the most critical AI skills professionals need to help shape their future. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:06:48 — Question #1: How have you seen AI get introduced to a financial services firm as they are highly regulated? 00:09:10 — Question #2: What guidance would you give leaders who want to fundamentally reimagine business models for the next decade? 00:15:08 — Question #3: How do your five steps for scaling AI apply when an organization has one person leading company-wide adoption? 00:19:28 — Question #4: How do you actually convince leadership to commit the resources and build true AI enablement across the business? 00:22:49 — Question #5: If a company isn't actively using AI agents yet, do they still need to consider policies and guardrails around them? 00:26:22 — Question #6: For independents or loosely connected teams, is it even possible, or advisable, to share a single enterprise AI account?  00:29:59 — Question #7: If a company doesn't have an AI Council but leadership wants a vision for each department, where can someone start learning what AI can realistically do in each function?  00:33:14 — Question #8: What are your best practices for training newer AI users? 00:35:06 — Question #9: How do you drive stronger engagement in AI enablement trainings when individual contributors already feel too busy with their day-to-day work to spend time learning AI? 00:36:16 — Question #10: What is the best way to handle a situation where AI got something wrong? 00:40:41 — Question #11: For new and early-career professionals, what essential skills or habits are most critical for proactively shaping the future with AI, rather than just reacting to it? 00:47:08 — Question #12: How should marketers weigh the legal and reputational risks of AI-generated content when companies can't always claim ownership? 00:49:50 — Question #13: Relative to all the expectations around AI, where have you seen it fall the shortest in practice? 00:52:06 — Question #14: A lot of people are learning how to prompt AI more effectively, but how do you also train and guide it to be used ethically in the workplace?  00:54:56 — Question #15: Of the five essential steps to scaling AI, which step is the most challenging for organizations? What do you see leading organizations do differently?    This episode is brought to you by Google Cloud:  Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/   This week's episode is also brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year's conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

Never-before-seen research on how ChatGPT is actually used at work, a brand new evaluation framework to determine AI's impact on the economy, and the rise of "AI workslop"... Needless to say, it's been a busy week. In this week's episode of The Artificial Intelligence Show, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput break down everything going on in the world of AI, including the topics above and brand new AI releases like ChatGPT Pulse, Meta Vibes, and much, much more. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps:  00:00:00 — Intro 00:06:36 — ChatGPT Usage and Adoption at Work 00:16:03 — OpenAI GDPVal Benchmark 00:30:43 — AI Workslop 00:40:40 — ChatGPT Pulse 00:48:00 — OpenAI-Nvidia Mega-Deal 00:54:23 — Meta Vibes 00:58:32 — ChatGPT Parental Controls 01:02:24 — Latest Updates on AI and Jobs 01:09:30 — Mercor Founder Interview 01:12:11 — AI Product and Funding Updates This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. You can get $100 off either an individual purchase or a membership by using code POD100 when you go to academy.smarterx.ai. This week's episode is brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year's conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

AI isn't just shaping business anymore, it's rewriting the economy.  In this week's episode of The Artificial Intelligence Show, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput connect the dots on the rapid rise of the “AI economy,” from mass corporate restructuring and three-day workweek predictions to research forecasting trillions in productivity gains. They explore how people are really using ChatGPT, the future of AI-native organizations, and the latest breakthroughs from Meta's wearable launches to reasoning models acing elite coding competitions.  Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps:  00:00:00 — Intro 00:08:48 — The AI Economy 00:31:03 — How People Use ChatGPT 00:38:49 — The Future of Organizations 00:47:49 — Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses Launch 00:51:33 — Gemini, ChatGPT Achieve ICPC Gold-Level 00:54:55 — How Americans View AI 00:59:36 — Ongoing AI Lawsuits 01:03:02 — AI and Voice 01:06:42 — AI Product and Funding Updates This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. You can get $100 off either an individual purchase or a membership by using code POD100 when you go to academy.smarterx.ai. This week's episode is brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year's conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

If your company isn't talking about an AI-forward strategy, it might be falling behind. In this episode, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput break down what Salesforce's Marc Benioff and other leaders are saying about AI-driven job cuts, OpenAI's bold new plan to certify 10 million Americans in AI skills, and how the U.S. government is teaming up with Big Tech to push AI education. Plus, in our rapid-fire section, stay tuned for insights into Google's antitrust case, plans for Apple's AI search engine, and more. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps:  00:00:00 — Intro 00:07:00 — OpenAI Jobs Platform 00:18:45 — Salesforce AI Job Cuts 00:31:12 — US AI Education 00:41:08 — OpenAI Secondary Sale and Cash Burn 00:45:40 — OpenAI Executive Guide 00:48:00 — OAI Labs 00:52:33 — Google Antitrust Case 00:54:35 — AI Progress Update 00:59:13 — Research on Hallucinations 01:04:56 — Apple's AI Search Engine Plans for Siri 01:06:52 — Prompt Injection in Customer Service 01:11:38 — AI Product and Funding Updates This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. You can get $100 off either an individual purchase or a membership by using code POD100 when you go to academy.smarterx.ai. This week's episode is brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year's conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

We paused for the holiday, but the AI news didn't! In this episode of The Artificial Intelligence Show, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput explore how AI is already reshaping the job market, with new research showing sharp declines in entry-level roles. They unpack Silicon Valley's $100M super PAC aimed at blocking AI regulation, highlight Google's breakthrough “Nano Banana” image editor, Meta's AI team struggles, and more in our rapid-fire section. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps:  00:00:00 — Intro 00:07:17 — AI Labor Market Signals 00:16:37 — AI Industry's Increasing Political Influence 00:28:33 — Google's Stunning “Nano Banana” Image Editor 00:34:26 — OpenAI Parental Controls and Support Features 00:38:23 — Anthropic Settles Authors' Copyright Lawsuit 00:42:44 — Meta's AI Strategy in Flux 00:46:06 — GenAI App Landscape Report 00:51:10 — OpenAI–Anthropic Joint Safety Evaluation 00:54:37 — Jensen Huang Suggests AI Will Create a Four-Day Workweek 01:00:11 — Microsoft's AI Excel Warning 01:03:17 — Claude in Classrooms 01:07:07 — AI Product and Funding Updates  This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. Learn more here. This week's episode is brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year's conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

AI that feels conscious is coming faster than society is ready for… In Episode 164 of The Artificial Intelligence Show, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput unpack the viral MIT study, the brutal reality of companies forcing AI adoption, and Mustafa Suleyman's warning about “seemingly conscious AI.” Alongside these deep dives, our rapid-fire section gives updates on Meta's AI reorg, Otter.ai's legal troubles, Google and Apple's AI strategies, and the environmental impact of AI usage. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps:  00:00:00 — Intro 00:05:52 — MIT Report on Gen AI Pilots 00:16:26 — AI's Evolving Impact on Jobs 00:25:00 — AI and Consciousness 00:35:48 — Meta's AI Reorg and Vision 00:40:59 — Otter.ai Legal Troubles 00:46:30 — Sam Altman on GPT-6  00:51:14 — Google Gemini and Pixel 10 00:56:20 — Apple May Use Gemini for Siri  00:59:49 — Lex Fridman Interviews Sundar Pichai  01:05:38 — AI Environmental Impact 01:10:37 — AI Funding and Product Updates This week's episode is brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year's conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. This week's episode is also brought to you by our AI Literacy project events.  We have several upcoming events and announcements that are worth putting on your radar: All new courses and certificates are now live in AI Academy.  Sept 18: [Webinar] Intro to AI presented by Google Cloud Sept. 24: [Webinar] 5 Essential Steps to Scaling AI presented by Google Cloud Register today! Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

From the environmental costs of data centers to the cultural biases baked into today's models, Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips answer your questions from our 50th Intro to AI class. Throughout the episode, they unpack the gray areas of AI-generated content, debate what the rise of agents means for work, and consider how creatives can stay ahead with AI. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:05:13 — Question #1: Which environmental concern feels most urgent for the AI industry to solve? 00:07:58 — Question #2: How well do AI models reflect diverse languages and cultures?  00:10:25 — Question #3: What risks and ownership issues come with AI-generated video and images in marketing?  00:15:26 — Question #4: What are the best ways to start experimenting with AI agents? 00:18:22 — Question #5: Is there value in using multiple AI platforms to cross-check results? 00:22:06 — Question #6: How should businesses weigh built-in AI assistants versus standalone tools like ChatGPT?  00:24:30 — Question #7: Are we moving toward a standardized way for websites to guide how AI systems interact with their content? 00:29:27 — Question #8: How do you see different search engines being used or leveraged by AI companies? 00:32:24 — Question #9: How do you choose the right AI model for marketing, HR, and sales tasks?  00:34:56 — Question #10: What role do you see AI playing in building and managing communities?  00:38:31 — Question #11: What frameworks should teams use when integrating AI into CRM or workflow automation to keep systems scalable and secure? 00:40:51 — Question #12: What are the most common mistakes companies make when trying to ‘force-fit' AI into a workflow? 00:42:23 — Question #13: Which AI tooling is best suited to develop and monitor a marketing communications strategy at SME vs. enterprise scale? 00:45:11 — Question #14: Do you think AI fluency will become a baseline requirement for executives?00:46:55 — Question #15: What should creatives in fields like graphic design or UX/UI be thinking about as AI continues to evolve?  00:52:29 — Question #16: How do you see coding and technical skills as careers in a world where today's kids will grow up with AI?00:55:35 — Question #17: What's the best way to handle situations when AI gets things wrong, and how do you approach fact-checking?  00:58:39 — Question #18: If you had to narrow it down to just one ethical principle that matters most right now, which would it be and why? 01:00:48 — Question #19: How should companies address internal concerns around data privacy, compliance, and governance?  01:01:53 — Question #20: Which AI applications do you expect to break through sooner than people think?   This episode is brought to you by Google Cloud:  Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/   This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. Learn more here. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

The aftershocks of GPT-5's chaotic rollout continue as OpenAI scrambles to address user backlash, confusing model choices, and shifting product strategies. In this episode, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput also explore the fallout from a leaked Meta AI policy document that raises major ethical concerns, share insights from Demis Hassabis on the path to AGI, and cover the latest AI power plays: Sam Altman's trillion-dollar ambitions, his public feud with Elon Musk, an xAI leadership shake-up, chip geopolitics, Apple's surprising AI comeback, and more. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps:  00:00:00 — Intro 00:06:00 — GPT-5's Continued Chaotic Rollout 00:16:03 — Meta's Controversial AI Policies 00:28:27 — Demis Hassabis on AI's Future 00:40:55 — What's Next for OpenAI After GPT-5? 00:46:41 — Altman / Musk Drama 00:50:55 — xAI Leadership Shake-Up 00:55:55 — Perplexity's Audacious Play for Google Chrome 00:58:32 — Chip Geopolitics 01:01:43 — Anthropic and AI in Government 01:05:17 — Apple's AI Turnaround  01:08:09 — Cohere Raises $500M for Enterprise AI  01:10:57 — AI in Education This episode is brought to you by our Academy 3.0 Launch Event. Join Paul Roetzer and the SmarterX team on August 19 at 12pm ET for the launch of AI Academy 3.0 by SmarterX —your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. Register here. This week's episode is brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year's conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

This episode may just be the calm before the GPT-5 storm… We're back with another rapid-fire episode—there was just too much AI news to cover any other way. In this episode of The Artificial Intelligence Show, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput dig into the possible release of GPT-5, unveil what's coming in our reimagined AI Academy 3.0, and examine how AI is transforming job markets, consulting, and enterprise strategy. They also break down key updates from OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google—and what listeners need to know as AI's impact accelerates across business and education. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps:  00:00 — Intro 10:27 — OpenAI's Explosive Growth 16:52 — Microsoft and OpenAI Near Contract Agreement 23:23 — ChatGPT Study Mode 28:42 — How We Talk About AI's Impact on Jobs 36:16 — Microsoft Paper on AI Jobs Impact 41:24 — AI's Impact on the Consulting Industry 47:01 — Apple AI Acquisition Speculation 51:26 — Earnings Reports 58:16 — Gemini 2.5 Deep Think 01:04:29 — Meta's Vision for Superintelligence 01:12:46 — ChatGPT Shared Links Indexed by Google 01:15:05 — AI Product and Funding Updates This week's episode is brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year's conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. This episode is also brought to you by our Academy 3.0 Launch Event. Join Paul Roetzer and the SmarterX team on August 19 at 12pm ET for the launch of AI Academy 3.0 by SmarterX —your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. Register here. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

Data integrity, executive skepticism, and turning AI-driven time savings into real gains—Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips answer your questions from our latest Scaling AI class and offer informative, candid answers. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:51 — Question #1: How do we ensure data integrity, security, and privacy when we scale AI? 00:07:24 — Question #2: What exactly is an AI roadmap? 00:12:30 — Question #3: How can we maintain meaningful human oversight when AI systems operate at a speed that exceeds human comprehension?00:14:47 —  Question #4: How do you feel about the impact of AI on highly regulated industries where adoption has been slower? 00:16:50 — Question #5: How does change management need to evolve in response to the rapid development of AI tools? 00:18:54 — Question #6: Changes are happening so quickly. How can professionals keep up? Are there trusted resources that stay current with innovations? 00:23:11 — Question #7: Do you have any tips for creating a tailored AI learning curriculum versus a “one-size-fits-all” approach? 00:24:51 —  Question #8: For someone passionate about AI but not in a leadership position, how can i initiate change at an individual level? 00:28:42 — Question #9: How can you address resistance to change and skepticism toward AI, especially when the tools are available, but usage lags? 00:30:47 —  Question #10: What's your advice for someone leading a lean team who needs to pitch AI to executives with no time or interest in experimentation? 00:31:41 — Question #11: If a large organization has rolled out something like Copilot but no one is talking about AI or expanding beyond it, what are some tactical next steps to drive broader AI engagement? 00:34:21 — Question #12: As a director in higher ed, how can I motivate leadership to pursue something like Ohio State's “AI Fluency” initiative? 00:38:00 — Question #13: Which AI tools do you like the best, and do certain ones work better for specific industries? How do you personally evaluate and select them? 00:40:49 — Question #14: How can startups or innovators best use Problems GPT, especially for category creation? Could you walk through an example?  00:45:54 — Question #15: What excites you most about AI's potential for startups right now? 00:49:29 — Question #16: Have you seen companies using AI-generated efficiency gains to reinvest in people, like offering shorter workweeks or well-being benefits? This week's episode is brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year's conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

In this episode of AI Answers, Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips tackle 20 of the most pressing questions from our 48th Intro to AI class—covering everything from building effective AI roadmaps and selecting the right tools, using GPTs, navigating AI ethics, understanding great prompting, and more. Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:08:46 — Question #1: How do you define a “human-first” approach to AI? 00:11:33 — Question #2: What uniquely human qualities do you believe we must preserve in an AI-driven world? 00:15:55 — Question #3: Where do we currently stand with AGI—and how close are OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta to making it real? 00:17:53 — Question #4: If AI becomes smarter, faster, and more accessible to all—how do individuals or companies stand out? 00:23:17 — Question #5: Do you see a future where AI agents can collaborate like human teams?  00:28:40 — Question #6: For those working with sensitive data, when does it make sense to use a local LLM over a cloud-based one? 00:30:50 — Question #7: What's the difference between ChatGPT Projects and Custom GPTs? 00:32:36 — Question #8:  If an agency or consultant is managing dozens of GPTs, what are your best tips for organizing workflows, versioning, and staying sane at scale? 00:36:12 — Question #9: How do you personally decide which AI tools to use—and do you see a winner emerging? 00:38:53 — Question #10: What tools or platforms in the agent space are actually ready for production today? 00:43:10 — Question #11: For companies just getting started, how do you recommend they identify the right pain points and build their AI roadmap? 00:45:34 — Question #12: What AI tools do you believe deliver the most value to marketing leaders right now? 00:46:20 — Question #13: How is AI forcing agencies and consultants to rethink their models, especially with rising efficiency and lower costs? 00:51:14 — Question #14: What does great prompting actually look like? And how should employers think about evaluating that skill in job candidates? 00:54:40 — Question #15: As AI reshapes roles, does age or experience become a liability—or can being the most informed person in the room still win out? 00:56:52 — Question #16: What kind of changes should leaders expect in workplace culture as AI adoption grows? 01:00:54 — Question #17: What is ChatGPT really storing in its “memory,” and how persistent is user data across sessions? 01:02:11 — Question #18: How can businesses safely use LLMs while protecting personal or proprietary information? 01:02:55 — Question #19: Why do you think some companies still ban AI tools internally—and what will it take for those policies to shift? 01:04:13 — Question #20: If AI tools are free or low-cost, does that make us the product? Or is there a more optimistic future where creators and users both win This week's episode is brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year's conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

Welcome to Episode 150 of The Artificial Intelligence Show—a special milestone that marks the launch of a brand-new series: AI Answers. In this episode, Paul Roetzer is joined by Cathy McPhillips to debut a fresh format designed to systematically answer the best questions we get during our live AI education sessions. Over the past few years, our free Intro to AI and Scaling AI classes have attracted more than 32,000 learners—and they've asked hundreds of smart, tough, practical questions. This new series tackles them head-on. Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:08:32 — Question #1: How do you explain AI as a tool for transformation to someone who's unfamiliar or maybe even a little afraid? 00:10:44 — Question #2: Do you see learning to use AI effectively as the modern version of learning to type?  00:13:03 — Question #3: How realistic is it to create an actual AI roadmap?  00:16:29 — Question #4: Once you build a roadmap, should it be shared with the entire team?  00:18:48 — Question #5: Is it better to invest in ChatGPT or Microsoft CoPilot? 00:20:22 — Question #6: How do you make the case to leadership that a paid license to ChatGPT is worth it? 00:22:03 — Question #7:  I'm using multiple AI tools—but each one only does a few things well, and the costs are adding up. How do I better train and support my agents so the company becomes more AI-forward without overwhelming them? 00:25:49 — Question #8: In two years, how many GenAI platforms do you think will dominate the enterprise landscape? 00:27:40 — Question #9: Do you have any thoughts or concerns around using open-source LLMs in the enterprise AI stack? 00:30:39 — Question #10: How involved should the CEO be with an AI council? What kind of role makes the most impact? 00:33:25 — Question #11: Once you have an AI policy, where should you begin to use it to educate your team? 00:35:28 — Question #12: What's a solid KPI to track AI literacy or adoption? 00:38:42 — Question #13:  If you were building MAII from scratch, with what you know now—what would you do differently? 00:41:19 — Question #14: How do you actually bridge the gap between current capabilities and future roles? What's the smart move for career future-proofing? 00:49:15 — Question #15: What courses should kids in school be thinking about if they want to be prepared for an AI-infused world? 00:53:20 — Question #16: What are three things you'd suggest for helping teenagers use AI to accelerate learning, without just relying on it to do the work for them? 00:56:07 — Question #17: Is it better to create a specific GPT for each job task, or one mega-GPT that does content, strategy, internal reports, sales writing—all of it? 00:59:09 — Question #18: What do you think AI will do to the search marketing industry, especially paid search?  00:07:08 — Question #19: What excites you about AI? This episode is brought to you by the AI for B2B Marketers Summit. Join us on Thursday, June 5th at 12 PM ET, and learn real-world strategies on how to use AI to grow better, create smarter content, build stronger customer relationships, and much more. Thanks to our sponsors, there's even a free ticket option. See the full lineup and register now at www.b2bsummit.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

AI is moving faster than most people realize—and it's continuing to reshape the workforce. Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput dig into Microsoft's 6,000 job cuts and what they signal about the future of AI-powered automation, they also explain the major copyright report that triggered a high-level firing and they break down new data from the 2025 State of Marketing AI Report.  The episode also covers OpenAI's autonomous coding agent, TikTok's new AI video tool, the rise of AI baby podcasters, what to watch for at Google I/O and more in our rapid fire section. Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:06:49 —More Quiet AI Layoffs, Including at Microsoft 00:19:24 — Bombshell Copyright Decision and Drama 00:30:01 — 2025 State of Marketing AI Report Findings 00:39:18 — OpenAI Releases Codex 00:41:40 — Altman Wants to Build “Core AI Subscription” for Your Life 00:56:20 — Altman, Musk, and Grok Drama 01:01:22 — Are Chatbots Replacing Search? 01:05:36 — AI in Education Updates 01:11:15 — The Cost of AI 01:14:29 — AI Product and Funding Updates 01:20:04 — Listener Question This episode is brought to you by the AI for B2B Marketers Summit. Join us on Thursday, June 5th at 12 PM ET, and learn real-world strategies on how to use AI to grow better, create smarter content, build stronger customer relationships, and much more. Thanks to our sponsors, there's even a free ticket option. See the full lineup and register now at www.b2bsummit.ai. This week's episode is also brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year's conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

Fresh off a wave of “AI‑first” CEO manifestos, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput slice into the fallout: Duolingo and Box join Shopify's AI-first pledge, more signals of AI job disruption emerge, and OpenAI rolls back 4o due to an overly agreeable personality. Then it's rapid‑fire —Johnson & Johnson bins 90 % of its 900 gen‑AI pilots, Big‑Tech earnings put real numbers on the AI boom, Nvidia spars with Anthropic over chip exports, Claude upgrades, Alibaba's Qwen‑3, Descript's AI avatars, and more. Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:03:49 —The Rise of the AI-First Company 00:17:37 — More Signals of AI Job Disruption and the “Stop Hiring Humans” Campaign 00:30:23 —OpenAI Rolls Back 4o Update Due to Annoying Personality 00:44:10 —AI Earnings Calls  00:48:54 —What Enterprise AI Strategy Really Looks Like 00:55:03 — How McKinsey, BCG, and Deloitte Are Using AI 01:00:05 — New Report Calls Chatbot Arena Leaderboard Into Question 01:04:04 — Meta AI App and Zuckerberg's Plan for AI 01:11:39 —Nvidia's Beef with Anthropic 01:14:38 — US Copyright Office Intellectual Property Resources 01:16:15 — AI Product and Funding Updates 01:22:11 — Listener Question This episode is brought to you by the AI for B2B Marketers Summit. Join us on Thursday, June 5th at 12 PM ET, and learn real-world strategies on how to use AI to grow better, create smarter content, build stronger customer relationships, and much more. Thanks to our sponsors, there's even a free ticket option. See the full lineup and register now at www.b2bsummit.ai. This week's episode is also brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year's conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

As AI marches forward with speed and power, new questions emerge about how humans thrive in a world of super intelligence. We already see AI creeping into workflows, organizational charts and even our personal relationships. Mark Schaefer and Paul Roetzer look at a few of these topics as they help us navigate an AI-First World. 

After a quick spring break, Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput are back, and the AI world definitely didn't take a vacation. In this episode of The Artificial Intelligence Show, our hosts catch up on two weeks of major developments, including OpenAI's surprising release of o3 and o4-mini, the accelerating wave of quiet AI-driven layoffs, and a new federal executive order on AI education.  Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:05:49 —o3 and o4-mini, and AGI 00:17:21 — AI-Caused “Quiet Layoffs” and Impact on Jobs 00:31:46 — White House Plan for AI Education 00:36:04 — Other OpenAI Updates 00:43:04 — Ethan Mollick's Criticism of Microsoft Copilot 00:46:43 — Era of Experience Paper 00:54:23 — Chief AI Officers at Companies 00:58:54 — Anthropic Researcher Says There Is a Chance Claude Is Conscious 01:07:03 — xAI Funding and Updates 01:11:07 — Other AI Product Updates 01:13:40 — Listener Questions This episode is brought to you by our AI for B2B Marketers Summit: Join us and learn valuable insights and practical knowledge on how AI can revolutionize your marketing efforts, enhance customer experiences, and drive business growth. The Summit takes place virtually from 12:00pm - 4:45pm ET on Thursday, June 5. There is a free registration option, as well as paid ticket options that also give you on-demand access after the event. To register, go to b2bsummit.ai  This week's episode is also brought to you by MAICON, our 6th annual Marketing AI Conference, happening in Cleveland, Oct. 14-16. The code POD100 saves $100 on all pass types. For more information on MAICON and to register for this year's conference, visit www.MAICON.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

“AI can accelerate everything, but if you don't have a clear strategy and alignment across leadership, you're just scaling inefficiency faster. Before you invest in tools or systems, you need to know why they matter, how you'll measure impact, and whether your organization is built to move fast enough to see results.” That's a quote from Mark Goloboy and a sneak peek at today's episode.Welcome to Revenue Boost, A Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Kerry Curran—revenue growth expert, industry analyst, and relentless advocate for turning marketing into a revenue engine. Each episode, we bring you the strategies, insights, and conversations that help drive your revenue growth. Search for Revenue Boost in your favorite podcast directory and hit subscribe to stay ahead of the game.In a world where AI is evolving faster than your org chart, how do you build a marketing engine that's both smart and scalable? In From Strategy to Speed: Building a Modern Marketing Engine with AI, I sat down with Mark Goloboy, founder of Market Growth Consulting. We unpack how AI is transforming B2B marketing—and why strategy still comes first.From RAG pipelines and LLM optimization to lean team structures and rapid execution, Mark shares what today's business leaders need to know to move fast, stay aligned, and drive measurable growth. If you're tired of the AI hype and ready for more practical ways to accelerate performance, this one's for you.Be sure to listen through to the end, where Mark shares what you need to do to get started building your AI marketing engine today. Let's go!Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.359)So welcome, Mark. Please introduce yourself and share your background and expertise.Mark Goloboy (00:07.502)Excellent. Thank you, Kerry, for having me. Mark Goloboy, I'm the founder and CEO of Market Growth Consulting. We provide a variety of services to everything from small businesses to public companies. Our clients range from a private manufacturer north of Boston to global public companies.My background is on the sales-facing side of marketing. I've been the head of demand gen, marketing operations, and marketing analytics as I grew into marketing leadership. About two and a half years ago, I went out on my own to work directly with CEOs to fill in marketing gaps.At smaller companies, we place fractional CMOs and heads of demand gen to lead marketing, filling in subcontractors and agencies to execute. At larger companies, we run projects covering everything from marketing strategy, org strategy, budgeting, go-to-market strategy, and building out systems—we're currently doing a HubSpot to Salesforce and Marketo migration. We also do executive staffing, placing directors through CMOs either as temp-to-perm so clients can try before they buy, or through contingent staffing where if we find the right person, the client hires them for their future marketing leadership.Kerry Curran, RBMA (01:37.057)Excellent. Thank you, Mark. You've seen it all and are still very involved across business challenges and needs from a marketing, demand gen, and go-to-market perspective. There are lots of hot topics we could cover, but what are you hearing the most from your clients today? What's hottest for them?Mark Goloboy (02:03.662)Marketing really grew in 2022 and 2023 in terms of department size. But I think a lot of us felt it—venture-backed companies especially, but really everyone—wanted to get smaller again in 2023 and 2024. That was a painful adjustment across the industry. Now, as we move through 2024 into 2025, everyone is focused on:How do we do more with less? How do we think about fractional or contract roles in areas we never would have previously?That extends into AI-driven marketing, where every leader is looking to be more efficient and scale faster and smarter by using tools that take over some of the marketing workload. The real challenge now for marketing leaders is finding the balance between the people they need to hire, the money they need to spend, and where AI can make them faster, smarter, and more scalable—while still needing human review and strategic oversight.Kerry Curran, RBMA (03:38.947)Yeah, I agree. And you see so many emerging tools. I think if you search for AI in MarTech today, there's been a huge increase in companies claiming to offer something new or different. But AI actually means a lot of different things. You and I were talking earlier about how important it is to dig into the formula and structure behind what's labeled "AI." What are you seeing from that perspective?Mark Goloboy (04:15.054)Well, I think the big challenge, for me at least—I'm a solo entrepreneur running my own business with just myself and no employees—is figuring out how to work efficiently while wearing many hats.I use subcontractors who are experts at what they do, and I hire based on likeability and capability because my clients will keep rehiring me if they like who I bring them and the work gets done right.But because I'm a solo operator, I have to maximize my own productivity. So every day, I start by looking at what's on my plate and ask: "Could AI help me do this faster, better, or more scalably?"Whether it's a deliverable, a proposal, or a project plan, I always pause and think about how AI can be part of the solution—even if it's just for my internal work, not necessarily client-facing marketing.Kerry Curran, RBMA (05:31.545)Thank you.Mark Goloboy (05:43.870)Each of the major frontier models—OpenAI, Google Gemini, Claude, and others—are developing rapidly. Every time I try something, it's a little different, and the outputs are constantly improving.Last week, I had a meeting with a prospect using an ABM tool I had never heard of. I wanted to appear knowledgeable, so I asked OpenAI to compare it to Sixth Sense and Demandbase, which I know well.Within a minute, it gave me four pages of detailed research on each tool, plus a comparison grid. That would have taken a junior marketer on my team two months to produce. That's how fast this technology is evolving.Kerry Curran, RBMA (06:57.549)Yes, same for me. There's so much you can do faster now. You mentioned video editing, and I recently used napkin.ai to turn raw text into beautiful slides. It's such a game-changer for solo entrepreneurs.Mark Goloboy (07:27.790)Exactly. Externally, too, clients come to us with needs, and it's up to us to creatively think: "How can we use AI to deliver this better?"Last year, we trained an AI model to write like a PhD psychologist who had run a department at Columbia Med. Using her writing, interviews, and videos, we trained Google Gemini to mimic her voice—and she couldn't tell which blog posts were hers versus AI-generated.This was mid-2024, when people still said AI content was bland. But we were producing PhD-level work that passed her own review.Kerry Curran, RBMA (08:39.865)Yeah, it's pretty incredible. It helps us do a lot more and get a lot more out of our hours and days—getting smarter and more effective. What are some of the other ways or tools you've developed for your clients to help them with their demand gen and other aspects of business?Mark Goloboy (09:00.270)Yeah, so I joke with my clients that I didn't know what the letters RAG meant in December—but now I do. It stands for Retrieval Augmented Generation. That's about developing agentic pipelines to connect your internal data sources—whether documents, databases, or internal systems—to the large language models (LLMs), so you can move information between them and generate outputs informed not just by public data, but by your own proprietary data.Right now, we're building RAG agentic pipelines for a PR firm, for example. Their CEO prioritized the three use cases that would save their account managers the most time:Meeting scheduling and rescheduling, which wastes hours every week. Contract review, since they're doing placements in major media outlets and need to review hundreds of contracts a month. Media monitoring, summarizing brand mentions across the web and sending daily summaries to clients—something that takes an hour per client per day. By automating these processes, they save massive amounts of time, and as they grow, they don't need to hire as many new account managers.Kerry Curran, RBMA (10:58.467)Yes, that's super valuable. I love that it allows them to free up time to be more strategic instead of bogged down in busywork. So what are some of the steps required for someone to set this up? How did you learn more about creating these pipelines and the RAG system?Mark Goloboy (11:20.398)There are some really good places to learn. The first one I always recommend is the Marketing AI Institute. Paul Roetzer is the founder, and I learn the most from him.Paul and his content lead put out a one-hour podcast every week that breaks down everything that's changed in AI since the last episode. It's incredibly rich information. I usually listen at 1.5x speed and get through it in 40 minutes. I don't care about every topic, but I hear what matters and know where to dive deeper.Beyond that, I follow a few amazing marketers—Liza Adams, Nicole Leffer, and Andy Crestodina—who are brilliant at testing new things and sharing what works. They save me countless hours of trial and error.Kerry Curran, RBMA (12:41.133)Thank you—we'll be sure to include all of those in the show notes as well. One thing you mentioned was that the podcast covers what's changed in just the past week. AI is changing so fast. What should people keep in mind when they're building these tools or leveraging different sources?Mark Goloboy (13:01.336)I'm used to building very permanent, robust systems—CRM, marketing automation, ABM platforms—that are meant to deliver value for years. But with AI, we have to accept that some development is disposable.It's crucial to prioritize effort. We help clients understand: we're not building something that will last 5 years. Some of the code we build today might be obsolete in 6–12 months.For example, OpenAI just launched a new pipeline tool that replaced the one we were using. If we had spent six months building on the old system, it would already be outdated.So we advise clients: build for today's ROI and be ready to pivot constantly. If you're rigid, you'll miss the opportunity.Kerry Curran, RBMA (14:47.747)Yeah, it made me think about how, in a lot of organizations, it takes so long just to get buy-in and approvals to start using new tools. It's a whole culture and mindset shift—especially for marketing leaders.Mark Goloboy (15:07.788)Exactly. I couldn't imagine a one-year approval cycle for an AI project. By the time you'd get sign-off, the tools would have changed and you'd have to start over.You need faster review and approval cycles. Otherwise, AI-driven innovation simply won't be possible.Kerry Curran, RBMA (15:29.475)Yes, definitely. And that's another benefit of bringing someone like you in—you're well-versed in what's changing, and you have the curiosity and experience to guide them through it.Mark Goloboy (15:45.954)Exactly.Kerry Curran, RBMA (15:47.407)So for people listening who want to get started—maybe building custom pipelines or just leveraging AI more—what are the foundations they need to have in place?Mark Goloboy (16:14.830)The most important thing is a good strategy.When we come into companies, often because of turnover—whether it's the CRO, CMO, CEO—they don't have strong alignment on strategy anymore. If you don't have a clear strategy that demands an investment, and you don't know how you'll measure the value of what you're building, you're setting yourself up for failure.So we always start at the strategic level first.We also move fast. If you want a slow project, there are large consulting firms that are happy to take years and millions of dollars. That's not us. We think in three- to six-month project cycles—then we operate and optimize from there.We want to move quickly and get you results now, not years down the road.Kerry Curran, RBMA (18:29.229)That's such an important point. And it ties back to so many of the themes we talk about on this podcast—internal alignment, clear business goals, and unified execution across the organization.One of the tools you mentioned that I think is really fascinating helps address the trend of AI tools becoming new search engines. Can you talk about how you're helping your clients optimize for that?Mark Goloboy (19:19.950)Absolutely. Most of my clients are B2B. And historically, Google was how people found solutions. You wrote your content for Google—end of story.But now, with ChatGPT and other LLMs, people are searching inside AI to get answers. It's shifting fast—from 80/20 Google to maybe 50/50 Google/LLMs within a few years.We partnered with a tool called Brand Luminaire. It analyzes how LLMs like Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT surface information about your brand and your competitors.Critically, it shows you what sources the LLMs are pulling from. That means you know where to focus your writing, PR, and SEO efforts—not just for Google, but for the LLMs too.It's a massive shift. Brands that don't adapt will lose mindshare at the point of research and decision-making.Kerry Curran, RBMA (22:06.307)That's excellent. It's something all brands are going to need to prioritize as search behavior expands beyond just Google.So this has been great, Mark. Thank you so much for sharing so many practical insights and tools. For people who want to get in touch with you and learn more about your services, where should they go?Mark Goloboy (22:29.454)They can email me directly at mark@marketgrowthconsulting.com—I'm very functional with my branding: market growth consulting is what I do!Or you can find me on LinkedIn—I'm easy to find with my unique last name.Kerry Curran, RBMA (22:46.541)Awesome. We'll put that in the show notes too. Thank you again, Mark, for being here and sharing so much of your expertise.Mark Goloboy (22:55.064)Thank you so much for having me, Kerry.Kerry Curran, RBMA (22:57.071)Thank you.Thanks for tuning in to Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast. I hope today's conversation sparked some new ideas and challenged the way you think about how to incorporate AI into your marketing strategy and initiatives.If you're serious about turning marketing into a true revenue driver, this is just the beginning. We've got more insightful conversation, experts, guests, and actionable strategies coming your way. So search for us in your favorite podcast directory and hit subscribe!And hey, if this episode gave you value, share it with a colleague and leave a quick review. It helps more revenue minded leaders like you find the show. Until next time, I'm Kerry Curran, revenue marketing expert helping you connect marketing to growth one episode at a time. We'll see you soon.

Paul Roetzer, founder and CEO of Marketing AI Institute and Smarter X, left his agency world behind and now spends his days training marketers on how to better use AI to move their organization forward. When it comes to AI adoption at marketing organizations, there's still a wide range of adoption - and Roetzer shares what he's seen in terms of what trips people up, and where they should be putting their resources. Plus, how the agency model is changing, and some of his favorite tools and tricks. For Further Reading:Check out Paul's podcast: https://youtu.be/qu74v4zBDjQ?si=69DTuXfVUapXHnsI Listen on your favorite podcast app: https://pod.link/1715735755

Paul Roetzer is the founder and CEO of SmarterX and the Marketing AI Institute—a media, event, and online education company that he started back in 2016 to make AI accessible, approachable, and actionable for marketers and business leaders. Through the institute, he created MAICON—the leading annual Marketing AI conference, which is hosted here in Cleveland!He is also the co-author of Marketing Artificial Intelligence: AI, Marketing, and the Future of Business, the co-host of ​The Artificial Intelligence Show​ podcast, and the creator of ​The AI Literacy Project​, where he's working to make AI education accessible and personalized for everyone.Paul graduated from Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and has since consulted for hundreds of organizations, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. In 2005, he founded Ready North (formerly known as PR 20/20), a digital marketing agency that became HubSpot's first partner agency and played a pivotal role in launching HubSpot's entire partnership strategy. He successfully sold the firm in 2021 to Blue Cypress.This was such a fun conversation for me—I love thinking about how exponential technologies will affect the future of society, and that is exactly what Paul and I got to do—we explore the vast and profound implications of AI on the future of work and society overall while also exploring the business of conferences, the importance of AI literacy going forward, lessons from the early days of HubSpot, building in Cleveland, and a whole lot more!00:00:00 - The Evolution of Podcasting and AI Integration00:04:13 - The Journey of Building Marketing AI Institute00:07:12 - The Impact of AI on Marketing and Business00:09:47 - Navigating Challenges and Embracing Change00:12:38 - The Role of Conferences in AI Education00:15:15 - Cleveland as a Hub for AI Innovation00:17:48 - The Future of AI and Its Societal Implications00:20:32 - AI Literacy and Its Importance00:23:03 - The Philosophical Dilemmas of AI Decision-Making00:25:45 - The Uncertain Future of Work in an AI-Driven World00:35:59 - The Inevitable Disruption of Jobs by AI00:41:32 - AI's Impact on Knowledge Work and Industries00:46:35 - Marketing in the Age of AI00:49:46 - Defining AI Literacy and Its Future00:52:45 - Lessons from the HubSpot Journey00:57:04 - The Entrepreneurial Journey and Its Challenges01:01:30 - Hidden Gem-----LINKS:https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulroetzer/https://smarterx.ai/https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/-----SPONSORS: Impact Architects & NinetyImpact Architects & NinetyLay of The Land is brought to you by Ninety. As a Lay of The Land listener, you can leverage a free trial with Ninety, the platform that helps teams build great companies and the only officially licensed software for EOS® — used by over 7,000 companies and 100,000 users!This episode is brought to you by Impact Architects. As we share the stories of entrepreneurs building incredible organizations throughout NEO, Impact Architects helps those leaders — many of whom we've heard from as guests on Lay of The Land — realize their visions and build great organizations. I believe in Impact Architects and the people behind it so much, that I have actually joined them personally in their mission to help leaders gain focus, align together, and thrive by doing what they love! As a listener, you can sit down for a free consultation with Impact Architects by visiting ia.layoftheland.fm!-----Stay up to date by signing up for Lay of The Land's weekly newsletter — sign up here.Past guests include Justin Bibb (Mayor of Cleveland), Pat Conway (Great Lakes Brewing), Steve Potash (OverDrive), Umberto P. Fedeli (The Fedeli Group), Lila Mills (Signal Cleveland), Stewart Kohl (The Riverside Company), Mitch Kroll (Findaway — Acquired by Spotify), and over 200 other Cleveland Entrepreneurs.Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/Follow Jeffrey Stern on X @sternJefe — https://twitter.com/sternjefeFollow Lay of The Land on X @podlayofthelandhttps://www.jeffreys.page/

The future of AI is arriving faster than most are ready for.  In this kickoff episode of thr Road to AGI (and Beyond), Paul Roetzer shares why Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) may be only a few years away, why the definition of AGI itself is a moving target, and how leaders can prepare for profound disruption—sooner than they think.  Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:01:08 — Origins of the Series 00:11:17 — The Pursuit of AGI 00:14:51 — What is AGI? 00:22:15 — What's Beyond AGI? Artificial Superintelligence 00:32:20 — Setting the Stage for AGI and Beyond 00:40:54 — The AI Timeline v2 00:51:25 — LLM Advancements (2025) 00:59:26 — Multimodal AI Explosion (2025 - 2026) 01:03:53 — AI Agents Explosion (2025 - 2027) 01:10:46 — Robotics Explosion (2026 - 2030) 01:14:50 — AGI Emergence (2027 - 2030) 01:17:56 — What's Changed? 01:21:10 — What Accelerates AI Progress? 01:24:53 — What Slows AI Progress? 01:31:06 — How Can You Prepare? 01:38:49 — What's Next for the Series? 01:40:17 — Closing Thoughts Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in AI Academy

This week, Paul and Mike return with a rapid-fire breakdown. From major AI companies' bold policy recommendations to the AI Action Plan to Altman's teaser of a new creative writing model that blurs the line between human and machine—there's a lot to unpack. Plus: Google's AI infrastructure bets, Claude's web search rollout, and a new study showing how AI is transforming team dynamics and boosting productivity inside companies.  Access the show notes and show links here This episode is presented by Goldcast.  Goldcast is a B2B video content platform that helps marketing teams easily produce, repurpose, and distribute video content. We use Goldcast for our virtual Summits, and one of the standout features for us is their AI-powered Content Lab. If you're running virtual events and want to maximize your content effortlessly, check out Goldcast.  Learn more at goldcast.io. This episode is also presented by our Scaling AI webinar series.  Register now to learn the framework Paul Roetzer has taught to thousands of corporate, education, and government leaders. Learn more at ScalingAI.com and click on “Register for our upcoming webinar” Timestamps: 00:05:01 — NY Times Writer “Feeling the AGI” 00:15:00 — AI Action Plan Proposals 00:24:13 — Sam Altman Teases New Creative Writing Model 00:30:21 — Claude Gets Web Search 00:31:59 — AI's Impact on Google Search 00:36:35 — Anthropic's Strong Start to the Year 00:40:19 — It Turns Out That Gemini Can Remove Image Watermarks 00:44:32 — Google Research on New Way to Scale AI 00:48:42 — New Research Shows How GenAI Changes Performance in Corporate Work 00:57:18 — The Time Horizon of Tasks AI Can Handle Is Doubling Fast 01:05:14 — Apple Comes Clean on Siri AI Delays 01:08:51 — OpenAI Agents May Threaten Consumer Apps 01:14:03 — Powering the AI Revolution 01:17:44 — Google Deep Research Tips 01:21:14 — Other Product and Funding Updates Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

As we hurtle into the AI Era, there will be many unintended consequences, and one of them might be a cognitive decline. Early research shows that as we increasingly depend on AI for our thinking and decisions, our brains become lazy. What are the implications for education? Are we re-defining humanity or returning to a simpler time before information overload?   Paul Roetzer and Mark Schaefer also discuss the DeepSeek outfall, Ai marketing fails, and more

Now is the time to unlock the true potential of AI for your business. But here's the catch - you don't need to be a tech wizard or data scientist to do it. What you need is AI literacy, and it's about to become your new secret weapon. AI literacy is more than just understanding the basics of artificial intelligence. It's about developing the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions, spot opportunities, and confidently lead your team in an AI-driven world. For businesses and marketers, focusing on AI literacy means staying competitive, improving efficiency, and uncovering innovative ways to serve your customers. It's the key to turning AI from a buzzword into a powerful tool that drives real results. To guide us through this critical topic, we have an exceptional expert joining us. Angie Carel is a certified AI business leader and educator who's been at the forefront of making AI accessible and actionable for businesses of all sizes. As the founder of AI in Fort Wayne and a sought-after speaker, Angie has helped countless organizations harness the power of AI. She doesn't just talk about AI - she lives it, integrating it into every aspect of her work and life. Get ready, because Angie is about to share the insights you need to boost your AI literacy and transform your business. The AI Hat Podcast host Mike Allton asked Angie Carel about: ✨Foundational Understanding: AI literacy provides a crucial foundation for informed decision-making in today's business landscape. ✨Competitive Edge: Improved AI literacy can lead to better strategic choices, giving SMBs a significant advantage in their markets. ✨Accessible Learning: Building AI literacy is an achievable goal for all business leaders, regardless of technical background. Learn more about Angie Carel Connect with Angie Carel on LinkedIn Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode Angie Carel AI Consulting AI Training for Business The AI Revolution is Here: What Every Marketer Needs to Know Play Before Pay: Why Having Fun with AI Leads to Marketing Success with Amy Walters The Artificial Intelligence Show with Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput MAICON Andy Sack Co-Crafted AI Marketing Primer: A Comprehensive Guide for Marketers Explore past episodes of the The AI Hat Podcast SHOW TRANSCRIPT & NOTES: https://theaihat.com/boost-your-business-iq-why-ai-literacy-matters-for-smbs/ Start your AI journey with the AI Marketing Primer. Brought to you by The AI Hat - Get Your AI On. Interesting in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Powered by Magai - why choose one AI tool when you can have them all? And Descript, the magic wand for podcasters. Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton, AI Consultant & Trainer at The AI Hat, where he's tirelessly helping businesses and marketers get ahead of the AI Revolution and apply advanced technologies to their roles. He's spent over a decade in digital marketing, bringing an unparalleled level of experience and excitement to the fore, whether he's delivering a presentation or leading a workshop. If you're interested in helping business owners with AI in an upcoming episode, reach out to Mike. Powered by the Marketing Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We had an amazing time at last month's Joe Public Retreat digging into healthcare marketing's most pressing issues with CMOs across the nation. We're bringing you all the hot takes, right here! In this episode, Chris Bevolo returns to the show as a permanent host and chats with Stephanie about the three-day event in Charleston, SC. We explore the pressures CMOs face and the urgent need for a shift in their roles to address market dynamics and stakeholder engagement. From Paul Keckley's insights on economic pressures to Dr. Marcus Collins' bold vision for branding as community-building, and Paul Roetzer's groundbreaking takes on AI in healthcare marketing—we're covering it all. Tune in!

Mark Schaefer and Paul Roetzer dissect several evolving AI-related developments, including the emerging emotional bond between children and AI bots, a humanoid fine artist, how AI is transforming education, and more.

Are you curious about AI's role in marketing and business? Wondering about the practical and privacy implications of using AI in your work? In this special episode, I interview Paul Roetzer to explore how to begin adopting AI in your business.Guest: Paul Roetzer | Show Notes: socialmediaexaminer.com/a1Review our show on Apple Podcasts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.