If you've heard the term 'AI agents' but aren't quite sure what they actually are or how they could help you at work, this is the episode for you.

Our guest is Dominick Ng, Director of Engineering at Relevance AI, a platform that helps businesses build and deploy AI agents. Before joining the startup world, Dom spent nine years at Google, rising from software engineer to senior manager. He also holds a PhD in Computational Linguistics and won a Fulbright Scholarship to UC Berkeley.

What makes Dom such a brilliant guide for this topic is his ability to explain complex technology in human terms. As he puts it, agents are fundamentally about adding human-like decision making to automation — handling the qualitative judgments that previously only people could make.

In this conversation you'll hear:

•   A clear explanation of what agents actually are and why they're different from previous automation

•   Real examples of agents creating entirely new business possibilities that couldn't exist before

•   How to address privacy and security concerns when handing tasks to agents

•   Dom's advice for anyone feeling overwhelmed by all of this

Dom is refreshingly honest about both the opportunities and the concerns he has about AI's impact. His perspective on how humans and AI can work together — and the 'spark' that makes human creativity irreplaceable — is genuinely hopeful without being naive.

If you've been curious about agents but not sure where to start, this is the conversation you can thank us for later.

As this is our final episode of the year, we want to wish all our listeners Season's Greetings. Thank you for listening throughout the year, and we wish you a kind and fulfilling new year ahead.

Enjoy this episode with the ever-curious and articulate Dominick Ng...

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Recently we spoke with a group of CEOs who said they felt confident leading their organisation's AI investments. Yet when we asked how often they actually used AI, only one third of the group used it daily.

This disconnect is everywhere. Around boardroom tables and in senior leadership meetings, executives aren't using AI consistently. The latest data backs this up: most people still aren't using AI daily and that's a problem given how fast AI is changing and improving.

If you're not using AI regularly; learning from it and about it as you go; how can you effectively contribute to, or lead, your organisation's AI strategy?

So in this episode, we get super practical to help leaders become power users. We share five specific ways we use AI to amplify our own leadership work and impact, including practical tips on how exactly you do this. Our use cases range from handling difficult conversations to tackling the strategic challenges that keep us awake at night.

We also reveal which AI model significantly outperformed the others for a particularly valuable leadership task and why one very specific technique of using AI as a thought partner has become indispensable in our own work.

Enjoy this super practical episode with ideas we know you’ll want to start using immediately.

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Ever wondered if you’re missing out on some easy AI hacks? 

We were both surprised recently to read the results of some research we'd conducted with senior executives about their AI usage to see that most people are barely scratching the surface of what these tools can do. That’s prompted us to create this episode bringing you a practical guide to the techniques that actually make a big difference.

We're sharing the most powerful techniques and hacks we've discovered after constant AI use and refinement. These aren't theoretical concepts or beginner basics, they're the strategies and simple steps that can transform how effectively you work with tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Co Pilot.

In this episode, we reveal four separate and easy approaches that will upgrade your AI outputs immediately. Don’t worry, you won’t need to spend hours learning or implementing any of these hacks.  

For example, you'll discover how to get AI to do the heavy lifting on prompts themselves (yes, really), and learn a great way to tackle repetitive tasks with ease, avoiding re-inventing the wheel time and time again.

Some of the techniques you’ll hear about include:

• The metaprompting technique that can save hours of prompt refinement
• How Projects, Gems, GPTs and Custom Co Pilots may turbo-charge your productivity 
• A step by step explanation of how you can set up these tools, and
• Exactly how AI was used to help generate some of the copy you’re reading now. 

Whether you're already comfortable with AI or still finding your feet, we’re confident that at least one of these techniques will help you level up your own AI skills and outcomes. 

Listen now for practical and real examples of how these techniques work in action to help you work smarter with AI. 

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What happens when a group of friends gathering at Starbucks on Sundays to experiment with ChatGPT evolves into a global movement spanning more than 40 cities?

That's the journey of Build Club, and its founder Annie Liao has some compelling insights about what it takes to actually make AI adoption work—not just in theory, but in practice.

Annie, who recently raised over $1.7 million and relocated to San Francisco, has a front-row seat to how AI is reshaping work. From her early days in data science at Westpac to strategy consulting at BCG and venture capital, she's now solving what she calls the "AI adoption problem" that enterprises are struggling with worldwide.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why Annie's "AI Champions" approach has been Build Club’s most successful way of helping companies embrace AI 
• How she struck partnership deals with big names like Nvidia and Lovable
• Annie’s prediction we’re all likely to have agents working overnight on our behalf and what that means
• The AI tools Annie uses in her daily workflow, and
• What makes San Francisco's AI ecosystem fundamentally different from Australia's

From her vantage point in the Bay Area, Annie shares what excites her most about seeing people use AI for the first time, why there might be too many no-code tools flooding the market, and the practical steps anyone can take to position themselves for what's coming next.

Enjoy this episode with the indomitable Annie Liao. 

Useful links:

Build Club website

Annie Liao on LinkedIn

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This week we explore how AI is transforming the way we approach and develop strategy - not just in boardrooms, but in so many of the myriad of decisions businesses and leaders need to make almost daily.

Our guest is Ross Dawson, a globally recognised futurist, keynote speaker, and strategy advisor. Ross is the bestselling author of ‘Thriving on Overload’ and founder of the Humans + AI community. Ross’s clients around the globe have included Google, Microsoft, American Express and Procter & Gamble.

Ross's work today is focused on what AI can do to augment and support humans in a positive, value-adding way. He neatly combines both the big-picture vision of a futurist and the practical insights of someone experimenting with these tools daily.

What struck us most about this conversation was Ross's articulation of how AI can be used across four distinct domains of strategy and how he’s observed few organisations have sharp clarity on each of these distinct and important elements. He also shares how AI is prompting forward thinking leaders to think about their strategy development and decision processes in different ways now AI can be injected into the process.

In our conversation, you'll also hear Ross share:

• The technique Ross learned from Nvidia's CEO for optimising AI outputs using multiple models
• Practical examples of AI being used in boardrooms including a unique conversation ‘monitor’
• The 2 most important human skills Ross believes we all need in an AI-augmented world, and . . . 
• How threatened entry-level jobs can be completely reimagined to create value for both the individual and the business. 

This is a thought-provoking exploration of how humans and AI can work together to create better strategies and better outcomes, so enjoy this episode with the forward-thinking Ross Dawson.

Useful Links

Ross Dawson’s website  

Humans + AI Community

Ross's book - Thriving on Overload 

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Imagine you're a marketing professor who saw the AI revolution coming years before ChatGPT hit the scene, wrote the definitive book on AI marketing in 2021, and now find yourself at the epicentre of one of the most dramatic transformations in history.

This is the very position this week’s guest, Jim Lecinski, finds himself in. Jim is a Clinical Professor of Marketing at Northwestern University's prestigious Kellogg School of Management, where he teaches AI in Marketing and has won Professor of the Year. 

Adding to Jim's canny foresight is his prior, 13-year career as a VP at Google. As a result, Jim brings both the practitioner's real-world experience and the academic's analytical rigour to one of the most important questions facing leaders and marketers today: how do you harness AI not just for efficiency gains, but for genuine competitive advantage and growth?

In our conversation, you'll also hear about:

• Jim's 2x2 framework for thinking strategically about AI applications in marketing 
• Use-case examples from brands such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and IKEA where AI is used to revolutionise everything from creative development to customer service
• Why businesses need to prepare for the shift from search engine optimisation (SEO) to "generative engine optimisation" (GEO), and what that means practically
• The emerging world of AI agents and how this will fundamentally change how we all shop, and
• Jim's essential learning resources for those who want to stay ahead of the curve.

We loved the way Jim shares his own wisdom and insights as well as sharing many examples of what market leaders are actually doing with AI.

We know you’ll enjoy this conversation with the whip-smart professor who saw the AI future ahead of the crowd. 

Useful Links

Jim Lecinski on LinkedIn

AI Marketing Association 

Marketing AI Institute 

Andrew Ng’s AI for Everyone course on Coursera

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Ever wondered what it's really like inside one of the world's fastest-growing AI companies? This week we get unprecedented access to the inner workings of Leonardo AI through their Chief Commercial Officer, Donna Thomas.

Leonardo AI is a Gen AI-powered image and video generator and it’s one of Australia's AI success stories. It scaled from zero to 19 million users in just two years before being acquired by Canva last year.

At ‘Leo’ as they call it, Donna plays a central role  overseeing customer, marketing, sales and enterprise adoption, as Leo charts its evolution from a fast-growing creative AI platform to an enterprise-scale solution.        

Donna takes us behind the scenes and shares what hypergrowth feels like from the inside. She says Leo has redefined her understanding of speed itself.

In such a fast moving environment,  the challenges of managing and sustaining teams through constant change become critical and Donna shares the specific structures and rituals Leo uses to maintain team stability while moving faster than she's ever experienced.

In this conversation, you'll also discover:

• The key differences between working at a traditional tech giant versus an AI-native startup and what skills become essential
• The "listening muscle" required to synthesise signals from customers, competitors, and tech developments in real-time
• Practical strategies for managing and sustaining teams through hypergrowth and hyper-fast work rhythms 
• Why Leonardo embeds AI across everything from customer service to engineering and HR, and how they manage the complexity of using multiple different AI tools internally; and . . .
• Donna's advice for professionals wanting to become more AI-fluent and free up time for deep work.

Whether you're curious about life inside a cutting-edge AI company or looking for practical insights on adapting and leading in our rapidly changing work environment, this conversation offers a rare glimpse into how a world-leading AI-native organisation is managing these challenges and opportunities. 

Enjoy this episode! 

Useful Links

Leonardo AI

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Our guest this week gets straight to the heart of what actually makes AI work in practice: seamless data integration and moving at what she calls "the speed of trust."

Ann Maya is the EMEA Chief Technology Officer at Boomi, a company that connects applications, devices, and systems to help organisations navigate digital transformation. With over 20 years in software—from developer to solution architect to senior leadership—Ann has a rare ability to bridge technical complexity with business reality.

In this conversation, we explore why most organisations struggle to scale AI beyond pilots, and why the answer isn't just about the technology itself. Ann shares:

• How a container ship insurance company transformed their underwriter workflow from three days to 15 minutes—and why their legal team immediately wanted in
• Why she believes your company's data is your "competitive secret sauce" and how to protect it while still leveraging AI's power
• The psychology behind why change happens at "the speed of trust" and how smart companies bring their people along on the AI journey
• Real examples of what she calls "creative destruction"—and why the next revolution might come from the most unexpected places

Ann also reveals how Boomi has embedded 11 different AI agents into their own platform and shares a fascinating perspective on the current AI race: who's winning, who's getting left behind, and what you can control when everything feels like it's moving at breakneck speed.

Whether you're wondering how to turn AI skeptics into advocates or trying to understand why your organisation's data strategy matters more than ever, this conversation offers practical insights from someone who's helping companies navigate this transformation every day.

Enjoy this episode with the innovative and customer-focused Ann Maya. 

Useful Links

Ann on LinkedIn

Boomi home page

Boomi - Discover 

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This week we explore how AI is reshaping all things marketing with Emma Wharton Love, co-founder of UK-based Spark AI. 

Emma helps creative agencies and in-house teams navigate the AI era, and her unique background includes helping the entire UK House of Commons transition to hybrid working during Covid.

That experience taught Emma something crucial that we explore in this episode, successful AI deployment isn't really about the technology, it's about people and change management. 

We also probe one of the most sensitive areas for the marketing services industry, how AI is impacting the creative process itself. We also explore what AI video means for advertising and how it may result in a much bigger pool of advertisers in future.

During this great conversation you'll also discover:

• What to avoid when starting out on the AI pathway
• The value of synthetic market research (and what it is)
• Where Emma believes the biggest gains for agencies lie 
• How she thinks about AI’s future role in marketing creativity, and 
• The one mindset Emma believes is essential for AI success.

Whether you're in marketing or not, Emma's approach to managing AI transformation offers valuable lessons for any professional or business trying to harness this technology thoughtfully.

Useful Links

Spark AI website

Emma Wharton Love on LinkedIn

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This week we're sharing an AI conversation many executives are afraid to have. Our guest, Peter Guagenti, CEO of agentic platform and AI agent builder, EverWorker, is one of those rare voices willing to say what others won't: "AI will replace jobs”. Perhaps surprisingly, he goes on to explain why that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

While many in the industry underestimate or downplay AI's capabilities, Peter speaks plainly about what he's seeing happen right now in businesses across multiple industries.

Peter has been at the forefront of enterprise AI adoption for nearly a decade. Before EverWorker, he was President of TabNine, a pioneering AI code assistant, and he’s held leadership roles at major data infrastructure and dev tools companies including Cockroach Labs.

What you'll hear Peter share in this episode:

• Why job replacement fears are missing the bigger picture 
• Which "boring" businesses are actually leading early AI agent adoption
• Skills you need to successfully implement AI for automation in any business
• Why Peter calls AGI talk "nonsense" and what leaders should focus on instead, and
• The one thing about AI's future that genuinely worries him most.

Peter has a gift for cutting through the hype with plain talking, concrete examples and practical insights in an easy to understand way.

This is a refreshing and informative conversation for anyone wanting a glimpse into early adoption of AI agents and much more. 

Enjoy this conversation with the plain-speaking and savvy Peter Guagenti. 

Useful Links

EverWorker website

EverWorker AI Academy - free AI fundamentals course for business leaders

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We’re not long back from attending the AI Summit in London - the headline event for London Tech Week. And so this week’s episode is all about sharing the sometimes surprising key insights we took away. 

The Summit brought together an incredible cross-section of nationalities, perspectives, and industries, giving us what felt like a real-time pulse check of where AI stands right now. We were there on your behalf, identifying amazing leaders and securing some fantastic upcoming guests for the show.

In this episode, we share our biggest takeaways from the event - and we suspect at least one of them will challenge what you might expect about AI's current impact in the business world.

What you'll hear:

• The surprising reality about AI's bottom-line impact in most organisations 
• Why even the biggest companies are missing a crucial strategic opportunity with their AI approach
• The coming wave of autonomous AI Agents and what this means for how we'll all be working soon, 
• Some rare ‘behind the curtain’ examples of how some of the most forward thinking businesses are applying AI, and . . . 
• The fascinating cultural divide we observed between how Europeans and Americans are talking about AI's impact on jobs.

We also explore why so many AI pilots are failing to scale, the risks of unauthorised AI tool usage in workplaces, and what successful AI deployment actually looks like when companies think beyond just automating existing processes.

If you've been wondering whether your organisation is behind the curve with AI, or if you're curious about what's really happening beyond the hype, this episode offers some much-needed perspective from the front lines of the AI world around the globe.

Useful Links

The AI Summit London

McKinsey report on the 'Gen AI Paradox'

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