"A Beginner's Guide to AI" makes the complex world of Artificial Intelligence accessible to all. Each episode breaks down a new AI concept into everyday language, tying it to real-world applications and featuring insights from industry experts. Ideal for novices, tech enthusiasts, and the simply curious, this podcast transforms AI learning into an engaging, digestible journey. Join us as we take the first steps into AI! There are 3 episode formats: AI generated, interviews with AI experts & my thoughts. Want to get your AI going? Get in contact: [email protected]
AI is no longer just a chatbot that helps you write emails faster. In this episode of Beginner’s Guide to AI, Dietmar Fischer sits down with Ethan Ouyang to explore how agentic AI is changing the way businesses are built, managed, and scaled. Ethan is publicly identified with ATOMS, and the platform’s official site is atoms.dev, where it is described as a multi-agent AI workflow for building products without code.
This conversation goes far beyond simple prompting. Ethan explains how AI agents can work together like a business team, handling research, planning, product creation, workflow automation, iteration, and even revenue optimization. The result is a shift from “vibe coding” to something much bigger: building real businesses with AI.
✨ Why ChatGPT-level use cases are only the beginning
✨ How AI agents can support founders, solo operators, and managers
✨ Why judgment, taste, and domain knowledge still matter
✨ What it means to become an AI native company
✨ How leadership changes when your team includes AI workers
✨ Why custom AI tools may beat bloated SaaS products
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Tune in to get my thoughts and all episodes, don't forget to subscribe to our Newsletter: beginnersguide.nl
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Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com
“Atoms is fundamentally different. This is not code. It is decision.”
“You have a team, not just an engineer.”
“The trivial work, the tedious work, should belong to AI.”
00:00 Welcome and what ATOMS actually does
02:26 From prompting AI to building a real business
05:33 Why AI agents matter more than coding alone
10:18 Who uses ATOMS: founders, managers, and operators
13:03 How to integrate AI agents into real workflows
23:22 Leadership, hiring, and managing AI workers
27:13 The future of agentic AI and autonomous systems
31:37 What an AI native company looks like
35:18 China, the US, and the AI application race
40:03 Safety, the Terminator question, and responsible AI
42:14 Where to find Ethan and ATOMS
Platform: ATOMS.dev
Company: DeepWisdom.AI
YouTube: youtube.com/@atoms_dev
LinkedIn: Ethan Ouyang
🎵 Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads
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Human-Centered AI at Work with Monica Marquez: A Practical Adoption Playbook
If you’re still treating AI like a shiny gadget, this episode will be a polite intervention.Monica Marquez (Flipwork) shows how to build a human-centered AI adoption playbook that actually sticks.We dig into AI as a partner, not a tool; psychological safety for teams; and the one-workflow-per-month rule that turns experimentation into measurable AI ROI.You’ll learn how to avoid work slop, build agentic workflows, and translate machine output into authentic intelligence that reflects your expertise. 🤖
What you’ll learn
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Quotes from the Episode
Chapters
00:00 Welcome, who is Monica Marquez and what is Flipwork
02:59 AI as a partner, not a tool
05:34 Practical example: recruiting, prompts, and human judgment
07:02 Generational beliefs, “artificial intern,” and mindset shifts
11:24 From effort to impact: redefining success with AI
12:46 Redesigning workflows before layering AI
14:44 Psychological safety and daily experiments
16:55 Leaders model usage, run side-by-side experiments
18:37 Avoiding “work slop” and building authentic intelligence
21:44 Doing more of your “zone of genius” with AI
24:39 The one-workflow-per-month rule
29:25 Industry adoption patterns, lessons from Blockbuster vs Netflix
33:12 Personal AI use cases and voice-based workflows
36:32 Matrix, Terminator, and Monica’s real fear: disengaged humans
37:58 Where to find Monica and Flipwork
Where to find Monica Marquez
About Dietmar Fischer
Host of Beginner’s Guide to AI. Economist and digital marketer helping teams turn AI from hype into workflows.Training, talks, and courses with thousands of participants. 🎙️
Go to argoberlin.com to see how we can help you!
Music credit: “Modern Situations” by Unicorn Heads 🎵
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode of A Beginner’s Guide to AI, Dietmar Fischer talks with Alex Levin, the Co-Founder and CEO of Regal.io, about how Voice AI is bringing real human conversation back to customer service.
For years, businesses have been hiding behind IVRs and chatbots - cutting off the personal touch that customers crave. Alex explains how AI voice agents are transforming the experience, allowing brands to actually talk to their customers again, at scale, with empathy, emotion, and precision.
We dive into what’s behind this transformation - from the technology (OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, ElevenLabs, Deepgram) to the psychology of trust and emotion in customer communication. Alex shares how Regal.io helps enterprises in healthcare, insurance, and finance use AI-powered voice agents that can outperform human representatives while lowering costs and improving satisfaction.
From replacing call center frustration with warm, natural conversations to the rise of empathetic AI agents, this episode explores what happens when voice meets intelligence.
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Quotes from the Episode
“If a customer wants to talk to you, you’re lucky - and if they want to do it by voice, you should let them.”
“The personalization possible with AI agents is more human than humans.”
“Everyone told me voice was dead - they were wrong.”
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction - Why Voice AI Is Making a Comeback
00:54 Alex Levin’s Journey from Startups to Voice AI
03:42 “Voice Isn’t Dead” - The Moment That Sparked Regal.io
06:25 How Voice AI Actually Works Behind the Scenes
08:47 Using AI Agents to Talk to Customers at Scale
10:58 Data, Scripts, and What Makes a “Good” AI Conversation
13:33 Legal Hurdles and Privacy in Voice AI
15:50 Why Healthcare and Insurance Are Early Adopters
18:26 How Customers React When They Realize It’s an AI
21:12 Real Use Cases - From Banks to Everyday Services
24:19 Human in the Loop: When AI Hands Over to People
26:55 Can Small Businesses Afford Voice AI Yet?
28:48 The AI Startup Boom and Smarter Investment Strategies
32:20 Leadership in the Age of AI - New Skills, New Metrics
35:12 Why Young Professionals Must Learn AI Tools Now
37:45 How Alex Personally Uses AI (and Where It Saves Time)
39:24 The “Terminator Question” - Should We Be Worried?
42:08 Closing Reflections and Where to Find Regal.io
Where to Find Alex Levin
🌐 Website: www.regal.io
🧑🏻 LinkedIn: Alex Levin
🎙 About Dietmar Fischer:
Dietmar is a podcaster, AI marketer, and economist from Berlin.
If you want to get your AI or your digital marketing going - just contact him at Argoberlin.com!
🎵 Music credit: “Modern Situations” by Unicorn Heads
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode, Dietmar Fischer talks with Tallulah Le Merle, a humanist technologist and investor, about how to think clearly in the age of AI without falling into doomsday panic or blind optimism. You’ll get a practical mental model of the AI stack, a grounded take on AI alignment risk, and a refreshing argument for hope as a strategic posture that shapes what gets built. 🤖🌍🧠
What you’ll learn
✅ Why fear based AI narratives can freeze action and distort decisions
✅ How the future of work may shift from routine cognitive tasks to deeper human capabilities
✅ The overlooked forms of intelligence AI cannot easily replace somatic, ecological, communal
✅ How AI investing works in early stage startups and what responsible due diligence looks like
✅ The AI stack explained simply infrastructure, model layer, application layer
✅ What agentic AI means today and where it is heading
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Tune in to get my thoughts and all episodes, don't forget to subscribe to our Newsletter: beginnersguide.nl
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About Dietmar Fischer
Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com 🌱🚀
Chapters
00:00 Meet Tallulah Le Merle and why “hope” is her AI stance
03:52 Fear narratives vs hope as a practical posture
08:06 Disruptive to what Rethinking modern work and human thriving
10:14 Jobs replaced vs jobs created and the transition problem
12:36 What’s left for humans Somatic ecological and communal intelligence
18:47 The humanist builder and why ethics should unlock capital
28:55 The AI stack explained infrastructure model layer application layer
32:30 Why apps and agents are the near-term investment boom
40:32 The alignment problem Terminator narratives and the futures we build
46:12 Fantasy, imagination, and why it matters for tech trajectories
49:36 Where to find Tallulah and the upcoming book
Quotes from the Episode
💬 “AI is a tool. And like a hammer. Hammer, you could use it to build a house or as a murder weapon.”
💬 “Hope is this sliver of openness to the possibility that something good could happen.”
💬 “Disruptive to what Actually, a lot of the way we live and work and operate as humans today is dystopian.”
💬 “It forces us to ask these existential questions, like, what is a human”
💬 “I actually think it should be a prerequisite for unlocking capital.”
💬 “We are so early We’re in inning one of a nine inning baseball game.”
Where to find Tallulah
🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tallulahlemerle
🔗 Website: tallulahlemerle.com
🔗 Updates on her book: don't forget to follow her on LinkedIn 🚀
Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
🎙️ In this episode of Beginner’s Guide to AI, Dietmar Fischer sits down with Torrey Leonard, CEO of Thoughtly, to unpack the real business use case for voice AI agents: follow up with every lead, qualify fast, and hand the best conversations to humans.
If your funnel generates thousands of leads, the bottleneck is not “lack of interest.” It’s speed, timing, and the grind of dialing. Torrey explains how Thoughtly’s AI phone agents call inbound leads, answer initial questions, build rapport, and then transfer the call to a licensed human closer. Humans stay in the loop for the big life decisions. The AI handles the repetitive first steps that burn out teams.
You will also learn:
✅ Why voice beats typing as the fastest interface for human communication
✅ Why customer service voice AI is harder than sales and lead qualification
✅ How onboarding works with CRM integrations like Salesforce and HubSpot
✅ Why A/B testing matters before ramping to 100% lead volume
✅ Why the “moat” is orchestration, workflows, and guardrails, not just a great voice model
✅ What agentic AI and omni-channel “next best action” looks like next
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Tune in to get my thoughts and all episodes, don’t forget to subscribe to our Newsletter: beginnersguide.nl
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About Dietmar Fischer: Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com
Chapters
00:00 From Minecraft to voice first AI and the origin of Thoughtly
02:44 What Thoughtly does AI calls that qualify and transfer to humans
07:45 Trust, disclosure, and why customer service voice AI is so hard
12:50 Scaling across verticals dialects and the model orchestration stack
18:12 Onboarding CRM integrations and A/B testing to 100% volume
28:21 The next wave autonomous agents OpenClaw and a sane take on AI risk
Quotes from the Episode
Where to find the Guest
🌐 Thoughtly: thoughtly.com
🔗 Torrey Leonard on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/torrey-leonard/
Music credit: “Modern Situations” by Unicorn Heads
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
🎧 What makes us human in the age of AI?
This episode of A Beginner’s Guide to AI explores one of the most important questions for business leaders today. As AI becomes more capable, the real challenge is not what it can do, but what we should never outsource.
We explore The Blurring Test, a fascinating experiment where thousands of people tried to prove their humanity to a chatbot. What they revealed changes how we should think about AI, business, and identity.
You will learn why AI can mimic humans but cannot experience reality, why human judgment becomes more valuable in an automated world, and how to use AI without losing authenticity and meaning.
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Tune in to get my thoughts and all episodes, don't forget to subscribe to our Newsletter: beginnersguide.nl
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👤 About Dietmar Fischer:
Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at https://argoberlin.com/
00:00 The Question That Changes Everything
04:30 The MrMind Experiment
11:20 AI vs Human Identity
19:10 The Cake Test Explained
26:40 AI in Business and Decision Making
34:00 What Makes Us Human
🚀 This episode challenges how you think about AI, business, and yourself. The future will not be about replacing humans. It will be about understanding what makes us irreplaceable.
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If you want to know more about the podcast, about how it's produced, what are the challenges and wins, about some fun facts, a little bit behind-the-scenes, this episode is for you, as I tell you all about it - at least all the things I found noteworthy 😉
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Tune in to get my thoughts and all episodes, don't forget to subscribe to our Newsletter: beginnersguide.nl
📧💌📧
About Dietmar Fischer: Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com
Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Your AI might not be hacked. It might be persuaded.
In this episode of A Beginner’s Guide to AI, we unpack one of the most underestimated threats in modern business: prompt injection. As AI systems and AI agents become deeply embedded in workflows, they don’t just process information anymore. They act on it. And that creates a completely new category of AI security risks.
We explore how attackers can manipulate AI systems using nothing but language, why AI struggles to separate instructions from data, and how this leads to real-world issues like AI data leakage. This is not a theoretical problem. It is already happening inside enterprise environments.
If you are working with AI in marketing, operations, or leadership, this episode will fundamentally change how you think about AI risk management and enterprise AI security.
Key highlights:
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Tune in to get my thoughts and all episodes, don't forget to subscribe to our Newsletter: beginnersguide.nl
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Quotes from the Episode:
Chapters:
00:00 Why AI Security Is Different
05:40 What Prompt Injection Really Is
14:20 How AI Gets Manipulated by Language
23:10 Why AI Agents Increase the Risk
32:45 Real Case Study: AI Data Leakage
44:30 How to Protect Your AI Systems
About Dietmar Fischer: Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com
Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Artificial intelligence is often framed as a battle between humans and machines. But what if that story misses the real point?
In this episode of A Beginner’s Guide to AI, Prof. GepHardT explores one of the most fascinating ideas in cognitive science: the extended mind theory. According to philosopher Andy Clark, human intelligence has never been confined to the brain alone. For centuries we have extended our thinking through tools like writing, maps, calculators, and computers.
Generative AI may simply be the newest and most powerful addition to this cognitive ecosystem.
Instead of replacing human creativity, AI may expand it. By generating ideas, exploring possibilities, and challenging assumptions, AI can act as a powerful thinking partner.
A striking example comes from the famous AlphaGo match against Go champion Lee Sedol. When the AI played the now legendary Move 37, professional players initially believed the move was a mistake. Later they discovered it opened entirely new strategic possibilities. The machine did not just beat humans at Go. It helped humans rethink the game itself.
This episode explores how human AI collaboration works and why hybrid intelligence may define the future of creativity, work, and learning.
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Tune in to get my thoughts and all episodes, don't forget to subscribe to our Newsletter: beginnersguide.nl
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About Dietmar Fischer
Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com
Quotes from the Episode
Podcast Chapters
00:00 The Big Question About AI and Human Thinking
06:40 The Extended Mind Theory Explained
16:20 Why Humans Are Natural Born Cyborgs
26:50 The AlphaGo Story and Move 37
38:15 AI as a Creative Thinking Partner
49:30 The Future of Hybrid Intelligence
Music credit: Modern Situations by Unicorn Heads
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What happens when your company gets hit by a cyberattack?
In this eye-opening episode, attorney Joshua Cook reveals why cybersecurity isn’t an IT problem but a leadership challenge. After two decades fighting fraud and managing crisis response, Cook has seen every digital disaster imaginable — and he’s here to explain how to build true cyber resilience.
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Tune in to get my thoughts and all episodes — don’t forget to subscribe to our Newsletter: beginnersguide.nl
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Josh breaks down how AI has democratized cybercrime, why phishing scams have become nearly impossible to spot, and how every CEO should create an incident response plan before chaos hits. He also explains why planning matters more than the plan itself — and how leaders can keep their teams calm when everything goes wrong.
💡 You’ll learn:
- How AI is fueling new waves of fraud and misinformation
- Why leadership and communication are the real firewalls of business
- How to train teams and run tabletop exercises before the crisis
- What Maersk and Colonial Pipeline taught the world about transparency
- Why companies with a plan lose 60 % less money in an attack
Prepare, breathe, and lead — because it’s not if you’ll be hacked, but when.
👀 Quotes from the Episode
“Cybersecurity isn’t an IT issue. It’s a business problem, and it needs a business solution.”
“AI has democratized cybercrime — you don’t need to be a hacker anymore, just willing to commit a crime.”
“A plan might be useless, but planning is indispensable — that’s what makes companies resilient.”
🧾 Chapters
00:00 Welcome & Introduction – Meet Joshua Cook
02:00 How a Fraud Attorney Ended Up Fighting Cybercrime
05:00 AI Has Made Cybercrime Easier (and Smarter)
08:00 The Elderly Are the New Prime Targets
11:00 From Fake Law Firms to Real Scams – True Cases from the Field
15:00 Turning the Tables: How AI Can Defend, Not Just Attack
18:00 Cyber Resilience by Design – Why Leadership Matters
22:00 When Crisis Hits: Lessons from Maersk and Colonial Pipeline
27:00 Preparing the Team – How Training Prevents Chaos
31:00 It’s Not If, It’s When – The Power of an Incident Response Plan
35:00 Planning vs. Panicking – Eisenhower and the Art of Cyber Preparation
38:00 Why Calm Leaders Win in Cyber Crises
41:00 How Joshua Cook Uses AI Safely in Legal Practice
44:00 No, the Terminator Isn’t Coming (But AI Might Take Your Job)
47:00 Final Thoughts – Cybersecurity as a Business Superpower
🔗 Where to Find the Guest
- Joshua Cook on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jnc2000
- Josh's Book "Cyber Resilience by Design" – available wherever books are sold, e.g. on Amazon
- Prince Lobel Tye LLP: princelobel.com
🎧 About Dietmar Fischer:
Economist, digital marketer, and podcaster exploring how AI reshapes decision-making, leadership, and creative work. Want to connect with me? You'll find me on LinkedIn!
🎵 Music credit: “Modern Situations” by Unicorn Heads
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
🎙️In this episode of Beginner’s Guide to AI, Dietmar Fischer sits down with Paul A. Hebert, founder of AI Recovery Collective and author of Escaping the Spiral, for a serious conversation about AI chatbot harm, hallucinations, digital dependency, and the real-world psychological risks of generative AI.
Paul shares how an intense experience with ChatGPT pushed him into a dangerous spiral, what he learned about the limits of large language models, and why AI literacy may be one of the most important skills of this decade.
🧠 This episode explores what happens when AI stops feeling like software and starts feeling personal. Dietmar and Paul talk about hallucinations, trust, chatbot addiction, AI companions, mental health risks, youth safety, and why companies building these systems cannot hide behind product language forever. The discussion is intense, but it is also practical. You will come away with a clearer sense of how to use AI more safely, what warning signs to watch for, and why regulation is quickly becoming a much bigger part of the AI conversation.
OpenAI has publicly discussed why language models hallucinate, while lawmakers in multiple U.S. jurisdictions have pushed new restrictions on AI systems acting like therapists or medical professionals.
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Tune in to get my thoughts and all episodes, don't forget to subscribe to our Newsletter: beginnersguide.nl
📧💌📧
👤 About Dietmar Fischer: Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com
🔥 Quotes from the Episode
🕒 Chapters
00:00 Paul Hebert’s Shocking ChatGPT Experience
08:14 Why AI Hallucinations Can Spiral Into Real Fear
16:05 AI Literacy, Neurodivergence, and How He Got Out
23:32 Why AI Companies Must Be Accountable
30:02 AI Companions, Youth Safety, and Addiction Risks
38:28 Terminator, Consciousness, and Practical Rules for Safe AI Use
🔗 Where to find Paul
🎵 Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.