Episodes

  • #220: AI Answers - The 2026 State of AI for Business Report

    #220: AI Answers - The 2026 State of AI for Business Report
    Jun 18 2026
    Seventy-one percent of professionals expect AI to eliminate more jobs than it creates — but only 20% worry about their own. In this AI Answers episode, Taylor Radey joins Paul and Mike to unpack that disconnect and nine other findings from the 2026 State of AI for Business report, drawn from 2,109 respondents. From why CEOs rate themselves furthest ahead to why only 13% of organizations have the governance to scale, this is the data behind what's actually happening inside companies right now. Download the full report at stateofbusiness.ai Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:05:05 — Top 10 Key Findings: Executive Summary 00:12:56 — Did you use AI to build this report? 00:14:26 — What remained uniquely human in the research process? 00:17:25 — Is the 71% job elimination finding consistent across industries and company sizes? 00:19:16 — Why do 71% expect job loss but only 20% worry about their own job? 00:23:30 — How do barriers to AI adoption change from piloting to scaling? 00:28:56 — Only 13% have all four governance foundations, what's driving that? 00:32:14 — Can governance actually accelerate AI adoption rather than slow it down? 00:34:09 — 51% want training on AI agents, what does good agent governance look like? 00:39:15 — Are traditional role definitions changing because of AI? 00:43:09 — Are CEOs really that far ahead on AI, or just overconfident? 00:46:23 — How do you handle institutional resistance to AI? 00:52:00 — How do you teach AI skills to people at wildly different levels? 00:54:15 — How are companies addressing employee concerns about AI's environmental impact? 00:58:09 — Which industries have the greatest growth opportunity in the age of AI? 00:59:47 — Will AI progress past the barriers identified in the report? 01:01:36 — What was the most surprising finding from this year's research? Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here This episode is brought to you by AI for Business Bootcamp by SmarterX — a single-day event in Columbus, Ohio on July 16th, built for professionals and leaders ready to accelerate AI adoption and value creation. The day moves from a state-of-AI keynote into two hands-on workshops on AI productivity and AI innovation, and you'll leave with an actionable plan for yourself and your team. AI Academy members and groups get discounted pricing. Use code POD100 for $100 off your ticket. Learn more at SmarterX.ai/events. 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
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • #219: Claude Fable 5, OpenAI IPO, Apple Siri AI Finally Unveiled & Is the Era of Affordable AI Over?

    #219: Claude Fable 5, OpenAI IPO, Apple Siri AI Finally Unveiled & Is the Era of Affordable AI Over?
    Jun 16 2026
    The U.S. government forced Anthropic to pull Fable 5 and Mythos 5 from general availability just days after they launched as the most capable models publicly available. Paul and Mike work through how it happened, Dario Amodei's policy essay, and the question every business leader should be sitting with: what do you build on when a model can be switched off? Then it's OpenAI's confidential IPO filing, Apple's long-awaited Siri AI, the real economics behind your AI subscription, and a DeepMind paper on the road from AGI to ASI. 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 00:05:20 — Claude Fable 5 00:27:38 — OpenAI Files for IPO 00:36:02 — Apple’s Siri AI Is Finally Here 00:44:02 — Is the Era of Affordable AI Over? 00:48:56 — Opendoor Ends Offshoring for AI-Native Workers 00:51:49 — From Prompts to Loops 00:57:48 — From AGI to ASI 01:03:07 — Europe 2031 01:06:53 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:11:12 — 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
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    1 hr and 15 mins
  • #218: Anthropic IPO, Trump AI Executive Order, Rising AI Costs & OpenAI Merges Codex Into ChatGPT

    #218: Anthropic IPO, Trump AI Executive Order, Rising AI Costs & OpenAI Merges Codex Into ChatGPT
    Jun 9 2026
    Anthropic filed for an IPO and published a paper warning that recursive self-improvement may arrive faster than anyone is ready for. Paul and Mike break down both, then cover Trump's AI executive order, government stakes in AI labs, and the corporate scramble to control AI token costs. Rapid fire: Apple WWDC previews, OpenAI's Codex-ChatGPT merger, Brockman's super PAC, AI rolling up the accounting industry, Stanford law professors losing to AI 75% of the time, and product updates from Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Anthropic. 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 00:05:53 — Anthropic IPO & Talks Recursive Self-Improvement 00:25:52 — Trump's AI Executive Order & Government Stakes in AI Labs 00:37:34 — The Soaring Cost of Intelligence, Part 2 00:57:34 — Apple WWDC 01:01:36 — OpenAI Is Merging Codex and ChatGPT 01:06:19 — OpenAI Distances Itself from Brockman's Super PAC 01:08:55 — AI Roll-Up Targets the Accounting Industry 01:12:23 — AI in Higher Education 01:16:29 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:20:29 — 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
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    1 hr and 25 mins
  • #217: The Pope's AI Encyclical, AI's PR Emergency, The Soaring Cost of Intelligence & The Great AI Jobs Disconnect

    #217: The Pope's AI Encyclical, AI's PR Emergency, The Soaring Cost of Intelligence & The Great AI Jobs Disconnect
    Jun 2 2026
    Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical, 43,000 words on AI and human dignity, and Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah was at the Vatican for the unveiling. Paul and Mike break down what the church's entry into the AI debate means for global public perception, then cover the PR emergency building among young people, the token cost crisis hitting corporate budgets, Claude Opus 4.8, competing AI jobs narratives, Illinois's landmark safety bill, Microsoft's agent data, and Anthropic's $65B Series H. 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 00:02:49 — AI-Pulse Survey 00:05:40 — The Pope's AI Encyclical 00:25:35 — AI's PR Emergency 00:38:25 — The Soaring Cost of Intelligence 00:54:12 — Claude Opus 4.8 00:58:23 — The Narrative Around AI and Jobs 01:06:22 — AI and Politics Updates 01:11:04 — Microsoft's Work Trend Index on Agents 01:14:23 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:19:34 — 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
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    1 hr and 24 mins
  • #216: Google I/O, Musk v. OpenAI Verdict, Andrej Karpathy Joins Anthropic & Meta Layoffs

    #216: Google I/O, Musk v. OpenAI Verdict, Andrej Karpathy Joins Anthropic & Meta Layoffs
    May 26 2026
    Google I/O dropped dozens of announcements this week, including Gemini 3.5 Flash, Gemini Omni, the "biggest upgrade to search in 25 years," and a closing statement from Demis Hassabis that we are at the foothills of the singularity. Paul and Mike unpack it all: what the Karpathy-to-Anthropic move really means, why the Musk v. OpenAI verdict matters beyond the headlines, and what to make of profitable companies like Cloudflare and ClickUp publicly announcing AI-driven workforce restructuring. They also cover the Gallup data showing Americans oppose data centers more than nuclear power, and what that means for the political landscape ahead. 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 00:02:49 — AI-Pulse Survey 00:04:41 — Google I/O 2026 00:21:12 — Musk v. OpenAI Verdict 00:27:43 — Karpathy Joins Anthropic 00:37:17 — Meta Layoffs 00:46:52 — Cloudflare CEO on Replacing Employees with AI 00:59:34 — American Opposition to Data Centers 01:09:34 — AI's Political Civil War 01:14:37 — Anthropic v. the Department of War (Again) 01:17:35 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:23:24 — 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
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    1 hr and 30 mins
  • #215: Musk v. OpenAI Round 3, AI's Hot New Job, The AI Jobs Apocalypse Debate & The 2026 State of AI for Business Report

    #215: Musk v. OpenAI Round 3, AI's Hot New Job, The AI Jobs Apocalypse Debate & The 2026 State of AI for Business Report
    May 19 2026
    Three big stories define this week: the Musk v. OpenAI trial wraps with the jury advising but the judge deciding. Then: why did every major AI commentator publish the same argument in the same week that AI won't kill jobs? And: Forward Deployed Engineers: are they the future of enterprise AI adoption or just consultants with a better name? Rapid fire covers the AI hate wave showing up across the country, Anthropic's two-scenario roadmap for the US-China AI race, cybersecurity threats that give organizations just three to five months before attackers catch up, and a full product update roundup including Anthropic's $950B valuation, the Gates Foundation partnership, and the launch of Recursive Superintelligence. 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 00:03:46 — AI-Pulse Survey 00:06:27 — Musk v. OpenAI Round 3 00:12:13 — "Forward Deployed Engineers" Are AI's Hot New Job 00:30:17 — The AI Jobs Apocalypse Debate 00:48:49 — An AI Hate Wave Is Here 01:00:34 — Two Scenarios Could Unfold in the US-China AI Race 01:05:19 — AI Threats Have the US Government (and Labs) Worried 01:09:04 — The Rise of "Headless" Software 01:14:53 — Publicis Acquires LiveRamp 01:16:36 — How AI Is Changing the Way We Work (Second Brains, Apprenticeships, and More) 01:24:39 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:29:30 — 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
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    1 hr and 35 mins
  • #214: Musk v. OpenAI Round 2, Coinbase AI Layoffs, AI “Soft Nationalization & xAI Folds Into SpaceX

    #214: Musk v. OpenAI Round 2, Coinbase AI Layoffs, AI “Soft Nationalization & xAI Folds Into SpaceX
    May 12 2026
    The second week of Musk v. OpenAI delivered texts, secret Tesla AI plots, and backstage chaos around Sam Altman's 2023 firing. Paul and Mike also break down Coinbase's AI-native restructuring memo, the White House's very brief flirtation with model vetting, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark's prediction that AI will autonomously train its own successors by 2028, and the bizarre Anthropic-SpaceX compute deal that emerged from out of nowhere. Rapid fire covers GPT-5.5 Instant, Claude Managed Agents updates, Sierra's $950M raise, and more. 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 00:05:37 — Musk v. OpenAI Round 2 00:23:27 — Coinbase AI Layoffs 00:33:09 — AI "Soft Nationalization" 00:47:10 — State of AI for Business Report Preview 00:54:14 — xAI Folds Into SpaceX, Does Compute Deal with Anthropic 01:00:49 — Has Recursive Self-Improvement Arrived? 01:09:38 — Anthropic and OpenAI Enterprise Joint Ventures 01:15:11 — Stripe's New Forward Deployed AI Accelerator Role 01:20:48 — AI Use Case Spotlight 01:24:15 — 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
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    1 hr and 30 mins
  • #213: AI Answers - What AI Should Never Do, Enterprise Scaling, Governing AI & Navigating IT Roadblocks

    #213: AI Answers - What AI Should Never Do, Enterprise Scaling, Governing AI & Navigating IT Roadblocks
    May 7 2026
    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
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    55 mins