AI at Work

Most leaders assume they need to hire technical talent before their organization can move seriously on AI. Wyatt Barnett runs AI at an 80-person trade association with no engineering staff and no CTO and he's built more working AI capacity than most companies twice his size. The model is simpler and more replicable than you'd expect. Wyatt Barnett is Head of AI (Technology Enablement) at the NCTA,...

Most people heard "Claude Code" and assumed it was a developer tool. Kevin Williams and Matt Graham from Rapid Dev are here to correct that assumption and explain why the goal-oriented loop logic at the core of Claude Code might be the most underused productivity feature available to business leaders right now. This conversation started with a weekend of building and a realization: the same recurs...

The economics of building versus buying software just fundamentally changed. In this conversation with Matt Graham, CEO of Rapid Developers, we explore how the cost of custom development has dropped 90% and what that means for business strategy. Matt brings a unique perspective, having lived through the no-code revolution and now seeing the AI-native development wave. His company works with CEOs o...

95% of AI pilots fail to reach production, but it's not because of the technology. Brett Schklar, CEO of AI First Leadership and author of "AI Without the BS," has tracked AI adoption across 1,800 companies over two years and discovered the real bottleneck: the "frozen middle." In this conversation, Brett reveals why senior managers and directors represent both the highest resistance and highest p...

When AI models hallucinate confidently while burning through your token budget, you need more than better prompts you need better processes. In this episode, Kevin and Eli explore the reality of working with AI that lies while you pay, the evolution from saved prompts to voice-triggered workflows, and why validation loops matter more than model updates. From enterprise governance requirements to t...

Kevin and Eli dive deep into the hidden costs of AI productivity gains, exploring how cognitive overload and social isolation are creating a new form of workplace burnout that organizations aren't prepared to address. In this candid conversation, they share their personal experiences with AI work density accomplishing 80-100x more work daily while feeling more exhausted than ever. The discussion r...

What does AI implementation actually look like when you move beyond the hype? Aaron Wilt, CEO of 40-person Pulse V Holdings, shares the unfiltered reality of deploying AI in a mid-market business where technical sophistication meets organizational complexity. This conversation reveals why even leaders who deeply understand AI struggle with organizational deployment, and what it really takes to bri...

Kevin Williams breaks down the Microsoft-Claude integration that's transforming productivity workflows, plus the legal risks and model competition shaping AI adoption decisions. The Claude add-on for Microsoft Office enables something most people haven't seen yet: lateral document communication. Your email can talk to Word, Word can talk to Excel, Excel can talk to PowerPoint—all seamlessly connec...

The AI industry loves throwing around the word 'agents,' but most teams are still stuck in basic prompting mode. Kevin and Eli cut through the semantic noise to reveal what actually matters: sophisticated automation is now accessible through natural language, not technical configuration. In this episode, they explore the practical reality of moving from one-off prompts to systematic workflows, why...

The "token maxing" phenomenon is reshaping how organizations think about AI budgets, but most companies are asking the wrong questions about AI spending. In this episode, Kevin and El i explore the reality behind engineers burning through massive token budgets - sometimes exceeding their own salaries - and what it means for practical AI adoption in mid-market companies. From Stockholm engineers ou...

What if you could run your entire workday through one AI conversation? Kevin and Eli explore the emerging 'monothread' format that's revolutionizing how teams operate - plus the hidden security risks that amateur AI builders are creating. In this episode, we dive deep into how the monothread approach eliminates app switching by connecting your email, calendar, tasks, and CRM into one continuous AI...

When Anthropic's Claude went down at 6:15 AM on tax day, it exposed a critical blind spot that most AI-adopting organizations haven't considered: vendor dependency risk. In this episode, Kevin and Eli dive deep into what happened when their entire AI-powered workflow ecosystem crashed simultaneously, revealing the hidden dangers of building business operations around single AI providers without ba...

Kevin Williams & Elijah Szasz demonstrates the end of interface friction by consolidating his entire workflow into a single Claude conversation. No more jumping between ClickUp, HubSpot, and Slack - everything happens through natural conversation with AI connectors pulling and pushing data to the right systems. This episode explores a fundamental shift happening right now: your SaaS tools are...

Kevin and Eli dive deep into the productivity unlock everyone's missing: dictation. Kevin reveals he's crossed one million words dictated and shares why voice input isn't just faster - it generates 3-5x more context-rich data that dramatically improves AI responses. This episode explores the gap between AI hype and practical implementation, covering computer use capabilities in Claude, the challen...

Google's AI overviews now dominate 84% of retail searches, fundamentally changing how customers discover businesses. In this episode, Kevin Williams and Eli explore the shift to zero-click commerce and what it means for organizations that depend on organic traffic. The traditional SEO playbook is dying as AI-powered search results provide answers without sending users to websites. This creates a w...

Kevin and Eli dive deep into Claude Cowork's browser automation capabilities and uncover a significant shift happening right now in white-collar work. What starts as excitement about AI controlling browsers quickly turns into a sobering discussion about immediate workforce displacement. In this conversation, Kevin demonstrates his weekend vibe-coding project a complete podcast processing tool whil...

Shadow AI use is creating massive compliance risks that most organizations don’t even know exist yet. In this episode, Kevin Williams and Eli explore why the Anthropic-Pentagon situation should be a wake-up call for every business leader dealing with AI adoption. We dive into the reality that every company has employees using free AI models for work tasks, creating exposure that legal teams don’t...

Summary Elijah and Kevin zoom out from the weekly AI frenzy to a more uncomfortable truth: most leaders still do not believe what is coming. They unpack why big organizations misread adoption signals, why an AI manifesto from the very top matters, and how “cheap” offshore workflows can paradoxically delay automation. The conversation then turns to the new wave of agents, scheduled tasks, and brows...

Summary Kevin spends a family-free weekend “vibe coding” and accidentally builds a full SaaS: a multi-tenant lead magnet builder that creates custom, multi-step lead magnets and then generates personalized nurture emails tied to each prospect’s exact inputs. The bigger lesson is not just the tool, it’s the shift in what’s now possible for non-developers with the right AI workflow: Claude Code plus...

Summary Kevin and Elijah unpack why AI tooling feels brutally disposable right now, with yesterday’s “daily drivers” getting replaced fast. They compare meeting transcription tools, debate sales coaching platforms like Spiky, and then zoom out to a bigger shift: agentic workflows, orchestration bots like OpenClaw, and the new reality of running multiple AI “bakes” at once. They react to Matt Schum...

Summary Elijah and Kevin trade war stories from the prompt trenches, and land on a counterintuitive rule, more context can make outputs worse. They unpack why Gemini “Gems” feel powerful but brittle, and how NotebookLM just changed the game by becoming a reusable source library that Gems can tap. From there, it turns into a practical playbook, curate your notebooks, keep lightweight brand style gu...

Summary Elijah and Kevin zoom out on how weird modern work has become, then zoom way in on a weekend flashpoint: OpenClaw, a locally hosted orchestration agent, and Moltbook, a Reddit-style forum where AI agents post, collaborate, and sometimes roleplay chaos at scale. They unpack what’s real versus sock-puppeted spectacle, why decentralization changes the “just turn it off” narrative, and the pra...

Summary In this engaging conversation, Elijah Szasz and Kevin Williams delve into the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications for society and technology. They kick off with a light-hearted exchange about nicknames and segue into a discussion on AI's portrayal in movies, highlighting works like 'Her' and the culture novels by Ian M. Banks. The duo reflects on the bal...

Summary Kevin finally gets a nickname (Kevlar wins), then brings back field notes from LA: even smart execs are still stuck at AI 101, using chatbots for broad personal questions instead of real work leverage. The deeper unlock is not buying licenses, it’s building workflows, training the system with human feedback, and capturing the “between the cracks” context that lives in Slack, email, and mee...

Summary Elijah and Kevin kick off the new year with a blunt reality check, AI is not just “a tool,” it is reshaping how work feels. They unpack a surprising downside of automation: when AI removes the low stress busywork, people can end up stuck in high stakes decision mode all day. They also break down why “vibe coding” is getting confusing, the difference between developer-grade tools (Cursor, W...