Don't Stop Us Now! Podcast

Are you hearing about AI agents everywhere right now? Whether it's their presence in the software you use daily, special purpose or task “agents”, or customer service “agents”, it's safe to say they are the topic 'du jour'. In this week’s episode, we segment this confusing landscape and cut through the hype to help you make more sense of it all.After weeks of interviewing guests across different corners of the agentic AI world, we realised the market has become genuinely bewildering, even for us! Vendors are slapping the word "agent" on almost anything, and it's getting harder to tell what's substantive and what's marketing.Listen in to hear about the simple framework we've developed to bring clarity to the whole ecosystem. It maps out the key choices facing any business considering agents, the questions you should be asking, and where the real risks are quietly hiding.Regardless of whether your organisation is ready to start experimenting with agents or not, this episode will help you take the first ste

What does it actually mean to have a colleague who never sleeps, never calls in sick, and can hold thousands of conversations at once? Not in theory but right now, in real organisations?Our guest this week is Patrick Forth, an Group Executive Director at FutureSecure AI, a company that builds what they call AI co-workers: sophisticated agentic systems that sit on org charts, have names and personas, and are managed much like human employees. Patrick shares what some of the AI co-workers they’ve built so far actually do in enterprises today and what it takes to get them working inside organisations.In this episode you'll hear:About the AI co-worker managing thousands of scheduling conversations on WhatsAppWhy their AI co-workers focus on complex, high-return use cases rather than simple automation Patrick's take on the job loss debateHow one organisation puts humans and AI co-workers on the same org chart just in different colours, and Whether AI co-workers should be treated like software o

AI shopping agents aren't just on the horizon, they're here, already transacting, and already raising some important questions.In this episode, we speak with Katja Forbes an award winning customer experience futurist, business strategist, and keynote speaker recognised for her insights into the intersection of AI, design, and human behaviour. She is also the author of Machine Customers: The Evolution Has Begun, a book about what happens when your best customer is no longer human.In this fascinating conversation we cover everything from what's already happening with agentic commerce right now, to an incredible story out of China that reveals just how fast consumer behaviour can be reshaped at massive scale.In this episode you'll hear:•   Why the shopping agents built by the retailers you already use may not be working in your interest •   What it means that AI agents now have access to their own credit cards and the guardrails (or lack thereof) around them•   How some of the world’s largest

Most conversations about AI implementation come from consultants selling solutions or vendors pitching tools. This one doesn't.Sean Seah is SVP of Strategy, Technology and Innovation at Langham Hospitality Group, where he's leading AI adoption across a global luxury hotel portfolio. With over two decades in digital transformation at Microsoft, HSBC, and Zuji, Sean brings a rare perspective as he's living inside the messy reality of making it actually work.What emerges from our conversation is a refreshingly practical playbook for AI implementation. Sean reveals why the "boring stuff" nobody discusses—data infrastructure, change management, measurement frameworks—determines whether AI delivers business value or not. He advocates starting small, proving value in weeks rather than years, and letting success create momentum for long term transformation.We explore how Sean balances short-term wins with long-term strategic vision, how he thinks about his AI strategy in a global context, and why luxury hospitality,

Happy New Year to you dear listener! Have you ever felt that familiar January anxiety either because you’re feeling guilty that you don’t have a perfect set of goals for the new year or because you’re second-guessing if your goals are ambitious enough, structured enough, or even the right ones? If that’s you then this episode is for you. (Happens to us every year!) They say it takes one to know one

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•   Ho

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

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 le

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 LovableAnnie’s prediction we’re all likely to have agents working overnight on our behalf and what that meansThe AI tools Annie uses in her daily w

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 pro

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 example

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 ritu

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 inWhy she believes your company's data is your "competitive secret sauce" and how to protect it while still leveraging AI's powerThe psychology behind why change happens at "the speed of trust" and how smart

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 pathwayThe 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

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 adoptionSkills you need to successfully implement AI for automation in any busin

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 approachThe coming wave of autonomous AI Agents and what this means for how we'll all be working soon, Some rare ‘behind the curtain’ examples

Ever wondered what really happens after you hit 'apply' on that dream job? We're pulling back the curtain on modern recruitment with Magdalena Orascanin, an international HR consultant and speaker who advises and trains HR teams globally on strategic AI implementation.Based in Switzerland and founder of Magnate HR, Magdalena has a wealth of HR experience, and a refreshingly honest perspective on how AI is actually being used in hiring and in HR today - spoiler alert: it's not what most people think. Magdalena speaks regularly about AI and HR including at the AI Summit London where we can also be found this week. :-)In this episode we explore:The ATS Mythology Magdalena reveals the biggest myth about Applicant Tracking Systems and shares what's really screening your CV The Application Avalanche Why recruiters are drowning in applications like never before and what this means for your job search strategyHow to successfully apply for rolesUsing AI as Your Career Coach How to flip the script and use AI

In this week’s episode, we speak with Dr Nici Sweaney, founder of AI Her Way, who brings a powerful perspective on why women urgently need to engage with artificial intelligence - not just for their own personal productivity, but for the future quality of AI itself.Nici's journey into AI consulting and training began with a moment of clarity while rocking her toddler to sleep. As an academic, data scientist, and mother of four, she realised women,  especially those juggling multiple responsibilities, stand to benefit enormously from AI assistance. More importantly, she recognised a concerning gender gap in AI adoption that could have far-reaching consequences.In our fascinating conversation, Nici shares:Why the current gender imbalance in who is using AI presents both a personal productivity loss AND a broader societal challengeHow AI tools are actively learning from us and re-presenting our world back to us - making women's voices critical in these formative stages of the techPractical strategies for mo

This week we share a thought-provoking episode of Don't Stop Us Now AI Edition, where we tackle head-on some of the most challenging realities of the AI revolution.Our guest, Isar Meitis, Founder of Multiplai AI, gives us a reality check, without the sugarcoating, explaining the potential disruption heading our way. As an entrepreneur, investor, podcaster and AI strategist who's deeply embedded in this space, Isar brings a refreshingly frank perspective about what's coming, perhaps sooner than many of us expect.In this compelling conversation, Isar shares his predictions about the dramatic workforce changes we're likely to see in the next 2-3 years. While many experts talk about gradual transitions, Isar believes we're approaching a tipping point where AI's capabilities may create significant employment challenges across numerous industries.We explore:Why AI's impact on jobs could be more sudden and widespread than most people realiseHow staggeringly capable autonomous Agents will become in the next few years

Our episode this week tackles that quiet question many of us ponder: are others using AI more effectively than we are?We explore some fascinating new research just published by Harvard Business Review that reveals the top 100 AI use cases based on actual user reports. It shows some dramatic changes in how people are using AI compared with just one year ago. We know it will give you new insights on how you could be using AI right now too.What's particularly interesting is that the top five use cases have been completely reshuffled. Entirely new entrants making their debut straight into the top five spots. From deeply personal uses to professional applications, we were surprised by the findings.The research has a unique approach which we explore in this episode as well as:Explore the top 5 use case types and share prompts and experiences Share personal examples of how others are using AI to save hours organising their livesDiscuss why certain uses have skyrocketed in popularity, and Examine a thought-