AI adoption isn’t happening in isolation. If you’ve wondered how to turn AI from a buzzword into business value, look no further than AI Realized: a global network of enterprise AI adopters.
In this episode of Politely Pushy, Christina Ellwood, organizer of AI Realized Summit, shares how this event connects enterprise executives at the Fortune 2000 level to collaborate, learn, and turn insight into action.
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0:07 Pushy. Welcome to Politely Pushy. I’m your host, as always, Eric Chemi. Today, we’re joined by Christina Ellwood. She’s
0:13 a seasoned tech executive, co-founder of AI Realized, a platform for enterprise AI leaders. She’s now also leading a
0:20 stealth mode AI company. Christina, thanks so much for joining me on the show today. Well, it’s a pleasure to be here, Eric.
0:26 Thank you for having me. So, so tell me what is a platform for enterprise leaders? Is that a community? I know
0:32 you’ve got a summit. I know you’ve got a podcast. You’ve got, you know, round table series. You have a lot of things going on. How do AI leaders come
0:40 together? Why do they want to come together? What are they talking about? Those are good questions. So uh like
0:48 anytime we have a new technology wave, whoever is leading the adoption uh of
0:53 the technology in the organization, whoever’s the early adopter needs a
0:59 network of peer players. If it’s users, then they need to be a user community.
1:04 In this case, AI is being adopted from the top down. So it’s the executives that are leading the deployment that
1:10 need a network and they don’t have a natural um inherent network since AI is
1:16 new and since it’s horizontal technology it is being adopted across the enterprise. So they need to have
1:21 connections and relationships with executives they otherwise wouldn’t necessarily need to know in their
1:27 everyday work. So we started um with a this summit back last October um 2nd in
1:35 San Francisco. We held a summit inviting executives that were leading deployments
1:40 um to be in the room together to meet each other and we put on the stage
1:46 Fortune 2000 uh executives that had AI in production and that was of course a
1:52 relatively small percentage of companies since it was about 3% in adoption at that particular point in time. And then
1:58 we held panels for people to share the strategies that they have used to overcome uh deployment issues related to
2:07 data and security operations, infrastructure, organization and management. And then we rounded out the
2:13 conversation with strategies um for business planning for 2025 and technology planning. And that uh
2:21 approach was uh gave a really solid footing to the people in the room. They found practical advice. They found
2:28 people who were doing work they were doing that they could um network with and relate to. They found great ideas
2:34 for use cases and great ideas for managing those challenges. So they were
2:40 so enthusiastic and excited about that opportunity to do it again that uh we
2:46 did commit to having another summit and we started to work on how we could
2:52 support them in between because a year is a long time in the world of AI. It’s
2:57 changing so fast. Everybody has whiplash. So we started uh holding executive
3:02 round tables every quarter. We have a podcast and as you mentioned we also have a Substack newsletter. And that
3:09 combination allows the executives to continue to get new information that’s
3:16 practical and useful for their work. It also lets us elevate the visibility of
3:21 those AI leaders. So we’re able to give them some standing and uh visibility to
3:26 the wider community but also to the um to the you know the industry that
3:32 they’re in. So how much competitive secrets get withheld in these conferences you know
3:38 you always hear business conferences people want to share they want to network and they want to talk to people in different industries right hey I make
3:44 potato chips and you make cars so we’re not competing but but with AI I I wonder how much is is is being not said. It’s a
3:52 great question uh and and an important observation. The the executives tell us
3:57 that the reason they want others uh in the room from their industry actually isn’t for competition. It’s actually
4:03 because they know what’s going on with AI in their industry. They want to learn from other industries so that they have
4:10 a broader lens on the technology and its application. the um I think the forthrightness with
4:19 which people share information is a combination of trust and privacy. So in
4:25 the executive round tables we follow chatham house rules. So you can use the information in the room you just can’t
4:31 attribute it to the person or company that shared the information. That increases the candidness with which
4:37 people share information. But I was impressed and pleased that from the stage we had a lot of very frank sharing
4:45 about rat holes they went down and uh failures and how they overcame them and
4:51 so forth. Uh so there there this is an interesting technology era Eric because
4:57 one of the hallmarks of this era is that it is impossible to know everything and
5:02 be the master. And it is and that’s not just because it’s changing facts. That’s also because it’s broad and deep and and
5:10 executives almost get a pass unlike they have never had before to not know to not
5:16 know to not have the answers to make mistakes to be unsure to be seeking um
5:23 to be a truth teller. And so we saw that on the stage they were willing to do that. I wouldn’t say anybody said
5:29 something out of turn. They certainly didn’t do that. there’s private information that every company um you
5:35 know every executive knows how to talk about their um there’s their experiences without revealing company information
5:42 but they were remarkably candid. What was it that made you want to organize this thing a year ago? Why why
5:48 Christina? Like why Christina? Why that topic? And why then or why now at that moment?
5:54 Well, that’s a that’s also a really um good and I think important um question.
5:59 David Yakobovich and I co-organized the first AI Realize Summit last year and we
6:05 were holding networking events for executives in the technology industry
6:11 that were on the startup side either startups investors or CEOs um and
6:16 founders of startups not executives of enterprises so not this audience so it’s
6:23 a bit of a a surprise I think that we perhaps for for others to think about
6:29 why we might have done this. What we observed is that the in order for these
6:36 companies that we were um trying to sell our new products to, in order for them
6:41 to buy, they had to be ready to adopt and they needed support to do so. So
6:47 leaders need a network of leaders and early adopters need a network of early adopters and they represented both of
6:54 those groups. So, we decided to put him in a room.
7:00 Yeah, it’s a good it’s a good perspective. I never thought about that before. It’s like you you almost need to
7:05 generate the industry, not you particular, but the industry needs to generate more customers. It needs to
7:11 generate more people ready to act, ready to buy, ready to deploy, ready to transact. So, if they’re still just
7:17 talking about it and thinking about it and scared, then nothing’s going to get done. So, there needs to be a little bit of a handholding to get them over the
7:23 bridge. Yeah. I mean I think more than handholding they need uh a
7:29 um they need resources to address the concerns whatever they are. So um
7:37 sometimes they’re practical things like which tools are you using or who has the better fill in the blank or that kind of
7:44 thing. Sometimes it’s just as practical as that but sometimes it’s how are you
7:49 talking about it? How are you talking about to your board? How are you talking about it to your peers? How are you talking about it to your team? How are
7:56 you getting um support? How are you upskilling your team? These kinds of questions really are only uh the
8:03 experience of the executive internally. No outside company can help them with
8:08 that. I mean they can help them with training but there’s really not help for that leadership side of it, right? And
8:14 so startups can’t help them with that. But when they are ready, when they have overcome those issues and they’re ready
8:20 to deploy or ready to um to you know begin their their project or their use case, then they need to decide build
8:28 versus buy and that’s where the conversation can start with the startups.
8:33 What is the biggest mistake that you think enterprises are making when they think they’re ready for AI but but maybe
8:39 they’re not? Um I don’t know that there’s any organization that isn’t ready for AI. I
8:48 think there are cases where they are
8:54 um applying the wrong AI to the right problem or the wrong uh AI to the right
9:00 problem. And that’s partly because we don’t have a lot of um evidence for them
9:05 to use to make that uh that judgment. Some of it’s just trying and experimenting things. So there’s there
9:11 is wasted effort and that’s the reason you find these high percentages of failure. Those high percentages of
9:16 failure are a function of the fact they’re experimenting. A very high percentage of all
9:22 experiments whether you’re a scientist or you’re a a developer or whatever are going to fail. Okay. So it’s an expected
9:29 number that it’s going to be really high. I think the bigger question is uh why do we having friction in deployment
9:35 and why are we having friction in adoption? So, a deployment friction um can come from the hesitancy to make the
9:45 to pull the trigger, if you will, because we’re unclear about the risks or we’re unclear about the scaling costs or
9:50 we’re unclear about the scaling rate. There’s no way to know that scaling rate before you go, but you can do scaling
9:56 costs and there’s some, you know, things you can do to mitigate these um these issues. But, so there’s some fear uh you
10:03 know, risk, uncertainty, those always create decision friction. That’s um
10:08 understandable. The friction of adoption is often about the use case that was selected and how
10:15 people were brought along in the process in the first place. So if you’ve uh
10:20 developed a use case that removes toil from a job that is, you know, that truly is painful, the thing that people really
10:27 hate to do, adoption is pretty rapid and it’s sustained. If you pick something
10:32 that is a better way to do something that already is done pretty efficiently now, you’re going to have a harder time
10:39 getting that to be adopted. If you pick something that’s entirely green field,
10:44 it’s kind of bimodal. You’ll have people who are so excited that there’s a new way to do something we’ve never been
10:49 able to do before. Um, and you’re going to have people who are like, why are you taking budget and putting it against
10:55 something that isn’t core to our business? So, you get kind of a bimodal in that case.
11:01 So, you know, we talk we hear about pilot purgatory, right? A lot of executives that they’ve got projects,
11:07 they can’t get them into production. They’re they’re they’re trying to figure it out because maybe they don’t want to
11:12 fail the experiment. They don’t know if they’re going to get deployment. They don’t know if they’re going to get adoption. You know, what are you hearing
11:17 about? What what is a a common enough storyline or common enough talking point
11:23 that you keep having in conversation about that? So many uh will tell you
11:28 that uh the technology is not the problem. The technology can do more than what we can even take advantage of. So
11:33 it’s mature enough that the technology is not the issue. Um but people are um
11:40 and when they say that they mean a lot of things. They mean you know resistance, fear, skill. But the real
11:48 issue is we aren’t telling the story that they that tells them what their role is in that story and what the
11:55 outcome looks like, what the future holds for them and for the company when they’re successful. So we’re not doing
12:01 sufficient storytelling. Uh and that’s part of the the people. What’s an example of a good story that
12:07 should be told? Uh well um I I
12:16 uh what is a story that should be told? You mean internally to get people on board? Yeah. Let’s say like let’s say you can
12:21 we don’t have the right storytelling. So what like you know you don’t have to name a name or a company but I’m curious like it’s one that maybe is in your mind
12:27 that you could think of. Well, if I if I let me share with you a use case that I would uh like to see as a common use
12:35 case in the enterprise that is a story that I would tell like this.
12:42 Today, we ask salespeople and marketing teams
12:47 to populate our CRM with data that effectively is the exhaust of the the
12:53 application they use or requires them to manually type the data in.
12:58 I want to develop an agent use case that will populate the CRM
13:05 for them. It’ll listen to the calls, pull out the information, read the emails, pull out the
13:12 information, look at the website clicks, pull out the information, wherever the data is being generated, and we’ll
13:18 populate the CRM. That does so many valuable things for the company. First of all, it means we have complete data,
13:24 which we do not have in our CRM today. Second, it gives us accurate data
13:29 because the it it’s going to be entered comporting with the right formatting and all of that. So now we’ve got data that
13:35 we can analyze much more easily. Third, it relieves that burden that drudgery
13:42 from the roles of the people who are doing it today and it frees them up to pay attention to what the the one
13:50 constituents that constituency that they have in common which is the customer. they can focus on what does the customer
13:56 need, what do they want, what will help them, uh where how do we support their uh decision- making internally? How can
14:03 we help them to understand the value that we’re going to be delivering them? So, we’re not distracted by typing.
14:08 We’re not distracted by I have to, you know, report to my manager why I didn’t
14:14 put the deal size in or whatever the heck it is, right? So, if I could wave a
14:19 magic wand for a use case for AI, that’s what I would do. And that’s the story I would tell.
14:26 It’s amazing these basic functions that still get in the way, right? Not wanting to be distracted by typing, right? Not
14:31 wanting to, you know, get all this information. It’s crazy. We’re almost in 2026 and and these are the problems that
14:37 we’re still facing just as humans trying to get basic tasks done. Well, and in AI, I realized we’re a um a
14:43 community of volunteers that are doing this work. And so a lot of us are putting our hands on the keyboard and
14:49 doing, you know, every step of every process ourselves. And I call it being
14:55 in clicketity clicketity click land because all we do is click on links and
15:01 sites to make things happen. I would much rather be spending the time teaching an agent how to click those
15:07 things for me and have those things get done on their own. Now, it’s not that the technology is not
15:13 there for us to do that. it’s that we have to then step back, learn what is necessary to do the agentic work, and
15:20 then deploy it and test it and do all of those things. Um, and so we’re a little behind the curve like many companies,
15:26 they’re behind the curve because it you have to carve out the time to do the learning, the testing, and the and the
15:33 um evaluation. So, I’d like to get out of clickity clickity click land.
15:38 What do you mean you’re all volunteers? I I assume any kind of AI conference that relates to this industry, it is
15:45 businessoriented that someone’s making money here. Some there’s there’s a fee. It’s going to somebody. How can you all be volunteers? How does that work?
15:52 Um well uh we have sponsors that cover the costs the direct costs of the summit and tools and things like that. So
16:00 basically whatever uh money is brought in on tickets and on sponsorship are
16:05 paying the direct expenses. any money that we have left after that goes into all of the other work that we’re doing
16:12 through the year to pay for direct costs of those activities. So, no one on our
16:17 team is paid. That’s impressive. That that’s it’s still hard for me to think about that
16:23 because I think of most people doing a conference, you know, it’s a for-profit endeavor, right? There’s there’s, hey,
16:28 we make this conference, sell tickets, you know, all these I think all these media outlets now, they’ve got an event business, they got a conference
16:34 business. They’re there to make that bottom line. So, so I’m still like, wait a minute, what what do you mean you’re all volunteer? That still trying to
16:41 cross. Well, it also means, Eric, a side thing that that maybe isn’t so obvious when you when when you’re thinking about that
16:49 we are devoted to helping enterprises adopt AI responsibly
16:56 and to transform their the way they work. Uh and that’s a a mission of um uh
17:05 you know that focuses on that early adopter leader, the executive team, the board um and all of the people who are
17:12 in charge of something. Okay. And the and what’s happening of course when we’re deploying uh AI as we mo move from
17:17 being in charge maybe of people or a process to being in charge of an agent or the outcome um the evaluation of the
17:23 outcome um but we’re in charge of something. So we’re committed to supporting that effort. Well, because we
17:30 do we we have that as an exclusive focus and want people to be sharing their real world stories. We don’t allow paytoplay.
17:36 So, you can’t buy your way onto the stage by being a sponsor. But by being a sponsor, you signal to those companies
17:44 that are involved and in the room that you care about their adoption of AI responsibly, too. That you are about
17:51 helping them achieve their goals of transforming their organizations. You are there to be part of the solution.
17:59 You’re not there to pitch and shill. And that means a lot to people because of
18:04 course the fundamental currency of all business is trust. And the way you establish trust starts with having a
18:11 mutual goal. And so that mutual goal and you know can the goal can be as simple as to to get to know each other, but the
18:18 goal can be as complex as helping each other do something that’s new and hard.
18:24 You so you mentioned on a couple things that I wanted to ask you about. What else makes it different? Right? Because there’s no shortage of AI conferences
18:30 right now. Is it is it that that like sponsorship angle? Because because the other thing I was going to say is how do
18:36 you keep it from becoming a big vendor sales stage show, right? How do you make
18:41 it a real learning space for leaders? And I think you started to touch on that. Um so yeah, how do you make sure that it’s different in this saturated
18:47 ecosystem? And how do you keep it from like I said, we’ve been to those conferences, right? Every sponsor’s got
18:53 to be a vendor. They’re all got their talk on stage. And you’re like, “Oh, why did I sign up for this?”
18:58 Yeah. Why did I pay to be here? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. My father used to say, “Uh, and I’m paying for this aggravation.”
19:05 Yeah. Yeah. Um, so the first is to be to have that as your core mission and have everybody
19:11 buy into that core mission. So since are we’re there to support the executives,
19:17 what’s on the stage is the executives, the people who have done it, the people who have done it across many
19:23 organizations. So like for example a capgeemini or a d a deote or a gi
19:30 insights they work with many many companies so they can speak to the strategies that are allowing those
19:35 companies to overcome the obstacles. We bring in diverse use cases from diverse
19:40 industries so that people can learn from other industries and that keeps the focus on what they need as well. the
19:46 keynotes are always about uh either the the market landscape like let’s set the
19:52 table what’s true today um and some aspect of AI that hasn’t been getting as much attention like this time we’re
19:58 going to be talking about predictive AI which is of course a very critical component to successful um enterprise
20:04 transformation you can’t do everything with generative AI so that will be on the stage um so these um topics are the
20:12 things they care about and need to hear about that’s different so what we hear from people in the room is this is the
20:17 only AI conference I’ve ever attended where I actually learn something I can deploy tomorrow and where I meet I’m
20:23 meeting people who are like me now that’s what we all think we’re getting when we go to other conferences
20:30 but hope we hope we’re getting yeah right right yeah that’s right and and I don’t think that the intentions are not
20:36 there I think GI insights I just came back from GI world and I think they do a a very good job of creating a lot of pra
20:43 practical um sharing ing and uh you know put people practitioners on the stage and
20:48 things like that. Um it’s a it’s a larger conference and it’s a two-day conference and so there’s it’s a more
20:54 complex to run and it requires a bit more uh support for that. So that’s another element. We keep it small. We
21:01 want everybody to be able to meet everyone. So the first one was just 200 people. We we will never let it go
21:06 larger than 500 people because at that size everyone can meet everyone.
21:12 Yeah. I’ve seen conferences that started at, you know, a hundred or so, 150. Next
21:18 thing you know, not next, like several years down the road, 3,000 people are going and and everyone said, “Yeah, it’s
21:25 not what it used to be.” Like it used to Well, we’re not going to do that. Not only will we keep it at 500, but we’ll
21:31 just hold more events. Oh, I see. You can split it up into multiple 500 or less events.
21:38 Exactly. That’s smart. And by the way, it’s changing so fast. It’s not like 6 months
21:44 from now it won’t be needed. It’s just a lot for a volunteer team to take on. So
21:49 for us to do more than what we’re doing today, we do need to have enough financial uh underpinning to make it
21:56 sustainable. We need at least one employed person on the team to do community management. Um and you know
22:03 that could come from membership. That’s one thing we’ve talked about is making it a member model. We’ve talked about
22:10 uh having our sponsors that do a year- round sponsorship, something we call a
22:15 community champion, and they sponsor all of our activities. So, we’ve talked about different models. Um we haven’t uh
22:22 we haven’t deployed any of the those ideas yet. We’re still on at the sponsor ticket u level right now. Um but that
22:30 may change next year. It’s not um that it’s not sustainable to keep it the way it is right now. it’s that it is
22:37 insufficient for the for the need and so that’s what’s driving that decision is
22:42 the the executives need more than what we can deliver on today’s format. So, how did you get everyone to show up the
22:48 first time? Right? Because it’s hard to create something new once it’s going. People know, oh, yeah, this was good. I’ll come I’ll come in the future. Word
22:54 of mouth. But how do you get people to come the first time? And then separately, you know, tell me about some
22:59 of the different challenges now now that it’s in the second year, the second iteration. And we didn’t even say it’s November 5th. It’s in San Francisco. So,
23:06 we’re coming up here in a few weeks, you know, in San Francisco where where a lot of people it should be easy for them to either already be or get to. So, you
23:13 know, if you haven’t gotten your tickets, this is this is your chance if you’re listening to do that. But but tell me about getting those people first
23:19 time around and and and what are you doing differently to get them to come back or tell their friends to come.
23:27 So, it’s pretty simple really is you you have to be clear about what it is that
23:32 you’re you’re doing that matters to them. So, what’s in it for them? So, they need to know that it’s happening.
23:38 They need to know that it’s for them and they need to know what to expect when they get there. And if you give them
23:43 that information and the you know means by which to buy their ticket uh the
23:48 people who find that valuable will show up if they’re available. So the biggest
23:54 problem is availability. It’s very hard. This is the reason that we have the events as one-day events. It’s very hard
24:00 for an executive to take an entire day. Two days is really hard um out of their
24:07 schedule. And so a lot of speakers will show up uh at an event, speak and leave because they need to get back to their
24:14 work. We want them to be able to stay the whole day. We want every speaker on the stage to stay the entire day. And so
24:21 we made it one day. We’re walking if you come in at 9:00.
24:28 Well, we the uh we didn’t need to do that because they just naturally stayed.
24:33 They were interested in what other people had to say. They wanted to meet the people in the room. Now, not every
24:38 single person stayed the whole day, but just about everyone did. So, that um is
24:44 a testament to how valuable it was uh to them. Um it wasn’t just about being on the stage and saying something about
24:49 what they’re doing. They were really getting value out of it. So, you have to convey that to people before they
24:55 actually can experience it. And there’s a a bit leap of faith. And I I felt very humbled that people did in fact show up
25:03 because it’s a network effect there. No one’s gonna come if no one else is going to come. So you got to get somebody to
25:08 agree to come knowing that no one else has agreed to come in or you got to convince a lot of people simultaneously.
25:14 Hey, if you come then the other guy is going to come and we can all come. So that’s what I wonder about is that getting over the the network effective.
25:21 You either get nobody or you get everybody. Well, you do share with people what you can about the interest, right? So when
25:29 you start getting um registrations, you can share, you know, where we’re seeing these titles and these types of
25:34 companies. So you don’t reveal people’s personal information, but you can give people a sense of who will be in the
25:40 room. Um, and that can be a helpful thing, too. But it’s always about why they should be there and not about why
25:46 you want them there. And I don’t think we address people that much uh that way very much anymore. It’s
25:53 a lot of um me me and not a lot of you know what’s you know you and and what’s
25:59 what is in it for you. So when you speak something that is valuable to them with an invitation to join with others like
26:08 you in a room to talk about something that’s on your mind, it’s more likely they’re going to come.
26:15 So and they did. Has it been harder the second time around or is it a little easier now? For
26:22 some things are harder, some things are easier. I would say the um the the fact that our first format was so successful
26:28 made it easier to do the format for the the second round. We know what works and what doesn’t work. We know what people
26:35 found value in. So the the programming was was um much easier. Um it’s more
26:42 difficult to get people to commit. Everybody waits till the last minute for everything. It drives me crazy.
26:50 um you know it’s hard to um you know trying to put a panel together and you need you know the moderator and you need
26:55 the people on the panel to all commit so that they can um be a panel and if you don’t have those commitments then you
27:01 you don’t have a panel you have a moderator you have one person so that
27:06 getting the commitments is challenging just because people’s schedules are very busy they need to get approval oftentimes to be on the stage is slow
27:13 right and I don’t particularly care for that part of it we also were doing so much more this year when we write a
27:19 bi-weekly uh substack. This is the team. This isn’t just me. Uh we write a a
27:24 bi-weekly uh Substack. We do a weekly podcast. We do a quarterly roundtable and we do the annual summit. So, we’ve
27:31 had to do the summit work with those other things on our plate. So, that has made it somewhat harder and sponsorship
27:37 is always the hardest thing. You got a lot going on. How did it turn
27:44 into a community then? How did you get it from one day summit to now this is a is a community now this is is more was
27:51 there just so much demand was it part of the plan or was it oh wow people keep asking for more they loved it so much
27:57 they wanted to get the substack and the podcast and all these other things it’s the latter yeah it was a
28:02 spontaneous formation um you know communities are made from people wanting to be together that’s what makes a
28:09 community and they wanted to be together so our job is to activate that to create the opportunities for them to together
28:15 and to continue to bring them the value they were experiencing in the room so that they can do the hard work of the
28:22 adoption. I mean to us that’s the ultimate measure is are people adopting more and are they successful and is it
28:29 you know realizing the value that they set out to achieve. Now we’re about to launch another uh program actually at AI
28:36 realized um which we call ones to watch in AI and this is where the startups are featured. So we have a a you know
28:44 basically like a little TV show, a little YouTube TV show where we interview the startups that we think are
28:51 especially interesting for the enterprise executives. They tell their story, the audience, ask questions and
28:57 weigh in on whether they feel they’re one to watch in AI. And then we’ll have some way that we recognize the ones that
29:03 are um you know considered to be of that caliber. So, I think that’s a very
29:08 important addition to our um our programming because the the executives need to know what’s
29:17 out there and what’s coming, but they’re not ready for it all the time. So, they
29:22 need a way to sort of keep up with what’s out there and they need a way to find it when it’s time for them to buy
29:28 it. And so the tricky part for us is going to be how we do all that uh tagging to make sure that they can
29:36 search on anything that they might need to search on in order to find the video
29:41 of the two companies that are doing something in that particular space. And there are so many startups extremely
29:46 difficult to give them uh the most important, the most valuable, the most interesting, what have you. So uh the
29:53 reason we have um been uh somewhat um hesitant to launch it um is we want to
30:00 make sure we have a solid way we are doing that filtering to not that we’re responsible to identify the ones to
30:07 watch um we’re just you know when but we want people to be credible. So our number one criteria is that you have a
30:13 product in market and an enterprise use case that you can site
30:21 because that is it’s indicative that a lot of people don’t have that. Yeah. Yeah. That’s right. And it’s
30:27 indicative to the executives that they could buy if they did have the need for that they
30:33 could buy it. It’s not something that they’re trying to build or something that will be available. It’s something
30:38 that they could buy today. they’re unlikely to be ready. I mean, you know, of all of the target buyers that any of
30:44 us have at any moment in time, there’s a very small percentage, something like 5%
30:49 of the people that are in our target that are actually ready to buy at that time, right? So, but we don’t have a good way for
30:55 people to um simply keep track of of who all the latest are because there’s so
31:02 many of them and it’s such a complex market. If only you had an AI tool to help you
31:08 with that. if only you had an AI tool to help you with that. So, we’ll see if our
31:13 um approach is that AI tool that you can, you know, use your
31:19 uh chat. We actually use a product called customgbt.ai
31:25 on our website and we’re hoping that we can use that so that you can interrogate custom gbt.ai about I’m looking for
31:32 something that does X or Y. Is there anything insi that we that we should look at? Right? That’s what I’m hoping
31:38 will be our solution. Yeah. Yeah. And then and then before we go, what are your, you know, couple big themes for
31:44 this year? I keep hearing about governance, security, ROI, like what what do you what do you want to make
31:49 sure that this is going to be on stage and discussed? Well, AI Realize Summit on November 5th
31:55 in San Francisco will have five production use cases from
32:01 uh at scale companies from five different industries. Just like we had last year, we had four
32:07 last year. We’ll have five this year. We have a special uh use case or a special case study that’s being done by Nikesh
32:14 Gocheka at Stanford Healthcare on how they the team he’s bringing the team. They’re going to have a a a whole team
32:21 of people who did a a production deployment to talk about how they went from concept to production for chat ehr,
32:28 which is their awardwinning uh framework for um an electronic health
32:34 record having a chat front end. Uh so that’s that’s a very exciting one. And then we have a panel a special panel on
32:43 the uh managing customer relationships in the a era of AI that will be led by
32:48 Paul Vinegradov from Deote. And this is really the um what is it going to look
32:54 like? How are we going to engage? Buyers are changing what they’re doing. They’re using LLMs instead of search. We’re
32:59 trying to make sure we’re there um when they when they use the LLMs. But there
33:05 is so much more that’s going to change in how people buy and therefore how we market and sell. And so that will be the
33:11 conversation that’s had on that panel. And then we’ll talk about the challenges for um you know the strategies for
33:17 overcoming the challenges related to data security operations and management.
33:22 And we’ll talk strategic planning technology strategic planning particularly managing agents at scale
33:29 which will be led by Linen Galy atomic work. and we’ll talk about business strategy uh as well which will be led by
33:36 Tulu Lomero. So that’s good. That’s the plan. That’s the plan.
33:42 If if you were to if we’re going to sit down, let’s say two years from now we’re sitting down. What do you hope that AI realized will have accomplished for the
33:49 enterprise community? We will have provided them the the what
33:55 what my dear friend Don Townsen calls the glue and grease.
34:01 to make the goal happen. So, we’ve made things easier and we’ve brought things
34:08 together that need to come together. John Werner at MIT likes to call this
34:13 bumping uh bumping into each other, bumping uh against each other. That
34:19 community is not about people having a good time together. It’s about people supporting each other through this
34:26 journey. And we are on a journey. We are transforming how businesses operate and
34:32 what businesses do and we’re doing that from the inside out. Now yes, there are
34:39 AI native companies and they are showing us what’s possible when you when you don’t have any incumbrances and that’s a
34:45 helpful model for us to look at. But that’s not what enterprises need to do. They need to transform from the inside
34:51 out. And to do that requires a different kind of leadership. And one of my favorite questions to ask on our podcast
34:58 is, “What is the leadership skill that you find most valuable in the AI era?”
35:04 What is the leadership skill you find most valuable in the AI era? What’s what’s the answer? What do you keep what what do people tell you?
35:10 I hear creativity, curiosity, humility.
35:17 Those are probably the three most common but not you know hardcore technical skills
35:22 and not not the sort of traditional leadership skills. Right. Not
35:27 Right. Right. And so that’s a very important um change that we we are um at the same
35:33 level with our teams. We’re all learning. We’re all in uh you know
35:38 absorbing and trying to figure out how to do this new thing. And we’re doing it on much more of a level playing field
35:45 than a top-down kind of imposition. It’s a bottoms up, top down exercise, which
35:51 puts us all in the middle. And that’s a good place for us to relate to each other from, but a different one. And you
35:57 need different leadership skills when you’re in that situation. That’s why humility and creativity and curiosity are so valuable.
36:05 Yeah. No, it’s it’s impressive because we think about, you know, for me little kids like what are they supposed to be
36:10 learning over the next 20 years in a world that AI can do so much, technology can do so much. Is it much more that can
36:16 you be humble and creative? Can that matter more than how good your math is or how good you know you can code? You
36:22 may not matter how good you can code. So the most important thing they need to learn is to be a critical thinker.
36:28 At the root of many of our societal problems is a lack of critical thinking. Yeah, I agree.
36:35 And it is needed everywhere. You don’t just need it when you’re adopting AI. You don’t just need it when you’re in
36:40 your um you know decision-m process within any kind of a system. You need critical thinking in every aspect of
36:46 your life. So raise good critical thinkers. Raise them to value
36:52 creativity, curiosity, learning, adaptability.
36:57 Teach them that being rigid is uh a limitation. It it’s fine. It’s not it’s
37:03 a bad thing in all situations but it will uh change what is possible for them
37:09 right and then teach them to value others because it’s only through the way we
37:14 come together with a new technology that we build something that is meaningful to
37:20 humanity to ourselves to our organizations and to our customers we don’t build the right things if we leave
37:27 the people out what what the last question here what is your advice to executives who are
37:33 getting pressure from their boards. So, you better have an AI strategy that
37:38 come to AI realized on November 5th in San Francisco and find out what people
37:45 are doing in really doing their boards along and to respond to the pressures
37:51 that they are getting to either go faster or deliver more. A big factor for
37:57 the board is they’re trying to understand. They are not they do not have a specific outcome in mind like you
38:03 know you need to be saving this much money or whatever or have this brand or what have you. They are trying to make
38:10 sure that we are doing the right things in the organization. Their job is to manage the long-term risk and success of
38:17 the company. It is not to manage the company. So they’re asking the questions about what does this mean to our future?
38:24 What do we need to do to be ready for this transition? How are we helping our customers through this? How are we
38:30 recruiting the right workforce? How are we upskilling our workforce? Do we have the right workforce? Do we have one
38:36 that’s too big or too small? So, they’re asking questions about the health of the business in the context of this longer
38:42 term thing. So, those are the things they need to understand and you should be prepared to answer those because those are the new things. And if you
38:48 don’t know the answer, you need to say you’ll get the answer and then come back when you have it. Don’t try to fake it
38:56 to make it. This is not the time to be doing this. Be transparent and honest and forthright. What you know, you know.
39:02 What you don’t know. Own that, too. And help them understand because that’s the
39:08 the value you can bring to them is to help them understand the parameters that are necessary for them to do their job.
39:16 I love it, Christina. So good. So, we’ll see you in just a few weeks here in San Francisco. November 5th, you said,
39:23 right? It’s November 5th. That’s right. At UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco.
39:29 Tickets are on sale. They’re available on Luma and on our website, which is airellsummit.com.
39:35 What day of the week is that? It is a Wednesday. Wednesday. Good. So, like the Wednesdays, that’s the key. Yeah, I got
39:40 to know that. I guess it would be the day after election day. I guess there’s some elections on on the 4th, I guess. Like I’m in New Jersey. We’ve got a
39:46 governor election on the 4th. So it’s that it’s that week right there. Day after voting. I like it. That’s a
39:51 good way to remember mayor day too. Yeah. I highly highly recommend if you come to
39:57 AI Realize Summit that you bring a plus one. Bring someone who reports to you who’s a peer to you or someone who you
40:03 know in you know outside of your organization. The reason I say that is we hear over and over again that you
40:11 learn more with someone. True. talking about sharing notes. Yeah.
40:17 Yeah. Bring someone with you. We do sell groups of tickets. So, you get a discount with four tickets and that type
40:23 of thing. More to signal to people think about bringing a team rather than just coming on your own. Um, but that, you
40:29 know, there is a a discount available. Um, and we would uh if you want to sponsor, we’d love to talk with you
40:34 about sponsorship. Awesome. Christina, thank you so much. Good luck in the next few weeks getting it all organized.
40:40 Thank you. I appreciate it. It’s been great talking with you. Talk to you soon. Thank you to my guest and thanks for
40:45 listening. Subscribe to get the latest episodes each week and we’ll see you next time.