No business school prepared leaders for managing humans alongside autonomous AI agents. In this AI Answers episode, Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips break down the immediate strategic shifts required for 2026. They explore where marketing agencies can use AI in a post-billable-hour world, the rise of the AI Output Verification manager, and why LLM’s "alien technology" requires a new approach to risk. Plus: Practical advice on building custom GPTs and knowing when not to automate.
Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here
Timestamps:
00:00:00 — Intro
00:03:38 — Question #1: AI Leverage for Marketing Agencies
00:07:44 — Question #2: The "Alien" Nature of LLMs
00:10:06 —Question #3: Responsible AI Mistakes to Avoid
00:13:07 — Question #4: Evaluating AI Platforms
00:16:32 — Question #5: Platform Consolidation
00:18:32 — Question #6: Building Internal Systems vs. Third-Party Tools
00:20:09 — Question #7: Data Privacy Concerns
00:23:09 — Question #8: Signaling Trust & Authenticity
00:25:47 — Question #9: Reinventing Workflows & Org Charts
00:30:50 — Question #10: How to Start Building AI Assistants
00:33:34 — Question #11: What You Should Never Automate
00:36:12 — Question #12: Scaling AI Too Fast
00:38:36 — Question #13: New Leadership Skills
00:41:42 — Question #14: AI Output Verification
00:45:29 — Bonus: AI Book Recommendations
This episode is brought to you by Google Cloud:
Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner.
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