AI First with Adam and Andy

In this special three-part episode, AI First with Adam and Andy follows Influence Mobile CEO Dan Todd through a 90-day journey to become an AI-first company. Listeners will hear how a 65-person team with $40–50 million in revenue moved from scattered experimentation to structured adoption. Dan shares how they introduced enterprise ChatGPT and Gemini, tracked usage, and built momentum through Slack contests and creative prompt sharing. The conversation covers measurable wins such as developers cutting project time by more than half, marketing and BI teams using AI for deeper insights, and leadership leading by example. Dan also discusses the pitfalls of AI use, including accuracy risks and lessons from one costly prompt mistake. This candid case study offers a real-world look at AI transformation in progress, giving business leaders practical takeaways to accelerate their own journey toward AI-first operations.

In this episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, hosts Adam Brotman and Andy Sack sit down with Jennifer Strickland Fowler, CEO of Destination Pet, a rapidly growing company with over 160 pet care centers across 34 states. Jennifer shares her journey from human healthcare into pet care leadership and how her perspective on AI has shifted dramatically in the last year.She explains how Destination Pet now uses AI to accelerate competitive analysis, streamline recruiting, evaluate vendors, and free up staff to spend more time with pets and their owners. Jennifer also offers a CEO’s perspective on AI as a “thought partner” and “co-pilot,” helping her team spark creativity, improve efficiency, and deliver a better customer experience. This candid conversation highlights the real-world, non-linear ROI of AI adoption in a relationship-driven service business.

In this special mini-episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, Adam Brotman and Andy Sack dig into two of the biggest AI stories making headlines.They start with the recent MIT study that fueled a viral Fortune headline claiming 95% of corporate AI projects fail. Adam explains what the research actually found, from the limitations of wrapper apps to the importance of micro use cases and realistic measures of success. Together, Adam and Andy highlight why leaders should avoid getting distracted by shiny solutions and instead double down on the small, practical wins that drive real business value.Then the conversation turns to OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT-5. With polarized reactions ranging from disappointment to awe, Adam and Andy cut through the noise to share their perspective on where GPT-5 truly fits in the broader AI landscape. They explore how the frontier models are advancing together, why expectations matter, and what the “trough of disillusionment” means for businesses today.This episode is a candid, hype-free look at what’s really happening in AI innovation, and what leaders should be paying attention to now.

Henrik Werdelin, a seasoned entrepreneur and co-founder of companies like Bark, and Nicholas Thorne, an ex-Wall Street expert turned entrepreneur, dive into the transformational power of AI in business. They discuss how the rise of "Entrepreneurship 3.0" changes competitive moats, pushing for deep connections with customers. Their insights on accelerating product launches and focusing on community-driven businesses highlight a shift towards customer-first strategies. They also encourage empowering internal entrepreneurs to drive innovation within larger companies.

In this episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, we’re joined by Keith Fairclough, CIO of Cabi, a women’s apparel brand with a national network of over 2,000 independent stylists. Keith walks us through how he went from early AI experimentation to spearheading a full-scale transformation at Cabi, turning curiosity into capability across the entire company.Keith breaks down the lessons from their AI bootcamp with Forum3, the structure they built to scale adoption (including org-wide training, AI office hours, and GPT competitions), and real use cases now saving time and expanding output, from automated marketing retouching to a custom GPT for IT sprint planning. He also shares what didn’t work, including missteps around executive involvement and building out an AI champions team.If you’re a leader looking to scale AI across your organization, not just implement tools, this episode offers a front-row seat to what it looks like to lead with vision, structure, and practicality.

In this special episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, we go global with our first international guest, Shawn Walchef, founder of Cali BBQ and Cali BBQ Media, joining us from Bulgaria. Shawn shares how he’s using AI not just to support operations, but to fuel real innovation across both his restaurant and media businesses.He walks us through a game-changing Father’s Day activation where a voice AI agent, trained on his own podcast content and voice, answered 150+ customer calls, freeing up his team and driving record-breaking sales. He also explains how AI has become his remote creative partner, helping him turn iPhone clips into full media assets while traveling in Istanbul.From launching voice tech in his BBQ shops to using ChatGPT for deep market research on potential family investments, Shawn is a masterclass in AI-first thinking. His stories show how any business, no matter how local, can scale globally and strategically with the right AI mindset.

In this episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, author and tech thinker Steven Johnson shares the surprising origin story of Google’s NotebookLM. Learn how a writer’s personal obsession with note-taking turned into a viral AI-native product now transforming enterprise workflows.

AI First: A Playbook for Future-Proofing Your Business and Brand in the AI Era is officially out, and the world of AI has moved fast since we submitted the manuscript nine months ago. In this special launch-day episode, Adam Brotman and Andy Sack bring listeners behind the scenes to reflect on what has changed, what didn’t make it into the book, and what leaders need to be thinking about right now.From Sam Altman’s viral blog post The Gentle Singularity to the rapid rise of reasoning models, autonomous agents, and early signs of economic disruption, this episode is a candid look at how fast the AI landscape is evolving.Topics discussed include:Why we’ve crossed the threshold into the AGI eraThe real-world impact of reasoning models and AI agentsWhy AI-related job disruption is already startingThe need for AGI Horizon Councils and AI R&D labsHow shifting consumer behavior is challenging Google’s dominanceWhat we would add to the playbook todayThis episode serves as a real-time epilogue to the book and a preview of what’s next for AI-first leaders.

Fresh from the floor of the Food on Demand Conference in Las Vegas, Adam Brotman and Andy Sack unpack what’s top of mind for today’s restaurant leaders. In this episode, they reflect on the slowdown in digital growth, rising consumer price sensitivity, and the evolving challenges facing operators in 2025.They also explore how AI is transitioning from hype to practical application, powering smarter decisions in areas such as guest feedback, menu optimization, and operational efficiency. With insight, clarity, and candor, Adam and Andy offer a timely recap of where the industry is headed and what brands can do right now to unlock sustainable growth.

Commercial Real Estate brokerage is a $100B market, yet still stuck and manual as ever.In this episode, Joe Lee, CEO and founder of Locate.ai, shares how his company is using predictive AI and generative AI to transform the way national enterprises transact and expand into brick-and-mortar.  From boosting store sales by 15% and increasing broker throughput by 3x, Joe breaks down what it means to truly be an AI-first company in an antiquated industry.