We recently launched a new podcast series as part of The Artificial Intelligence Show that’s been in the works for well over a year. ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­    ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­  
View in browser
ExecAI_Newsletter

Thanks for subscribing to the ExecAI Insider newsletter from Paul Roetzer and SmarterX. We educate and empower leaders to reimagine business models, reinvent industries, and rethink what's possible. 

 

New Podcast Series Explores the Realities of AI Transformation

 

We recently launched a new podcast series as part of The Artificial Intelligence Show that’s been in the works for well over a year.

 

The concept was to tell stories of AI transformations “in progress.”

 

We wanted to talk to the leaders within organizations who are driving AI literacy and adoption.

 

But they had to be willing to share the messy parts, the lessons learned, and the things they’re continuing to try as they take a human-centered approach to change.

 

We partnered with Google Cloud to bring this series to life, and the initial three episodes are now live to help you accelerate transformation in your organization.

 

#234: How HubSpot is Reimagining the Entire Customer Journey with AI Agents (8-27-26)

 

For twenty years, the percentage of time a B2B sales rep spends actually talking to customers has barely moved. Jon Dick, Chief Customer Officer at HubSpot, thinks AI is the first thing that genuinely breaks that constraint, and he has three years of rebuilding to point to.

 

In this AI Transformations episode, Jon takes Mike Kaput through HubSpot's agentic go-to-market model: the AEO strategy built for answer engines, the AI SDR handling most website chats, the assistant that moved win rate, and the org change that put every AI engineer under one leader.

 

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Watch on YouTube.

 

#231: How Zapier is Building an AI Marketing Brain (8-13-26)

 

Zapier's Chief Marketing and AI Transformation Officer Dan Slagen called a "code red" on his own marketing team, not because they were behind, but because he saw the bar moving from using AI to building with it.

 

In this episode, Slagen shares how Zapier moved from AI adoption to AI-native work: three tiers of builders, an AI-powered "marketing brain," the "lossless marketing" idea behind it, and why working in public mattered more than any single tool.

 

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Watch on YouTube.

 

#227: How Good Karma Brands Got Serious About AI and Made It Stick (7-30-26)

 

Good Karma Brands gave every teammate ChatGPT Enterprise on Labor Day 2025. Less than a year later, 65% of the company uses AI daily.

 

In the first episode of our AI Transformations series, Senior Director of Innovation Ty Bauschek opens up about how they did it: the pilot, the training cadence, and the automations already saving teammates 10 to 15 hours a week.

 

It's a candid look at what real, fast, company-wide AI adoption takes: top-down urgency, a culture that rewards experimentation, and a new innovation team turning three-hour tasks into ten-minute ones.

 

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Watch on YouTube.

 

Stay tuned for more AI Transformations episodes coming soon!

 

— Paul

This Week's AI Pulse


Has your company changed how it hires for entry-level roles because of AI?

We're interested in how your company has changed its hiring plans (if at all) because of AI. Take our latest AI Pulse survey, and your answer becomes part of our ongoing research. On a future podcast, we'll share the results so you can see what your peers have to say.

 

Take our latest AI Pulse survey 

        Join Us in Cleveland, Oct. 13-15

         

        MAICON, the AI conference for marketing and business leaders, is happening October 13-15 in Cleveland, Ohio.

         

        Join thousands of AI-forward attendees for three days of keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, experiences, and conversations.

         

        The speaker lineup is packed with incredible presenters, including: Karen Hao, Award-Winning AI Journalist & Author, Empire of AI; Andrew Yang, Tech & Economic Futurist, Best-Selling Author; and Kevin Roose, Bestselling Author, Technology Columnist, The New York Times.

         

        Use code EXECAI100 at checkout to save $100 on top of locking in the best rate available.

         

        Visit maicon.ai to register.

              First Look: What We’re Talking About on the Pod

               

              Subscribe to The Artificial Intelligence Show on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast network for weekly AI news and insights. 

               

              Here’s a preview of the stories we’re tracking for Tuesday’s episode:

              • OpenAI releases more details about how its agents hacked Hugging Face. OpenAI published a report with new details about how its agents circumvented controls during internal cybersecurity evaluations. According to METR, which was given limited access to the OpenAI data to conduct its own investigation, “Roughly 1200 agents meant to be isolated from one another found a way to communicate with one another on an unsanctioned message board, sending over 70,000 messages and files during the investigation period. Of these agents, 700 went on to participate in the attack on Hugging Face.”

              • Nvidia agrees to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion. According to The Information, “Deal talks between Hugging Face and Nvidia began after the startup received acquisition interest from another suitor. Hugging Face had several potential suitors among its investors, including Salesforce. Besides storing models, Hugging Face helps AI app developers find and download audio, visual and text-based AI models and optimize them to run on different server chips. It also offers cloud services to power the models in AI applications.”

              • Bill Gates views AI as a major threat to jobs. In a nearly 6,000-word essay, the Microsoft co-founder shared his views on AI’s impact, and urged lawmakers to take action. Gates wrote: “In 1933, during the Great Depression, unemployment in the United States was roughly 25 percent. It remained in double digits for much of the following decade. It ultimately recovered as demand, investment, and growth returned. AI may not reach this level, but its impact will not go away with an economic cycle. The jobs at most risk are entry- and mid-level, and the new jobs being created will mostly require skills that take many years to learn.”

              • Judge rules it was illegal for the Trump administration to blacklist Anthropic. According to The New York Times, “The Trump administration acted illegally when it labeled the artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic a security risk and barred the company from working with the U.S. government.” In a statement, Anthropic said: “We welcome the court’s ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful. We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness A.I. for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology.”

                    What's New in AI Academy

                     

                    New educational content is added weekly to AI Academy by SmarterX, so you always stay up to date with the latest AI trends and technologies.

                     

                    Here’s what’s new:

                    • Gemini Notebook: Can AI Build a Data Table You Can Trust? (App Review)
                    • Claude Code: A Practical Look at Agentic AI (App Review)
                    • Claude Artifacts: Turn Your Data Into Interactive Dashboards Without Code (App Review)
                    • GPT-5.6 Sol: Putting OpenAI’s Most Powerful Model to the Test (App Review)
                    • Fable 5: Is Anthropic's Most Powerful AI Worth the Cost? (App Review)
                    • A Non-Technical Guide to Vibe Coding (Master Class)

                      Give Your Organization Its Own Branded AI Academy

                       

                      AI Academy Branded Instance is a dedicated, co-branded learning environment built on AI Academy by SmarterX. It is designed for organizations that want a premium, customized AI education experience without the need to build and maintain their own platform.

                       

                      Each Branded Instance includes:

                      • Unique company subdomain (company.ai.academy)
                      • Company logo, favicon & brand color alignment
                      • Single Sign-On (SSO) for seamless, secure access
                      • Full AI Academy content library
                      • Live sessions: Trends Briefings, AMAs & Deep Dives
                      • Professional certificates & ongoing content releases
                      • Dedicated Success Manager

                      Visit AI Academy by SmarterX to learn more.

                            Upcoming Events

                            • Sept. 11: [Webinar] 5 Essential Steps to Scaling AI

                            • Sept. 30: [Webinar] Intro to AI
                            • Oct. 13-15: [Event] MAICON 2026 (Cleveland)
                            • Oct. 13: [Event] AI For CMOs Summit, part of MAICON 2026 (Cleveland)

                                  Share and Subscribe

                                   

                                  If you’re enjoying the ExecAI Insider newsletter, please share it with your fellow executives and emerging leaders. 

                                   

                                  If this ExecAI Insider newsletter was passed on to you, be sure to subscribe today.

                                  Paul Roetzer

                                  Paul Roetzer

                                  Founder & CEO | SmarterX & Marketing AI Institute

                                  Co-Host | The Artificial Intelligence Show Podcast

                                  Co-Author | Marketing Artificial Intelligence

                                  SmarterX, 812 Huron Road, Suite 780, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, United States

                                  Unsubscribe Manage preferences