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🎙️ AI Is Not Magic, It Is A Tool | Rob Milstead Six months ago, companies were measuring employees by how many AI tokens they burned. Then people blew through millions of dollars. Rob Milstead has led technology for 30+ years as a CIO, Chief Digital Officer, and Chief Strategy Officer, from Genuine Parts (NAPA) to a faith-based nonprofit, and today as CIO of Intertape Polymer Group. He has no computer science degree. His undergrad is in music. He calls himself the cartilage between tech and business. We talk about why his team picks the cheapest model that works, why the CFO must get the same answer every time, how to sell a "boring" data project, and why people matter more than any tool. In this episode: 00:00 Meet Rob Milstead 01:11 Why a CIO sits on an AI startup board 04:16 "I am the cartilage" of tech and business 08:24 The in-store kiosk patent and the torn catalog 13:22 Never say "PIM" to an executive 15:14 AI is not magic: the boardroom trap 19:28 Why the newest model is not always the best 23:59 Gross or net? Data context and security for AI 28:03 How to sell a data project nobody wants 32:05 IT as a thought partner, not a gatekeeper 35:08 Startups, music, and making it simple 39:01 Don't forget your people Which of your AI projects is chasing the hottest model instead of a real problem? Tell me in the comments. Subscribe for more honest talks with leaders who have done the work. 🔗 Links & Resources Rob Milstead on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rob-milstead-4391b5/ Dave Goyal: davegoyal.com | linkedin.com/in/davegoyal Data AI Studio: dataaistudio.com

🎙️ Your AI Advisor Should Argue With You | Andrew Izyumov Most AI just tells you what you want to hear. When it's your life savings, that's dangerous. Andrew Izyumov spent 12 years at Goldman Sachs investing the firm's own money. Then he built an AI advisor with five agents, one of them a risk officer whose whole job is to disagree. It costs a flat $30 a month and never holds your money. I've spent 30 years telling companies the hard part of tech is trust. This talk proves it. In this episode: 00:00 Why trust is the real AI problem 01:15 My $10,000 lesson in one day 02:37 From Goldman Sachs to $30 a month 06:39 Five AI agents built to disagree 10:13 Why AI agrees with you, and how to fix it 12:40 The emotional money mistakes we all make 17:21 Real estate, bonds, crypto and startups 22:29 A second opinion, not a crutch 27:31 How to teach kids to invest 31:09 The one thing AI should never decide Which of these would you trust AI with? Tell me in the comments. And subscribe so you don't miss the next Think AI Podcast. 🔗 Links & Resources 8 Figures: 8figures.com Andrew on YouTube: @8FiguresHQ Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewizyumov/ #ThinkAI #AIinFinance #Investing #AgenticAI #DaveGoyal

🎙️ AI Tools Don't Win. Culture Does. What happens when a can of beans ships with beets inside, right before Thanksgiving? At Del Monte Foods, AI turned it into a moment customers loved and a plant team that owned the fix. My guest is Prathima Hegde, CIO of Del Monte Foods, with 20+ years leading technology, data, and AI across food, beverage, and pharma, from Tropicana to Abbott. We talk about the part of AI most companies skip. Not the model. The culture. Prathima shares why the CIO job never really changed, why messy and missing data is still the biggest hurdle, what the AI world can learn from pharma, and the one call she will never hand to an agent. In this episode: 00:00 Intro 01:07 How agents and Copilot changed the CIO job 03:09 From solo productivity to team value 04:56 The Thanksgiving beets in the beans can story 08:15 Agents in a traditional company: the data problem 11:40 What AI can learn from pharma 16:55 Handling fear and pushback on AI 20:05 The one decision she won't give an agent 23:12 When to use AI and when not to 27:11 Building a dashboard with AI, fast 30:32 Where to find Prathima If your team puts up with AI instead of working with it, this one is for you. Subscribe for more real conversations on data and AI. What is one decision you would never hand to an agent? Tell me in the comments. 🔗 Links & Resources Prathima Hegde on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prathima-b-hegde/ Dave Goyal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegoyal/ #DaveGoyal #ThinkAI #AgenticAI #CIO #AIAdoption

🎙️ AI Won't Fix Bad Data. It Exposes It. | Dave Murray Two reports. Two different numbers. One very long meeting. Dave Murray has spent 20+ years inside manufacturers fixing the part of AI nobody posts about: the data. He built the data foundation at Bose, then built Welch's AI program from zero, work Bentley University turned into a case study. Now he leads AI enablement at FXI. We talk about why messy data makes AI worse, how a bedtime story exercise turned casual users into power users, and why he never starts a process conversation by talking about AI. In this episode: 00:00 Meet Dave Murray 01:47 What changed from Bose to Welch's to FXI 05:28 Two reports, two numbers: how analytics led him to data 09:05 14 revenue metrics and a company that went bankrupt 11:46 How to sell data management to executives 15:08 The Best Buy deadline that made master data matter 18:55 Building Welch's AI program from zero 22:40 The bedtime story trick behind the Bentley case study 27:31 From RPA to AI: train it like a new employee 34:20 The pool ball rule for AI in manufacturing 37:30 Why AI should lay out your three outfits 42:49 Pilot first, data first, foundation first, then build Guest views are his own and do not represent FXI. Which part of your business still runs on "my number is right"? Tell me in the comments. Subscribe for more real talk on data and AI. 🔗 Links & Resources Dave Murray on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-w-murray/ Dave Goyal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegoyal/ #DaveGoyal #ThinkAI #AI #DataGovernance #Manufacturing

🎙️ Why AI Fails Without Clean Data Doug Saunders has spent 28 years running technology in the businesses nobody posts about: waste, ice, coal, cold chain logistics, and now frozen cheesecake. He is CTO at Sara Lee Frozen Bakery, and his position on AI is refreshingly unpopular. You do not throw AI at a business for the sake of it. You find the business problem, you fix the data underneath it, and only then does the technology earn its budget. In this conversation with Dave Goyal, Doug walks through what that actually looked like in production, including a distribution problem solved with LiDAR sensors and predictive routing that took twenty to thirty million dollars of cost out of an ice company, and a customer service bot that absorbed 500,000 interactions a year. In this episode: 00:59 A master's in Russian history, then golf course design, then CTO 04:09 Walking into food manufacturing and finding the silos 07:03 Why data has to come before AI 08:49 Building a $180M company off QuickBooks 10:25 Your LLM has no idea what your data means 14:44 Don't throw AI at a business for business sake 16:20 The ice box problem that saved $30 million 21:30 Automating 500,000 customer interactions a year 23:56 Automating to get rid of people is the wrong approach 32:51 Trust versus governance, and the Excel experts who resist 36:20 The end of Excel jockeying 39:21 Fitting master data governance to your culture If you are being asked to "do something with AI" before your data is ready, this one will give you the language to push back. Subscribe, and tell me in the comments what your organization automated too early. 🔗 Links & Resources Doug Saunders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgsaunders Doug Saunders on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Saundersdg Sara Lee Frozen Bakery: https://saraleefrozenbakery.com/ #DataStrategy #AIinManufacturing #SupplyChain #CTO #PrivateEquity

🎙️ Fix the Process First: Two Founders on Automating for Real Most founders build a business that ends up owning them. Noemi Kis did the opposite. She built a seven-figure industrial water treatment company with a team of two, systemized it until it ran without her, and now spends about one hour a week on it while teaching 200,000+ non-technical founders how to run lean with AI. In this episode, Dave and Noemi compare notes on what AI automation actually looks like in production, where humans still have to stay in the loop, and why refining a process before you automate it is the difference between leverage and expensive chaos. In this episode: 00:00 A seven-figure business run by two people 02:02 The moment she realized effort had stopped equaling results 05:14 Why the business model matters more than the hustle 08:05 Running a company on one hour a week with EOS 09:40 The "lazy CEO" mindset that protects your energy 15:25 Can they do it, and do they want it? Hiring filter 17:22 Don't automate chaos: fix the process first 20:35 Voice DNA, redlining, and how to avoid AI slop 22:34 Creating content for non-followers, not followers 26:57 Her live trend-scouting agent stack with human review 30:35 The $2,000 lesson in AI cost control 37:01 How Dave runs multi-agent memory across Claude, Obsidian and Notion 40:49 What happens to a job description when AI takes the task If you are sitting on a business that owns your week, this is the one to listen to. Subscribe, drop a comment with the first task you would hand off, and send this to one founder who needs it. 🔗 Links & Resources Guest website: https://www.fastestgrowingtrends.com/ Noemi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noemikis/ Noemi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kis_noemi/ Dave on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegoyal/ #AIAutomation #FounderMode #LeanBusiness #AIAgents #Entrepreneurship

🎙️ Skills Are Teachable. Identity Isn't. | Abhijit Bhaduri (Abhijit Bhaduri LLC) The AI conversation is stuck on skills: learn AI or get replaced. Abhijit Bhaduri says that misses the real threat entirely. AI can learn any skill you bring to the table. What it cannot replicate is what you feel when you do the work, and that is where the identity gap opens up. Abhijit is CEO of Abhijit Bhaduri LLC and has led talent strategy inside some of the largest companies in the world: Wipro's first Chief Learning Officer, Global Head of Learning & Development at Microsoft, and HR leadership at PepsiCo, Colgate-Palmolive and Tata Steel. He is a LinkedIn Top Voice with over a million followers, SHRM's #1 HR influencer on social media, author of six books including Career 3.0, and his seventh, AIdentity, is coming later this year. In this conversation he and Dave land on the same conclusion from opposite ends of the room: the companies winning with AI are not the ones with the best models. They are the ones solving the people problem underneath. In this episode: 00:00 Meet Abhijit: from CLO to a million followers 02:03 The guitarist who plays every genre 04:37 The biggest myth in every company: money motivates 06:59 Dave: judge people by their opportunities, not their limitations 09:36 What the identity gap actually is 11:45 Why AI makes everything average (the Picasso test) 14:11 You bought the piano but skipped the lessons 16:45 The man training AI at the cost of his kid's job 20:12 Keystroke logging kills innovation 25:56 Why sharing knowledge is now a superpower 31:07 The new book: AIdentity 34:43 Introduce yourself without your title or employer 36:50 The 80/20 future: work like water, not ice 41:05 Tokens as currency and identity as the new talent layer 44:44 The one failure Abhijit still carries If this conversation changed how you think about AI, your team or your own work identity, subscribe to the Think AI Podcast, drop a like, and tell us in the comments: how would you introduce yourself without your title? 🔗 Links & Resources Abhijit Bhaduri on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhijitbhaduri/ Abhijit's website and newsletter: https://abhijitbhaduri.com #ThinkAIPodcast #AIdentity #IdentityGap #FutureOfWork #AIAdoption

🎙️ Healthcare AI: The Hype Ends Here Most hospitals cannot answer one basic question: what AI is running on our network right now? James Green went from Pixar under Steve Jobs, to running the World Series of Video Games, to building the tech behind the NFL first down line, to CEO of Cognome, a healthcare AI company deployed in 20 hospitals including Montefiore and NYU Langone. In this episode, we strip the hype out of healthcare AI and talk about what actually works, what is genuinely dangerous, and the unintended consequence nobody is discussing: a billing system where nurses are expenses and AI is profit. In this episode: 00:00 From Pixar and esports to healthcare AI 01:46 Why healthcare is adopting AI 2.2x faster than other industries 12:15 AI Sniffer: finding every hidden AI on a hospital network 18:08 Ambient dictation and the wrong leg problem 21:55 The judge and jury system that kills hallucinations 26:17 Why missing context is the second most dangerous thing in clinical AI 29:36 Silent mode: the right way to deploy AI with physicians 34:44 AI already beats doctors 99.9% of the time, with one catch 39:42 Nurses billed like bed linen: the consequence nobody sees coming 43:34 LLMs are now healthcare's fastest growing cyber threat 46:52 The next 3 to 5 years: thousands of AI agents per hospital 49:32 What Steve Jobs was really like: seven reasons in 2.5 seconds If this conversation made you think differently about AI in your industry, subscribe to the Think AI Podcast, drop a comment with your take on the nurse billing question, and share this with someone in healthcare who needs to hear it. 🔗 Links & Resources Cognome: https://www.cognome.com James Green on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesangreen/ #ThinkAIPodcast #DaveGoyal #HealthcareAI #AIGovernance #ArtificialIntelligence

🎙️ Speed Is No Longer a Moat | Alex Galert, BRNZ Everyone in AI is racing to ship faster. Alex Galert, CEO of BRNZ, says that race is already over, and speed was never the real advantage. In this conversation he breaks down why accountability, not velocity, is the new moat, and how his studio builds complete AI-powered companies for equity, with a 67% founder floor in writing and zero investors. In this episode: 00:00 The thesis: why speed stopped being a moat 01:31 The Hero Founder and 10,000 hours in one industry 08:55 Business for equity: how BRNZ actually works 14:14 The anti-VC model: no fees, equity only by shipping 18:54 Inside DUDE.AI and the five levels of AI autonomy 26:08 The dirty secret of AI-generated code, and a real data hole 31:48 The failure that changed how Alex builds 45:31 Can a company run with no humans? 55:02 Five moves you can make Monday morning If you build with AI, this one will change how you think about shipping. Like, subscribe, and drop a comment with the one move you are taking into Monday. 🔗 Links & Resources Website: [brnz.com] | [DUDE.AI] Guest LinkedIn: [Alex Galert] (comment BUILD on the pinned post for the BRNZ Playbook) WhatsApp: message DIAGNOSIS to [wa.me/491711254074] for a Startup Loop Diagnosis ▶️ #ThinkAIPodcast #DaveGoyal #AI #AgenticAI #Startups

🎙️ There Is No Magic Wand: What AI Can (And Cannot) Actually Do Dilip Bagrecha built mission-critical financial systems at RBS and UBS where failure wasn't an option. Now, as founder and CEO of Wishtree Technologies, he's watching enterprises treat AI like it can solve everything—and it's not working. In this episode, we unpack why only 5% of enterprises have truly adopted AI, the reliability discipline that separates real engineering from hype, and the uncomfortable truth most AI consultants won't say out loud: there is no magic wand. In this episode: (00:00) The reliability standard that built global banking systems—and why AI ignores it (02:30) Why 99.9% uptime is a death sentence for enterprise deployment (06:15) The shift from "AI tools" to "AI teams"—what actually changes for leaders (14:00) How to spot which AI use cases will actually work (and which are technical debt waiting to happen) (20:45) The fixed-pricing trap: why outcome-based contracts don't work yet (28:15) The CFO mindset killing AI ROI: cost obsession vs. value obsession (36:00) Advice for the nervous mid-market CEO: think transformation, not tools (42:45) Why honesty is rare in AI consulting—and why Dilip refuses to play along If you're leading enterprise AI initiatives, skeptical of the hype, or about to invest in AI and want straight talk instead of magic-wand promises, this conversation cuts through the noise. Subscribe to Think AI Podcast wherever you listen and send this to a leader in your life who's buying AI or building their first autonomous system. You'll get answers differently. Links and Resources: Dilip Bagrecha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dilipbagrecha/ Wishtree Technologies: https://wishtreetech.com/ Think AI: https://thinkaicorp.com/ #EnterpriseAI #AIAdoption #FinTech #AIConsulting #ProductEngineering #AINative

🎙️ The Myth of Too Small to Hack Tom Kirkham, founder and CEO of Kirkham IronTech and two-time Amazon bestselling author of Hack the Rich, sits down with Dave to break down how AI has turned phishing and ransomware into a high-volume numbers game, and why he says over 90% of breaches still come down to one thing: human failure. In this episode: 00:00 Tom's ISIS kill list story and why "why would a hacker want me" is the wrong question 03:37 How AI personalizes phishing emails at scale 08:41 The Colonial Pipeline attack and why small businesses are the real targets 12:43 Why 90%+ of breaches are human failure, not a tech failure 17:51 The three things every business needs: awareness training, EDR, and MFA 27:01 Why your CFO should never run IT 36:35 Shadow AI and why privacy is security 49:02 Is a global cyber pandemic already here? 59:49 Hacking's GDP is bigger than most countries If you run a business of any size, this episode will change how you think about risk. Like, subscribe, and drop a comment on the one thing you're going to fix this week. 🔗 Links & Resources Books by Tom Kirkham: Purchase on Amazon Kirkham IronTech: kirkhamirontech.com Follow Tom Kirkham on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomkirkham/ #CyberSecurity #AI #Ransomware #ThinkAIPodcast #Leadership

🎙️ Data First, AI Second, People Always | Scot Burdette, ABB CIO "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻." - Scot Burdette Scot Burdette runs digital transformation at ABB across 3 business lines, 60+ countries, and 17 factories. 40 years in technology, from HP and EDS to global division CIO, and a 2025 Ohio ORBIE Awards global finalist. In this conversation with Dave Goyal, he lays out a simple order of operations: 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁. 𝗔𝗜 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱. 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀. We get into the unglamorous data plumbing nobody celebrates, why a demo is the easy part, what good data means across 60 countries, capturing hard-won knowledge before people retire, and how the CIO role moved from the basement to the boardroom. If you lead data, AI, or a team through change, this one is for you. ⏱️ Chapters: 00:00 Meet Scot Burdette: 40 years, 60+ countries, 17 factories 01:01 A day when one decision touches 60 countries 03:34 Using AI to run his own calendar and time 05:30 Why expecting AI to be perfect on day one backfires 06:54 The multi-year build for end to end order automation 09:33 What good data actually means across 60 countries 13:49 Why the data plumbing has to come first 14:56 Building a demo is easy, the foundation is hard 17:12 Capturing tribal knowledge before the retirement wave 21:13 Why the team, not the tech, are the rock stars 23:40 Right people, wrong seat 25:44 From the basement to the boardroom 27:54 Will AI take jobs? AI as a tool 29:38 Teach kids to use AI, not just build it 32:30 Data and AI: transformation and adoption 🎧 Watch or listen: YouTube: https://youtube.com/davegoyal Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7z6mVpTBjbqwuAgLtxgoSq?si=1171658bc9e944af Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/think-ai-podcast/id1884395529 About the Think AI Podcast: Dave Goyal sits down with the operators and leaders putting AI and data to work in the real world, minus the hype. New episodes weekly. #ThinkAIPodcast #DataStrategy #AILeadership #CIO #DaveGoyal

🎙️ Prescription Before Diagnosis is Malpractice | Sung Paik, Data QI "Prescription before diagnosis is malpractice." Most AI is sold backwards, and Sung Paik came with the autopsy. In this episode, Dave Goyal sits down with Sung Paik, VP of AI Go-To-Market for North America and Field CTO at Data QI, to break down why most manufacturing AI projects die in pilot purgatory, and what the 5 percent that actually work do differently. They get into the data foundation nobody wants to fix, the 6 percent output jump that added $3.6 million to one production line, the silver tsunami retiring out of factories, and why the operator on the floor, not the executive who signs the check, is the real buyer of AI. In this episode: 00:00 Meet Sung Paik: finance, code, startup, and the sales number 01:13 Prescription before diagnosis and the AI chasm of confusion 03:22 Data before AI, and why data is never garbage 05:43 The 6 percent output jump worth $3.6 million 08:09 Walking away when the ROI isn't there 11:31 How to say no to a client and still keep them 15:08 Why the operator is the single most important person 18:41 The silver tsunami and capturing institutional knowledge 24:50 Assistant vs agent, explained simply 34:52 Innovation sprints and escaping pilot purgatory 53:40 What actually separates one AI vendor from another If you build, sell, or buy AI for the factory floor, this one is a blueprint. Subscribe for more, drop your biggest AI-in-manufacturing question in the comments, and hit like if "prescription before diagnosis" just reframed how you think about AI. --- 🔗 Links & Resources Data QI: https://dataqi.ai/ Sung Paik LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sungpaik/ Grow Without Sacrifice: https://growwithoutsacrifice.com/ #AIinManufacturing #ManufacturingAI #IndustrialAI #AIStrategy #ThinkAIPodcast

🎙️ Meet My AI Crew I opened the garage door on the system that runs my company. Not a chatbot. A real crew of AI employees with names, jobs, and shifts that show up on my calendar every morning. I will not hand you the secret wiring, but by the end you will know exactly what is possible and have the shape to build your own. **In this episode:** 00:00 The handbike and the garage door 01:11 The real bottleneck was me 03:24 What an AI employee actually is (not a chatbot) 05:29 Meet the crew: Maya, Morgan, Sasha, Owen, Felix, Harper, FIO 07:39 MCP vs API in plain English 10:05 Inside Felix, my CFO financial cockpit 16:41 Watching my AI employees clock in on my calendar 24:25 A Fortune 500 back office for the cost of a coffee a day If you have ever felt like your business only moves as fast as you do, this one is for you. Subscribe for more, drop a comment with the first role you would hand to an AI employee, and if you want the step by step build, come join me. 👉 Learn to build your own AI crew inside Grow Without Sacrifice: https://growwithoutsacrifice.com --- #AIcrew #AIemployees #GrowWithoutSacrifice #SmallBusinessAI #SoloFounder

🎙️ The 5F's of a Legendary Life | Coach Kevin Coach Kevin has coached more than 40,000 people across five continents, from everyday entrepreneurs to heirs and billionaires. In this episode he tells Dave Goyal what almost every single one of them got wrong about success, why his first three billionaire clients were suicidal, and how to build KPIs for the parts of your life that actually matter: your marriage, your kids, your fitness, your faith. We get into the Five Facets framework (Fitness, Faith, Family, Finance, Fun), why a grind season is fine but a "season" without an end date is just laziness, the teenager KPI that will rewire how you parent, and a brutally honest take on what AI is doing to entrepreneurs right now (spoiler: it lets you overclock until you melt). In this episode: 00:47 The two truths almost no one will tell themselves 03:16 Why coaching billionaires taught Kevin that money is not enough 10:32 The Five Facets framework: Fitness, Faith, Family, Finance, Fun 14:29 Deferring joy is the same as deferring profit 19:25 How to set real KPIs for marriage, faith, and family 31:30 Grind seasons are fine. Seasons with no end date are not. 38:18 The KPI every father needs to be tracking 44:36 The teenager hack: crossroads and giving them the radio 53:46 AI is the tractor of the mind (and why it will melt you) 59:04 The constraint you didn't choose but should be grateful for 1:05:20 Love yourself warts and all If this episode gave you a new lens, hit subscribe, drop a comment with the one KPI you're going to start tracking this week, and send it to the entrepreneur in your life who needs to hear it. --- 🔗 Links & Resources Coach Kevin: https://itscoachkevin.com Grow Without Sacrifice: https://growwithoutsacrifice.com/ #ThinkAIPodcast #CoachKevin #Mindset #Entrepreneurship #LiveLegend