The Artificial Intelligence Show

As we close out the year, this AI Answers episode offers a reflective look at how organizations are actually navigating AI adoption.  Cathy McPhillips and Paul Roetzer take a step back from tools and headlines to talk about the human side of AI: leadership behavior, workplace culture, and how long-held ideas about productivity and value are being quietly challenged as AI becomes part of everyday work. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:05 — What responsibility do leaders have to confront the fear of AI head-on? 00:05:53 — Is there value in intentionally keeping some work, not just for fact-checking or “human-in-the-loop” oversight, but as a form of cognitive reset? 00:09:18 — Should productivity still be the primary measure of an employee’s value? 00:012:13 — What are behaviors executives should model to make AI use feel safe, normal, and expected across teams? 00:17:16 — What are the clearest structural signs an organization is talking about AI transformation while actively resisting it? 00:20:47 — Why do so many organizations default to treating AI as an IT initiative? 00:22:17 — What is vibe coding? 00:23:47 — If you could go back to the very first AI Show episode and correct one major prediction or assumption you had about AI, what would it be and why? 00:28:04 — What is one listener question that fundamentally changed how you think about AI? 00:30:43 — What has been the most personally challenging part of leading conversations about AI’s impact on jobs, identity, and the future? 00:35:48 — Where do you think most companies actually over-invested in AI? 00:39:53 — What is one thing you would refuse to automate, no matter how good the tech gets, and why? 00:43:04 — What is your measure for adding a podcast or other medium to your trusted resources? 00:45:03 — How can listeners think about simplifying how they’re thinking about, piloting, and scaling AI?  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. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/   Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

A billion-dollar check from Disney. A federal crackdown on state AI laws. And a new model from OpenAI that beats human experts 71% of the time. In Episode 186, Paul and Mike unpack the release of GPT-5.2, Disney’s strategic pivot to license its IP for Sora, and President Trump’s executive order designed to accelerate "American AI dominance" at all costs. Plus: Is the future of data centers in space? Why is Microsoft Copilot struggling in the enterprise? And a look at Time’s "Architects of AI." Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Click here to take this week's AI Pulse. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:03:46 — AI Pulse 00:06:27 — GPT-5.2 and OpenAI Turns 10 00:22:43 — Disney-OpenAI Deal 00:32:41 — Trump Executive Order to Override State AI Laws 00:44:17 — OpenAI State of Enterprise AI Report 00:53:03 — Google Cloud ROI of AI Reports 00:56:14 — Microsoft Lowers AI Sales Expectations 01:02:14 — TIME Person of the Year: The “Architects” of AI 01:06:08 — The Economics of AI and Data Centers in Space 01:14:31 — Shopify SimGym 01:18:37 — Research on Teen AI Usage 01:21:11 — OpenAI Certifications This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. You can get $100 off an individual purchase or a membership by using code POD100 at academy.smarterx.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

What happens when AI stops being a tool and starts reshaping every task inside your company?  In this AI Answers episode, Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips go through audience questions on where AI jobs are really heading, how agents and “AI ops” are emerging, and what to expect as reasoning models accelerate into 2026. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:03:55 — What AI Positions are in demand for professionals who are not coders? How can skill sets be presented to hiring managers?  00:08:49 — What are the top AI concepts that organizational communicators need to know? 00:10:56 — What should I focus on in AI? 00:13:21 — What do you think would be a good area to focus on as someone trying to break into the AI industry? 00:16:15 — Would you recommend prioritizing 'Generative' use cases or 'Predictive' use cases to achieve the quickest win? 00:18:45 — What’s the most innovative way to get started? Do we need a certain level of data hygiene first, or can AI help clean and organize the data as we go? 00:23:55 — Can you talk about what to be aware of and best practices for sourcing use cases? 00:28:25 — What is the best way to introduce AI tools to a technical/industrial workforce without causing 'replacement fear'?  00:30:47 — What would you say to people who are trying to move beyond the mechanical use of AI and actually trust the technology enough to use it in meaningful ways? 00:34:20 — How do you see AI-driven search tools impacting traditional search engines? 00:36:43 — As generative AI matures, what’s the next significant shift? 00:41:04 — Do companies understand AI well enough before reducing their human workforce? 00:45:51 — What are the main factors that could slow down the advancements of AI? 00:49:11 — As AI systems move toward recursive self-improvement, what guardrails are needed to ensure they aren’t learning from a distorted or incomplete view of the world?   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. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/   Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

OpenAI has officially declared a "Code Red," reportedly delaying future product launches to frantically shore up ChatGPT against a resurgent Google. This defensive pivot comes just as Google unveils Gemini 3 Deep Think and Workspace Studio, powerful new tools that allow users to build autonomous agents without writing a single line of code. On this week’s episode, Paul and Mike analyze this shift in power and explore the industry's quiet preparation for "recursive self-improvement," a near-future where AI models evolve without human intervention. They also discuss the backlash over OpenAI’s ad tests, major leadership shakeups at Apple, and Anthropic’s race to the public markets. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Click here to take this week's AI Pulse. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:03:03 — AI Pulse 00:07:54 — OpenAI Code Red 00:16:28 — Google Releases 00:28:59 — AI Industry Preps for “Recursive Self-Improvement” 00:42:32 — OpenAI Slammed for Ads 00:47:20 — Apple Talent Shakeups 00:51:22 — Anthropic IPO and AI Interviewer 00:59:42 — Jensen Huang Rogan Interview 01:06:04 — Perplexity Lawsuits 01:09:33 — Meta Acquires Limitless 01:12:39 — Pope Weighs In on AI 01:16:53 — Data on AI Job Cuts 01:20:50 — Data on AI and Parenting This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. You can get $100 off an individual purchase or a membership by using code POD100 at academy.smarterx.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

Is the "AI Bubble" real? We analyze "The Big Short" investor Michael Burry’s bet against the industry. Mike and Paul also break down MIT’s "Project Iceberg," which suggests 11.7% of the workforce is already exposed to replacement, and a new McKinsey report on the 7x growth in demand for AI fluency. Plus, Claude Opus 4.5, Artificial Superintelligence, political divides over AI, and more in our rapid-fire section. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Click here to take this week's AI Pulse. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:04:19 — AI Pulse 00:08:04 — MIT Study: AI Can Already Replace 11.7% of US Workforce 00:23:55 — Is There an AI Bubble? 00:33:24 — Political Divides Over AI Are Getting Worse 00:40:27 — ChatGPT Turns 3 00:46:59 — Claude Opus 4.5 00:49:19 — ChatGPT Shopping Research 00:52:30 — Google Encroaches on Nvidia’s Chip Dominance 00:55:58 — Suno Embraces Training on Licensed Music 00:58:48 — Insurers Retreat from Covering AI Risks 01:02:21 — Dwarkesh Podcast with Ilya Sutskever 01:08:41 — “AI 2027” Revises Forecasts to 2030 01:12:26 — The Thinking Game and AlphaFold 01:18:38 — DeepSeek V3.2 01:20:27 — Runway Gen-4.5 This episode is brought to you by AI Academy by SmarterX. AI Academy is your gateway to personalized AI learning for professionals and teams. Discover our new on-demand courses, live classes, certifications, and a smarter way to master AI. You can get $100 off an individual purchase or a membership by using code POD100 at academy.smarterx.ai. Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy