The AI Report Podcast

Liam Lawson
  • 4.8 (9)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Weekly

The AI Report podcast is a weekly AI podcast for business leaders that looks at artificial intelligence through a human lens. Understanding AI means understanding the people behind it: their motivations, their values, and the choices that shape how AI shows up at work. Each episode, we talk with executives at companies like Adobe, Block, EY, PwC and Salesforce about why they're building and using AI the way they are. Leaders talk openly about how AI and AI agents are changing their jobs, their teams and the future of work, from moving pilots to scale to measuring the return on AI spend and earning trust along the way. AI isn't just code and data. It's people making decisions about the future we're building. No technical background needed. New episodes every Thursday. We're the team behind The AI Report, the AI newsletter read by more than 400,000 business professionals.

  1. 16h ago

    Why Payments Will Go Invisible in 3 to 5 Years | Greg Cohen, CEO, Fortis

    In this episode, Greg Cohen, CEO of Fortis, joins Adrian to explain how embedded payments work and why the best payment experiences feel invisible. Fortis helps software providers and ERP platforms build payments into their products for B2B customers, and Greg has spent almost 30 years in the industry. Greg also shares how Fortis is using AI. Marketing and operations were the earliest wins, everyone at the company has access to AI tools, and nothing goes into production without review. His goal is to scale with a leaner team rather than cut heads, and he explains why he isn't ready to let an AI agent book his vacation without reviewing it. They also cover why faster cash flow matters as much as accepting a payment, Fortis's growth under private equity (revenue up about 10 to 11 times in almost six years), advice for founders after a big investment, and what most people get wrong about the cost of payments. Key Topics Covered Standalone vs. embedded payments, explained simply Why payments are becoming invisible What a payment facilitator is How faster cash flow changes a business Where Fortis sits between banks and software partners How private equity changed Fortis's growth Advice for founders after raising capital Why marketing and operations led Fortis's AI adoption Scaling with AI without cutting headcount Where AI is working in payments, from fraud to collections Where Greg draws the line between humans and machines What most people get wrong about payments Episode Timestamps 00:28 - Greg's background and what Fortis does 01:45 - Fortis's 20-year history and private equity growth 02:52 - How payments have changed in 30 years 04:30 - Why payments are becoming invisible 07:40 - Embedded vs. standalone payments for a small business 09:19 - Why payments must work for the buyer and the seller 13:18 - What a payment facilitator is in plain English 14:39 - Where Fortis fits between banks and businesses 16:28 - What integration looks like for software partners 18:05 - How private equity changes the way a company grows 20:45 - Advice for founders after a big investment 24:01 - Is AI helping startups or incumbents? 25:27 - Early AI wins in marketing and operations 27:14 - Using AI responsibly 29:14 - How AI changes an established company 32:13 - Where AI sits in payments today 34:43 - Where to draw the line between humans and machines 38:07 - The least obvious uses of AI in payments 42:06 - Where payments are headed in the next 3 to 5 years 46:39 - What most people get wrong about payments 48:18 - Why Greg does what he does Where to find Greg: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/grcohen/ Fortis - https://fortispay.com/ Partner Links Join The AI Report Pro: https://community.theaireport.ai/checkout/the-ai-report-pro-membership?price_id=390111 Join our Claude Founding Cohort: http://theaireport.ai/claude-founding-cohort Join our free live Claude session, every Tuesday: http://theaireport.ai/free-claude-session Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Why Payments Will Go Invisible in 3 to 5 Years | Greg Cohen, CEO, Fortis

  2. Nov 5

    How Cradle’s AI Beat 130 Teams to Design a Cancer-Targeting Protein | Eli Bixby, Head of ML

    In this episode, Eli Bixby, co-founder and Head of ML at Cradle, joins Liam to explain how AI is changing the way scientists engineer proteins, the tiny biological machines behind everything from cancer therapies to laundry detergent. Eli has worked in machine learning since 2014, when he started at Google, and now helps build Cradle's software platform for protein engineers in pharma, agriculture and industrial biotech. Eli explains why scientific AI works differently from the LLMs most people know. Instead of producing more of what already exists, Cradle's models recommend which experiments to run next, learn from the lab results and improve with each round, usually hitting a customer's goals within two or three iterations. He also walks through Cradle's win in a 2024 public protein design competition with more than 1,000 submissions from 130 teams, and why biology's biggest data problem is that most of the data it needs hasn't been collected yet. They also get into Cradle's subscription business model and why it doesn't take a cut of the drugs customers develop, the ethics of building tools for the pharma industry, the future of small biotech teams, what peptides actually are, and why Eli worries AI is repeating the mistakes of recommendation algorithms. Key Topics Covered What protein engineering is and why proteins matter How Cradle won a public protein design competition Why scientific AI is different from LLMs Active learning: how AI decides which experiments to run next Why most of the data biology needs hasn't been collected yet Cradle's subscription model and why it doesn't take a revenue share The ethics of building tools for the pharma industry The future of five to ten person biotech teams What peptides are and how they work Why AI should support human expertise, not undermine it Episode Timestamps 00:00 - What protein engineering is and what Cradle does 02:42 - Winning a public protein design competition 05:28 - Zero-shot design and iterative active learning 07:23 - Predictive AI like AlphaFold versus generative design 09:19 - How customers define what good looks like 12:10 - The many requirements behind a successful protein 15:04 - Are engineered proteins safer than the chemicals they replace? 16:58 - Cradle's business model and why it skips revenue sharing 21:14 - Wrestling with the morality of the work 24:29 - Who can use Cradle and the future of small biotech teams 27:05 - Inside the models: from 250 million proteins to useful designs 32:04 - Retraining models and designing experiments in batches 33:43 - What gets tested before a drug reaches humans 36:42 - Cradle's founding vision 38:28 - Self-experimenting, and how AI has shaped Eli's outlook 41:36 - Is AI repeating the mistakes of recommendation algorithms? 43:51 - Fiber, sleep, exercise and what peptides actually are 49:24 - What Eli wishes more people understood about biology 51:25 - Why Eli does what he does Where to find Eli: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-bixby-50512820/ Cradle - https://cradle.bio/ Partner Links Join The AI Report Pro: https://community.theaireport.ai/checkout/the-ai-report-pro-membership?price_id=390111 Join our Claude Founding Cohort: http://theaireport.ai/claude-founding-cohort Join our free live Claude session, every Tuesday: http://theaireport.ai/free-claude-session Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    How Cradle’s AI Beat 130 Teams to Design a Cancer-Targeting Protein | Eli Bixby, Head of ML

  3. Oct 29

    How Rare Scaled an AI Agent From 200 to 16,000 Users | Brett Jenks, CEO, Rare

    In this episode, recorded at Dreamforce 2026, Brett Jenks, CEO of Rare, joins Liam to talk about what it takes to change human behavior at scale, and how Rare is using AI to do it. Brett's path to conservation ran through political reporting in New Jersey, film production in Boston and a volunteer teaching post in rural Costa Rica. He has spent more than two decades leading Rare, a conservation nonprofit that now works in 60 countries. Brett explains how Rare built Agent Tierra, an AI agent on WhatsApp that gives smallholder farmers in Colombia guidance on soil, weather and regenerative farming practices. Before launching the agent, Rare spent time building trust with 200 early adopter farmers, taking composting among local farmers from 6% to 94% within a year. Agent Tierra now reaches 16,000 farmers in Colombia, with Brazil and Honduras next. They also get into why farmers change when they see other farmers change, how Rare's pilot plots cut input costs by 30% and raised yields by 30%, why culture shapes every rollout, what keeps a global nonprofit CEO up at night, and why humans need to start thinking on hundred-year timelines. Key Topics Covered How Brett went from political reporter to film producer to conservationist Rare's 50-year mission to inspire change so people and nature thrive How Rare built Agent Tierra, an AI agent for farmers on WhatsApp Why trust comes before technology in behavior change Scaling from 200 farmers to 16,000 in Colombia The economics: 30% lower input costs and 30% higher yields in pilot plots Why people are both incredibly complex and very much primates Adapting AI programs across cultures and countries Why long-term thinking is the key to resilience Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Brett's four careers and the through line 01:39 - The writing on the wall and the move to Costa Rica 02:26 - How Brett found conservation 04:02 - Rare's mission and the science of behavior change 06:09 - What Agent Tierra is and how Rare built trust first 09:21 - Bringing an AI agent to farmers on WhatsApp 10:27 - Why farmers change when they see other farmers change 12:01 - Are humans complex or simple? 13:25 - The real incentive: lower costs and higher yields 16:13 - How farmers use Agent Tierra day to day 17:51 - Navigating culture across 60 countries 19:44 - What keeps a nonprofit CEO up at night 21:44 - Why humans struggle to plan for the long term 23:05 - Do people naturally lean toward good? 24:21 - One message for everyone on the planet Where to find Brett: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-jenks-9200196/ Rare - https://rare.org/ Learn more about Agent Tierra - https://www.salesforce.com/customer-stories/rare/agentic-farmer-coaching/ Partner Links Join The AI Report Pro: https://community.theaireport.ai/checkout/the-ai-report-pro Join our Claude Founding Cohort: http://theaireport.ai/claude-founding-cohort Join our free live Claude session, every Tuesday: http://theaireport.ai/free-claude-session Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    How Rare Scaled an AI Agent From 200 to 16,000 Users | Brett Jenks, CEO, Rare

  4. Oct 22

    Salesforce VP: What Claudeforce Changes for Customers and Partners | Nia Samady

    In this episode, recorded at Dreamforce 2026, Nia Samady, VP of Global Partner Success at Salesforce, joins Kyle to discuss what it takes for AI agent projects to succeed with customers. Nia has spent 22 years at Salesforce, starting as a college graduate on a developer support team, and now leads a technical team that works alongside consulting partners like Accenture and Deloitte across the full customer lifecycle. Nia explains how AIforce and Claudeforce are bringing Salesforce into the interfaces customers already use, and how Salesforce's network of 84 forward deployed engineering partner firms is tackling data readiness and customer readiness from the earliest stages of a deal. They also get into where AI is delivering real ROI today, from service use cases seeing 70%+ case deflection to regulated industries like health and financial services, the rise of AI native partners, and how hiring is changing as companies look for new grads who blend technical skills with business acumen. Key Topics Covered How Dreamforce 2026 announcements translate into partner success What Claudeforce and the Anthropic partnership mean for customers How Salesforce's FDE Partner Network supports Agentforce delivery Why data readiness is the foundation for AI agents Where AI agents are delivering ROI, including 70%+ case deflection in service Why regulated industries are a litmus test for AI The rise of AI native partners in the Salesforce ecosystem How AI is changing hiring for new grads and builders Mentorship, sponsorship and career growth in the AI era Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction and Nia's 22 years at Salesforce 00:26 - What Nia didn't see coming in the agentic era 01:21 - From the Dreamforce keynote to partner success 02:52 - Claudeforce and the Anthropic partnership 04:15 - Early signals from customers using Salesforce in Claude 05:05 - How forward deployed engineers support Agentforce delivery 07:36 - What forward deployed engineers look at first 09:08 - Why partners value early engagement 09:53 - Where AI is delivering ROI today 11:32 - The rise of AI native partners 12:32 - Marc Benioff, the beginner's mind and a chance elevator ride 14:58 - How hiring has changed for new grads and builders 16:59 - How technical grads can build business skills 18:35 - How Salesforce keeps employees ahead of AI 20:09 - Mentorship, sponsorship and career growth 21:20 - What will be obvious to partners by Dreamforce 2027 Where to find Nia: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nia-samady-48b99a46/ Salesforce - https://www.salesforce.com/ Partner Links Join The AI Report Pro: https://community.theaireport.ai/checkout/the-ai-report-pro Join our free live Claude session, every Tuesday: https://community.theaireport.ai/forms/497be10c Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Salesforce VP: What Claudeforce Changes for Customers and Partners | Nia Samady

  5. Oct 15

    How The Adecco Group Is Rolling Out Salesforce AI to 27,000 Employees | Denis Machuel, CEO

    In this episode, recorded at Dreamforce 2026, Denis Machuel, CEO of The Adecco Group, joins Kyle to discuss how AI agents are changing recruitment, workforce strategy, and the day-to-day work of recruiters. Denis explains how Adecco is moving from isolated AI pilots to scaled deployment across its business, with a focus on keeping people at the center of the transformation. They discuss Ada, Adecco's recruitment agent in the UK, why roughly half of its candidate conversations initially happened outside working hours, and how agents can take over repetitive outreach and first-level screening so recruiters can spend more time on higher-value human conversations. Denis also breaks down Adecco's work with Salesforce, the rollout of Agentforce Coworker to 27,000 sales professionals and recruiters, the importance of responsible AI and secure data, and why the next challenge is orchestrating multiple agents while bringing humans into the process at the moments where they add the most value. Key Topics Covered How AI is changing recruitment at The Adecco Group Why Adecco moved from broad AI pilots to scaling agents in core workflows How Ada supports candidate outreach and first-level screening Why recruiters can spend more time on higher-value human conversations Adecco's rollout of Agentforce Coworker Responsible AI, guardrails and secure candidate data How AI can make recruitment more proactive for candidates and clients Why agent orchestration and human-in-the-loop design matter Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Denis' background in computer science and AI 01:50 - The scale of Adecco and the future of work 03:33 - How Ada, Adecco's recruitment agent, works 05:22 - Scaling AI agents across languages and geographies 06:19 - Adecco's partnership with Salesforce and Agentforce 09:05 - Moving from individual AI use to enterprise deployment 10:54 - How a recruiter's workflow is changing with AI agents 13:34 - From reactive recruitment to proactive career support 15:18 - How Adecco measures the success of a hire 16:53 - AI adoption in Europe versus the US 19:15 - Regulation, responsibility and human-centric AI 20:12 - What drives Denis as CEO of The Adecco Group 22:02 - Why agent orchestration is the next big challenge Where to find Denis: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/denismachuel/ The Adecco Group - https://www.adeccogroup.com/ Partner Links Upgrade your AI toolkit: https://www.theaireport.ai/ai-executive-pass Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribe Join the community: https://community.theaireport.ai/checkout/the-ai-report-welcome-gift?coupon_code=WRTH Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    How The Adecco Group Is Rolling Out Salesforce AI to 27,000 Employees | Denis Machuel, CEO

  6. Oct 8

    How 175-Year-Old PwC Built AI Into Its Business Model | Ian Kahn, Partner

    In this episode, Ian Kahn, PwC partner and global leader for its Customer and Commercial Excellence platform, joins Liam to discuss what AI adoption actually looks like inside large organizations. Ian has spent 27 years at PwC and leads a global team of almost 10,000 practitioners focused on helping clients build stronger customer relationships and drive growth. Ian explains why the biggest challenge with AI is not access to the technology, but getting people and business models to change with it. He shares why PwC sees a small group of companies capturing most of the value from AI, how leaders can reduce resistance to change, and why the number of agents deployed matters less than how the business itself evolves. They also get into how Ian uses his own portfolio of AI agents, the shift toward voice-based interaction, and how agents can take over routine administrative work so teams can spend more time on higher-value customer relationships. Key Topics Covered Why Ian calls AI the biggest change of his 27-year career Why 20% of companies are capturing 75% of the value from AI deployment How leaders can overcome resistance to AI adoption How PwC is embedding AI into its business model How Ian uses his own portfolio of AI agents Why AI agents should free people for higher-value work The role of voice in the future of work Why leaders need to explain the "why" behind AI transformation Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction and Ian's 27 years at PwC 02:15 - Why AI is the biggest change Ian has seen in his career 02:56 - Ian's role leading almost 10,000 practitioners at PwC 04:44 - Why continuous learning matters in a 175-year-old firm 06:08 - Why 20% of companies are capturing 75% of AI's value 07:57 - The role of culture and leadership in AI adoption 10:08 - Why Ian spends most of his time with clients and teams 11:06 - How PwC is embedding AI into its business model 12:55 - Using agents to free up higher-value capacity 14:17 - How Ian uses his own portfolio of AI agents 16:29 - Why leaders need to explain the "why" behind AI 18:28 - Career advice, mentorship and leading high-performing teams Where to find Ian: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianwkahn/ Partner Links Upgrade your AI toolkit: https://www.theaireport.ai/ai-executive-pass Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribe Join the community: https://community.theaireport.ai/checkout/the-ai-report-welcome-gift?coupon_code=WRTH Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    How 175-Year-Old PwC Built AI Into Its Business Model | Ian Kahn, Partner

  7. Oct 1

    How EY Is Moving Companies From 18 Months of AI Experiments to Real ROI | Mike Flynn, Principal

    In this episode, Mike Flynn joins Liam to break down how companies are moving from AI experimentation to measurable business value. Mike has spent more than 20 years in consulting, including nearly a decade at EY, nine years at PwC, and now leads the technology sector for EY's consulting business. They discuss why businesses need to redesign workflows around AI instead of simply adding AI to existing processes, how EY's "Design for Zero" approach works, and why AI agents are changing the economics of software. Mike also explains the real costs behind AI agents, what enterprises want from AI vendors, how AI is reshaping consulting, and why EY is investing in forward-deployed engineering. Key Topics Covered Moving from AI experiments to measurable ROI EY's "Design for Zero" approach to AI-first workflows Why per-seat software budgets break with AI agents The real cost of an AI agent task What enterprises want from AI vendors How AI is changing consulting and forward-deployed engineering Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction and Mike's path from the Air Force to EY and PwC 01:58 - What Mike's role at EY looks like today 03:57 - Why point solutions create "trapped work" 04:29 - From AI experiments to end-to-end transformation 07:47 - Where AI-first redesign is working today 10:00 - Why AI is breaking the per-seat software model 13:01 - The real costs behind running an AI agent 16:00 - Measuring AI spend versus business value 18:28 - How much work will AI actually take over? 20:52 - Why companies need more granular AI cost controls 25:53 - Building automated control loops for AI 31:21 - Experimenting with enterprise AI tools at scale 36:02 - Why enterprise AI adoption moves slower than personal AI 39:37 - CIOs shift from adoption to process redesign 41:29 - What enterprises want from AI vendors 45:24 - Consulting versus AI deployment at EY 46:36 - Why AI may create more consulting work, not less 49:00 - EY's forward-deployed engineering strategy 52:16 - The two qualities Mike looks for when hiring 55:33 - Why Mike does what he does Where to find Mike: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbernardflynn/ EY - https://www.ey.com/ Partner Links Upgrade your AI toolkit: https://www.theaireport.ai/ai-executive-pass Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribe Join the community: https://community.theaireport.ai/checkout/the-ai-report-welcome-gift?coupon_code=WRTH Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    How EY Is Moving Companies From 18 Months of AI Experiments to Real ROI | Mike Flynn, Principal

  8. Sep 24

    How to Build AI Systems People Can Actually Trust | Cillian Kieran, CEO & Founder, Ethyca

    In this episode, Cillian Kieran, CEO and founder of Ethyca, joins Liam to talk about why data privacy and AI governance need to be treated as engineering problems, not just legal and compliance challenges. Cillian explains how a consulting project for Heineken ahead of the GDPR pushed him to rethink privacy from an engineer's perspective and eventually build Ethyca. He breaks down how the company's product suite works, why Fides has become a widely adopted open-source privacy standard, and what changes when AI agents are given read and write access to tools like Stripe, QuickBooks or a CRM. They also get into what foundation model providers may be missing on governance, why AI needs a harness that directs its capabilities without slowing it down, the responsibility engineers have when building AI systems, and why he thinks much of what we call AI is still statistical math wrapped in a marketing label. Later, Cillian and Liam discuss where AI startups may consolidate, Yann LeCun's work on world models, the human impact of increasingly agent-driven work, and how growing up around art shaped Cillian's view of software as a creative pursuit. Key Topics Covered Why privacy and AI governance are engineering problems How Fides became a widely adopted open-source privacy standard The risk of giving AI agents read and write access to business systems Why AI needs a harness that directs its capabilities without slowing it down What foundation model providers may be missing on governance Why engineers, not just users, carry responsibility for AI safety Why Cillian calls AI "statistical math" with a marketing label World models, startup consolidation and the future of AI infrastructure Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction and welcome 00:58 - From a physics dropout to a data consultancy for Fortune 500 brands 03:17 - The Six Problems of Privacy and becoming the world's most trusted technology company 07:20 - Inside the product suite: Fides, Helios, Janus, Lethe and Astralis 11:29 - How Fides became a widely adopted open-source privacy standard 14:20 - What Cillian believes foundation model providers are missing on governance 16:08 - Why AI needs a harness, not just guardrails 18:19 - Ethyca's business model and the rise in demand for consulting 23:07 - Why Ethyca went after enterprise customers first 24:50 - Testing Grok's agent tools 27:34 - MCP proliferation, OpenClaw and the risk of "permissive access" 31:11 - The seatbelt analogy for building safe AI systems 34:28 - Why AI governance isn't getting the coverage it deserves 36:26 - AI as "statistical math" and Ted Chiang's take on the label 38:43 - Foundation model economics and the future of AI startups 39:49 - Yann LeCun, world models and where Cillian would place his next bet 50:12 - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: classical versus romantic thinking 56:05 - Why Cillian still does what he does 01:03:34 - Where to find Cillian and closing thoughts Where to find Cillian: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cilliankieran Ethyca - https://ethyca.com Partner Links Upgrade your AI toolkit: https://www.theaireport.ai/ai-executive-pass Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribe Join the community: https://community.theaireport.ai/checkout/the-ai-report-welcome-gift?coupon_code=WRTH Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    How to Build AI Systems People Can Actually Trust | Cillian Kieran, CEO & Founder, Ethyca
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4.8
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About

The AI Report podcast is a weekly AI podcast for business leaders that looks at artificial intelligence through a human lens. Understanding AI means understanding the people behind it: their motivations, their values, and the choices that shape how AI shows up at work. Each episode, we talk with executives at companies like Adobe, Block, EY, PwC and Salesforce about why they're building and using AI the way they are. Leaders talk openly about how AI and AI agents are changing their jobs, their teams and the future of work, from moving pilots to scale to measuring the return on AI spend and earning trust along the way. AI isn't just code and data. It's people making decisions about the future we're building. No technical background needed. New episodes every Thursday. We're the team behind The AI Report, the AI newsletter read by more than 400,000 business professionals.

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