The AI Why with Liam Lawson

Liam Lawson

We’re the team behind The AI Report — the #1 AI newsletter for 400,000+ business leaders at Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and more. Each week, we cut through the noise with expert conversations on how AI is transforming business. Expect deep dives into real-world use cases, practical strategies for leaders, and insights you won’t find anywhere else. If you want to understand AI in a way that drives results for your team, company, and career — you’re in the right place. 👉 Subscribe now and join 400,000+ professionals mastering AI in business. theaireport.ai/subscribe-theaireport-spotify

  1. FEB 12

    Elon Musk Just Built a $1.25 TRILLION AI-Space Empire | AI News in 5

    📢 Trillion-Dollar Mergers, Software Selloffs & the UK's First AI Town Anthropic drops Opus 4.6 and triggers a stock selloff, Microsoft's Copilot faces a user crisis, Musk merges SpaceX with xAI in a $1.25 trillion deal, and the UK government turns Barnsley into a tech town. 4 major AI stories in under 5 minutes. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Intro0:15 - Anthropic Launches Claude Opus 4.61:15 - Microsoft Copilot Loses Ground to ChatGPT2:15 - Musk Merges SpaceX & xAI in $1.25T Deal3:25 - UK Names Barnsley Its First Tech Town4:30 - Wrap-up 📰 SOURCES & ARTICLES: Anthropic Claude Opus 4.6: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-opus-4-6Microsoft Copilot Challenges: https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/microsofts-pivotal-ai-product-is-running-into-big-problems-ce235b28SpaceX-xAI Merger: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/03/musk-xai-spacex-biggest-merger-ever.htmlBarnsley Tech Town: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/barnsley-becomes-uks-first-government-backed-tech-town💡 ABOUT THIS CHANNEL: AI News in 5 breaks down the week's most important AI developments in under 5 minutes. No hype, no fear-mongering—just clear analysis of what's actually happening and why it matters to you. 🎙️ THE AI REPORT PODCASTWeekly deep-dive conversations with AI operators building the future.Subscribe for full episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@the-AI-report-with-liam-lawson/featured 📬 STAY CONNECTEDNewsletter: https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribeEnterprise Training: https://www.upscaile.com #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #OpenAI #Anthropic #Microsoft #Copilot #SpaceX #xAI #ElonMusk #TechNews #AINews #FutureOfWork #ChatGPT #Claude #WeeklyAI #TechTrends2026 #Barnsley #TechTown #UKTech

    4 min
  2. FEB 5

    He Took 300 Sales Calls in One Year to Build a Newsletter Agency | Louis Shulman

    Louis Shulman on Building a 15-Person Newsletter Agency, Taking 300 Sales Calls in One Year, and Why Email Marketing Is the Most Overlooked Growth Channel. Louis Shulman, founder of Orbit Marketing, returns to the show to reveal how he built a newsletter agency from scratch, scaled to 15 team members, and took over 300 sales calls in a single year. In this candid conversation, Louis shares why most B2B businesses are leaving massive opportunities on the table by ignoring email marketing.From running paid ads directly to newsletters to building full-funnel lead generation systems, Louis breaks down the exact playbook his agency uses to generate qualified meetings for clients. He also discusses the mindset shift from chasing revenue to obsessing over client results—and why that change transformed his business.Key Topics Covered:- Why email marketing remains the most overlooked channel for B2B businesses- The newsletter funnel strategy: running Facebook and Instagram ads to newsletter opt-ins- How to use surveys and Go High Level to qualify leads automatically- Transitioning from commodity service provider to fractional CMO- The difference between "founder growth hires" and "clone hires" when scaling- Why vanilla content gets ignored and opinionated writing drives responses- Building systems and playbooks that make agency work scalable- Using AI to overcome entrepreneurial fears and mental blockers- The shift from chasing client count to producing case studies- How Orbit Flows software was built as an internal tool then monetized- Why incentive alignment is the key to delivering client resultsEpisode Timestamps:00:00 - Introduction and catching up with Louis Shulman01:17 - What Orbit Marketing does and how the business evolved03:51 - Why every B2B business should have an email presence05:13 - Converting sales call rejections into future clients07:23 - Training writers to create opinionated, high-converting content08:47 - B2B vs DTC clients and strategic positioning11:16 - The "sawdust" strategy: monetizing byproducts of your business12:28 - Becoming a full-service marketing agency vs staying specialized16:35 - Finding intrinsic motivation beyond revenue growth20:32 - Is the agency model actually scalable?24:46 - Using AI to overcome fears and mental blockers27:06 - Hiring strategies: patience vs startup chaos mode30:31 - Orbit Flows: building software from internal toolsAbout Louis Shulman:Louis Shulman is the founder of Orbit Marketing, a newsletter agency that helps B2B companies generate qualified leads through email marketing and paid newsletter funnels. He also runs Orbit Metrics, a data and analytics consultancy for e-commerce brands spending $2M+ annually on ads, and Orbit Flows, a content creation and project management software built for newsletter teams.About Orbit Marketing:Orbit Marketing is a full-service newsletter agency specializing in B2B lead generation. The company writes and manages newsletters for dozens of clients, runs paid acquisition campaigns to newsletter opt-ins, and builds complete funnel systems using tools like Go High Level. With a team of 15, Orbit Marketing has written several hundred newsletter issues for clients across industries including finance, e-commerce, and professional services.Resources Mentioned:- Orbit Flows (content creation software)- Go High Level (funnel and CRM platform)- Facebook Ads Manager- Kai Bax (agency scaling strategies)- Alex Hormozi (business growth frameworks)Partner Links:Book Enterprise Training — https://www.upscaile.com/Subscribe to our free newsletter — https://www.theaireport.ai/subscribe-theaireport-youtube#NewsletterMarketing #EmailMarketing #B2BLeadGeneration #AgencyGrowth #LouisShulman #OrbitMarketing #NewsletterAgency #PaidAds #ContentStrategy #Entrepreneurship #MarketingStrategy #FractionalCMO #StartupGrowth #AIinBusiness #EmailFunnels

    56 min
  3. OpenAI's $10 BILLION Cerebras Deal Explained + Google AI Controversy | AI News in 5

    JAN 22

    OpenAI's $10 BILLION Cerebras Deal Explained + Google AI Controversy | AI News in 5

    This week in AI and tech: Google removes medical AI overviews after controversy, Anthropic launches Claude for Healthcare, Slackbot becomes a full AI agent, OpenAI signs a $10 billion deal with Cerebras, and Trump announces 25% tariffs on AI chips. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 00:30 Story #1: Google Pulls Medical AI Overviews 04:15 Story #2: Anthropic Launches Claude for Healthcare 08:45 Story #3: Slackbot Becomes AI Agent 13:20 Story #4: OpenAI's $10B Cerebras Deal 18:00 Story #5: Trump's 25% AI Chip Tariff 22:30 Final Thoughts 📰 STORY BREAKDOWN 🔴 GOOGLE PULLS MEDICAL AI OVERVIEWS Following a Guardian investigation revealing misleading health advice, Google has removed AI Overviews from certain medical queries. The move raises questions about AI reliability in healthcare information and the challenges of deploying generative AI for health-related searches. 🏥 ANTHROPIC LAUNCHES CLAUDE FOR HEALTHCARE Anthropic announced Claude for Healthcare, targeting administrative burden reduction in medical settings. The specialized version of Claude aims to help with clinical documentation, patient communication, and workflow optimization while maintaining HIPAA compliance. 💬 SLACKBOT BECOMES AI AGENT Salesforce announces general availability of the new AI-powered Slackbot, transforming it from a simple bot into a personal AI agent for work. The upgraded Slackbot can handle complex tasks, answer questions using company knowledge, and automate workflows across Slack channels. 💻 OPENAI'S $10B CEREBRAS DEAL OpenAI partners with Cerebras Systems in a deal worth over $10 billion to leverage their wafer-scale AI chips. This massive partnership could make ChatGPT exponentially faster by utilizing Cerebras's revolutionary chip architecture, which houses millions of cores on a single wafer. 🇺🇸 TRUMP'S 25% AI CHIP TARIFF President Trump imposes 25% tariffs on certain advanced AI chip imports while simultaneously clearing the way for Nvidia H200 sales to China. The policy creates a complex landscape for semiconductor trade with significant implications for AI development and US-China tech relations. 📚 SOURCES & LINKS Story #1: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/05/google-ai-overviews-misleading-health-advice Story #2: https://www.anthropic.com/news/healthcare-life-sciences Story #3: https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/slackbot-personal-agent-work/ Story #4: https://openai.com/index/cerebras-partnership/ Story #5: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/14/trump-nvidia-h200-china-ai-chips.html 🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly AI and tech news coverage 💬 What story surprised you most? Comment below! #AI #TechNews #Google #OpenAI #Anthropic #Salesforce #Slack #Trump #Tariffs #ArtificialIntelligence #ChatGPT #Claude #MachineLearning #Technology #WeeklyNews

    5 min
  4. OpenAI Health + Alexa Web: 6 Stories | AI Weekly in 5

    JAN 15

    OpenAI Health + Alexa Web: 6 Stories | AI Weekly in 5

    OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health, Amazon takes Alexa+ to the web, and Google reinvents your inbox—6 game-changing AI updates for operators in under 5 minutes. 📰 THIS WEEK'S TOP STORIES • Plaud NotePin S: New $179 AI notetaker + Mac desktop app • Amazon Alexa+: Web experience now live at Alexa.com • UMG & NVIDIA: "Responsible AI" partnership for music discovery • OpenAI ChatGPT Health: Dedicated health space with medical record integration • Google Gmail AI Inbox: AI-generated summaries replace email lists • Plus: CES 2026 highlights from Las Vegas ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Intro 0:05 - Plaud NotePin S: AI notetaker goes desktop 1:09 - Amazon Alexa+: Leaving the living room for the web 2:23 - UMG & NVIDIA: AI music partnership 3:35 - OpenAI ChatGPT Health: Medical records meet AI 4:39 - Google Gmail AI Inbox: Your email, reimagined 5:40 - Wrap-up 🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES • Plaud NotePin S: https://www.plaud.ai • Amazon Alexa+: https://alexa.com • NVIDIA Music Flamingo: https://www.nvidia.com • OpenAI ChatGPT Health: https://chat.openai.com/health • Google Gmail AI Inbox: https://gmail.com 🎙️ THE AI REPORT PODCAST Weekly deep-dive conversations with AI operators building the future. Subscribe for full episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@the-AI-report-with-liam-lawson/featured 📬 STAY CONNECTED Newsletter: https://newsletter.theaireport.ai/subscribe LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/not-the-f1-driver-liam-lawson/ Enterprise Training: https://www.upscaile.com/ --- #AINews #CES2026 #OpenAI #AmazonAlexa #GoogleGmail #WeeklyAI #ArtificialIntelligence #AIOperators #ChatGPT #TechNews AI Weekly in 5 is a rapid news brief covering the most important AI developments for operators and professionals. Every week, get curated insights without information overload—just what matters for your work.

    6 min
  5. Eric Jorgenson: The 30-Year Lens (AI, Energy & Leverage in 2025)

    JAN 8

    Eric Jorgenson: The 30-Year Lens (AI, Energy & Leverage in 2025)

    How Eric Jorgenson Thinks 30 Years Ahead to Build Companies That Matter in the Age of AI Eric Jorgenson, CEO of Scribe Media and venture investor, reveals how thinking on a 20-30 year timeline fundamentally changes investment decisions, company building, and personal leverage in an AI-accelerated world. From investing in asteroid mining startups to understanding why most people get the AI revolution wrong, Eric breaks down how to build leverage, develop judgment, and position yourself for the civilization-level changes ahead. The conversation explores why short-term thinking creates mediocrity while long-term vision enables breakthrough innovation. Eric shares his framework for evaluating startups, explains why energy and consciousness are the real currencies of the future, and demonstrates how AI tools amplify leverage for those who understand fundamental skills. The discussion challenges conventional wisdom about education, productivity, and what it means to contribute meaningfully to human progress. Key Topics Covered: The 20-30 year investment framework and why most opportunities fail this filter Why Eric invested in an asteroid mining startup when others called it crazy How AI accelerates discovery in physics, biology, and material science beyond information work The widening gap between AI adopters and non-adopters in every industry Why judgment and taste matter more than technical skills in the AI era How to train the next generation when AI can do the execution work The difference between learning fundamental skills versus using AI as a crutch Applying leverage principles through delegation, automation, and recorded processes Why equal opportunity matters more than equal outcomes for civilization Viewing consciousness as humanity's core responsibility in the universe Episode Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction and Eric's 2025 operating lens 01:41 - The 20-30 year timeframe for investing and life decisions 03:30 - Asteroid mining investment thesis and long-term vision 06:26 - How Eric cultivated the long-term thinking mindset 10:22 - AI as a force multiplier across all technologies 13:54 - How the smartest people are adopting AI differently 17:06 - The thought experiment: training an intern for maximum impact 25:46 - The crisis in education and what students are missing 31:32 - How leverage has evolved and become more accessible 42:11 - Eric's highest leverage activities and what he should be doing more 46:23 - The divergent paths of resourceful versus passive people 50:36 - Why Eric does what he does and his view on consciousness About Eric Jorgenson: Eric Jorgenson is the CEO of Scribe Media, a publishing company that helps entrepreneurs and thought leaders write, publish, and market their books. He also runs a pre-seed and seed venture fund investing in long-term technology companies. Eric is best known as the author of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, a curated collection of Naval's wisdom on wealth and happiness that has reached millions of readers worldwide and been translated into dozens of languages. The book distills years of Naval's tweets, podcast appearances, and essays into a comprehensive guide on building wealth, finding happiness, and living a meaningful life. Eric's deep understanding of leverage and long-term thinking stems directly from his work synthesizing Naval's philosophy. About Scribe Media: Scribe Media is a publisher specializing in helping entrepreneurs, executives, and experts transform their knowledge into professionally published books. The company handles the complete book creation process from writing to publishing to marketing, enabling busy professionals to share their ideas without the traditional barriers of book publishing.

    1h 1m
  6. Shopify’s Sidekick Just Leveled Up: AI That Runs Your Store (Proactively)

    12/25/2025

    Shopify’s Sidekick Just Leveled Up: AI That Runs Your Store (Proactively)

    How Shopify Is Building The Future of AI Commerce with Andrew McNamaraShopify's Director of Applied ML, Andrew McNamara, reveals how the new Sidekick Pulse and SimGym features are revolutionizing e-commerce for merchants of all sizes. With 15 years of experience building AI assistants—dating back to pre-Siri days—Andrew breaks down how Shopify is using "LLM as a judge" to ensure quality and why "vibe entrepreneurship" is the future of business.Andrew explains how Sidekick has evolved from a simple chatbot into a proactive "AI Co-founder" that can democratize data for small business owners. He shares behind-the-scenes details on Sidekick Pulse, which performs deep research to surface actionable insights (like finding shipping errors that cost sales), and Simgym, a powerful simulator that uses AI shoppers to A/B test store changes before they go live.We also dive into the technical side of how Shopify evaluates these models using statistical rigor and why the ability for merchants to build admin apps with a single prompt is a game-changer for productivity.---Topics Covered- The 15-year evolution of AI assistants from rule-based systems to LLMs- How Sidekick Pulse proactively finds and fixes business-critical errors- Simgym: Using AI shoppers to simulate A/B tests without risking live traffic- The "LLM as a Judge" framework Shopify uses for product quality control- "Vibe Entrepreneurship" and reducing technical barriers for founders- Building custom Admin Apps in seconds using natural language prompts- Real-world examples from Andrew's own maple syrup store- The difference between general chatbots (Copilot) and specialized agents (Sidekick)- How "App Gen" allows merchants to create custom workflows instantlyEpisode Timestamps00:03 - Introduction to Andrew McNamara and his 15-year history with AI01:01 - Comparing early AI assistants (BlackBerry/Samsung) to modern LLMs06:45 - How Sidekick democratizes data analytics for small merchants11:25 - Deep Dive: Sidekick Pulse and proactive business research15:43 - Using "LLM as a Judge" to replace human evaluation at scale18:41 - Generating custom Admin Apps with a single prompt ("App Gen")21:58 - Andrew's personal experience running a Shopify store25:31 - The concept of "Vibe Entrepreneurship" as a North Star26:30 - Using AI to edit online store themes and layouts in real-time37:39 - Simgym: Simulating buyer behavior to predict experiment results42:06 - Why simulation is critical for both small and large enterprise merchants48:04 - The culture of technical depth and passion at Shopify51:34 - Why Andrew has dedicated his entire career to building assistants---## About Andrew McNamaraAndrew McNamara is the Director of Applied Machine Learning at Shopify, where he leads the development of Sidekick and other intelligent merchant features. Previously the Director of the Montreal Research Lab at Microsoft and a key contributor to Bing Chat (Copilot), Andrew has over 15 years of experience building and deploying AI assistants at scale.Shopify is the leading global commerce company, providing trusted tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business of any size. It powers millions of businesses in more than 175 countries and offers a unified platform for physical and digital commerce.Resources Mentioned- Shopify Sidekick (AI Commerce Assistant)- Sidekick Pulse (Proactive Research Agent)- Simgym (AI Shopper Simulator)- Microsoft Copilot & Bing Chat- "LLM as a Judge" Evaluation Framework---Partner Links- Book Enterprise Training — https://www.upscaile.com/- Subscribe to our free newsletter — https://www.theaireport.ai/subscribe-theaireport-youtube

    54 min
  7. The $30M AI Sales Startup Replacing 15 GTM Tools Overnight | Jason Eubanks, Aurasell

    12/18/2025

    The $30M AI Sales Startup Replacing 15 GTM Tools Overnight | Jason Eubanks, Aurasell

    Jason Eubanks on Building Oracel: Raising $30M in 28 Hours to Disrupt the $236B Go-To-Market Tooling Market with AI-Native Sales AutomationJason Eubanks, CEO and Co-founder of Oracel, discusses how the company raised $30 million in just 28 hours—oversubscribed at $40 million—by solving a critical problem in the go-to-market industry. With a $236 billion market opportunity and only a "desert of innovation" since the late 1990s, Aurasell is building an AI-native platform to intelligently automate sales workflows and consolidate the 12-15 fragmented tools that plague modern sales teams. Jason shares how his experience scaling revenue from $1M to $100M+ across five startups—including Twilio (IPO), Meraki (acquired by Cisco for $1.2B), and Harness—directly informed the founding vision of AurasellEpisode Timestamps- 00:00 - Introduction and Jason Eubanks joins the podcast- 00:26 - Why Oracel raised $30M in 28 hours despite initial $40M oversubscription- 01:24 - The "desert of innovation" in go-to-market tooling since the late 90s- 01:42 - History of CRM evolution from mainframe to cloud to niche products- 03:12 - Founding vision: One intelligent GTM sales platform to replace them all- 03:39 - How pain as a CRO across five startups led to Oracel's creation- 05:58 - The X-Ray productivity assessment revealing tool sprawl inefficiencies- 07:59 - Sellers spending 28% of time selling and 70% on manual tasks- 09:03 - First principles AI-native approach with whiteboards in the kitchen- 09:29 - Five key personas: SDR, seller, IC manager, executive, ops team- 12:18 - AI-native architecture: multimodal interface, lakehouse, and 10,000 agents- 14:39 - Unified data model importance for contextualized AI automation- 15:45 - Current hat wearing: product focus and 50% building go-to-market engine- 18:43 - Platform features and customer experience design philosophy- 19:05 - Three wow moments per persona as success metric- 20:39 - Onboarding experience: automatic territory building and customer choice- 21:40 - 10,000 agents discovering ICP, personas, and competitors automatically- 24:07 - Automated account research and value hypothesis creation- 25:34 - Outbound prospecting content generation with propensity scoring- 26:32 - Outbound sequencer integration and email platform plugins- 27:00 - AI voice dialer coming in three weeks with closed-loop automation- 28:47 - What's missing: deep marketing and customer success automation- 30:49 - Ideal customer profiles: startups and enterprises with tool sprawl- 31:30 - Solution for heavily customized legacy systems coming in December- 34:24 - Dynamic change detection layer solving technical debt- 36:23 - Jason's career arc from BMC Software through Harness- 37:09 - Why: helping go-to-market operators solve problems he experienced- 39:55 - Meraki's disruptive cloud-managed network architecture- 41:51 - Three constants: great product builders, important problems, massive markets- 43:22 - Intrinsic motivation as foundation for hiring and culture- 45:31 - Hiring from first job onward to assess character and values- 51:24 - Understanding why someone wanted to work at 14 years old- 53:21 - Importance of formative years for work ethic and intelligence- 55:46 - AI adoption culture: using own product and building agents internally- 56:36 - All employees use AI daily across PMs, engineers, and operations- 59:25 - Ask AI features: analytics dashboards, data enrichment, natural language-

    1h 7m
5
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

We’re the team behind The AI Report — the #1 AI newsletter for 400,000+ business leaders at Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and more. Each week, we cut through the noise with expert conversations on how AI is transforming business. Expect deep dives into real-world use cases, practical strategies for leaders, and insights you won’t find anywhere else. If you want to understand AI in a way that drives results for your team, company, and career — you’re in the right place. 👉 Subscribe now and join 400,000+ professionals mastering AI in business. theaireport.ai/subscribe-theaireport-spotify

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