Early Adoptr

Early Adoptr

AI is moving fast. Most of the advice out there is written for developers, not for people actually running businesses. Early Adoptr is for founders and small business owners who want to use AI to get more done without needing a technical co-founder to explain it first. Each week, Jess and Kyle cut through the noise, test the tools, and show you what is actually worth your time. Practical, plain-English, and free of the hype. Whether you're just getting started with AI or you're already using tools like ChatGPT and want to go deeper, Early Adoptr meets you where you are. From automation workflows that save you hours every week, to the latest AI tools for marketing, operations, and customer service, we cover what actually works in the real world, not just in theory. Think of it as having two savvy friends who spend their weeks testing every new AI tool so you don't have to. Jess and Kyle bring together hands-on experience from the worlds of entrepreneurship, marketing, and technology to help you cut through the hype and find the innovations that move the needle for your business. No jargon. No gatekeeping. Just actionable advice for entrepreneurs who want to stay ahead of the curve and make AI their unfair advantage. New episodes every week. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 2d ago

    Women and AI: What's Really Behind the Adoption Gap (w/ Nadia Koski and Stefanie Beach)

    We've all seen the stats. Women are adopting AI tools at a 25% lower rate than men. 33% of men use AI daily at work versus 27% of women. Men are 23% more likely to be encouraged by their managers to try it, and 27% more likely to be praised when they do. Most of the conversation about women's lower AI adoption rates focuses on what women need to do differently. Instead, we're looking at the conditions that produced the gap in the first place, and why closing it matters far more than just productivity. This week on Early Adoptr, Kyle is away so Jess is joined by Nadia Koski, digital growth expert at The Marketeer Group, and Stefanie Beach, founder and CEO of The Marketeer Group, to get into what's actually driving the adoption gap and what women founders and small business owners can do about it. Because when women use AI tools less, that eventually shapes what the tools look like. It costs the economy. And it grows over time. We'll work through the stats, the barriers, and the guilt that comes with using AI at work. We also get into how to start without the overwhelm, the mental load, and why the caution women tend to bring to AI turns out to be an asset. If you're going to Cannes, make sure to check out the sessions that Nadia and Stefanie are running: Cannesversations Series - LIVE FROM CANNES YouTube Channel or LinkedIn for contextFor Cannes 2026 -  Cannesversations Interest Form  The Digital Marketeer podcast: Follow Nadia: Nadia Koski on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadiakoskiStill Human: Real Talk in the Age of AI Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6xCZdhBOerROCuLatJoNay?si=FeYj2JidTtiA9xsREd9Ftg Follow Stefanie: Stefanie Beach on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanieg/Stefanie@TheMarketeerGroup.comwww.themarketeergroup.com  Use these links for a discount on the tools we recommend (and it supports the pod!) Wispr Flow - AI-powered voice dictation that works across every app on your desktop - https://ref.wisprflow.ai/early-adoptr Granola - The best AI meeting notes! New users get 100% off for their first month - https://www.granola.ai?via=early-adoptr What You'll Learn: Why corporate AI challenges often exclude women without meaning toWhy finishing a project faster with AI does not mean charging less for it, and why women are more likely to think it doesWhat a team leader needs to have in place before running internal AI training, and why protected experimentation time mattersWhy more women in their 40s are leaving corporate life for entrepreneurship, and what the AI revolution has to do with it Timestamps: 00:00 Where's Kyle + Women & AI  03:23 Introductions: Nadia & Stefanie 08:19 The Data on Women and AI Adoption 10:55 How Women in Tech Engage with AI Differently 12:02 The Perfectionism Problem 15:36 How to Give Your Team a Safe Space to Try AI 19:00 How to Actually Educate Yourself on AI 21:13 Who Really Has Time to Learn AI 24:31 Why the Founders Furthest Ahead on AI Have a Support Network at Home 25:53 Why the AI Revolution Is Pushing More Women Into Entrepreneurship 28:23 The Unpaid Work Research That Explains the Women's AI Adoption Gap 29:46 Why Using AI to Brainstorm and Polish Your Work Is Not a Shortcut 31:27 Fighting the Guilt and Redistributing the Mental Load as a Female Founder 33:23 The Glass Cliff: Why Women Face Higher Stakes When AI Goes Wrong 36:22 Why Doing Work Faster with AI Doesn't Mean You Should Charge Less 38:20 What Workplaces Can Do to Give Women Equal Access to AI Learning 42:45 Is Being Cautious About AI Actually a Business Advantage? 47:24 Why Women Questioning AI Accuracy Is Good for Business 47:39 Don't Be Afraid to Start: Final Advice for Women Using AI Resources: Harvard Business School studyLean In studyWhy women aren't ‘missing’ the AI trainMalin Frithiofsson (Daya Ventures)Maya Betron (PowHer Data)Sinead Bovell Get in Touch: Email: hello@earlyadoptr.ai TikTok / Instagram / YouTube: @early_adoptr LinkedIn Get in touch with Early Adoptr: hello@earlyadoptr.ai Follow Us on Socials & Resources: IG: https://instagram.com/early_adoptr TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@early_adoptr YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@early_adoptr Substack: https://substack.com/@earlyadoptrpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    55 min

  2. Jun 3

    Claude for Small Business: What Is It and Is It Worth It?

    Running a smaller business or start up means you're also doing payroll. And chasing invoices. And trying to figure out if last month closed in the black, while also building a proposal that's due tomorrow and following up with the three leads who went quiet last week. Not to mention marketing! The admin never stops, and you're always the one doing everything. Anthropic's new Claude for Small Business package doesn't fix that, but it does something almost more useful. It runs your most time-consuming jobs directlly in the tools you're already paying for like, QuickBooks, HubSpot, PayPal, Canva, and more. In this episode, Jess and Kyle get into what Claude for Small Business actually includes, how the workflows and skills fit together, what it looks like in practice, and what you need to know before you connect anything. If you've listened to our Cowork, Skills and MCP episodes, this is where those pieces click into place. They also give an update on last week's jobs episode, which already has multiple updates in the week since it was published. Full list of workflows & skills: https://claude.com/plugins/small-business The setup command: /smb-onboard  Tools we use: Wispr Flow - AI-powered voice dictation that works across every app on your desktop - https://ref.wisprflow.ai/early-adoptr Granola - The best AI meeting notes! New users get 100% off for their first month - https://www.granola.ai?via=early-adoptr What You'll Learn Why Claude for Small Business isn't just another AI chatbot layerWhat the 15 pre-built workflows are and what they actually doThe difference between a workflow (the full job you trigger) and a skill (the reusable technique running underneath it)How the approval model worksThe permissions issue to be aware ofHow to work out whether this is the right tool for you right now Related Episodes: Claude Skills: https://www.earlyadoptr.ai/episodes/claude-skills-explained-how-to-stop-repeating-yourself-in-every-sessionModel Context Protocol (MCP): https://www.earlyadoptr.ai/episodes/stop-switching-tabs-how-to-connect-your-ai-to-your-business-tools-safely-using-model-context-protocol-mcpClaude Co-Work: https://www.earlyadoptr.ai/episodes/claude-cowork-explained-can-ai-really-organize-your-files-and-data Reference material: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-for-small-business https://www.forbes.com/sites/jodiecook/2026/05/24/run-your-whole-business-from-one-tab-with-claudes-new-update/ https://medium.com/@sebuzdugan/how-to-use-claude-to-automate-your-small-business-in-a-weekend-15c749aac5e0 https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/05/26/1137855/a-reality-check-on-the-ai-jobs-hysteria/https://fortune.com/2026/05/26/sam-altman-dario-amodei-walking-back-ai-jobs-apocalypse-prophecies-ipo/https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/05/21/governor-newsom-signs-first-of-its-kind-executive-order-to-prepare-workers-and-businesses-for-potential-ai-disruption/https://fortune.com/2026/05/03/chinese-court-layoffs-workers-ai-replacement-labor-market/ Get in Touch: Email: hello@earlyadoptr.ai TikTok: @early_adoptr Instagram: @early_adoptr YouTube: @early_adoptr LinkedIn: Timestamps: 00:00 What We've been Up To 05:22 What Is Claude for Small Business? 07:11 Understanding Connectors and Workflows 09:33 Claude's Pre-Built Workflows and Skills: What's Included 15:35 Why the Approval Step Is So Important 17:52 Data Security: What Claude Can and Cannot See 19:43 Understanding Permissions and Access Levels 21:50 Row-Level Access and How Permissions Actually Work 23:23 Garbage In, Garbage Out: Why Data Quality Matters 25:19 How to Set Up Claude for Small Business (Step by Step) 31:02 Pros and Cons of Claude for Small Business 33:20 Cost Considerations for Small Businesses 35:35 The Approval Mechanic: Smart Product Design or Speed Bump? 36:31 How This Differs from ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot 37:25 Data Retention and Privacy: What You Need to Know 43:33 Key Takeaways and How to Get Started with Claude for Small Business 46:15 AI News: More Jobs News from Last Week 56:25 Fifteen Street Get in touch with Early Adoptr: hello@earlyadoptr.ai Follow Us on Socials & Resources: IG: https://instagram.com/early_adoptr TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@early_adoptr YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@early_adoptr Substack: https://substack.com/@earlyadoptrpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    56 min

  3. May 27

    Is AI Really Taking Jobs? What's Going on Behind the Headlines

    AI layoffs are dominating the news, but the story being told isn't the full story. In this episode, Jess and Kyle break down what's really driving the cuts, and what it means for your job and your business. When Meta announced 8,000 job cuts, the coverage landed the same way it always does: AI is replacing people, the future is here. But the numbers don't support that story. Meta's savings from the cuts amount to roughly three billion dollars. Their AI infrastructure spend this year runs to multiples of that. So what's actually going on? In this episode, Jess and Kyle work through the real economics behind the layoff headlines, from the infrastructure bets driving the cuts, to the compute costs that are now exceeding what companies spend on their own people, to the quietly alarming data on what's happening to early-career workers. They also cover the Musk v. Altman verdict, what it means for OpenAI's upcoming IPO, and why Anthropic keeps coming out looking like the adult in the room. The episode closes with practical guidance on what founders, team leaders, and employees can actually do right now, including why waiting to feel ready is the worst strategy available. What You'll Learn: Why Meta's 8,000 job cuts are better understood as a budget-clearing exerciseWhat AI washing is and how to spot it in a layoff announcementWhy infrastructure spending at Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft is projected to exceed total payroll costs by $50 billion this yearWhat MIT research actually found when it tested whether AI is economically viable compared to keeping humans in the roleWhy 43% of CEOs plan to reduce junior roles over the next two yearsWhy IBM's contrarian bet on junior hiring may look very smart in ten yearsWhy smaller businesses are better placed than large firms to make the same moveWhat AI fluency actually means in practice Tools we use and recommend: We only recommend tools we actually use. Both links below are affiliate links — if you sign up, it costs you nothing extra and helps support the show. Wispr Flow — AI-powered voice dictation that works across every app on your desktop - https://ref.wisprflow.ai/early-adoptr Granola — The best AI meeting notes! New users get 100% off for their first month. https://www.granola.ai?via=early-adoptr Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction and Personal Updates 04:58 Why the AI Layoff Headlines Don't Tell the Whole Story 08:58 When Companies Cut Staff to Fund AI and Call It Efficiency 18:16 How Meta Extracted Its Employees' Knowledge Before Letting Them Go 22:40 Why the Productivity Gains Don't Justify the Scale of the Cuts 28:12 When Running AI Costs More Than Paying Your Team 29:58 MIT Research: AI Is Only the Cheaper Option in 23% of Cases 32:14 The Disconnect in AI Implementation 33:52 Why Junior Roles Are Being Cut First 35:44 The Talent Pipeline Problem Nobody Is Planning For 38:28 Redesigning Early-Career Roles Instead of Cutting Them 40:27 The Skills Gap in Education 42:29 Key Takeaways Resources: https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/technology/ai-layoffs-transformation-scapegoathttps://www.linkedin.com/news/story/ceos-plan-to-reduce-junior-roles-8108505/https://www.forbes.com/sites/danrunkevicius/2026/05/20/meta-layoffs-signal-ai-bill-is-coming-due/https://fortune.com/2026/03/31/marc-andreessen-ai-layoffs-silver-bullet-excuse-overhiring/https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/openai-co-founder-andrej-karpathy-joins-anthropics-pre-training-team/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewpyv79pw1ohttps://www.deloitte.com/us/en/what-we-do/capabilities/applied-artificial-intelligence/content/state-of-ai-in-the-enterprise.htmlhttps://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2026/jpmorgan-prioritizing-ai-hires-over-bankers/https://fortune.com/2026/05/22/microsoft-ai-cost-problem-early%20adoptr%20-agents/www.moneycontrol.com/technology/mark-zukerberg-s-leaked-viral-audio-clip-suggest-meta-is-tracking-employees-to-train-ai-article-13924715.htmlGet in touch with Early Adoptr: hello@earlyadoptr.ai Follow Us on Socials & Resources: IG: https://instagram.com/early_adoptr TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@early_adoptr YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@early_adoptr Substack: https://substack.com/@earlyadoptrpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    53 min

  4. May 20

    Happy Birthday to Us: The AI Landscape Changed Completely in a Year, Here's What You Missed

    A year in AI doesn't feel like a normal year, it feels like about five. In honour of Early Adoptr's first anniversary,  we thought it was worth stopping to take stock of what's changed in the last year. When we launched Early Adoptr, there was a pretty clear hierarchy, with ChatGPT was at the top, everyone else was catching up, and agents were something people talked about at conferences without anyone being entirely sure what they meant. Twelve months later, almost none of that is still true. In this episode, we take a proper look back at what actually changed. From the model landscape and the slow collapse of the "ChatGPT is the Google of AI" era, to reasoning becoming the baseline rather than the premium tier, to context windows going from a genuine operational headache to essentially a non-issue, the foundations shifted faster than most businesses could keep up with. We also get into what happened with agents once MCP — Model Context Protocol — gave them a shared language to work with, why agentic commerce looks completely different to how we predicted it would, what Answer Engine Optimisation means for any business that needs to be found online, and what has changed with the security picture once agents got access to real tools. We close out with a look ahead at what's actually worth paying attention to: outcome-based pricing, orchestrated multi-agent systems reaching smaller businesses, and what we're calling agent debt, the accumulating consequences of workflows that were built in a hurry and haven't been stress-tested yet. Thanks for being with us for the last year, and here's to the next 12 months! What You'll Learn Why reasoning models went from a premium add-on to the default , and what that shift enabled for agents and complex workflowsHow context windows grew from a operational constraint to a non-issue, and what that unlocks for businesses working with large volumes of documents, contracts, or correspondenceWhy smaller, more focused AI tools regularly outperform general-purpose models on the tasks they're built for, and what that means for how you structure your own stackWhat MCP actually solved — and why it's the reason agents went from demo-quality to deployable for non-technical teamsWhat the two-tier internet looks like in practice and why it mattersWhy ChatGPT's instant checkout failed commercially and what it tells us about how brands are learning to use AI for discoveryWhat AEO — Answer Engine Optimisation — means for any business that needs to be found onlineHow the security risk picture changed once agents got real access to real tools via MCPWhat agent debt isWhat outcome-based pricing means Resources and Links All previous episodes of Early Adoptr can be found here or via your podcast player of choice: https://shows.acast.com/early-adoptr Get in Touch: hello@earlyadoptr.ai TikTok: @early_adoptr Instagram: @early_adoptr YouTube: @early_adoptr Timestamps: 00:00 What We've Been Up to This Week 04:14 One Year of Early Adoptr: What We Got Right (and Wrong) 06:27 The Model Landscape: Why ChatGPT Lost the Top Spot 11:01 AI Pricing Is Changing — and Your Bill Is Going Up 16:20 Context Windows: From Headache to Non-Issue 20:03 When Smaller Is Better: The Case for Specialist AI Tools 20:35 Use Cases for Small Language Models 22:53 gents: From Conference Buzzword to Actually Useful 29:02 What MCP Did for the Agent Ecosystem 31:29 Agentic Commerce and the Two-Tier Internet 37:55 How Brands Are Using AI for Discovery Without Losing the Customer 39:05 The Evolving Landscape of AI Security 44:17 The Shift in AI Risks and Management 48:26 From Subscriptions to Outcome-Based Pricing 50:22 AI Regulation, Memory, and the GDPR Question Nobody's Asking Yet 52:20 The Agent Debt Problem 56:12 Where Does AI Go From Here? Get in touch with Early Adoptr: hello@earlyadoptr.ai Follow Us on Socials & Resources: IG: https://instagram.com/early_adoptr TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@early_adoptr YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@early_adoptr Substack: https://substack.com/@earlyadoptrpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    58 min

  5. May 13

    What Should You Actually Be Asking About AI?

    Most people start their AI journey by asking how to save time. That is not a wrong question — but Anthropic's latest research, based on open-ended interviews with over 81,000 Claude users across 159 countries, suggests it may not be the most important one. The most commonly reported productivity gain in the study was not speed. It was scope. Not doing existing work faster, but doing things that you simply couldn't before, because of budget, skills, or just the assumption that certain capabilities belonged to someone else. This episode is about the difference between saving time with the boring middle and asking what is now possible that wasn't before, and why that second question is where the real opportunity lies. What You'll Learn Why the Anthropic study's methodology is unusualThe difference between efficiency gains and capability gainsHow to identify your "boring middle" and what to do once you have sorted itHow to prevent your freed-up time from get absorbed back into more of the sameHow a delivery driver and landscape gardener from the illustrate capability gainsWhat the Pocket OS incident reveals about AI agent permissions, and the simple rule that would have prevented it Try GranolaIf you've ever sat in a meeting, taken what felt like decent notes, and then opened them afterwards and they didn't capture anything, Granola is the tool for you. It runs in the background, captures everything, and turns your notes into something you can actually use. Both Jess and Kyle use it, it plays really nicely with Claude, and it is one of our most highly recommended tools New users get 100% off their first month using our link: granola.ai?via=early-adoptr Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction and Travel Plans 01:37 About the Anthropic Research 03:37 How the Study Actually Worked 07:36 The Headline Productivity Stat 10:35 The Four Types of Productivity Gain from AI 11:54 What the Data Says About Job Displacement 13:32 The Efficiency Game: What It Gets You and What It Misses 16:45 Why Automating the Wrong Things Makes You Faster at the Wrong Things 21:27 The Boring Middle: Why Consistency Is the Point 25:00 Capability Gains: Doing Things That Were Previously Off the Table 28:54 The Wrong Question: Efficiency vs. Capability 31:39 How Efficiency and Capability Feed Into Each Other 35:09 Practical Takeaways: What to Try This Week 38:09 AI News of the Week: Lessons from Pocket OS Incident Resources: What 81,000 people told us about the economics of AI: https://www.anthropic.com/research/81k-economics https://www.linkedin.com/posts/oguzaliacar_anthropic-just-published-findings-from-80000-activity-7440462065959366657-IqJj/ https://medium.com/activated-thinker/an-ai-interviewed-81-000-people-what-it-discovered-exposes-our-deepest-insecurities-c231c7d2f77e https://www.reddit.com/r/AI_Agents/comments/1ssz7v3/anthropic_surveyed_81000_claude_users_about_ais/ Get in Touch: hello@earlyadoptr.ai TikTok: @early_adoptr Instagram: @early_adoptr YouTube: @early_adoptr What 81,000 people told us about the economics of AI: https://www.anthropic.com/research/81k-economics https://www.linkedin.com/posts/oguzaliacar_anthropic-just-published-findings-from-80000-activity-7440462065959366657-IqJj/ https://medium.com/activated-thinker/an-ai-interviewed-81-000-people-what-it-discovered-exposes-our-deepest-insecurities-c231c7d2f77e https://www.reddit.com/r/AI_Agents/comments/1ssz7v3/anthropic_surveyed_81000_claude_users_about_ais/Get in touch with Early Adoptr: hello@earlyadoptr.ai Follow Us on Socials & Resources: IG: https://instagram.com/early_adoptr TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@early_adoptr YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@early_adoptr Substack: https://substack.com/@earlyadoptrpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    47 min

  6. May 6

    What It Really Takes to Move Your Team Forward With AI (w/ Rob Webster)

    This is the second part of our interview with Rob Webster, who has spent over 20 years in media and marketing, ran data and technology at MediaCom for some of the world's biggest brands, built and sold a MarTech and AdTech consultancy, and now works with enterprise businesses on how they actually adopt AI. In this episode, Jess and Kyle talk to Rob about everything from navigating the messy middle to what the future of work for juniors, where AI should play in your business, what it means for how you hire and develop people, why so many organisations are stuck between experimenting and scaling, and what it actually takes to move forward. We also cover the OpenAI vs Elon Musk trial, and how South Africa's AI Policy offers a useful reminder to always check your citations. What You'll Learn How to identify your best AI use cases by starting with outcomes rather than tasksWhy AI multiplies what you're doingHow junior employees can move faster and take on more accountability earlier when they have AI as a working layerHow smaller businesses are now better placed to train entry-level hires than they've ever been.Why real-world wisdom is the skill that can never be replaced.What the messy middle of AI adoption looks like in practice and why most organisations are stuck in itHow leaders can model AI adoption in a way that actually moves teams forward Try GranolaIf you've ever sat in a meeting, taken what felt like decent notes, and then opened them afterwards and they didn't capture anything, Granola is the tool for you. It runs in the background, captures everything, and turns your notes into something you can actually use. Both Jess and Kyle use it, it plays really nicely with Claude, and it is one of our most highly recommended tools New users get 100% off their first month using our link: granola.ai?via=early-adoptr Timestamps: 00:00 Intro & What We've Been Up To 04:09 The 10,000 Foot View: Why You Should Start Broad Before Picking an AI Use Case 10:42 What AI Means for Hiring and Training Junior Employees 14:55 Why Smaller Businesses Can Now Compete on Talent Development 16:20 Human in the Loop: Why Oversight Still Matters 19:35 The Messy Middle: Why Most Businesses Get Stuck Between Testing and Scaling 23:17 How Leaders Can Drive AI Adoption 34:02 AI News of the Week: OpenAI vs Elon Musk 34:31 AI Gone Wrong: South Africa's AI Policy Debacle 37:55 Wrapping Up for the Week Resources: Rob Webster - https://www.linkedin.com/in/digitalstrategyleader/ TAU Marketing Solutions - https://taums.ai/ AI Agents in Media Planning and Buying: https://taums.ai/ai-agents-in-media-planning-and-buying/Judging the Coming Wave of Agentic Adtech: https://taums.ai/judging-the-coming-wave-of-agentic-adtech/Mastering the Messy Middle: https://taums.ai/mastering-the-messy-middle-with-a-balanced-approach-to-ai-implementation/10 Predictions for Marketing and AI in 2026 (Futureweek): https://futureweek.com/rob-webster-10-predictions-for-marketing-and-ai-in-2026/The AI Land Grab interview (AdWorldNews): https://www.adworldnews.com/news/robert-webster-tau-marketing-ai-land-grab Get in Touchhello@earlyadoptr.ai TikTok: @early_adoptr Instagram: @early_adoptr YouTube: @early_adoptr Get in touch with Early Adoptr: hello@earlyadoptr.ai Follow Us on Socials & Resources: IG: https://instagram.com/early_adoptr TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@early_adoptr YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@early_adoptr Substack: https://substack.com/@earlyadoptrpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    40 min

  7. Apr 29

    Stop Building AI Agents the Hard Way: Lessons from 25 Years in AI (w/ Rob Webster)

    It's here! The culmination of our series on agents, and if you've ever wondered how to make the most of the AI agents in your business (without a huge budget or a team of developers), this is the episode for you. This week on Early Adoptr, we are joined by Rob Webster, who has spent 25 years working at the intersection of data, machine learning, and marketing, including working on data and technology for brands like Dell, Tesco, and Coca-Cola. He now runs Tau Marketing Solutions, where he helps businesses adopt AI and build agents to solve real marketing problems. In this episode he joins Jess and Kyle and shares everything he has learned about making agents that actually work. From the "Fisher Price Agent" to building a daily action plan, the four components every working agent needs and why most agents fail, this episode is a goldmine of tips from years of experience. We also cover a major deal between SpaceX and Cursor, and what it tells us about where the real competition in AI is playing out right now. What You'll Learn The two-prompt method Rob uses to turn a vague goal into a concrete daily action planThe four components every working agent needs and the reason most agent setups fail to produce useful outputWhy the most valuable skill in AI right now has nothing to do with technology, and how anyone can develop itWhat human-in-the-loop looks like as a working habit rather than a safety conceptHow to start with a "Fisher Price Agent"Rob's tips for getting unstuck when you hit a wall Try GranolaIf you've ever sat in a meeting, taken what felt like decent notes, and then opened them afterwards and they didn't capture anything, Granola is the tool for you. It runs in the background, captures everything, and turns your notes into something you can actually use. Both Jess and Kyle use it, it plays really nicely with Claude, and it is one of our most highly recommended tools New users get 100% off their first month using our link: granola.ai?via=early-adoptr Timestamps: 00:00 What We've Been Up to This Week 03:16 Interview with Robert Webster 05:07 AI News: SpaceX and Cursor Deal 05:47 Meet Rob Webster 10:51 The Two-Prompt Method: Going from Vague Goal to Concrete Plan 13:28 The Four Components Every Working Agent Needs 18:14 Why Knowing What Good Looks Like Is the Real Skill 20:26 Human-in-the-Loop in Practice 26:20 Building a Co-CEO Agent: From Fisher Price to Advanced 33:01 Where to Start If You Are Not Technical 37:42 Takeaways 40:07 AI News of the Week: SpaceX & Cursor Resources: Rob Webster - https://www.linkedin.com/in/digitalstrategyleader/ TAU Marketing Solutions - https://taums.ai/ AI Agents in Media Planning and Buying: https://taums.ai/ai-agents-in-media-planning-and-buying/Judging the Coming Wave of Agentic Adtech: https://taums.ai/judging-the-coming-wave-of-agentic-adtech/Mastering the Messy Middle: https://taums.ai/mastering-the-messy-middle-with-a-balanced-approach-to-ai-implementation/10 Predictions for Marketing and AI in 2026 (Futureweek): https://futureweek.com/rob-webster-10-predictions-for-marketing-and-ai-in-2026/The AI Land Grab interview (AdWorldNews): https://www.adworldnews.com/news/robert-webster-tau-marketing-ai-land-grab Get in Touchhello@earlyadoptr.ai TikTok: @early_adoptr Instagram: @early_adoptr YouTube: @early_adoptr Get in touch with Early Adoptr: hello@earlyadoptr.ai Follow Us on Socials & Resources: IG: https://instagram.com/early_adoptr TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@early_adoptr YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@early_adoptr Substack: https://substack.com/@earlyadoptrpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    52 min

  8. Apr 22

    AI Agents Explained Through One Real Business Use Case

    A new client signs...congrats, you're excited! And then the onboarding begins process with all the tedious tasks: folder creation, the welcome email, the kickoff scheduling, the project setup, the intake form you'll need to chase twice. None of it is difficult, all of it takes time, and it always seems to happen at the exact moment you're least available to do it well. This week on Early Adoptr, we walk one real, familiar business process through every single rung of the Ladder of Autonomy, from fully manual through to fully autonomous, using real examples at each stage. By the end, you'll know what each level actually looks like in practice, which rung your current setup sits on, and what a realistic next step looks like for your business. This is episode three in Early Adoptr's ongoing series on AI agents. If you haven't listened to our previous episodes (links below), it's worth starting there. What is an AI Agent: https://shows.acast.com/early-adoptr/episodes/what-is-an-ai-agent-a-plain-english-guide-for-business-owner AI Agent Frameworks Explained: https://shows.acast.com/early-adoptr/episodes/ai-agent-frameworks-explained-the-five-things-every-agent-sy What You'll Learn How to tell which steps in your workflow genuinely benefit from AI and which ones are better handled by a simple automationWhat it actually means to add an AI agent to a business workflow, and how that differs from using a chat tool like Claude or ChatGPTHow AI agents become more capable and more autonomous at each level — and what that progression looks like applied to a single, familiar business processWhy keeping a human in the loop isn't just a safety measure, and how the way you structure that oversight changes as your setup becomes more sophisticatedWhat the real security and risk considerations are when AI starts taking actions on your behalf, with practical guidance on how to approach permissions and accessWhy the most advanced level of AI autonomy is worth understanding and what goes wrong for businesses that skip the basics Try GranolaIf you've ever sat in a meeting, taken what felt like decent notes, and then opened them afterwards and they didn't capture anything, Granola is the tool for you. It runs in the background, captures everything, and turns your notes into something you can actually use. Both Jess and Kyle use it, it plays really nicely with Claude, and it is one of our most highly recommended tools New users get 100% off their first month using our link: granola.ai?via=early-adoptr Timestamps: 00:00 What We've Been Up to This Week 03:46 Exploring Client Onboarding and Automation 07:27 The Ladder of Autonomy: A Quick Recap 13:11 Before You Start: Why Workflow Mapping Comes First 14:55 Rung One: Basic Automation and Where It Falls Apart 20:32 Rung Two: Adding AI Into Your Onboarding Workflow 28:41 Rung Three: Handing the Agent a Goal, Not a Task 39:19 Rung Four: Full Autonomy and What Can Go Wrong 47:08 Your Action Plan: How to Start Without Overcomplicating It 51:57 AI News of the Week: Anthropic Launches Claude Design & Allbirds AI Pivot Follow Us: Email: hello@earlyadoptr.ai LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/early-adoptr/ TikTok: @early_adoptr Instagram: @early_adoptr YouTube: @early_adoptr Resources: https://www.reddit.com/r/AI_Agents/comments/1nv3sd4/case_study_client_onboarding_issue_how_i_fixed_it/https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-agentic-ai-can-re-define-customer-onboarding-product-upadhye-7ikje/https://www.mindstudio.ai/blog/ai-powered-client-onboarding-tools-workflowshttps://churnzero.com/blog/customer-onboarding-with-ai/ https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/17/anthropic-launches-claude-design-a-new-product-for-creating-quick-visuals/ https://slate.com/technology/2026/04/ai-allbirds-pivot-silicon-valley.htmlGet in touch with Early Adoptr: hello@earlyadoptr.ai Follow Us on Socials & Resources: IG: https://instagram.com/early_adoptr TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@early_adoptr YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@early_adoptr Substack: https://substack.com/@earlyadoptrpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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About

AI is moving fast. Most of the advice out there is written for developers, not for people actually running businesses. Early Adoptr is for founders and small business owners who want to use AI to get more done without needing a technical co-founder to explain it first. Each week, Jess and Kyle cut through the noise, test the tools, and show you what is actually worth your time. Practical, plain-English, and free of the hype. Whether you're just getting started with AI or you're already using tools like ChatGPT and want to go deeper, Early Adoptr meets you where you are. From automation workflows that save you hours every week, to the latest AI tools for marketing, operations, and customer service, we cover what actually works in the real world, not just in theory. Think of it as having two savvy friends who spend their weeks testing every new AI tool so you don't have to. Jess and Kyle bring together hands-on experience from the worlds of entrepreneurship, marketing, and technology to help you cut through the hype and find the innovations that move the needle for your business. No jargon. No gatekeeping. Just actionable advice for entrepreneurs who want to stay ahead of the curve and make AI their unfair advantage. New episodes every week. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Early Adoptr
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    57
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Early Adoptr
  • Show Website
    Early Adoptr

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