AI Visibility by Jason Todd Wade, Founder of BackTier

Jason Todd Wade

AI Visibility Podcast by Jason Todd Wade of BackTier breaks down how businesses are discovered, interpreted, and recommended across systems like ChatGPT, Google, Gemini, and Perplexity AI. Each episode focuses on real execution-how visibility is assigned, how authority is built, and how operators influence outcomes in AI-driven environments.

  1. 1h ago

    The Human Gap in AI: Why Leaders Must Treat AI Like a New Hire | Cynthia Lai & Jason Todd Wade, BackTier

    Most AI failures are not technology failures. They are leadership failures. In this episode, Cynthia Lai joins Jason Wade to discuss the human gap in AI adoption: why companies buy tools before defining the problem, why teams resist AI, and why governance, trust, empathy, and judgment matter more as AI becomes faster and more powerful. Cynthia draws from 20+ years in regulated banking, including HSBC, Bank of China, and OCBC, plus her work as a board advisor, executive coach, lecturer, and deep-tech co-founder with 15 patents. The conversation covers AI governance, change management, the “AI New Hire” framework, executive pressure, burnout, sustainable performance, and the leadership skills AI cannot replace. Topics Covered The human gap in AI adoptionAI governance and responsible implementationTreating AI like a new hireWhy companies buy tools before defining problemsHuman judgment, empathy, and accountabilityExecutive pressure and transformation fatigueSustainable performance without burnoutThe “pack mule” leadership trapAI readiness inside regulated organizationsHong Kong, banking, innovation, and AI transformationAbout Cynthia Lai Cynthia Lai is a board advisor, executive coach, lecturer, and deep-tech co-founder with 15 patents. She spent more than 20 years leading transformation in regulated banking, including roles at HSBC, Bank of China, and OCBC. Today, she helps leaders navigate AI-driven change by strengthening trust, decision-making, governance, resilience, and sustainable performance. Her work focuses on closing the human gap that appears when strategy, AI, and institutional reality collide. About Jason Wade Jason Wade is the founder of BackTier and creator of Entity Lock Protocol™ and the BackTier Visibility Path™. Through BackTier’s AI Visibility Infrastructure, he helps organizations become correctly understood, trusted, cited, included, and selected by AI systems including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and emerging agentic platforms. Learn More Cynthia LaiEmail: cynthia@cynthialai.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthiakylai/ Jason Wadehttps://jasonwade.comhttps://backtier.comhttps://ninjaai.com #AIVisibility #AIAdoption #AIGovernance #Leadership #ChangeManagement #ResponsibleAI #DigitalTransformation #ExecutiveCoaching #HumanAdvantage #BackTier #JasonWade #CynthiaLai

    27 min

  2. 1d ago

    Human Co-Pilot: Why AI Adoption Fails Without Workflow Change | Bryant Oberg & Jason Todd Wade of BackTier

    AI Visibility Podcast Guest: Bryant ObergFounder, Human Co-PilotWebsite: https://www.human-co-pilot.comEmail: bryant@human-co-pilot.comPhone / WhatsApp: +1 (909) 805-5451LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryant-oberg Host: Jason WadeFounder, BackTierWebsite: https://jasonwade.comCompany: https://backtier.comNinjaAI: https://ninjaai.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasontwade Episode Title Human Co-Pilot: Why AI Adoption Fails Without Workflow Change | Bryant Oberg & Jason Wade Episode Description Most businesses do not have an AI problem. They have an adoption problem. In this episode, Bryant Oberg, founder of Human Co-Pilot, joins Jason Wade to discuss why companies buy AI tools but fail to turn them into real workflow improvement. Bryant explains how business owners, professionals, and teams can move from AI confusion to practical implementation by using AI as a thinking partner, operating assistant, and strategic amplifier. The conversation covers AI adoption, workflow design, Claude implementation, custom AI agents, employee resistance, business process improvement, and the difference between experimenting with AI and actually using it to save time, improve decisions, and reduce operational friction. Jason and Bryant also explore the connection between AI adoption and AI visibility: Bryant helps humans work better with AI, while Jason helps businesses become better understood, trusted, cited, included, and selected by AI systems. Topics Covered Why AI adoption failsHow businesses should start using AIAI as leverage, not magicWorkflow-first AI implementationClaude for small businessesCustom AI agents and skillsHuman resistance to AI toolsTurning AI experiments into operating systemsAI consulting vs AI coursesThe future of human-AI collaborationAI adoption and AI visibilityAbout Bryant Oberg Bryant Oberg is the founder of Human Co-Pilot, an AI adoption and implementation company based in Jerusalem, Israel. Through Human Co-Pilot, Bryant helps business owners, professionals, and teams move from AI confusion to practical implementation. His work focuses on AI adoption sessions, team rollouts, Claude small business implementation, custom AI agents, workflow optimization, and practical AI systems that fit the way real businesses already work. Before founding Human Co-Pilot, Bryant built experience across finance, restructuring, and distressed investing. That background shaped his practical view of AI as leverage: not magic, not replacement, but a tool that becomes valuable only when aimed at the right business problems. About Jason Wade Jason Wade is the founder of BackTier and creator of Entity Lock Protocol™ and the BackTier Visibility Path™. Through BackTier’s AI Visibility Infrastructure, he helps organizations become correctly understood, trusted, cited, included, and selected by AI systems including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and emerging agentic platforms. His work focuses on the shift from traditional search visibility to AI-mediated selection, where machine understanding increasingly determines business discovery and recommendation. Learn More Bryant Oberghttps://www.human-co-pilot.combryant@human-co-pilot.com+1 (909) 805-5451 Jason Wadehttps://jasonwade.comhttps://backtier.comhttps://ninjaai.com #AIVisibility #ArtificialIntelligence #AIAdoption #HumanCoPilot #ClaudeAI #ChatGPT #BusinessAI #WorkflowAutomation #AIAgents #BackTier #JasonWade #BryantOberg

    22 min

  3. 3d ago

    How AI Photo Booths, Robots, and Experiential Marketing Are Changing Live Events with Richard Foltys

    Guest LinksWebsite: https://www.dmaglobalevents.comWebsite: https://www.digitalmirror.caRobots: https://www.buyandrentrobots.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dmaeventsgroupEmail: richard@digitalmirror.ca About Richard FoltysRichard Foltys is an experiential marketing entrepreneur and founder of DMA Events, a company that has produced more than 1,500 events and brand activations worldwide. His team has worked with brands including Disney, Red Bull, McDonald's, RBC, Porsche, EY, L'Oréal, Hasbro, TD, Cineplex, Ferrari, Visa, and many others. Through DMA Events and DMA Engage, Richard helps brands create memorable live experiences using AI-powered activations, event robots, QR-driven engagement, content creation, social sharing, and lead generation. Episode DescriptionRichard Foltys joins Jason Wade to discuss how AI photo booths, AI video, trading cards, event robots, and experiential marketing are transforming conferences, trade shows, corporate events, and brand activations. The conversation explores attention, engagement, lead generation, user-generated content, AI-powered experiences, and why memorable events often outperform traditional marketing channels. Host LinksJason Wade: https://jasonwade.comBackTier: https://backtier.comNinjaAI: https://ninjaai.com About Jason WadeJason Wade is the founder of BackTier, an AI Visibility Infrastructure company focused on helping brands become correctly understood, trusted, cited, included, and selected by AI systems. He is also the founder of NinjaAI and host of the AI Visibility Podcast, where he explores how AI is changing discovery, authority, marketing, and business growth.

    46 min

  4. 5d ago

    Would ChatGPT Recommend You? Realness, Proof & Polish in the AI Era

    BackTier.com Most professionals do not have an expertise problem. They have a visibility problem. In this episode, Jason Todd Wade talks with Ashley Smith and Sarah Strackhouse about why talented professionals often remain invisible, even when they have real experience, strong reputations, and valuable expertise. The conversation breaks modern visibility into three layers: realness, proof, and polish. Ashley Smith explains the Proof Gap: the disconnect between what a professional actually knows and what search engines, AI systems, and recommendation platforms can find, understand, and trust. She discusses why professionals need to become discoverable and recommendable without forcing themselves to become full-time content creators. Sarah Strackhouse brings the media and communication layer. Drawing from her background in television journalism, media coaching, and on-camera training, she explains why nerves, fear, and hesitation keep many professionals from showing up publicly. The conversation also covers Google’s shift toward AI-powered search, AI agents, podcast RSS feeds, transcripts, media training, confidence, authority, and why publishing conversations may become one of the easiest ways to help AI systems understand who you are. Key Topics:AI visibilityThe Proof GapRealness, proof, and polishGoogle AI searchAI agentsPodcast RSS feedsMachine-readable authorityProfessional visibilityMedia confidenceOn-camera presenceWhy professionals hesitate to publishHow AI systems evaluate trustWhy podcasts matter for search and AIBuilding authority without becoming a full-time content creator Ashley Smith Bio:Ashley Smith is a business strategist and creator of the Proof Gap, a framework that explains why experienced professionals can be highly capable in real life but nearly invisible to search engines, AI systems, and online recommendation platforms. After nearly two decades in real estate leadership, including serving as board chair and media spokesperson for one of Canada’s largest real estate organizations, Ashley now helps professionals become more visible, trusted, and discoverable in an AI-shaped world. Ashley Smith Links:Website: https://showyourproof.beehiiv.comProof Gap Assessment: https://showyourproof.beehiiv.com/products/proof-gap-self-assessment⁠https://linkedin.com/in/ashleysmithnow⁠ ⁠https://instagram.com/ashleysmithnow⁠ ⁠https://facebook.com/ashleysmithnow⁠ ⁠https://threads.com/@ashleysmithnow⁠ ⁠https://tiktok.com/@ashleysmithnow⁠⁠https://youtube.com/@ShowYourProof⁠ Sarah Strackhouse Bio:Sarah Strackhouse is a former television journalist, anchor, producer, and entrepreneur who has worked with major media organizations including Fox Business, CBS, NBC, The CW, and Time Warner Cable stations nationwide. She is the founder of Strackhouse Media, a media company focused on live event production, media training, on-camera confidence, content creation, and helping professionals turn credibility into visibility and cashflow. Sarah Strackhouse Links:Website: https://www.strackhousemedia.comMedia Course: https://www.strackhousemedia.com/mediacourse Host Bio:Jason Todd Wade is the founder of BackTier, an AI Visibility Infrastructure company. He created Entity Lock Protocol™ and the BackTier Visibility Path™, frameworks designed to help brands become correctly understood, trusted, cited, included, and selected by AI systems. His work focuses on the shift from traditional search visibility to AI-mediated discovery, recommendation, and selection. Jason Todd Wade Links:BackTier: https://backtier.comNinjaAI: https://ninjaai.comWebsite: https://www.jasonwade.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/backtier

    27 min

  5. May 23

    Project Alamo: The Fight for Interpretation in the AI Era

    The competitive layer of the Internet has changed. Search engines rewarded distribution. AI systems reward interpretation. In this episode, Jason Wade breaks down “Project Alamo,” a framework for understanding what happens when brands, professionals, and institutions realize AI systems either misunderstand them or ignore them entirely. The discussion explores the rise of the entity layer, why large language models changed the economics of visibility, how recommendation systems compress choice, and why inclusion inside AI-generated answers is becoming more valuable than rankings themselves. Topics include: - AI Visibility - Entity Layer Engineering - Interpretation vs Distribution - Selection Compression - AI Recommendation Systems - Semantic Authority - Answer Layer Economics - Entity Resolution - Retrieval Systems - Large Language Models This is not a conversation about SEO tactics. It is about the structural transition from a search-driven Internet to an interpretation-driven one.

    11 min

  6. May 22

    Agentic Marketing: When AI Stops Assisting and Starts Running the Loop - Fergus and Jason Todd Wade - BackTier - aeo geo seo heo ai visibility

    backtier.com In this episode, Jason Wade talks with Fergus Dyer Smith, founder and CEO of MSQ Global Studios, about the move from AI as a tool to AI as an operating layer for marketing teams. Fergus has built and deployed AI products used inside large enterprise environments, including Assist, BrandCheck, PreFlight, and WAVE, with claimed users including Publicis, Toyota, WPP, Google, and ThermoFisher. His central argument is direct: most AI products do not fail at the demo stage. They fail at deployment.   The conversation centers on agentic marketing systems: workflows that do not just generate content, but observe the market, publish, measure performance, study competitors, produce analysis, feed those lessons back into the system, and run the loop again. Fergus shares how he built a self-improving TikTok agent that creates slideshow content, posts it, pulls the previous day’s data, scrapes top-performing videos in the niche, analyzes what is working, and adjusts future output without daily human intervention. Jason and Fergus also discuss Manus, Claude, Gemini, model-agnostic architecture, AI operating systems for marketing teams, enterprise adoption, creative automation, feedback loops, and why the future of AI in business is not just better prompting. It is deployment, integration, workflow design, and closed-loop execution. The deeper question is whether marketing is moving away from campaign-by-campaign execution and toward autonomous learning systems. If AI can create, test, measure, and improve continuously, then brands need to rethink not only how they produce content, but how they become visible, understood, cited, included, and selected inside AI-mediated discovery environments. Guest bio Fergus Dyer Smith is founder and CEO of MSQ Global Studios and a product-driven AI operator focused on building tools that enterprises actually use. He began his career in science, studying biochemistry at Manchester before moving into technology, web development, travel, music events, video production, VR, brewing, and AI product deployment. That mix of systems thinking, creativity, and commercial execution shaped his current work building AI products for complex organizations.   Fergus has founded and built multiple companies, including Wooshii, Envoke, Hartest Brewing, and Snowbombing Festival-related ventures. Today, he leads MSQ Global Studios, where his focus is shipping AI products that move beyond prototype theater and into daily enterprise use. His product portfolio includes Assist, an AI operating system for marketing teams; BrandCheck, a creative effectiveness and brand measurement tool; PreFlight, an AI video analysis tool; and WAVE, an AI-powered video automation platform.   His practical philosophy is “deployment over demos.” He is not an engineer by background, but he understands product, adoption, workflow, and how to get AI systems used inside real organizations.   Guest contact info Fergus Dyer SmithFounder / CEO, MSQ Global StudiosEmail: fergus.dyer-smith@msqpartners.comCompany: MSQWebsite: https://www.msqpartners.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fergusdyersmith/Location: London, United KingdomTime zone: UK / Ireland / Lisbon time Jason Wade bio Jason Wade is the founder of BackTier, an AI Visibility Infrastructure company focused on helping brands become correctly understood, trusted, cited, included, and selected by AI systems. Through BackTier, Jason created Entity Lock Protocol™, a framework for stabilizing machine understanding, and the BackTier Visibility Path™, a measurement model for tracking whether AI systems cite, include, and select an entity

    20 min

  7. May 22

    Beyond the Hype: 5 Pragmatic Lessons from the Front Lines of Business Automation

    backtier.com The modern business owner is currently being sold a dream: buy a subscription to a chatbot, and your operational headaches will vanish. As a consultant who looks at systems through the lens of ROI rather than trends, I find this "AI-first" noise to be a dangerous distraction.Real automation isn’t about chasing the latest LLM; it is an exercise in investigative systems mapping. Think of a strategist not as a coder, but as a private eye. You dive into a business to find the specific, 360-degree reality of its bottlenecks. This post distills the pragmatic insights from a recent deep-dive with automation expert Neal J Mcleod, moving past the marketing gloss to reveal how systems actually deliver profitability.1. Data is the "Hidden" Profit, Not Just the WorkflowMost entrepreneurs view automation as a tool to save time on admin tasks. While time is money, the real value of an automated system is the data it gathers in the shadows. Without visibility, you are guessing; with background analytics, you are investing.Consider Neal’s work with a personal injury law firm. The initial goal was a triage system to route leads. However, by layering in PostHog—an open-source analytics platform—to track specific injury types and settlement speeds, the firm uncovered a "war story" insight: their highest ROI wasn't just "car accidents," it was specifically back injuries resulting from 18-wheeler accidents."They knew certain types of injuries they were better at serving... but with this data, man, they took off. They were able to narrow down and say, 'Okay, from back injuries [in 18-wheeler cases], we were actually able to win more settlements.' They were able to be more aggressive and allocate more funds toward where they were winning."This is the essence of "Systems Mapping." Similarly, Neal assisted a home insurance agency by integrating directly with home inspection companies. Instead of competing on expensive Google Ads, they mapped the system to find leads where they naturally occur—at the point of inspection. This turned a manual networking effort into an automated, high-intent lead engine.2. Why "Deterministic" Beats "Probabilistic" for BusinessIn technology, "deterministic" systems produce the same output every time. "Probabilistic" systems—like AI—guess. For a professional service business, a "guess" is often a liability.If a client texts a car service to book a ride for 6 PM, the system cannot afford to be creative or "vibe-code" a response. Neal is blunt: if you give an AI the same question 50,000 times, it will likely give you 50,000 different answers. For professional infrastructure, repeatability is the only metric that matters.The Strategic Analysis: Relying on "naked" AI for core logic creates massive Brand Risk and compromises Contractual Reliability. If your system hallucinations lead to a missed pickup or a legal filing error, the "efficiency" of AI evaporates. High-level automation uses AI to interpret unstructured input, but the business rules themselves must be written in stone (code).3. The "Secret Sauce" is the Guardrail (Code > Prompts)The differentiator between a toy and a tool is the guardrail. Modern automation should follow a "Hybrid" model: Code + AI. Neal’s methodology involves using JavaScript to "clean" data before it reaches the AI and "parse" it into a strict format afterward.This approach makes AI "insurable" for a firm. By forcing the AI to interact with a strict JSON schema, you create a contract between the unstructured world of human text and the structured world of your CRM or database

    7 min

  8. May 20

    The AI Booking Agent for Indie Musicians: Mr B on Shows For Artists, AI Agents, Live Music, and the 99% Problem

    BackTier.com Jason Todd Wade sits down with Mr B, also known as Blake Robert Mankin, founder of Shows For Artists, an autonomous AI booking system built for independent musicians who want to get onstage without spending their lives sending booking emails. Mr B brings a rare mix of artist experience and founder instinct. He has performed more than 150 live shows, opened for DMX, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and Soulja Boy, built music tech products, written children’s books, and now runs Shows For Artists as a solo founder from Scottsdale, Arizona. His core thesis is simple: the music industry serves the top 1%, while the other 99% of working musicians are left to book themselves. In this episode, Jason and Mr B talk about the hidden labor behind live music, why most indie artists never get booked outside their hometown, how AI makes previously uneconomic markets serviceable, and why domain expertise now matters more than raw coding ability. Mr B explains how he built Shows For Artists in roughly 40 days for about $1,200 using AI, creating software that once would have required a six-figure development budget. They also dig into live events, local musician meetups, venue trust, AI-generated outreach, founder-market fit, category creation, Andrew Chen’s “come for the tool, stay for the network” idea, Marc Andreessen’s market-first startup philosophy, and why the future of music tech may be a hybrid of automation, community, and in-person trust. Topics include: AI booking agents for independent musiciansWhy traditional booking agents do not serve smaller artistsThe economics of $80–$300 gigsBuilding software as a non-coder with AIFounder-market fit in music technologyWhy venues need trust, not just outreachDMX, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and life on the roadCategory creation versus competitionLocal musician meetups as growth infrastructureThe future of two-sided marketplaces in live musicWhy AI rewards domain expertsHow artists can use data to build leverageThe difference between reckless risk and calculated riskWhy authenticity still matters in an AI-driven market Guest Bio — Mr B / Blake Robert Mankin: Mr B, real name Blake Robert Mankin, is a rapper, entrepreneur, Grammy voting member, children’s author, and founder of Shows For Artists, the first autonomous AI booking system for independent musicians. After performing more than 150 live shows and opening for DMX, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and Soulja Boy, he built Shows For Artists to solve the booking grind that keeps most musicians from getting onstage consistently. The platform pitches real venues from the artist’s own Gmail, helping independent artists book shows without relying on traditional agents. Mr B is based in Scottsdale, Arizona, and is building the company as a solo founder focused on serving the 99% of musicians the traditional music industry does not economically support.   Host Bio — Jason Todd Wade: Jason Todd Wade is the founder of BackTier, an AI Visibility Infrastructure company that helps brands become correctly understood, trusted, cited, included, and selected by AI systems. Through BackTier, Wade created Entity Lock Protocol™, a framework for stabilizing machine understanding, and the BackTier Visibility Path™, a measurement model for tracking whether AI systems cite, include, and select an entity. His work focuses on the shift from traditional search visibility to AI-mediated selection, where large language models, answer engines, search engines, and AI agents increasingly determine which companies are discovered, trusted, recommended, and chosen. Contact Info: Guest: Mr B / Blake Robert MankinWebsite: https://showsforartists.comArtist/social handle: @MrBInspireMerch / Hoos Moose: https://hoos.comEmail: mrbinspire@gmail.com Host: Jason Todd WadeBackTier: https://backtier.comNinjaAI: https://ninjaai.comJason Wade: https://jasonwade.com

    44 min
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3
out of 5
2 Ratings

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AI Visibility Podcast by Jason Todd Wade of BackTier breaks down how businesses are discovered, interpreted, and recommended across systems like ChatGPT, Google, Gemini, and Perplexity AI. Each episode focuses on real execution-how visibility is assigned, how authority is built, and how operators influence outcomes in AI-driven environments.

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