Urgency and Tolerance Across Seniority

Sam Jacobs (CEO, Pavilion), AJ Bruno (CEO, QuotaPath), and Asad Zaman (CEO, Sales Talent Agency) debate exactly how to handle team members resisting AI adoption. When to leave them, when to nudge them, and when to fire them.

The discussion highlights real-world data, including how leading companies reach the top decile of AI adoption and the mechanics of running a 24-hour, four-squad AI hackathon to force experimentation. We also cover a critical performance heuristic from the past CPO of LaunchDarkly: if your team cannot execute simple tasks in a single day, you are falling behind. The conversation covers change management for revenue leaders, how to integrate AI into your daily enterprise pipeline generation, and why optimizing your GTM strategy means making hard decisions about personnel who refuse to adapt.

Key Takeaways:

>Driving AI adoption requires clear communication and rewarding good behavior, but AJ Bruno warns that leaders will ultimately have to "leave behind a handful of folks that are just not going to get on the bus, that aren't getting on board."

>When implementing new AI tools across your teams, Asad Zaman notes that expectations must scale with seniority, stating "I have more tolerance as I move lower in the org and less tolerance at the higher levels."

>AI should be treated as a creative partner for deeper analysis rather than a shortcut for unedited output, a reality Sam Jacobs emphasizes by warning "If you are just the pass through, you will be fired."

Connect with the Hosts

Host: Sam Jacobs - https://www.linkedin.com/in/samfjacobs/

Host: AJ Bruno - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajbruno3/

Host: Asad Zaman - https://www.linkedin.com/in/azaman1/

Topline is more than a YouTube Channel:

Subscribe to Topline Newsletter: https://www.joinpavilion.com/topline-newsletter

Tune into Topline Podcast, the #1 podcast for founders, operators, and investors in B2B tech: https://www.joinpavilion.com/topline-podcast

Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders to keep the conversation going beyond the podcast: https://www.joinpavilion.com/topline-slack

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:35 The Question: Employees resisting AI

01:39 Convert them or fire them?

02:07 Running internal AI hackathons

03:54 How CEOs drive adoption

05:08 Mapping tasks to AI agents

06:27 The "Robot Layer" in emails

07:40 Claire Vo's anti-dinosaur framework

08:07 The One-Day Execution Heuristic

12:52 Why you should be scared

14:30 Elevating junior AI talent

16:35 Reducing 3 hours of work to 45 mins

18:54 Summary: How to uplevel the org

21:09 The tension between speed and depth

21:52 Pass-through? Fired! FIRED!!!