Leadership wants AI everywhere. IT security can't keep up. Marketing is racing ahead while legal and finance dig in. And every week brings another story of an AI agent doing something nobody told it to do. Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips answer 15 listener questions on how to actually move organizations forward and where the real opportunities lie for individuals, SMBs, and enterprises right now.
00:00:00 — Intro
00:07:01 — How do you move a company out of AI policy paralysis?
00:08:54 — How should regulated, hands-on teams introduce AI?
00:12:30 — When companies are stuck, what tends to get them moving?
00:15:00 — Should IT security evolve to adopt AI quicker or should businesses slow down?
00:17:43 — What changes an AI-skeptic employee's mind?
00:21:18 — How should early-career professionals prioritize what to learn?
00:23:29 — Is there a point where you should stop learning and start building?
00:27:29 — Where do companies get stuck scaling AI across departments?
00:29:42 — Where is AI having the highest impact in HR?
00:33:04 — Do SMBs need a different AI playbook than enterprises?
00:35:55 — What should AI never take over?
00:39:43 — Who should be setting AI guardrails?
00:44:01 — If building software is commoditized, where is the real opportunity now?
00:47:48 — Could companies win by marketing themselves as AI-free?
00:50:15 — As generations grow up with AI, what different kinds of intelligence or capabilities do you think they’ll develop?
Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here
This episode is brought to you by the 2026 State of AI for Business Report webinar.
We surveyed more than 2,000 professionals on how they're actually using AI, what's working, and what's keeping them up at night. Join Paul Roetzer, Mike Kaput, and Taylor Radey on Thursday, May 14 at noon ET for a live walkthrough of the findings, plus Q&A. \
Register at smarterx.ai/webinars for live and on-demand access — and you'll also receive the ungated report.
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