Restaurant leaders have moved past curiosity and into something more unsettling: they understand enough to know AI is powerful, but not enough to know where to start. That fear, shared openly by CEOs at industry conferences, is driving a new wave of urgency around AI strategy. Adam Brotman and Andy Sack break down this understanding gap with real conversations from restaurant C-suites. They introduce Forum3's Speed, Order, Aim methodology: build proficiency quickly, stack rank your opportunities...
May 27, 2026•12 min•Ep. 52
In this episode, Red Robin’s VP and Head of Technology, Deena DePhilips, outlines a pragmatic approach to enterprise AI adoption grounded in leadership alignment and real-world application. Framing AI as a transformative force akin to the internet, she emphasizes that organizations must “lean in and lead,” ensuring AI happens with them, not to them. DePhilips details a “crawl, walk, run” journey, where Red Robin currently operates as a “wobbly walker”, encouraging experimentation while implement...
May 20, 2026•27 min•Ep. 51
Adam Brotman put his OpenClaw agent to work on a real task: identifying small restaurant and cafe concepts for sale, evaluating options, and reaching out to business brokers. The agent moved fast, surfacing viable opportunities and drafting outreach within minutes. It also emailed the wrong person with unapproved information, a concrete example of the autonomy that makes agents powerful and the oversight gaps that make them risky. The episode traces the full arc of the experience: the initial ta...
May 13, 2026•13 min•Ep. 50
In this episode of AI First, Adam Brotman and Andy Sack sit down with Inflection CEO Aaron Bird to unpack the rise of agentic marketing and what it means for business leaders. The conversation explores how AI is evolving from simple Q&A tools into autonomous agents capable of executing complex marketing workflows—from campaign planning to execution—at scale. The discussion introduces a two-phase framework: first, agents performing tasks humans could do faster and more efficiently; second, ag...
May 06, 2026•45 min•Ep. 49
Andy Sack spent a full day managing a complex writing project through Claude Cowork's dispatch feature, directing his AI agent from his phone between coffee meetings. The result: roughly ten times the output he could have produced working alone. Then at step five of six, the agent told him his files didn't exist. This mini episode captures the full arc of working with AI agents: the invigoration of real-time delegation, the gut punch when things break, and the 90-minute recovery that still left ...
Apr 29, 2026•13 min•Ep. 48
AI is making teams more productive. The natural instinct is to cut headcount. But that instinct may be costing leaders the bigger opportunity. Adam Brotman and Andy Sack frame AI productivity as a two-sided decision: the denominator (cost reduction) and the numerator (revenue growth, customer experience, innovation). Most executives default to the denominator without asking whether to pursue both, and in what order. They introduce the "exoskeleton" concept, a framework for mapping exactly where ...
Apr 22, 2026•12 min•Ep. 47
In the first quarter of 2025, Anthropic added what Adam Brotman describes as ""an entire Starbucks of revenue run rate"" in a single quarter, reaching close to $30 billion annualized. That growth, driven by a combination of enterprise API revenue, subscriptions, and a fast-rising consumer base, has put Anthropic on the radar of companies that had previously committed to Copilot, Gemini, or OpenAI. Adam and Andy argue the growth is not just a marketing story. Cowork, they contend, represents a st...
Apr 15, 2026•16 min•Ep. 46
The AI ecosystem is undergoing rapid realignment as major players - including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon - reshape partnerships and product strategies. This episode unpacks the implications of Microsoft integrating Anthropic’s Claude Cowork into Copilot, signaling a shift toward agent-driven workflows and intensified competition among frontier model labs. While Anthropic has emerged as the “hottest” provider in early 2026, the broader takeaway is that model performance is c...
Apr 08, 2026•15 min•Ep. 45
In this episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, Zapier CEO Wade Foster breaks down the evolution from traditional automation to agentic systems. He draws a clear distinction between deterministic workflows and AI agents, explaining why both matter and how leading companies can combine them to improve reliability, speed, and scale. Foster shares how Zapier is repositioning for the AI era, from building agent products and copilots to leveraging its network of more than 8,000 connected tools. He al...
Apr 01, 2026•34 min•Ep. 44
AI agents are rapidly transforming how consumers interact with the internet, collapsing traditional steps like search, comparison, and decision-making into a single, agent-driven workflow. With a growing majority of consumers already using AI tools, this shift is not incremental, it represents a structural change in digital behavior, where agents increasingly act as the primary interface between users and brands. Emerging use cases, from personalized, AI-generated shopping environments to automa...
Mar 25, 2026•14 min•Ep. 43
In this AI First mini episode, Adam Brotman and Andy Sack explore the real-world implications of AI agents through Adam’s hands-on experience building one with OpenClaw. They break down what makes an agent different from traditional AI tools, including proactive behavior, memory, computer use, and the ability to operate independently. Adam shares both the excitement and the friction, from complex setup and security concerns to inconsistent performance and early-stage limitations. Despite these c...
Mar 18, 2026•20 min•Ep. 42
In this episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, Thanx founder and CEO Zach Goldstein explains why loyalty has become a strategic imperative for restaurants navigating the rise of delivery marketplaces like DoorDash and Uber Eats. Goldstein argues that while third-party platforms are now unavoidable for customer acquisition, restaurants must prioritize direct relationships with guests to protect margins, own their data, and drive repeat traffic. The discussion explores how the rapid digitization ...
Mar 11, 2026•36 min•Ep. 41
In this focused mini episode, Adam Brotman and Andy Sack explore how Claude Co-Work is reshaping executive productivity and redefining the future of work. Moving beyond traditional prompt-and-response AI tools, they describe what changes when AI operates directly on your desktop with browser access, document parsing, and step-by-step task execution. Through real examples, from synthesizing board materials and investor updates to rebuilding strategic diagrams and navigating shared drives, they ex...
Feb 25, 2026•13 min•Ep. 40
As AI capabilities accelerate at a weekly pace, enterprise leaders face a critical question: how do you choose the right AI tools for your organization without compromising security or governance? In this episode, Andy Sack and Adam Brotman provide a CEO-level playbook for becoming AI-first while navigating existing enterprise technology environments. They argue that this moment requires leadership, not delay. Rather than relying on a single platform or waiting for capabilities to mature, execut...
Feb 18, 2026•18 min•Ep. 39
This episode of AI First with Adam and Andy is an intentional experiment. The script, ideas, and analysis are entirely Adam Brotman and Andy Sack’s own. The on-screen hosts and voice delivery were generated using AI tools as part of a hands-on exploration of what these technologies can and cannot yet do. It is not perfect, and that is precisely the point. In this conversation, Adam and Andy tackle the increasingly popular claim that “software is dead.” Against the backdrop of roughly $830 billio...
Feb 11, 2026•12 min•Ep. 38
As AI enters 2026, many enterprises are still measuring success through narrow efficiency gains and license utilization, while missing the larger opportunity for growth and innovation. In this episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, Paul Roetzer breaks down why AI transformation is fundamentally a leadership and change management challenge, not a technology rollout. The conversation explores why delegating AI to IT limits outcomes, how CEOs can raise their own AI literacy, and what it takes to e...
Feb 04, 2026•43 min•Ep. 37
In this mini episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, Adam Brotman and Andy Sack explore the growing conversation around AI agents and why most executives are still waiting for something that is not fully here yet. They explain why coding agents are advancing fastest and how those lessons apply to non-technical leaders across strategy, marketing, operations, and analytics. Drawing on a hands-on example built over the holidays, they show how executives can combine prompting, context, and existing ...
Jan 28, 2026•14 min•Ep. 36
In this inside look from an AI First community call, Keith Fairclough, CIO of Cabi, explains how a direct sales women’s apparel brand built AI literacy across the company before chasing shiny use cases. He details the executive bootcamp that aligned leadership, the in person training that drove adoption, and the practices that sustained momentum, including weekly office hours and monthly AI competitions. Keith then shows what the foundation enabled: an AI styling tool that generates on brand out...
Jan 21, 2026•42 min•Ep. 35
In this episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, Greg Gottesman of Pioneer Square Labs shares hard-earned lessons from nearly three decades as a venture capitalist, founder, and startup studio operator. Greg explains why startups rarely fail due to product or technology challenges, even in today’s AI-driven landscape, and why cost-effective distribution remains the defining constraint for success. The conversation explores how AI has dramatically lowered the cost and speed of building products, i...
Jan 14, 2026•31 min•Ep. 34
Are we in an AI bubble, or at the early stages of the most consequential technology shift of our lifetime? In this episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, Adam Brotman and Andy Sack unpack the tension executives are feeling as AI investment, valuations, and infrastructure spending accelerate at historic speed. They explore why AI can feel both economically fragile and fundamentally real at the same time, drawing comparisons to the dot-com era while highlighting critical differences, including un...
Jan 07, 2026•13 min•Ep. 33
In this special annual predictions episode of AI First with Adam and Andy , hosts Adam Brotman and Andy Sack are joined by Rose Kelly, Head of AI Consulting at Forum3, for a fast-paced, candid look at what 2026 will bring for artificial intelligence, business leadership, work, and society. The conversation explores whether CEOs will be hired or fired based on AI strategy, if the AI boom is headed toward a bubble or sustained growth, and how AI will reshape jobs, enterprise tools, and executive d...
Dec 17, 2025•36 min•Ep. 32
OpenAI’s “code red” memo marks a pivotal moment in the AI landscape. In this episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, Adam Brotman and Andy Sack analyze why Sam Altman is sounding the alarm and how the rapid rise of Gemini 3.1 and Google DeepMind is reshaping competitive dynamics across the AI ecosystem. The conversation explores what this shift means for ChatGPT’s long-held dominance, whether OpenAI is stretching itself too thin, and how Anthropic’s focused strategy in enterprise and coding comp...
Dec 12, 2025•10 min•Ep. 31
The 2025 Year in Review episode of AI First with Adam and Andy offers an in-depth look at what truly shaped the AI landscape this year. Hosts Adam Brotman and Andy Sack revisit the predictions they made at the end of 2024 and evaluate how those expectations aligned with real developments across search, agentic systems, generative video, large language models, enterprise adoption, and the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure. This episode explores how AI search evolved without significantly weake...
Dec 10, 2025•27 min•Ep. 30
In this episode of AI First with Adam and Andy , we sit down with Benji Koltai, co-founder and CEO of Galley Solutions, to unpack how AI is transforming one of the most complex operational environments: the kitchen. Benji shares the personal story that led him to build Galley and reveals why most food service companies still operate using analog systems and spreadsheets. He explains how Galley’s recipe-first, culinary resource planning platform gives kitchens a true “system of record”, enabling ...
Dec 03, 2025•38 min•Ep. 29
In this episode of AI First with Adam and Andy , Andy Sack and Adam Brotman unpack one of the most common questions they hear from executives: which AI model should your organization use? Andy explains why comfort, workflow, and use case matter more than brand loyalty, and why toggling between models is a powerful way to learn their strengths. The conversation turns to the launch of Gemini 3, including Adam’s early impressions of its increased speed, stronger reasoning, and more agentic behavior...
Nov 25, 2025•8 min•Ep. 28
In this episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, hosts Adam Brotman and Andy Sack explore a recent New York Times opinion piece by Eric Schmidt and Andrew Sirota titled “Use AI to Reinvigorate Democracy, Not Replace It.” The article highlights examples from Albania and Taiwan, showing how governments are already using AI to reduce corruption, analyze constituent feedback, and create more responsive policies. Adam and Andy reflect on the larger question behind these stories. AI can help leaders sy...
Nov 19, 2025•13 min•Ep. 27
Adam Brotman and Andy Sack unpack the true meaning of AI First . Too many executives still treat AI as a tool for efficiency. But as Andy explains, AI is an “alien intelligence” that reshapes how organizations think, plan, and operate. Together, Adam and Andy explore the difference between being AI-curious and being truly AI-first, a shift that requires courage, cultural change, and daily use across every function. Listen in to understand why AI First isn’t just a strategy; it’s the future of wo...
Nov 12, 2025•8 min•Ep. 26
In this episode of AI First with Adam and Andy , IgniteTech CEO Eric Vaughan offers a candid inside look at one of the boldest AI transformations in enterprise software. After realizing that AI was an existential shift for his company, Vaughan led IgniteTech and its sister companies through a sweeping cultural reinvention that ultimately turned over 80% of staff to build what he calls an AI DNA organization. Vaughan, alongside hosts Adam Brotman and Andy Sack, unpacks the messy middle of change,...
Nov 05, 2025•38 min•Ep. 25
In this bite-size episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, the hosts tackle one of the most common misconceptions in enterprise AI adoption: that you need a perfect data lake before you can begin.Adam and Andy explain why this “wait until the data is ready” mindset slows innovation and how forward-thinking leaders are getting results now by experimenting with the data they already have. Through real client examples, they contrast the old IT-led playbook with a faster, executive-driven approach th...
Oct 29, 2025•13 min•Ep. 24
In this episode of AI First with Adam and Andy, Adam Brotman and Andy Sack explore what it really takes for organizations to transform with AI. They argue that the journey doesn’t begin with data lakes, councils, or playbooks, it begins with leadership. The conversation dives into why CEOs need their own “aha moment,” how to empower internal change agents, and what it looks like when teams stop waiting for readiness and start making better decisions, faster. Adam also shares a real-world example...
Oct 22, 2025•13 min•Ep. 23
