Just watched episode 25 of the @linkthrusocial podcast and honestly this one deserves more attention than it is getting.
Top 1% to 5% of all podcasts for longevity. That alone says something about what Paul is building.
But it was the two guests that really got me thinking.
First up was Ann, founder of Elemental Intelligence, an AI voice technology expert who walked away from a high paying corporate role because she saw where things were heading. Companies using agentic AI not to empower people but to justify mass layoffs.
She described something she calls "The Dread." That exhausting feeling when you are stuck fighting healthcare systems, insurance companies, bureaucracies that were designed to wear you down. Her vision is using AI agents as personal advocates that go to battle against large corporations on your behalf.
That reframe stopped me. AI not as a tool for the powerful but as a weapon for the little guy.
She also said something I think about a lot. Around 85% of people have never even touched AI. While everyone on LinkedIn is debating the future of the technology, most of the world has not even started yet.
And she made a distinction that I loved. There is a difference between slot generating, using AI to mindlessly pump out content, and thought innovating, using AI to interview a real human expert and shape their genuine ideas into something worth reading.
One creates noise. The other creates value.
Then came Marc Elco, a Barcelona born UX designer who has lived across Germany, Greece, and Italy. He runs a podcast called Almost Local Stories that strips away the highlight reel version of living abroad and shows the real unpolished experience of adapting to a new culture.
What I loved about Marc is that he applies his design thinking to life itself. He treats every new country like a product he is learning to use. The hospitals, the bureaucracy, the supermarkets. All of it is just a complex user experience he is figuring out.
He also performs improv comedy in Italian, a language he is still learning, because he said it has done more for his confidence and flexibility than anything else.
Both guests came from completely different worlds. One fighting AI ethics battles in Silicon Valley. One navigating Italian bureaucracy as a foreigner. But both were saying the same thing underneath it all.
Technology and life should serve the human being. Not the other way around.
That feels more important to say out loud right now than ever.
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The difference between creating noise and creating value... that's the real conversation.
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That's a clever way to put it @ZoyaShah. The cynical part of me thinks that ai makes amateurs think they're creating value now, because they're able to do things they've never done, but really they're just catching up to what professionals were doing without this new tool and making everything look like noise.
The optimist part of me really wants to believe these amateurs will use this as a spring board into putting in effort they never put in previously and raise the floor.
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she says, "ethical ai equals under-served businesses figure out their ai strategy, don't diy your ai". That's pretty brave to say when more and more companies are moving towards bringing their ai in house because of IP (intellectual property) issues, and cost.
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Exactly
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AI is definitely a technology that can level the playing field again. I think there are going to be "little guys" that find ways to use it to become the behemoths of the 30s and 40s much like amazon and others came out of the dotcom boom/bust.
I love the idea of pitting a bot against the redtape that frustrates us most. :)
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That "red tape" is often someone's job. So who pays these new ai companies if no one has a job? Can't milk money from a stone.
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Why not pit a bot against that person who has a job to be the red tape? It doesnt take their job, it just keeps them from wasting the time of others.
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I really like the distinction between "thought generating" and "thought innovating." AI is most valuable when it amplifies human expertise rather than replacing it. That perspective deserves more attention.
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I agree. Using AI to deal with frustrating paperwork and rules sounds like a great idea. It could save a lot of time.
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Thank-you for the write up on my Episode 25 of the Link Thru Social Podcast!
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