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What's your AI success story? What made you realize you had to change? And what does a hopeful future with AI look like to you? AI Hope with Geoff Livingston asks three simple questions of people doing the hard work of adapting and thriving in the AI era.
Seema
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[00:00:00] Hey everybody, my name is Jeff Livingston, and this is AI Hope. My book, Now Is Gone, is about never-ending change. This podcast is about what comes after the stories, the people, and the reason for hope.
There we go All right. Hello everybody. This is Jeff Livingston. We have another edition of AI Hope, and I'm here with Seema Alexander, the very talented Seema Alexander, who is the founder and CEO of Disruptive AI. But she's also the alumni, I think chair of DC Startup Week for seven years, a producer and a podcast host in her own right, the AI CEO podcast, and she has a new conference that's rolling out this spring called Business Con for AI.
Correct me if I'm wrong on that one, Seema. AI Business Con. Close. AI Business Con. Close. I'm sorry. You're good. ~You know. Uh, ~and ~uh, ~she is really quite a dynamic personality and a, a thoughtful person. Her podcast is amazing. ~Mm-hmm. ~And I'm really delighted to have her here. [00:01:00] Welcome, Seema. Oh, thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited to have this conversation. I feel like every conversation we've had thus far, I learn a lot too, and that's the best types of conversations, especially as this space is evolving so much. So excited to be here and have this conversation. That's pretty cool. Now, I know you're advising a lot of people on AI, and you touch a lot of tech companies and a lot of services companies that are trying to get into this, as well as many luminaries.
~Um, ~so you're in the midst of it, but I'm curious, what was the moment for you when you saw AI and said, "Oh my Lord, I better get into this thing"? Yeah. ~You know, ~I've had a very eclectic career, which has actually allowed me to connect dots c- more than a lot of other people. And when I say eclectic, it's like the corporate experience, the entrepreneurial experience, the various industry experience, ~um,~ and then ecosystem building with DC Startup and Tech Week.
The last-- ~What, ~what got me was I've always been very deep into why do businesses fail and why [00:02:00] they succeed, and I love growing and scaling companies, and that's ~kind of ~what I did for a very long time, and I was, ~uh,~ a- an advisor to many companies. Four years ago, this is when it all shifted for me. It was right on the cusp of ChatGPT, and I was asked to advise a company called Magic ML.
Now, Magic ML was one of the earliest agentic development environments and ~like, ~if you don't know what that means, ~I mean, ~at this point, I think most people know what an AI agent is, but not everybody, right? ~Right. ~I don't wanna be naive to it. ~You know, ~AI agents are really what I call the apps of the new generation.
Us- apps used to be internet, but AI agents have this capability to not only do work, but do it on your behalf in ways that have never been done before, and there's various points of it. Now, going back to Magic, these co-founders that were building this system were what I would consider AI accelerationists.
And I had never in my life, of this eclectic career, and I've been around a lot of people, ~kind of like ~[00:03:00] listened to folks who were like, "You know what, Seema? AI and hu- humans and robots and all this stuff, we're all supposed to live together and this is the future state, and- Have you watched her? And have you watched this?
And all this stuff, Westwood, all this stuff is coming true. And I'm like, "Let's go deeper. I really need to understand the science behind this and then actually see it in action." When I started to see that they took agentic theory and really put it into a platform, and they were building and they were learning and pivoting, but they were also consulting, ~uh,~ Google's agentic arm.
The product was highlighted at Google I/O. Wow. And honestly, and to answer your question very directly, the moment that got me was, ~you know, ~I was, ~uh,~ focused on growth of the company- ~Mm-hmm ~... and I got really deep with some of the people that were using the beta. ~Right. ~And I was like, okay. There was this high-end cinematographer, and he was like, "Look, I do a lot of movies.
I..." ~You know, ~and he's ~like... I, ~I was like, "Why are you here?" And he's like, "Listen, it takes me six months to take my storyboards and bring them to life." And I was like... And he's like, "And that's what allows me to sell my story and get my movies made." [00:04:00] He's like, "Here, I'm trying to attempt to put all ~my, ~my script in ChatGPT, segment it, and at that time, put it in Midjourney," which was an image generator, which is an image generator, "and then put it in Runway ML," which is the video, ~uh,~ generator, and ~kind of ~do that in a, ~you know, ~in, in a synthetic, like a s- a seamless way using agentic AI.
And just thinking about... He's like, "I just wanna do it in minutes, not months, not days," ~you know, ~all of it. And that's when I was like, "Holy shit, this is 10X bigger than the advent of the internet." ~Mm. ~Everything is going to change. And that's ~kind of ~when, ~I mean, ~I've since then, I've never looked back. It's just been, ~um,~ God.
From keynotes to creating new businesses around this to really understanding native AI principles and where this world is going. And now I call it the great business rewiring, because we're in that era where so much is changing ~for, ~for business folks, ~and,~ and they need to start to listen. It's really amazing.
Yeah. It's definitely been quite the thing to see how businesses have had to react, and really, it's [00:05:00] almost been a little bit of a black mirror for their organizational cultures. ~Like, ~this is how dysfunctional your team is and how they don't talk to each other. Time to get through that. ~Well, ~to your point, ~I mean, I, ~I started my career in corporate America, so knowing those silos and knowing the legacy systems that are in these am- amazing companies, but they never talk.
They used to do all these initiatives, and now here's this technology that can possibly get everything to talk and rework the way you do work. ~Like, ~what? ~Like, you know, it's, ~it's, it's a interesting... It's almost like full circle moment, right? Yeah. Yeah. 100%. 100%. ~So, I mean, ~obviously, again, you're not the average person in any way in this space, and you're in it, and you're so deep in it.
I'm curious, ~like,~ what is the most dynamic thing that you've done so far with AI? ~Like, ~what's ~your, ~your story that just brings a smile to your face right now? I would tell you for me, and it-- what we're working on, there's two, ~uh,~ two parts to this question. One is I don't like going into anything where we're like, "We're gonna go AI enable you."
~Right? ~Yeah. It's like, "Here, let's add a tool. Let's [00:06:00] add a function." Which I'm not saying is not important. I think you have to, right? Those are foundational. But when I think about this era, I think about connectivity and intelligence, right? ~Mm-hmm. ~And the things that we're building toward is intelligent operating systems.
How do we connect this, all this crazy unstructured and structured data to make sense for decision-making? How do we connect all these systems so that you can have better predictive qualities and better predictive just answers to things that you've never been able to do before? ~Um, ~I can't say it right now.
~I mean, ~we have a SOW with one of the largest international development banks in the world right now, and, ~you know, ~supporting some of their portfolio intelligence would be ~our, ~our mission. And that makes me so excited because it's impact and profit. ~Like, you know, ~it just, it shows you that this-- so many companies have so much information, they just haven't been able to bring them together to do the things that they need to do that can add a lot of impact, ~uh,~ optimize things.
~Um, ~and I would say i-in that same [00:07:00] vein, I feel ~like, you know, ~for human beings, we get caught up in doing a lot of mundane things all the time, right? ~Mm-hmm. ~And I feel like that takes away curiosity and momentum and traction sometimes. We're just kinda stuck. Yeah. And this technology can allow us to focus on things that matter more, ~you know?~
~Um, ~and then the second part of my answer to that is I have a portfolio of companies that I'm building on the AI native side. And I'm, ~you know, ~this is the innovation side of me that gets really excited, and it's like these are the people who really get the technology and where the trends are going. And in concert, we're able to ~kind of ~hopefully accelerate a lot of these companies.
One is in human synthetic data. ~Mm-hmm. ~So how do you create, ~you know, ~AI that have human memory initially disrupting the market research industry in terms of qualitative research? But, ~you know, ~this is like getting companies to a ninety percent confidence interval to, for product market fit, for messaging, for so much.
But the end game is they're creating emotional intelligence in these AIs to be the brains of humanoid robots. [00:08:00] I will pause there for a second. ~Like, you know, ~it's like- Wow. It's like that's a- Everything from the top- That's awesome though. It's- ~It's, ~it's like mind-blowing, like people think like that, right?
And know how to leverage the technology even where it's at, 'cause it's the weakest it'll ever be, just, but it keeps getting stronger- ~Right ~... to even imagine that this is possible. ~Um, ~and the second one is around adaptive e-commerce. Like we know the way of the world for marketing is going from one to many ~to one ~to one.
Very personalized messaging. ~Um- ~Mm. ~You know, I, ~I'll say it, ~I mean, ~the days like where Meta is listening and you're like, "How did they know I was going to Guatemala next week?" And all these things- ... are coming. ~Like, ~that's gonna be, it's gonna be every experience when you go to websites will become dynamic.
Every- everything's gonna just become much more intelligent, where you're gonna feel like the shopping experience, call it, or the commerce experience was meant for me at that moment, and that's ~kind of ~where we're headed with Bridge is how do you use, ~you know, ~information and data, but really customer behavior patterns to help support that, that process for commerce, and then give that [00:09:00] intelligence back to the brands, ~uh,~ to support better innovation and better product solution sets.
So interesting places, ~um, you know, ~stuff that's never been done before, which I love too, so it's exciting. ~Mm. ~Yeah, it's interesting. I think ~on the, ~on the constant presence of media coming at us based off of our behavior pattern through life, I actually think we're gonna get desensitized to that. I know there's a lot of- anger about that in some ways, or fear.
And, ~uh,~ I just think that people become numb to it, just like we have to billboards on the highway, if that makes any sense at all. Yeah. ~Uh, ~that's really cool. You're really doing some interesting stuff. A- with that in mind, one of the ways we like to end the show is with ~the, ~the final question, which is the hope, right?
~I mean, ~the show is AI Hope, and, ~you know, ~I think most people that are in this industry that have embraced AI in some form, whether it's within their role in a, in an education position or a technologist like you, they have a vision. They have a hope for something that this is going to, this technology set is [00:10:00] going to benefit people or society.
What is your hope? Yeah. One thing I will say in your comments is I'm not a technologist. I'm a business person. ~Like, you know? Mm-hmm. ~And so for me, and I think that is actually where hope starts, is if you're focused on an outcome versus this is a technology, let's leverage a technology. What's the big outcome if it is in climate, if it is in healthcare, if it is in business?
~Like, ~let's focus on that. Can we, can we- Huh? Can we get you out to Silicon Valley right now to run some of these tech companies? 'Cause that would be a lot better, man. I'm just... 'Cause that's the hope, right? ~Like, ~the hope- ~Right ~... I love this question because I have a lot of hope. ~I mean, ~the reason I do what I do is I have a 12 and 16-year-old, and their world is gonna look so different, and if I'm not there to help shape it, who will?
~Like, ~you know- ~Mm-hmm ... then, ~then you can't complain about it. ~Like, you know? ~And not saying that there are not gonna be bad actors. Let's just be honest. Any massive technology like this, especially with all the unknowns, there's a lot of unknowns. ~Like, you know? ~But my hope is The majority are gonna use this for good.
We're gonna [00:11:00] solve some massive problems that we haven't been able to solve before. I'm very bullish with precision medicine. That's an area that I think has a lot of opportunity. It's been completely under-processed, call it. ~Like, you know, ~it ~kind of ~blows my mind that this company Scribe, which really just is taking notes for people as they're listening in to the doctors' and patients' conversations, turning it into notes for, ~you know, ~the various systems, ha- ~I mean, ~it's doing well 'cause it needed to be there, but I'm like, "That's just hitting the surface of all the things that are happening in that industry ~plus ~plus."
I also look at the business side of things. I think people work really hard. ~Like, you know? ~And that's my whole thing is like how do you ~alleviate, ~alleviate friction, ~like, you know? ~And then so that you can focus on, ~you know, ~the relationships, the growth, the w- partnerships, the other things that many, ~you know, ~m- many entrepreneurs struggle financially and other things.
But now you have a technology that you can actually create a business with one person and an AI agent. ~I mean, like, ~it's all possible today, [00:12:00] right? Yeah. And good or bad, ~I mean, ~evolution's gonna happen. Labor evolution is gonna happen. Universal basic income potentially will happen. ~Like, ~lots of things are gonna change, but for me, it's always like it's happening anyway, so you can either complain about it or do something about it, and I'm in the boat of doing something about it.
100%. ~I mean, ~I think, too, once you use it, it's shocking how much it can help, and at the same time, it's somewhat comforting to see how much it can't do on a emotional intelligence or an intellectual strategy level, yet at least. Yeah. That's the key word. Yeah. And it's funny you say that 'cause, ~like, um, ~for AI Business Con, which is March 2nd and 3rd ~in, ~in, in Fuse, at Fuse in Arlington, I'm excited because part of that day is gonna be what AI cannot touch.
~Mm-hmm. Right? Like, ~and I- you w- we wanna continue to bring the humanity back into the conversation any place that we can, even as the technology gets smarter and [00:13:00] continues to evolve, right? ~Like, ~so anyway, it's like I- that's a really good point, and I think we need to continue to ensure that humanity stays human in this process.
Inevitable, my friend. ~Well, ~this has been really awesome. I hope that people that are listening are encouraged by it and want to register for your conference and want to reach out to you. What's the best way for them to follow what you're up to? Yeah. I think LinkedIn is my number one, so Seema Alexander on the, on LinkedIn, ~sort of ~you can Google me or whatever.
~Um, ~also seemalexander.com, that's my website that has all of our information. ~Um, ~getdisruptive.ai is our company website. But if you really wanna... This conference is really for business leaders. A lot of these AI conferences are focused on technology and building- ~Mm-hmm ~... which is obviously really important.
Infrastructure, energy, ~I mean, ~a lot of those po- potential conversations will be here too. But I think if you're really trying to understand where business is headed, where things are getting reshaped, where the opportunity lies, like businesscon.ai, [00:14:00] check it out. ~Uh, ~I would love to see you there. That's awesome.
We'll get all those links in the show notes. And Seema, one more thing before we go. Yeah. I personally wanna thank you for getting me into vibe coding- For sure ... indirectly through Jayla Love at DC Startup Week. I really appreciate it. It's really changed my business life. ~So, uh, ~you're awesome. ~I, ~I definitely know you have that butterfly effect touching thousands of people in the sector, if not more.
So thank you again, and we'll get this out shortly. Appreciate your time today. Awesome. Thank you for having me. Appreciate you. Cool.