Want 97% AI Adoption? Start By Saying “Not Yet”
Hypebeast withheld access for 10 weeks, teased value, and turned demand into near-universal adoption.
In this episode of Data Matas, Aaron speaks with Sami Rahman, Director of Data & AI at Hypebeast, about what it really takes to embed AI inside a modern business.
Sami shares how his psychology background shapes his approach to adoption, why fear of AI is more about broken safety nets than the technology itself, and why Hypebeast uses AI as a force multiplier — not a replacement for creative teams.
He explains how he deliberately teased AI’s potential for 10 weeks before giving access, using curiosity and scarcity to spark demand. The result? 97% adoption across the company.
Listeners will also hear how Hypebeast prioritises boring but valuable use cases — automating system updates, consolidating research, scanning trends — and why Sami treats AI agents as disposable tools with clear lifecycles, not permanent fixtures.
It’s a grounded, practical conversation about the human side of AI adoption and the discipline it takes to keep hype from overrunning reality.
Watch the full episode on YouTube, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
What is Data Matas?
A show to explore all data matters.
From small to big, every company on the market, irrespective of their industry, is a data merchant. How they choose to keep, interrogate and understand their data is now mission critical. 30 years of spaghetti-tech, data tech debt, or rapid growth challenges are the reality in most companies.
Join Aaron Phethean, veteran intrapreneur-come-entrepreneur with hundreds of lived examples of wins and losses in the data space, as he embarques on a journey of discovering what matters most in data nowadays by speaking to other technologists and business leaders who tackle their own data challenges every day.
Learn from their mistakes and be inspired by their stories of how they've made their data make sense and work for them.
This podcast brought to you by Matatika - "Unlock the Insights in your Data"