agents Archives - Don't Stop Us Now

Agents Explained – Dominick Ng

December 19, 2025December 19, 2025
by Claire

If you’ve heard the term ‘AI agents’ but aren’t quite sure what they actually are or how they could help you at work, this is the episode for you.

Our guest is Dominick Ng, Director of Engineering at Relevance AI, a platform that helps businesses build and deploy AI agents. Before joining the startup world, Dom spent nine years at Google, rising from software engineer to senior manager. He also holds a PhD in Computational Linguistics and won a Fulbright Scholarship to UC Berkeley.

What makes Dom such a brilliant guide for this topic is his ability to explain complex technology in human terms. As he puts it, agents are fundamentally about adding human-like decision making to automation — handling the qualitative judgments that previously only people could make.

In this conversation you’ll hear:

A clear explanation of what agents actually are and why they’re different from previous automation
Real examples of agents creating entirely new business possibilities that couldn’t exist before
How to address privacy and security concerns when handing tasks to agents
Dom’s advice for anyone feeling overwhelmed by all of this

Dom is refreshingly honest about both the opportunities and the concerns he has about AI’s impact. His perspective on how humans and AI can work together — and the ‘spark’ that makes human creativity irreplaceable — is genuinely hopeful without being naive.

If you’ve been curious about agents but not sure where to start, this is the conversation you can thank us for later.

As this is our final episode of the year, we want to wish all our listeners Season’s Greetings. Thank you for listening throughout the year, and we wish you a kind and fulfilling new year ahead.

Enjoy this episode with the ever-curious and articulate Dominick Ng.

Useful Links

Relevance AI

Dominic Ng on LinkedIn

Interview

Teaching the World AI – Annie Liao

October 8, 2025October 9, 2025
by Claire

What happens when a group of friends gathering at Starbucks on Sundays to experiment with ChatGPT evolves into a global movement spanning more than 40 cities?

That’s the journey of Build Club, and its founder Annie Liao has some compelling insights about what it takes to actually make AI adoption work—not just in theory, but in practice.

Annie, who recently raised over $1.7 million and relocated to San Francisco, has a front-row seat to how AI is reshaping work. From her early days in data science at Westpac to strategy consulting at BCG and venture capital, she’s now solving what she calls the “AI adoption problem” that enterprises are struggling with worldwide.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

Why Annie’s “AI Champions” approach has been Build Club’s most successful way of helping companies embrace AI
How she struck partnership deals with big names like Nvidia and Lovable
Annie’s prediction we’re all likely to have agents working overnight on our behalf and what that means
The AI tools Annie uses in her daily workflow, and
What makes San Francisco’s AI ecosystem fundamentally different from Australia’s

From her vantage point in the Bay Area, Annie shares what excites her most about seeing people use AI for the first time, why there might be too many no-code tools flooding the market, and the practical steps anyone can take to position themselves for what’s coming next.

Enjoy this episode with the indomitable Annie Liao.

Useful links:

Build Club website

Annie Liao on LinkedIn

Interview

Ahead of the AI Curve – Jim Lecinski

September 8, 2025September 9, 2025
by Claire

Imagine you’re a marketing professor who saw the AI revolution coming years before ChatGPT hit the scene, wrote the definitive book on AI marketing in 2021, and now find yourself at the epicentre of one of the most dramatic transformations in history.

This is the very position this week’s guest, Jim Lecinski, finds himself in. Jim is a Clinical Professor of Marketing at Northwestern University’s prestigious Kellogg School of Management, where he teaches AI in Marketing and has won Professor of the Year.

Adding to Jim’s canny foresight is his prior, 13-year career as a VP at Google. As a result, Jim brings both the practitioner’s real-world experience and the academic’s analytical rigour to one of the most important questions facing leaders and marketers today: how do you harness AI not just for efficiency gains, but for genuine competitive advantage and growth?

In our conversation, you’ll also hear about:

Jim’s 2×2 framework for thinking strategically about AI applications in marketing
Use-case examples from brands such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and IKEA where AI is used to revolutionise everything from creative development to customer service
Why businesses need to prepare for the shift from search engine optimisation (SEO) to “generative engine optimisation” (GEO), and what that means practically
The emerging world of AI agents and how this will fundamentally change how we all shop, and
Jim’s essential learning resources for those who want to stay ahead of the curve.

We loved the way Jim shares his own wisdom and insights as well as sharing many examples of what market leaders are actually doing with AI.

We know you’ll enjoy this conversation with the whip-smart professor who saw the AI future ahead of the crowd.

Useful Links

Jim Lecinski on LinkedIn

AI Marketing Association

Marketing AI Institute

Andrew Ng’s AI for Everyone course on Coursera

Interview

AI Will Replace Jobs But …. – Peter Guagenti

July 9, 2025July 9, 2025
by Claire

This week we’re sharing an AI conversation many executives are afraid to have. Our guest, Peter Guagenti, CEO of agentic platform and AI agent builder, EverWorker, is one of those rare voices willing to say what others won’t: “AI will replace jobs”. Perhaps surprisingly, he goes on to explain why that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

While many in the industry underestimate or downplay AI’s capabilities, Peter speaks plainly about what he’s seeing happen right now in businesses across multiple industries.

Peter has been at the forefront of enterprise AI adoption for nearly a decade. Before EverWorker, he was President of TabNine, a pioneering AI code assistant, and he’s held leadership roles at major data infrastructure and dev tools companies including Cockroach Labs.

What you’ll hear Peter share in this episode:

Why job replacement fears are missing the bigger picture
Which “boring” businesses are actually leading early AI agent adoption
Skills you need to successfully implement AI for automation in any business
Why Peter calls AGI talk “nonsense” and what leaders should focus on instead, and
The one thing about AI’s future that genuinely worries him most.

Peter has a gift for cutting through the hype with plain talking, concrete examples and practical insights in an easy to understand way..

This is a refreshing and informative conversation for anyone wanting a glimpse into early adoption of AI agents and much more.

Enjoy this conversation with the plain-speaking and savvy Peter Guagenti.

Useful Links

EverWorker website

EverWorker AI Academy – free AI fundamentals course for business leaders