We're going live on November 11!

Henrik will be interviewing Jeremy about his new book, The Human Advantage: What AI Can't Do Without You, followed by a 45-minute AMA.
Got questions about AI, entrepreneurship, writing, or anything we've talked about on the pod? Come join us!

Here's how to join:
Pre-order Jeremy's book and send your receipt to preorders@jeremyutley.com to get your Zoom access code.

Pre-order the book here: The Human Advantage

Hope to see you there!

For more prompts, tips, and AI tools. Check out our website: https://www.beyondtheprompt.ai/ or follow Jeremy or Henrik on Linkedin:

Henrik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/werdelin
Jeremy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyutley

Show edited by Emma Cecilie Jensen.

After 15 years of building Zapier, Wade Foster is inviting his team to rethink almost everything. What started as a “code red” response to AI has become an opportunity to rediscover what the company could be. Wade describes the feeling as “10 out of 10 anxiety, but 10 out of 10 fun.” The challenge is getting an entire organization to see the possibilities, especially when change can feel threatening.

Wade shares what this looks like inside Zapier, including an experiment to let AI agents handle customer support emails. It turns out that handing work over to AI is much harder than simply adding an assistant to an existing process. The team has spent months figuring out how to make it work, with humans still playing an important role.

Henrik, Jeremy, and Wade also explore what it takes to thrive when the old rules no longer apply. They discuss curiosity, resourcefulness, and the instinct to act instead of waiting for instructions. And while Wade is giving his team permission to question everything, the conversation raises a harder question: how do you get people to challenge the way things have always been done when that's exactly what they've been taught to follow?

Key Takeaways

• The work is changing, even when the jobs aren't disappearing.
  Henrik and Jeremy reflect on Wade's point that AI doesn't necessarily make a role obsolete, but it can fundamentally change what people do in that role.
• Resourcefulness is becoming a superpower.
  Henrik and Jeremy discuss why curiosity, adaptability, and the willingness to act without all the answers are increasingly valuable. Sometimes the most important step is realizing you can just build something.
• Question everything, but bring a better idea.
  Henrik points out that challenging the way things have always been done is only useful if you're willing to suggest or try something different.
• You can't refound a company by announcement alone.
  Jeremy wonders how leaders can make questioning old assumptions part of everyday work. He and Henrik explore why established habits, defaults, and organizational structures can be harder to change than the rules themselves.

Wade's LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/wadefoster
Wade's X: X.com/wadefoster
Zapier: Zapier.com
Wade's articles: Zapier.com/wadefoster

00:00 Intro: The Work Is Changing
00:48 Meet Wade Foster
04:49 Is Your Strategy Too Small for AI?
06:14 From Code Red to Refounding Zapier
07:31 10/10 Anxiety, 10/10 Fun
08:50 How Much Has AI Actually Changed?
10:41 Getting People Excited About AI
13:56 Why Jobs Are Changing
15:34 Rethinking How Work Gets Done
16:39 Inside Zapier's AI Support Experiment
20:14 When Existing Workflows Break
21:45 Identity, Curiosity, and Adaptability
25:36 The Instinct to Act Without All the Answers
29:39 Stop Waiting for an Assignment
33:28 You Can Just Build Something
34:43 What Does Refounding Actually Mean?
36:40 Giving People Direction Without All the Rules
38:36 The Future of Automation at Zapier
39:18 Wade's Advice for Refounding a Company
41:45 What Would a New CEO Do?
43:23 The Debrief

For more prompts, tips, and AI tools. Check out our website: https://www.beyondtheprompt.ai/ or follow Jeremy or Henrik on Linkedin:

Henrik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/werdelin
Jeremy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyutley

Show edited by Emma Cecilie Jensen.

Nicholas Skytland spent 25 years at NASA, where he helped bring people from around the world together through hackathons. He joins Henrik and Jeremy to share what makes hackathons work, why different perspectives matter, and how to help people through the moment they want to give up.

Nick is now bringing that approach to kids. When his wife wanted to run an AI hackathon at her school, restrictions on AI tools led Nick and his team to build Launch.Kids. At one event, 36 teams created 500 applications in a single day.

Try Launch.Kids: If you're a student, parent, or teacher interested in learning how to build with AI, we'd love for you to try out Launch.Kids, mentioned on the show. The first 100 listeners can sign up at https://launch.kids/welcome/beyondtheprompt for a free month of credit.

The conversation then turns to a bigger question: how well do we really know our own values? Nick, Henrik and Jeremy explore how to communicate what matters to us when working with AI, and why we shouldn't hand over our judgment just because technology makes it easy.

Key Takeaways

• Hackathons are an underused tool
  Henrik and Jeremy reflect on how hackathons bring different people together, encourage experimentation, and create value even when they don't lead to a finished product.
• Expect the moment of despair
  Getting stuck is part of building something new. Nick explains why good hackathons need mentors, encouragement, and a bit of fun to help people push through it.
• The better you know yourself, the better you can use AI
  Henrik and Jeremy discuss why understanding your own values, preferences, and ways of thinking helps you give AI better direction and recognize when its answers don't fit.
• Don't let AI do all the thinking for you
  AI can make decisions easier, but that doesn't mean we should stop questioning its answers. Henrik and Jeremy reflect on the importance of bringing our own judgment to the conversation, especially when we're dealing with something we don't know much about.

Launch.Kids: Launch.Kids
Nicholas' LinkedIn: LinkedIn/NicholasSkytland

00:00 Intro: Don't Outsource Your Judgment to AI
00:20 Meet Nicholas Skytland
00:46 How NASA Opened Up Innovation
03:45 Measuring the ROI of Hackathons
05:04 Getting Past the Barriers to Open Innovation
07:51 Bringing Hackathons to Kids
09:19 Building Launch.Kids
14:44 Why “Just Play With AI” Isn't Enough
18:19 The Moment of Despair
21:36 How to Run a Hackathon
23:39 The Process, Not the Product
25:56 Inside Anthropic's Gathering of Faith Leaders
31:33 Be an Active Shaper of AI
34:36 Can AI learn good judgement?
39:00 Who Gets to Decide What's Good?
42:40 Communicating Your Values to AI
44:25 Don't Outsource Your Judgment
46:42 Henrik's Personal AI Playbook
51:10 The Debrief

For more prompts, tips, and AI tools. Check out our website: https://www.beyondtheprompt.ai/ or follow Jeremy or Henrik on Linkedin:

Henrik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/werdelin
Jeremy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyutley

Show edited by Emma Cecilie Jensen.