After 25+ years in IT, Chuck shares his unfiltered 2-year AI journey—from skeptic to AI-first. Why 2026 is the year IT professionals can't afford to wait on AI experimentation.

It's December 31st, 2025—the last day of the year and the final episode of 2025 for The IT XP. Chuck gets personal about his two-year journey with AI, from initial skepticism to becoming AI-first in his workflow and content creation.

This isn't a polished how-to guide. It's an honest account of experimentation, failures, and lessons learned across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, RunwayML, ElevenLabs, Sora, and emerging agentic AI tools.

🎯 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

- Why experienced IT professionals (25+ years) bring irreplaceable value in an AI-augmented world
- The real difference between generative AI and agentic AI—and what it means for your career
- How to overcome AI hesitation and start experimenting (even if you're skeptical)
- Corporate Hardcore case study: Building a content brand using AI-generated characters and video
- Coco Live case study: Managing a high-volume TikTok account with AI automation
- The "clarity principle"—why AI reflects your thinking, not replaces it
- Custom instructions mastery: How to make AI tools actually useful for your specific needs
- Why your judgment becomes MORE valuable, not less, as AI adoption increases

🔥 KEY INSIGHTS:

"AI didn't replace me. It freed me to do the work only I can do."

Chuck breaks down the 70/30 rule: AI handles 70% of repetitive work, but the last 30%—judgment, context, validation—is where experienced IT professionals prove their value.

⚠️ THE HARD TRUTHS:

- Organizations are experimenting with "AI" solutions that aren't actually leveraging AI effectively
- Instant gratification culture is killing long-term skill development
- Junior engineers don't know what they don't know—experience matters more in an AI world
- In 2025, not using AI doesn't make you cautious. It makes you slow.

📊 2026 PREDICTIONS:

1. AI agents go mainstream (it's already happening—Microsoft Ignite was wall-to-wall agents)
2. The IT skills gap flips: Demand shifts from cloud engineers to "AI orchestrators" who can direct AI to solve ops problems
3. Regulatory scrutiny intensifies: "The AI did it" won't fly in regulated industries

💪 THE CHALLENGE:

Start January 2nd. Pick ONE task you hate. Let AI take the first pass. You'll either save time or learn something. Either way, you're building the skill that matters most in the next decade.

This is a passion-driven episode from someone who's been in the trenches for 25+ years and sees the writing on the wall: experienced IT professionals have a choice. Adapt and leverage AI, or become "too expensive" without demonstrating new value.

🎙️ ABOUT THE IT XP:

10 years of unfiltered career advice, technology insights, and experience points for IT professionals. Not looking for top 10 podcast status—just trying to help one person avoid the mistakes Chuck made over 25+ years in corporate IT.

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🔗 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

- Corporate Hardcore (@CorpHardcore on TikTok) - Chuck's AI-generated corporate satire series
- Coco Live Highlights (@cocolivehighlights on TikTok) - High-volume content automation case study
- Tools covered: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, RunwayML, ElevenLabs, Sora, MCP servers

📅 Next Episode: Coming in 2026

If this resonated, share it with one IT professional still on the fence about AI. Let's make 2026 the year IT stops reacting and starts building.

After 17 years at a large utility company managing decade-long waterfall projects, Don Freeman made a radical pivot into the fast-paced world of Web3 startups—without ever applying for the job. In this episode of The IT XP, Don shares how his contributions to the Ethereum Foundation's web3.py library caught SonarX's attention and led to a complete career transformation.

We explore the stark contrast between enterprise and startup life, from 10-year projects to 10-day sprints, and why Don believes your GitHub commits might be worth more than your next certification. This isn't about quitting your job for crypto—it's about the power of learning in public and taking initiative.

Key Takeaways:

• The shift from 10-year waterfall projects to 10-day startup sprints (06:49)
• How documentation PRs evolved into a job offer from SonarX (04:30)
• Why "I've never found something I couldn't dig into and learn" is the ultimate career philosophy (07:42)
• The real difference between enterprise "decision trees" and startup autonomy (24:15)
• Why crossing team boundaries is the question enterprise people are afraid to ask (41:31)

About Don Freeman: Don Freeman is a software engineer who transitioned from designing power lines and managing enterprise systems at a utility company to contributing to open source Web3 projects. His journey from Linux enthusiast in the '90s to startup engineer showcases the power of continuous learning and public contribution.

Connect with Don:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-freeman/

GitHub: https://github.com/dbfreem

A 2025 Deloitte survey of 23,000 workers across 44 countries found only 6% of Gen Z aspire to senior leadership. Chuck—upper-middle management for over a decade—unpacks the real math behind the 94% rejection rate, shares war stories on emotional labor, and previews next week's dive into AI replacing managers entirely. Homework: map your role to IC vs. management paths and share what you find.