Early Adoptr: Simplifying AI For Founders & Small Businesses
Early Adoptr 76 episodes Nov 4, 2026
Early Adoptr is a weekly podcast for founders, entrepreneurs and small business owners who want practical ways to use AI in their businesses without a technical background. Hosts Jess and Kyle test AI tools, automations and workflows, answering questions about which tools are worth the time and money. Episodes cover topics like AI agents, open source models, vibe coding, AEO and agent harnesses, cutting through hype with plain-English explainers. The show combines honest tool tests, practical workflows and ideas for saving time, improving operations and making better decisions. New episodes appear weekly on all major podcast platforms.
Episodes
Personal AI Agents: Are Duet, Dots and Muse Worth the Hype or a Risk to Your Business?
Imagine opening your phone to find an AI personal assistant has checked your email, spotted work that needs chasing and prepared replies for you to approve. That’s the promise behind personal AI agents such as Meta’s Muse, Anthropic’s Duet and OpenAI’s Dots, but does the reality live up to the hype? And what do you hand over in return?These personal agents may have only been out for a few weeks, b
Jev AI: Can a Model That Can’t Write Save You Money?
What if the next AI model your business needs can’t write, chat, code or explain itself? Jev, the new AI model from San Francisco startup TypeSafe AI, picks from answers you provide. Could that make it useful for your business?Sorting support emails, flagging urgent requests and screening job applications can take hours every week, and paying a general chatbot to repeat those tasks can add up. Jev
Building Products with AI Without Losing Human Judgement | w/ Ben Bilbrough
AI makes it easier to build a product, change your mind and start again. But when you can turn an idea into something usable over a weekend, it’s easy to fall in love with what you’ve made before you’ve worked out whether anyone needs it.In this week’s episode, Jess and Kyle speak with serial founder Ben Bilbrough about building products with AI. His latest project, U26.vote, helps Americans under
Open Weight vs Open Source AI: What the Adobe Clones Mean for Your AI | Re-release
When does it make sense to stop renting your tools and start owning more of them?With the recent news that a developer used AI to create free open source versions of popular tools like Adobe’s Photoshop and Microsoft Word, we thought it was timely to re-release our episode on open weight models, because the concept is similar. Just like open source tools, open weight models can give your business
Which AI Model Should You Use? AI Model Families Explained
Every new AI model claims to be the best—but best at what? If you’re choosing between different AI model families, the newest and most powerful option may not be the right one for the job.As OpenAI and Anthropic release growing families of AI models, choosing the newest or most expensive option no longer guarantees the best result. Different models are now designed for complex reasoning, everyday
Has Claude’s Output Got Worse? Here’s What You Can Control | Re-release with Rob Webster
Claude’s output has felt harder to work with recently. It ignores instructions, produces overlong, overwritten answers and can get worse over a long conversation. But if you want to improve your AI output, the answer might just be sitting in your Documents folder.In this re-released episode, Jess and Kyle speak with Rob Webster, founder of TAU Marketing Solutions, about managing AI context. The to
How RAG Works: Turn Internal Knowledge Into Better AI Answers
Your business already has the answers. The problem is that nobody can find them. But RAG (retrieval-augmented generation), can help with that.In this week’s episode, Jess and Kyle unpack RAG — retrieval-augmented generation — the method that lets an AI model retrieve relevant information from a defined set of documents, databases or research before it generates an answer.From product information a
Beyond AI Slop: Generative AI, Taste & Creative Judgment (w/ Tom Evans)
Is AI making creative work better, or just making more of it?AI can now create ads, social posts, images and campaign ideas in seconds. But when everyone can produce polished content at scale, how do brands avoid generic AI output, and more importantly....still make work that actually stands out?In this episode of Early Adoptr, Jess and Kyle are joined by Tom Evans, founder of brand consultancy Bi
How AI Agents Can Model Your Business Before It Breaks (w/ Rich Welsh)
What if a digital twin could let you test a business decision before it disrupted your business? Once the preserve of robotics, manufacturing and supply chains, AI is helping digital twins become a practical way to model everyday business decisions, from whether your team can take on another client, what happens if a supplier fails, how a staff shortage affects a schedule, or where a production wo
What Is an AI Agent Harness? How Better AI Setup Makes Agents More Reliable
An AI agent harness may be the most important part of an AI tool you never see. Models get most of the attention, but the real difference often comes from everything around the model: what information it can access, which tools it can use and where people need to stay in control.In this week’s episode, Jess and Kyle unpack AI agent harnesses, the increasingly important setup behind AI agents. They
Open Weight AI Models: How to Cut Your Dependence on Big AI
Open weight AI models could give your business more control over AI costs, data privacy and the tools you depend on, but they also mean giving up some of the convenience of ChatGPT and Claude. So when does it make sense to stop renting your AI and start owning more of it?In this week's episode, Jess and Kyle get into what open weight models are, how they differ from closed models like ChatGPT and
AI Transparency Rules Are Here: What Small Businesses Need to Know About EU AI Act Article 50 (w/ Dr Barry Scannell)
The EU AI Act's Article 50 transparency rules are already in force, and they apply to your business whether you're in Dublin or Denver. But what does it actually mean? Do you need to label every piece of AI-generated content? Is your website chatbot regulated? And why is Anthropic watermarking Claude’s output?This week on Early Adoptr, Jess and Kyle are joined by Dr Barry Scannell, Partner at Iris
How to Be a Good Human in the Loop with AI
We talk a lot about keeping a human in the loop, but what does that actually mean in your day to day? You read the AI output, it looks right, you approve it, and you move on. But from late 2027 that might not be enough, because Article 14 of the EU AI Act comes into full enforcement.So what does it take to be a good human in the loop? You almost certainly have the skills already, and this episode
Local AI: How to Run Private, Low-Cost AI on Your Own Computer
What if your AI ran entirely on a laptop you own, added nothing to your monthly bill, and never sent your data anywhere? That's local AI. It might sound too good to be true, but as token costs climb and concerns about data privacy grow, local AI and small language models could be the solution.In this episode, Jess and Kyle get into what local AI actually is, why running smaller models on your own
Just Because You CAN Vibe Code....SHOULD You Vibe Code? (w/ Sean Bhardwaj)
Vibe coding can build you almost anything now. A customer database, a little internal tool, a whole CRM in an afternoon. But some of those things could land you in a world of GDPR pain, and one or two you should never build at all.In this final episode of the vibe coding series, Jess and Kyle are joined again by Sean Bhardwaj to work out where the line sits for a non-technical founder. They get in
Vibe Coding: What to Do After the App Is Built
So you've vibe coded an app....now what? Vibe coding gives almost anyone the ability to build a working app in an afternoon. In fact, around 63% of people building this way right now have no coding background at all. But once that app is live, the job of keeping it secure, monitored, and running for real users is as hard as it has always been, and if you don't know what you're looking for, you can
Agentic Loops: The Engine Behind Vibe Coding
Agentic loops are already running in your business. If you have given an AI tool a research question, walked away, and come back to a finished brief, you have used one. The same mechanism fires a payment reminder after checking whether an invoice has actually cleared, keeps Claude Code testing its own fix until the bug is gone, and sends meeting notes straight into your to-do list the moment a cal
Claude Code Without the Code: A Non-Developer's Week in Review (w/ Sean Bhardwaj)
Last week, Kyle and special guest Sean debated whether Claude Code is worth switching to if you don't know how to code. The answer was: it depends. So Sean spent the following week finding out. In this episode, it's the second part of our interview with Sean. Kyle and Sean to go through what actually happened when Sean used Claude Code for a week, including the modes that made Claude Code manageab
Claude Code vs Cowork: What Non-Technical Founders Need to Know (w/ Sean Bhardwaj)
If you use Cowork and talk to anyone slightly more technical about what you're doing with AI, you've probably heard it. "Just use Claude Code." Maybe more than once. And when you've tried to figure out whether that advice actually applies to you, the answers have been some version of "it depends." That's not helpful when you've never written a line of code and you're trying to make a sensible deci
Why Your AI Keeps Forgetting You, and the Folder That Fixes It (w/ Rob Webster)
AI has a memory problem. It is exceptionally capable within a session, helping you draft a pitch, review a contract, and write a client proposal in the same afternoon, but close the tab and it forgets everything. Open a new chat and you are back to square one, re-explaining who you are and what you do from scratch, every time, until it still never quite sounds like you.This week, Rob Webster, foun
Vibe Coding for Non-Technical Founders: Tools, Models, and How to Start
Vibe coding has made it possible to build working software without writing a line of code, and most non-technical founders haven't caught up with that yet. The assumption that you sketch something out with AI and then hand it to a developer is out of date for a lot of use cases. The tools have moved on, and this episode explains what that actually looks like now.Vibe coding was Collins Dictionary'
What's Really Holding Female Founders Back from Using AI? (w/ Nadia Koski and Stefanie Beach)
Women are adopting AI tools at a 25% lower rate than men. 33% of men use AI daily at work versus 27% of women. Men are 23% more likely to be encouraged by their managers to try it, and 27% more likely to be praised when they do.Most of the conversation about women's lower AI adoption rates focuses on what women need to do differently. Instead, we're looking at the conditions that produced the gap
Claude for Small Business: What Is It and Is It Worth It?
Claude for Small Business is Anthropic's answer to the admin pile that never goes away. If you're running a small business or startup, you already know the problem: you're the one doing payroll, chasing invoices, building proposals, and following up with leads who went quiet, all at once, all the time. Claude for Small Business doesn't fix all that, but it does something almost more useful: it run
Is AI Really Taking Jobs? The Economics Behind the Layoff Headlines
AI layoffs are dominating the news, but the story being told isn't the full story. When Meta announced 8,000 cuts, the coverage landed the same way it always does. But Meta's savings from those cuts amount to roughly £3 billion, and their AI infrastructure spend this year runs to multiples of that. So what's actually going on?In this episode, Jess and Kyle work through the real economics behind th
A Year in AI: What Changed, What We Got Wrong, and What's Coming Next
A year in AI doesn't feel like a normal year, it feels like about five. The AI landscape has shifted faster in the last twelve months than most businesses could track, let alone act on. For Early Adoptr's first anniversary, we're taking the opportunity to map what actually changed: the model landscape, the rise of MCP, what happened to agents, and what's worth paying attention to in the next twelv
What Should You Actually Be Asking About AI?
Most people start their AI journey by asking how to save time. That is not a wrong question — but Anthropic's latest research, based on open-ended interviews with over 81,000 Claude users across 159 countries, suggests it may not be the most important one.The most commonly reported productivity gain in the study was not speed. It was scope. Not doing existing work faster, but doing things that you
What It Really Takes to Move Your Team Forward With AI (w/ Rob Webster)
This is the second part of our interview with Rob Webster, who has spent over 20 years in media and marketing, ran data and technology at MediaCom for some of the world's biggest brands, built and sold a MarTech and AdTech consultancy, and now works with enterprise businesses on how they actually adopt AI.In this episode, Jess and Kyle talk to Rob about everything from navigating the messy middle
Stop Building AI Agents the Hard Way: Lessons from 25 Years in AI (w/ Rob Webster)
It's here! The culmination of our series on agents, and if you've ever wondered how to make the most of the AI agents in your business (without a huge budget or a team of developers), this is the episode for you.This week on Early Adoptr, we are joined by Rob Webster, who has spent 25 years working at the intersection of data, machine learning, and marketing, including working on data and technolo
AI Agents Explained Through One Real Business Use Case
A new client signs...congrats, you're excited! And then the onboarding begins process with all the tedious tasks: folder creation, the welcome email, the kickoff scheduling, the project setup, the intake form you'll need to chase twice. None of it is difficult, all of it takes time, and it always seems to happen at the exact moment you're least available to do it well.This week on Early Adoptr, we
AI Agent Frameworks Explained: The Five Things Every Agent System Needs
Most business owners have heard the word "framework" thrown around a lot lately and filed it under "probably technical, not my problem." In this episode, we make the case that it is your problem, not because you need to build one, but because understanding what a framework actually does is what helps you evaluate any agent tool being pitched to you, spot where an agentic workflow is likely to brea
What Is an AI Agent? A Plain-English Guide for Business Owners
"AI Agent" has become one of those phrases that means everything and nothing depending on who's using it. It gets attached to basic customer service bots, to tools running overnight making business decisions, and to everything in between. And then there's "agentic AI," which most people use interchangeably with "AI agent" but shouldn't. If you've been nodding along while wondering what actually se
Claude Skills Explained: How to Stop Repeating Yourself in Every Session
Claude Skills is one of the most useful features available to Claude users right now, and solves something that you almost definitely have encountered.You start a new conversation, and Claude has no idea how you like things done. You end up re-explaining your tone, pasting in your brand guidelines, or manually correcting the output back into something that actually sounds like you. Every. Single.
Model Context Protocol (MCP): How to Connect AI to Your Business Tools Safely
MCP — Model Context Protocol — is the AI infrastructure that's quickly becoming the key layer underneath almost every serious AI setup. It's a big part of why AI is shifting from something where you copy and paste from one tab to the other, to something that actually can act on your behalf, and is the foundation that makes agentic AI possible.Last week in part one of this series, we covered the wh
Model Context Protocol (MCP) for Business Owners: Pros, Cons and What It Is
MCP — Model Context Protocol — is the open standard that is quickly becoming the infrastructure layer underneath almost every serious AI tool you will encounter in 2026. It's one of the main reasons that AI is shifting from something you consult to something that acts on your behalf. And like most big developments in this space, it has arrived with both significant opportunity and risks.In this ep
How to Use OpenClaw Without Wrecking Your Digital Life: We Tested OpenClaw So You Don't Have To
OpenClaw is one of the biggest AI stories of the year, and it is generating equal parts excitement and concern. Unlike every other AI tool you have probably used, it does not just respond to questions...it takes action. In this episode, Kyle and Jess get into what OpenClaw actually is, why the use cases are compelling enough that people are buying spare laptops just to run it, but (most impor
So You're Thinking of Breaking Up with ChatGPT: A Practical Guide to the Alternatives
The QuitGPT movement has been spreading across Reddit and Instagram, with people canceling their ChatGPT subscriptions for reasons ranging from political concerns to product frustration to simple curiosity about what else is out there. Whatever you think of the movement itself, it has done something actually useful: it has made a lot of people stop and ask whether ChatGPT is actually the best tool
The AI Adoption Gap: Why Some Businesses Are Pulling Ahead and How to Catch Up
A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research made headlines with a blunt claim: AI has had no measurable impact on productivity. Kyle and guest co-host Sean (filling in for Jess) do what most people never bother to do...they actually read the full 70-page report! What they find is far more interesting, and far more useful, than the headline suggests.Here's what the headline buried: fi
Claude Cowork Explained: Can AI Really Organize Your Files and Data?
Claude Cowork is generating serious buzz as Anthropic's latest feature, but the name undersells what it actually does. This isn't collaboration software, it's a desktop AI agent that can read, create, edit, organize, and manage files on your local computer through plain English instructions.In this episode, Kyle and guest co-host Sean break down what Claude Cowork actually is, how it works, and wh
Understanding ChatGPT Apps: Where They Help, Where They Don’t, and Why
ChatGPT “apps” have been getting a ton of hype since OpenAI opened submissions in December. The pitch is simple: this is the iPhone App Store moment for AI — build once, tap into hundreds of millions of users, and ride the distribution wave.In this episode, Jess and Kyle unpack what ChatGPT apps actually are (and what they aren’t). They break down the difference between apps, plugins, and custom G
Market Research on a Startup Budget : When to Trust Synthetic Data
Synthetic data is often pitched as a shortcut around slow, expensive market research. In this episode, we break down when that promise holds, and when it falls apart.This week, we welcome our guest Lee Henshaw, founder and AI marketing guru, to share how he actually uses synthetic respondents in real business decisions. From testing pricing and sales messaging to simulating focus groups of UK medi
Synthetic Data Without the Hype: Practical Uses and Real Risks
Synthetic data is being pitched as the end of slow, expensive market research. And in some cases, it really can help: it’s useful for testing systems safely, generating options quickly, and reducing the cost of experimentation, especially for small teams.But “synthetic data” is used to describe two very different things. One is synthetic datasets (fake-but-realistic data for testing and privacy).
AI Video Tools Explained: Best Use Cases, Limits, and Risks
AI video tools like Sora 2 and Nano Banana are finally crossing a line that earlier generations couldn’t: they don’t feel creepy anymore, and in some cases, they actually work! But “looking impressive” and “being useful” are two very different things.In this episode, we break down where AI video actually makes sense for founders (think: fast prototyping, early-stage demos, internal storytelling),
The AI Bubble Question: Hype, ROI, and the Future of Tech
We're back from the holidays, and we've got a doozy of an episode. The stock market is betting everything on AI, but many organizations are still struggling to turn it into real results. So what’s actually going on?In this episode of Early Adopter, Jess and Kyle welcome back Rich Welsh (founder, tech advisor, and VC investor) to unpack one of the biggest questions in tech right now: Is AI an overi
Holiday Rewind: Getting Cited, Not Ranked: A Practical Guide to AEO
60% of searches now end without a click. If you’re still optimizing for Google rankings while your competitors are getting cited by ChatGPT, you’re already behind.We originally released this as a two-part series, but AEO is more urgent than ever. With Buy in ChatGPT and the rise of conversational commerce (see our previous episodes on this), the end game is clear: search → recommendation → checko
Holiday Rewind: Your Laptop Can Run AI Now? Small Language Models (SLMs) 101
We’re off for the holidays, so this is a re-release + stitched double-episode focused on Small Language Models (SLMs) and how to actually use them.Kyle and Jess get hands-on with SLMs, showing you how to set up a private, local AI that runs on your laptop, and why that can be a smarter move than relying on cloud models for everything. If one episode is the “why” (specialist vs. generalist, cost, p
Holiday Rewind: How to Get AI to Actually Do What You Want - Prompt Engineering That Doesn't Suck
We're off for the holidays so this is a re-release of one of our most popular episodes. Kyle and Jess completely overhaul their most popular episode on prompt engineering, because GPT-5 isn't just faster than GPT-4 - it's fundamentally different. It follows instructions with "surgical precision," handles 800 pages of context at once, and will get confused if you give it contradictory prompts that
Your IP in the AI Era: What Disney's Deal with Sora Means for Founders & SMBs
Last week, Disney announced a billion-dollar deal with OpenAI to license 200+ characters into Sora. Everyone's treating this as Hollywood drama, but what Disney actually did is show every IP-based company, whether you're a global studio or a solo creator, the exact playbook for navigating AI. This week, we brought in our friend Rich Welsh to break it down from every angle at once. He's a Hollywood
The Vibe Coding Playbook: What to Use, What to Skip, and How to Dodge the Pitfalls
Last week, we broke down what vibe coding is. This week, we break down the only question anyone actually cares about: “Okay… so what tool do I use?”The vibe coding ecosystem has gone crazy in the last 12 months, and the amount of choice is overwhelming.But here’s the real ones know: The tool matters way less than your structure....And that’s what this episode is really about. In this episode, we t
The End of Coding As We Know It? A Deep Dive Into Vibe Coding
Everyone keeps saying AI is transforming software development, but the real story is how vibe coding is quietly rewriting who gets to build in the first place. Over the past year, AI coding tools have gone from cute party tricks to fully agentic systems that can read your entire codebase, plan out multi-step tasks, and scaffold an entire app from a single prompt.But here’s the part that isn’t gett
How to Prepare Your Business for AI Agents: A Practical Playbook
In part two of our deep dive into agentic commerce, Jess brings back her colleague Nathalie Lethbridge to answer the question every SMB is asking: How do I prepare for a world where AI agents are the middlemen between customers and products?Last week, we explored the power struggle between Amazon's walled garden and OpenAI/Perplexity's open-web vision. This week, we get tactical. Nathalie walks th
Why Amazon, Google, and OpenAI Are Fighting Over Your Next Purchase
The agentic shopping wars are here. And nobody's paying attention yet.Amazon just sued Perplexity. Google just launched agentic shopping. OpenAI is rewriting how commerce works...all of it is aimed at the holiday season, and all of it means something fundamental about e-commerce is about to shift.But here's what's getting lost in the headlines: this isn't just about the tech. It's a legal story ab
AI Can't Even Do 3% of Your Job - So Why Are Companies Laying Employees Off?
The narrative is everywhere: AI is coming for your job. But here's what nobody's talking about. The data shows AI can't even complete 3% of professional tasks yet. So why are companies laying people off left and right? In this episode, Jess and Kyle untangle the messiest contradiction in tech: the gap between what AI companies claim their systems can do and what actually happens when they hit real
How Conversational Commerce Will Change How We Shop
Your entire e-commerce experience is about to change. OpenAI's "Buy with ChatGPT," introduced at the end of September, isn't just a shopping feature. It's the beginning of a complete overhaul of how digital commerce works.For the past 20 years, discovery, curation, and transaction have been fragmented across platforms, but now all of that is collapsing into one place.In this episode, Jess and Kyle
Atlas Has Entered the Chat: What AI Browsers Mean for Business
AI browsers are here, and they could completely reshape how we use the internet.OpenAI’s Atlas just launched, instantly putting Google on defense and kicking off Browser Wars 2.0. But this time, it’s not about speed or design—it’s about who controls your digital gateway and the data that powers it.In this episode, Jess and Kyle break down how Atlas works, what it means for privacy, the rise of age
AI Scepticism Is Growing: How to Keep Building When the Hype Wears Off
From LinkedIn posts about abandoned pilots to earnings calls where CEOs walking back their AI promises on earnings calls, are we witnessing the crash after the hype? Welcome to the Trough of Disillusionment – and it might be the best thing that's happened to AI.This isn't the death of artificial intelligence. It's the birth of something sustainable. While media headlines turn negative and executiv
AI Slop: How Low-Quality AI Content is Breaking the Internet (And Costing Businesses Millions)
The internet is drowning in AI-generated garbage. From Meta's Vibes to Sora 2 to that clearly ChatGPT generated email from your colleague, businesses are losing an estimated $9 million per 1,000 employees annually to low-quality AI content cluttering their workflows.This isn't about AI being bad. It's about automation without oversight creating an exponential pollution problem that's actively degr
The Complete AEO Toolkit (AEO Part 2: On-Site, Off-Site & Metrics)
OpenAI just launched "Buy It in ChatGPT" - letting users complete purchases without ever visiting your website. If you're not cited by AI engines, you don't just lose traffic. You lose the entire sale.This is Part 2 of our Answer Engine Optimization series. Last week we covered why AEO matters. This week, we're getting tactical. We break down the exact three-pillar framework you need: on-site opti
Getting Your Business Into the AI Conversation (AEO Strategy Guide)
60% of searches now end without a click. If you're still optimizing for Google rankings while your competitors are getting cited by ChatGPT, you're already behind.Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) - also known as GEO, GSO, AIO - is fundamentally changing how customers find businesses. Instead of ranking #1 on Google, you need to become the source that AI engines quote when someone asks a question.
AI Hallucinations: Why AI Lies With Complete Confidence (And How to Minimise the Risk)
In this episode, Kyle and Jess tackle the elephant in the room that's sabotaging AI implementations everywhere: AI hallucinations. If you've ever wondered why ChatGPT confidently tells you complete nonsense, or why that "perfect" AI-generated content turned into a business nightmare, this episode breaks down exactly what's happening under the hood and gives you tips and strategies to help minimise
Your Business Data is Messier Than You Think (And Why That Kills AI)
In this episode, Kyle and Jess continue their deep dive with data veteran Eric Callahan, exposing the truth about how most businesses actually handle their data. It's messier than you think, and that's exactly why your AI initiatives keep failing.Eric talks us through his "duct tape analogy" - a brutally honest take on why most companies are digital Frankensteins, we get real about technical debt,
The 5-Minute Data Fix That Prevents AI Disasters
In this episode of Early Adoptr, Kyle and Jess bust the biggest AI myth of all: “We don’t have enough data.” The truth? You’re already swimming in it. From emails to spreadsheets to customer conversations, every business has more than enough information to start building AI-powered insights.To prove it, they bring in data veteran Eric, who’s spent 15+ years cleaning up messy data for startups and
Business Data for AI: How to Turn Customer Emails and Invoices Into Competitive Advantage
In this episode, Kyle and Jess tackle the biggest myth in AI adoption: "I don't have enough data." The reality? Every business owner is sitting on a goldmine of untapped information - they just don't know how to see it or use it. From email threads to customer support tickets to that "Bible spreadsheet" you've been updating for three years, your business is generating incredible amounts of data ev
How to Get AI to Actually Do What You Want - Prompt Engineering That Doesn't Suck: Electric Boogaloo
In this episode, Kyle and Jess are completely overhaul their most popular episode on prompt engineering, because GPT-5 isn't just faster than GPT-4 - it's fundamentally different. It follows instructions with "surgical precision," handles 800 pages of context at once, and will get confused if you give it contradictory prompts that older models would just ignore. Not to mention there's been a whole
Your Laptop Can Run AI Now? Testing Small Language Models So You Don't Have To
In this episode, Kyle and Jess get hands-on with Small Language Models (SLMs) - showing you exactly how to set up your own private AI that runs entirely on your laptop. If last week was the "why," this week is all about the "how," complete with real business use cases and a step-by-step quick win you can try today.We dive deep into LM Studio, walk through analyzing business documents without sendi
Small Language Models 101: Why Bigger Isn't Always Better in AI
In this episode, Kyle and Jess explore the world of Small Language Models (SLMs) - the focused, cost-effective AI alternatives that might be perfect for your small business. While everyone's talking about expensive enterprise AI solutions, we dive into why smaller, specialized models could be the smarter choice for most business owners.We break down what Small Language Models actually are (hin
ChatGPT Agent Review: We Tested OpenAI's New AI Assistant So You Don't Have To
In this episode, Kyle and Jess dive deep into OpenAI's much-hyped ChatGPT Agent feature - and spoiler alert: the reality doesn't quite match the marketing. After Kyle spent a week testing everything from flight booking to DMV appointments, we deliver our take on what works, what doesn't, and why you probably shouldn't connect your email just yet.We also cover some critical AI news
Minimum Viable AI Policy: The Framework Every Business Needs in 2025
In this episode, it's the final part of our three-part series with Sean Bhardwaj from Breakthrough Growth Partners. If you missed parts one and two, we highly recommend going back to listen - they set the foundation for today's practical framework.This week, we're diving into the solution: how to actually create an AI policy framework that protects your business while enabling confiden
The Ultimate Guide to AI Pitfalls And the Framework to Avoid Them (with Sean Bhardwaj)
In this episode, it's part two of a three-part series with Sean Bhardwaj from Breakthrough Growth Partners. If you missed part one, we highly recommend going back to listen - it sets the foundation for today's discussion.This week, we're tackling the uncomfortable truth about AI adoption: why most AI initiatives fail (it's usually not because of the technology itself!). Sean brea
Building AI Guardrails That Actually Work (with Sean Bhardwaj)
Jess and Kyle are joined by their first guest, Sean Bhardwaj from Breakthrough Growth Partners! This is part one of a two-part series that dives deep into AI transformation and policy fundamentals, and honestly, it's the conversation every business owner needs to hear right now. Spoiler alert: your team is already using AI tools whether you know it or not, and it's time to get strategic a
Welcome to Early Adoptr
Meet the hosts of Early Adoptr, Jess and Kyle. We're here to make AI your unfair advantage. Get in touch with Early Adoptr: hello@earlyadoptr.aiFollow Us on Socials & Resources:IG: https://instagram.com/early_adoptrTikTok: https://tiktok.com/@early_adoptrYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@early_adoptrSubstack: https://substack.com/@earlyadoptrpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for m
The Elephant in the Room: AI Ethics Every Business Owner Must Know in 2025
Welcome to the episode where Jess and Kyle finally tackle the elephant in the room! This is a long, but very important one. While they've been showing you all the amazing ways AI can supercharge your business, this week they're diving deep into the ethical implications that every entrepreneur needs to understand. Spoiler alert: AI ethics isn't just about doing the right thing (though t
AI Agents in Action: Real Examples, Real Frameworks, Real Fun-gents (?)
In this episode, Jess and Kyle dive deep into real-world AI agent use cases, moving beyond theory to show you how you can create an AI agent today. They share their framework for identifying which tasks should become agents (versus simple automations), walk through actual examples they've built, and introduce the concept of "fun-gents" - low-stakes AI projects perfect for beginners. Plus, they cov
AI Agents vs Agentic AI: Why Everyone's Getting It Wrong
In this episode of Early Adoptr, Jess returns from the scorching Cannes Lions with insights on how AI is transforming advertising and business. She and Kyle break down the critical difference between AI agents and agentic AI - two terms everyone's using interchangeably but shouldn't be. From real-world examples at Cannes to building personal assistant workflows, they explore the ladder of AI auton
Stop Googling, Start Deep Researching: Deep Research Tools 101
In this episode, Jess and Kyle deep dive into deep research - the game-changing tools that can turn you into an expert on any topic before your morning coffee. We'll help you discover how to get PhD-level insights without the PhD-level time investment. Plus, we share our first user user case, break down this week's biggest AI news including OpenAI's data retention drama, Meta's big AI investment,
Beyond Basic AI: How Custom GPTs Can Help Your Business
In this episode, Jess and Kyle talk AI at SXSW London, and we do a deep dive in Custom GPTs, aka specialized AI assistants that can revolutionize how small businesses operate. We talk about how Mary Meeker’s AI report and Meta’s AI ad creation will affect small businesses and entrepreneurs, as well as the cautionary tale of Builder.ai. [00:00] Intro[00:50] Welcome to Episode 4: What we've been up
How to Get AI to Actually Do What You Want: Prompt Engineering That Doesn't Suck
In this episode of Early Adopter, hosts Jess and Kyle dive deep into the game-changing world of AI prompt engineering - and trust us, this isn't just another tech tutorial! They share their hard-won insights on how to actually talk to AI tools in ways that get you amazing results (spoiler: most people are doing it completely wrong). From the universal truths of prompting to avoiding the pitfal
Where Do I Even Begin? Your First Steps with AI Tools for Business Success
In this episode of Early Adopter, Jess and Kyle launch their new beginner-focused series "Where Do I Even Begin?" They break down what Large Language Models (LLMs) are, explain the core AI tools available today, and provide a comprehensive comparison of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, DeepSeek, and Grok. The hosts also dive deep into Google's massive I/O 2025 announcements that
Hello, World! Introducing Early Adoptr: The AI Podcast for Founders and Small Business Owners
In the inaugural episode of Early Adoptr, hosts Jess and Kyle introduce their mission to make AI practical and accessible for small business owners and entrepreneurs. They share their backgrounds, discuss the rapid evolution of AI technology, and emphasize the importance of community engagement. The episode covers various topics, including the role of AI in small businesses, listener feedback on d
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