The World AI Summit with Peter Cobabe | The AI Work Revolution Is Here

Full video transcript

People are asking, “How can I use AI to drive even more efficiency than I ever could before?” Darby here with Gen AI University, and today I am joined with Peter Cobabe, who is one of the co-hosts of the upcoming World AI Summit, the inaugural summit here, live, Austin, Texas, June 6 through 8. It’s going to be a big crowd, great speakers, going to be a fun time if you are interested in integrating AI into your business, into your work. Peter, thanks for hopping on here and being open to sharing a little bit more about the upcoming event. I’m super excited.

Yeah, you bet, Darby. Thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here with you guys, a pleasure to share what we’re doing at the World AI Summit in Austin this year. Kind of the seed that really brought it into being is that we wanted to get in the room, we wanted to learn from these people too. There’s so much happening with AI that is transforming the way we’re doing our work, the way we’re being productive, the way we’re making decisions, that we wanted to learn directly from those who were doing it, who are using AI inside of their business to generate impact, to generate results, and we wanted to get them to show us what their secrets are, what they’re doing, what’s going on behind the scenes that’s actually giving them an advantage and an edge. We convinced a large group of them to come and share with everybody else. A little bit of selfishness here, but also an opportunity for all of us to learn.

Yeah, and I’m grateful to be a part of the speaker list and be able to present on stage on some of the stuff we’re doing, but also the lineup that you guys have is top-notch, some great speakers that, just from the ones I know personally, are actively doing this stuff, which I think the insights and experience from being on the front lines in the weeds with these tools changes so much. So what was hot and new a couple months ago, it takes time for that stuff to make its way onto the internet, and you put together courses and programs and try to learn it, and then all of a sudden the game has changed and shifted. So real-time learning and knowing what’s happening right now, and how we can apply this today to win and get that edge, is so critical, and being able to move fast. What are some of the things that people can expect to learn from these speakers, from the range of folks that are going to be there? I know a handful myself, but there are others I’ll be learning from as well at this stage. So I’m curious what you’re most excited for hearing about at the summit.

Great question. I’d say there are a few buckets we’ve focused on, and then a bunch of details within each one. The first bucket is really operational excellence — people are asking how can I use AI to drive even more efficiency than I ever could before, so we’re learning things like how to generate content at scale and at light speed, how to edit and work with video content, and create videos faster than we have before. Another area is decision intelligence — how can I make better decisions faster with AI than I used to be able to, so we’ll be learning about how to think in AI, how to anticipate what’s coming, and set your business up so that you can actually adapt to these changes as they happen in real time. And then even how to create next-level impact — how can AI really position us for unprecedented opportunities inside of our organization, like building custom tools, integrating AI into different components of your business, being able to predict market trends and sort of skate where the puck is. I hope that gives some insight into some of the things we’ll be talking about.

Yeah, and I think the last thing you said there about skating where the puck is, is a really important point I’d love to talk more about, because of how fast AI moves in this landscape, and it’s hard to predict where things are going to go. So can you share a little more about, when you think about skating where the puck is, even between now and the time of this recording to the summit to maybe a few months after, do you see trends from your perspective about where business owners today, 2024 May-June time frame, where do you see the opportunity right now for business owners to look ahead to where that puck is going?

Totally, another great question. When I think about this stuff, I think about the linear versus exponential curve. It’s very logical for us to think in linear, additive, logical steps that increase — plus one, plus one, plus one — that’s natural for us. The truth is this technology is on an exponential curve, where those growth lines are actually logarithmic or multiplicative, when it comes to additive technology. So when we explore how my business can skate to where the puck is, we start to look at how can I start thinking exponentially, or more importantly, how can I actually connect the value delivery that my business is engaged in to these technologies so that I can actually receive the benefits of those evolutions. A small example of where we’ve done this in the past is, my partner Joshua and I were working on custom copywriting tools for our website and marketing with AI, and we were working on the GPT-3 models. When GPT-4 came out, we had engineered all sorts of prompts and created all sorts of structures giving us results we found to be good, but when GPT-4 was released, we made one shift to one line of code inside our software, and suddenly all of our results got ten times better than they were the day before. So we want to look at how we can position our organizations, position our strategies, so that as these technologies are going through their exponential evolutions, we’re actually benefiting from and riding those waves. That’s one of the ways we approach skating where the puck is and anticipating what’s coming.

You mentioned your company, Real Time, just prior to us hopping on this call, with Joshua — how long have you been working with that business, what does it do, and maybe what’s an example of how you’re using that as a business to help with what you’re doing day-to-day with AI? I know a little bit about it, but I’d love to hear where your vision is at with that, and then obviously you’re putting on the summit, which is a huge endeavor — there’s no underestimating how much work goes into putting on live events, especially the size you guys are doing. So I’d love to hear a little more about what’s motivating you guys to do this and what you’re building alongside this event.

Yeah, at Real Time, our big vision and awareness is that we’re in a really brief moment in history where those who can actually understand and apply these advanced technologies have the opportunity to gain an unrivaled business advantage. We really believe it is the visionary leaders who are contributing to co-creating the world that we all want to live in that deserve to have us spend our time really partnering with the right people, in order to help them train their teams, in order to come in and step in and develop AI strategy and guide and focus the organization. And then there are a few people we engage with at a pretty deep partnership level in order to innovate and invent and create new technologies that are highly impactful, and, like I said, creating this world that we all want to live in together.

Yeah, no, that’s great — I love what you say about the visionaries and using these tools to actually get their ideas out there and leverage these tools to grow and innovate and create. This is a very unique time in history, especially for us to have access to this level of technology at basically anyone that has an internet connection right now and a very affordable subscription can tap into and start leveraging. So whether you are a visionary leader or an employee working inside a company, these skills and knowledge of how to apply these tools — everyone’s going to need to know how to do it, or those that are using these tools are going to have that much more of an advantage. There are going to be a few different types of people from different aspects of business — CEOs, coaches, consultants, employees, entrepreneurs — at this event. Can you share more about the types of folks you’re looking to attract to the World AI Summit, and where you see employees getting the most benefit from this versus the coach or the consultant or the CEO — are there different tracks, different speakers you’re structuring this event around so everyone can get a lot of value and make an impact from the content?

Yeah, you bet. As you mentioned, the intention is to really create a place in which these three groups of people can get what they’re looking for. We’re going to have a single track, so everybody will be in the same room together learning the same things this year — it’s possible we’ll continue to divide that up as the diversity of what we want to share continues to grow. One of the things is, when CEOs come into the room, it’s so important for them to find out what’s going on in all these different departments and what the different areas are, and we find that leaders just having an awareness of what’s possible becomes one of the most important components, so that they’re informed and can make decisions about where in their organization they want to start putting this energy, where they want to start discovering, experimenting, and implementing and integrating AI into their processes and operations. From that leadership perspective, really getting a pulse and some perspective goes a long way. Then for those who are actually working inside the organizations, who are saying “I’ve got a list of to-dos, I’ve got 45 hours of work to do in my 40-hour work week,” how can AI help me cut through and get equipped with the tools I need to move my work forward — we’re going to have a lot of hands-on experiences where people are sharing very much like we spoke about, what they’re doing in their back office in order to actually get the work done and drive those results. So I see team members really being fed with some actionable things they can take back into their work in order to begin trying and experimenting with. And for those coaches and consultants and solopreneurs — we started this business just a few short months ago, back in January, and so much of what we get to share and teach is what we’ve been testing and trying for the last year and a half. I can say as a solopreneur, I would need a team of like four, five, ten people in order to keep up with the current rate; we’re just starting to grow our organization and hire people on. But those who are asking, “How can I do more with less, how can I be a one-man shop that is delivering massive value to people,” the insights and tips, tricks, and tools of those who are already doing this is really going to empower these people to keep that circus alive and well on their path and trajectory of growth into expanding their organization, or quite possibly being a one-man show that has twelve AI agents working alongside them to make more possible than they ever knew.

I think that type of business, we’re going to see a lot more of those — totally different businesses than we’ve seen in the past, where it’s one creator, one solopreneur that has these different agents and this workforce, basically, of AI they’re operating or managing, doing things that are providing value at a rate that would have taken an entire team and a workload to just get done, or may never even have gotten started, or anyone thought it was possible. And it’s something I’ve heard come up a little bit more than I would have expected in the last few weeks from members of our community, as they’re going into organizations, talking with the leaders and employees of an organization — the number one thing I’m hearing a lot of consultants who are working with companies on AI talk about is change management, how to adapt to change and work this change into your company culture, so that you’re addressing AI in a proper way that is not “it’s going to take my job now,” but “it’s going to enable me to be more effective and produce more.” Is that something you can speak to, and what are you seeing from working with companies and how change is being addressed at some of these different organizations?

Yeah, you bet. All of us are actually scared of what’s new until we understand it, and the things we don’t understand, our first response is to take that step back. So we’re seeing this come up with AI, especially with this looming threat of “is AI going to take my job, is AI going to replace me.” All of these concepts really stir up some of the most challenging emotions within each of us, and the primary thing we get confronted with is our irrelevance and our significance, and that’s something we have to breathe through. So on one hand, we help and support people with the soft skills and cultural awareness to address this reality, and what we’re seeing is that the biggest opportunity is really to help our teams know and let each other know that this is not about replacing each other, or replacing a person with a computer — the opportunity here is to combine AI in partnership with a person and empower that person to have superpowers. It’s up to organizations to develop approaches that allow their teams to feel safe and actually integrate them into this discovery process, into the implementation process, into the empowerment process that’s afforded and available here to each of us. We manage on both the hard skills and the soft skills that come along with change management and cultural development, in order to create a safe space that we get to all learn in this together. In fact, there are some statistics — about 64% of employees these days are using AI or are trying AI at work and starting to get those benefits and efficiencies, but of them, only about 40%, a little under half of employees using AI at work, are telling their bosses about it, and they’re actually afraid or reluctant to shine the light on these efficiencies. So we see fostering a culture that says, “Let’s all explore how we can use AI to get better results, to become more empowered individuals,” as opposed to knocking heads off of our employee headcount, as an important approach to diving into this new future.

Absolutely agree, and I think on a similar note, for those in attendance at the World AI Summit, what are some tangible things they can walk away with — information they can use within their companies right away, like a list of resources? I’m curious if there’s one thing you’d want attendees to leave with — is there going to be something for everyone that they can leave with and integrate into their business, or maybe speakers giving out resources as well?

I’ll be giving out a copy of my book to everyone that wants it at the event, but I can talk about some of the other tangible resources that will help people put what they’re taking from the event into action. Some of the resources included will be a prompt book of all the prompts discussed throughout the entire weekend, so you’ll have a library of prompts you can refer back to. There will be some worksheets and frameworks and structures we’ll work through in the event that you’ll also be able to take back to your workplace in order to apply or rework with that clarity. Typically when I go to events like this, I usually come back overwhelmed with new ideas, things I can implement, and so it’s actually my hope that everybody’s able to leave the event knowing the one place that, if they go start experimenting, exploring, and implementing AI, it’s actually going to drive what’s important for them in their business. Since we’re in the wild west of this, there are so many new tools, so many messages about what we have to do to keep up — more importantly for me is that you leave knowing what’s that one thing that, if you invest your time and energy into mastering it, you’re actually going to position yourself ahead of where you were before you walked through the door, and we can help you identify that key thing without getting lost in the noise, because it’s a very exciting and shiny-object time.

Yeah, that’s not a new symptom of going to an event and leaving with everything, all the notes that never get touched and all the ideas that don’t have that level of focus. A good point, in general, for going to a conference or summit of any kind, is what’s the intention going in — what are you hoping to get out of it — and then looking at the speakers, looking at the itinerary, where can I go and what’s at my disposal, and having that intention going in is going to help a lot of people keep that focus and know that one thing they want to walk away with.

We have another question here from someone who will be at the event, Tyrese, asking if you have a way for attendees to connect with one another via a private Facebook chat or LinkedIn group, or some way to keep the conversation going after the event.

Tyrese, what a great question, and a valuable thing for us all to have. We will invite everybody into a shared community right as the event starts, so we do have an easy way to stay in contact and connect with one another and continue that momentum we spark together. We may have some members of our community coming into town that week, and we may be putting on a Gen University community meetup in Austin around the time of the event, so for those coming into town, we’ll have more details on what that might look like. But at the end of the day, being able to connect with folks through this summit itself, the human-to-human connection, is great — it’s so easy to spend a lot of time online.

And of course if you can’t attend live, I believe there are going to be virtual tickets you can purchase to have access to recordings, but correct me if I’m wrong there, Peter — if someone is not able to come into town for those particular dates, are there ways for them to tap into the resources, the replays, the recordings of the event?

We do have that option. I’m not sure if it’s open on the website right now — I think we were prioritizing those who want to come in person, but we will open up some online tickets for those who are unable to travel in. You can also reach out to us directly if that’s your specific need.

Cool, I definitely encourage everyone to do your best to make it here into town if this is of interest to you. We didn’t mention this earlier in the call, but we’ve got a special discount code through Gen AI University — if you use the code “gen AI U,” that’s the letter U, “gen AI U,” online, you’ll get 50% off general admission. And for everyone coming through our community, every ticket you buy through the World AI Summit, we are doing a complete, comprehensive buyer’s brief, complimentary with your ticket purchase — a roughly 50-page report that identifies your ideal target audience and a number of ways to get your idea and your products and services in front of them, getting inside the mind of your market. That’s complimentary to your purchase, but I want you to be there, I want to meet with you guys coming into town for this event. I don’t do a lot of big summits, I don’t speak a lot on stage — my focus is on working with our community, on delivering product and value for our customers and clients, so it was really an honor to get the opportunity to come out and share what we’ve been building for so long with our buyer’s brief and show the audience what the power of this type of tool can do for their business. But again, I’m just one speaker — there are a lot of other great folks taking the stage who are going to be doing things that are surely going to blow my mind, and open up your eyes to what’s possible out there in this day and age. At the end of the day, it’s all about action, so if you’re going to be attending, focus on what you want to walk away with as it relates to your business and organization, and share that with me, share that with Peter, let people know what you’re looking to get out of it, so that if you’re lost as to where you should start, you can get guided to the right direction.

Peter, if there was one thing — I’ll take a quote from Tim Ferriss — throw it on the billboard for anyone driving in Austin right now around the time of the event, and you wanted to leave people with a message about anything related to AI, the summit, whatever, is there any quote that comes to mind that you think would be relevant and timely for folks to see on that billboard?

I’ll do my best to keep it succinct, but the truth is, AI is good to go. If you’ve ever thought maybe AI is too complicated for you, or too costly, or too technical, or it’s not going to fit for your specific business, AI is ready to uplift your business — it’s not here to burden your business. And the truth is that we have to bump our knees at some stage, so start now, start thinking about it, start diving in, whether it’s with us at the summit or just on your own. I’m here to champion the reality that starting today is going to be a lot better than starting tomorrow. So don’t wait, guys — jump on in, get on the train, start playing around with these tools, start getting your hands dirty if you haven’t already, start experimenting and seeing what is possible with these tools, and of course connect with the community, join the summit live if you can, and subscribe to Gen AI University on our YouTube channel and our community so you can stay up to date as these events happen, because we try our best to host interviews like this to share what’s working in the weeds and what real entrepreneurs and real creators and business leaders are doing to utilize AI in their businesses right now.

There’s a question that just came through, asking about whether people can meet the speakers in person, at a separate evening event — is there anything planned, maybe VIP-side or otherwise, where you have the opportunity to meet with the speakers?

Another great question, Tyrese, appreciate it. Yes, VIPs do have access to a special event dinner where the speakers will be there, our VIPs will be there, and there’ll be an opportunity to get acquainted with them. Also, VIPs have access to our speakers’ lounge, which is basically our green room, so that’s another place where you can find yourself in a more common conversation than trying to get their attention after their talk, or attempting to reach out to them on their socials. It does really create an intimate environment where we can see that even the most intelligent among us, we’re all just people, we’re all here to help each other succeed in all these different areas. That’s one of the things I can say about each of the speakers — they’ve got great hearts, and not only have they got these brains that are doing amazing things, they’re really people who are showing up for each of us. So I hope each of you gets an opportunity to connect with those you’re excited to meet.

Yeah, and I know I’m looking forward to it — about a month out from the time of this recording, and it’s going to be heating up here in Austin, Texas, as well. You’re out in Hawaii right now, if I’m not mistaken, coming all the way from Hawaii here to Austin, Texas. The internet marketing party is kicking off, I believe, the night before, with the World AI Summit at Internet Marketing Party, hosted by David Gonzalez, kicking off on June 6th, and then we’ve got June 7th, a full day of speakers and workshops, and June 8th as well to finish out the summit. I don’t think I’m missing anything — if we don’t have any more questions here live, I think we’re good to go, Peter, and we’ll see you here in a month from now.

Looking forward to it, and for those who want to reach out, learn more about the summit, and connect with you if they have questions, where can they find and learn more?

Best is to go to worldaisummit.com, and if you’ve got questions, ana@worldaisummit.com — Ana is fielding those and ready to rock.

All right, well, sounds good, guys — make sure you go check out worldaisummit.com, email Ana if you have any questions, and make sure to use code “gen AI U” at checkout to get a sweet deal, 50% off general admission. All right, guys, we’ll see you in the next video, and hopefully here in Austin, Texas, June 6 through 8th. Peter, thanks again for your time, appreciate you.

See you — pleasure.