I Had 40 People. Now I Need One

Matt Butterworth says agency work that once took 40 people now takes one. Ryan Fletcher has 16 AI agents that work every night while he sleeps, and it's what keeps him up.In this AI roundtable, Matt, Ryan and Wade Eagar join Nadeem on four things that moved in the last couple of weeks: the model reset, companies run by AI agents, agents that drift, and SI. Between them they run a vet business built with AI, a campaign system that tests itself overnight, and an operating system of more than 80 agents with evidence gates on every claim.When Anthropic's own test agents file an invented murder tip with the police, Nadeem asks the question every builder should: if one of yours did that, would you even know?In this episode:• Two people doing the work of sixty, and what that means for agencies• Why any AI will pick seven when you ask for a number between 1 and 10• 16 agents on the night shift, and why every campaign launches paused• Agents that drift, and who carries the liability• A WhatsApp triage that gets a worried pet owner to a vet in minutes• Is superintelligence real, or just branding?Brew Bytes is the practitioner's AI show. Real stories, from the people actually building it.🎙️ Guests: Matt Butterworth, CEO and co-founder of Paws & Co. Ryan Fletcher is Chief AI Officer at Omnicom. Wade Eagar is Chief Strategy Officer at FAST.🎙️ Host: Nadeem Ibrahim🌐 www.brewbytes.io CREDITS: Host and Produced by Nadeem Ibrahim Branding by The Nobull Partners BREW BYTES: Subscribe/Follow for AI practioners' storiesRate 5 ⭐ if this shifted your thinking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Will Kreth doesn't think we will ever stop deepfakes. He is building the thing that proves what's real instead.Will used to run the registry that gives every film and TV episode its own ID. Now his company, HAND, gives people one: a permanent number for an actor, an athlete or a creator, because there are at least two Will Smiths in Hollywood and names were never built to carry royalties.He takes Nadeem through deepfake Tom Hanks ads selling diabetes cures, the consent law that now sits behind every digital replica in California, the estates licensing the voices of stars who have died, and why a blue tick you can buy proves nothing about who you are.In this episode:• Why deepfake detection alone will never win, and what consent changes• Numbers, not names: the case for a universal talent ID• AI voice cloning with consent: James Dean, Judy Garland and Darth Vader after James Earl Jones• Would you watch a digital Whitney Houston?• If you can't identify it, you can't monetise it• What identity in Hollywood looks like five years from nowBrew Bytes is the practitioner's AI show. Real stories, from the people actually building it.🎙️ Guests: Will Kreth is the founder of HAND, the universal talent identifier.🎙️ Host: Nadeem Ibrahim🌐 www.brewbytes.io CREDITS: Host and Produced by Nadeem Ibrahim Branding by The Nobull Partners BREW BYTES: Subscribe/Follow for AI practioners' storiesRate 5 ⭐ if this shifted your thinking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

One Arabic message for the whole region used to be the safe choice. It is now the expensive one.Then there is the other half of the job. His team handed a Ramadan campaign to AI, trusted the output, and got creative scored with Christmas music. They caught it inside a couple of hours, and Tarek's conclusion is the line the episode turns on: AI will be as good as you direct it.In this episode:- Why "standard Arabic" stopped working, and what relevance looks like city by city- The Kingdom Tower cliché, and personalisation that reads as surveillance- The Ramadan campaign AI got wrong, and the review that caught it- Why 10,000 engaged followers beat a million unreachable ones- Holding the line with a C-suite that has decided AI is a cost saving- Where AI hands a lead over, and why a high-value sale closes on human instinctTarek ElSarw is an automotive enthusiast.Brew Bytes is the practitioner's AI show. Real stories, from the people actually building it.🎙️ Guests: Tarek ElSarw🎙️ Host: Nadeem Ibrahim🌐 www.brewbytes.io CREDITS: Host and Produced by Nadeem Ibrahim Branding by The Nobull Partners BREW BYTES: Subscribe/Follow for AI practioners' storiesRate 5 ⭐ if this shifted your thinking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

"AI Won't Take Your Job. Your Manager Will"Asked how to stop students misusing AI, he told a room full of academics to make it mandatory and approve everything. Three days later the UAE approved a mandatory AI curriculum for every public and private school. In this conversation he also explains what three weeks of total AI immersion did to him, why he now runs a 9pm test on himself, and why he insists his students say please and thank you in every prompt.In this episode:- Why banning AI in education was never the option- Techies, practitioners and philosophers, and why the third group predicts behaviour best- Why AI succeeds as a boss and fails as an assistant- The 9pm test for problematic use- What a "legacy human operator" is, and why manners in your prompts matter- Why bolting AI onto your existing processes is wasting your timeSteve King was an Assistant Professor at Middlesex University Dubai who built a third year AI module inside an advertising programme and co-authored a 2023 paper on generative AI in education.Brew Bytes. Real stories, from the people actually building it.🎙️ Guests: Steve King🎙️ Host: Nadeem Ibrahim🌐 www.brewbytes.io CREDITS: Host and Produced by Nadeem Ibrahim Branding by The Nobull Partners BREW BYTES: Subscribe/Follow for AI practioners' storiesRate 5 ⭐ if this shifted your thinking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

"You can't bolt a jet engine onto the plane you already own."What comes out is the clearest picture yet of why so much corporate AI is failing: companies built before 2022 keep bolting the new engine onto the old airframe, and the frame collapses. The ones built after start with the engine and design the plane around it.In this episode:The jet engine, and why bolting on always breaksAn RFP that took ten people, turned round by three in 48 hoursWhy 500 job cuts at a call centre is a strategy failure, not an AI winAutomate the workflow, not the workforce58 agents for one role, and who owns your digital twin when you leaveWith Wade Eagar (Chief Strategy Officer, FAST), Nigel Hammersley (co-founder, Consentique) and Tony Evans (founder of ONV.ai, author of Generation AI), returning after EP10.Real stories, from the people actually building it.🎙️ Guests: Wade Eagar, Nigel Hammersley, and Tony Evans 🎙️ Host: Nadeem Ibrahim🌐 www.brewbytes.io CREDITS: Host and Produced by Nadeem Ibrahim Branding by The Nobull Partners BREW BYTES: Subscribe/Follow for AI practioners' storiesRate 5 ⭐ if this shifted your thinking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Most AI fails because nobody defines the problem first, and the model was never the edge. Your data and your people are. It's a straight line from lost human connection to boardrooms bolting AI onto broken processes, plus a practical map of what winning actually looks like. In this episode: Why MIT found 95% of enterprise AI projects fail "Pipes then people", and why 2 to 5 hours saved per employee is real ROI Build vs buy, and your real differentiator Human in the loop: why someone still has to pick Agent commerce: marketing to a machine, not a person Charles Gabriel is a media and advertising leader (AOL, Disney's Maker Studios) now at Akkio, the no-code AI analytics platform for agencies. Real stories, from the people actually building it. 🎙️ Guest: Charles Gabriel, Akkio 🎙️ Host: Nadeem Ibrahim 🌐 www.brewbytes.io CREDITS: Host and Produced by Nadeem Ibrahim Branding by The Nobull Partners BREW BYTES: Subscribe/Follow for AI practioners' storiesRate 5 ⭐ if this shifted your thinking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Host Nadeem Ibrahim plays devil's advocate, defending the craft agencies get right, from the Mad Men era to today.  While Sameer and Lawrence make the case for tearing the model down to its studs and rebuilding it around transparency, specialists over headcount, and the one thing AI can't replace: the human element. A conversation for anyone who runs an agency, works in one, or signs the invoice. In this episode: Why the agency model is "self-serving" — and who really gets the share "Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity" — a £200k lesson learned young The retainer problem when AI puts the knowledge in the client's hand 68% of agency staff demotivated — and the exodus to freelance The pitch theatre: 30 people in the room, 2 doing the talking Match the specialist, not the logo The human element AI can't touch Samir founded the agency in 2009; Lawrence joined as chief strategist after a digital-media career running back to the .com boom. Grab a coffee. Let's talk about the future while we're still building it. 🎙️ Guest: Sameer Rehman and Lawerence Lartey 🎙️ Host: Nadeem Ibrahim 🌐 www.brewbytes.io CREDITS: Host and Produced by Nadeem Ibrahim Branding by The Nobull Partners BREW BYTES: Subscribe/Follow for AI practioners' storiesRate 5 ⭐ if this shifted your thinking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Host Nadeem Ibrahim and Asif get comfortable, and a little uncomfortable.  They pull apart "Now-ism," and why the education system is teaching a generation that already has all the information, and why hierarchy at work is quietly dead. It's a conversation for anyone who manages, teaches, hires or parents a Gen Z and suspects the old playbook stopped working. In this episode: "Now-ism" and the ecosystem that built it The shift in the power of knowledge -> and the death of old authority The anxiety of early success  The "15-minute rule" - stop teaching, start mentoring The "work buddy" culture and why you now sell Gen Z the job What really earns Gen Z's loyalty Mental health -> genuine priority, or convenient excuse? Asif Hussain is an author, media and marketing leader, and adjunct university faculty who has spent years researching and mentoring Gen Z. Grab a coffee. Let's talk about the future while we're still building it. 🎙️ Guest: Asif Hussain — Author, Founder 🎙️ Host: Nadeem Ibrahim 🌐 www.brewbytes.io CREDITS: Host and Produced by Nadeem Ibrahim Branding by The Nobull Partners BREW BYTES: Subscribe/Follow for AI practioners' storiesRate 5 ⭐ if this shifted your thinking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tony Evans spent 13 years at Meta building AI-powered data teams. Then he went back to university to study psychology, because he realised the problem with digital transformation was never the data. It was always the people. In this episode of Brew Bytes, the author of Generation AI: Leading People in a Machine Age joins Nadeem Ibrahim to cut through the noise on what AI leadership actually looks like, and why most organisations are dangerously behind. They cover the Four S's of data sophistication, the Four I's of AI integration, why 52% of parents feel unprepared to guide their children through an AI-driven future, and how the Cambridge-Oxford Boat Race perfectly explains the future of human performance in the age of machines. Tony also shares some of the most disturbing examples of AI misuse and explains why bias in AI is ultimately a human problem. Plus: facial recognition at the LA Clippers Stadium, UAE's #1 global broadband ranking, and the Espresso Encounters question that stopped Tony in his tracks. If you're a leader, a parent, or anyone trying to figure out what the AI era actually means for you,  this one is essential listening. 🎙️ Guest: Tony Evans — Author, AI Leadership Consultant 🎙️ Host: Nadeem Ibrahim 🌐 www.brewbytes.io CREDITS: Host and Produced by Nadeem Ibrahim Branding by The Nobull Partners BREW BYTES: Subscribe/Follow for AI practioners' storiesRate 5 ⭐ if this shifted your thinking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

"I sold my Bentley, my private plane, and my million-dollar home in one month. Then moved my entire family to the UAE."Ron Rana didn't just relocate. He escaped.From a country where the American Dream is no longer once what it was, to a place that actually wants him to succeed.In this episode, Ron breaks down what actually changes when you build from the UAE, not the relocation story, but the business transformation.We explore:• How he got a UAE driver's license in 30 minutes (vs. an entire day in the US)• Why he'd "rather live in a kingdom than a country that changes daddy every four years"• The UAE Golden Visa that gave him 10-year residency in 4 months• The 3 keys to scaling: automation, delegation, duplication• Why "firing yourself as an entrepreneur is the best thing you'll ever do"• What US founders completely underestimate about building in the UAE• How he retired both his mom and wife through real estate• Breaking generational curses vs. leaving generational wealthThis conversation will make you rethink where you're building, why speed matters.  Like, share, subscribe across any of these channels and find more content: CREDITS: Host and Produced by Nadeem Ibrahim Branding by The Nobull Partners BREW BYTES: Subscribe/Follow for AI practioners' storiesRate 5 ⭐ if this shifted your thinking Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.