GAEA Talks

This week on GAEA Talks Live from HumanX, Graeme Scott sits down with Steve Ancheta - serial founder, sixteen-year veteran of enterprise sales, and the founder and CEO of Zig, the first AI platform built for the sales rep rather than for sales management.Steve started in sales at eighteen, took the job to support his new son, and has spent his entire adult life inside the revenue function of technology companies. He has hired hundreds of sales reps, run multiple sales organisations, and watched the same eighty-twenty pattern play out inside every business he has been part of. That firsthand experience is the reason Zig exists - a product designed to give top sellers their own team of virtual employees, cut ramp time, prevent burnout and finally bring the same productivity revolution to sales that AI has brought to engineering.In this episode, recorded live at HumanX 2026 in San Francisco, Steve argues that the real moat in the AI era is domain expertise, that salespeople do not want organisation - they want controlled chaos, and that any tool built on assumed frameworks is building for the wrong user.What you'll take away from this conversation:
The "jumping off a cliff and building a plane on the way down" mental model that separates real founders from pretenders
The strategic optimist vs pessimist framework - and why every great founder defaults to option D
Why eighty percent of revenue comes from twenty percent of sellers - and why no tool has ever actually been built for them
Why sales reps hate organisation and love controlled chaos - and why most CRMs are built for the wrong user
The Rick Rubin lesson - "I'm confident in my taste and my ability to know what I like" - applied to product building
The "does it feel like magic and is it stupidly simple" test that governs every Zig release
Why "how did that feel" is a better feedback question than "what do you think"
The love it / don't hate it / not a fan / hate it internal feedback loop that keeps product velocity high
Why indifference - not hate - is the worst signal in product analytics
How to prevent the six-to-nine-month sales ramp disaster by making performance predictable from week one
Why AI will make the human side of sales more valuable, not less
What Steve Jobs and Chris Voss have in common, and why that combination is the future of AI product design
About Steve Ancheta:Steve Ancheta is the founder and CEO of Zig, an AI platform that equips sales reps with a team of virtual employees so they can sell at top-performer level from day one. Before Zig, Steve spent more than fifteen years leading sales and revenue organisations in enterprise technology, where he hired and managed hundreds of sales professionals. He is a lifelong student of product design, entrepreneurship and the art of building technology around how humans actually behave - with influences drawn from Steve Jobs, Rick Rubin and Chris Voss.GAEA Talks is the enterprise AI podcast for leaders navigating the age of artificial intelligence. Subscribe for weekly conversations with the people shaping the future of business, technology and society.Accelerate your company’s AI transformation, head to https://larridin.com/gaea and book a demo now. Thanks to Larridin for sponsoring today’s video!Steve Ancheta on LinkedIn:   / steveancheta  Zig: https://www.getzig.comHumanX: https://www.humanx.coGAEA AI: https://gaealgm.ai

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This week on GAEA Talks Live from HumanX, Graeme Scott sits down with Jennifer Smith - co-founder and CEO of Scribe, former Head of Business Development and Partnerships at Greylock Partners, and one of the clearest thinkers in the world on enterprise AI transformation.Jennifer's journey is the perfect setup for what she is building today. After Princeton and an MBA from Harvard, she spent seven years at McKinsey in the operations practice, flying to operations centres across America. She watched first hand how the best operator on any team had their own personal best practice that bore no resemblance to what the rest of the team had been trained on. She then moved into venture capital at Greylock Partners, where she interviewed over twelve hundred CIOs and CTOs and asked them all the same question: what do you actually want Silicon Valley to build? The same answer kept coming back. Institutional knowledge. That insight became Scribe, the context layer for workflow data across the enterprise. The platform now works with nearly half of the Fortune 500 and over ninety thousand customer organisations.In this episode, recorded live at HumanX 2026 in San Francisco, Jennifer makes the case that the reason ninety percent of enterprise AI pilots fail is not the model. It is the missing context layer underneath. She walks Graeme through why dropping the most intelligent AI in the world into a business with no context is like hiring an army of Nobel laureates and refusing to onboard them. She lays out a complete reframe of how enterprise leaders should approach AI transformation: stop starting with strategy, start by mapping how your business actually works. She explains why she would not have been comfortable deploying agents at scale a year ago, why she is genuinely comfortable with it now, and what business leaders should do in the next twelve to eighteen months to make sure they are on the right side of the curve. This is one of the most useful conversations on practical enterprise AI that GAEA Talks has recorded.What you'll take away from this conversation:• The context layer thesis - why the missing piece in every failed enterprise AI pilot is not the model, but the data on how the business actually works• The Nobel laureate analogy - why dropping the world's smartest intelligence into a business with no onboarding is exactly why ROI keeps disappearing• The Stanford and MIT studies on why ninety percent plus of enterprise AI pilots fail• Why most enterprises are doing AI transformation in the wrong order• The "before map and after map" framework for measuring real AI ROI• Why engineering and customer support are the only two functions where AI is delivering at scale today• The Waymo lesson - map a process for "millions of miles" with humans before handing it to an agent• Why so many founders in San Francisco are quietly anxious they are already behind• The mandate versus strategy distinction - "do more with less using AI" is not a strategy• Why the limiting factor in AI adoption is no longer the technology, it is the human and organisational ability to absorb change• The shift from one human equals one output to systems of work that can be filled by humans or agents• The two-week Scribe pilot that maps workflows and builds AI transformation business cases• Why the future of work will be a mix of humans and agents - and why leaders must make the work legible to both• Jennifer's advice for senior leaders: define success first, then map operations, then build ROI-backed cases

This week on GAEA Talks Live from HumanX, Graeme Scott sits down with Cynthia Chen - co-founder and CEO of Kikoff, ten-year fintech veteran, and the founder of one of the most human stories in consumer AI: an AI debt negotiator that has already saved everyday Americans more than five million dollars.Cynthia arrived in New York at seventeen with two suitcases, no family and no credit history, spent her eighteenth birthday in a college computer lab applying for her first credit card, and has spent the last two decades building consumer finance products for the millions of Americans who cannot build credit fast enough or cheaply enough. Kikoff is her fourth startup. It is a regulated and licensed financial services company, with bank-level security, that helps consumers build credit, reduce debt and save money. Today Kikoff's AI credit coach, Finn, and its AI debt negotiator - which talks to real debt collectors and lenders on consumers' behalf - are live inside its app and have together helped hundreds of thousands of active users.In this episode, recorded live at HumanX 2026 in San Francisco, Cynthia explains what it really takes to deploy AI agents inside a heavily regulated consumer finance product, why trust has to be the starting point for everything, and how Kikoff built a product she wanted to build for her users back in 2021 but which only recently became technically possible.What you'll take away from this conversation:- The human story behind Kikoff - from two suitcases in New York City to five million dollars of debt saved for consumers- What it actually takes to deploy AI agents inside a regulated and licensed financial services company- How Finn, Kikoff's AI credit coach, analyses real-time bank transactions and credit reports to give personalised advice- How the AI debt negotiator works - and why it can save consumers hours of intimidating phone calls with collectors- The bank-level security, consent and privacy architecture behind a product that holds millions of sensitive records- Why regulators are often more open than founders assume - and how to engage them before they come looking- Cynthia's four playbooks - one each for AI researchers, enterprise buyers, VCs and everyday consumers- The vibe-coded app warning - the exact checks consumers should do before handing over personal data- Why the next twelve months will be defined by adaptability, not by specific technologies- The one out of three Americans stat that shaped Kikoff's mission- Why democratising access to financial expertise may be the most under-hyped use of AI- How to stay optimistic and open-minded through rapid technological changeAbout Cynthia Chen:Cynthia Chen is the co-founder and CEO of Kikoff, a regulated personal finance platform that helps everyday consumers build credit, reduce debt and save money using AI. Kikoff is her fourth fintech startup. Before founding Kikoff in 2019, Cynthia spent more than a decade in consumer finance leadership roles. She is a Columbia University graduate, a first-generation immigrant to the United States, and one of the most respected voices in US fintech on the intersection of AI, regulation and real consumer outcomes.GAEA Talks is the enterprise AI podcast for leaders navigating the age of artificial intelligence. Subscribe for weekly conversations with the people shaping the future of business, technology and society.Cynthia Chen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthiachenKikoff: https://kikoff.comHumanX: https://www.humanx.coGAEA AI: https://gaealgm.ai#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #GAEATalks #GAEATalksLive #HumanX #HumanX2026 #Fintech #Kikoff #AIForFinance #CreditBuilding #DebtNegotiation #ConsumerAI #ResponsibleAI #AIAgents #AIRegulation #WomenInAI #WomenInTech #AIPodcast #TechPodcast #GAEAAI

This week on GAEA Talks Live from HumanX, Graeme Scott sits down with Jon Snoddy - co-founder and CEO of Operative Games, former Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Walt Disney Imagineering, and one of the most influential creative technologists of the last thirty years.Jon's career sits at the intersection of storytelling, engineering and the tools that have shaped modern entertainment. He started out as a recording engineer at National Public Radio, joined Lucasfilm, and spent much of his career at Disney, where he led ride development for the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland, founded the Disney VR Studio that produced the award winning Aladdin VR Adventure, and ultimately took over Disney Imagineering's Research and Development group, leading the company's work on robotics, displays, ride systems, animation and AI storytelling. He now leads Operative Games, an AI-driven studio that uses real-time AI characters and a proprietary story engine to bring screenplays written by Hollywood writers to life in a completely new way.In this episode, recorded live at HumanX 2026 in San Francisco, Jon argues that AI does not change who we are, it changes what is possible for people who already have something to say. He shares the moment at Disney when he realised that when we watch a great film, we are really looking through the film back to the artist who made it, and how that insight now sits at the heart of everything Operative Games is building. He walks Graeme through what it actually means to "call a character" on the phone, the twelve-part interactive series his team is building, and why the next great medium of storytelling is not going to kill any of the existing ones. He also makes a powerful case for human responsibility in the age of AI, the cost of convenience, and the collapse and rebuilding of trust in institutions. This is one of the most thoughtful conversations on AI, art and storytelling that GAEA Talks has recorded.What you'll take away from this conversation:• The "looking through the film back to the artist" insight that defined Jon's career• Why AI is a tool, not an artist, and the question that matters is what Michelangelo can do with that tool• How Operative Games actually works - Hollywood screenwriters create characters, AI realises them, every player can interact with them twenty four seven• The moment a writer first called a character he had written on the phone, and what that says about the new canvas storytellers now have• Why Jon and his team spent nine months deciding what they wanted to say before building anything• The twelve-part interactive series Operative Games is building - what makes it different from a film, a game or a book• The "nobody knows anything" design principle - why every character starts on equal footing with the player• The lost art of the rewind - and why the friction of analogue creative tools used to make better work• The convenience trap - how question-and-answer culture has flattened our relationship with knowledge• The Richard Feynman bird story - and the difference between knowing the name and knowing the thing• Why the collapse of trust in institutions is the biggest opportunity in a generation to build something genuinely excellent• Why every new medium has expanded the room we make for storytelling, not replaced what came before• Jon's closing message for every leader, parent and operator: AI is a tool. You cannot abdicate responsibility for your own life, decisions or judgment to it

This week on GAEA Talks Live from HumanX, Graeme Scott sits down with Cosmo Wolfe - CTO of Metronome, the real-time billing platform that sits inside Anthropic, OpenAI and the rest of the AI industry, and which recently became a Stripe product.Cosmo has spent the last six years building Metronome from an early contrarian bet into the monetisation backbone of the AI economy. When Metronome started, only five percent of software companies used consumption-based pricing. Today, as Cosmo explains, that number is closer to eighty-five percent, because every company building on top of GPUs has discovered that SaaS margin economics simply do not survive the shift to AI. Metronome powers the real-time usage dashboards customers see inside Anthropic and many others, and is the platform enterprise CEOs use to iterate pricing at the tick rate of modern AI product releases.In this episode, recorded live at HumanX 2026 in San Francisco, Cosmo explains why pricing is now as critical as the product itself, why outcome-based pricing is exploding in AI support and agent categories, and why the old quarterly-pricing release cycle has collapsed into something that now moves at the same pace as the software itself. He walks through the margin pressure AI companies are under, why edge and efficient models are only half the answer, and what he has learned sitting alongside the fastest-moving AI companies on earth. He also discusses the Stripe acquisition, his read on where AI capability actually goes in the next two years, and why he thinks the first billion-dollar one-person company is closer than we think.What you'll take away from this conversation:- Why the SaaS playbook broke the second AI workloads put GPU cost into the margin equation- Why every serious AI company has moved from "release pricing every six years" to "release pricing every six weeks"- How outcome-based pricing works in practice - and why it can actually let AI companies charge more- The real shape of usage-based billing: events, attribution, pricing rules and close-to-real-time dollars- How companies like Anthropic build in-product spend, breakdown and control experiences on top of Metronome data- Why you should never build billing in-house as a founder - and what to reach for instead- The market's movement from five percent consumption pricing to eighty five percent exploring it- The single biggest founder decision: is pricing a differentiator for you, or are you matching an existing shape?- Why "day one pricing" will not be your "day three sixty-five pricing" - and how to plan for that- The rapid-iteration lesson from OpenAI's eighteen pricing launches in a single year- Why Cosmo's read on the next two years is that today's capability will look quaint by the end- Why the first billion-dollar one-person company is closer than you think - and what that means for foundersAbout Cosmo Wolfe:Cosmo Wolfe is the CTO of Metronome, the real-time usage billing platform recently acquired by Stripe. Metronome powers usage, attribution and real-time revenue data for many of the largest AI companies on earth, including Anthropic and OpenAI. Cosmo has been at Metronome since very early and has helped scale the platform into the monetisation backbone of the modern AI economy. He is a recognised voice on pricing models, usage-based infrastructure, and the operational realities of running AI companies at hyperscale.GAEA Talks is the enterprise AI podcast for leaders navigating the age of artificial intelligence. Subscribe for weekly conversations with the people shaping the future of business, technology and society.Cosmo Wolfe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cosmowolfeMetronome: https://metronome.comStripe: https://stripe.comHumanX: https://www.humanx.coGAEA AI: https://gaealgm.ai