AI Adoption Redefines Culture, Talent Sourcing, and Leadership

Key Quotes

"Our product does a lot of this stuff and I would be embarrassed if we're out there evangelizing how this stuff can change how you work and internally we're doing none of it and so why I talk to our team I'm like I want us to be on the forefront of using this stuff and that should mean that we're going to try things and we're going to make mistakes but even when we make mistakes that's really good because we can now go out and share those mistakes and say hey we tried this thing that everybody was you know talking with so great and you know either it was great for us or actually it didn't really work for us like we couldn't figure it out and I think that has helped people feel a little bit more comfortable you know just pushing on these things."

Wade Foster explains that Zapier's internal AI adoption is driven by a desire to lead by example and a pragmatic approach to innovation. He highlights the value of sharing both successes and failures, which fosters a more comfortable environment for experimentation within the team. This approach allows the company to learn and then share those learnings externally.

"I see a lot of CEOs fall to like the delegation trap they write the AI memo they say hey we're going to go do this and then they don't do anything else they they ask their exec team who asks a director on their team who asks a manager on their team who asks an IC on the team and then that poor IC is like am I figuring this out for the whole company and it's like do you think that's going to go well for that person or for your org and it's like no not really and so I think it's really important for leaders to do hackathons to do show and tells to do Friday afternoon you know mess arounds whatever you want to call them whatever you want to do but you do need to provide a little bit of play space for the organization to get comfortable with it."

Wade Foster criticizes the common CEO tendency to delegate AI adoption without personal involvement. He argues that leaders must actively participate in AI initiatives, such as hackathons and "show and tells," to create a safe space for their organizations to explore and become comfortable with new technologies. This hands-on approach is crucial for effective AI integration.

"The hack that I have for this one is if you use Granola, Granola launched this feature called recipes, which are just fancy prompts basically. And I did not think of this idea. This is something that was just in their library, which was genius. I've been using Granola for I don't know, most of the year, I think almost a year now, and one of the prompts they have is, build the unspoken company culture handbook."

Wade Foster shares a practical tip for inferring company culture using AI tools like Granola. He explains that by utilizing pre-built "recipes" or prompts, such as one designed to extract the "unspoken company culture handbook" from meeting transcripts, companies can gain deeper insights into their actual operating norms. This method leverages AI to analyze unstructured data for cultural understanding.

"One of the places that I really like to use it is as like an assistant for interviews. So I again, I use Granola a lot. So I have built an agent that will help will will basically evaluate my transcripts and my notes and will help me make a yes no decision on how to hire this person."

Wade Foster describes how he employs AI agents as an assistant for interviews. By feeding interview transcripts and notes into a Zapier agent, which is also trained on job descriptions and company values, he can receive an AI-generated evaluation to aid in his hiring decisions. This process helps streamline the evaluation and provides an additional layer of assessment.

"I really like this because it acts as um like a bias check. It acts as a thought partner. You know, especially for me who's interviewing people across all sorts of disciplines, all sorts of areas. You know, I usually know a little bit about a lot of things, but it's nice to have another tool kind of gut checking me on some of these things and giving me extra little tips and tricks and nuggets to go, oh, that, that, that actually was interesting. I should pay more attention to that."

Wade Foster values AI interview assistants as a crucial tool for mitigating personal biases and serving as a thought partner. He explains that for individuals who interview across diverse fields, an AI can provide an objective "gut check" and highlight subtle points that might otherwise be overlooked. This AI-driven feedback loop enhances the interviewer's awareness and decision-making process.

"I think the real challenge with AI at least at this point in time is less about the tools and more about just coming with ideas for like how do you make this stuff better. And once you have the ideas, it's crazy fast to implement it. Like those two suggestions took literally 60 seconds to add to this and they're great suggestions."

Wade Foster identifies the primary challenge in AI adoption as the generation of innovative ideas rather than the technical limitations of the tools themselves. He emphasizes that once a compelling idea for improvement is conceived, implementing it with current AI capabilities is remarkably swift. This perspective suggests that creativity and strategic thinking are now the key drivers of AI-driven progress.

"I think that this is what's lost in the discussion is there are so many tasks that are not economically valuable right now because it's too expensive to pay a person to do that thing or it's too annoying and too tedious for a human to actually follow through consistently on those things and these are the areas where AI and agents like really thrive because you can put something that will happily do that task for a very low budget and do it very very consistently against those things."

Wade Foster points out that a significant value of AI and agents lies in their ability to perform tasks that are currently not economically viable for human labor due to cost or tedium. He argues that AI can execute these tasks consistently and affordably, unlocking potential for work that was previously impractical. This highlights AI's role in expanding the scope of what companies can achieve.

"One of the tools I like to use to help source um under the radar talent is Grok. Um, you heard it here first. This is an How I AI first. You all. Okay, so what we are looking for here is we're trying to find some good social media candidates. And so let's say help me find posters on X that are fans of Zapier, no-code, agent building, automation, and related topics."

Wade Foster introduces Grok as a tool for sourcing "under the radar" talent, particularly for roles like social media specialists. He demonstrates how to use Grok to search for individuals on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) who engage with specific topics such as Zapier, no-code, and automation. This method aims to uncover candidates who might not be visible through traditional recruiting channels.