KnownwellLogoKnownwellLogo
Watch the Knownwell Demoeast

Working with AI: What It Means to Be AI Driven

Knownwell
watch-on-youtube-final
aaple-podcast
listen-on-spotify

AI Knowhow Episode 79 Overview

  • Understand why AI is not just a technology shift — it’s a business survival imperative.
  • Hear how leading enterprises are building AI-first strategies to future-proof their organizations.
  • Learn how to move beyond incremental pilots and unlock AI’s full potential to drive competitive advantage.

Does AI represent an extinction-level event for your company? On this week’s episode of AI Knowhow, Pete Buer sits down with Wolf Ruzicka, SVP of Strategic Advisory at Solvd and author of AI Driven: Staying Alive in the Age of Digital Darwinism, to talk about what it really means to adopt an “AI-first” mindset and why companies must evolve now or risk becoming obsolete.

Becoming an AI-First Organization

Wolf Ruzicka’s message for executives across a range of industries today is urgent and clear: mastering AI is not a nice-to-have. It’s a mandatory survival skill.

In AI Driven, Wolf and co-author Victor Shilo outline a five-step journey for companies to move from digital dinosaur to AI mastery. At the core of the approach is one idea: executives don’t need to become AI experts, but they do need to understand the gravity of this technology—and steer their organizations accordingly.

Wolf shares how some of the enterprises his teams have been fortunate to work with are getting it right: by owning their core digital systems, leveraging structured and unstructured data, and laying the foundation for generative AI applications that drive real business outcomes.

Crossing the AI Chasm

But knowledge and awareness, simply put, isn’t enough. According to Wolf, many companies today are stuck in what he calls “the AI chasm”—where endless proof-of-concept projects fail to scale into production.

The barrier? A lack of executive education, misaligned priorities, and a focus on flashy pilots rather than true business impact. As Wolf points out, AI isn’t magic; it’s mathematics, compute power, and data. Companies that master the fundamentals will win. Those who don’t will get left behind.

Digital Marines and Smarter Hallucinations

Wolf also introduces two powerful ideas for executives to keep in mind:

  • Digital Marines: Experienced engineers who create “beachheads” for innovation inside large organizations, enabling faster AI adoption without disrupting existing teams.
  • Good Hallucinations: In the right context, AI “hallucinations” aren’t a bug—they’re a feature. One example Wolf gives is generating wrong-but-plausible multiple-choice answers customized to a student’s level.

Moving Beyond Chatbots

One of the most memorable parts of the conversation? Wolf’s challenge to move “out of paradigm.” In a world increasingly crowded with chatbot interfaces, real innovation means using AI’s true capabilities—like matching and process acceleration—to solve business problems in entirely new ways.

AI in the Wild: An AI Phone That Might Actually Work

Pete also joins Courtney for another installment of our AI in the Wild segment. This week, they break down Deutsche Telekom’s announcement of a new AI-powered phone featuring Perplexity Assistant. Unlike earlier attempts (we’re looking at you, Rabbit R1), this device promises to control all your apps via voice, without fumbling through manual inputs.

As Pete explains, the implications go far beyond consumer tech. If successful, it could redefine how we interact with digital ecosystems altogether. For business leaders, it’s another signal: the future won’t wait for manual, outdated processes to catch up.

Watch the episode

Watch the full episode below, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Listen to the episode

You can tune in to the full episode via the Spotify embed below, and you can find AI Knowhow on Apple Podcasts and anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Show notes

You may also like