How to turn everyday frustrations into AI wins

Your next big AI win may come from someone your leadership team would never think to pick.
In this episode of The Deep View Conversations, we sit down with Todd Earwood, CEO of Betra Works and an AI investor at HalfCourt Ventures, to explore what it takes to deploy AI for useful work inside organizations.
Drawing on his work with 1,200 leaders and executives, Todd explains why the people closest to the work often see AI opportunities that executives miss. He shares how a university athletics sales rep used AI to uncover new ticket buyers, how a warehouse employee helped a manufacturer rethink a 22-year-old spreadsheet, and why a skeptical, experienced employee became an unexpected AI champion.
We also discuss Todd's book, Adapt & Adopt, and his approach to teaching people how to identify useful AI tasks, evaluate opportunities, and build momentum from individual wins to broader adoption.
Other topics covered:
• Three paths to putting AI to work in a business
• Why employee frustrations can reveal valuable AI opportunities
• The gap between personal AI use and workplace adoption
• What Todd learned from investing in more than 100 AI companies
• Building a tech career outside San Francisco and New York
• Why meeting recorders and voice dictation can make an immediate difference
• Using Claude to protect your calendar and priorities
If you're leading a team, trying to make AI useful in your own job, or deciding where to start, this conversation offers practical ways to connect AI's capabilities with the work people do every day.
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TIMELINE
0:00 Introduction
2:27 From AI investing to real-world adoption
7:19 Three paths to making AI useful
10:16 Adapt & Adopt: learning how to think
16:34 Unexpected AI wins in sales and manufacturing
21:14 Finding AI opportunities in the work you hate
23:45 Why your AI champions may surprise you
27:02 Investing in AI before the boom
33:49 Building a tech career beyond the coastal hubs
40:44 Meeting recorders, Wispr Flow and everyday AI
45:24 Using AI to protect your time
48:58 Closing advice: slow down when life gets hard