KEY TAKEAWAYS (an AI-Output with Hallucinations)

AI AGENTS & AGentic workflows

• Atlas - AI Browser by OpenAI

• n8n - Workflow automation

• Cursor - Coding agent

• Comet by Perplexity - Best Agentic Browser - browse the internet with AI and get stuff done

• Lindy - Build an AI agent - great for AI automation

LLM

• OpenAI’s Deep Research - Absolutely the best research tool out there right now

• Manus - Most comprehensive AI agent in my opinion

• Claude Skills - Claude Skills is the best skills agent - this allows to be more deterministic with your agents.

• Grok 4 - Equivalent to o3 from ChatGPT - awesome for X data

• Gemini 2.5 - Incredible LLM

Text-to-App

• Lovable - Build any app with agentic reasoning (best at front-end)

• v0 by Vercel - Text-to-Webpage (really good front-end)

• Replit - Idea-to-App (best for full app)

Text-to-IMAGE/VIDEO

• Midjourney - Best for pictures and video

• HeyGen - AI Video Avatar

• Runway - Text to Video

• Google’s Nano Banana - Best Image Generator

Research & other

• NotebookLM - Research and the two AI podcast hosts that you see above :)

• Google AI Studio - Real-time AI co-presence

• Clay - AI Outbound Sales | Generating lists of emails and sending cold outreach

• Figjam - Whiteboarding Ideas | Brainstorming | Organizing

Briefing: Innovation, AI, and the Agentic Era

Executive Summary

Executive Summary

This document synthesizes the core themes from a presentation by innovation strategist Sean Coo on the disruptive impact of Artificial Intelligence. The central argument is that the world is moving beyond AI as a simple content creation tool into a new "agentic era," where autonomous AI agents will execute complex tasks, make decisions, and unlock unprecedented value. This transition is rapidly commoditizing technology and eroding traditional business moats, forcing a fundamental re-evaluation of strategy, culture, and competitive advantage.

The key takeaways are as follows:

• The Agentic Revolution is Here: Beginning in 2025, the focus of AI will shift from generating content to performing actions. These "agents" will operate on a spectrum, from simple automated workflows to 24/7 digital employees capable of getting things done, fundamentally changing how businesses operate.

• The Commoditization of Skill: AI allows any individual to perform tasks previously reserved for specialists, meaning a company's competition is no longer local but global. The most valuable skill is no longer knowledge but the ability to generate ideas, be hungry, and challenge the status quo.

• Trust as the Scarcest Asset: In a "frictionless economy" optimized for efficiency, human context and trust are being eroded. The rise of sophisticated deepfakes and AI-generated content will create a world where it is difficult to distinguish the real from the artificial, making trust the ultimate differentiator.

• Strategy Reimagined: Strategy is no longer about being the best but about being different. It is defined as "energy"—an imaginary theory that sets people on fire. In the face of AI-driven commoditization, the most critical strategic imperative is to identify, build, and strengthen a unique competitive "moat."

• Culture as the Ultimate Moat: The greatest strategy is "deeply care." A culture built on a deep commitment to people and a willingness to embrace failure creates an environment where individuals will "go to war" for the organization. This human element, which cannot be easily replicated by AI, is the most resilient competitive advantage.

• The Imperative of Self-Disruption: AI threatens not just jobs, but identity. To thrive, leaders and organizations must be willing to detach from the very successes that brought them to their current position, "bury" their past achievements, and reimagine processes from zero. The advice is to "work scared until you become scary."

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1. The Dawn of the Agentic Era

The current AI revolution, which began in earnest with the advent of ChatGPT in late 2022, is rapidly evolving. The initial phase focused primarily on content creation, such as refining emails or summarizing conversations. However, the period from 2025 onward will be defined by the "agentic revolution," where AI transitions from a passive tool to an active participant in business operations.

The Spectrum of Agency

Agency exists on a spectrum. On one end are simple Large Language Model (LLM) workflows, such as an "always on" agent that summarizes conversations. On the other end are true agents, described as 24/7 digital employees that can make independent decisions and execute complex tasks. This shift towards more agentic tools is what will unlock "extraordinary value for organizations."

Demonstrations of Agentic AI

Several live demonstrations were presented to illustrate the escalating capabilities of modern AI tools like Gemini 3:

• Automated Web Development: An AI was prompted to create a complex prompt, which was then fed into a tool called Replet Design. This resulted in the near-instantaneous creation of a "beautiful," fully functional, video-based landing page for the Alberta Business Family Institute, complete with details on numerous family-owned businesses.

• Application Development from an Idea: An application was conceived and built in one day to analyze the speaker's face and voice, identify filler words ("so," "you know"), and track performance over time on a dashboard. This demonstrates that "the most dangerous skill in the world today is just coming up with an idea."

• 24/7 AI Avatar: An AI agent was created for ATB Financial using the speaker's likeness and voice. This agent could answer complex questions about retirement planning, shifting from growth-oriented assets to more conservative mixes, and could instantly translate its response into Japanese upon request.

• Synthetic Data Analysis: To analyze a business ("Racks for Cars") without using its sensitive proprietary data, an AI was tasked to research the company and generate a "synthetic data file"—a complete clone of its products, SKUs, and categories. This synthetic data was then analyzed by another AI (Claude) to build out an Excel file calculating contribution margins and profitability by brand.

2. Redefining Work, Skills, and Power

The rise of agentic AI marks a fundamental shift from "systems of record" to "systems of intelligence." For the last four decades, software has primarily created more elegant ways to store and retrieve data. Today, AI agents can actively use that data to "get stuff done" in ways humans cannot, such as performing a 24/7 reconciliation of receipts and invoices.

From Knowledge to Hunger

The long-held belief that "knowledge is power" is now obsolete. In a world where everyone has access to an AI copilot, knowledge is a commodity. True power now resides with individuals who are hungry, can innovate, and are willing to fight the status quo.

"I don't believe that knowledge is power. Not when everybody has an AI copilot. To me, what's power today is people that are hungry, people that can innovate, people that can fight the status quo. To me, this is power."

The Pyramid of Infinite Leverage

An individual today has access to "infinite leverage" through a cascading series of resources. The more one moves up this stack, the more productivity and opportunity are available.

• AI Agents: An army of digital employees.

• AI Models: A tireless analyst.

• Software: Automated workflows.

• Media: The ability to tell a better story.

• Teams: Multiple choreographed brains.

• Expert Brain: Leveraging a single expert.

3. Navigating Fear and Embracing Empowerment

A common reaction to the rapid advancement of AI is fear, particularly regarding job security. This fear is primarily rooted in a lack of hands-on experience with the technology.

"The reason why you were scared is because you haven't put in the work yet. Every single person I've seen immersed themselves in the technology actually becomes proficient in the technology... They become empowered."

The advice for overcoming this fear is direct: "Work scared until you become scary." This responsibility cannot be delegated to an intern; it falls on every individual within an organization to immerse themselves in these new tools.

Learning AI is compared to going to the gym for the first time—it is overwhelming, and it doesn't matter which "machine" you start with. The goal is simply to start, to play with the tools until they "become light in your hand."

4. Duality of AI: Infinite Possibilities and Infinite Hell

Throughout history, new technologies have been met with fear. Bicycles were feared to cause "bike face" in women, telephones were predicted to make concert halls obsolete, and radio waves were thought to be deadly.

The current fear surrounding AI should not be directed at the technology itself, but at "the people using the technology." While we are entering an "age of infinite possibilities," we are simultaneously entering an "age of infinite hell" characterized by:

• Sophisticated deepfakes

• Exponential scams

• Synthetic relationships

• Automated lobbying

The primary societal danger is the emergence of a world where one "can't tell between what is real and AI." This erosion of a shared reality poses a significant threat to trust, which is critical for business and society.

5. The Scarcity of Trust and the Value of Friction

Trust is described as "the most scarce asset in the world today," partly due to the rise of the "frictionless economy." By optimizing for efficiency and dopamine hits—tapping a button for food delivery without interacting with the cook or driver—we are losing context, meaning, and ultimately, trust. This is exemplified by children who, when presented with a near-miraculous AI image of a "penguin drinking a milk on a whale during Christmas," complain, "Daddy, why is it taking so long?" and "Daddy, it sucks."

To counter this, the presentation argues for bringing back the "F word": Friction. While some organizations should be "fast and frictionless" (e.g., Amazon, McDonald's), there is immense value in deliberately slowing things down to create meaningful, memorable, and magical experiences.

"Delight is actually inefficient... in order to create something that's delightful, it cannot be inefficient. You have to put extraordinary effort and you actually have to slow things down."

Organizations of the future will primarily win in one of two ways: by being utterly frictionless or by creating high-friction, high-value experiences (e.g., Four Seasons, Hermès). The space in between is the "black hole of mediocrity."

6. The Search for a Moat in an AI-Driven World

A "moat" is a competitive advantage that prevents invaders from entering a company's castle. Traditional business moats—cost advantages, network effects, distribution, brand, and data—are facing a "diminishing durability." The average lifespan of a company on the S&P 500 is plummeting and is predicted to fall to just 12 years.

AI accelerates this decay because it "allows you to do any job." A competitor is no longer just a local entity but could be anyone, anywhere in the world—such as an individual in Dhaka, Bangladesh, who can create a better, cheaper insurance company targeting a specific Canadian province.

Simultaneously, trust in institutions and media is at an all-time low. This trust is not disappearing but is "pivoting to individuals" like Dr. Andrew Huberman, Mr. Beast, and Dr. Becky Kennedy. This trend empowers individuals to become disruptive forces, as they are their own brand and distribution channel.

Given these forces, the most critical question for any business is: "What is your moat?"

7. Strategy as Energy and the Necessity of Self-Disruption

In a world of commoditized skills, strategy is no longer about being the best. It is about "becoming different, being unique, being a freak."

"Strategy is energy. Strategy is an imaginary theory that has to set your people on fire... Strategy without energy is just called a PowerPoint."

The single best thing a business can do is find and strengthen its moat. This requires a new organizational model, the "agentic enterprise," which is reimagined around its people. Instead of forcing talented individuals into a rigid assembly line, it identifies their personal moats—their unique gifts and strengths—and builds around them.

The greatest challenge in this new era is self-disruption. AI threatens not just jobs, but the identity, status, and ego built over a career. The path forward requires a difficult but necessary process:

1. Show Gratitude: Be thankful for the hard work, stress, and successes that have led to the present moment.

2. Bury the Past: Once gratitude is shown, "bury it." The old playbook will not work for the next chapter. "What got you here ain't going to get you to the next mountaintop."

3. Start from Zero: Take a single process within the organization and ask how it would be rebuilt from scratch today, using all available tools and technologies. Determine what to automate, eliminate, and what requires more humanity.

The AI Revolution:

• Generative AI's Potential: Shawn highlights how AI, especially generative AI, is transforming work by democratizing it. He draws parallels with the internet's impact on knowledge, emphasizing that AI will revolutionize how tasks are performed.

• Generative AI Era (2023-2024)

  • Shawn recaps how ChatGPT launched in late 2022 and captured the world’s attention.

  • 2023 and 2024 became the era of “generative AI,” with widespread use of tools like ChatGPT for writing, image generation, deep fakes, etc.

  Transition to 2025: The Agentic Era

  • The speaker asserts that the “generative AI revolution” is now “over.”

  • We’re entering a new wave in 2025, referred to as the “agentic” revolution, or the agentic era.

  • Key premise: AI agents will be the next huge disruptor, providing 10x to 1000x the value of generative AI alone.

  Why Agents?

  • An agent is software that can autonomously perform tasks on behalf of humans—mimicking what human employees might do but never sleeping or stopping.

  • Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang repeatedly referenced “agents” in his CES talk, highlighting their importance.

  Agents as the New Conversational Layer

  • In the ’90s, businesses needed websites.

  • In the 2000s-2010s, businesses needed apps and social media channels.

  • In 2025 and beyond, agents will become a critical “conversational layer” for organizations (internally and externally).

  • Companies will race to build their own brand-specific AI agents, and the challenge will be how to differentiate those agents.

• AI marks "the end of trust" as it becomes harder to distinguish between AI-generated and human-created content. Shawn warns about the erosion of trust due to AI's ability to create indistinguishable deep fakes and simulations.

• Shift from Knowledge Workers to Value Creators: As AI becomes more embedded in businesses, the most valuable jobs will no longer be knowledge-based but will center around creating value in new and innovative ways. Leaders must focus on being innovators, not just managing efficiencies​

• We live in an age of "infinite leverage" where individuals can do more with less using various tools and resources.

• AI as a Starting Point: The concept "the end is now the beginning" highlights a shift in how we approach creative and development processes. Rather than seeing AI-generated outputs as final products, they are considered starting points that inspire and guide further human creativity.

• AI is the next communication layer: Just like the internet, websites, and apps, AI agents will become ubiquitous, transforming how we interact with clients and information. Kanungo predicts, "By the end of next year, every company in this room will have one AI agent or multiple or hundreds."

• Iterative Creation: By generating numerous initial ideas or drafts using AI, the creative process becomes iterative. This allows for a broad exploration of possibilities before honing in on the final deliverable through human refinement and creativity.

• Rapid Prototyping: The example of generating a hundred websites, apps, or analyses with the help of AI emphasizes the efficiency and speed with which initial concepts can be developed. This rapid prototyping accelerates the innovation cycle.

• Creative Catalyst: AI serves as a catalyst for innovation by providing a multitude of starting points. It breaks the traditional linear progression of project development and encourages a more dynamic and flexible approach

• AI-Driven Efficiency: Tools like Midjourney can generate multiple creative options for advertisements in seconds, providing companies with the flexibility to test and optimize their campaigns efficiently

The Concept of DEEPLY CARING:

• Reliability and genuine care are foundational to building trust, both in technology and human interactions.

• Exceptional service goes beyond basic expectations, creating memorable experiences that differentiate a business.

• Personalized attention and proactive problem-solving significantly enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

• Investing in employee well-being and growth fosters a positive work culture, leading to increased job satisfaction and performance.

• Recognizing and valuing employees' contributions, even extending to their families, can create strong emotional connections to the workplace.

• Empowerment is a two-pronged approach: providing cutting-edge tools (like AI) and demonstrating deep care for individuals.

• Genuine care is a strategic business advantage, driving both customer retention and employee innovation.

• Creating a culture of care can transform service delivery, employee engagement, and ultimately, business outcomes.

• The ripple effect of care extends beyond immediate interactions, influencing long-term relationships with both customers and employees.

• Innovation thrives in environments where individuals feel valued, supported, and equipped with the right tools.

• Care for Employees = Care for Customers: Organizations that deeply care for their employees tend to deliver superior customer service, as employee satisfaction directly translates to customer trust and satisfaction

  The Importance of Human-Centered Leadership

  • People Over Projects: A leadership philosophy that prioritizes people, such as letting employees take vacations despite client demands, fosters loyalty and long-term value for the business​.

  • High-Agency Cultures: Empowering people by combining technological tools with people-centric care creates "high-agency" employees who are proactive, innovative, and committed to the company’s mission​.

The Concept of Friction:

He advocates for maintaining trust through human-centric, meaningful, and memorable experiences.

• Bringing Back Friction: In an increasingly frictionless world, Shawn argues for the value of friction in creating deeper, more authentic connections. He stresses that community management companies, unlike tech companies, thrive on trust and relationships, not just efficiency.

• In a frictionless world, we need more friction.

• Companies will win by being either extremely frictionless or extremely human - the middle ground is "the black hole of mediocrity."

Are you willing to look like a joke?

Shawn suggests that true innovation requires embracing uncertainty and discomfort - what he calls "the darkness." This idea challenges the common view that innovation is solely about achieving specific outcomes or results.

By focusing on identity rather than outcomes, Kanungo seems to be advocating for a mindset shift. He's suggesting that being an innovator is more about who you are and how you approach challenges, rather than just what you produce. This approach emphasizes qualities like curiosity, resilience, and willingness to take risks.

The question "Are you willing to be the innovator?" is provocative. It asks whether one is ready to:

1. Embrace uncertainty and potential failure

2. Challenge established norms and ways of thinking

3. Cultivate a mindset of continuous learning and experimentation

4. Persist in the face of setbacks and criticism

This perspective on innovation as an identity rather than just a process or outcome can be empowering. It suggests that anyone can be an innovator if they're willing to adopt certain attitudes and behaviors, regardless of their specific role or industry.

Disruption and Self-Disruption:

• Leaders need to be willing to disrupt themselves.

• Innovation isn't about thinking, it's about acting. It involves deliberately exposing yourself to challenges and suffering.

• Small experiments and actions are key to starting the disruption process.

Embracing Innovation's Challenges

The Willingness to Look Foolish

• True innovation requires embracing uncertainty and discomfort ("the darkness")

• Focuses on identity rather than just outcomes

• Requires qualities like curiosity, resilience, and risk-taking

Innovation as Universal Responsibility

• Not a separate department but a mindset for everyone

• Continuously asking how to improve

The Most Valuable Question

• "What will you start today that scares you?"

• Begins changing your story and challenging limits

Self-Disruption

• The greatest challenge isn't scaling up (0 to 100)

• It's having the courage to disrupt yourself and what's working (100 to 0)

Beyond Mountains

• Success shouldn't breed complacency

• There are always new heights after reaching what seemed like the summit

To Reach 5×, You Can’t Think 5 % Bigger—You Have to Go to Zero

Take any core process—finance approvals, R&D cycles, vessel maintenance—and ask: If we rebuilt this from scratch with today’s tech, what vanishes? What automates? What now demands more human warmth? Going “to zero” prevents incrementalism from smothering breakthroughs.

The Most Dangerous Person in the Room

It’s not the algorithm or the credentialed expert—it’s the individual who feels the fear, yet moves anyway. Bold + scared beats brilliant + stuck. Be that person, hire that person, partner with that person, and the future tips in your favor.