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

This document synthesizes the core themes from a presentation on innovation and disruption, with a specific focus on the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the healthcare sector. The central argument is that the industry is on the cusp of an "agentic revolution," where AI will evolve from a content creation tool into a value-creating partner capable of executing complex tasks, fundamentally reimagining work, and enhancing human capability. This technological shift necessitates a parallel cultural transformation within healthcare organizations. Key takeaways include the imperative for professionals to "work scared until you become scary" by immersing themselves in AI to overcome fear and unlock its potential. Innovation is presented not as a quest for outcomes, but as a change in identity, requiring a willingness to "look like a joke" and embrace failure. The document highlights a critical strategic choice for organizations: either become radically efficient and "frictionless" or deliberately "slow down" to double down on the human elements of craft, care, and experience, avoiding the "black hole of mediocrity" in the middle. Ultimately, the most potent strategy for fostering innovation and navigating disruption is to "deeply care"—for colleagues, staff, and patients—as this creates the trust and psychological safety necessary for true transformation.

1. The Nature of Disruption and Innovation

The presentation frames disruption not as a set of answers or advice, but as the act of asking bold questions to challenge the status quo. Innovation is positioned as a matter of identity rather than a series of tasks or deliverables.

• Defining Disruption: Audience members defined disruption as "trying bold new ideas," "failing forward," and, most accurately according to the speaker, "challenging the status quo."

• The Innovator's Role: The speaker asserts his role is not to provide answers but "to ask some really bold questions." He encourages disagreement as a necessary component of any conversation about the future.

• Innovation as Identity: True innovation is presented as a willingness to fundamentally change one's identity and risk perception.

    ◦ Key Quote: "If you truly want to be an innovator, this is what innovation looks like. Innovation looks like a joke. So I'm asking you, are you willing to look like a joke?"

• The Disrespected Profession: The speaker humorously notes that "innovation strategist" is a "highly disrespected profession," sharing anecdotes about being misunderstood on a flight and a Steve Harvey clip where the host jokingly concludes an innovation strategist must be a "drug dealer."

2. The Agentic AI Revolution

A core theme is the evolution of AI beyond its current generative capabilities into a new, more powerful "agentic" era, which is poised to fundamentally alter healthcare and other industries.

The Shift from Generative to Agentic AI

• Generative Era (2022-2024): Characterized by content creation, such as refining emails or summarizing patient conversations.

• Agentic Era (2025+): Described as the "agentic revolution," this era will be "100 to a thousandx" more impactful than the generative phase. It is defined by software that can not only think but also "get stuff done."

• Defining Agency: Agency exists on a spectrum, from simple "large language model workflows" (predefined recipes) to "true agents" (software that can work 24/7 and make decisions), unlocking extraordinary value.

AI's Practical Applications and Demonstrations

The speaker provided several live and pre-recorded demonstrations to illustrate AI's current and near-future capabilities:

• Personal Health Analysis: Inputting personal health records into models like Grock, Gemini, and ChatGPT to analyze results, identify discrepancies, and recommend a plan (the result was a "Mediterranean" diet). This illustrates how patients will arrive with AI-driven pre-diagnoses.

• Text-to-Application: Using an RFP for a University of Ottawa Electronic Medical Record (EMR) portal, the speaker generated a detailed AI prompt and used a "text to app generator tool" called Lovable to create not just the UI/design but also the front-end and back-end capabilities.

• Virtual Physician: A demonstration of a personal AI agent, using the speaker's face and likeness, that functions as a 24/7 virtual doctor, capable of answering health questions and even translating its responses into other languages like Japanese.

• Replicating Digital Content: A step-by-step example of replicating a high-end Gucci marketing campaign by using MidJourney, Gemini's Nano Banana model, and Runway to place the speaker's wife into a photorealistic, AI-generated advertisement.

Core Implication: "Anything that is digital today can be replicated and reinvented by AI."

3. AI's Impact on Work, Jobs, and Skills

The presentation argues that AI is not just a tool but a force that reshapes the nature of work, the value of skills, and the structure of careers.

• Reimagining Workflows: The traditional mantra to "begin with the end in mind" is now superseded by the ability to "build with the end in mind." Teams can start with 100 AI-generated reports or plans as their initial draft, dramatically accelerating the creative and strategic process.

• The Future of Employment:

    ◦ AI will take jobs that "humans could never ever do," such as 24/7 reconciliation of 10,000 lines of data or constant daily audits.

    ◦ Key Quote (paraphrasing Jeffrey Hinton): "A human using AI will take your job."

    ◦ Healthcare is presented as a relatively "safe" industry due to its "elastic" demand; making doctors five times more efficient would likely lead to five times more healthcare being delivered, not a reduction in staff.

    ◦ According to a Microsoft study, the job least impacted by AI is a "dredge operator."

• From Knowledge to Hunger: The speaker declares the axiom "knowledge is power" to be obsolete.

    ◦ Key Quote: "I don't believe that knowledge is power. I believe that knowledge is important but I don't believe it's power. What's power today is people that are hungry. What's power today is people that can fight the status quo."

• The Coming Standard of Care: It is argued that it will eventually be considered "medical malpractice to not leverage agentic AI" as a check alongside a physician's expertise.

4. Fostering a Culture of Innovation

Creating an environment where innovation can thrive requires a deliberate focus on culture, psychological safety, and the human element.

Universal Play Income

• The speaker rejects the idea of Universal Basic Income (UBI) in favor of "Universal Play Income."

• He described an experiment where he offered to pay any resident of Alberta double the cost of any AI tool they wanted to try, wiring money to strangers to encourage experimentation.

• The Goal: The focus was not on outcomes or deliverables but on "transformation." Giving people a low-stakes environment to play and experiment is one of the most effective ways to drive personal and organizational transformation.

The Two Pillars of an Innovative Culture

1. A Deep Commitment to People: The greatest strategy is to "deeply care" about the people within an organization.

2. A Willingness to Embrace Failure: This creates the psychological safety required for experimentation and risk-taking.

The Power of Being Cared For

An anecdote about a stay at a Dubai hotel illustrated this principle. The exceptional service—including a staff member offering to gently knock on the door as a tertiary wake-up call—was a direct result of the hotel's deep investment in its staff. The hotel invited the parents of all employees to stay for a weekend to show them the opportunities available, fostering immense pride and dedication.

5. The Dichotomy of Friction vs. Frictionless Experiences

As technology makes services more efficient and on-demand, a critical strategic tension emerges between seamless automation and meaningful human interaction.

• AI and the End of Trust: The ease with which AI can generate convincing fake content marks the "end of trust." This was demonstrated with a fake AI-generated ad for "Banana Skin," a topical banana-based treatment for high cholesterol, which the speaker's mother believed was real.

• The Rise of Frictionless Expectations: Modern services (Amazon, Uber Eats) have created a baseline expectation for instant, seamless, transactional experiences. This "sucks up the nuance" and erodes trust.

• Bringing Back the "F Word": Friction: The speaker advocates for strategically reintroducing "friction"—meaning, doubling down on humanity, craftsmanship, and memorable, magical moments.

• The Two Winning Strategies: In the future, organizations will win by occupying one of two extremes, avoiding the "black hole of mediocrity" in the middle. | Fast & Frictionless | Slow & Frictional | | :--- | :--- | | Characteristics: Efficiency, Self-Service, Agentic, On-Demand | Characteristics: Experience, Moments, Craftsmanship, Humanity | | Examples: Amazon, McDonald's | Examples: Hermes, Four Seasons, Disney World, Apple Store |

6. The Personal Challenge: Disrupting the Self

The greatest barrier to innovation is often not technology or resources, but an individual's own identity, fear, and nostalgia.

• Overcoming Fear: Fear of AI is directly correlated with a lack of hands-on experience. The speaker's advice is to immerse oneself in the technology.

    ◦ Key Quote: "The reason why you are scared is because you haven't put in the work yet... My advice is to work scared until you become scary."

• The "100 to Zero" Mindset: While it is "sexy" to go from zero to 100 (scaling up), the more difficult but necessary journey for innovators is to go from 100 to zero—to "reimagine" and "become a rookie again." This requires letting go of one's ego, a process Carl Jung described as the work of the second half of life.

• The "Start From Zero" Method: A practical exercise for reimagining any process.

    1. Take any internal process.

    2. Ask: "If I would restart this process today from zero knowing everything that I know about tools and technologies, what would I do?"

    3. This mindset shift can lead to a "5x improvement" rather than a marginal 5% gain.

• Letting Go of Nostalgia: Organizations must resist the tendency to become "incredibly romantic" about past successes and processes, as this nostalgia prevents the necessary work of reinvention.

thumb_upGood reportthumb_downBad report

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.