ON_Discourse

Dan, Toby, and Chmiel break down their 3rd annual Provocations Not Predictions event, where ON_Discourse members submit their most challenging questions for the year ahead. In this episode, they debate whether AI will actually deliver transformative change in 2026 or if we're stuck automating yesterday's workflows with tomorrow's tools.Details in the show:Why provocations force harder thinking than predictionsThe difference between automating old processes and fundamentally changing how we workWhether new hardware (glasses, wristbands, connected ecosystems) will actually ship in 2026Why we might already have everything we're going to getWhat it means when three years after ChatGPT, the only real change is tactical efficiencyAbout ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are broadcasting Toby’s panel at Web Summit in Lisbon, featuring Dan and Don McGuire, CMO of Qualcomm. Don and Dan think the future of marketing is "human-led, technology-powered.” Behind that concept is a new org-chart, workflow, and a concept called PTSB - permission to sh*t the bed. It sounds a lot different than automation…Details in the show:The problem with the traditional compartmentalization of marketing into separate 'brand' and 'performance' silosWhy the "nerve center" of marketing organizations should shift to creativity, away from product and communicationsHow "context is the new creativity" and why many brands fail to apply itA disagreement about what upskilling meansWhy the concept of "The internet is closing" means marketers must figure out new methods to "own your customer"About ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan, Toby, and Matthew announce the launch of new company and product called (domain) - a collaboration platform that connects your work to your network. It is built on the thesis that the future of work isn't about AI giving you answers, it's about AI helping humans collaborate better. In this episode they break down why they think we're on the edge of a collaboration revolution.Details in the show:The problem with AI flattening all outputs to "good enough"Why collaboration skills will be what separates people in the future of workHow we turned lessons in discourse into a modern collaboration platformJoin the (domain) waitlist here: https://ondomain.ai Enter code PODCASTAbout ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Everyone agrees customer experience matters. Everyone agrees AI will transform business. So why is almost nobody actually doing anything about it? Dan and Matthew dig into new research showing that 93% of C-suite leaders say their digital CX needs improvement - even though they know it drives revenue. The problem isn't technology as much as it is imagination. While companies chase efficiency gains they can put in a spreadsheet, they're missing the bigger opportunity to fundamentally reimagine how they serve customers.Details in the Show:* Why 76% of enterprises feel behind on AI transformation* The difference between efficiency gains and relationship innovation* How ChatGPT's retro campaigns signal something deeper about consumer AI* How autonomous lawn mowers help us think about CXAbout ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ChatGPT and Claude are going direct to consumers with nostalgic commercials and friendly interfaces, but underneath the marketing is a fundamental shift in how we interact with technology. Dan, Toby, and Matthew dig into what happens when AI systems become the primary interface for everything - and whether these platforms will be truly open or just feel open while quietly controlling distribution, data, and dollars.Details in the Show:* Why ChatGPT's retro marketing makes us want to watch Stranger Things* The difference between open protocols and closed ecosystems* How agentic systems change the attention economy (and who controls it)* Why platform dependency always ends the same way* What Amazon's playbook tells us about AI's futureAbout ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AI is making predictions cheaper, faster, and easier at scale. But forecasting is still guessing, and NYU Stern Professor Jamyn Edis argues that what AI can't replace is human judgment. In this conversation, we dig into why defining "intelligence" matters, how business actually works versus how we pretend it works, and what happens when we confuse prediction with decision-making.Details in the Show:* Why judgment and intelligence aren't the same thing* The difference between prediction and decision-making in business* How AI changes what we measure, not whether we should trust the measurement* Academic vs. business discourse (and why one is afraid of being wrong)* Putting tomatoes in fruit saladAbout ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ChatGPT just released Sora 2, a tool that lets you create videos starring your own digital avatar. Add that to last week's Pulse, and suddenly we're not just consuming content, we're becoming it. But who actually asked for this? And what happens when synthetic content floods the same feeds we're already exhausted by?Details in the Show:* The cameo feature and personalized synthetic content* Whether people want algorithmically generated entertainment* How OpenAI is closing the web by moving from tool to ecosystemAbout ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ChatGPT recently launched Pulse, a feature that reads everything you do, repackages your work back to you, as if you are the subject of a daily newsroom. It's like taking notes that talk back, or having someone present your own thoughts better than you could. Is this useful or just another feed we'll forget about in three weeks.Details in the Show:* Behavior-driven media vs algorithmic targeting* The difference between relatability and utility in AI-generated content* How context plus specificity changes your relationship with information* Whether this is the start of something bigger or just yesterday's weather reportAbout ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The AI revolution promised to transform everything. Instead, we got chatbots that sound smart but deliver work that looks like a duck, walks like a duck, but turns out to be a goose. This episode digs into why the agentic AI hype hasn't delivered transformative experiences, and what's really holding back the next phase of human-computer interaction.Details in the Show:Why "not everything needs to be a conversation" is the key insight missing from AI designHow the volume knob reveals the flaw in invisible interface thinkingWhy better thinking doesn't equal better doing in the agentic worldThe difference between multi-step reasoning and true agencyHow the internet became static again, and where the UX designers wentWhy AI tools still require you to do your actual workLearn more at ON_Discourse.comAbout ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew Rosen’s ESPN vs. NYT breakdown is generating headlines, not because it’s about sports or news, but because it’s about institutions facing disruption. This episode doesn’t just recap his argument, it asks a harder question: What does it look like when legacy brands adjust too slowly to seismic shifts in distribution, personalization, and participation?Details in the Show:* Why Rosen says NYT is adapting, and ESPN isn’t* How personalization is breaking legacy distribution models* What AI-native fandom reveals about the future of content* How legacy instutions in legacy platforms should adapt to the AI revolutionLearn more at ON_Discourse.comHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.About ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Toby, Dan, and Chmiel set out to decode vibe coding but end up in a more urgent conversation about thinking. What happens when our tools get smarter, but our minds get lazier? Who wins in the battle between machine automation and human inspiration?Details in the Show:* How vibe coding is amazing (and frustrating)* The rise of synthetic synthesis and what it’s doing to original thought* How AI enables performance over understanding* What happens when the internet becomes a memory prosthetic, and we stop remembering anything ourselves'Learn more at ON_Discourse.comAbout ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Toby, Dan, and Chmiel dig into the implosion of Gartner’s market cap, and what it reveals about the future of knowledge work. The conversation starts with a provocative question: if the business of certifying value no longer creates value, what’s next?Details in the Show:Why Gartner lost half its valueThe crumbling authority of research firms in a world of AI-generated synthesisWhy “knowledge work” was always a proxy for serviceIf AI can truly replace what Gartner doesPlus: the annual lobster roll competition, and what it teaches us about surf, turf, and interface frictionLearn more at ON_Discourse.comAbout ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Toby, Dan, and Chmiel examine LinkedIn’s strange grip on our professional lives. What starts as a confession, Toby admitting to opening the app 30 times a day, turns into a bigger question: is LinkedIn a tool, a feed, or just another dopamine trap? Together, they unpack why the platform feels indispensable yet indistinguishable from TikTok or Instagram, and what that says about the state of “professional” culture online.Details in the Show:Why LinkedIn use feels more like compulsion than utilityThe collapsing distinction between LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram feedsDan’s take on why “professional content” isn’t as unique as it once wasHow the platform serves as both a temperature check and a time sinkWhether compulsive usage equals value or just digital junk foodWhat LinkedIn’s stickiness reveals about the broader internet economy of attentionLearn more at ON_Discourse.comAbout ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chmiel sits down with ON_Discourse members Natalie Monbiot and Craig Elimeliah for a sharp dive into AI’s hidden cost: the erosion of human cognition. Natalie, founder of Virtual Human Economy, shares research showing how over-reliance on LLMs can short-circuit learning, while Craig, Chief Creative Officer at Code and Theory, explores how design choices can either feed (or fight) that decline. Together, they unpack why today’s AI interfaces make it too easy to bypass thinking, and how reimagined UX could keep humans in the loop without slowing progress.Details in the ShowWhy cognitive “bypassing” is more a UX problem than an AI inevitabilityThe MIT Media Lab study showing how starting with AI leads to zero recall and weaker encoding of ideasWhat “caring” means in creative work, and why instant AI answers kill itHow better interface design could encourage iteration, reflection, and deeper engagementCraig’s view on designing AI experiences that empower rather than overwhelm usersWhy friction is the spark for meaning-making and growthA challenge to AI product teams: stop optimizing for speed at the expense of human depthLearn more at ON_Discourse.com.About ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Toby and Chmiel continue last week’s conversation on human ingenuity with a founder who’s putting it to the test. Katherine von Jan (KVJ to those who know her) joins the pod to talk about her new venture, Tough Day, and its mission to unlock the best of human potential in an AI-saturated workplace. As a longtime ON_Discourse member and former Salesforce exec turned startup founder, KVJ has a sharp perspective on where AI helps, where it hurts, and why the future of work depends on not automating away what makes us human.Details in the ShowWhy KVJ believes the next wave of AI should elevate human problem-solving, not replace itThe overlooked cost of frictionless workflows, and why some struggle is essential to great ideasHow “human ingenuity gaps” show up inside organizations, and what tools can close themLessons KVJ carried from big tech leadership into startup building in the AI eraWhy today’s obsession with scale blinds us to the micro-moments that define good workA challenge to AI founders: build tech that makes people better, not just fasterLearn more at ON_Discourse.com.About ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Toby, Matt, and Dan wrestle with what it means to have a “voice” in an AI-mediated world, and what happens when that voice gets flattened, filtered, or faked. This episode digs into the paradox of human ingenuity in the age of synthetic output, the strange intimacy of talking to machines, and why friction, not fluency, might be the future of AI design.Details in the ShowWhy AI-generated content feels increasingly soulless and how “sludge” became the internet’s new textureThe performance of trust: how we signal presence in an era of invisible agentsA defense of friction: what gets lost when AI makes things too easyHow real-time collaboration with AI can sharpen and not replace human ideasWhy product interfaces may need less wizardry and more humanityLearn more at ON_Discourse.comAbout ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Toby, Dan, and guest Craig Hepburn step inside the AI browser wars, and ask if the future of the internet is being quietly rewritten not by models, but by interfaces. This episode zooms in on Perplexity’s new agentic browser Comet, the real promise (and limits) of context-aware assistants, and what gets lost when AI "helps" too much.Details in the ShowWhy “the browser” might be AI’s most important battlefield, and what Perplexity’s big bet revealsThe rise of agentic interfaces and the myth of productivity-as-progressThe paradox of better UX: does frictionless mean future-proof, or forgettable?Why Google is still sleeping at the wheel, and how fast that could changeWhat Craig learned from testing five AI browsers, and which one might actually stickThe power (and danger) of right-click reversal: what happens when the browser starts prompting youA little “closed system vs. open protocol” debate How context layers could finally fix the broken web… or break it entirelyLearn more at ON_Discourse.comAbout ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Toby, Dan, and Chmiel interrogate the quiet crisis hiding inside the AI boom: we’re offloading too much thinking and calling it strategy. This episode explores what gets lost when cognitive offloading becomes the norm, and why the future of leadership may depend on friction, not flow.Details in the ShowWhy “upstream of strategy” isn’t just a catchphrase—it’s a call to rethink how we thinkCognitive offloading, groupthink, and the invisible atrophy of over-automated ideasWhat AI can't replicate: disagreement, unpredictability, and tasteWhy trust, vulnerability, and gut-checks still outperform generative polishThe difference between provocation and prompting—and why AI doesn’t know the differenceHow “the weak ties” in your network might be your sharpest strategic inputsThe real value of feeling dumb: learning, not performance, is the pointLearn more at ON_Discourse.comAbout ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan, Toby, and Chmiel go behind the scenes of Cannes Lions to unpack the real programming, posturing, and potential shaping the creative industry’s biggest week. Is the future of advertising being written on the main stage or whispered behind closed doors?Details in the ShowWhy the most important conversations at Cannes don’t happen on stageHow closed-door programming became the sharpest tool for industry changeThe AI content hype loop: tools, platitudes, and the myth of masteryAutomation vs. creativity: why the exciting stuff is still the unknown“Implementation isn’t innovation”—and other Cannes heresiesThe honest (and uneasy) truth about AI’s impact on labor, ads, and originalityLearn more about ON_Discourse.About ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we’re joined by Taylor Halsted of Shamrock Capital to interrogate the illusion of AI efficiency. What if the mess we’re trying to automate out of work is actually where creativity, connection, and culture live?Details in the ShowWhy “Head of AI” might be the new “Webmaster”—and just as misguidedThe difference between performing productivity and producing outcomesWhether AI is making us more emotionally honest—or just better at faking it“AI guilt,” last-mile problems, and the hidden costs of over-orchestrationMessy work, vibecoding, and the underrated value of creative frictionWhat it takes to build AI culture without losing the human coreLearn more about ON_Discourse.About ON_DiscourseON_Discourse is a private community of C-suite leaders, investors, and innovators who come together to challenge assumptions, sharpen ideas, and drive transformation through discourse. As an experiment in modern discourse, the show’s hosts co-founders, Toby Daniels, Dan Gardner, and Head of Discourse, Matt Chmiel, explore how emerging technologies, such as AI are reshaping business, creativity, and culture, grounded in the real-world experiences that emerge from our community’s private Group Chats.Learn more about becoming part of the community: ondiscourse.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.