In this lively and thought-provoking episode of Elevate Your AIQ, Bob Pulver reconnects with former collaborator and pioneering technologist Marshall Kirkpatrick. From their early work intersecting social data and influence to Marshall's latest AI-driven workflows, the conversation explores how human insight and machine intelligence are converging. Marshall shares real-world examples of using synthetic personas, market monitoring systems, and creative prompting strategies to uncover early signals, amplify strategic decisions, and reimagine everything from talent acquisition to environmental policy tracking. It's a conversation that navigates the emergence of machine learning for social insights to the frontier of AI innovation.

Keywords

AI-powered market monitoring, synthetic personas, talent acquisition, influencer marketing, social analytics, Claude, Perplexity, scenario planning, digital twins, quality of hire, Obsidian, strategic planning, generative AI, Delphi method, social capital

Takeaways

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  Marshall’s Journey: Marshall has spent his career identifying experts and building tools to surface valuable insights from social data.

  
  


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  Synthetic Personas in Action: Using tools like Claude to create synthetic expert panels that evaluate documents, surface perspectives, and even challenge his own thinking.

  
  


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  AI-Augmented Talent Scenarios: AI to simulate team compositions, evaluate candidates’ social behaviors, and even model potential collaboration outcomes.

  
  


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  Monitoring the Market with AI: Building systems that detect early signals in markets — including environmental policy — using a mix of RSS, generative AI, and good old-fashioned curiosity.

  
  


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  Digital Twins and Ownership: Exploring who owns the knowledge embedded in a “digital twin” of an employee — and how organizations might leverage them responsibly.

  
  


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  Strategic Planning Reimagined: Using AI to model outcomes based on actions and strategies offers new ways to engage in scenario planning — not just in workforce contexts, but in grantmaking and innovation networks.

  
  


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  Counterargument Workflows: Marshall shares his custom-built browser tool that generates counterarguments to online content using ChatGPT, promoting critical thinking and cognitive diversity.
  

  
  

  Quotes

  
  

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  “I try to eat my own dog food — or drink my own champagne — when it comes to market monitoring.”

  
  


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  “There’s gold in that data. We just have to figure out how to mine it responsibly and effectively.”

  
  


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  “Synthetic personas are fast, cheap, and good enough to get the conversation started.”

  
  


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  “What’s the strategy, what’s the output — and what’s the outcome? That’s where AI can help us model the messy middle.”

  
  


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  “You can’t just look at someone’s codebase or resume — you need context, behavior, and communication patterns.”

  
  


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  “I built a ‘counterargument bookmarklet’ to challenge the assumptions in what I’m reading online.”
  Chapters

  
  

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  00:00 – Welcome & Reconnection: Marshall’s Background and Journey

  
  


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  03:12 – AI Systems for Market Monitoring and Early Signal Detection

  
  


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  10:58 – The Evolution of Social Analytics and Social Capital

  
  


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  16:39 – Talent Acquisition, AI, and the Value of Social Footprints

  
  


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  24:57 – Scenario Planning with Synthetic Personas

  
  


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  32:05 – Driving Innovation through Grant Monitoring and Project Pairing

  
  


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  40:41 – From Digital Twins to Ethical Implications of AI in the Workforce

  
  


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  50:15 – Counterargument Workflows and Critical Thinking with AI

  
  


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  58:21 – Closing Thoughts: Responsible AI, Community, and the Road Ahead

  
  

Marshall Kirkpatrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshallkirkpatrick

Earth Catalyst: https://www.earthcatalyst.co/

For advisory work and marketing inquiries:

Bob Pulver:⁠⁠ ⁠https://linkedin.com/in/bobpulver⁠⁠⁠

Elevate Your AIQ:⁠⁠ ⁠https://elevateyouraiq.com⁠⁠⁠

Substack: ⁠https://elevateyouraiq.substack.com⁠

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