Companies keep approaching AI the way they approached every other tech rollout: install it, train on it, expect immediate returns. But AI isn't software. It's imperfect by design, doesn't follow a predictable implementation curve, and the gap between what leadership promised the board and what's actually happening is becoming a serious problem.

In this episode of The Trending Communicator, host Dan Nestle sits down with Chris Gee, founder of Chris Gee Consulting and strategic advisor to Ragan's Center for AI Strategy. Chris has survived four career reinventions driven by technological disruption—from watching his graphic design degree become obsolete the day he graduated to now helping organizations navigate the shift to agentic AI. His motto, "copilot, not autopilot," frames the entire conversation.

Chris and Dan dig into why AI adoption is stalling—because companies are treating transformation like a switch to flip rather than a capability to build. They explore the parallel to 1993's Internet boom and why the adoption curve is right on schedule despite executive frustration. The conversation gets practical: Chris shares how he built an AI agent named "Alexa Irving" for client onboarding, and they tackle whether doom-and-gloom predictions from AI CEOs are helping or hurting the people who actually need to use these tools.

Listen in and hear about...

• Why the adoption curve for AI mirrors the early Internet


• The $17 trillion argument against AI replacing all jobs (hint: someone has to buy things)


• How prompting skills aren't going away


• Building agentic AI with guardrails: Chris's "Alexa Irving" experiment


• Why "copilot, not autopilot" is more than a slogan—it's a survival strategy


• The skills gap nobody's addressing and why we need more brains who understand AI, not fewer

Notable Quotes

"My motto is copilot, not autopilot. I wholeheartedly believe that we are going to make the most progress using AI in tandem—where humans focus on the things that we do well and we use AI for the things it does better than we do." — Chris Gee [04:19 ]

"17 is $17 trillion—that's what the American consumer spends per year. 70 is the percentage of US GDP that represents. And zero is the amount of money that AI chatbots, LLMs, and agents have to spend." — Chris Gee [23:57 ]

"Your ability was never simply in your ability to string together words and phrases, but to translate experiences or emotions and create connection with other humans." — Chris Gee [36:44 ]

"It's not thinking and it never will be thinking. So if we understand that, then we understand it won't be thinking like a human." — Chris Gee [1:07:00 ]

Resources and Links

Dan Nestle

• Inquisitive Communications | Website


• The Trending Communicator | Website


• Communications Trends from Trending Communicators | Dan Nestle's Substack


• Dan Nestle | LinkedIn

Chris Gee

• Chris Gee Consulting | chrisgee.me


• Chris Gee | LinkedIn


• The Intelligent Communicator Newsletter | chrisgee.me (sign up on website)

Timestamps

0:00:00 AI Transformation: Hype vs. Reality in Communications
0:06:00 Human Touch vs. Automation in Service Jobs
0:12:40 Early Career Transformation & Adapting to Technology
0:18:00 AI Adoption Curve: Early Adopters and Laggards
0:23:30 Tech Disruption, Job Fears, and Economic Impact
0:29:10 Prompting and Obstacles to AI Adoption
0:34:45 Redefining Skill Sets & Human Value with AI
0:40:45 Efficiency, Productivity, and Creativity with AI Tools
0:46:20 Rethinking Work: Flexible Schedules & Four-Day Weeks
0:51:39 Practical AI Use Cases: Experiment and Upgrade
0:55:11 Agentic AI: Autonomous Agents and Guardrails
1:01:29 Autonomous Agents: Oversight, Guardrails, and Risks
1:08:15 AI Is Imperfect: Why Human Judgment Remains Essential
1:14:16 AI Quirks, Prompting Challenges, and Adoption Friction
1:19:41 Wrap-Up: Finding Chris Gee & Newsletter/Prompt Suggestions
1:21:18 Final Thoughts & Episode Closing

(Notes co-created by Human Dan, Claude, and Castmagic)

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