I went to AU for the people

When past guests, listeners, sponsors, and prospective partners stop me in a hallway, the thank-yous are a nice byproduct. What those conversations carried underneath was deeper: meaningful work is happening, and it is delivering real value to individuals. Those moments mattered because of that, not because my name got said out loud.

You know what they say: what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Well, I don't subscribe to that. Here's a quick rundown of my week.

Kenton Grant and I co-led a workshop in the last slot on Thursday, 4:30 to 6:00, right before the closing party. The room held about 140. It filled, then went to standing room. We were blown away by the fortitude of these individuals after spending several days with the kill-your-nervous-system, relentless nature of being in Las Vegas.

The topic of our workshop was Build Your Firm's AI Adoption Plan. We kept it interactive: audience stories, share-outs, real friction from real teams. One person told us it was the only session that week with that kind of engagement. A lot of people thanked us afterward. I got three hugs. Did any other presenter get a hug after their session? I don't know, but I kinda doubt it. I wasn't expecting that kind of gesture, but it made it all feel worth it. Something about naming a practical first ninety days instead of another slide about the future must have struck a chord.

Then there is the harder half of the week.

The keynotes hammered on the AI-enabled future being about handling “more capacity.” I get why that line sells. As Theodoros Galanos said in episode 241, “I think we will never be busier. There is already too many things to do and not enough expertise.”

But my take is that it is also self-serving. AI already does so much so fast that people truly can do more. My take: promising more capacity deepens that dependency on the tools (AI specifically in this case) and raises the cost of keeping up. We do not get free abundance. We get a wider surface area of work that now expects AI in the loop. So where could this path lead?

Here is the part that worries me as someone living it: The token costs people and firms pay today are probably something like a tenth of the true cost. As dependency climbs, lock-in climbs with it. When the bill moves toward the real price, organizations are stuck: pay huge sums to keep the new way of working, or face disruption tearing it back out. That is not a scare story, but we should all be paying attention to where this is leading.

I am watching this in my own work. As a solopreneur I can produce like a small team now. I have broadened beyond the podcast because the tools make that possible. I also know I am not special here. This is happening to almost everyone leaning hard into AI. My prediction is a reckoning: not because the tech fails, but because the economics catch up to the habits we are building while it feels reasonable.

So I will leave you with the same place I started. Go to these conferences for the people. The hallway hellos, the workshops that fill late on the hour before the big party, the three hugs after a practical plan. That's the durable part. The capacity pitch will keep evolving. The people who stop you in the corridor to say thanks are why I still buy the ticket.

If our paths crossed this year at AU, I'm glad they did. It was an amazing time to be with this community and at the same time it was a relentless week in Vegas. My nervous system needs a reboot and I hope you recover well. Thank you!