Welcome to Lead with AI, the only executive AI brief for busy leaders. Every edition, I deliver the latest AI updates through real-world insights and discussions from our community of 150+ forward-thinking executives.
The New Age ‘Hybrid Teams’: Humans and AI Agents Working in Harmony
Let's call it: 2025 will be the year of AI agents.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai believes it. Sam Altman envisions it. Microsoft also predicts they’ll reshape the very nature of work.
In just the last few months, there’s been a big spike in people looking up ‘AI agent,’ showing that interest is really taking off. And we’re watching a natural evolution unfold right now.
These agents are moving beyond the ‘co-pilot’ stage and slipping seamlessly into our everyday tools, from Microsoft’s Copilot Studio spinning up workflow-specific assistants to Salesforce’s SDR agents booking meetings and nurturing leads autonomously.
It’s not just on the horizon; it’s already happening, faster than we ever imagined.
Make sure you don't miss out with this week's news and inspiration for you to apply AI in your work, team, and organization:
- “Your AI Team” Updates: Copilot Vision Can Read Your Web-Browsing, ChatGPT o1 is Here, and the $200 ChatGPT Pro Package
- AI Implementation Case Study: Hera Group Pioneers AI in Utilities
- The Executive AI Brief: HubSpot CTO Dharmesh on Hybrids Team of Humans + AI
- Weekly Quick Hits: OpenAI’s 12 days of Shipmas, Amazon’s genAI model family, Google’s Veo to compete with OpenAI’s Sora, and more.
And a lot more interesting sharings from our Lead with AI PRO community this week.
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“Your AI Team” Platform Updates
Essential updates from our core AI platforms can mean big changes in your and your team's productivity. Here's what's new from the essential AI tools that most Lead with AI leaders are using:
Microsoft Copilot
Copilot Vision, now in preview for select US Pro users, analyzes and interacts with website content in real-time via Edge browser.
But unlike Salesforce's AgentForce or Claude's Computer Use, it offers passive assistance like summarizing, translating, or highlighting content and doesn’t fill out forms, navigate, or make purchases.
ChatGPT
OpenAI’s o1 and o1-mini are now live (Watch a user demo here). You'll get limited credits to try these latest models unless you subscribe to the new $200/month Pro tier, which also comes with an exclusive ‘o1 Pro Mode' with enhanced computing power. (Read o1 Pro vs. Claude 3.5 user testing results here.)
SOLVE HR ISSUES WITH WINSLOW
HR teams spend up to 50% of their time answering repetitive employee questions.
Winslow gives HR teams instant answers to employee questions inside Gmail, Outlook, Slack, and Teams.
Key Features:
✅ Well connected: Winslow works with your HR documents no matter where they live in SharePoint to shared drives to your custom intranet site.
✅ HRIS integrated: Integrate your HRIS to dynamically serve employees the right answers based on their location, classification, or seniority.
✅ Answers everywhere: Your HR team never needs to leave their workflow with our integrations into Gmail, Outlook, Slack, and Teams.
✅ Employee self-service: Turn on employee self-service and enable Winslow 24x7 for your employees through Slack or Teams.
Winslow is giving HR teams superpowers in nearly every industry and is funded by leading Silicon Valley figures, including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Reid Hoffman.
Thanks to Winslow for sponsoring this issue of Lead with AI. Want to get your offering in front of tens of thousands of people and AI-driven leaders? Partner with FlexOS.
How Companies Implement AI
Hera Group’s Generative AI Transformation
Hera Group, a leading Italian utility provider, partnered with Bain & Company to integrate generative AI into its operations. With over 10,000 employees and a $5.8 billion market cap, Hera aimed to enhance performance across energy, water, and waste management services.
Together, they developed a three-phased roadmap prioritizing ~150 AI use cases. The first phase saw the successful launch of a contact center chatbot to improve customer and employee interactions.
Hera addressed challenges like data quality and governance early to ensure scalability. Bain’s expertise and technology ecosystem enabled Hera to build a flexible AI platform, aligning the organization with future advancements.
This initiative positions Hera as an industry leader, showcasing AI's transformative potential in utility services.
>> Read more here.
The AI Executive Brief
The New Age ‘Hybrid Teams’: Humans and AI Agents Working in Harmony
In a recent My First Million podcast, Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot, shared a transformative vision for integrating AI agents into today’s workforce.
Instead of confining agents to simple, single-step tasks, he envisions them taking on multi-step, goal-oriented work, ultimately operating as full-fledged digital colleagues.
By placing agents alongside human team members, companies can offload repetitive, lower-level duties to these digital helpers.
As a result, human employees can focus on higher-order responsibilities—managing processes, applying judgment, and nurturing creativity—while still overseeing and approving the agents’ output.
This hybrid model promises greater efficiency, more dynamic collaboration, and a new balance between human and their digital counterparts. It’s a glimpse into how work will evolve.
>> Watch the full story here.
Quick Hits
- FlexOS surveyed AI platforms to reveal the Top 50 AI Marketing Tools worldwide. Visual design and content assistants top the ranking, significant demand is seen in Asia, and more insights for your adoption strategy. (Read it here)
- Besides OpenAI's o1 and ChatGPT Pro subscription on Day 1 of "12 Days of Shipmas," Day 2 introduced advanced reinforcement fine-tuning tools for developers to enhance AI performance. Day 3 unveiled Sora, a long-awaited text-to-video model capable of creating animations, remixes, and videos from prompts. (Watch them here)
- Amazon introduces six generative AI models in the 'Nova' family, supporting multiple languages and customizable for specific industries at lower prices. (Read Simon Willison’s review and try them on Amazon Bedrock here)
- Amazon is also building the world’s largest AI compute cluster for Anthropic using Trainium 2 chips.
- Google just launched Veo, an AI Video Model that can create high-quality 1080p videos in diverse cinematic styles from text or image prompts. (Read more here)
From The Lead with AI Community
Every day, Lead with AI members discuss practical ways to benefit from AI in their work and organizations.
This week's highlights include:
- I highly recommend this discussion of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff sharing what agents (not just those in his Agentforce) can start doing in our organizations. Niel also raises a thought-provoking question about where technology champions emerge in organizations then: top-down, bottom-up, or perhaps a middle-ground strategy that balances both?
- Phil wrote "Change Change with AI Agent Change Agents" to explain how AI agents can support organizational change management, making it more efficient and effective.
- I shared Josh Bersin’s podcast outlining four levels of AI adoption, in which he explained how evolving roles, skill requirements, and compensation structures can empower human workers alongside systems.
- I also shared research from Rebecca Hinds with other researchers at Standford University on bringing AI into your organizations. In short, you will need to 1) break down silos, 2) rethink your data systems and 3) rethink your org chart.
- Niel shares a podcast featuring VC insights into vertical AI agents, comparing their potential to the early SaaS era. Despite truly significant challenges, 10x scalability ultimately awaits patient, strategically-minded founders.
- Anthony and Hendrick shared Lovable, an AI coding tool that can help you build any app with zero coding knowledge. Anthony notes its value for small, often-overlooked projects compared to programmer-focused tools like Cursor v0 and GitHub Copilot, sharing a compelling essay that explains this perspective here.
- Joe shared his demo of turning static documents into engaging educational podcasts using NotebookLM for podcasting, Audacity for audio editing, Hedra for AI avatars, CapCut for video merging, and Veed for subtitles.
- Sherry shared another demo using Claude’s Computer Use for hands-free flight bookings.
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See you next week,
Practical Tips for the AI-Driven Workplace
Get real strategies AND implementation guides from business leaders delivered to your inbox every Tuesday.