The Value Creators Podcast Episode #70. Will Today’s Students Redefine Entrepreneurship? AI, Agency, and New Roles: A Conversation With Raushan Gross

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AI is now at the leading edge of value creation, where creativity, innovation and new business thinking will exercise great leverage. Entrepreneurs – and especially young entrepreneurs unburdened with the baggage of old business models – will lead the value creation revolution. 

Dr. Raushan Gross is a professor, author, and expert in AI, in business systems, and in entrepreneurship, all of which he is teaching to students in preparing them to enter a rapidly evolving marketplace. With Hunter Hastings, he explores how AI can empower these young entrepreneurs, and why agency—not technology—is the driver of progress, especially for new startups and small businesses who embrace technology and automation without losing their human advantage.

Dr. Gross shares how entrepreneurial thinking must evolve in a world of predictive algorithms, and how leaders can build businesses that remain adaptive, authentic, and focused on value creation.

Key insights include:

  • Why entrepreneurs must focus on agency over automation—and how to stay proactive in a reactive world.
  • How small businesses can leverage AI as a strategic collaborator, not just a productivity tool.
  • Why the new economic advantage isn’t size, but speed, flexibility, and intentionality.

If you want to lead with clarity in an AI-enabled world, this episode offers the mindset shift and tools to help you do it.

Resources:

Raushan Gross AI Articles Archive

➡️ Learn What They Didn’t Teach You In Business School: The Value Creators Online Business Course

Connect with Hunter Hastings on LinkedIn

Subscribe to The Value Creators on Substack

Knowledge Capsule

1. Agency Is the Core Entrepreneurial Advantage

  • Professor Gross’s message to entrepreneurs: Don’t  fear AI—focus on preserving and expanding your own agency.
  • Agency means the power to choose, to act, and to innovate intentionally.
  • Automation can be powerful only when paired with human direction.

2. Technology Is a Tool—Not a Replacement for Thought

  • Entrepreneurs must view AI as a collaborator, not a substitute.
  • Critical thinking and vision remain irreplaceable assets.
  • Tools should enhance decision-making, not dictate it.

3. The New Edge Is Speed, Adaptation, and Flexibility

  • Large enterprises move slowly; entrepreneurs can learn and pivot faster – it’s the ultimate advantage.
  • Small businesses that adopt AI intentionally gain a competitive edge.
  • Advantage now lies in responsiveness, not scale.

4. Predictive Systems Can Reinforce Old Biases

  • AI tools trained on outdated data may replicate legacy thinking.
  • Entrepreneurs must challenge assumptions, not automate them.
  • Intentional input leads to more valuable outcomes.

5. Entrepreneurship Requires Systems Thinking

  • Business owners must think in systems, not isolated tasks.
  • AI can help visualize and improve those systems.
  • Strategic automation happens at the systems level.

6. AI Literacy Will Define Future Business Success

  • Entrepreneurs need fluency in AI to use it responsibly. Fluency comes from experience: practice, practice, practice.
  • Literacy includes knowing limitations, risks, and opportunities.
  • This doesn’t require coding—just clear conceptual understanding.

7. AI Can Unlock New Levels of Customer Insight

  • Data-driven tools can help anticipate needs and personalize service.
  • But value comes from how entrepreneurs apply the insight.
  • Empathy + analytics = human-centered advantage.

8. Intentionality Beats Automation

  • Blind automation creates detachment and risk.
  • Entrepreneurs should deploy AI with clear objectives and constraints.
  • Design determines whether AI empowers or alienates.

9. Decision-Making Remains a Human Function

  • AI assists, but it doesn’t replace context, judgment, or nuance.
  • Leaders must remain accountable for the choices made.
  • The ultimate value creator is the human who wields the tool.

10. Entrepreneurial Education Must Evolve

  • Current business education is rigidly based on old models that have been superseded.
  • New teaching frameworks must incorporate digital fluency and ethics.
  • Future entrepreneurs will need systems awareness and AI navigation skills.
  • Learning must combine theory, tools, and lived experimentation.

11. AI Will Not Equalize—It Will Amplify Differences

  • Businesses that use AI strategically will accelerate.
  • Those who ignore it risk falling behind.
  • The gap will widen between the adaptive and the passive.

12. Value Creation Is Still the Ultimate Goal

  • Regardless of tools or trends, entrepreneurs exist to create value.
  • AI is only useful to the extent that it enables better outcomes.
  • The human intention behind the tool is what matters most.

The Value Creators Podcast Episode #69. AI, Trust, and the Return to Human-Centered Marketing: A New Marketing Framework with Bryan Phelps

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Many businesses and business functions are grappling with the question of the role of AI in future value creation, none more so than marketing agencies and the marketing function in business. Bryan Phelps is CEO of the marketing agency Big Leap, actively navigating this challenge every day. Bryan shares how his team developed a clear AI policy to guide innovation—and why humans must remain at the center of creativity, decision-making, and brand expression.

This episode is a practical and forward-thinking look at how businesses can build trust, scale responsibly, and stay human in the age of algorithms.

Key insights include:

  • Why your AI strategy should start with a policy—and how to align teams with clear principles.
  • How to preserve brand essence and emotional connection while integrating AI into marketing.
  • Why trust and empathy are the new growth engines—and how to lead with values, not just data.

If you’re building a brand in the age of AI, this conversation will help you navigate the future with clarity, integrity, and confidence.

Resources:

➡️ Learn What They Didn’t Teach You In Business School: The Value Creators Online Business Course

Learn more about Big Leap

Connect with Bryan Phelps on LinkedIn

Bryan’s Newsletter

Connect with Hunter Hastings on LinkedIn

Subscribe to The Value Creators on Substack

Knowledge Capsule

1. Don’t let AI replace or eclipse Human Creativity

  • Big Leap’s first principle is keeping humans at the center of marketing strategy.
  • AI tools support ideation, but don’t originate brand essence.
  • The best outcomes emerge from human-AI collaboration.

2. The best way to navigate the AI challenge is to start with Policy, not with Technology

  • Big Leap created a 9-point policy before deploying AI tools.
  • A clear framework builds internal confidence and external trust.
  • Policy drives alignment across teams and clients.

3. Responsible Design Demands Human Oversight

  • AI can generate inaccurate or misleading – or just not very good – outputs.
  • Users must verify quotes, facts, and context, and provide critique.
  • Responsibility is shared between tool and operator.

4. Brand Essence Must Be Protected

  • AI should enhance—not dilute—core brand identity. Does it truly understand?
  • Bryan suggests building a “brand avatar” that holds the brand’s soul.
  • Human input can train AI on voice, tone, and values.

5. Experimentation Fuels Innovation

  • Big Leap runs dozens of simultaneous experiments, without assuming the right answers in advance.
  • Testing helps discover new formats, messages, and channels.
  • Speed of iteration becomes a competitive edge.

6. SEO Is Evolving, not Static. But it’s still SEO.

  • Traditional keyword search is shifting toward knowledge exploration.
  • Brands must optimize for questions, not just clicks.
  • Bryan emphasizes helpfulness over hacking the algorithm.

7. Trust Is the Foundation of Modern Marketing

  • Metrics like engagement – a mechanical idea – must be reframed as emotional outcomes.
  • Marketing returns to its roots: relationships, trust, value.
  • AI helps, but human touch builds brand love.

8. Big Companies Must Embrace “Venture Mode”

  • Startups iterate fast—enterprises must learn to do the same.
  • Bureaucracy can’t keep pace with AI-enabled shifts.
  • Big Leap helps large firms act with entrepreneurial agility.

9. Clients Want Impact, Not Just Efficiency

  • AI enables better brand perception, faster results, and meaningful insights.
  • Bryan notes a shift away from pure efficiency to effectiveness.
  • Value creation now trumps cost-cutting.

10. Brand Monitoring Must Extend Beyond Owned Media

  • Teams now track Quora, Reddit, and other forums for consumer and customer insights.
  • Presence in conversations requires both listening and participating.
  • Tools + human review ensures brand is represented “lovingly.”

11. Communities Can Be Built Intentionally

  • Brand communities don’t have to be organic only.
  • Bryan discusses how to nurture them with content, interaction, and value.
  • AI helps scale presence—but humans spark connection.

12. Optimism in a High-Speed World

  • Bryan believes we should welcome change—and prepare for it.
  • Culture, systems, and mindset help Big Leap adapt.
  • Relationship-based marketing is the stabilizing force amid AI disruption.