We’re in a moment when organizations are approaching agentic AI backwards, chasing flashy use cases instead of building the scaffolding that makes AI agents actually work at scale. Erika Flowers, who led NASA’s AI Readiness Initiative and has advised Meta, Google, Netflix, and Intuit, joins Robb and Josh for a frank and funny conversation about what's broken in enterprise AI adoption. She dismantles the myth of the "big sexy AI use case" and explains why most AI projects fail before they start. The trio makes the case that we're entering a post-software world, whether organizations are ready or not. Listen and learn why the scaffolding— or agent runtime — matters more than use cases, why organizational gaps kill AI projects, how to move projects from pilot to production, and what "post-software" actually means for enterprises.

Check out Erika’s podcast, “Flower Power Hour”: https://open.spotify.com/show/15BTSl9fWiH3QTmVAYj6Fd

Learn more about Erika at

www.helloerikaflowers.com/

0:09 - NASA AI Readiness Explained | Erica Flowers on Agentic AI & Runtimes

1:48 - Why the “Big Sexy AI Use Case” Is a Lie

2:42 - AI Didn’t Start with ChatGPT: What NASA Has Been Doing for 30 Years

4:24 - Why AI Runtimes Matter More Than Any Single Use Case

5:21 - The Hidden AI Problem: Legacy Data, Silos & Organizational Reality

7:13 - The Boring AI That Actually Works (And Why Enterprises Ignore It)

8:10 - The AI Arms Race Nobody Understands

9:22 - AI Scaffolding Explained: The Metaphor Every Leader Needs to Hear

12:12 - AI Readiness Is Cultural Change, Not Just Technology

14:38 - From Parking Lots to Companies: How Simple AI Agents Quietly Scale

17:01 - Why Most AI Features Feel Useless in Real Products

19:08 - Stop Automating Spreadsheets: Ask AI the Question Instead

25:06 - The Post-Software Era: Why Designers Aren’t Enough Anymore

28:33 - UI Is a Medium: How AI Will Absorb Interfaces Entirely

46:24 - Infinite Content, Human Creativity, and the Future After AI

---------- Support our show by supporting our sponsors!

This episode is supported by OneReach.ai

Forged over a decade of R&D and proven in 10,000+ deployments, OneReach.ai’s GSX is the first complete AI agent runtime environment (circa 2019) — a hardened AI agent architecture for enterprise control and scale.

Backed by UC Berkeley, recognized by Gartner, and trusted across highly regulated industries, including healthcare, finance, government and telecommunications.

A complete system for accelerating AI adoption - design, train, test, deploy, monitor, and orchestrate neurosymbolic applications (agents).

• Use any AI models
• Build and deploy intelligent agents fast
• Create guardrails for organizational alignment
• Enterprise-grade security and governance

Request free prototype:

https://onereach.ai/prototype/?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=podcast_s6e12&utm_content=1

---------- The revised and significantly updated second edition of our bestselling book about succeeding with AI agents, Age of Invisible Machines, is available everywhere: Amazon — https://bit.ly/4hwX0a5

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As 2025 draws to a close, Robb and Josh look back on some of the conversations they had this year both on the podcast and advising major enterprises and government leaders to offer their predictions for agentic AI in 2026. With major disruptive forces like outbound AI in the hands of consumers and agent runtime environments allowing organizations to create scalable infrastructure for AI agents, next year could see seismic changes in the way investors look at companies, and the ways companies look at themselves. Featuring a look at the components of an agent runtime, as well as previews of upcoming episodes with returning guest Ben Goertzel of SingularityNET and Joshua Gans, co-author of Prediction Machines, this episode is required viewing for anyone charged with finding ROI with agentic AI.

00:00 – Introduction to 2026 Agentic AI Predictions

01:12 – Outbound AI Arrives

02:30 – Scaling vs. Inventing AI

04:55 – Ben Goertzel Preview

06:45 – Scrappy Innovation in AI

08:20 – Invisible Work Explained

10:00 – Agents Job-Hunting for You

11:15 – Bottom-Up AI Adoption

13:10 – Layoffs, Knowledge Loss & AI

15:00 – The “Fake AI Expert” Problem

16:25 – Why Runtimes Matter

18:00 – What IDWs Actually Do

20:00 – Canonical Knowledge for Agents

28:20 – Invisible Work Demo

37:10 – Simulation Becomes the Next Frontier

---------- Support our show by supporting our sponsors!

This episode is supported by OneReach.ai

Forged over a decade and proven in 10,000+ deployments, OneReach.ai’s GSX is the first complete AI agent runtime environment (circa 2019) — a hardened AI agent architecture for enterprise control and scale.

Backed by UC Berkeley, recognized by Gartner, and trusted across highly regulated industries, including healthcare, finance, government and telecommunications.

A complete system for accelerating AI adoption - design, train, test, deploy, monitor, and orchestrate neurosymbolic applications (agents).

• Use any AI models
• Build and deploy intelligent agents fast
• Create guardrails for organizational alignment
• Enterprise-grade security and governance



Request free prototype:

https://onereach.ai/prototype/?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=podcast_s6e11&utm_content=1

---------- The revised and significantly updated second edition of our bestselling book about succeeding with AI agents, Age of Invisible Machines, is available everywhere: Amazon — https://bit.ly/4hwX0a5

#InvisibleMachines

#Podcast

#TechPodcast

#AIPodcast

#AI

#AgenticAI

#AIAgents

#DigitalTransformation

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#2026Predictions

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How did a Dutch company most people haven’t heard of come to hold the fate of AI? Marc Hijink, author of Focus — The ASML Way joins Josh and Robb to explore the insatiably precise process of producing the chips that power GPUs, and with them the AI taking shape all around us. Marc is a financial reporter and technology columnist for the Dutch daily newspaper NRC, and Focus is the result of decades of uncompromising, embedded reporting on ASML, which produces 90% of all chips worldwide.



Operating out of a quiet town in the Netherlands, their extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines produce a steady stream of chips working with an accuracy of within a few atoms. The trio explores how the EUV process is as much probabilistic as it is deterministic, as well as the impact that different cultures have on ASML’s partnerships and pipeline. Relying on lenses that have to be grown from crystals, lithography is a high-stakes endeavor that requires a delicate balance of tooling and advanced engineering. We need it to power everything from smartphones to washing machines to traffic lights. With China looking for inroads into this foundational technology that has been controlled by the western world, this conversation is as timely as it is fascinating.

Chapters -

00:00 - Inside ASML

01:12 - How ASML Makes the World’s Chips

03:20 - Chip Supply Chain Fragility

04:55 - Marc Hijink’s ASML Reporting

07:00 - The Hidden Hardware Layer

08:20 - Chips & Geopolitics

11:00 - Chips Are Physical Matter

12:40 - Error Correction & Precision

14:30 - ASML x TSMC Partnership

16:45 - ASML’s Chaos Culture

19:40 - Dutch vs. German Engineering

28:20 - Moore’s Law Goes 3D

32:10 - ASML + Mistral AI

40:00 - Why ASML Can’t Be Copied

49:00 - How ASML Prioritizes Orders

55:10 - Agentic AI & Complexity

1:02:00 - Humans Adapting to AI

---------- Support our show by supporting our sponsors!

This episode is supported by OneReach.ai — creators of Generative Studio X (GSX), the first complete AI Agent Runtime Environment (V1 circa 2019).

Forged over a decade of R&D and proven in 10,000+ deployments, GSX lets enterprises design, build, and orchestrate secure, scalable AI agents and systems. Trusted across healthcare, finance, government, and telecom.

• Use any AI models
• Build and deploy intelligent agents fast
• Create guardrails for organizational alignment
• Enterprise-grade security and governance
• Avoid vendor lock-in.

Backed by UC Berkeley and recognized by Gartner.

Before you build or buy another AI solution, think about getting an AI system.

Book a Demo:

https://onereach.ai/book-a-demo/?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=podcast_s6e9&utm_content=1

---------- The revised and significantly updated second edition of our bestselling book about succeeding with AI agents, Age of Invisible Machines, is available everywhere: Amazon — https://bit.ly/4hwX0a5

#InvisibleMachines

#Podcast

#TechPodcast

#AIPodcast

#AI

#AgenticAI

#AIAgents

#DigitalTransformation

#Cybersecurity

#AIInfrastructure

#AIOrchestration

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