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AI From The Trenches

AI From The Trenches

Written by: Barnacle Labs
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 A series focused on the people who are working with AI in real organisations and dealing with the reality rather than the hype. Each conversation looks at how someone with a non-technical background actually got something built, what they had to figure out along the way, and how their role shifted once AI became part of the work instead of a distant idea. The aim is to show what adoption looks like from the inside, the decisions that shape it, and the practical moves that make progress possible.Barnacle Labs
Episodes
  • Can AI Save Scientists From Information Overload?

    Can AI Save Scientists From Information Overload?
    Jan 9 2026

    How do you stay on top of science when over 500 cancer papers are published every day?In this episode of AI From the Trenches, Duncan talks with Dr Oliver Bogler about AI in cancer research, scientific curiosity, and what happens when the literature becomes impossible for humans to track on their own.They cover how AI can help with literature surveillance, what might replace the traditional scientific paper, what Humane’s AI Pin got right and wrong, and why synthetic biology could be one of the most powerful uses of AI in the coming years.In this conversation:

    • Why most scientists are not early adopters of new techwhat it felt like when the literature went from manageable to impossible
    • How AI could rewrite how we search, read and publish science
    • Lessons from building NanCi together at the National Cancer Institute
    • Humane AI Pin, wearables and voice native AI agents
    • AlphaFold, synthetic biology and the future of drug discovery
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    47 mins
  • JD and Duncan reflect on their journey from IBM Watson to founding Barnacle Labs

    JD and Duncan reflect on their journey from IBM Watson to founding Barnacle Labs
    Dec 18 2025

    JD and Duncan reflect on their journey from IBM Watson to founding Barnacle Labs.

    They talk about building AI too early, why Watson struggled to become a real product, what went wrong with Humanise, and how early access to GPT-3 reshaped their thinking.

    The conversation covers AI hype, agents, biotech, client responsibility, and what it actually takes to build systems that matter.

    A practical, honest discussion about AI beyond the buzzwords.
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    26 mins
  • Inside Shopify’s Scout: The Scrappy AI Tool That Went All The Way To The Boardroom

    Inside Shopify’s Scout: The Scrappy AI Tool That Went All The Way To The Boardroom
    Dec 12 2025

    Shopify’s Rich Brown tells the inside story of Scout, the internal AI tool that started as a side project, spread through the company, hit leadership meetings and even reached the board.

    This episode cuts through the hype and shows how AI actually gets adopted in a large organisation:

    • How non-engineers used tools like Cursor and Claude Code to build real products
    • How Scout merged support, sales and community feedback into a single intelligence layer
    • How video pain points became searchable with Scout TV
    • How Shopify’s “kill the toil” culture created the conditions for rapid AI adoption
    • Why the old rules of product still matterIf you work in product, support, AI strategy or enterprise transformation, this is the most honest look you’ll get at AI in the trenches.

    If you work in product, support, AI strategy or enterprise transformation, this is the most honest look you’ll get at AI in the trenches.
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    46 mins
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