AI is everywhere, but most teams are stuck talking about efficiency and headcount. In this episode, Dave Edelman, executive advisor and best selling author, shares a sharper lens, how to use AI to create real customer value and real growth.

We get into the high road vs low road of AI, what personalization should look like now, and why data has to become an enterprise asset, not a bunch of disconnected departmental files.

Key Takeaways

• Efficiency is table stakes, the real win is using AI to build new experiences that customers actually want

• Start with customer friction, find the biggest compromises and frustrations in your category, then design around that

• Personalization is no longer limited by content scale in the same way, AI changes the economics of tailoring experiences

• You do not always need one giant database, modern tools can pull and connect data across systems in real time

• Treat data as an enterprise resource, getting cross functional alignment is often the hardest and most important step

Timestamped Highlights

• 00:46 Dave’s origin story, from early loyalty programs to Segment of One marketing

• 03:33 The high road and low road of AI, growth experiences vs spam at scale

• 06:51 Where to start, map the biggest customer frustrations, then build use cases from there

• 16:31 The data myth, why you may not need a single mega database to get value from AI

• 21:31 Data as a leadership problem, shifting from functional ownership to enterprise ownership

• 25:14 Strategy that actually sticks, balancing bottom up automation with top down customer led direction

A line worth stealing

“Use those efficiencies to invest in growth.”

Pro Tips you can apply this week

• List the top five customer frustrations in your category, pick one and design an AI powered fix that removes a compromise

• Audit your data reality, identify where the same customer facts live in multiple places, then decide what must be unified first

• Run a simple test and learn loop, create multiple variations of one experience, measure what works, and keep iterating

• Put strategy on the calendar, make room for a recurring discussion that is not just metrics and cost cutting

Call to Action

If this episode helped you think differently about AI and growth, follow the show, leave a quick rating, and share it with one operator who is building product, data, or customer experience right now.