What happens when you automate away a six-hour task? You don't get more free time ... you just do more work.

In this impromptu conversation, Kimberly and Jessica break down what agentic AI actually does, why the "time savings" narrative misses the point entirely, and how to figure out which workflows are worth automating.

WHAT WE COVER:

• What agentic AI actually is (and how it's different from ChatGPT)
• Jessica's real invoice automation workflow: how she turned 6 hours of manual work into an AI agent task
• The framework for identifying automatable workflows (repetitive, skill-free, multi-step tasks)
• Why this beats creative AI work: no judgment calls, just execution
• The Blackboard experiment: what happens when an agent does something you didn't ask it to do
• Security & trust: passwords, login credentials, and where your data actually goes
• Enterprise-level agent solutions (and why they're not quite ready yet)
• The uncomfortable truth: freed-up time doesn't mean fewer hours—it means more output
• How detailed instruction manuals prepared Jessica for prompt engineering
• The human bottleneck: why your whole organization has to move at the same speed
• Why marketing and research are next on the chopping block

TOOLS MENTIONED:

• ChatGPT Pro with Agents — https://openai.com/chatgpt/
• Perplexity Comet (agentic browser) — https://www.perplexity.ai/comet
• Zoho Billing — https://www.zoho.com/billing/
• Constant Contact — https://www.constantcontact.com
• Zapier — https://zapier.com
• Elicit (systematic reviews & literature analysis) — https://elicit.com
• Corpus of Contemporary American English — https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/
• Descript — https://www.descript.com
• Canva — https://www.canva.com
• Riverside.fm — https://riverside.fm

TIMESTAMPS:

• 0:00 — Opening & guest cancellation
• 1:18 — Podcast website & jingle development (and why music taste is complicated)
• 6:34 — What is agentic AI? Jessica's invoice automation example
• 10:33 — Why this use case actually works
• 14:15 — The Blackboard incident (when the agent went off-script)
• 16:21 — Security concerns: passwords, login credentials, and trust
• 18:35 — Why speed doesn't matter (as long as it's faster than human bottleneck)
• 19:27 — Enterprise solutions on the horizon
• 20:57 — United Airlines cease-and-desist letters for replica training sites
• 22:27 — Why Kimberly can't use agents in her CCRC work
• 25:21 — How to identify your automatable workflows (the practical framework)
• 27:57 — Research automation with Elicit & corpus linguistics
• 30:45 — The core insight: AI shifts time, it doesn't save it
• 34:10 — Organizational bottlenecks & human capacity limits
• 35:08 — Pit & Peach (staying in your own canoe)

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Contact Jessica or Kimberly on LinkedIn:

• Jessica's LinkedIn
• Kimberly's LinkedIn

In this conversation, Kimberly Becker and Jessica Parker explore the concept of 'enshitification'—as articulated by Cory Doctorow in his book Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It—as it relates to generative AI and tech platforms. They discuss the stages of platform development, the shift from individual users to business customers, and the implications of algorithmic changes on user experience.

The conversation also explores the work of AI researchers Emily M. Bender and Timnit Gebru, whose paper "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots" raised critical questions about the limitations and risks of large language models. The hosts explore the role of data privacy, the impact of AI on labor, the need for regulation, and the dangers of market consolidation, using case studies like Amazon's acquisition and eventual shutdown of Diapers.com and Google's Project Maven controversy.

Key Takeaways

• Enshitification refers to the degradation of tech platforms over time
• The shift from individual users to business customers can lead to worse outcomes for end users
• Data privacy is a critical concern as companies monetize user interactions
• AI is predicted to significantly displace workers in coming years
• Regulation is necessary to protect consumers from unchecked corporate power
• Market consolidation can stifle competition and innovation
• Recognizing these patterns is essential for navigating the tech landscape

Further Reading & Resources

• Cory Doctorow's Pluralistic blog
• The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation
• 2024 Tech Layoffs Tracker

Streamlined "Top Links" Version (if you want minimal show notes):

• Cory Doctorow on Enshittification
• Enshittification book
• "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots" by Bender & Gebru
• Amazon/Diapers.com case study
• Google Project Maven controversy
• AI job displacement tracker

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Contact Jessica or Kimberly on LinkedIn:

• Jessica's LinkedIn
• Kimberly's LinkedIn

In this conversation, we sit down with Dr. Michelle Morkert, a global gender scholar, leadership expert, and founder of the Women’s Leadership Collective, to unpack the forces shaping women’s relationship with AI.

We begin with research indicating that women are 20–25% less likely to use AI than men, but quickly move beyond the statistics to explore the deeper social, historical, and structural reasons why.

Dr. Morkert brings her feminist and intersectional perspective to these questions, offering frameworks that help us see beyond the surface-level narratives of gender and AI use. This conversation is less about “women using AI” and more about power, history, social norms, and the systems we’re all navigating.

If you’ve ever wondered why AI feels different for women—or what a more ethical, community-driven approach to AI might look like—this episode is for you.

💬 Guest: Dr. Michelle Morkert – https://www.michellemorkert.com

📚 Books & Scholarly Works Mentioned

• Global Evidence on Gender Gaps
  and Generative AI: https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/25023_52957d6c-0378-4796-99fa-aab684b3b2f8.pdf
• Pink Pilled: Women and the Far Right (Lois Shearing): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pink-pilled-lois-shearing/1144991652l
• Scary Smart (Mo Gawdat – maternal AI concept)
  https://www.mogawdat.com/scary-smart

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Support the show

Contact Jessica or Kimberly on LinkedIn:

• Jessica's LinkedIn
• Kimberly's LinkedIn