Episode #1
Building AI Fluency, One Uncomfortable Step at a Time | Nikki Jackson (Gusto)
In this episode of Growth Talks, Nikki Jackson, Head of Demand Generation at Gusto, joins host Krystina Rubino to share how she's spent the past year building AI fluency across her entire team—from scrappy, self-taught agent building to structured Learning Days and quarterly OKRs. Nikki breaks down exactly how she got a whole demand gen team comfortable experimenting, failing, and sharing in public, and why that discomfort is the real unlock. Nikki also digs into how she measures the ROI of AI adoption, how she's using Claude as a "second brain" to move faster with data, and why staying customer-first and authentic matters more than ever in a world full of AI-generated noise. She closes with a candid take on women, AI, and marketing leadership—and why nobody actually has it all figured out. ️ Key Takeaways: Lean into the uncomfortable. Real AI fluency comes from hands-on building and failing in public—not waiting until you feel ready. Structure accelerates adoption. Dedicated AI Learning Days, IT/security onboarding, and quarterly agent-building OKRs turned curiosity into consistent team-wide progress. ROI isn't as fuzzy as it feels. Time savings and efficiency gains from AI agents can be tracked concretely—don't let "it's hard to measure" become a blocker. AI is a second brain, not a replacement. Conversational access to data frees up strategic time and elevates conversations with analysts instead of eliminating them. Authenticity is the differentiator. As AI content scales, a distinct voice and point of view—especially for women in marketing—become the real competitive edge. ⏰ Timestamps 00:00 Meet Nikki Jackson: Building AI Fluency at Gusto 01:02 How Nikki's AI Journey Started 03:34 Structuring a Team-Wide AI Rollout 07:24 Clearing IT and Security Hurdles 08:46 AI Learning Days in Action 09:56 Quarterly Agent-Building OKRs 12:07 Measuring the ROI of AI Fluency 16:10 Building a Prioritization Rubric with AI 19:04 AI as a Second Brain for Data 23:27 The A/B Test: Nikki's Quick-Fire Round 29:42 Women, AI, and Marketing Leadership 34:57 Staying Authentic Amid AI Slop 39:40 Marketing to Busy SMB Owners 44:44 Brand Storytelling at Gusto 46:16 Creating Demand Before the Search Begins 50:48 Nikki's Favorite Growth Non-Hack Mentioned in this episode: Gusto: https://gusto.com/ We'll be dropping episodes every other week. Want to follow along and listen to new episodes when they're released? Subscribe to Growth Talks on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
