The AI Frontier Playbook

AI Frontier Playbook exists because the real conversations about enterprise AI deserve to be heard. The guests here are the practitioners, researchers, and executives actually making decisions inside organizations, not summarizing trends from the sidelines. Every episode is a front-row seat to how AI is reshaping work, leadership, and business strategy in real time.Whether you are leading an AI initiative, advising your organization, or just trying to cut through the noise, this is your space to think clearly, lead confidently, and stay ahead.

The AI Frontier Playbook is a technology podcast hosted by Samuel Boulanger, with 25 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Samuel Boulanger hosts The AI Frontier Playbook, a technology show with 25 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  The AI Frontier Playbook

  MS Copilot Studio CVP: Why Most AI Projects Are Solving the Wrong Problem From Day One

  Aug 5, 202647 min

  AI projects stall when nobody names the real business bottlenecks first. In this episode of The AI Frontier Playbook, I sit down with Ryan Cunningham, Microsoft CVP of Copilot Studio and Power Platform, to talk about why, and what actually separates a good AI use case from a wasted one. Ryan leads agents, apps, and automation across the entire Microsoft stack, and in this conversation we get into why most AI projects stall before they even start, whether apps and low code still matter now that you can generate almost anything from a chat window, how to actually choose between pro code, low code, and vibe coding, and how Copilot Studio's credit based pricing is reshaping the way teams think about cost. Ryan shares the real story behind a customer who turned a 36 hour quote generation process into a 2 hour one, and why that is the model for a good AI use case. Quick thanks to Kezber, a Microsoft partner, for sponsoring this episode. You'll learn: Why most AI projects fail because nobody defined the outcome before picking a tool How to turn a vague business problem into a measurable AI use case with a clear ROI Why apps and structured interfaces are not going away even as chat based AI expands What actually happens to custom software and SaaS as vibe coding becomes mainstream How to decide between pro code, low code, and vibe coding for a given problem Why credit based consumption pricing is replacing flat per user licensing for AI How Power Apps turning into MCP servers changes what agents can do with your data What governance and oversight look like once agents start operating with less human involvement Whether you are a business leader trying to justify your first AI investment or a developer deciding which tool fits the job in front of you, this episode gives you a practical framework for making that call. Thanks to Kezber for sponsoring this episode. Learn more about Kezber: https://kezber.com/ Resources & Links Ryan Cunningham on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rycu Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Mastering AI for Productivity: https://samuelboulangerai.substack.com/ Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelboulanger/ Visit my website: https://frontierplaybook.ai

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  The AI Frontier Playbook

  AI Expert: Stop Automating Your Entire Department — Do This Instead

  Jul 8, 202639 min

  Learn how to automate sales and back-office processes with AI for business, without overwhelming your team. In this episode of The AI Frontier Playbook, I sit down with Eric Murray, Director of Innovation at Kezber, a Microsoft partner in Quebec, to break down AI implementation and business workflow automation with Microsoft Copilot, Power Platform, and Copilot Studio. Many companies fail when they try to automate an entire department at once. Eric's approach starts instead with repetitive tasks that are low risk for your business, owned by a champion who knows every exception. We dig into how to identify the right processes to automate first, why most AI projects stall before delivering anything, and what it really takes to move from a working prototype to a secure production system. Eric brings a practitioner's view shaped by real client deployments. We walk through a full accounts payable automation scenario, from the invoice landing in a shared mailbox to the data reaching the ERP, and break down which steps should be plain deterministic automation with Power Automate and which ones genuinely need AI reasoning in the loop. We also cover human-in-the-loop design, exception handling, data residency under Quebec's Law 25, governance with tools like Microsoft Purview and Agent 365, and why a single model swap took one of his AP solutions from 50 dollars a month to 5 dollars a month. You'll learn: Why deploying Copilot licenses is the starting line, not the finish line How to spot a strong first automation candidate: repetitive, low risk, and owned by a champion What red flags signal a process is not ready to automate How to slice a process like accounts payable into small chunks that deliver value in weeks, not months When to use straight automation versus AI reasoning inside the same workflow How to design human-in-the-loop escalation so people trust the system instead of working around it Why security, access control, and data residency are the real work behind any AI agent How to measure ROI after launch and diagnose whether the problem is the tool or adoption Whether you are a business leader wondering where to start with AI automation or a Power Platform and Copilot Studio builder taking prototypes into production, this episode gives you a concrete framework for picking the right first project and scaling it without losing trust. 📌 Resources & Links Eric Murray on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/eric-murray-ing-18851a6 Kezber: https://kezber.com/en/ 📬 Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to The AI Frontier Playbook Newsletter: samuelboulangerai.substack.com Connect with me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/samuelboulanger Visit my website: samuelboulanger.com #AI #FutureOfWork #MicrosoftCopilot #PowerPlatform #Automation

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  The AI Frontier Playbook

  The AI Grok Moment: Why Most Companies Miss It | Stacey Mulcahy Microsoft Senior Director

  Jun 10, 202644 min

  Why does AI adoption fail in business? In this episode of The AI Frontier Playbook, an AI podcast for enterprise leaders, I sit down with Stacey Mulcahy, Senior Director of the Microsoft Garage, to break down the real AI adoption challenges companies face and how Microsoft solves them with curiosity, hackathons, and hands-on AI skilling. Stacey leads the team behind the Microsoft Global Hackathon and the Skill Up AI program, engaging over 70,000 employees in grassroots AI learning and employee enablement across the company. We go deep on why formal learning paths are not enough, why curiosity and exploration drive real behavior change, and what Stacey calls the grok moment: the point where AI stops being a search engine and starts changing how you work. She also shares why leadership modeling makes or breaks adoption, how she runs learning in the open by streaming her own experiments, and why the GitHub Copilot CLI has completely changed her daily workflow. You'll learn: Why AI adoption gets stuck even when the tools and programs are good How to create the grok moment that turns skeptics into adopters Why leadership modeling matters more than any champion program What community skilling looks like and why learning with others beats learning alone How creativity and play outperform productivity use cases as an entry point to AI Why durable skills like adaptability, delegation, and taste matter more than tool knowledge How Stacey uses the GitHub Copilot CLI, custom agents, and MCP integrations to run her day What the future of work looks like when everyone manages a team of agents Whether you are a leader driving AI transformation in your organization or an individual contributor trying to build AI literacy on your team, this episode gives you a practical playbook for making adoption actually stick. 📌 Resources & Links Stacey Mulcahy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staceymakes/ 📬 Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Mastering AI for Productivity: https://samuelboulangerai.substack.com/ Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelboulanger/ Visit my website: https://samuelboulanger.com #AI #FutureOfWork #AIAdoption #Microsoft #AILiteracy

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  The AI Frontier Playbook

  Beyond the Prompt: Finding Authenticity in AI Work | Jack Rowbotham Microsoft PMM

  May 28, 202632 minS0

  <p>How to use AI for content creation without losing your voice. Jack Rowbotham earned 7.5 million LinkedIn impressions in a year at Microsoft, and in this episode of The AI Frontier Playbook he breaks down his exact AI content workflow.</p><p>The real skill in the AI era is not creating more. It is having the judgment to ignore almost all of it. I sit down with Jack Rowbotham, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Copilot Studio at Microsoft, who built a personal brand of over 90,000 followers while working full-time and was named a Microsoft Frontier Trailblazer for FY26. We...

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  Episode #21

  The Hard Truth About Your AI Strategy | Pam Maynard, Microsoft Chief Transformation AI Officer

  May 6, 202645 minS0

  <p>AI strategy stuck in pilot purgatory? In this episode of The AI Frontier Playbook, I sit down with Pam Maynard, Microsoft's first ever Chief AI Transformation Officer, on artificial intelligence adoption, organizational change, leadership, automation, and the future of work.</p><p>Pam led Avanade as CEO across 60,000 employees before taking on this pioneering role at Microsoft. We unpack the four-layer metrics framework that prevents pilot purgatory, the Manulife $1 billion AI value example, why middle managers decide whether AI adoption sticks, and the McKinsey research showing companies with AI led from the top perform 3x higher than those without.<...

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