Agents of Scale
Agents of Scale is a show about real stories of AI transformation. Hosted by Zapier CEO Wade Foster, each episode features a candid conversation with a C-suite leader who’s scaling AI across their organization—turning early experiments into lasting change. From mindset shifts to automation breakthroughs, these are the untold stories behind the enterprise AI wave.
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Can AI Make Recruiting More Human? Kristen Habacht (Elly) on the Hiring Arms Race
<p>Recruiting is in an arms race: job seekers spray AI at every open role; recruiters crank filters to keep up. Nobody wins. </p><p>⚡ Kristen Habacht—CEO of Elly and former head of revenue at Trello (then Atlassian) and CRO at Typeform—thinks the fix isn’t more filters. It’s tech that actually learns, so recruiters can do the human work.</p><p><br></p><p>Wade and Kristen talk about why most ATSs are “filing cabinets,” what “ICP for hiring” would look like, and why Elly never says yes or no to a candidate—only “did you see this? Is it importa...
Is SaaS really dead? Dharmesh Shah from HubSpot on AI, Vibe-Coding & the Future of Work
<p>Is SaaS about to be replaced by people “vibe-coding” their own apps — or is something deeper at stake? Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot, joins Wade to cut through the hype and give a refreshingly practical view of how companies should show up for AI.</p><p>Dharmesh argues the right question isn’t “How do I compete against AI?” but “How do I compete with AI?” — and explains how culture, curiosity, and a little bit of tinkering unlock real value. From practical starting points for SMBs, to why large SaaS vendors still have a massive advantage, to the power of simul...
From First Startup to AI-Powered Scale: Wes Schroll on Building Fetch
<p>Most companies talk about becoming “AI-first.” Very few actually stop the business to make it real.</p><p>Wes Schroll — Founder & CEO of Fetch — joins Wade to unpack what it actually takes to scale a consumer platform, evolve a decade-old company, and integrate AI without losing focus, culture, or trust. From building his first business at 14 to leading a reward destination that now influences more consumer spend than nearly anyone outside Walmart and Amazon, Wes shares the behind-the-scenes decisions that shaped Fetch’s growth.</p><p>They dig into Fetch’s business model, how Wes’s perspective on AI shifted from s...
Sunlight on Shadow AI: When Security Learns to Tinker—Rob T. Lee from the SANS Institute on AI Risk
<p>Most security playbooks weren’t built for an era where AI moves faster than policy. Rob T. Lee says the default answer of “no” is creating a far bigger problem: shadow AI — widespread, unsanctioned usage that quietly exposes organizations to risk.</p><p>Rob T. Lee — Chief of Research & Chief AI Officer at the SANS Institute — joins Wade to unpack pragmatic ways leaders can move forward without breaking things. From the “tinker/hacker” mindset that helps teams learn, to treating security like a lifeguard (not a chokehold), Rob lays out the short, repeatable moves that actually get enterprises experimenting safely: enable s...
How Orium’s AI Playbook Turned Complexity into 5x Growth
<p>Most enterprise AI talk sounds great in theory—until you try to make it work across 40 disconnected systems. Jason Cottrell says that’s exactly where the real wins are hiding.</p><p>As CEO of Orium (and the new president of the MACH Alliance), Jason has seen what happens when companies stop chasing one big AI solution and start stacking small, composable ones. The result? For one retailer, a 9-month transformation that led to 5x digital growth—and a repeatable roadmap any enterprise can follow.</p><p>In this episode, Jason and Wade unpack why “many agents, many jobs” beats the...
Why Grammarly Became Superhuman—and What It Says About the Next Era of AI
<p>Grammarly didn’t just change its company name—it changed the story of AI.<br>In a deep-dive conversation following the company's rebrand, Superhuman CEO Shishir Mehrotra joins Zapier CEO Wade Foster to unpack why this move signals a seismic industry shift: AI is moving from tools you have to remember to use to infrastructure that works wherever you do. Superhuman’s “AI superhighway” already makes 100 billion LLM calls a week, running across over 1 million apps and websites where work happens.<br>Shishir shares how Superhuman Go—the company's proactive AI assistant—turns intention into execution, how to run four products...
Box’s Ben Kus on Building AI for Millions of Users and Billions of Files
<p>What happens when AI meets 10 years of enterprise data?</p><p>Box CTO Ben Kus joins Zapier CEO Wade Foster to dig into how enterprise AI actually works when scale, security, and governance aren’t optional. They explore what happens when agents start reasoning across real customer data—and why the hardest part isn’t the model, it’s everything around it.</p><p>Ben shares how Box is teaching AI to work with human workflows, not against them, while Wade connects it to the shift he’s seeing inside automation: from “set it and forget it” to systems that think alo...
How 1Mind’s Superhuman Sellers Cut Sales Cycles by 90%
<p>AI that sells, reasons, and closes like your top rep? It sounds terrifying—but it’s not. Amanda Kahlow’s Superhumans are proving that automation doesn’t erase people; it elevates them. Her team rewards employees who replace their own jobswith AI by promoting them, not firing them. And her customers? They’re seeing sales cycles shrink from 22 days to 2 and average deal sizes double.</p><p>In this episode, Zapier CEO Wade Foster and Amanda dig into what “AI-led growth” really means—and why the smartest move in 2025 isn’t resisting AI, it’s learning how to lead with it. They unpack...
Wade Foster’s Favorite AI Tool? How Granola’s CEO Built It To Think With You
<p>For Chris Pedregal, CEO of Granola, AI isn’t about replacing thinking—it’s about deepening it. He joins Zapier CEO Wade Foster to talk founder-to-founder about what it takes to build products that think with you, not for you. Together they explore why it’s the best time in history to be a builder, how AI can eliminate busywork without erasing human judgment, and why context will define the next decade of AI.</p><p>From living on the bleeding edge to running their own company on Granola, this is a masterclass in building AI that actually makes people s...
From Zero to Millions in ARR: How AI-Powered Builders Are Scaling on Replit
<p>Replit’s mission: turn 100 million people into builders. CEO Amjad Masad joins Zapier CEO Wade Foster to discuss the real blocker to AI adoption—creativity, not code—and how enterprises can unlock it. They cover why most users freeze at the prompt, how social contagion drives adoption, and why your next “employee” might be an AI agent sitting in Slack.</p>
