REC
FACILITY: TALENTLESS AI · AUSTIN, TX
AUG 12, 2026 · TAKE 001 · --:--:--
Talentless AI
CAM 05 — THE STAGE
HOUSE LIGHTS DOWN
INT. BALLROOM — MORNINGAUDIENCE: SKEPTICAL

The AI talkwithout thehype hangover.

Most AI keynotes are written by people who have never shipped anything with these tools. This one comes from a studio that uses them every day, so the promise, the limits, and the parts that are still genuinely broken all show up in the same talk. Audiences leave with something to do, not something to fear.

Credentials, briefly

2026 AI Leadership Award

From the Austin AI Alliance, for translating opaque AI concepts into work people can actually see.

AI Expert, Propolis

The global community for B2B marketers. Steve is their standing answer on generative AI.

Resident expert, Ragan

Frequent keynote and resident AI expert for Ragan Communications.

10M+ views

Across platforms, from AI films to microdramas. The approach survives contact with a real audience.

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Pick the room.

Keynote · 45 to 60 min Creativity in the Age of AI The signature talk.

Built for rooms that are done watching AI and ready to use it. Steve moves an audience past the hype cycle into the Create Now mindset: what these tools actually do, what they actually cost you, and what a team can put into practice the following Monday. Delivered with work made that week, because the examples go stale fast.

Executive session · 90 min The room where it gets decided For leadership teams.

A working session for the people who have to sign off. Where AI creates real advantage in your category, where it quietly creates risk, and how to tell an ambitious pilot apart from an expensive one. Ends with a written point of view your team can argue with.

Workshop · half or full day Hands on the tools For the people doing the work.

Your team builds something real before they leave the room. Prompting, model selection, the workflow that turns a brief into finished video, and the judgment calls that separate usable output from the stuff everyone scrolls past.

Series · ongoing AI Applied: Live A running show, not a one-off.

A recurring live format for organizations and communities that want a standing appointment with what is actually happening in AI. Guests, demos, and the honest version of what worked and what did not.

What the talk covers

Four things every room needs to hear.

Beyond efficiency

The efficiency argument is the smallest one available. The interesting question is what becomes makeable that was out of reach a year ago.

The literacy gap

The divide between people who understand these systems and people being reshaped by them is the real story. Teams that close it get to lead the conversation.

Case studies in action

Work from the front lines: AI microdramas, global brand acceleration for companies like CNH, advocacy video publishing weekly in eight languages.

The filmmaker's lens

Steve wrote, produced, and directed the feature film Seclusion. Story discipline is what keeps AI work from turning into slop.

A bit of theatre

Is that real Steve, or AI Steve?

Somewhere in the talk, the audience stops being able to tell. It gets a laugh every time, and then it gets very quiet, because everyone in the room realizes what it means for their own industry. That moment does more work than any slide.

AI Steve has his own playlist, fifty-one videos deep. We build him in the open on purpose: anyone selling you on synthetic media should be willing to show you the seams.

▶ Watch the AI Steve playlist ▶ Listen to AIAF
Before AI was a headline

The receipts.

Steve wrote, produced, and directed the feature film Seclusion. He worked the IBM Watson era at Ogilvy, back when "cognitive computing" was the phrase everyone was pretending to understand. He led global messaging and content for NetApp. Now he runs an AI-native studio in Austin and sits at the middle of a regional AI ecosystem that connects researchers, policymakers, and the creative community. Theory is somebody else's department.

He is also a frequent guest on podcasts and panels, and by his own admission enjoys it slightly too much.

▶ Remarkable: Wild at Heart ▶ AI and agency business models ▶ Creative marketing in the age of AI

Bring Create Now to your stage.

Tell us the audience, the date, and what the room is nervous about. We will tell you which format fits.

Send the details Or grab time on the calendar