Just Curious: Applied AI for Value Creation
Just Curious helps investors and operators turn AI from buzzword to bottom line. Through sharp case studies and practical insights from the world's leading applied AI experts, we explore how to use AI to grow revenue, expand margins, build better products, and create value.
Just Curious: Applied AI for Value Creation
Jeremy Utley - Stanford, Beyond the Prompt | AI as Your New Strategic Thought Partner
Jeremy Utley, adjunct professor at Stanford and host of Beyond the Prompt, shares how executives and operators can use AI to unlock creativity, accelerate decision-making, and drive transformational change. His work sits at the intersection of innovation, experimentation, and applied AI, making his perspective especially relevant for private equity leaders and middle-market teams navigating rapid operational shifts. In this episode, he breaks down practical ways AI becomes a strategic partner, not just a tactical tool.
You’ll Learn
- How AI-powered role-play can prepare leaders for high-stakes conversations and improve organizational outcomes.
- Why treating AI like a collaborator — not an oracle — dramatically improves idea quality and problem-solving.
- A structured method for using AI as a strategic thought partner for capital allocation, board prep, and complex decision workflows.
- How non-technical teams can codify workflows into lightweight GPTs that unlock days — and sometimes weeks — of saved effort.
- Why experimentation must be a KPI, and how leaders can create a culture where inaction — not failure — becomes the punishable offense.
Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:42 Jeremy’s shift from professor to AI learner
03:39 Coaching executives on applied AI
05:54 Using AI to prepare for difficult conversations
10:02 Expanding executives’ imagination for AI
13:22 Strategic use cases for leaders
18:19 Modeling AI adoption from the top
20:11 How AI amplifies creativity
22:39 Collaborating with AI vs. treating it as an oracle
24:21 Who benefits most from these tools
26:38 National Park Service transformation story
30:49 “Use AI to use AI” — the first step
33:48 Closing
Links
- Explore more interviews and Jeremy Utley's expert profile: https://www.justcurious.io/experts/jeremy-utley
- Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZuUXggPcQyg
- Connect with Jeremy Utley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyutley/
Just Curious helps the world’s leading operators and investors cut through a noisy AI market and find the right partners — from strategy and assessments to full-stack AI development. Our network of applied AI experts spans generative and agentic AI, workflow automation, and custom software powered by AI, helping teams turn curiosity into measurable value.
Explore more interviews and connect with experts at https://www.justcurious.io
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