{"podcast":{"title":"Shift AI","slug":"shift-ai-6053314","podcast_index_feed_id":6053314,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/d9de509c/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://www.shiftaipodcast.com","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/36452255/36452255-1692047143025-766b5370e90cf.jpg","author":"Boaz Ashkenazy","episode_count":105,"summary":"Shift AI explores how AI and ML is changing the way that we work in the digital age. The show's creator Boaz Ashkenazy interviews thought leaders who are redefining how businesses and employees will be impacted by emerging technology today and in the future | Visit shiftaipodcast.com","last_synced_at":"2026-07-26T20:20:10.450756+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/shift-ai-6053314"},"episode":{"title":"Systems Thinking is the Agentic Unlock with Google's LaSean Smith","slug":"systems-thinking-is-the-agentic-unlock-with-google-s-lasean-smith","published_at":"2026-06-03T03:17:23+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/shift-ai-6053314/systems-thinking-is-the-agentic-unlock-with-google-s-lasean-smith","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/shift-ai-6053314","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/shift-ai/episodes/Systems-Thinking-is-the-Agentic-Unlock-with-Googles-LaSean-Smith-e3k8tp6","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/d9de509c/podcast/play/120927462/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-5-3%2F425405389-44100-2-79cc0b5d6df69.mp3","summary":"In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, LaSean Smith, Product and Growth Lead at Google Cloud, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy for a wide-ranging conversation on how systems thinking and agentic AI are reshaping the way individuals, small businesses, and enterprises operate. LaSean shares a career journey that spans Microsoft HoloLens, Amazon, a successful startup exit, and now Google — plus a portfolio of small businesses that have served as his real-world AI lab. From a salad shop in Renton to a pre-construction development business in Seattle, he's applied workflow design and agent automation to solve practical problems long before it was fashionable. The conversation digs deep into how to actually build effective AI agents — not by prompting a chatbot, but by thinking in workflows first, identifying where reasoning actually needs to happen, and writing skills that make agents fast, reliable, and token-efficient. LaSean explains the "parcel grader" agent he built for his construction business, why he starts every agent build in a chat interface before moving to CLI, and how the McDonald's SOP model is the right mental framework for getting great output from AI. Boaz and LaSean also discuss the barbell economy that AI is creating — where small players and large enterprises both gain leverage while the middle gets squeezed — why Microsoft's Copilot strategy missed the point, how to think about agent security and identity, and why healthy organizational culture is the actual prerequisite for successful AI adoption. The episode closes with a reflection on what "always changing" really means as a mindset, and why building resilience and systems thinking skills now is the most important career investment anyone can make. This episode is essential listening…","meta_description":"In this episode of the Shift AI Podcast, LaSean Smith, Product and Growth Lead at Google Cloud, joins host Boaz Ashkenazy for a wide-ranging conversation…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3218,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/shift-ai-6053314/episodes/systems-thinking-is-the-agentic-unlock-with-google-s-lasean-smith/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/shift-ai-6053314/systems-thinking-is-the-agentic-unlock-with-google-s-lasean-smith.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}