How AI is Reshaping the Workplace with Paul Roetzer

Navigating AI Without Losing the Human Touch

Is your organization drowning in AI hype while your workforce looks on with distrust? On this episode of The Chad & Cheese Podcast, hosts Joel Cheesman and Chad Sowash sit down with Paul Roetzer, Founder & CEO of SmarterX and host of The Artificial Intelligence Show, to unpack the real-world impact of artificial intelligence on leadership, workforce culture, and the future of work.  

Tune in as the trio dives into:

• The AI Trust Crisis

• "Human in the Lead" vs. "Human in the Loop"

• AI as a Executive Thought Partner

• Fixing HR & Talent Friction

• Future-Proofing the Next Generation

• and even some sad Cleveland Browns predictions

Enjoy!

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

[00:26] Joel Cheesman

Welcome to the Chad and Cheese podcast, everybody. I'm your co-host, Joel Cheesman, joined as always by Chad Sowash. Today we welcome Paul Roetzer to the show. Paul is the founder and CEO of SmarterX, an AI research and consulting firm, and co-host of The Artificial Intelligence Show podcast. He is also a proud Clevelander. Paul, welcome to HR's Most Dangerous Podcast.

[01:00] Paul Roetzer

It is great to be with you guys. Looking forward to the conversation. It is a space I think a lot about, though I have more questions than answers regarding what's going on with AI and the workforce.

[01:10] Joel Cheesman

That's all right. You're like the coach of the Browns—a lot more questions than answers, but that's okay, my friend. Before we get into the AI side of things, our listeners want to know more about you as a person. What makes Paul Roetzer tick?

[01:32] Paul Roetzer

Family, more than anything. Born and raised in Cleveland, I started my first company here and am now building my second company here. I share your pain as a Browns fan. I have a 14-year-old and a 13-year-old.

A lot of what shapes me is my family. Even from an AI perspective, I look through the lens of what my kids are going through in school and what the job market will look like for them. I spend a lot of time thinking about that.

I also come from a journalism background, so I'm not an AI engineer creating models; I'm more the storyteller behind them. I think about the impact on creative industries—writers, artists, and people who make a living creating amazing things. I approach AI with tremendous empathy for its impact on people and the workforce. Personally, I just try to build a business while making as much time as possible for my family.

[03:24] Chad Sowash

Paul, regarding SmarterX and the AI Academy, how did this come to fruition? When did it start, and what is the core mission behind SmarterX and the AI Academy?

[03:44] Paul Roetzer

I started my marketing agency in 2005 at age 27. We became HubSpot's first partner in 2007, before they actually had a formal partner program. That put us at the epicenter of evolving marketing technology when the iPhone was introduced and social media began taking off.

In 2011, I wrote my first book, *The Marketing Agency Blueprint*. That same year, IBM Watson defeated human champions on Jeopardy, which triggered my interest in how that technology could be applied to marketing and business. I began researching it, which led us to create the Marketing AI Institute in 2016.

After years of trying to educate the marketing industry, ChatGPT arrived, and suddenly everyone cared about AI. SmarterX evolved into the broader parent brand where executives, university heads, VC firms, and government officials come to understand AI. We focus on event-based and direct education—one-to-many—to help as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

[05:21] Joel Cheesman

You sold your agency in 2021 to focus on AI, well before ChatGPT launched in late 2022. Did you see something coming, or was it a intuition that this technology would change the world?

[05:43] Paul Roetzer

We were certainly early. After starting the institute in 2016 and launching our MAICON conference in 2019, I realized by 2021 that an inflection point was nearing. I didn't know ChatGPT specifically was coming, but I knew advanced AI models were reaching human-level writing capabilities. I sold the agency to focus entirely on AI, and 18 months later, ChatGPT emerged and everything changed.

[06:42] Chad Sowash

Bentley University and Gallup released a report showing that 79% of young Americans don't trust businesses that use AI—the highest distrust level among any age group, though overall distrust remains above 70% across all ages. AI clearly needs a narrative, champions, and educators. How are you packaging your curriculum at the institute to push this forward and help professionals who will need to adapt regardless?

[07:56] Paul Roetzer

There is a massive PR issue in the industry right now. AI labs are starting to realize this, partly due to political and environmental backlashes against data centers.

Our approach advocates for a human-centered view of AI. The technology isn't going away, and nearly every modern enterprise platform—from Microsoft and Google to major CRMs—is powered by AI today. We encourage leaders to adopt change management practices: meet employees where they are and show empathy for those hesitant or overwhelmed by the technology.

From a consumer perspective, the AI labs have struggled by focusing heavily on job disruption rather than practical benefits. They are only now beginning to adjust that messaging.

[10:20] Paul Roetzer

Our AI Academy serves around 400 business customers who purchase team licenses for personalized learning journeys—ranging from AI fundamentals to department- and industry-specific applications. We educate and empower professionals within these organizations so they can address consumer concerns intelligently and navigate the shift internally.

[11:23] Joel Cheesman

Marketers are heavily impacted by AI—from keyword purchasing to content generation and video creation. How are marketing professionals evolving to ensure they remain employable rather than replaced?

[11:47] Paul Roetzer

I teach people to analyze how AI directly impacts their specific roles. I built a free tool called Jobs GPT that analyzes job titles or descriptions, breaks them down into individual tasks, and identifies where AI can assist or fully automate tasks. For instance, if your entire job is limited to basic landing page design, you need to expand your skillset.

Many professionals struggle initially beyond basic tasks like email summarization or meeting notes. They don't yet realize AI can serve as a strategic thought partner or rapid prototyping tool for ideas they couldn't previously build. The goal is to move professionals toward higher-value, more fulfilling work.

[13:28] Chad Sowash

Many executives complain about a lack of clear ROI from AI, primarily because they deploy licenses without operational strategy or workflow breakdown. Many tasks in a job can be offloaded. If we let AI handle the repetitive or tedious work, we end up with a happier workforce.

[14:56] Paul Roetzer

I recommend that exact approach for change management. Identify the tasks employees dislike most and build simple assistants or agents to handle them. Once they see AI eliminating tedious work rather than taking their jobs, enthusiasm grows.

Rolling out AI requires a personalized, human-centered approach rather than just handing out licenses. Furthermore, many organizations incorrectly assign AI adoption strictly to IT, when it properly belongs under Operations, HR, and L&D.

[15:54] Paul Roetzer

Traditional consulting firms often focus on building expensive custom implementations rather than driving practical organizational change management.

[16:16] Joel Cheesman

As a CEO, how is AI changing your day-to-day leadership role?

[16:48] Paul Roetzer

I use AI primarily as a thought partner and advisor. I created a custom "Co-CEO" GPT in ChatGPT. I provided it with a complete project brief detailing my strategic roadmap, P&L statements, operational context, and areas where I need support.

I consult it multiple times a day to bounce ideas off of, analyze complex strategy documents, or prepare for specialized discussions with legal or financial advisors. Additionally, for major strategic initiatives, AI enables me to complete projects in a fraction of the time it previously required.

I am also focusing on automating real-time data analysis so key daily metrics from across sales, HR, and operations are summarized directly into actionable insights every morning.

[19:37] Chad Sowash

Data across disparate enterprise systems is often messy or noisy. How are you using AI agents to clean and contextualize data for meaningful analysis?

[20:13] Paul Roetzer

We already use AI to isolate the specific core questions I need answered daily across CRM, audience growth, revenue, and pipeline metrics. Rather than navigating dozens of static dashboards, custom agents pull the relevant data automatically. I can then use tools like Claude or ChatGPT to interpret what those numbers mean strategically for our current operations.

[22:06] Joel Cheesman

What specific questions or strategies do you recommend leaders and HR teams implement regarding workforce management, team morale, and AI adoption?

[22:37] Paul Roetzer

Because we built an AI-native company, our team is naturally aligned with this mission. However, we also employ professionals with liberal arts and creative backgrounds, and we intentionally keep humans in the lead for core creative work.

In a typical 100-person company, about 5% to 10% of employees will proactively embrace AI, 50% to 60% will use it if guided properly, and 10% to 30% may actively resist it. HR and leadership must tailor their education and change management programs to support each segment appropriately.

A major emerging HR challenge is compensation and recognition: early adopters who leverage AI to create disproportionate value compared to their peers will expect that impact to be reflected in their compensation and career advancement.

[25:21] Chad Sowash

You mentioned keeping the "human in the lead" as opposed to simply "human in the loop." How do you define that distinction?

[26:00] Paul Roetzer

I previously developed a framework scaling human-to-machine automation from Level 0 (fully human) to Level 4 (fully autonomous AI). Today's technology easily handles Level 3 and Level 4 tasks.

"Human in the loop" means the AI handles the bulk of the generation and the human merely edits or approves the final product. "Human in the lead" means consciously choosing to keep human effort at the center because the process itself builds deep domain expertise, critical thinking, or personal connection—even if an AI is technically capable of doing the task.

[28:29] Joel Cheesman

In recruitment, companies face a flood of automated, AI-generated applications, forcing them to use AI screening tools. How can talent acquisition teams maintain "human in the lead" practices under those conditions?

[28:29] Paul Roetzer

Break down the recruitment workflow systematically. Use reliable AI tools to handle high-volume filtering and initial data synthesis, provided you continuously audit those algorithms for bias and accuracy.

Once candidates reach the interview stage, transition back to human-led interactions. For instance, I use AI to summarize interviewer notes and draft candidate profiles or strategic interview questions, but the interview itself and the final hiring decision remain entirely human-driven.

[30:17] Chad Sowash

Do you allow team members autonomy to build their own custom AI agents, or do you prefer standardized operating procedures across the organization?

[30:51] Paul Roetzer

We started with a decentralized model, providing full AI training and encouraging individual experimentation. However, people naturally vary in their strategic ability to identify high-value AI use cases.

We are moving toward a hybrid model: establishing dedicated internal leads to systematically review each department's workflows to build high-impact automations, while maintaining governance and giving autonomy to individual team members to innovate within their roles.

[32:40] Joel Cheesman

What advice do you give to parents and young people preparing for a career landscape transformed by AI?

[33:10] Paul Roetzer

I advise students to pursue whatever field genuinely interests them—whether journalism, philosophy, medicine, or economics—but commit to being in the top 10% of AI competency within that specific discipline.

Additionally, critical thinking will become a major personal differentiator as more people default to automated outputs. Use AI to augment and accelerate your capabilities rather than as a crutch to replace genuine effort and learning.

[35:57] Chad Sowash

That is Paul Roetzer, founder and CEO of SmarterX and co-host of *The Artificial Intelligence Show* podcast. Paul, where can listeners connect with you?

[36:15] Paul Roetzer

You can find our podcast at podcast.smarterx.ai. I am active on LinkedIn and X, and we host our annual MAICON conference every October in Cleveland.

[36:41] Joel Cheesman

Thanks, Paul. That's another episode in the books. We out.

[36:46] Chad Sowash

We out.