This week, Paula Macpherson joined us to talk about two things:

First, she is the executive director of Velocity. Velocity is one of the Michigan SmartZones, and is a business incubator, accelerator, and coworking space in Sterling Heights, MI. They provide grant support, guidance from entrepreneurs, and monthly events for new startup business owners.

Second, she is the event chair of the Michigan Inventors Summit. This annual event provides education, networking and product discovery. Guests include entrepreneurs who appeared on “Shark Tank” and personnel from the US Patent and Trademark Office. There will also be a live pitch competition. It is on July 9, 2026 at Kellogg Center, East Lansing. Get tickets on EventBrite.

It’s the 13th anniversary of IT in the D!

Andy Saldaña, founder and CEO of Denovo Studios, is this week’s guest. He here to discuss the use of AI at small and mid-size manufacturers. First, we talk about the what the businesses lack—usually it’s the time, money, and/or expertise required to build or refine their processes. We also talk about the challenges that these businesses need to overcome to implement AI successfully.

This week, we welcome Adam Youngblood, AI strategist, to discuss how AI and agentic AI are becoming pervasive, why early “super Google” use is giving way to assistants that perform work, and how non-technical users can start by asking AI questions when they don’t know where to begin.

The conversation covers Claude (including Cowork) for research, costing, and spreadsheet creation; the lack of effective onboarding and growing privacy concerns; and frustration with AI bots conducting first-round job interviews. Adam describes agentic tools like OpenClaw and emerging offerings from Google, Amazon, and others, plus practical business opportunities (reducing waste, after-hours call handling, predictive maintenance, and camera-based visual inspection), while also addressing job displacement, data center power/water demands, and calls for ethics and guardrails.