Here’s How to Know If You’re Getting the Most Out of AI – with Bryan McCann, CTO of You.com

In this episode, Bryan McCann joins Henrik and Jeremy to explore how search is evolving from simple queries into more conversational and agent-driven systems, and why prompting is likely a temporary skill. Bryan shares how his definition of productivity changed as an AI researcher, moving away from doing the work himself and toward designing plans and experiments that machines could run continuously. The conversation expands to leadership and organizational design. Bryan explains why helping others learn how to work with AI became his highest-leverage activity, and offers a simple rule of thumb: try to get AI to do the task first, and treat anything it can’t do as an interesting research problem. Henrik and Jeremy connect this to Bryan’s view that organizations may increasingly resemble neural networks, with information flowing more freely and decisions less tied to rigid hierarchies. Key Takeaways: Productivity can be measured by machine output, not human effort Bryan explains how “keeping the GPUs full” became his primary measure of productivity. Prompting is useful, but likely temporary The episode discusses why future systems may rely less on explicit prompts and more on inferred context. Try AI first, then learn from what it can’t do Tasks AI struggles with can reveal meaningful research opportunities. Leadership is about scaling others Bryan shares how his focus shifted from scaling himself to helping his team increase impact. Organizations may benefit from neural-network-like design Better information flow and fewer bottlenecks can improve decision-making. YOU: You.com Bryan's website: bryanmccann.org LinkedIn: linkedin/company/youdotcom/ 00:00 Intro: Keeping the GPUs Full 00:22 Meet Bryan McCann: CTO & co-founder of You.com 00:43 Why Search Is Breaking - and Why It Becomes a Skill 01:41 From Search to Agents 03:18 The Case for Proactive, Context-Aware AI 04:30 We Don’t Need New Hardware - We Need Trust 05:43 The Trust Problem of Always-On Listening 07:57 Trust as the Real Bottleneck (Not AI Capability) 09:52 Delivering Immediate Value to Earn Trust 12:13 Business Models and Escaping the Attention Economy 17:27 What “Agents” Really Mean - and Why the Term Will Fade 20:37 Productivity, Parkinson’s Law, and Keeping the Machines Running 23:52 Scaling Yourself vs. Scaling Your Team 29:57 Building Culture: Automate, Throw Away, Rebuild 35:46 Designing Organizations Like Neural Networks 45:02 Recruiting for Initiative in an AI-Native Organization 49:18 The debrief 📜 Read the transcript for this episode: podcast.beyondtheprompt.ai/heres-how-to-know-if-youre-getting-the-most-out-of-ai-with-bryan-mccann-cto-of-youcom/transcript For more prompts, tips, and AI tools. Check out our website: https://www.beyondtheprompt.ai/ or follow Jeremy or Henrik on Linkedin: Henrik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/werdelin Jeremy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyutley Show edited by Emma Cecilie Jensen.