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The AI Hat Podcast

Mike Allton

AI conversations for people doing the work.

Insurance agents, realtors, financial advisors and attorneys all got into their work for the clients. Then most of the week went to re-keying data, chasing signatures and updating systems that never talk to each other. That’s Admin Drag, and buying another AI tool rarely touches it.

On The AI Hat Podcast, Mike Allton, founder of The AI Hat, talks with practitioners about what changes when you redesign the work first and then hire a Digital Crew: AI agents with defined jobs, each owned by a named person on the team. Expect specifics. Which work to hand over first, who’s accountable when an agent gets it wrong, and why so many AI pilots quietly stall after the demo.

If your business runs on relationships, this show is about getting your people back to them.

Find out where your team’s week goes: take the free AI Opportunity Score at TheAIHat.com/ai-opportunity-score
Connect with Mike: linkedin.com/in/mikeallton

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23 episodes
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English

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#126
Yesterday · 16 min
Let the AI Find the Opportunity. Let the Agent Make the Call.
Most AI gets bought first and pointed at work later. Anna Patrick, Vice President of Sales Enablement and Technology Adoption at Integrity, starts from the other end: which work should an insurance agent never have to do by hand again? Anna explains how Integrity decides what goes into IntegrityCONNECT, why manual entry is the first thing agents stop doing, how AI call summaries protect agents in an audit and coach them afterward, and why client health information stays out of open AI tools. She's just as clear about what never moves: the recommendation and the follow-up stay with the agent, because the agent knows the client best. Take the AI Opportunity Score: Your Next Steps | The AI Hat Show notes and full transcript: https://theaihat.com/what-insurance-agents-should-never-do-by-hand/ Find out where your team’s week goes: take the free AI Opportunity Score at TheAIHat.com/ai-opportunity-score Connect with Mike, AI Keynote Speaker & Trainer: linkedin.com/in/mikeallton Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
#125
October 21 · 24 min
The AI Demo Looked Great. Then Real Users Showed Up.
Someone on your team is already using an AI tool nobody approved. Stella Liu explains how to tell whether an AI product will hold up before your team trusts it.
#124
September 13 · 29 min
Why AI Automation Fails (And What To Fix First) with Ty Givens
Find out where your team’s week goes: take the free AI Opportunity Score at TheAIHat.com/ai-opportunity-score Connect with Mike, AI Keynote Speaker & Trainer: linkedin.com/in/mikeallton Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
#123
August 10 · 25 min
You Bought the AI. Why Is the Day Longer?
Count the tabs it takes to move one renewal. Management system, carrier portal, the other carrier portal, quoting platform, email, Teams, back to the CRM, then a spreadsheet. That is eight, and not one of them is the conversation with the client. Nobody designed it that way. Nobody approved it. And you are paying your most expensive person to do it. In this solo episode, Mike Allton makes the case that the most expensive piece of integration software in your agency is a licensed producer, and
#122
July 12 · 12 min
AI Belongs on Your Org Chart, Not Your Tech Stack
Your best people are losing most of the week to work they were never hired to do - and the fix isn't another tool. In this solo episode, Mike Allton opens with a confession: there was a stretch of his career when a guest canceling on his own podcast felt like relief. Two of his shows died at exactly twelve episodes each, and between those funerals he changed everything - the tools, the format, the frequency, the topic - except the one variable that killed them both. That story turns out not to
#121
June 14 · 38 min
Stop Losing $30K a Month Per Rep: The AI Sales Enablement Playbook with Vernon Ross
If your top reps are stuck training new hires instead of closing deals, this AI sales enablement playbook will help. Enterprise seller Vernon Ross joins Mike Allton to show how to scale your best performers' knowledge without stealing their selling time, and why that "teaching jail" is quietly costing you around $30K a month per rep. Vernon has carried quota, closed enterprise deals, and built the AI training tools that make other sellers faster. Inside, he shares the one diagnostic question th
#120
May 19 · 34 min
Map the Workflow Before You Buy the Tool
Your revenue team doesn't have a tools problem. It has a process problem. Dan Knowlton, co-founder of UK-based Knowlton Marketing, joins Mike Allton for an honest, boots-on-the-ground conversation about what's actually working in AI implementation - and what isn't. No polished frameworks. No hype. Just real lessons from an agency owner who is figuring this out in real time while growing a business. In this episode, Dan shares how his team recently won a pitch with one of Europe's largest healt
#119
April 19 · 46 min
Redesign the Work First: Inside a Revenue Team's AI-Connected Stack
If your revenue team is hitting a ceiling despite adding headcount and new tools, the problem isn't your people - it's your architecture. In this episode, Mike Allton sits down with Amanda Rubin, SVP of Revenue at Frameplay and former EVP of Growth at Enthusiast Gaming, where she drove four consecutive years of revenue growth. Amanda unpacks what she calls the "architect's mindset" - the long-view, systems-first approach that separates true Revenue Leaders from sales managers who are simply try
#118
March 10 · 39 min
Your Prospects Aren't Googling Anymore - Scrunch's Kevin White on the AI Visibility Crisis
Your prospects stopped Googling. They're asking ChatGPT which CRM to buy, asking Perplexity which marketing automation platform solves their problem, asking Gemini to compare your category - and AI is recommending your competitors, not you. This isn't a "future of search" problem. This is a pipeline problem. Right now. Kevin White, Head of Marketing at Scrunch (and formerly leading growth at Twilio Segment, Retool, and Common Room), saw this crisis coming and built the measurement infrastructur
#117
February 24 · 43 min
Sanctioning the Shadow: A Payments Executive's Playbook for Governed AI
If you're a VP of Sales watching your revenue team paste customer data into ChatGPT, you don't have an adoption problem - you have a governance crisis. Your best people are uploading signed NDAs to Claude and feeding pipeline data into Perplexity because 70% of their day is admin drag, and AI is the only thing fast enough to keep them above water. Financial services tried to ban AI. It failed spectacularly. So they built governance frameworks that let teams move faster and sleep at night. Dr.
#116
February 17 · 19 min
Gemini's Scheduler Just Fixed Sales Meeting Prep (And Killed the 90-Minute Research Grind)
Your sales team spends 70% of their time on admin work - not selling. Do the math: if your top AE makes $120K and only spends 30% of their time on revenue activities, you're paying $84,000 for data entry and CRM updates. That's the Admin Drag tax killing your pipeline velocity in 2026. But here's the real problem: you bought AI six months ago (Gemini, ChatGPT, Einstein), rolled it out with a 45-minute webinar, and… crickets. Adoption is at 14%. Your VP is asking what you're paying for. This is
#115
February 10 · 32 min
$1M in Sales in 6 Months Using AI Voice Agents - Thoughtly's Will Del Principe on the Agentic Shift
$1M in sales. $500K saved. Zero new headcount. Your sales team isn't ignoring dead leads because they're lazy - they're drowning in admin drag. While you're debating whether to hire two more SDRs, your competitors have stopped asking "Who do I hire next?" and started asking "What system do I build next?" Will Del Principe (Growth & Solutions Engineering Leader at Thoughtly) reveals how AI voice agents have crossed the quality threshold - handling objections, qualifying leads, and booking meeti
#114
February 3 · 38 min
How a RevOps CEO Identifies a $21M Revenue Opportunity in 24 Hours (Not 3 Weeks)
If your revenue team takes three weeks to deliver a diagnostic report - and still misses the $21 million opportunity hiding in your pipeline - this episode reveals why manual analysis is costing you deals and how a RevOps CEO architected an AI agent that does it in 24 hours. Tara Kinney, Founder and CEO of Atomic Revenue, has led 18 CRM implementations across 76 companies. She knows what "normal" looks like in revenue operations - and she blew it up. Her agency used to spend weeks qualifying pr
#113
January 27 · 36 min
80% Lead Conversion Without AI: What Sales Expert Aleasha Bahr Knows That You Don't
If your sales team is stuck at 25% conversion despite investing in AI tools, this episode reveals why most AI pilots fail - and the sales methodology audit every Revenue Leader should run first. Sales strategy expert Aleasha Bahr (author of Black Sheep Sales) walks through the 3-step diagnostic to identify broken sales processes, explains the difference between "Admin Drag" (tasks AI should handle) and "Relationship Moments" (where humans must stay in control), and shares the counterintuitive t
#112
January 20 · 17 min
Hiring Your First Digital Crew Member: The Sales Prep Agent
Here's what's happening in your sales org right now. Your top rep just walked into a meeting with a six-figure prospect. And she's completely winging it - not because she's unprepared, but because she spent the last 45 minutes in back-to-back calls and didn't have time to research. Meanwhile, her competitor walked in knowing the prospect's company announced a hiring freeze last week, that the VP is stressed about doing more with less, and exactly which case study would resonate. How? They did
#111
January 13 · 15 min
Your Team Is Already Using AI. Here's How to Make It Safe.
Right now, while you're listening to this, one of your sales reps is pasting customer data into ChatGPT. Your marketing manager just uploaded strategic memos to Claude. And your IT department has no idea. Welcome to Shadow AI. Research shows that while only 40% of companies have official enterprise AI licenses, 90% of employees are using AI tools through personal accounts. Your team isn't trying to sabotage you - they're trying to survive the "Admin Drag" we discussed in Episode 01. The quest
#110
January 6 · 15 min
The 2026 Sales Reckoning: Why 95% of AI Pilots Fail
Your sales team is brilliant. But they're spending 70% of their week doing work a robot could do in 10 minutes. And you're paying them six figures to do it. Welcome to the "Year of Reckoning." Your board is demanding AI automation. They want results. But recent research shows that 95% of enterprise AI pilots represent zero P&L impact. In this episode, Mike Allton breaks down exactly why those pilots are failing - and it's not the technology. It's something he calls "Admin Drag" - the invisible
Dec 23, 2025 · 4 min
Welcome to the Agentic Era: The Next Chapter
Your revenue team is brilliant, but they are drowning. Research shows that high-performing sales and marketing professionals waste nearly 70% of their time on "Admin Drag"—non-revenue generating tasks like data entry, meeting prep, and internal reporting. You are paying top-tier talent for low-value work. In this special trailer episode, Revenue Architect Mike Allton unveils the new mission for The AI Hat Podcast: AI for Revenue Leaders. We are moving beyond the hype of chatbots and prompt en
#109
Dec 9, 2025 · 50 min
A CEO's Essential AI Tool Stack That Actually Works
You've got seventeen AI tools scattered across your browser tabs right now, don't you? Yet somehow you're still manually doing the same repetitive tasks that drove you to purchase those licenses in the first place. Whether you're a solopreneur building your empire or leading a team trying to eliminate admin drag, here's the brutal truth - most entrepreneurs are picking AI tools like they're shopping for shiny objects at a tech bazaar, grabbing whatever looks innovative without any strategic thin
#108
Dec 2, 2025 · 55 min
Why This 16-Year Industry Veteran Says 2026 Is Make-or-Break for AI Marketing
Here's the reality check nobody wants to hear - while 90% of marketers believe AI will fundamentally change their industry, 70% see it as an opportunity instead of a threat. That gap? It's the Hero Complex whispering in your ear that you can figure this out on your own, that you don't need to adapt your systems now. But here's what the latest industry report reveals: 2026 isn't just another year of gradual change - it's the year that will separate the marketers and business owners who scale from

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