EP 172 - Building Practical AI for You and Business - Hunter Jensen

🤖 Are you intimidated by AI — or curious how to actually make it work for your business? In this episode of Finding Better, host John Suzuki speaks with Hunter Jensen, Founder & CEO of Barefoot Solutions / Barefoot Labs, about practical, secure ways businesses and everyday people can adopt AI. Hunter has 20+ years building ROI-driven software for companies like Microsoft and Salesforce, and now helps CEOs operationalize private AI with products like Compass.

💡In this conversation, you’ll learn:

Why AI is a civilizational shift — and how to think about it as leaders and humans. The difference between public chatbots and private, secure AI that can connect to your internal systems. The hidden risk of shadow AI and simple steps to discover and stop it. How to start small (CoPilot / Gemini + show-and-tells) and scale to a private LLM platform. Real ROI examples: a patent attorney saving 8 hours/week, speeding government permitting demos, and doubling proposal capacity for a defense contractor. Hunter’s founder lessons — bootstrapping from a Craigslist job to a product company and leading through reinvention.

 

🔒Key Takeaways

Beyond ChatGPT: Build a secure AI foundation that scales across your org. Shadow AI is leaking value — educate employees and provide safe alternatives. Use private LLM + document DB to protect sensitive data while unlocking value. Focus on a single “killer use case” to drive ROI, then expand. Book dedicated time with LLMs (an “AI meeting”) to solve real business problems.

🌐 Check out Hunter and Barefoot Labs: https://www.barefootlabs.ai/

🔔 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share — especially with anyone who’s intimidated by AI but wants to use it safely and effectively.

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