Mark Runyon

These AI Power Users Are Impressing Bosses and Leaving Co-Workers in the Dust Rank-and-file employees are jockeying to become leading adopters of artificial intelligence.

AI “power users” aren’t lucky — they’re disciplined.
They treat AI as a second brain: refining prompts, giving feedback, and using it to think better and faster.
They experiment, learn, and build leverage every day — that’s what sets them apart.
#AI #ChatGPT #Productivity #AICoach #FutureOfWork

Level up your #Data & #AI career with Microsoft Fabric Data Days!

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Free certification exam vouchers for DP-600 & DP-700

Join the 50-day journey: aka.ms/fabricdatadays

#MicrosoftFabric #Certification #PowerBI

Most AI fails are really prompting fails.

Before you ask for help, set the scene:
– Who are you? (role)
– What are you doing? (task)
– Who is it for? (audience)

Example: “You’re a project manager. Help me summarize these meeting notes for execs.”

#PromptEngineering #AIProductivity #KnowledgeWork

AI as Thought Partner, Not Replacement

Bad framing: “Will AI replace me?”
Better framing: “What parts of my workflow should AI augment?”

AI should:
Expand your thinking
Speed up drafts
Automate repetitive mental work

You still own the decisions.

#AIAdoption #WorkSmarter #GenerativeAI

With AI, your role doesn’t shrink. It sharpens.

You are the thought leader
AI is the thought partner

Let AI do the heavy lifting so you can focus on judgment, nuance, and strategy.

Ask yourself: “How can AI help me do this?”

#AILeadership #KnowledgeWork #FutureOfWork

Stop treating AI like a crystal ball.
Start treating it like an eager, smart junior associate.

Vague asks = vague results

Set context, define goals, share examples. That’s where the magic happens.

#GenerativeAI #AIProductivity #PromptEngineering

The AI Doomsday Machine Is Closer to Reality Than You Think The Pentagon is racing to integrate AI into its weapons system to keep up with China and Russia. Where will that lead?

"Almost all of the AI models showed a preference to escalate aggressively, use firepower indiscriminately and turn crises into shooting wars even to the point of launching nuclear weapons." #AIWarGames #LLM #AutonomousDecisionMaking #NuclearWar #AIArmsRace #SafeAI

AI IDEs can’t code in a vacuum. Oversight, clear requirements, and real code understanding are essential. Clean code is meaningless if the logic is broken.
#AI #Coding #CodeReview #CleanCode #DevHumor #SoftwareEngineering

YouTube video by CNBC Television Labor market growth slows dramatically in August with U.S. adding just 54,000 jobs, ADP says

ADP report → only 54k jobs added in August.

Fed Beige Book → tariffs driving up costs, hiring flat, inflation moderate but sticky, consumers cautious.

The economy is cooling, but not in a healthy way. Businesses squeezed by tariffs, households cutting back. #jobsreport #tariffs #fed #inflation

YouTube video by The Economist Is McKinsey losing its crown to AI?

As McKinsey nears its 100-year mark, growth is stalling, and AI challengers are circling. Are traditional consulting giants fading, or is AI about to rewrite the playbook? #AI #Consulting #FutureOfWork

GEO-first mindset: learning how generative engines find and present information, and then engineering your brand’s presence. That means creating the kind of content LLMs like to reference: statistics, expert quotes, original research, and tool comparisons. #SEO #GEO #AI #LLM

YouTube video by CNBC Television Cloudflare CEO on the rise of 'zero-click searches': It'll be much harder to be a content creator

How can content creators adapt their strategies to thrive when AI-driven platforms increasingly prioritize providing answers directly without linking out to original content? #SEO #contentcreators #AI #cnbc

Mark Runyon | May 21, 2025 Story Samurai · Episode

I loved speaking with Ari Block early this week on Story Samurai where we dove into what drives high-performing engineering teams. We talked EQ, mentorship, crisis leadership, and the underrated value of B players.

open.spotify.com/episode/0vBu...

#TechLeadership #EngineeringManagement #Podcast

The Risky Business of Replacing Human Workers With AI ‘What is our obligation to our people?’

I had a great talk with Nat Rubio-Licht at The Daily Upside last week about the impact of AI and automation on workers. How can we transition people? What is our obligation? How does upskilling play into this? #AI #automation

ATL Tech Events ATL Tech Events finds and shares the best tech events in Atlanta. If you're looking for something to do, we've got you covered.

Our site is live!

www.atltech.events

YouTube video by Salesforce Explorer Custom Fields Best Practices in Salesforce | Critical Questions to Ask Before Making the Add

This week, I take a look at adding custom fields in Salesforce. What questions should we be asking? How do we save users from themselves? Let's lean into best practices that will help us in the long run. #salesforce #salesforcetraining www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF2m...

Fresh off passing my latest Salesforce certification, I review the MuleSoft Associate exam. I dive into what to expect, areas to focus on, and how you can successfully pass this exam. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFAL...
#salesforce #mulesoft #salesforcetraining #salesforcecertification

YouTube video by Salesforce Explorer Salesforce License Cost Optimization and Savings

Are you looking for ways to save money in Salesforce? Start by looking at your licensing to ensure the licenses issued align with your user’s roles and needs. I dig into this topic in my latest video for Salesforce Explorer #salesforce #salesforcetraining

YouTube video by Improving Getting Started in Public Speaking - Improving Talks Series

Are you interested in improving your abilities in public speaking, but don't know where to start? Check out my talk showing you how to choose a topic, prepare your deck, deal with the fear, and deliver a compelling presentation. #publicspeaking #presentation

DevOps culture: 5 questions to ask about yours Is your team is creating a DevOps culture that can last – or one that is destined for failure? These questions can be illuminating.

The suppression of ideas hurts the team and creates a toxic culture where people don't feel their opinion is valued. A survey found that 26 percent of employees said they were more likely to leave their jobs if they felt disrespected by their colleagues. #DevOps #culture #scrum #trust

"Vulnerability is not winning or losing. It's having the courage to show up when you can't control the outcome."
-- Brene Brown
#BreneBrown
#vunerability
#DareToLead

Protecting Undersea Internet Cables Is a Tech Nightmare A recent, alleged Baltic Sea sabotage highlights the system’s fragility

The outages underscore how much of the global communications and financial system hinges on a few hundred cables that are strung across ocean floors around the world. Defending undersea fiber optic cables from damage and sabotage is increasingly challenging. #fiber #internet #tech

For those studying for an upcoming Salesforce certification exam, Focus on Force has 50% off study guides and practice exams during their black Friday sale -- offer code: FOF50DEAL. I've found them to be helpful prep. This is not an endorsement or an advertisement. #salesforce

This system takes the RAG concept a step further by incorporating graph theory into the mix. Instead of treating data as isolated chunks, GraphRAG organizes information into a network of entities and relationships—a knowledge graph. #RAG #AI #ML #LLM

MIT develops capsule to eliminate painful injections for GI treatments MIT has developed an ingestible capsule inspired by squid propulsion, delivering drugs directly to the stomach without needles.

This capsule is designed to release drugs directly into the stomach wall or other organs in the digestive tract, offering a needle-free alternative for medications that usually require injections, such as insulin and large protein-based drugs, including antibodies. #injections #needlephobia #drugs

Trailhead Help Trailhead, the fun way to learn Salesforce

The Salesforce AI Associate and Specialists exams are now free. This offer runs from 9/23/24 till 12/31/24. Follow this link for additional information about this offer. #salesforce #salesforcecertifications #einsteinai trailhead.salesforce.com/help?article...

YouTube video by Salesforce Explorer Salesforce Certified Associate Exam: Certification Preparation, Tips & Areas of Focus

Continuing my look at Salesforce's certifications, this month I review the Associate exam. I dive into what to expect, areas to focus on, and how you can successfully pass this exam. #salesforcetraining #salesforcecertification #salesforceassociate

YouTube video by Salesforce Explorer Passing the Salesforce Certified AI Associate Certification Exam: Impressions, Tips & Areas of Focus

This week I ventured into Salesforce certifications, passing the Salesforce Certified AI Associate exam. I give my thoughts on the exam, areas to focus on, and what to expect. #salesforce #ai #salesforcetraining #salesforcecertification

Stack Overflow Survey: 80% of developers are unhappy This year, as expected, the main topics in the Stack Overflow survey were use of AI and dissatisfaction in the workplace.

Technical debt is the number one cause of developer frustration. Working with imperfect systems demoralizes programmers, making it difficult to do quality work. #programmers #stackoverflow #techdebt #AI

When we discuss Generative AI in the corporate context, we should always be concerned with how sensitive data is used. Salesforce's Einstein Trust Layer depl... Salesforce Zero-Data Retention & Data Masking in Einstein Trust Layer: Secure Against Generative AI

Let's explore zero data retention and data masking in the Einstein Trust Layer to see how the data exchange between Open AI and Salesforce is done securely. #salesforce #salesforcetraining #ai #einsteinai #datamasking youtu.be/ll3WmQKRgbc