Your company just gave everyone a Claude or ChatGPT seat — so why isn&#x27;t the ROI showing up? Host James Carman and YNDR founder Chris Thomas break down why handing out AI licenses isn&#x27;t a strategy, why tokenmaxxing and prompt engineers won&#x27;t deliver results, and how homegrown AI agents you actually own beat seven-figure SaaS contracts.

/seats for everyone: the AI rollout that quietly burns your budget

The Forward Slash Podcast

I mean, it's a fun gig because you get to truly solve problems. And I'll let you know a little secret. You know what I haven't heard in a long time is the word no from a developer because Claude has not said no to me.

Welcome to The Forward Slash Podcast where we lean into the future of IT by inviting fellow thought leaders, innovators and problem solvers to slash through its complexity. I'm your host, James Carman. And today we're talking to Chris Thomas. Chris Thomas operates at the intersection of software, AI and creative. He runs Yonder, an AI native studio built on the belief that every company deserves software people actually like using. I can dig that. Yeah, I like it.

Before Yonder, he spent 20 plus years shipping production systems for government agencies, Fortune 100s and mid-market businesses. Today, he's one of the leading voices on building with Claude Code, teaching that stories beat prompts and context beats commands. Break them down and you'll find 40% creative, 40% AI strategy and 20% barbecue. Welcome to The Forward Slash, Chris. Thanks, man. Thanks for having me.

I got to hear about this, this 20% barbecue. I feel like I might be right there with you. I do love me some barbecue. Tell me about that. You know, that is actually the most responded LinkedIn line I have. And that's so when I was a global head of product development marketing, I had to interview people three to 10 times a week. It was ridiculous.

And I always had these resumes would come across my desk and would say like 90% Photoshop, 78% leadership. And I was like, how are you gauging this? And I'm like, you didn't want to like work on more leadership to get...

/seats for everyone: the AI rollout that quietly burns your budget

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

/seats for everyone: the AI rollout that quietly burns your budget

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.