How I AI Podcast: Zapier's CEO Shares His Personal AI Stack | Wade Foster

Date: January 5, 2026
Host: Claire Vo
Guest: Wade Foster, Co-founder and CEO of Zapier
Episode Theme:
How to make AI integration real and practical inside organizations, focusing on hiring, culture, talent evaluation, and leveraging AI tools for tangible business improvement. Wade Foster demonstrates the exact AI workflows he uses as CEO—including meeting analysis, recruiting, performance feedback, and sourcing candidates via emerging AI models like Grok.

Main Theme and Purpose

This episode dives deep into actionable ways CEOs—and anyone in a leadership or hiring position—can personally use AI in their work, specifically to transform organizational culture, hiring processes, and everyday workflows. Wade Foster shares not just high-level philosophies, but screen-shared, operational details of the actual AI stack he uses daily, demystifying the real impact and use cases of AI agents, meeting intelligence, and even unconventional sourcing tactics like using Grok to find hidden talent.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Moving Beyond the "AI Memo"—Leading by Example (00:00–06:51)

• Delegation Trap:
  Foster critiques leaders who delegate “adoption of AI” via a memo but then don’t engage hands-on, leading to ineffective diffusion of knowledge.

  “They write the AI memo, say ‘hey, we're gonna go do this.' And then they don't do anything else... Then that poor IC is like, am I figuring this out for the whole company? ...No, not really.”
  — Wade Foster (00:07, 05:44)

• Creating Play Space for AI Adoption:
  He stresses the importance of hackathons, show-and-tells, and organizational “play space” for hands-on AI experimentation, which alleviates fear and increases practical comfort.

• AI Fluency is the New Career Imperative:
  Vo and Foster emphasize that developing AI skills isn’t just good for business, but critical for employees’ own growth and future marketability.

  “What do you think that interview is going to look like [in 3 years]? ...Do you think this is going to be part of how you're evaluated? ...Absolutely, yes.”
  — Claire Vo (04:55)

• Culture of Experimentation and Feedback:
  Zapier’s core value:

  “Don’t be a robot, build a robot.”
  — Wade Foster (03:19)
  encourages both experimentation and sharing of mistakes, not just successes.

2. AI for Codifying and Stress Testing Company Culture (07:31–12:58)

• Building a “Culture Handbook” with AI:
  Foster demonstrates using Granola’s “recipes” feature (advanced prompting on transcripts) to extract emergent/unspoken norms and behaviors from actual meeting volume—building a “company culture handbook” from real data.

  “You get this pretty rich example of what your company's doing...it actually gets at the specifics in a way that even I hadn’t figured out...”
  — Wade Foster (07:31)

• Applications:

  • Using this output for job descriptions, performance rubrics, hiring and firing standards, and even as all-hands content.
  • Using AI (like ChatGPT) to turn this “unspoken culture” into structured hiring evaluation prompts.

• Organizational Transparency:
  AI lets leaders see where stated values align or diverge from real-world conversation.

  “Taking the aggregate of all your company communications and stress testing it against your stated values is really interesting...”
  — Claire Vo (10:47)

3. Always-On AI Coaching and Feedback (12:58–13:39)

• AI as the Infinite Coach:
  Foster describes using bots in meetings to provide continuous, candid feedback—even to the CEO—mitigating power dynamics and complementing limited human feedback cycles.

  “AI is this infinitely patient coach...here's three things that, candidly, you're not doing a great job of...most people want more feedback than their manager or peers have time to give them.”
  — Wade Foster (12:58)

4. Operationalizing AI in Hiring Processes (14:13–19:27)

A. Interview Evaluation Automation with AI Agents

• Custom AI Agent for Candidate Assessment:

  • Granola records meetings → Zapier agent reviews transcripts, the job description, and company values for functional and values alignment.
  • Agent outputs a “yes/no/maybe” recommendation with reasoning, then emails it to Foster.

• Knowledge Upload and Prompt Refinement

  • All instructions can be iteratively improved via Copilot, which suggests clearer, more actionable prompts.

• Practical Advantages:

  • Acts as a bias check and “thought partner”
  • Useful for hiring across many disciplines, validating or challenging human instincts.
  • Process easily adjustable: adding anonymization steps, enhancing actionable feedback, etc.

  “I really like this because it acts as a bias check. It acts as a thought partner...giving me extra little tips and tricks and nuggets.”
  — Wade Foster (14:13)

B. Making Agents and Prompts User-Friendly

• Meta Reflection on Agent Setup
  • Copilot scores and recommends improvements to prompts, making it less intimidating for users.
  • “If you were to explain to somebody how to do this job in steps ... write it down. ... That is the definition of your agent.”
    — Claire Vo (19:27)

C. Iterative Prompt Improvement

• Continuous Feedback Loop:

  • Vo suggests evaluating not just candidates but the quality of interviewers.
  • Immediate feedback can be incorporated into prompts live with Copilot, updated as needed.

  “It's crazy fast to implement it. Those two suggestions took literally 60 seconds to add to this.”
  — Wade Foster (21:36)

D. Unleashing AI on the Impossible (“If I had interns…” Framework)

• Think at scale, imagining what could be done with infinite time/people; AI makes previously uneconomic tasks viable.

  “Just describe what you want to get done.”
  — Claire Vo (19:27)

  “There are so many tasks that are not economically valuable right now...These are the areas where AI and agents really thrive.”
  — Wade Foster (23:38)

5. Using Grok for Creative Talent Sourcing (25:45–33:40)

• Using Grok (X/Twitter’s AI) to Find Hidden Talent:

  • Foster live demos using Grok’s natural language prompts to mine X for “posters” who share relevant Zapier content and have “modest followings,” surfacing “diamonds in the rough” that wouldn’t show up on LinkedIn.

    “Sourcing candidates is crazy times. ... I find Grok helps you find just a different slice of the market.”
    — Wade Foster (26:00)

• Iterative Refinement

  • Foster tweaks prompts to exclude bots, prefer candidates with real face avatars, and limit location, highlighting Grok’s interactive, conversational search advantage.

• Beyond Recruiting: Market Insights

  • Vo notes such searches can reveal unexpected community clusters for events or marketing, not just hiring.

• Online Community as Talent Source

  • Particular value in communities heavily concentrated online (AI, no-code, etc.).

    “I don't see a lot of people using Grok in this way...especially helpful for communities that are heavily online.”
    — Wade Foster (33:40)

6. Organizational Impact & The Future of Work (35:23–39:22)

• Durable Skills and High-Demand Roles

  • Top talent is still scarce across functions like engineering, design, PMs, sales.

  • Hyper-specialized analyst roles are at risk; generic “promptable” tasks will be automated.

  • Elevation is possible if you adopt and orchestrate AI, rather than resist it.

    “Where is there still demand for top talent? ... For top talent everywhere.”
    — Wade Foster (35:41)

    “What it means to be top has changed quite a bit.”
    — Wade Foster (35:42)

• Feedback Loops and Automation-Heavy Culture at Zapier

  • Bots everywhere, slack automations powered by emoji, humor in process—automation is normalized, not feared.

• Next Culture Challenges:

  • Bigger shifts: breaking down silos between previously distinct job families (e.g., PM, designer, and engineer merging into “builders”)—maybe not now, but likely before 2030.

    “The next chapter for us...is how do we start to break down more of these silos?...In 2030, I don't know.”
    — Wade Foster (37:40)

7. Memorable Moments and Quotes

• On the AI Memo Delegation Trap:

  “They ask their exec team, who ask a director, who ask a manager, who ask an IC...Do you think that's going to go well? No, not really.”
  — Wade Foster (05:44)

• On Feedback and AI as the ‘Infinitely Patient Coach’:

  “You don't always get just the honest truth...AI has all the time in the world to give you feedback.”
  — Wade Foster (12:58)

• On Uncovering Real Company Culture with AI:

  “I was shocked...it actually gets at specifics in a way even I hadn't figured out.”
  — Wade Foster (07:31)

• On Agents as Digital SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures):

  “If you've ever seen standard operating procedures, you've seen an agent.”
  — Wade Foster (21:36)

• On Expanding What’s Possible with AI:

  “There are so many tasks that are not economically valuable right now...and these are the areas where AI and agents really thrive.”
  — Wade Foster (23:38)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|---------| | 00:00–06:51 | The “AI memo” problem; learning through play and experimentation; AI as employee skill development | | 07:31–12:58 | Using AI to extract and test company culture; AR-generated handbooks; real-world values vs. stated values | | 12:58–13:39 | AI as a feedback engine, mitigating power imbalances | | 14:13–19:27 | Automated interview evaluation; using Zapier Agents for hiring; prompt iteration live | | 19:27–23:38 | Building better agents, scaling agents beyond human time; conceptual breakthroughs in task automation | | 25:45–33:40 | Using Grok for creative, natural language-based social talent sourcing; extracting competitive and community intelligence | | 35:23–37:40 | What roles are still in demand; how talent profiles change with AI; culture shifts ahead | | 37:40–39:22 | Organizational and cultural impacts at Zapier; future merging of roles | | 39:38–40:16 | Prompting tips: “pleasant” vs. “curt” with AIs; does it matter? | | 40:29–40:54 | Closing: where to find Wade, Zapier, more on agents and hiring |

Natural Language and Tone Highlights

• Candid, hands-on, and practical: Wade Foster’s tone is relaxed but sharply operational—revealing not just philosophies but exact steps and lessons (including failures and surprises) from his own AI journey.
• Informal, conversational, interspersed with live “do it now” demos, prompt tweaks, and honest reactions when output isn’t perfect.
• Both host and guest continually reflect on the broader implications (talent, culture, the future of jobs) with humor and frankness, rather than hype.

In Summary

If you want to see how a forward-thinking CEO truly uses AI in the nuts-and-bolts of running a company—beyond surface-level memos or one-off automation—this episode offers a blueprint. From mining meetings for authentic culture, to transforming hiring decisions with agents, to mining social media using Grok for hidden talent, the episode is packed with copyable workflows and candid insights.

Practical Takeaways:

• Don’t delegate AI transformation—lead it, model it, play with it.
• Aggregate real conversations to understand and shape company culture.
• Use meeting AI and evaluation agents not just to speed up tasks, but to check your own biases and level-up team feedback.
• Get creative with sourcing: advanced LLMs/search agents can find talent and insights outside traditional resumes.
• Prompting is iterative: imagine your agent as your digital team, and dream bigger than your own manual process.

Notable closing advice:
“Check out Zapier Agents... Agents are a way different way to build automations... If you're watching How I AI, you want to work at a company that's AI pilled... we're hiring top talent everywhere.”
— Wade Foster (40:29)