Podcast Summary: ProductLed Podcast
Episode: Become a 10x PLG Practitioner Using AI (7 Real Workflow Examples)
Host: Wes Bush
Guest: Akash Gupta
Date: October 31, 2025
Episode Overview
In this episode, Wes Bush talks with Akash Gupta—well-known for running a leading product and growth newsletter—about supercharging Product-Led Growth (PLG) teams using artificial intelligence (AI). Together, they break down both the philosophy and tactical application of AI in PLG, with real-life workflow examples. Akash shares frameworks, tool recommendations, and specific tips to accelerate everything from personal productivity to activation and pricing. This is an actionable, tool-packed, fast-paced discussion designed to help PLG practitioners and leaders leverage AI for multiplicative results.
Key Topics & Insights
1. The Two Sides of AI in PLG
(02:10) Akash Gupta:
- AI for PLG process improvement: How AI reshapes activation, onboarding, pricing, expansion, marketing, and sales motions.
- AI for day-to-day job productivity: How AI helps practitioners personally crush their roles.
“Sometimes the more interesting area is actually the other side: how AI just helps you do your job in succeeding at PLG.”
— Akash Gupta (02:10)
2. Essential AI Tools for PLG Practitioners
(04:45–09:25) Tool Categories Discussed:
- LLMs: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and NotebookLM (context-focused, good for avoiding hallucinations).
- Akash emphasizes training LLM projects with performance reviews, one-on-ones, company strategy docs, etc.
“You create these really amazing high context projects and this is how you really get the power out of these LLMs.”
— Akash Gupta (06:45)
- AI Agents & Automation:
- Platforms: Lindy, N8N, Zapier, Relay, make.com, Airtable.
- Use cases: Automated competitive analysis, AI-powered EAs (executive assistants), marketing automation.
Memorable segment:
“You might be able to replace your EA at this point. Like, AI has gotten so good.”
— Akash Gupta (12:16)
- Dictation Apps:
- Speed up prompting and ideation with Super Whisper and other dictation tools.
- Prototyping Tools:
- Bolt, Lovable, Magic Patterns, Base44 for rapidly building web/app prototypes, often with AI-driven improvements.
Demo:
Akash walks Wes through using Bolt to prototype a new homepage layout and rapidly iterate on ideas via voice dictation.
[20:26–24:46]
3. Weekly Team Mindset for AI Automation
(13:56) Wes’s Tip:
Instill a routine: ask your team, “What are you doing now that you could probably automate with AI?” Encourage a culture where everyone looks for automation opportunities every single week.
The PLG “Layer Cake” & How AI Affects Each One
1. Activation (26:30)
- AI enables “1/10th the time to value”—personalized onboarding, automated suggestions.
- Importance of profiling questions, AI-assisted vs user-driven activation.
- Key Practice: Monitor and iterate on AI-assisted flows using “AI evals” (evaluative metrics for AI outputs).
“You should be getting people to your activated moment. Your TTV should be like 1/10 if you’re a regular product and you’re thinking about how do I reinvent myself with AI.”
— Akash Gupta (26:38)
2. Pricing (30:38)
- AI products create new COGS (cost of goods sold) issues.
- Move away from seat-based pricing to usage-based or outcome-based models.
- Examples:
- Intercom’s Fin (charged per resolved issue).
- Jasper (per published blog post).
- 11x (per qualified meeting booked).
- Harvey AI (per legal output, not effort).
“Teams are moving from seats to usage and ideally outcome if they can define it.”
— Akash Gupta (33:13)
3. Free Model (37:05)
- Use “reverse trial” models: start with premium access, let users hit credit limits, encourage upgrades.
- Free credits and stricter qualification for trials.
- Sustainability is a concern: foundational model providers have higher margin.
“AI costs money, Frick. So we need to solve it in one of these five ways.”
— Akash Gupta (40:36)
4. Expansion (41:29)
- AI can identify ripe accounts for expansion (AI-assisted Product Qualified Leads, or PQLs).
- Improved targeting with automated insights, lifecycle triggers, personalized outreach.
“Their expansion will go from 110% as their average per year to 120, 130%. So it’s really powerful.”
— Akash Gupta (43:36)
5. GTM (Go-to-Market), Marketing & Sales (44:30–50:11)
- AI multiplies marketing output: content creation, event scheduling, employee-post scaling, ad creative.
- Sales: Advanced lead finding, highly customized and even video-based outreach using AI avatars.
- Recommended Tools: Outrank (SEO), V03, Nano Banana, Apollo, Instantly, Lemlist (sales/lead gen).
“You can absolutely crush it with AI avatars. Don’t let people say they’re not good enough yet. They’re easily good enough.”
— Akash Gupta (48:47)
6. Data & Experimentation (50:26)
- Next-gen product analytics: Chameleon, Statsig (prompt-based experimentation, bandit algorithms).
- Data lakes + AI: easier cross-source analysis.
- Prompt-based experimentation: directly run A/B or multivariate tests from the UI.
7. Team & Strategy (53:29–56:26)
- Teams can (and should) shrink; focus on higher-level roles, GTM engineering, and strategy over execution.
- Replace easy tasks with AI, retrain for specialized skills and creative/strategic functions.
- True differentiators: taste (product craft), data, and distribution.
“Features are now commoditized, taste is the differentiator.”
— Akash Gupta (55:54)
“Where Should You Start?” – Practical Roadmap
(56:48) Akash Gupta’s Advice:
- Pick one new AI tool a week (suggests starting with dictation, then agents, copilot, prototyping, then context LLMs).
- Map PLG elements (activation, pricing, model, etc.): focus on weakest areas; use AI there first.
- In particular, revisit pricing, team composition, and strategy regularly for biggest impact.
Staying Ahead & Learning: Akash’s System
Build your information diet:
- X (Twitter): Andrej Karpathy, Swyx, Greg Eisenberg.
- LinkedIn: Omn, Ruben Hassid, Jake Ward, Chris Donnelly.
- YouTube: Matt Wolfe, Nate Jones, Peter Yang.
- Substack: Paul Hearn, Nicholas Cole.
Adopt a “one new tool/week” rhythm:
- Timebox 15–30 minutes weekly to test something new.
- Keep an informal backlog or roadmap of tools to try.
“Let me just walk through specific things you guys should actually do...Every week I try to pick up a brand new tool.”
— Akash Gupta (58:43)
The New SaaS Differentiator: Taste
[~63:31]
- Taste = Crafting focused, minimal, delightful UX.
- Example: ChatGPT’s blank home, Linear’s zero-tolerance for bugs.
- Investing in product polish and ruthless prioritization creates hard-to-copy moats.
“Taste is about actually like, like instead of giving people a hundred things, giving people one or two, creating a clearly sculpted journey through your product at the right time.”
— Akash Gupta (63:31)
Notable Quotes & Moments
-
On AI utility:
“AI is just the next evolution of technology. Instead of thinking like how do I stay up on AI or I’m feeling AI FOMO, think about how am I staying on the latest edge of technology.”
— Akash Gupta (66:57) -
On urgency:
“Time to value 1/10th the time...that’s going to become the expectation in your market regardless of if you think it is possible or not.”
— Wes Bush (57:54) -
On team rethinking:
“The teams are becoming a lot smaller, like probably like half the size, you know, across the board.”
— Akash Gupta (54:27) -
On learning:
"Every week I try to pick up a brand new tool if there wasn't some news that caused me to. So I just have a tool list right now..."
— Akash Gupta (58:43)
Additional Resources & Links
- Newsletters and tool bundles by Akash: Coming soon, sign up via his newsletter.
- For actionable PLG insights, subscribe to ProductLed newsletter.
Episode Timestamps (Selected)
- 02:10 – The two sides of AI for PLG practitioners
- 04:45 – LLMs and organizing knowledge with ChatGPT, Claude, NotebookLM (context)
- 09:25 – AI agents and automation platforms
- 12:16 – Automating executive assistant tasks
- 13:56 – Teamwide habit: “What could you automate with AI?”
- 19:28 – AI prototyping tools for product/marketing teams
- 26:30 – How AI changes activation and onboarding
- 30:38 – Pricing models for PLG & AI: Seats, usage, or outcome
- 37:05 – Free models, credits, and sustainable PLG economics
- 41:29 – Expansion: AI targeting for account growth, lifecycle
- 44:30–50:11 – GTM, marketing, sales, and AI-driven lead gen/content
- 50:26 – Data, experimentation, bandit algorithms
- 53:29–54:27 – Rethinking team size and structure with AI
- 55:54 – Taste as the new differentiator in SaaS
- 56:48 – Akash’s practical roadmap for getting started
- 58:43 – Akash’s system for learning and staying ahead
- 63:31 – Deep dive: What is product “taste” and why it matters
This episode is a comprehensive masterclass on using AI to excel as a PLG practitioner, packed with tool recommendations, workflow tips, and a strategic sensibility for both individual and organizational transformation. Akash and Wes balance practical takeaways with deep reflections on the future of SaaS, urging listeners to get hands-on with AI, rethink their teams, and double down on product craft as a true competitive moat.