Why 80% of CEOs Feel Behind on AI

Why 80% of CEOs Feel Behind on AI

Author: Harrison Painter April 29, 2026 Duration: 41:11

Eighty percent of manufacturing leaders say they are behind their peers on AI. The math says that is impossible. So why does almost every CEO walk into a room believing the rest of the industry has already figured this out?


Bryce Carpenter, COO at Conexus Indiana, sits on top of the data that explains it. Conexus runs the Advanced Industries Council, the state's primary convening body for the 9,700 manufacturing and logistics companies that produce 37 percent of Indiana's GDP. Bryce founded the AIC in 2019 and has watched 120-plus member companies move through the AI experimentation phase in real time.


In this conversation with Harrison Painter, Bryce walks through what he is actually seeing. Why Indiana's $29 billion in 2024 manufacturing investment paired with a 1 percent drop in employment is a retirement story, not an AI displacement story. Why the average tenure inside Indiana manufacturing collapsed from 30 years to 3. How a 52-person Northeast Indiana shop grew to 106 after a single equipment investment. Why the 9,700 companies running their own boutique soft-skill development programs is the most expensive inefficiency in the state. And why he gives Indiana an A-minus on AI progress when most operators inside the state would say B at best.


If you run a 100-to-5,000-person company and you are trying to figure out where your team actually is on AI, start with the free 7 Levels of AI Proficiency assessment at assess.launchready.ai. It takes under ten minutes and tells you exactly which level your team operates at today.


Thanks for supporting the AI Ready Podcast!


Further. Faster.

Harrison Painter


Harrison Painter hosts the AI for Everyone Podcast from a rather unique vantage point. After building and selling a company, he found himself in the Hollywood Hills, an experience that sharpened his perspective on what real influence means in a world saturated with mere attention. He translates those hard-won lessons into practical guidance for any professional feeling behind on the AI wave. This isn't a theoretical discussion about machine learning models. Instead, each episode focuses on actionable strategies for integrating artificial intelligence into your daily workflow to reclaim hours, operate with greater assurance, and ultimately improve your financial outcomes. The premise is right there in the title: this is about making powerful tools accessible and immediately useful. You'll hear concrete examples, straightforward advice, and perhaps a few stories from the other side of a successful exit, all aimed at demystifying the technology that's reshaping every industry. Tune in when you're ready to move from knowing AI matters to making it work decisively for your career and business. The AI for Everyone Podcast is built on the idea that these tools should serve you, not intimidate you.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

AI Ready Podcast with Harrison Painter
Podcast Episodes
You Don't Need a Degree to Get Good at AI | Kathleen deLaski [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:00
Getting good at AI does not take a degree, a tech background, or a year you do not have.Kathleen deLaski has spent a decade proving it. She founded the Education Design Lab, she advises the Harvard Project on the Workfor…
AI Is Now Hiring Other AI: Is It Worth It? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 12:09
A new AI model out of Japan, Sakana Fugu, does something we have not really seen before. Instead of answering you itself, it hires a team of the best AI models, gives each one a piece of the job, and merges their work in…
AI Governance: Six Tests for CEOs and Boards [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:19
A new paper from RAND-affiliated complexity researcher Kyle A. Kilian and Future of Life Institute risk analyst Richard Mallah, published May 20 through the Center for AI Risk Management and Alignment (CARMA), gives exec…
Pope Leo XIV's First AI Encyclical: What Every CEO Needs to Know [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:46
On May 25, 2026, the Vatican publicly presented Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. It is the first papal encyclical in history to address artificial intelligence directly. The Pope signed it on May 15,…
If a Dog Can Make a Million Dollars a Year, So Can You [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:26
Jay Samit has held senior roles at Sony, Universal Studios, EMI, LinkedIn, and Deloitte Digital. He has raised hundreds of millions for startups and been called on by the Pope and the President. His book "Disrupt You!" h…
Your Robot Vacuum Is Watching You (7,000 Homes Exposed) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 14:59
A robot vacuum just exposed 7,000 homes across 24 countries, and nobody got hacked. One guy with a PS5 controller stumbled into live camera feeds, floor plans, microphone audio, and device locations for complete stranger…