On AI:AM

Eric Vaughan

CEO, IgniteTech

Eric Vaughan is CEO of IgniteTech (and of Khoros and GFI Software), and the author of perhaps the most aggressive corporate AI transformation on record. In 2023 he declared generative AI an existential threat to his enterprise-software business, instituted company-wide 'AI Mondays' — roughly 20% of payroll spent for a quarter purely on learning AI — and, when about 80% of the workforce resisted, replaced them, rebuilding the company around people with what he calls 'AI DNA.' The rebuilt org has since shipped ground-up AI products including Eloquens AI, MyPersonas, and Adminio AI. His signature line: 'If you think you're behind, good. If you don't think you're behind, you're doomed.'