How I AI

AI, Wellness Tech, Digital Twins & Trust (Live from Wellist Week Miami)

• Brooke Gramer • Season 1 • Episode 58

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 46:38

I take you behind the scenes of Wellist Week in Miami, the first ever large-scale gathering bringing together founders, investors, scientists, clinicians, creators, and brands shaping the wellness economy. 

First, I share my recap of the five AI panels I sat in on, covering everything from healthtech personalization and longevity science to digital twins, brand credibility, and what AI adoption actually looks like inside organizations right now.

Then I sit down with Dr. Antonio Vasaiely, Chief AI Officer at Beyond Pilots, for a grounded conversation about where companies really are with AI, what agentic AI means for wellness and longevity brands, and why personalization is about to raise the bar for everything.

Finally, I speak with Kunal Sood, founder of AudacityAI, about consciousness, leadership, infobesity, and why the most important thing any founder can do right now is get their story right before they train anything else.

Two very different perspectives. One complete picture of where AI and wellness are headed. In this bonus episode between seasons, I am bringing you inside those conversations.

🔥 Topics we cover:

  • Why AI personalization is moving from demographics to the individual level in health and wellness
  • How brands are using AI to build real credibility, and how others are using it to fake it
  • What digital twins actually are and why your data is already building a version of you
  • The three organizational challenges blocking real AI adoption, according to brain science
  • Why outsourcing tasks to AI lowers satisfaction, and what collaboration with AI looks like instead
  • What agentic AI means for wellness and longevity companies right now
  • Why founders need to master their story before they hand anything over to a machine
  • What "infobesity" is and why it may be the next major wellness challenge

🔗 Connect & Learn More:

  • Wellist Week returns to Miami April 12 through 18, 2027: https://www.wellistweek.com
  • Dr. Antonio Vasaiely on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavasaiely
  • Kunal Sood on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kunalsood.ai

Ready to cut through the AI overwhelm? Explore all my resources in one place → https://stan.store/BRXSTUDIO Free AI Guide • 45-Minute AI Jumpstart • How I AI Companion GPT

Support your body against EMFs with Leela Quantum Tech - 5% off with affiliate code: BROOKE

Disclaimer: This podcast is for general education only, not professional or medical advice. How I AI and its affiliates are not responsible for any outcomes from using this information.

More About Brooke:

Website: brookex.com

LinkedIn: Brooke Gramer

More About the Podcast:

Instagram: howiai.podcast

Website: howiaipodcast.com

"How I AI" is a concept and podcast series created and produced by Brooke Gramer of EmpowerFlow Strategies LLC. All rights reserved.

Brooke

​Welcome to How I AI the podcast featuring real people, real stories, and real AI in action. I'm Brooke Gramer, your host and guide on this journey into the real world impact of artificial intelligence. For over 15 years, I've worked in creative marketing, events and business strategy, wearing all the hats. I know the struggle of trying to scale and manage all things without burning out, but here's the game changer, AI. This isn't just a podcast. How I AI is a community, a space where curious minds like you come together, share ideas, because AI isn't just a trend, it's a shift, and the sooner we embrace it, the more freedom, creativity, and opportunities will unlock. Hello, and welcome back to How I AI. I'm your host, Brooke Gramer, and today's episode is a little different. This is a bonus drop between seasons. Season one has officially wrapped, and I'm so excited about where season two is headed. There are some real shifts coming, and I can't wait to share more soon. But in the meantime, I wanted to bring you inside one of the most energizing events I covered this year. Earlier this spring, I had the chance to attend Wellist Week Miami. Wellist Week is a new large-scale annual gathering that brings together founders, investors, scientists, clinicians, creators, and brands all focused on the wellness economy. Think of it as the intersection of health, longevity, performance, tech, culture, all in one room. And this was the inaugural year. I'll say it right now, inaugural events hit different. What stood out to me about this event was the curation. This was not a traditional wellness conference full of supplement brands and smoothie booths. Yes, there were conversations about health and wellbeing, but running underneath it all was a much bigger question. As technology gets smarter, how do we build lives, companies, and communities that are actually more intentional? Of course, AI was everywhere. It's hard to attend a conference nowadays where it's not. But AI was present not just as a buzzword, but as a real undercurrent in almost every panel I sat in on. So today I want to share what I took away from those live talks, and then I bring you two exclusive interviews I recorded right there on the Wellist floor. First, you'll hear from Dr. Antonio Vasaiely He's the chief AI officer at Beyond Pilots. He gave me the clearest breakdown I've heard of where companies actually are with AI right now, what agentic AI really means, and how wellness and longevity brands are starting to use personalization in ways we haven't seen before. Then I sit down with Kunal Sood. He's the founder of AudacityAI, and he brought something I didn't expect to hear at a tech conference, a conversation about consciousness, inner work, and why founders need to get their story right before they train anything else. Together, these two exclusive conversations gave a real full picture. Antonio maps the landscape. Kunal asks what kind of people we want to be inside all of it. And mark your calendars, Wellist Week returns to Miami April 12th through April 18th in 2027. I'll link everything in the show notes below. All right, let's get into it. Before I bring on my two guests, I want to walk you through the AI panels I sat in on at Wellist Week. Because honestly, even before I hit record with any of my interviews, I was already taking notes. Let me take you through what stood out in each session, why I think it matters for you. I sat in on five different AI-focused conversations across the event. Each one had a different angle, but by the end of the week, I could see the same five threads running through all of them. The first panel I want to talk about was called The Content Wave: Media and the New Attention Economy. And it was really about one central question: How do creators and brands stay relevant when AI can now generate content at scale? The most useful thing that came out of this session was a simple but real warning. If you go into an AI tool without any setup or personalization, you're going to get the same output as everyone else. This makes a lot of sense because we're all collectively sourcing the same data at this point. The room was asked how many people are using AI for content, and then how many actually put that personalized effort behind their tools. Maybe set up custom prompts, told it who they are, what they stood for, and what exactly they do. The number of hands dropped significantly, and that gap is exactly why so much AI content out there sounds identical right now. The speakers of this panel also made a really key point: the kind of content AI simply cannot produce right now is going to be that raw physical lived experience. The takeaway was not to avoid AI, it was to get clear on what you can bring that AI cannot generate, and then use AI to support everything around that. The next panel I sat in on was called Content in the Age of AI. And it was centered around digital twins and brand integrity. Jason from Digital DNA Labs opened with a concept I had not heard quite framed this way before. The idea of sequencing your digital DNA the same way you can sequence biological DNA. His company builds AI agents for people and brands, and their whole premise is that your data is the foundation of any AI system that you train. If that data is cracked, the agent will be cracked. If that data is authentic and intentional, the agent reflects that. Jason brought up the important question of whoever controls your narrative in the agentic world is one of the most important questions we are not talking about enough. Kunal, who had moderated this talk, brought the more philosophical layer as he usually does. AI right now should be about helping you tell a better, truer story about yourself, not a faster one, not a louder one, a truer one. That is the highest use of these tools for our personal brand and content use. The big takeaway from this session is to think about your data as an asset. What you put out into the world, what you train your tools on, what you allow to represent you, that is going to matter more as agents become more capable. Start caring about the integrity of your information now. The next conversation I attended was one of the most forward-looking conversations of the week. It was called Designing Intelligence, Health Tech, and Leveraging AI Across the Consumer Journey. It was moderated by Kunal and featured two incredible speakers, Nicol Bradford, whose work sits at the intersection of AI and mental health and emotional health, and Eric Litman, a serial entrepreneur focused on health span, who also invests in the space. The personalization point here went further than anywhere else. The argument was that AI is going to allow health and wellness to get hyper-specific in a way that was never possible before. Don't think about bracketing women thirty to forty. It's more like, "what are women experiencing today on a Monday in this very specific state with this combination of lifestyle factors?" That level of individualization in mental health and preventive care, nutrition, recovery is now on the horizon, and the companies and founders building toward that now are going to be significantly ahead. Eric also made a key point about founders that I want to highlight because it applies to a lot of people listening to this podcast. He said most tech companies do not fail from lack of opportunity. They die from congestion, from taking on too much, spreading across too many directions, losing the thread of what they're actually building. Clarity and execution matter more than ever. That really hits home for me. I recently sat in on a tech wellness demo here in Miami, and their MVP pulled me in so many different directions. I couldn't really understand what they were trying to be because they had so many lanes they were trying to occupy. AI has the potential to address some of the hardest challenges in health, mental health, access, and prevention, but only if the people building it stay focused on the actual human outcome. The next panel I sat in on touched on the age of credibility and navigating AI-powered transparency. And it put two people on stage who were doing the work right and were not afraid to name what is going wrong elsewhere. Chris Marible, the founder and CEO of NOVOS, a longevity and biotech company, made the argument that is going to stay with me. He said AI is not automatically unbiased. The room went back and forth on this argument, and he had a very specific example. If you ask a leading AI tool what the best longevity supplement is, one of the top answers that consistently comes back is resveratrol. But actually, experts in the field will tell you the science on resveratrol is deeply contested. The reason AI keeps recommending it is because a prominent researcher championed it heavily, and AI is over-indexing on volume and reputation rather than weighing the actual quality of evidence. This is a meaningful problem in wellness because right now AI is letting brands sound scientific without being scientific. You can go into ChatGPT, summarize the research behind your individual ingredients, and put it on your website. It looks like science, it reads like science, but if your actual formula has never been tested, if no one has studied what happens when those ingredients are combined, that is not credibility, it's a well-dressed claim, he stated. NOVOS shared they run double-blind studies, placebo-controlled on their actual formulas, not just individual ingredients. They are transparent about what studies are in progress, what the endpoints are, and what they do not know yet. That is the standard. And the speakers on the panelists were doing the same, using AI to challenge their own claims before anyone else could. The takeaway from this talk was this: In the wellness economy, credibility is becoming a real competitive advantage, not AI-generated credibility, earned credibility. And the brands that build it now are going to be in a very different position when consumers and AI systems start getting better at asking harder questions. The final session I attended I wanna cover here was called Building, Running, and Scaling in the Age of AI. And it was one that felt most directly relevant to how any of us are using AI in our day-to-day work. Dr. David Rock, who has spent decades studying the brain and organizational leadership, opened with a framing I found really clarifying. He said much of the wealth created over the last century came from reducing the physical effort people had to put in. Machines did the lifting, and now we are in a new phase to reduce the mental effort. AI does the thinking, or at least parts of it, and that feels good because thinking is hard and our brain actually registers this mental load as a threat that should be avoided. But here's the irony he pointed out. Using AI well actually requires more thinking, not less. Specifically, what he called metacognition, the ability to think about your own thinking, to notice what you are doing while you are doing it, to stay present inside the process instead of delegating it anyway. The people who are getting the most out of AI are the reflective ones, not necessarily the technical fluent ones. He also named three things organizations are struggling with when it comes to AI adoption. The first is a third of employees are either actively resisting AI initiatives or fully checked out because it triggers all five things people care about: status, certainty, autonomy, belonging, and fairness. The second is cognitive capacity. People are overwhelmed, and adding new tools and habits into that does not automatically go well. And the third is building new habits at scale, which requires clear definition and repetition before it sticks. Antonio, the moderator of the panel, added research from his own doctorate that I thought was striking. When people fully outsource a task to AI, they get the result faster. But when asked how they feel about their work afterward, satisfaction drops. They feel like their skills are not being used. They feel disconnected. When people collaborated with AI instead and kept their judgment in the loop, it may have taken a bit longer, but their sense of meaning and contribution went up. The best is not AI doing it for you. It is AI and you solving it better together. The key underlying threads across all of these AI panels are: AI is not replacing the wellness or health business. It's becoming the intelligence layer running underneath all of it. Personalization is no longer a marketing word. It's now technically possible to build products and experiences tailored to you specifically, and that is going to raise the bar for everything. AI can help you build real credibility, but it can also help you fake it, and the brands doing the real work are going to be in a very different position when people start asking harder questions. Your data is already building a version of you, so what you put out and what you train your tools on matters more than most people realize. The most valuable thing you bring to any AI tool is your point of view, and that is the one it cannot create for you. Those were the conversations at Wellist. Now, let me bring you to the people I sat down with directly. For my first one-on-one interview, I'd like to introduce Dr. Antonio Vasaiely Vasaiely He's a Swiss American computer scientist, AI strategist, and entrepreneur. He's the chief AI officer at Beyond Pilots, and his work focuses on helping companies and investors actually understand what AI can do for them, both inside their products and inside their operations. What I appreciate about this conversation is that Antonio is not an AI hype person, he has a doctorate in the intersection of artificial and human intelligence. He's been working in this space long before it became a trending topic, and he's very honest about what these tools can and cannot do right now. All right. Here's my conversation with Antonio. Antonio, good morning. It's such a pleasure to host you on the podcast today. I would love for you to open the floor and share with listeners a little bit about your background and where you are working at the intersection of AI today.

Antonio

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me, Brooke. Really excited to be here. And yeah, I mean, wellness is a personal passion of mine. Wellness, wellbeing, both physical and mental, is something which I believe is, is of utmost important for everybody, especially in the tech space, because things are changing so much. So my name is Antonio Vasaiely. I'm a computer scientist, technologist. I'm an, uh, exited founder myself, and right now I find myself a lot in the intersection between large organizations and companies wanna understand how they can actually work with AI, adopt AI- Mm-hmm both in their products and services. But also a lot of excitements by founders and investors to understand a little bit better what this technology can do for them. Uh, I did actually my bachelor and my masters in computer science, software engineering was a major in AI, and I have my doctorate as well in the intersection between artificial intelligence and human intelligence.

Brooke

Beautiful. If you could share a little bit about your talks. You have two talks that are happening during Wellist week. What made you wanna bring this conversation to light today?

Antonio

So I'm very excited about the wellbeing space, as I said before, and the intersection between technology, wellness, and wellbeing- Mm-hmm is very interesting as well. There is a large gap between people's understanding of what the technology's capable of doing. Mm-hmm. And generally speaking, humans are not very good in adopting new stuff and change their ways. Right. But with AI, slightly different, because everybody realizes something's happening there. A lot of people are using large language models already- Mm-hmm so they have some exposure to the technology. But in fact, artificial intelligence is so much more- Yeah and it's not a new technology. It exists for many, many decades in different forms, different capacities. What I'm very excited about, and what I will be speaking about here at the Wellist, is how do we w- on one side use artificial intelligence to achieve some of the productivity gains we need-

Brooke

Mm-hmm

Antonio

as humans, individuals, organizations, to really focus on a mission. Mm-hmm. We wanna solve the problem we wanna solve. But on the other side, how can artificial intelligence be a fundamental part of the products and services- Mm-hmm we're bringing to market? Yeah. If you think, for example, about the topic of longevity, it's all about personalization. It's about your ability to understand the consumer, the user- Yes and, and target with your treatments and your supplements and your life science, um, company, really individual's needs and demands. That's what I'm very excited about.

Brooke

Can you share which companies? For example, we just heard Equinox speak about data and, and personalization. Where else do you see individuals doing it right when it comes to really tapping into the power of data and AI, specifically within health and wellness?

Antonio

So we are very early stages when it comes to, um, some early adopters. Mm-hmm. I think it's much closer to reality when an organization says, "Hey, we are playing around with the data we have at hand, and what we can do with that-" Mm-hmm how we can, for example, understand our users, our consumers, our clients a little bit better. Mm-hmm. Because we've been collecting data for a long time now.

Brooke

Yes.

Antonio

And a lot of organizations have chief data scientist and chief information officers. We've been looking at, you know, how do we organize our Now, when we move towards more of the advanced segments, such as, understanding how we can do drug discovery, how we can,, integrate AI into the products and services we have, we are still very early stages. uh, Things like, personalized support and service where AI is kind of the first responder to certain questions and- Mm-hmm and concerns of the consumer is very exciting. I see a lot of companies doing that because it's very advanced. That's kind of natural language processing, for example.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Antonio

But when it comes to more application of AI in longevity, discovery, then we are still very early stages.

Brooke

And what about yourself and, and trends you've seen within your workplace? I'm curious, what major changes do you think we'll see specifically with health and wellness a year from now?

Antonio

So I'm a little biased because I'm Swiss American, so Switzerland exports and develops a lot of scientific, products and services, especially in the AI space, but also in life sciences, you know, things like longevity, treatments, pharmaceuticals. So Switzerland is really a leader in that. I think one of the trends I'm very excited about is once we move beyond the basic applications of AI right now- Mm-hmm which is more in the large language model space- Yes we are going to get to a space where we are using AI agents and agentic AI much more fluently. I don't think it will happen in the next year or so. It will still take, um, let's say three to five years, where across the board we will see agents engaging, interacting with humans-

Brooke

Mm-hmm

Antonio

and really automating certain things which are currently causing a lot of friction and a lot of stress.

Brooke

Mm.

Antonio

Because we don't really need that. And that's what I'm very excited about because I truly believe, um, we will have... each one of us will have their own personalized agents trying to figure out stuff for us, making our life easier- Getting rid of a lot of friction we see today in, let's say, booking experiences- Mm-hmm or finding the right treatments. And that will really be something which will be transformational for humanity.

Brooke

Absolutely. Since you're probably a very early user and adapter, I would love to hear more about you and how you use AI either in work, in life, and some of the biggest benefits that you've seen.

Antonio

So one of the things obviously I do, um, and there is no secret about this, as a consultant and ex- executive advisor to individuals and companies, I use AI every day. I mean, I would waste my time and the time of my clients if I wouldn't. Yeah. But in the end of the day, you have to be very mindful of the fact that right now there is not a lot of intelligence in these systems. They are very much looking at the probability of the next word or the next pixel fitting into the overall picture than being really able to do something very innovative. So I'm very cautious and mindful about the limitations of AI today, but I'm using it every day to create content, to summarize my ideas, my thoughts. But I'm not allowing AI to basically take over what is fundamental to who we are- Mm-hmm which is the human aspect of things. So everything I do is still very personal to the way I would do it. And then I'm looking very much, uh, into how I can automate certain processes with AI. I mean, I would be foolish if I wouldn't try to automate, summarize emails which come into my inbox, hundreds of them every day, using AI, summarizing them. But I try to always keep kind of that personal touch to everything I do, uh, for myself and my clients-

Brooke

speaking of personal touch, I know that you are gonna be speaking about digital twins today. Twins and clones are such a hot topic right now. A lot of people are replicating their IP and creating agents and, and the ability to be omnipresent. You know, if you need a coach or a recommendation at 2:00 AM, you've got it. But where is that fine line of keeping it still personal and authentic and intact to just creating something that is just gonna make money for you all the time?

Antonio

So the balance will really be about what is it we want to achieve. If we wanna give 24/7 access to individuals for, you know, let's m- not maybe call it medical advice, but some general advice, conversations, and exchanges, then I think it has a place, and these digital twins are very powerful to achieve that. And I think there is a place for that because, you know, m- myself as an advisor, I cannot be 24/7 available.

Brooke

Yeah.

Antonio

And there are certain things which I say or do, which should be in, you know, generally accessible for everybody to just- Tap into.

Brooke

Yes.

Antonio

On the other side, of course, there are some more powerful personal experiences individuals are looking for. Mm-hmm. And those ones I would definitely keep more in the personal realm and the human-to-human enga- engagement.

Brooke

Yes.

Antonio

So there is the fine line and the true understanding of what is it actually people are looking for and seeking, and is it more into the pure digital play?

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Antonio

Or is it more into the human-to-human engagement?

Brooke

Antonio, my final question for you, because I love the opportunity to interview inter- guests international, I would love to hear your perspective on how Switzerland is approaching and reacting to AI. How is the, the government creating precautions? I, I'm just curious, like, what's going on in your home country, and what you see different of how America is reacting do you feel like it's more regulated, r- less regulated?

Antonio

Yeah. So Switzerland and America are actually very similar. Very, very commercially minded- Yes uh, environments and economies, so that's good. I mean, I also grew up in, in, in Germany- Mm-hmm and it's a totally different story over there. Yes. It's highly regulated. You know, in Germany they spend 10 years debating about stuff before you even have, you know, access to it to really understand what the potential is.

Brooke

Yes.

Antonio

We don't even have to go into the, um, sphere of talking about the amount of investment, you know, startups and founders get- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm in, in the traditional European places compared to the United States. Switzerland is extremely innovative. Mm-hmm. I mean, with the ETH and the university in, in, in Lausanne, you have places that export- you know, create three to five times more ventures compared to even the United States.

Brooke

Wow.

Antonio

Um, yeah, it's, it's crazy the amount of technology which comes out of the, the, the country. For 15 consecutive years, uh, Switzerland has been the most innovative country in the world.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Antonio

So I think there is a lot of pros in that space. What I love about the United States is really this ability to just try stuff. Mm-hmm. There is no fear of, you know, fail and error. People are very open-minded about trying things. Mm. Again, it all comes with its pros and cons, but I love the place I am right now in as kind of a Swiss slash American- where I can really have that innovative mindset from Switzerland- Mm-hmm but also the ability to work with extremely like-minded, business-minded people here in the United States to try things out. So it's a very fortunate place I'm in, um, and I can operate. And, and I love both environments. W- you know, I'm trying to be here in Miami in the winter- uh, over in Switzerland in the summer, uh, generally speaking, and, you know, enjoy them both.

Brooke

Well, thank you for that insight, and if listeners want to follow your work and get in contact with you, what's the best way to connect and reach out?

Antonio

Well, right now I think LinkedIn is probably the best to follow me. My Instagram is still a baby Instagram. It's, uh, growing, but LinkedIn is probably the best. Antonio Vasaiely, um, if you look me up, you will find me. And, I will be publishing more of my research and the work I'm doing and the collaboration I'm doing over the time as well. So yeah, more to come.

Brooke

Great. I'll be sure to link that in the show notes. So thank you so much for your time today, and I look forward to your talks coming up today and tomorrow.

Antonio

Thank you so much for having me, Brooke.

Brooke

Now if Antonio gave you the business and strategy layer of AI, Kunal Sood is going to bring you something else entirely. My next interview is Kunal, the founder of AudacityAI and We The Planet. He is a Forbes recognized impact entrepreneur who has organized more than 50 high-level summits at the United Nations and built public-private partnerships with organizations like NASA and Google. He was a TED Resident, and his mission is very clear, aI cannot just be about optimization. It has to be about who we are becoming while we use it. All right, let's dive into this conversation. It's about to get deep. Okay. Kunal, thank you so much for being on the podcast today.

Kunal

Thank you for having me.

Brooke

I'd love to open the floor and give listeners the opportunity to learn more about you. If you could introduce yourself, we are here today in Miami at Wellist Forum. Yeah. And we got a chance to meet here, and I got to experience you moderate some cool AI tech panels.

Kunal

Yes.

Brooke

So first, let's hear all about you.

Kunal

Oh, boy. All about me. I'll keep it very short. Um, I'm the founder of Audacity AI. Prior to this, I had two companies, WeThePlanet and WeTheFuture. Mm-hmm. My life in the world of wellbeing started in my own personal journey- Where I was working at the intersection of weight loss-

Brooke

Mm-hmm

Kunal

and wellbeing. And my dream was to create the ultimate human being, which is a mix of a doctor, a warrior, and a yogi.

Brooke

Wow.

Kunal

And that was actually in undergrad. I studied that after I gave up my fashion career as a fashion designer.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

I moved draconianly into integrative medicine and wellbeing. As a design junkie- Wow my dream was to create the world's first integrative health and wellness center in India.

Brooke

In India. Yeah. That's beautiful. Tell us a little bit more about Audacity AI.

Kunal

Wow. So Audacity AI really is a culmination of 48 years of all my life's work and journey. Mm-hmm. Um, it has a lot to do with the fact that I believe we don't really have an AI technology or resource problem right now. What we really have is a leadership problem. And I would say now even that has become secondary to the real problem, which is, you know, we talk about climate change and climate action and the global grand challenges and crisises in the world are-

Brooke

Mm-hmm

Kunal

climate change, and I feel like that's not the greatest, uh, challenge either. What is our greatest global grand challenge here and now is consciousness itself, so the inner climate, right?

Brooke

Yeah.

Kunal

And that's what I feel is most important when it comes to wellbeing. It's that ability to really attune to your inner world-

Brooke

Mm-hmm

Kunal

and have that inner transformation first allow for you to attune and be coherent with your outward life and impact.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

And, we're at Wellist, and it's an amazing forum, and I was able to be part of a few of these, panels as a speaker as well as a moderator.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

And what I see a lot of people doing is over-indexing on the ego.

Brooke

Yeah.

Kunal

You know, like, everyone's trying to outshine, outsmart, outperform.

Brooke

Right.

Kunal

Right? And this is something that I also see myself doing, so I'm not i- innocent, but I try to hold myself to a higher standard 'cause of what I do.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

But even I see myself, "Oh, how am I gonna one-up this guy-

Brooke

Mm-hmm

Kunal

so that I sound more intelligent in the room?" So- Right because of that, I feel like we're losing compassion and empathy.

Brooke

Yes.

Kunal

And that's what Audacity AI is about. It's not about the dark side of audacity. It's embracing the light of audacity, understanding what it means to be an enlightened leader.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

Starting with wellbeing- Yeah as a fundamental reason for being human in the age of AI. Mm.

Brooke

Well, I didn't feel that way at all witnessing your moderation- and interviews. The way that you led the conversation was super thoughtful. One of my favorite questions that you asked the room, which got me to really get to the human behind the, the business for each person, was what is your founder story?

Kunal

Yes.

Brooke

And I'd love to hear that about you. Like, how did you find yourself at the intersection of AI, tech, and, and wellness?

Kunal

Oh my God. Okay, so I had three distinct experiences in my life.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

One is I was really obese as a child. Right? So I was o- more than 350 pounds, and I don't even know how big I was 'cause the scale wouldn't go. Okay. Then I lost 200 pounds.

Brooke

Wow.

Kunal

And I became 150, and I became really obsessed with wellbeing.

Brooke

Yes.

Kunal

And I became super obsessed with the idea of being fit.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

Right? So that really inspired my first life. Then the second life was really inspired by the idea of integrative medicine- Mm-hmm style because I was a fashion designer. And finally, the mental health aspects of being well. So mental wellbeing to me is very important.

Brooke

Yes.

Kunal

You can be beautiful on the outside, but if you don't have that sense of peace- Mm inner peace and harmony, you're still not gonna be fully present to life itself. And then the final, uh, frontier of what I've done for the last decade, and that's how my AI cells got inspired and activated.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

I actually got into, uh, I brought TED to the United Nations, and- Wow when I curated the first TEDx at the UN-

Brooke

Mm-hmm

Kunal

it became like this almost like this supernova eve- event and moment where I was exposed to so much amazing work. And then I went to Singularity University- Mm-hmm as one of their f- you know, GSP fellows. And when I was there, I just... It was like being in a cryo chamber, like Superman- being taught all of these things I'd never heard of in my life before, like AI, nanotechnology, robotics, automation, the future of singularity. I didn't know what the singularity was.

Brooke

Right.

Kunal

And then I met Ray Kurzweil himself, Peter Diamandis, everyone, Elon Musk, you name it. Anyone and everyone just became part of that ethos, and I became a champion, right? Because I knew my superpower, and I brought, brought it back to life, which was curating and bringing some of the most amazing voices to stages like the UN, to Google, to India, to the boardroom, to small intimate dinners where we could have, you know, Chatham House Rules talks about what's the future of being human, not only in the age of AI, but just the idea of what it means to be a leader in this brave new world. And that's really where it started. That's where audacity and the vision of being an audacious founder and leader began.

Brooke

Wow, that's incredible work. It sounds like you've been in a lot of the right rooms to set you up for all the experiences that you're curating here and now. Particularly about the talks at Wellness Forum these past couple days, I'd love to hear what, what in those conversations stood out to you the most, if there's anything that you'd wanna share?

Kunal

I feel like three of... There were three talks that I loved. One was w- by Lisa Miller, who is a dear friend and New York Times selling a, a author.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

And what I loved about her is she centers you in your human

Brooke

being. Mm.

Kunal

You see, because we're born human beings, and then we spend a lifetime understanding and studying the art and science of being human.

Brooke

Yes.

Kunal

And it's not far from the experience of what we need. We just need to tune deeper into ourselves.

Brooke

Yes.

Kunal

And to me, that's something that really stood out because you can over-index on wellness, meaning... And this is- I've had this conversation with a couple of people, and it's so fascinating how they resist because their ego comes in. And I said, "Well, wellness is very important as a foundation, but don't over-index on it."

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

Cause it can become a very self-centric a path. Mm. A- and the guy was like, "To each, each his own." So I said, "Yep, that's exactly what we don't need for the future of humanity, and especially in the age of AI."

Brooke

Yes.

Kunal

We don't want to be to each his own. You were talking about this earlier on, which was so powerful- Mm-hmm,

Brooke

mm-hmm

Kunal

that it's being propagated that, oh, people can create billion-dollar companies with one person or two people.

Brooke

Yes.

Kunal

And to me, that is not the goal of being human. Mm. The goal of humanity is to learn empathy, to understand, be compassionate, to be able to be in a beautiful community. There are four pillars on which, uh, Audacity is built. Mm-hmm. The first is seva, which is service. The second is sangha, which is building a trusted and beloved community. Mm.

Brooke

The

Kunal

third is sadhana, doing the inner work so that you can transform from within to actually have a, a meaningful impact on the world out, out there. And finally, it's to find your swadharma, which is going beyond what you do every day as a job and really find your calling and align that with your deeper purpose in life.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

And that is the power of AI. It's gonna allow you to take back time.

Brooke

Yes.

Kunal

Right? And time is the one thing... Even I, I actually am not driven by money or wealth or power. Love and time drive me the most. Mm-hmm. 'Cause love is something that is very abstract but powerful, and we're all in search of it at some level in our lives, whether it's self, other, or the u- universal love we speak to.

Brooke

Yes.

Kunal

The second piece of which is time. When it comes back, it can be a devil's workshop.

Brooke

Uh-huh.

Kunal

If you don't fill it up with the right reason to be human or be in the room, it can very quickly become destructive.

Brooke

Yes

Kunal

So to me, that is something that is at the heart of wellbeing. It's to curate and cultivate that positive mindset-

Brooke

Mm

Kunal

and being able to go from mindfulness to beingfulness. Mm-hmm. And so how do we go from just, like, doing exercise after exercise to quieten your mind and be at peace, to really become peace, become love?

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

And to me, that's not abstract when it comes to ASI and AI, because it can actually guide you and track you.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

The whole point of the digital twin that we talked about yesterday.

Brooke

Yes.

Kunal

To me, the whole idea of AI, if you wanna really build powerful AI, don't do it yourself. Treat it like a child.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

Right? It needs a mother and a father. It shouldn't be the father alone.

Brooke

Right.

Kunal

And that's what I'm hoping will happen in the future of who we are and how we architect, uh, AI. It's like you ask yourself, "Who am I?"

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

But then you have to also answer the I. You remember yesterday, I said the new question, which is, "Who am AI?"

Brooke

Right.

Kunal

And that's the singularity. That's when, uh, s- AI and humanity become one.

Brooke

This was such a big topic today, how to mindfully use AI, and one of the questions I love to ask is how do we make sure we're not outsourcing our unique value to AI, um, and make sure that is what we are putting out into the world? And I'm curious how you would suggest that people really figure out what it is that their secret sauce is, and that they're not giving that to AI or h- trying to have AI replicate that. W- how do you make that distinction yourself, and how do you see others doing it well?

Kunal

It's interesting you say that because today, this morning, I feel like one of the guys really touched on the fact that AI can feed you things- Mm-hmm that make you believe you're an expert or even- m- without really understanding it, give you a lens as if you are this person-

Brooke

Mm-hmm

Kunal

when that might not be who you are.

Brooke

Right.

Kunal

The greatest regret of the dying, do you know what it is?

Brooke

Um, definitely not I w- wish I worked more.

Kunal

No, definitely not. So you read the book pos- most likely. Yeah. Yeah. So it comes from the moo- a book, uh, by Bonnie Ware, The Five Regrets of the Dying.

Brooke

Yes.

Kunal

The f- number one regret is not living a life that's true to yourself-

Brooke

Mm-hmm

Kunal

and leading one that's expected by others.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

In the age of AI, what's even worse is if you outsource your trust- Mm-hmm to AI- Mm-hmm it's gonna curate who you are, right? Wow,

Brooke

wow.

Kunal

It's gonna literally start to in- d- design and engineer who you are, 'cause you believe this technology is omnipotent.

Brooke

Mm.

Kunal

So we can become omnipotently more powerful and still, still be like sharks that eat each other in the womb. And that's the worst thing I believe that can happen today if we don't really do the inner work, if we don't stay connected to that idea of being together- Yes which is such an important part of being human. So for me, that's the most important piece of this reality, is to be in relationship with- Mm-hmm our own human humanity, but also with each other.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

You know? And still enjoy the idea of doing meaningful things together.

Brooke

Yes.

Kunal

Right? Not just do- letting AI, you know, be the reason why we live an automated life. Then we'll end up like WALL-E.

Brooke

Oh, yeah. I love it when people reference that movie.

Kunal

No, but I'm just saying- It's so true it, it's a terrible- Yeah dystopian future of humanity- Yes 'cause everyone's, like, obese and- Yes you know, and now we've got infobesity, which is worse than obesity. I think with AI they're just dumping data in. Uh, there's no filtration process.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

And the ones who are filtering it are doing some good work, but they don't have the cash or the ability to scale like most other foundational models.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

So to me, that is gonna be a very important piece of it, you know? We shouldn't have data become obese-

Brooke

Yes

Kunal

the next pandemic, because the number one pan- pandemic in the world is obesity.

Brooke

Such an interesting point. I haven't heard that one yet. I, I wrote down so many little innuendos that came out of this conference.

Kunal

Yeah.

Brooke

That's gonna be one of them, so.

Kunal

I mean, if you think about the wellness, yeah- Yeah. The, the worst problem with wellness- Yeah even second to tobacco, is obesity. Right? And infobesity is even worse because that's the idea of not being able to process data.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

And that could be really bad for us-

Brooke

Yeah

Kunal

'cause that'll lead to cognitive erosion, right?

Brooke

Totally. Yes. A little, uh, overwhelming for our nervous system. You know- Yeah we're in an age where we're, like they mentioned today, are the most knowledgeable generation. We are, have so much access to data and information, but at what point is it too overstimulating and overwhelming and we need to just return back to ourselves?

Kunal

Exactly. How do you... Yeah, how do you come home?

Brooke

Yes. For me, it's definitely more digital detoxes. Outsourcing my thoughts less. Like, do I really need a sounding board to this, or do I need to just kind of go deeper into... I still find those moments of going for walks, Taking a shower, going to the gym is when I have most clarity 'cause it's like I disconnect and can go back to my body. So one final question I'd, like for you just for this, mini interview, because we will- Yeah for sure have a full extended- I would love that conversation forward.

Kunal

And you're gonna be in my podcast.

Brooke

Yes. We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll- we will pod swap. Love that. What is the most important thing for founders to know right now when it comes to AI, and, and any perspective you have there?

Kunal

There's one thing I know for a fact the founder needs to become a master at.

Brooke

Okay.

Kunal

Their story.

Brooke

Their story, yes.

Kunal

Because their story will become their reality. Mm-hmm. Especially in the age of AI, 'cause you are literally t- training the AI on that story.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

So make it a good story. Make it one that is massively impactful, meaningful-

Brooke

Mm-hmm

Kunal

and something that serves something larger than you- Mm-hmm yourself. You know? And I think that is gonna be the biggest and the most important thing a founder can do in the age of AI, is get their story right.

Brooke

Get your

Kunal

story right. You know? Because the rest of it is, like, blocks in a puzzle now. But to actually tell a coheren- coherent story that allows you to really rip through- Mm-hmm the noise and become signal, that's gonna be very important. Noise versus signal. There are gonna be so many people that are gonna fake it till they make it, talk about this being the next OpenAI. "We are the OpenAI of this," and- Mm-hmm "We are the Grok for this," and, "We are the," you know, "Anthropic of the future." Tune all of that out-

Brooke

Mm-hmm

Kunal

and really get cl- clued in and this wh- zone focused in-

Brooke

Yes

Kunal

draconianly focused in on getting your story right, and coherence with who you are.

Brooke

Mm.

Kunal

Right? So start with why, if you have to, but also ask yourself, "Who am I?" Mm-hmm. And the more you ask yourself, "Who am I?" you will also understand, who are we, which is you and your team.

Brooke

Yes.

Kunal

And they'll understand that. And then you can answer the greater, gr- grander question, which I pose, which is, who am AI? And then AI can be your best friend. And then the agent, agentic AI can work with you.

Brooke

Yes.

Kunal

Right? 'Cause then you become a beehive. You become a superorganism. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. That's the whole point of life itself, right? The most important thing in life is to be able to, uh, be united in action. Mm-hmm. And the one quote I really love is Margaret Mead's quote, "Never," um, "doubt the power of a small group of committed cit- citizens- Mm-hmm for th- they are the only people that can change the world." And indeed, that's the only reason anything has really changed in the world.

Brooke

That's very true. Yeah. Such beautiful final words. I always like to give the opportunity for you to share how can listeners connect and, and reach out to you and learn more about your work.

Kunal

Oh, yeah. So kunalsood.ai is my, handle on Instagram. And then of course you can reach out to me, on email, which is kunal@audacityai.com. Yeah, th- those are the two best ways to reach me in the public domain. You of course have my direct line, so you can reach out to me anytime. And also the infinity loop between agentic AI and human AI.

Brooke

Mm-hmm.

Kunal

You know, the human-centered force of AI is something I'm very, very committed to. Mm-hmm. And I believe that that will be best architected by women being front and leaders-

Brooke

Wow

Kunal

just like the men. So that's what I believe is the most important thing, is that we lead together.

Brooke

Yes.

Kunal

Yeah.

Brooke

This is why I love amplifying as many female voices as I can- Me

Kunal

too

Brooke

along the way too. Me too. So thank you so much for that beautiful share. Thank you. I really enjoyed our conversation. Me too. And we can't wait for the next one.

Kunal

All right. Thank you.

Brooke

Thank you so much. That wraps up this very special bonus episode of Wellist Week and my coverage of the inaugural season in Miami. There are some real changes coming to the show for season two, and I genuinely cannot wait to share them with you. If you are not already subscribed, do that now so you don't miss anything. And if this episode sparked something in you, share it with a founder, a creator, Or someone you know who is trying to figure out where they fit in all of this AI landscape. Thank you for joining How I AI. I'll talk to you soon. take care. If you're tuning into this podcast, you're most likely an AI advocate, and you may have also wondered how to support your body against the invisible stress of EMFs. Think wifi, cell towers, or hours in front of your laptop. Leela Quantum products are lab tested in triple blind studies and are proven to help harmonize and neutralize EMF signals. Their products are the few things I felt a real energetic shift from. I personally wear their quantum energy necklace daily. And if you're someone who cares about optimizing your energy and nervous system like I do, explore their offers with my exclusive discount link below. Have you just started exploring AI and feel a bit overwhelmed? Don't worry, I've got you. Jump on a quick start call with me so you can walk away with a clear and personalized plan to move forward with more confidence and ease. Join my community of AI adopters like yourself. Plus, grab my free resources, including the AI Get Started Guide. Or try my How I AI companion GPT. It pulls insights from my guest interviews along with global reports, so you can stay ahead of the curve. Follow the link in the description below to get started.

Head Shot

Brooke Gramer

Host