Automate the 80%. Keep the 20% That Makes It Yours.

About this episode

What if the biggest barrier to AI adoption isn't the technology, it's trust? Cien Solon has been on both sides. As a product leader in fintech, she built AI-powered decisioning systems for fraud, credit, and onboarding that served 7 million customers. Now, as CEO of LaunchLemonade.app, she's building a platform where anyone can launch an AI agent business. In this conversation, she breaks down what happened when her team hyper-automated everything, why you should always do it manually first, and her vision for a future where you're not going to be an employee, you're going to be a business.

Key takeaways

1. AI was already changing work before ChatGPT. In 2018, Cien's team built a chatbot that improved customer service resolution rates by 20% overnight.
2. When AI took over 80% of her tasks, she didn't stop working. She started building. Kitchen hackathons led to Launch Lemonade.
3. Hyper-automation works for reach but costs you clarity. The fix: scale back to 80% automation, 20% human.
4. Do it manually first, figure out what good looks like, then automate. You need a repeatable workflow before you can scale it.
5. The three barriers to AI adoption are trust, price, and risk. All three are manageable once you understand them.
6. Start with a problem you're curious about. Build a solution, use it yourself, then find others with the same problem.
7. You're not going to be an employee. You're going to be a business. And you're going to need AI employees that make money for you.

Chapters

• 00:00Introduction to Cien Solon
• 00:43Welcome and the Automate Yourself Philosophy
• 01:34From Digital Transformation to Fintech Product Leadership
• 03:11When AI First Changed the Game: The 2018 Chatbot
• 05:05When ChatGPT Hit: Kitchen Hackathons and Building Mode
• 07:21First Thing She Automated: Epics and User Stories
• 08:38"I'm Going to Be Out of My Job" and What Came Next
• 10:09The Hyper-Automation Mistake
• 12:30Playbooks First, Automation Second
• 13:04Three Obstacles to AI Adoption: Trust, Price, and Risk
• 16:09Security Risks, Prompt Injections, and Mitigation
• 17:53Advice for Getting Started
• 19:30What Launch Lemonade Is Building
• 20:26"You're Not Going to Be an Employee. You're Going to Be a Business."

Notable quotes

• "You're not going to be an employee. You're going to be a business. And you're going to need AI employees that'll make money for you."
• "These things are so cheap and there's so much potential here. How can I solve something big?"
• "We kind of skipped the 'let's understand what good is' part."
• "Do things manually first, figure out what is good, and then scale that."
• "Instead of going on it in the traditional way of validating ICP, looking at the market, we thought let's just build something and then let's see if people buy. And then people bought and that was it."