After the Demo

Recorded October 12, 2026. References to recent news in the recording reflect that date. Sponsor details were checked on November 6, 2026.

John Arndt and Kate rewrite a cold sales email and ask what survives when a buyer’s AI assistant summarizes it. They also discuss G2’s July buyer survey and Microsoft’s announced external-recipient limits for new and trial Exchange Online tenants.

Sponsor: Intakra watches public sources for the companies a sales team follows and sends dated findings with links. Starter costs $199 a month for 300 companies. The 14-day trial covers 150 companies and requires a card at the end of setup, with no charge during the trial.

Recorded October 12, 2026; published November 3, 2026. Relative dates and news references in the recording refer to the recording period. MentionedOn product details below were checked on publication day. Personal AI agents are starting to cancel forgotten subscriptions, talk phone bills down and check out for people. John Arndt and Kate go through the money agents are already clawing back, which businesses quietly lose when customers stop forgetting, and why Shopify opened its checkout to agents while Amazon blocked one. You'll leave with the two paths to test on your own website this week: the way in and the way out.

**Sponsor:** This episode is sponsored by Mentioned On (mentioned-on.com). Mentioned On tracks what AI assistants say when people ask for the best business near them, and whether yours is in the answer. It's built for local service businesses and hospitality, from plumbers and dentists to inns, restaurants and wineries. The instant scan is free and requires no signup, the Agent Ready Checker is free too, and Local monitoring is $99/month for one business.

Alex Vacca says his prospecting bot found 21 buying signals on 11 companies for under ten cents, and AI model prices just fell again. John Arndt and Kate take the bot apart: the plain filter that did the real work, why cheap per check can still mean a surprise bill per month, and who has to check what it finds. Then they argue about when a sales team should build its own instead of paying for one, and Kate wins.

**Sponsor:** This episode is sponsored by Intakra (intakra.com). Intakra checks most public sources daily for the companies a B2B sales team sells to, and emails a few heads-ups a week with the dated proof and links. It's built for a salesperson or small team with roughly 100 to 2,500 target companies. Every plan has every feature, plans start at $199 a month for 300 accounts, and the 14-day trial covers 150 accounts; a card is required at signup, with no charge until day 14.

Google is testing its own AI summary on some business listings, has put the full list of reviews on Maps behind a sign-in, and is pausing new reviews on some profiles after it detects a spike in spam reviews. John Arndt and Kate look at what we actually know about where that paragraph comes from, argue about opting out of Google's AI features, and talk John out of a review push. Then they get to the fifteen-minute check to do this week: search your own business on your phone, signed out, and read what a stranger reads.

**Sponsor:** This episode is sponsored by Mentioned On (mentioned-on.com). Mentioned On tracks what AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok and Copilot), plus Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode on paid scans, say when people ask for the best business near them, and whether your business is in those answers. It's built for local service and hospitality businesses, and it keeps each answer's text with its capture date so a change over time is something you can check. The instant scan is free and needs no signup (it asks the six chat assistants and doesn't include Google's AI Overviews or AI Mode); paid monitoring starts with Local at $99/month for one business.

Salesforce, Apollo and Gong all announced AI agents for sales teams this fall, and the pitch is the same everywhere: it finds the leads and writes the emails. John Arndt and Kate get into how much a person should read before one of these tools sends anything in your company's name, why "a human approves every step" is already on a countdown at one vendor, and what one company says it found when it sent a lot more (replies didn't keep up). Kate wins the big argument, John owns up to a zero-dollar checkout he caught by buying from himself, and you leave with a fifty-email check to run this week.

**Sponsor:** This episode is sponsored by Intakra (intakra.com). Intakra watches public sources (job posts, SEC filings, government contracts, layoff notices and company websites) for the companies a B2B sales team sells to, and when one of them starts a project the team could help with, it emails the team the proof, with dates and links, and what it usually means. It's low volume on purpose: a few heads-ups a week, not a feed. Trial: 14 days on 150 accounts, no card needed; plans start at USD 199 per month for 300 accounts.

ChatGPT now sells ads a local business can buy itself, and Google is testing ads inside AI Mode. John Arndt and Kate sort out what those ads actually buy (OpenAI says the ads don't influence the answers, so you're paying for a labeled spot next to them), who sees them, and whether a coupon belongs inside an AI answer (Kate wins that one). John tells the story of the August database bill that taught him to put a ceiling on anything automatic, and you'll leave with one check to do before you spend a dollar and a test you can run with a hard cap and a stop date.

**Sponsor:** This episode is sponsored by Mentioned On (mentioned-on.com). Mentioned On tracks whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok and Copilot recommend your business when people ask for the best one near them, which competitors win those answers, and how that changes over time. It's built for any business that relies on being found, from service businesses to hospitality and professional practices. The instant scan is free with no signup, and paid monitoring starts at $99/month for one business.

In one outplacement firm's count of announced U.S. job cuts, AI is the reason companies have cited most this year, and California signed a law at the end of September that will make some employers say so on the layoff notice. John Arndt and Kate check a viral "forty percent of all jobs" headline against the actual count, read one company's layoff memo two ways, and walk through what California's notice will have to say and who it covers. Then the real fight: when a company you sell to posts a layoff, should your sales team email them? Kate wins that one, and they try to name one new job AI is supposed to create.

**Sponsor:** This episode is sponsored by Intakra (intakra.com). Intakra watches public sources for the companies a B2B sales team sells to (job posts, SEC filings, government contracts, state layoff notices and company websites) and emails the team the proof when one of them starts a project it could help with. It works with companies, not people, and it's low volume on purpose: a few heads-ups a week, not a feed. Plans start at USD 199 per month for 300 accounts, and there's a 14-day trial on 150 accounts, no card needed.

Nothing in this episode is legal advice. For questions about your own notices, talk to your lawyer.

Personal AI agents have started phoning businesses to book appointments for people, and since October 1 Google charges Local Services Ads advertisers for some calls nobody answered. John Arndt and Kate work out whether that caller is a customer, what a missed call now costs, which calls a bot should take and which need a person, and how a phone line can go quiet without anyone noticing. Then they land on the one test call to make this week.

**Sponsor:** This episode is sponsored by Mentioned On (mentioned-on.com). Mentioned On tracks what ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok and Copilot, plus Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, say when people ask for the best business near them, and whether yours is in the answer. It's built for local service businesses, from plumbers and HVAC companies to dentists and law firms, and for hospitality businesses like hotels, inns and restaurants. The instant scan of the six chat assistants is free with no signup, the Agent Ready Checker is free and reads your public pages to see whether personal AI agents like Meta Muse, OpenAI Dots and Siri could call, email or book you, and paid monitoring starts at $99/month for one business.

Your customers are already asking AI assistants which business to call, and your web analytics can't see most of it. John Arndt and Kate walk through who's asking, why your dashboard says zero, what the assistants actually say about local businesses and credit unions, and the ten-minute check to run this week.