Taking Control of Your AI's Memory

AI Moment Podcast Episode 26

Ever feel like your AI has a case of amnesia after an update? On this episode of The AI Moment, my co-host Jonathan Wagstaffe and I explored why AI models forget what you've taught them and, crucially, what you can do to fix it.

We discussed the technical reason, known as "catastrophic forgetting," where updates essentially overwrite old data. But understanding the 'why' is only half the battle. The real value comes from taking proactive steps to manage the AI's knowledge base, as you simply cannot rely on its memory to persist between versions.

Here are the key actions we recommend to stop the frustration and get consistent results:

1. Create Your Own AI 'Brain': The most powerful action you can take is to build an external knowledge base. Once you have briefed an AI on your business, a project, or a specific product, get it to summarise its understanding. Copy this information, save it as a PDF, and you have created a portable 'memory' for your AI.

2. Reload and Go: Before you start a new project or conversation, simply upload this PDF. This gives the model all the crucial context it needs right from the start. It's a simple habit that completely bypasses the model’s unreliable memory and ensures you get relevant, accurate outputs every time.

3. Let the AI Interview You: To make building your knowledge base even easier, turn the tables. Start a session by asking the AI to interview you about your topic. Prompt it to keep asking questions until it has a comprehensive understanding. That detailed conversation becomes your master document to save and reuse.

By taking these steps, you put yourself in control. Stop letting AI updates reset your progress and start building a reliable system that works for you.

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AI Sheep Vs AI Lions Podcast Show Notes 

AI Moment Podcast 25 

In this week's mailbag episode, Jonathan and I dive into a question that's on many leaders' minds:

How do we stop low-quality AI work from creeping into our teams' output?

It’s a challenge I’m seeing more frequently – team members using AI to simply tick a box, rather than to elevate their work, which can lead to a noticeable dip in quality.

We had a great chat about shifting this dynamic. A key idea we explored was Jonathan's concept of 'AI Sheep' versus 'AI Lions'. Are we passively accepting what AI gives us, or are we actively using it to challenge our ideas and become better at what we do?

Our discussion centred on practical steps to encourage the 'lion' mindset. We believe it starts with creating a solid framework. This includes developing an AI manifesto with clear guardrails, establishing an AI style guide with best-practice examples, and building a library of high-quality prompts for common tasks. It's not about policing AI use, but about setting a clear standard for excellence.

We also touched on a simple yet powerful habit: the 'two Vs' – always validate the output and verify the sources. 

This builds a crucial layer of accountability.

Ultimately, our core takeaway was this: you own your output. No matter what tools you use, the work that leaves your desk is a reflection of you. It’s about taking pride in what you produce and always being the essential "human in the loop." We need to foster a culture where AI is seen as a collaborator that helps us think deeper and produce better work, not a shortcut that compromises quality.

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Welcome back to The AI Moment! I’m Danny Denhard, and this week, Jonathan (Wagstaffe) and I dived deep into a topic that's currently transforming every business: AI in Sales.

I must admit, I was surprised to hear from Jonathan that so many salespeople are still only using AI for simple email creation. There is so much powerful, low-hanging fruit they’re missing out on! 

This episode is all about revealing those immediate wins that can drastically cut admin time and instantly boost your sales performance.

What we cover in this bite-sized episode:

• Smarter Prospecting, Not Harder: Jonathan shares how you can use AI to analyse your past 50 client wins, spot key patterns, and automatically build lists of new, high-value prospects. Stop manual guesswork and start finding more people 'just like that'.
• The Ultimate Call Prep: We discuss how to dump all your customer communications, notes, and website links into an AI tool to instantly generate a structured call plan. This means you go into every meeting with an identified value proposition and a list of predicted objections already prepared.
• Be Present: AI Coaching and Review: For me, this is a game-changer. We explain how recording your Zoom or Teams calls can provide you with more than just a summary. You can ask the AI to coach you—telling you if you talked too much or missed crucial questions. It's objective, data-driven sales coaching at your fingertips.
• Ending CRM Pain: Every sales professional hates filling in the CRM. I certainly do! We show you how AI can entirely automate this, extracting essential data points (deal stage, next steps, monetary amount) from your meeting notes and populating your CRM for you.

Crucial Guardrails: We wrap up by stressing the critical importance of a 'sanity check'. While AI is powerful, we are the ones who own the data, and we must always verify outputs and be meticulous about the security of any sensitive customer information.

If you want your sales team operating at the top level, this is a must-listen. Stop doing the donkey work and focus on what matters—selling!

Links and Resources:

• Tools Mentioned: LinkedIn, HubSpot, Zoom, Teams, CRM systems.
• Check out all our insights and 

We have a supporting newsletter for every podcast breaking down the subject further and providing invaluable insights and screenshots for tools and tips we provide  go over to  aimoment.co.uk and hit subscribe.

You can message there or email [email protected]  

Thanks for listening

Danny Denhard

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IoD AI Governance Report: Stop the Shadow Adoption!

Hi and thanks for listening, it’s Danny here and on this week's AI Moment, Jonathan and I are tackling a seriously important document: the IoD Governance in the Boardroom AI Report. 

The episode is a little denser than usual, so it is worth subscribing to our newsletter (we send out a newsletter with every pod) where we dived a little deeper and shared an executive briefing.

The Full Report Is Available Here https://www.iod.com/app/uploads/2025/06/IoD-AI-Governance-in-the-Boardroom-1-7f341cd46a780f216ad68d88d4cddc8f.pdf   or on our newsletter

https://aimomentpodcast.substack.com/

It might sound a bit heavy, but this 34-page guide, released in September, is essential reading for every UK business leader. We’ve broken down the key warnings and opportunities into simple, bite-sized chunks.

The core message I took away is that adoption is running ahead of governance. We see individuals and teams adopting powerful tools like Gemini and ChatGPT—what we call ‘Shadow AI’—without the necessary strategic oversight. The IoD report makes it clear: if you want to scale AI safely, you must get a handle on this now. (For a deeper dive, check out our previous episodes on Shadow AI and our AI Manifesto—links below!).

We also discussed the regulatory complexity facing UK firms. Since we don't have a single, unified AI Act, businesses must navigate dual compliance between UK regulators and the risk-based EU AI Act. If your data or cloud systems (like Salesforce) touch the EU, you need a proactive strategy to avoid falling foul of both.

For me, the key to trust lies in the data. The report stresses the 'Holy Trinity': lineage, quality, and permissions. If you can't prove where your data came from, you simply shouldn't be running the experiment. This isn't just an IT problem; it's an enterprise-wide initiative that requires the board's full attention.

Finally, we noted the new ISO 42001 standard for AI management. I know, another standard, but it provides the essential framework for risk assessment and control.

We’ve put a direct link to the IoD report below, and I plan to use NotebookLM to create an executive briefing to save you the 34-page read! Thanks for listening, and don't forget to subscribe and check out our newsletter at aimoments.co.uk.

AI & Marketing Explained: Doing More With Less

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Welcome back to The AI Moment! This week, Jonathan and I (Danny Denhard) dived deep into the practical reality of how business executives are actually using AI right now to transform their marketing departments. 

The major takeaway for me is that the line between AI and automation is dissolving. Most of your favourite tools have already bolted on AI features, and now it’s time to move beyond simple content drafting.

I ran through a quick-fire list of winning strategies I’m seeing teams implement immediately:

Content Scaling is King: Stop creating content one piece at a time. I use the "one-to-six" model myself for this very podcast: we take one recording and effortlessly spin it into multiple pieces—social clips, show notes, newsletters, and more. 

Tools like Gemini, Gamma.app, Claude and ChatGPT can take your long-form documents and instantly generate dedicated presentations, or even audio and video study guides for internal training. 

This makes content and enablement highly scalable.

The Strategic Co-Pilot: Beyond creation, AI is now an indispensable coworker. I'm seeing leaders use it as a fantastic 'stress tester'—feeding their marketing plans and ad strategies into an LLM and letting it challenge their assumptions and provide immediate, robust recommendations. This gives you a serious edge before you commit resources.

Novel Applications: We also covered some brilliant out-of-the-box uses:

• Automated Newsletters: Using Zapier and LLMs to curate industry news from RSS feeds into daily, low-effort updates like newsletters (make sure you edit and make your own content!)
• Creative Production: Large companies, like Coca-Cola, are already using 100% AI imagery for major campaigns.
• AI Assistants: Services like Lindy are being used as low-cost AI EAs/PAs to handle all meeting scheduling and room bookings entirely through email.

Jonathan added two great points: using AI to literally role-play a target customer to capture the 'voice of the customer,' and employing 'campaign hacking' to rapidly generate full campaign briefs with goals and rollout plans.

If you’re looking to push past basic usage and gain serious efficiency, this episode is essential listening.

Don't forget to subscribe to our supporting newsletter at aimoment.co.uk for a full rundown and extended notes - you can email us there or to [email protected] 

AI Moment Podcast Show Notes

Episode: The companies who are ripe for acquiring in AI - Part 3

Welcome back to the final part of Jonathan and my conversation with the brilliant Martin Spiller of Oakmere. 

This episode was a fantastic exploration of how AI is revolutionising the business landscape, especially for SMEs.

We kicked off by diving into Martin's investment strategy. It was fascinating to hear that he actively looks for companies that aren't currently using AI. 

His reasoning is simple but powerful: these are the businesses with the most to gain from a technology 'turbocharger'. He shared a brilliant anecdote about a carpentry business that only got its first internet-connected computer a few years ago – a perfect example of a ripe target for AI-driven growth.

The conversation then took a critical turn towards data security and privacy. 

Jonathan and I often discuss this, but Martin's perspective was a valuable reminder of the real-world implications.

We highlighted the risks of putting sensitive data into public LLMs like ChatGPT and the importance of understanding where your information is stored and who can access it. Martin's comparison to using Dropbox in the legal profession was particularly insightful.

A Call To Indie Hackers I also shared my thoughts on the opportunities for developers to create bespoke AI solutions for SMEs. The current lack of adoption in this sector means there’s a huge gap for tools that can address specific operational inefficiencies.

Ultimately, we agreed that AI isn't about replacing people or strategies. It's about amplifying them. 

Martin noted that AI can free up valuable time – even just a couple of hours a week – that can then be used for more strategic work. I found this to be the most compelling takeaway.

Thank you for listening again today!

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Contact us on our dedicated email for questions or asking about AI enablement or AI workshops ⁠[email protected]

Hello and welcome back to the AI Moment podcast! I'm Danny Denhard, and this week we continue part 2 and 3 of finance and AI.

As a reminder, Jonathan and I sat down with finance expert Martin Spiller to discuss AI and its impact on the finance world, particularly for SMEs.

As promised if you’d like to listen to the full 35 minute interview with Martin enjoy it here exclusively on our site https://aimomentpodcast.substack.com/p/finance-and-ai-full-episode 

In our conversation, we explored how AI can free up a significant portion of a finance professional’s time by automating routine "bean counting." 

Martin explained how this saved time can be used for more strategic work, such as analysing business data and making crucial decisions to boost profitability. We talked about how "turnover is vanity, profit is sanity" and how a deep dive into customer profitability can reveal that a small number of clients are actually losing you money. Martin gave a brilliant example from his own business where they had to cut an unprofitable client to free up resources for growth.

We also discussed the power of AI in scaling a business without having to scale the headcount. As I’ve said before, I firmly believe the opportunity for SMEs is to make your existing people more efficient, not to replace them. By integrating AI into your workflows, you can double revenue with only a small increase in staff. Martin added that this approach makes a business more efficient and resilient, and therefore, more valuable to potential buyers.

We also touched upon the tools available, mentioning QuickBooks and Xero, and how they handle AI differently. Ultimately, while AI is a powerful tool, both of us agreed that it still needs human oversight to ensure accuracy and to prevent mistakes, particularly when dealing with complex data like cash flow forecasting.

Thanks for listening today! If you have any questions, please reach out here. 

You can also subscribe to our supporting newsletter released with every podcast. 

Go to aimoment.co.uk and hit subscribe.

We share more important links, run through the tools mentioned in the podcast and more. See you next time!

Hello everyone, Danny here. Welcome back to the AI Moment podcast. This is the first part of a new three-part series where Jonathan and I delve into the fascinating world of AI and its impact on the finance industry and small to medium-sized businesses.

In this first episode, we're joined by the brilliant Martin Spiller.

Martin's a man of many talents, having qualified as both a barrister and an accountant, and with a background as a successful serial entrepreneur. His latest venture is Oakmere Partners, which focuses on helping owner-managed businesses find new avenues for growth.

During our conversation, Martin provided some incredibly valuable insights. He highlighted that many businesses are already using AI without even realising it, through tools like Xero and QuickBooks. We also discussed how AI can be a massive opportunity for businesses, not a threat, by automating the "dull stuff" and freeing up a finance team's time to focus on strategic, value-add tasks. Martin shared his perspective on how AI can be a perfect "finance friend," empowering non-finance professionals to understand their numbers better without the fear of looking stupid.

The key takeaway for me is that the future of finance is a hybrid model. It's about using AI for grunt work, such as data analysis and forecasting, while ensuring human oversight remains in place to check for errors and to provide the strategic thinking a machine simply can't.

We covered a lot of ground in this first part, and I'm really excited for you to hear what's coming up in parts two and three. So, thanks for listening today. If you have any questions or want to learn more, please reach out [email protected] or you can also subscribe to our newsletter (+ for more important links and tools mentioned in this podcast) and hit message us or reply to any newsletter aimoments.co.uk.

If you would like to listen to the full episode and not in 3 parts, we have exclusively uploaded to our site with supporting note, enjoy the full episode here

See you next time!

The AI Moment: Lazy AI & The Implications

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Episode Summary:

Thanks for listening to Jonathan (Wagstaffe) and me (Danny Denhard).

We dive into a common and frustrating issue: 'Lazy AI'.

We discuss how the unthinking, copy-and-paste use of AI-generated content for business outreach is not only ineffective but actively damaging to personal and professional brands.

Our conversation highlights the pitfalls of prioritising quantity over quality and the growing savvy of audiences who can easily spot generic, AI-driven messages.

We share real-world examples, including an amusing anecdote about a British MP using an Americanism in a speech, clearly showing the lack of human review.

The episode's core message is a plea for authenticity and a call to use AI as a smart drafting assistant, not as a lazy substitute for genuine human connection.

Key Takeaways:

• Damaging Your Brand: Discover how unedited AI outreach can actively push away potential clients and partners, making a worse impression than no contact at all.

• Quality Over Quantity: Learn why a smaller number of thoughtful, personalised messages will always outperform a bulk-sent, lazy AI campaign.

• The Human Touch: The hosts stress that AI is a tool for ideation and drafting, but the final, authentic version of any communication must be reviewed and approved by a person.

• Audience Savvy: We're all getting better at spotting AI-generated content. Find out why this means it's more important than ever to ensure your communications feel genuine.

• Smart AI in Action: Hear about companies like Intercom and Sierra that are using AI intelligently for customer support, focusing on positive, outcome-based results.

Episode Links & Mentions:

• Intercom: A company using AI to deliver high-quality customer support.

• Sierra: Bret Taylor's company, focusing on outcome-based results in customer support.

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AI Moment Podcast 17: Why Your Business Needs a Prompt Library

Thanks for listening today

In this episode, Jonathan and I (Danny Denhard) dive deep into the world of prompt libraries.

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We explain what they are, why they're essential for businesses, and whether you actually need one. We discuss how a prompt library is a brilliant way to expand the use of AI beyond simple tasks like writing emails or creating content, and how it helps departments quickly spread best practices.

We explore the many benefits, starting with how a prompt library gives team members a head start and sets a good standard for work. It effectively solves the "blank page problem," giving people a solid starting point.

We also chat about fostering healthy competition with ideas like a monthly "prompt contest" to encourage wider use and innovation with AI.

From an operational perspective, a prompt library is a smart move that can significantly reduce internal costs.

It streamlines the onboarding process for new hires, giving them immediate access to the company's quality standards and existing prompts. Think of it as a living, expanding knowledge centre that can give your business a competitive edge, especially when recruiting.

We also touch on the different ways to organise a library, such as by department, team, or even cross-functionally.

A well-structured library ensures a smooth handover when someone is away on holiday.

As a final takeaway, we agree that prompt libraries are a fantastic tool to get people up to speed with AI quickly and working together more effectively.

Key Takeaways:

• Solve the "Blank Page Problem": A prompt library provides a template to help team members get started and sets a good standard.

  
  

• Encourage Best Practices: It's a great way to spread knowledge and best practices across departments

  
  

• Reduce Costs: The library can save time and money, particularly during employee onboarding

  
  

• Boost Collaboration: It can be used to create cross-functional prompts that improve teamwork and

  
  

• Competitive Edge: It can act as a knowledge centre that attracts and retains talent.

  
  

Tools Mentioned:

• Notion

• Google Docs