Drive by AI with Jon Wellman

This episode is a little different. I joined Peter Worn from Finura Group on the WealthTech Insider podcast to talk about what happens when AI-built software meets the standards of regulated industries.

We start with a security review we recently ran on vibe-coded software.

Forty issues. One allowed a user to give themselves admin access with almost no effort.

The software worked. It looked fine. But working and being safe enough to rely on are two very different things.

From there, we get into what reliability actually requires. Nine times out of ten sounds pretty good, until you're the one time it fails.

I explain how we separate deterministic code from AI, and why most systems we build still rely on strict, predictable workflows. AI can handle specific tasks inside the system, but it doesn't need to run the show.

We also get into the tools we're actually using, including Claude Design, which has earned a permanent place in my stack.

For anyone building software where mistakes cost real money, this one's worth a listen.

Thanks for listening to Drive by AI.

For more practical conversations on AI, technology and business, connect with Jon Wellman on LinkedIn and follow Vokke Software for the latest episodes and insights.

New episodes of Drive by AI dropping regularly.

AI is breaking the old build vs buy decision in software.

Before AI, companies had two clear options: build an internal team or bring in a firm like ours to build and maintain it.

Now there's a third option. Build it yourself with AI.

The problem is there's still a big gap between what someone can prompt into existence and what a business can actually rely on.

In this episode, I unpack what that gap looks like in practice. We get into vibe coding, why we're being pulled into more audits and reviews of AI-built software, and how we're adapting our own model rather than pretending the shift isn't happening.

I also get into where AI has actually moved the needle for us over the past year. Because despite the headlines, we haven't seen the "10x productivity" story everyone keeps talking about.

Software development is being automated early. I don't think that's an accident.

If you work in any professional service, it's worth paying attention to what's happening here before it reaches your industry.

Thanks for listening to Drive by AI.

For more practical conversations on AI, technology and business, connect with Jon Wellman on LinkedIn and follow Vokke Software for the latest episodes and insights.

New episodes of Drive by AI dropping regularly.

New format this week. No pub, just a straight chat with Milo Srdic from Mutexer.

Milo spent 10 years in industrial automation, starting at Omron building IoT technology for factories. The technology never quite fit the industry, so he built Mutexer to solve the problem differently.

Mutexer separates hardware from software. Traditional players like Siemens and Rockwell lock customers into their hardware. Mutexer lets manufacturers choose their hardware while running mission-critical software on top.

From there, we get into why manufacturing often runs 15 to 20 years behind other industries. Machinery lasts decades, downtime costs real money, and change happens slowly for good reason.

That same caution shapes how manufacturers approach AI. We talk about the risks of loose prompting, why isolated deployments matter in regulated environments, and what happens when getting it wrong isn't an option.

When you can't afford to be wrong, predictability wins over speed.

If you build technology for industries that can't move fast, this one's for you.

Thanks for listening to Drive by AI.

For more practical conversations on AI, technology and business, connect with Jon Wellman on LinkedIn and follow Vokke Software for the latest episodes and insights.

New episodes of Drive by AI dropping regularly.

Here’s a tension I see in a lot of businesses right now - Execs want AI to do more of the work.

But the people who actually understand the processes well enough to automate them are often the same people worried that doing it well might automate themselves out of a job.

And honestly, I understand both sides.

In this episode of Drive by AI, I unpack how I’m thinking about this as a founder and through the conversations I’m having internally with our own team at Vokke.

I cover:

• Why dragging your feet on AI adoption is probably the riskiest response
• The shift from “process worker” to “problem solver”
• How the people who lean in now will likely become more valuable, not less
• Which roles I think are naturally more protected
• What humans still consistently outperform AI at
• Why trust, judgment, communication and customer proximity matter more than ever

I also talk through the reality that AI is absolutely going to change the shape of work, but that doesn’t automatically mean humans become irrelevant.

The people closest to customers, closest to revenue, and closest to real-world decision making still matter enormously.

This one’s less about tools and more about mindset.

If your role, career, or industry feels uncertain right now, this episode might help frame the conversation differently.

Thanks for listening to Drive by AI.

For more practical conversations on AI, technology and business, connect with Jon Wellman on LinkedIn and follow Vokke Software for the latest episodes and insights.

New episodes of Drive by AI dropping regularly.

This is the first time I've sat down with someone for Drive by AI, and it's a good one. I'm in the studio with Ange Kallinikos, founder of AussieTel Technologies, who's been deep in conversational AI for the past few years.

We talk about the customer experience side of AI that doesn't get enough airtime, why some people love AI answering the phone and others reject it on instinct. 

I share a story about a cafe that nailed the experience so well I didn't realise I was talking to a bot until they told me. And we get into what business owners are getting wrong when they think about AI as a replacement for staff instead of a way to free them up.

We also dig into the identity crisis hitting software developers, the difference between process workers and problem solvers, and why every "10x productivity" claim on LinkedIn misses how a business actually works. Speed up one step and the bottleneck just moves somewhere else.

This is for founders and operators trying to cut through the AI hype and figure out what's real. Thanks for tuning in.

Thanks for listening to Drive by AI.

For more practical conversations on AI, technology and business, connect with Jon Wellman on LinkedIn and follow Vokke Software for the latest episodes and insights.

New episodes of Drive by AI dropping regularly.

Recorded on the way to work, Episode 2.

Everyone's chasing AI agents and autonomous workflows right now. 

OpenClaude, agentic this, agentic that. Cool to play with, not ready for serious businesses.

In this episode, I break down a much more practical framework for AI adoption in your business. Three clear levels, in the right order, so you stop jumping between random tools and actually build something that lifts productivity across the whole team.

I cover why most teams skip the basics and pay for it later, the real difference between free and paid AI tools, how local file integration with tools like Claude Code and Claude Cowork changes the way you work, and when agentic workflows genuinely make sense. I also share a client example where we automated thousands of purchase orders for 5-10x cost savings versus doing it manually.

Built for founders, operators, and exec teams running real businesses, not startup demos.

This is Drive by AI with Jon Wellman.

Thanks for listening to Drive by AI.

For more practical conversations on AI, technology and business, connect with Jon Wellman on LinkedIn and follow Vokke Software for the latest episodes and insights.

New episodes of Drive by AI dropping regularly.

Welcome to Drive by AI. This is my first attempt at recording a podcast on the morning commute, so expect some background noise.

I've been pretty critical of AI hype for the last year, and most of the 10x productivity claims still don't stack up. But something genuinely shifted recently. The models got smarter. Coding agents like Claude Code matured. The work coming out actually holds up to our standards at Vokke now.

In this episode, I cover:

• What changed with AI in software development
• Why I'm still not buying every productivity claim on LinkedIn
• How AI is reshaping work for regulated industries like finance, defence, and healthcare
• Why software is the canary in the coal mine for every other knowledge industry
• Why human review still matters when adopting AI in your business

Honest take from a founder who builds high-assurance AI systems for serious operators. 

If you're listening, let me know if the format works.

Thanks for listening to Drive by AI.

For more practical conversations on AI, technology and business, connect with Jon Wellman on LinkedIn and follow Vokke Software for the latest episodes and insights.

New episodes of Drive by AI dropping regularly.