AI promises speed and leverage, but trust is still the missing piece.

In this episode of The Unexpected Lever, Jarod Greene is joined by Bill Balnave, Head of Customer Success at Mezmo. Bill has led post-sale, solutions, and customer teams through real AI adoption under real constraints.

Bill shares how necessity forced action, why trust slows teams down, and how leaders should rethink AI as part of their workforce.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why trust breaks AI adoption – Teams hesitate when answers feel unproven
• Where AI creates leverage – Speed comes from removing manual context switching
• Why ownership matters for agents – Unclear roles lead to noise instead of impact

Things to listen for:
(00:00) Introduction
(00:55) How Mezmo helps teams make sense of data

(01:43) The most unexpected ways Bill uses AI

(02:27) What pushed AI from interest to action

(04:52) Why teams struggle to trust AI answers

(09:49) Rethinking AI agents as part of the team

(13:59) The risk of delaying AI adoption