Enterprise AI Adoption: A public company CEO on what AI adoptions actually takes.

In this candid conversation, EverQuote CEO Jayme Mendel walks through the real journey of AI adoption in a public company - from the initial ChatGPT moment through two years of experimentation to achieving 30-40% efficiency gains in software development.

Unlike the hype-filled narratives dominating AI discussions, this is a practitioner's view of what actually works: starting with coding tools where ROI is clear, building organizational competency through hackathons and cultural change, navigating governance challenges, and carefully timing company-wide mandates.

The discussion reveals critical insights for both enterprises and AI vendors. Jayme explains why premature AI pushes backfire, how data sharing requirements create two-speed adoption paths (product-led vs sales-led), and why the penalty for being a laggard is now so high that the traditional "fast follower" strategy no longer works. With foundation models improving weekly and delivering "free R&D," companies not already building AI muscle are falling significantly behind.

Looking ahead, Jayme envisions the same headcount becoming 5-10x more productive by 2030, though he remains healthily skeptical about AI handling truly nuanced strategic work. The conversation ends with a bet: Will we see the rise of 100x leaders with armies of agents handling conceptual planning and execution, or will human judgment remain essential for ambiguous leadership decisions? Either way, the organizational change management challenge - not the technology itself - is proving to be the defining factor in who wins and who gets disrupted in the AI era.