Tokens & Tactics #10: AI as Cultural Translator and Conversation Partner
Jeremy Utley on using AI for cross-cultural business deals, role-playing difficult conversations, and why AI will only perform to your expectations.
Welcome back to Tokens & Tactics, our Tuesday series about how people are actually using AI at work.
Each week, we feature one person and their real-world workflow—what tools they use, what they’re building, and what’s working right now. No hype. No vague predictions. Just practical details from the front lines. This week: Jeremy Utley.
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Tell us about yourself.
As a professor, author, and podcaster, I think most people think I’m a professional nerd. This is a perfectly legit characterization. All you need to know about “me and AI” is that I published a book on innovation ONE MONTH before ChatGPT dropped… so yeah… decided to strap myself back into the front row of the classroom as a student.
ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude?
ChatGPT by default because 1) advance voice mode (I do love Claude but hate pulling over to read its responses to my voice prompts) and 2) sharability of assistants (so silly that Gems can’t be shared)
What was your last SFW AI conversation?
I enlisted o3 as a cross-cultural business communication attaché. Nailing down a deal with a Japanese company and wanted to run all of my naturally casual Bay Area English through a properly respectful, deferential, etc, “cultural translator.” Did a great job. Closed the deal.
The other fun one was actually script writing. I’ve been working with a legendary researcher to develop a new course at Stanford. He’s got a remarkable body of work that I wanted to weave into our production plan & filming script. Working with o3 made the research, synthesis, and script-writing process ~100x easier for me to go from crafting a first pass for feedback, all the way through filming the course.
First "aha!" moment with AI?
Ugh. Wow. Probably the first time was, after having a course design meeting on campus, I had a 40-min drive home but didn’t want to lose momentum on synthesizing, next steps, etc
Instead of waiting till I got home and got mobbed by kids—(human who loves em-dash btw no joke) only to clear all my short term memory and delay a proper follow up to the team in the process—I had a real time riff and reflect with ChatGPT that not only captured the energy of the session, but also meaningfully advanced some of my thinking, and documented it in a way I could share with the team. Made me feel like a superhero.
Your AI subscriptions and rough monthly spend?
(Honestly at this point I don’t even know)
Who do you read/listen to to stay current on AI?
A couple of VERY vibrant WhatsApp chats are my primary source of intel, honestly. Mostly big ones, then a couple small group chats with “Head of AI” type folks.
Every… sometimes (funny contrast. Should have said I don’t always read every or something witty… catch that in post)
Beyond the Prompt (yes, I listen to my own podcast. IMO it takes so much bandwidth to stay present in the convo I’m hardly able to grok much. So I always re-listen and always re-gain valuable insights.)
I subscribe to a bunch of newsletters that mostly gather e-dust the way my Economist subscription did during business school.
Your most-used GPT/Project/Gem?
Project trained on my voice for the newsletter. Takes my verbal vomit (a critical part of my thought process), refines it, tells me what needs work/ is interesting/ etc, grades itself as my chief brand officer, etc etc - leverage this weekly.
Tough conversation profiler - helps craft a profile of a person to give to an AI to role play as the counterpart in a difficult conversation. This actually inspired an essay I was fortunate to have published in WSJ!
If you’ve never worked with AI to role play a difficult conversation, I’d highly recommend doing so. It’s probably the second- or third-most referenced “drill” in my 2-week AI Bootcamp (self-paced, email-based) course.
The AI task that would've seemed like magic two years ago but now feels routine?
I mean… instantly re-casting videos as Japanese speaking innovation expert, AND Spanish speaking innovation expert, and Mandarin, and Hindi, and Hebrew… that’s pretty nuts for somebody who’s interacting with global audiences.
Also creating your own bespoke app in Replit is nuts (oh yeah, forgot about my Replit subscription above!!)
Magic wand feature request?
I mean, for me, if Claude would go full "Advanced Voice Mode" that would be incredible....
If you could only invest in one company to ride the AI wave, who would it be?
Maybe SSI or something niche and left field like that? (I’m still recovering from my finance degree so I try not to think about investing)
Have you tried full self-driving yet?
YES. So great it’s almost convinced me a Tesla will be my next car purchase, whenever that day comes…
Latest AI rabbit hole?
Probably prepping for an interview with Wade Foster, CEO of Zapier, just to understand their journey deeply enough to ask smart questions. I know that’s not exactly what you’re asking… I also commissioned 4x deep researches across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Grok to prep for a family trip to Scotland
One piece of advice for folks wanting to get deeper into AI?
Start with something that matters to you personally. Like a really tough emotional decision.
Also the general warning that AI will perform to your expectations. If you don’t expect much, you won’t get much. And the danger is if you secretly WISH to not get much, your wrong beliefs about the (not-) limitations of AI will be validated… and you’ll only have yourself to blame.
Who do you want to read a Tokens & Tactics interview from?
I think my buddy Nicholas Thorne is pretty darn sharp. He builds mostly in secret, and I’d love to see his wisdom reach the cold light of day.
If you have any questions, please be in touch. If you are interested in sponsoring BRXND NYC, reach out, and we’ll send you the details.
Thanks for reading,
Noah and Claire