AI never. AI ready. AI deployed 

Feel like the world is sprinting ahead with AI while you’re still figuring out where to start?

You’re not alone. Many leaders know AI can transform their business but they get stuck between the hype, the risks, and the practical steps.

I’m Erik Schwartz, Founder and Chief AI Officer at TheAiExpert.ai. I help ambitious leaders who are AI nevers see where AI fits in their business. We start with literacy, understanding what AI can and cannot do. Then we build a strategy and implement solutions that deliver.

What I build is:
• Grounded in execution, not theatre
• Focused on user needs, not novelty
• Measured by outcomes, not ideas

I’ve created resources to help you get started, including a free interactive AI Readiness Assessment at TheAiExpert.ai.

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⚡ Career Highlights
→ Built a billion-scale video intelligence platform at Comcast, powering more than one billion daily interactions
→ Led semantic search and AI transformation at Elsevier, accelerating global research
→ Shaped enterprise search at Microsoft, enabling smarter discovery in core products
→ Designed and launched Scopus.AI, redefining how academia finds knowledge
→ Scaled AI consulting at Tricon, unlocking measurable wins with intelligent workflows

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🛠️ What We Do at TheAiExpert.ai
We work with business leaders to identify, design, and deploy AI solutions that cut friction and create measurable value:
→ Automating compliance-heavy workflows to reduce costs and accelerate delivery
→ Deploying 24/7 conversational agents that boost leads without adding headcount
→ Building intelligent systems that streamline operations and free teams to focus on high-value work

We don’t just advise. We deliver. We get it live, get it right, and get it producing results.

⸻

📩 Let’s connect.
Send me a message or say “Let’s build” and I’ll share a link to book a call.

It has been one of those weeks where everything seems to converge.

New partners.
New projects.
A fresh cohort of vibe coders ready to rebuild how they work.

January has that quality about it.
The days still short.
Rain streaking across train windows.
Cities wrapped in scarves and steam and urgency.

And yet the energy is unmistakable.
The world feels ready to move.

While the headlines track geopolitics in Davos, something quieter and just as consequential is unfolding closer to home.

London in motion.

From the glass towers of banking halls to a crowded pub off Tottenham Court Road.
From a coffee shop buzzing with founders sketching ideas on napkins to a converted warehouse in Angel humming with prototypes and possibility.
From Paddington platforms to a rain-slicked Bristol morning, laptops opening in unison, conversations already mid-stride.

A train ride introducing AI not as a tool, but as a completely new way to work.

New cohorts learning to ship faster than they thought possible.
Businesses discovering voice, image, and video workflows that collapse weeks into days.
Leaders reframing what collaboration even means when agents sit alongside humans in the room.

What strikes me most is not the technology.

It is the tone.

Curiosity instead of fear.
Builders instead of spectators.
Communities forming in real time around the simple question: what could work look like now?

The way we design.
The way we collaborate.
The way we support one another.

All shifting beneath our feet.

Winter outside.
Momentum everywhere else.

Something is clearly changing.

And this January, on rainy platforms and crowded cafés and warehouse floors lit by laptop glow, you can feel the future quietly gathering speed.

TheAiExpert.ai

Simon Brender Shobhna S. Stephane Malka Siobhan Gallagher  Emily Gaunt Poppy Jenkins David Major Shelley Morgan Ruth Clacey-Roberts Adrian Jolly Mike Boas Clare Gillbanks Florence J. Gregor Young Sarah Baker-White Glynn Williams Gokul Raju James Engelbert Jessie Rushton Scott Weiss Shiv Khuti Adrian Raudaschl Henry Cleland Wiebke Krasting Tim Meadows-Smith Sarah Piddington Melanie Brown John M Lunn Elena C.  Jonathan Burch John Small

Erik Schwartz

Erik Schwartz is a seasoned technology executive and entrepreneur with over two decades of experience in the tech sector, specializing in search and knowledge discovery. As the CEO and Founder of Schwaa, Erik has been at the forefront of integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI into search technologies, significantly enhancing user interaction and information accessibility. His illustrious career includes key senior roles at Comcast, Elsevier, and Microsoft, where he led pioneering AI, search, and LLM initiatives.

Erik's professional journey is marked by his dedication to innovation and his belief in the power of collaboration. He has consistently driven teams towards the swift delivery of groundbreaking solutions, firmly establishing himself as a trusted leader in the technology community. His work, notably on the Scopus AI project, underscores his commitment to redefining the boundaries of how we engage with information.

In his role as a Virtual Chief AI Officer (CAIO), Erik leverages his extensive experience to develop and implement comprehensive AI strategies for small and medium businesses. His thorough process not only demystifies AI but also ensures that these businesses are equipped to succeed and thrive in the competitive landscape of AI technology. Erik is passionate about fostering growth and innovation, sharing his insights to inspire and empower organizations to harness the transformative power of AI effectively.

Philosophy and Approach:
My professional ethos revolves around continuous learning and growth. I believe in the power of collaboration and have consistently built trust within teams, accelerating the delivery of innovative solutions. My mission extends beyond creation; it's about redefining how we experience and interact with information.

Connect with Me:
I welcome connections and discussions about technology, AI, and the future of information interaction. Let's explore how we can collaborate and drive innovation together.

Fractional Chief AI Officer || AI Strategy, Literacy and Implementation || ex-Microsoft, Comcast, Elsevier || Founder & Chief AI Officer, TheAiExpert.ai

Last night in London it was cold, wet, and properly miserable.

Inside the room at #AIDinner, it felt like the future had already arrived.

We were vibe coding.
Vibe engineering.
Shipping ideas that a year ago would have sounded… indulgent.

Building products in hours.
Prototyping workflows that normally take quarters.
Watching established business leaders suddenly realise: oh… we can actually do this now.

Andrej Karpathy nailed something a few days ago when he talked about programming in English. About the centre of gravity shifting from syntax to intent. From keystrokes to imagination.

He’s right.

The code really is that good now.
The quality is that good.

The constraint has quietly moved.

It is no longer tooling.
It is no longer access.
It is no longer even engineering capacity.

It is imagination.

In that packed room, you could feel it happening in real time.

The impossible becoming probable.
The unreachable suddenly within reach.

#ClaudeCode on screens.
#Agents stitched together on the fly.
Business models being stress-tested before dessert arrived.

This is the bit most people are missing.

#AI is not just automating old workflows.

It is changing what feels reasonable to attempt.

When leaders can go from idea → working system in a single evening, ambition recalibrates. Strategy compresses. Risk profiles shift.

You stop asking,
“Can we afford to build this?”

And start asking,
“Why wouldn’t we try?”

That is what AI Dinner is really about.

Not demos for demos’ sake.
Not hype cycles.

It is about watching smart operators realise that their companies do not need to move in increments anymore.

They can move in leaps.

We are taking well-established businesses and quietly bolting rocket engines to the side.

More soon. 

Wonderful to see Duncan Gledhill Thomas Power Tim Meadows-Smith Frank Reeves James Puddicombe Baiju Solanki 🔥 Andrew Gaule Sam Raybone Anthony Basker Big Tom Mortimer Patrik Oskarsson Patrick Kelly-Weller Chris Gore MBA Clare Gillbanks Louise Baker Andrean Georgiev and meet so many more!

I just read Andrej Karpathy’s reflections on agent-based coding tools like Claude Code and Codex.

It’s one of those rare posts where you can feel a profession quietly tilt.

His claim is simple and enormous: over a few weeks he went from mostly hand-coding to mostly directing agents in natural language. Programming in English. Issuing intent. Reviewing architecture. Letting machines grind through implementation.

He calls it a “threshold of coherence.”
A phase shift.

That phrase matters.

Because this is not about autocomplete getting better. It’s about the centre of gravity of software creation moving. From keystrokes to judgment. From syntax to systems thinking. From writing functions to defining outcomes.

What I appreciated most is how sober he is about the limits. The models still make mistakes. Not trivial ones. Subtle design errors. Wrong assumptions. Over-engineered abstractions. The kind of issues that only show up when you actually understand what good looks like.

Which tells you something important:

The future doesn’t belong to people who blindly accept agent output.

It belongs to people who can direct these systems.
Who can set constraints.
Define success criteria.
Spot architectural rot.
Simplify brutally.
Govern risk.

That’s where leverage now lives.

He also makes a point that should make every executive sit up: the biggest effect isn’t just speed. It’s expansion. Things that simply weren’t worth building before suddenly are. Internal tools. Bespoke workflows. One-off automations. Entire new lines of capability inside small teams.

This is why I’ve been saying that many organisations will stop buying generic SaaS for every problem and start conducting software instead.

And his observation about stamina is quietly profound. Agents don’t get tired. They loop. They grind. They try again. They optimise. Put that inside a workflow with tests, browsers, and real-world tools and you don’t just get faster developers. You get a different operating model.

There’s a warning in there too. 2026 will bring a flood of AI-generated slop. Repos. Papers. Posts. Demos. Productivity theatre. Noise everywhere.

Which makes taste, governance, and adult supervision the scarcest assets in the room.

Karpathy ends by saying the intelligence curve is now ahead of tooling, integration, organisational process, and cultural adoption.

That’s exactly right.

We’re in the capability shock phase.

For leaders, the question is no longer “should we experiment with AI coding tools?”

It’s:

Who in my organisation knows how to steer them?
What workflows change when implementation becomes cheap?
Where does risk move?
What becomes possible that wasn’t last year?
How do we retrain people from typing to directing?

This is the moment where AI stops being a lab curiosity and starts rewiring how work actually gets done.

Quietly. Rapidly. And mostly before the board deck catches up.

2026 is going to be… energetic.

🚨 Small business leaders — stop watching AI from the sidelines.

Claude Code is everywhere right now.
Every post, every demo, every “look what I built in a weekend” story.

But here’s the truth most people miss 👇
This isn’t about code.
It’s about capability.

AI now lets you:
• Build real products
• Automate real workflows
• Turn ideas into working software
— without a dev team and without years of training.

If you’re wondering “Where do I even start?”
This is it.

📍 London — The Mandeville Hotel
🗓 Thursday, January 22, 2026
⏰ 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

I’m running an in-person, hands-on workshop:
Ship Your First App in a Day: Vibe Coding with AI

In one day, you’ll:
• Go from idea → live, deployed app
• Learn how leaders are using Claude Code to build, not just experiment
• Walk away with something real you can show, share, and extend
• Gain the confidence to bring AI-powered building into your business

This isn’t theory.
It’s not a lecture.
It’s not “someday.”

It’s a full product lifecycle — in a single day — for leaders who want to move from AI-curious to AI-capable.

👉 Join us: https://luma.com/gog6wd4t

If 2026 is the year you stop renting tools and start owning capability, this is where it begins.

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