In this episode of Astral’s AI Roundtable, host and growth marketer Zack Kinslow discusses the future of modern work with Astral co-founders Jack Bogdan (CEO) and Stephanie Pereira (COO) — and how AI fits into the picture. They explore how genAI tools like Astral empower creators, media publishers and businesses to scale their content and creative operations, while maintaining authenticity and brand voice.

The conversation covers the differences between Astral's use case-specific approach vs. generic AI chat tools; real-world examples of Astral in action; the co-founders’ predictions for AI developments in 2025; and how AI is transforming knowledge work as we know it.

We wanted to make sure we covered the big themes and questions we are hearing from customers: the importance of human creativity, how to apply AI strategically, and the power of AI to free up time for more meaningful work.

As we kick off 2025, this conversation couldn't be more timely. Let's explore how Astral is addressing the challenges of generic AI outputs, the potential of AI in content creation, and what the future holds for this rapidly evolving technology.

→ Tune into the full 40-minute episode to get all of Jack and Stephanie’s AI predictions for 2025:

Key Topics:

00:00 - Introduction to Jack Bogdan and Stephanie Pereira of Astral

03:22 - AI supplementing, not replacing, human creativity

05:14 - Real-world examples of Astral empowering creators and brands

10:55 - Challenges with generic AI tools, and Astral's unique approach

16:33 - AI predictions for 2025: costs, agents, and multimedia generation

21:59 - Workflow engines vs. AI agents: control and customization

27:36 - Tips for organizational change: implementing and adopting AI

30:54 - How AI is changing knowledge work and empowering creativity

35:16 - Exciting possibilities for AI in business and content creation

38:51 - Closing thoughts on AI's potential to connect people and ideas

On the AI agents vs. workflow engine topic…

“It’s not useful until there a human-driven part of that pipeline… because otherwise it’s just slop. And it’s content for content’s sake, and nobody really wants that.”

Q&A

Zack: Why did you two decide to start an AI startup in the first place?

Jack: We kicked off Astral in mid-summer of last year, really focused on how disruptive AI is about to be for small businesses, independent creatives, and media brands. We saw that SEO and Google were about to change by scraping curated information and serving answers directly to customers, potentially cutting out the original creators. We wanted to create tools that empowered these independents to be more creative and scale beyond their current capabilities.

Our goal is to let people focus on what they want to do primarily, and then use AI to help with the ancillary tasks 95% faster, at a high quality, while still expressing their unique point of view.

Zack: Stephanie, you made a point about how AI is supplementing, not replacing, the creative workforce. Can you elaborate on that?

Stephanie: Absolutely. This is not about replacing people or supplanting human creativity. We talk about "AI in the loop" rather than "humans in the loop." It's still your original content, expertise, and creativity, with AI giving you a leg up by doing initial drafts and research.

I've been working in the creator economy for a long time, and creative people always have more ideas than they can execute in a day. Astral's opportunity is to unlock resources for them, putting their IP to work more efficiently.

Zack: Can you share some examples of how Astral customers are unlocking scalability and efficiency?

Stephanie: One great example is Hannah from Sunlight Tax. She recorded a podcast about tax implications after a hurricane, and we used Astral to transform that hour-long recording into a comprehensive guide and FAQ. It's about taking initial content and creating durable assets that can be used across different channels.

Jack: Another example is Dan Harris' 10% Happier Podcast. His team uses Astral to generate downloadable resources and written content from their podcast conversations. This allows them to offer more value to their audience without significantly increasing their workload.

Gretchen Rubin's team is using Astral to reformat their extensive library of content for their mobile app and online courses. They've been able to automate personalized responses for course participants, allowing them to scale their programs more effectively.

Zack: What are some of the AI challenges you've set out to solve, particularly around authenticity and generic-sounding AI outputs?

Jack: When people interact directly with models like ChatGPT or Claude, they often get generic results that lack depth and authenticity. With Astral, we anchor the output in your unique point of view, high-quality source material, brand voice, and communication style. We take your existing content – whether it's podcasts, videos, or writing – and use that as a corpus of knowledge to instantly create new, authentic content in various formats.

Our tools are designed to get you from intent to a high-quality draft in one click, rather than requiring hours of back-and-forth iteration. We also allow users to templatize their preferred formats, making it easier to maintain consistency and brand voice.

Zack: As we kick off 2025, what are your predictions for the AI space in the coming year?

Jack: I think we'll see the cost of intelligence continue to decrease. Agents – AI that can complete a series of tasks independently – will improve but may not be as effective for complex, creative tasks as people hope. What will be more effective are AI workflow engines (like what we've built at Astral) that keep human creativity in the loop throughout that process – rather than simply letting the "black box" AI model decide how to execute the task.

Multimedia generation, especially in audio and images, will become more controllable and usable in production. Video generation will progress but may not be ready for widespread adoption yet. It's still the Wild West on that front.

Stephanie: I predict we'll see accelerated organizational adoption of AI. Many companies started experimenting in 2024, and I think we'll see more structured implementation and operationalization of AI tools in 2025.

It's important when thinking about organizational change that these brands start with a low-fidelity test that quickly proves what they are trying to accomplish with the tool, before rolling the technology out more widely.

→ Related: Want to try Astral for free? Start your free trial today.

Zack: How are LLMs and generative AI changing the face of knowledge work?

Stephanie: We're seeing a shift towards empowering people to do more interesting work. For example, in publishing, junior employees can now focus on more creative tasks instead of transcribing PDFs and writing show notes. It's about taking repetitive work off people's plates so they can engage in more strategic and fulfilling activities.

Jack: The big opportunity is to focus on key creative moments and use AI tools to handle the repetitive tasks. This allows teams to be more experimental and strategic, as they can test new ideas and campaigns much faster without the same level of time and resource commitment.

Zack: What are you most excited about for the year ahead?

Stephanie: I'm excited for a broader zeitgeist awareness of AI's potential, which I believe will lead to more ingenuity, creativity, and innovation across various fields like medicine that have a positive social impact.

Jack: I'm most excited about the potential impact on people's lives. If we can help teams of all sizes meet the diverse needs of their audiences without burning out, we can exponentially improve how people connect around ideas and solve problems. It's about using AI to better support customers and audiences in more effective and personalized ways.