BrainTrust Partners has stepped in as the founding title sponsor of the YOU × AI Summit, Waco's first artificial intelligence conference, scheduled for Saturday, September 12, at the Performing Arts & Community Center in downtown Waco. The event, running from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CT, aims to equip business leaders with practical AI strategies, from data readiness to generative AI systems, and to highlight the importance of brand voice in an algorithm-driven world.
Tim Hayden, CEO of BrainTrust Partners, will deliver a keynote at 9:50 a.m. titled “Your Data, Your AI, and Your Future.” He plans to guide Waco business owners through the process of identifying use cases within their current operations before making additional technology purchases. Hayden emphasizes that many companies have untapped intelligence embedded in their data, which he describes as brand DNA that can shape AI to speak in a company’s own voice. “You have intelligence sitting somewhere within the pipes of your business,” Hayden said. “That's your brand. It is your brand DNA that can shape AI in your brand voice.”
Hayden founded BrainTrust in 2016 to help companies structure and make sense of their data for personalization and analytics. A decade later, he notes that most companies still haven't fully accomplished this foundational step. “Data resolved, unified, structured and labeled has AI work stronger for your brand,” he said. Skipping this step, he warns, will lead to higher costs and reduced accuracy when deploying AI. He also challenges the assumption that businesses must rely on general-purpose AI models like ChatGPT or Claude. Instead, he advocates for open-weight models that can be trained on proprietary data, run privately, and cost a fraction of enterprise subscriptions. “There's no reason why you have to look at ChatGPT or Claude to run everything,” Hayden said.
The summit opens with Bryan Eisenberg, a pioneer in conversion rate optimization and bestselling author, whose keynote at 8:20 a.m. is titled “Before the Algorithm, There Was Your Story. That Hasn't Changed.” Eisenberg argues that people “buy stories they can see themselves in,” reinforcing the conference’s theme that human narrative is central to AI success. The day closes with Dr. Hope Koch, who holds the Godfrey Sullivan Endowed Chair of Information Systems and Business Analytics at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business. She will present “HOPE: Human Opportunity and a Period of Exponential Change,” aimed at helping non-technical professionals turn their business knowledge into working AI tools. Dr. Koch was appointed to the Texas Artificial Intelligence Council by the Lieutenant Governor this year.
Beyond the keynotes, the summit features 23 speakers across four concurrent tracks: Build, Get Found, Sound Like You, and AI Safety. Sessions include Joseph Scaramucci of Skull Games Solutions on AI crime and community, Dariia Isyk of AdmitAI on building an AI mentor for students, and Dr. Mito Diaz-Espinoza of the Cen-Tex Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on making AI work for diverse businesses. Hands-on workshops, such as Chrissy McDannell’s “Build an AI Assistant,” encourage attendees to bring laptops and leave with functional tools. Mike Hamilton, co-organizer and founder of Rogue Media Network, will present “None of this works! Oh...Wait...”
The conference’s name, with its multiplication sign, reflects a core message from co-organizer Fernando Labastida of the Viral Genius Institute: AI is not an equalizer but a multiplier. “A business with nothing to say brings a 1, and AI takes it to 2. The competitor with a real point of view brings a 10, and the same AI takes them to 20,” he said. This perspective underscores the importance of having a strong brand and data foundation before adopting AI. For business leaders, the summit offers a roadmap to leverage AI securely and privately, potentially reshaping how companies approach digital transformation. As AI adoption accelerates, events like this provide critical guidance for leaders to avoid costly mistakes and harness AI to amplify their unique human strengths.
