About Gladstone - https://gstoneinc.com/

Episode Summary

Steven Clark kicks off the Hunter Podcast's summer series with Glenn Coward, founder and CEO of Capability Source, a work management solutions provider whose client list includes Charles Schwab, USAA, Prudential, and Disney. Coward built his career at the intersection of business process and technology, and this conversation covers what that intersection actually looks like in practice, including a Schwab case study that generated $30 million in new-to-firm revenue and $1.7 billion in new assets under management from a single project.

The back half of the conversation turns directly to AI: where it already works, where it fails, and why Coward believes the industry is heading into the trough of disillusionment before a decade of genuine, durable value. For RIA leaders considering operational efficiency, client experience, and where AI fits within their firms, this episode offers a practitioner's view rather than a vendor's pitch.

Chapters

[00:00] Welcome to the Hunter Podcast summer series

[02:00] What Capability Source actually does

[03:00] Explaining a solutions provider "to your mother-in-law"

[05:00] From USAA to Schwab: the origin story

[07:00] Adobe, Disney, and the expansion beyond financial services

[08:30] The $1.7 billion hand-raiser project

[11:00] What is an enterprise architect, really

[13:30] The executive sponsor who made the leap possible

[16:00] Why AI adoption looks different across industries

[31:30] The good, the bad, and the synthetic voice

[33:30] The next generation of customer service isn't fully automated

[36:00] Building a virtual team a decade before COVID made it normal

[39:00] Keeping culture alive across a distributed team

[42:00] Lightning round

[44:00] Bold prediction: AI hits the trough of disillusionment in 2026