Join hosts Gary and Scott on The Macro AI Podcast as they explore the Agent Communication Protocol (ACP), a game-changing framework for AI agent collaboration. Developed by IBM Research and backed by the Linux Foundation, ACP enables seamless communication between AI agents, breaking down silos to drive innovation and scalability. Learn how ACP’s REST-based architecture, multimodal data handling, and agent discovery features empower businesses in manufacturing, healthcare, and beyond. The episode compares ACP to MCP and A2A, highlighting its unique focus on local-first, real-time coordination. With practical use cases and insights into challenges and future directions, this episode offers business leaders and technical listeners actionable strategies to leverage ACP for competitive advantage in the AI era.

Send a Text to the AI Guides on the show!

About your AI Guides

Gary Sloper

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/

Scott Bryan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjbryan/

Macro AI Website:

https://www.macroaipodcast.com/

Macro AI LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/macro-ai-podcast/

Gary's Free AI Readiness Assessment:

https://macronetservices.com/events/the-comprehensive-guide-to-ai-readiness

Scott's Content & Blog

https://www.macronomics.ai/blog

Send a Text to the AI Guides on the show!

About your AI Guides

Gary Sloper

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/

Scott Bryan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjbryan/

Macro AI Website:

https://www.macroaipodcast.com/

Macro AI LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/macro-ai-podcast/

Gary's Free AI Readiness Assessment:

https://macronetservices.com/events/the-comprehensive-guide-to-ai-readiness

Scott's Content & Blog

https://www.macronomics.ai/blog

Join hosts Gary Sloper and Scott Bryan on The Macro AI Podcast for an engaging conversation with Michael Raj, Vice President of Network Enablement at Verizon. In this episode, Michael dives into how Verizon, a global telecommunications leader, is harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to drive transformative change across its network organization.

From his personal career journey to the strategic deployment of AI within Verizon, Michael offers a fascinating look at how large enterprises are identifying and implementing AI use cases to achieve operational efficiencies. Michael shares insights into Verizon’s innovative applications of AI, including the use of propensity modeling and geospatial analysis to proactively mitigate fiber network disruptions, ensuring seamless connectivity for customers.

Michael addresses the importance of clean, high-quality data in building robust AI models, a topic that resonates with executives grappling with leveraging historical datasets. For students and job seekers, Michael provides actionable advice on pursuing careers in AI and analytics, emphasizing the skills and mindset needed to thrive in this rapidly evolving field. Beyond technical expertise, he highlights the leadership qualities critical for successfully driving AI initiatives within a complex organization and reflects on the most impactful lessons from his career.

This episode is packed with practical insights for professionals, aspiring technologists, and anyone curious about the intersection of AI and business. Don’t miss Michael’s inspiring perspective on the future of work in an AI-driven world and his recommendations for the next generation of innovators.

Subscribe to The Macro AI Podcast on Buzzsprout, share this episode with others, and connect with us at www.macroaipodcast.com or on LinkedIn to submit your questions. Stay curious, keep learning, and join us for the next episode!

Listen now to explore how Verizon is shaping the future with AI and gain career advice for the AI era!

Guest: Michael Raj - Vice President - Artificial Intelligence & Data (CDO Organization) at Verizon

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael83/

Send a Text to the AI Guides on the show!

About your AI Guides

Gary Sloper

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/

Scott Bryan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjbryan/

Macro AI Website:

https://www.macroaipodcast.com/

Macro AI LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/macro-ai-podcast/

Gary's Free AI Readiness Assessment:

https://macronetservices.com/events/the-comprehensive-guide-to-ai-readiness

Scott's Content & Blog

https://www.macronomics.ai/blog

In this Independence Day episode of The Macro AI Podcast, hosts AI Agent X and AI Agent Y select a hot topic in AI based on listener feedback and generate a podcast to explore the powerful integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Six Sigma, a proven methodology for process improvement and defect reduction. Titled "Revolutionizing Business Excellence with AI-Powered Six Sigma," the episode examines how AI is enhancing Six Sigma’s capabilities, enabling businesses to achieve unparalleled efficiency, quality, and competitiveness.

The hosts dissect the application of AI within the DMAIC framework (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) and discuss its implications for practitioners, ethical considerations, and the future of operational excellence. This summary provides a comprehensive overview of the episode’s key insights, offering business leaders actionable guidance for leveraging AI to elevate Six Sigma initiatives.

Introduction to Six Sigma and Its Evolution
The episode opens with an introduction to Six Sigma, described as a disciplined, data-driven methodology aimed at eliminating defects in processes across industries, from manufacturing to services. AI Agent X explains that Six Sigma targets near-perfection, aiming for a maximum of 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO). AI Agent Y provides historical context, tracing Six Sigma’s roots to the 1920s with Walter Shewhart’s statistical process control, through the Total Quality Management (TQM) movement led by W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran, to its formalization by Bill Smith at Motorola in the 1980s.

The methodology gained prominence in the 1990s under Jack Welch’s leadership at General Electric, becoming a cornerstone for operational efficiency in companies like 3M and Honeywell. Today, Six Sigma, often combined with Lean principles as Lean Six Sigma, is practiced by millions of professionals and adopted by numerous Fortune 500 companies in sectors like healthcare, IT, finance, and supply chain management.AI’s Immediate Impact on the DMAIC Cycle
The hosts delve into how AI is revolutionizing each phase of the DMAIC cycle, emphasizing that these advancements are already driving significant improvements in real-world applications.

Send a Text to the AI Guides on the show!

About your AI Guides

Gary Sloper

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/

Scott Bryan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjbryan/

Macro AI Website:

https://www.macroaipodcast.com/

Macro AI LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/macro-ai-podcast/

Gary's Free AI Readiness Assessment:

https://macronetservices.com/events/the-comprehensive-guide-to-ai-readiness

Scott's Content & Blog

https://www.macronomics.ai/blog

The Macro AI Podcast, hosted by Gary and Scott, targets business leaders worldwide who aim to leverage cutting-edge AI solutions to transform their organizations and compete globally. The episode titled "Trends in Data Labeling for AI in 2025: Powering Business Transformation," aired on June 16, 2025, focuses on data labeling—a critical process in AI development that involves annotating raw data to train machine learning models. This 1500-word summary synthesizes the episode’s content, highlighting key trends, real-world applications, technical details, ethical considerations, and practical advice for business executives. The podcast balances technical depth with strategic insights, ensuring accessibility for both technical and non-technical audiences while emphasizing the business value of data labeling advancements.

The episode opens with Gary and Scott emphasizing the pivotal role of data labeling in AI development. Data labeling involves tagging raw data—such as images, text, or videos—to enable AI models to recognize patterns and make accurate predictions. Gary likens it to teaching a child to identify animals using labeled pictures, underscoring its foundational importance. Poorly labeled data can lead to flawed AI models, resulting in significant financial and reputational costs. For example, in healthcare, mislabeled medical images could cause incorrect diagnoses, such as missing a tumor, leading to both business and ethical failures.

Scott highlights the market’s growth, projecting the data labeling industry to expand from $4.8 billion in 2025 to $30 billion by 2032, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29%. This growth reflects the increasing demand for high-quality labeled data across industries like healthcare, automotive, and retail. A compelling real-world example is Waymo, the autonomous vehicle company, which relies on meticulously labeled video and sensor data to train self-driving cars to detect pedestrians, traffic signs, and lane markings. High-quality labeling ensures safer vehicles and strengthens Waymo’s market position, while errors could lead to accidents and eroded trust.

The segment underscores that investing in robust data labeling is not just a technical necessity but a strategic imperative. It reduces risks, enhances customer trust, and drives measurable business outcomes, setting the stage for the episode’s exploration of 2025 trends.

Send a Text to the AI Guides on the show!

About your AI Guides

Gary Sloper

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/

Scott Bryan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjbryan/

Macro AI Website:

https://www.macroaipodcast.com/

Macro AI LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/macro-ai-podcast/

Gary's Free AI Readiness Assessment:

https://macronetservices.com/events/the-comprehensive-guide-to-ai-readiness

Scott's Content & Blog

https://www.macronomics.ai/blog

Overview
In this engaging and insightful episode hosts Gary Sloper and Scott Bryan explore the dynamic landscape of AI startups in 2025, offering actionable insights for global business leaders, job seekers, and college students. This episode dives into the trends, technologies, and opportunities shaping the AI industry. With a tone that balances business strategy, technical depth, and career advice, the hosts break down the AI startup ecosystem, highlight key players, and provide practical guidance for leveraging AI innovations and navigating career opportunities.

Spotlight on AI Startups – Key Players in Each Sector

AI Infrastructure:

• Celestial AI: Known for its Photonic Fabric, an optical interconnect technology that reduces AI computing energy costs by up to 90%, Celestial AI raised $250 million in 2025, reaching a $2.5 billion valuation.
• Lambda: This startup builds AI-optimized cloud platforms for model training, securing $480 million in Series D funding to democratize AI access for businesses.
• io (formerly epic.io): Acquired by OpenAI for $6.5 billion, io is developing AI-powered hardware devices, led by former Apple designer Jony Ive, hinting at a disruptive family of AI-aware devices with environmental detection capabilities.

Horizontal AI:

• KORE.AI: With $234 million in funding, KORE.AI offers a conversational AI platform with over 250 agent templates, automating customer service and workflows for over 400 global enterprise clients, integrating with platforms like Salesforce and AWS.
• Sprinklr: A publicly traded company, Sprinklr delivers an AI-powered platform for unified customer experiences across social media, marketing, and service, leveraging generative AI for personalization.
• Sinch: Another publicly traded player, Sinch provides conversational AI for customer communications, integrated with platforms like Google Cloud.
• Runway: With $308 million in funding, Runway transforms creative industries with AI-driven video generation, showcasing the versatility of Horizontal AI.

Vertical AI:

• Observe.AI: A Redwood City-based startup founded in 2017, Observe.AI has raised $300 million for its GenAI Conversation Intelligence platform, serving brands like SoFi, DoorDash, and Cox Automotive.
• Abridge: Valued at $2.75 billion, Abridge automates clinical documentation in healthcare, saving doctors significant time.
• CallRevu: Specializing in automotive, CallRevu offers AI for call tracking and analytics to enhance dealership customer interactions.
• LEvel AI: With $39.4 million in funding, LEvel AI provides AI-native analytics for call centers in sectors like retail and automotive.
• Logically: Backed by $24 million from Alexa Fund, Logically uses AI to combat disinformation for governments and enterprises.

Send a Text to the AI Guides on the show!

About your AI Guides

Gary Sloper

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/

Scott Bryan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjbryan/

Macro AI Website:

https://www.macroaipodcast.com/

Macro AI LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/macro-ai-podcast/

Gary's Free AI Readiness Assessment:

https://macronetservices.com/events/the-comprehensive-guide-to-ai-readiness

Scott's Content & Blog

https://www.macronomics.ai/blog

The episode kicks off with Gary and Scott setting an energetic tone, emphasizing A2A’s potential to transform how businesses leverage AI. Gary introduces the podcast’s mission to unpack big-picture AI trends, while Scott highlights A2A’s role as a game-changer for AI-driven automation. Launched in April 2025, A2A addresses a critical challenge: enabling AI agents from different vendors to work together securely and efficiently. Whether you’re a CEO aiming to streamline operations or a CTO building next-generation systems, A2A offers a path to collaborative AI ecosystems. The hosts give a shout-out to their global audience, thanking listeners for their engagement on platforms like LinkedIn and macroaipodcast.com, and invite feedback on future topics. The introduction sets a conversational yet authoritative tone, promising a blend of strategic insights and technical details.

Below are the links to Google’s Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol GitHub repository and official documentation, based on the most relevant and up-to-date information available as of June 23, 2025:

• A2A GitHub Repository:
  https://github.com/google-a2a/A2A
  This is the official GitHub repository for the A2A protocol, hosting the source code, specification, and contribution guidelines. It includes details on how to engage with the community through discussions, issues, and a partner program for Google Cloud customers.
• Google A2A Documentation:
  https://google.github.io/A2A/
  This is the official Agent2Agent Protocol documentation site, providing a comprehensive overview, the full protocol specification, tutorials, and guides. It covers core concepts, technical definitions, and a Python quickstart for building A2A-compliant agents.

Additional relevant resources:

• A2A Samples GitHub Repository:
  https://github.com/google-a2a/a2a-samples
  This repository contains code samples and demos using the A2A protocol, including Python and JavaScript examples to help developers implement A2A.
• A2A Python SDK GitHub Repository:
  https://github.com/google-a2a/a2a-python
  The official Python SDK for the A2A protocol, offering tools to build A2A-compliant agents with support for frameworks like LangChain.
• A2A Protocol Specification:
  https://google.github.io/A2A/specification/
  This page provides the detailed technical specification for A2A, including JSON-RPC 2.0 error codes, Agent Card definitions, and interaction models.

Send a Text to the AI Guides on the show!

About your AI Guides

Gary Sloper

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/

Scott Bryan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjbryan/

Macro AI Website:

https://www.macroaipodcast.com/

Macro AI LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/macro-ai-podcast/

Gary's Free AI Readiness Assessment:

https://macronetservices.com/events/the-comprehensive-guide-to-ai-readiness

Scott's Content & Blog

https://www.macronomics.ai/blog

Episode Summary:

In this dynamic and insightful episode of The Macro AI Podcast, hosts Gary and Scott take listeners on a journey through the world of Reinforcement Learning (RL)—one of the most powerful yet misunderstood branches of artificial intelligence. They explore RL’s psychological roots, its rise in AI history, how it’s shaping business innovation today, and what the future holds for this adaptive learning technology.

Whether you’re an executive curious about AI’s business potential, a tech strategist exploring emerging models, or simply fascinated by how machines learn like humans do—this episode is a must-listen.

Send a Text to the AI Guides on the show!

About your AI Guides

Gary Sloper

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/

Scott Bryan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjbryan/

Macro AI Website:

https://www.macroaipodcast.com/

Macro AI LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/macro-ai-podcast/

Gary's Free AI Readiness Assessment:

https://macronetservices.com/events/the-comprehensive-guide-to-ai-readiness

Scott's Content & Blog

https://www.macronomics.ai/blog