Corrales Cachola

Brand New Voices

Founder

Noreen London Fine Jewellery

Director of Operations and Head of Partnerships

Barret School of  Banking

Marketing Support Specialist

VOON Creative

Principal

Special Olympics Oregon

Contractor

Brand New Voices | Linkedin Top Voice | web3, Storytelling, Marketing & Community strategy

I'm your host, Corrales, the founder of Brand New Voices. 

I'm a strategic consultant, coach, marketer, and educator dedicated to helping founders, leaders, coaches, consultants, creatives, and marketing experts understand their customers, users, technologies, and products from a human-centric lens.

I have a degree in journalism and creative writing, and help my clients understand and implement their brand, marketing, and storytelling in ways that connect with modern consumers who are seeking to align with companies making an impact in the world. 

I do this using a powerful framework I've designed over the years called Human Marketing.
 I've worked with a wide range of companies from Nike to the World Health Organization to Special Olympics, community banks, nonprofits, high-end jewelry designers, and tech startups.

More recently, I have worked with startups in emerging tech industries such as Web3 and AI.

Reach out to me on DMs if you want to chat about a strategy to humanize your marketing and get clarity on your mission and vision in a way that connects with your customers and partners.

Chris Do kicked the hornet’s nest on Linkedin after admitting he’s been using AI to write posts.

Some fans in his comments section are heartbroken and expressing their disappointment.

But Chris said his highest performing posts were AI assisted.

Personally, I think It’s a great experiment because it shows where true value lives, minus our assumptions and biases. 

Ai that entrepreneurs can use practically for everyday use is now here, but of course, it’s so new that a lot of folks are still stuck in old value systems (how was it written vs what was the outcome). 

This is especially true in professional contexts where clarity, consistency, frequency, and scale reign supreme. 

Not “how was it made,” but rather, “how well does it serve its purpose?”

Because the outcome is what matters at the end of the day.

Due to the challenges of modern digital marketing, we should expect more, not less, AI-assisted content in our feeds.

Human + Tech Alignment • Creative AI strategy • Marketing, Brand, & Storytelling • 25-yr secret weapon for startups, consultants, agencies, and nonprofits.

Reminder: You can do all the fancy prompt engineering recipes you want, but AI is totally worthless without your unique DNA encoded into it. 

You are AI. 

Few understand this.

How to actually teach AI

Most AI workshops start with:
- Features
- Prompts
- Efficiencies 
- Use cases

My “inside-out” approach flips it:

1. Name a problem that hurts enough to matter.

2. Name the identity that would be proud to tackle it.

3. Only then, map AI onto that identity and the problem.

Examples:

Before: “I help underserved founders tell their story clearly.” → After: how does AI help you listen better, see patterns, and sharpen language without flattening their reality?

Before: “I am the kind of leader who shields my team from BS complexity.” → After: how does AI become our simple coordination system instead of an unstructured free-for-all?

In other words:

Teach people to design a character they’re willing to play in this new system.

Then hand them tools that honor that character.

There’s a big difference between “learning AI” and using AI to create value in the marketplace in new, innovative, exciting ways.

If you’re teaching Ai to clients, this is the first thing you should be asking them to understand what they are truly after.

"Learning AI" and "upskilling" are what I call an "outside-in" approach that people in organizations take when they don't know what they want. 

Creating durable marketplace value is a whole different animal and takes an "inside-out" approach.

The reality is that most companies are just using Ai to automate their own mediocrity. 

They take existing processes no one likes to do and add turbo buttons to them with Ai.

But that's not going to lead to real transformation because it’s just speeding up known tasks.

True transformation isn't just about speed and automation; it's about unique architecture to create new marketplace value.

It’s about designing workflows where the "intelligence" is decoupled from the model -- allowing you to swap out engine parts without rebuilding the car.

The model is a commodity; your system is the asset.

If you are just building around the next Ai news cycle, you aren't building a business, you're just renting features from OpenAi, Anthropic, and Google.

More businesses need to understand how to start architecting their own intelligence systems instead of relying on the latest frontier model release. 

Ditto for Ai use cases.

You can’t be an industry leader by doing prescriptive AI deployments based on other “successful use cases.”

Why?

Because brand isn’t a templated affair — much to the chagrin of the CFO and other “ROI” chasers.

Your brand and its unique systems drive Ai, not the other way around. 

As it turns out, playing follow-the-leader will not turn your brand into a leadership brand in Ai.

Shocker! 😱

I interviewed an Edward’s Jones Financial Planner today about how she’s getting along with their corporate AI deployment. 

“It does a lot of stuff, but I hate striking up a conversation with it to get what I need,” she said.

So she hardly uses it. 

Too busy running her business, she said, even though the Ai might be able to give her an edge with client interactions.

That’s not a “fear of Ai”
- She doesn't need to "upskill"
- She’s not worried Ai will take her job
- She's not trying to sabotage anything
- It’s not about “psychological safety”
- She's not worried about Ai dulling her critical thinking
- She isn't wrestling with ethical considerations about using Ai in her work

It’s actually just a communications problem between her and the machine. 

But if that's all it is, why can't a simple training in prompting fix the issue? Surely, there's an excitable "Ai champion" somewhere in the company who would be MORE than happy to show her some cool prompting tricks.

Well, for starters, many of those "Ai champions" everyone talks about as being key in Ai adoption initiatives are mostly annoying individuals. Genuine tech adoption doesn't happen because some nerd is super happy to show everyone their bag of tricks.

And secondly, prompting is much more than just learning how to string the right words together.

The deeper issue is one of purpose:

👉 It matters to the execs, but it doesn’t matter to the people actually using it.

And that’s one of the big reasons so many Ai pilots are failing.

The end!

Here’s why systems thinking is so important in the age of AI:

👉 The static view:
AI generates infinite slop → Social media becomes unusable → Human voices get drowned out.

👉 The systems view:
AI removes constraint on content creation → New constraint emerges around curation and trust → Value migrates to solutions that manage the new constraint → Protective ecosystems form → These ecosystems connect → Human judgment and community trust become the premium layer → A new equilibrium emerges (which will itself eventually be disrupted).

This isn’t a one-time transition, it’s a continuous cycle.

The system never stops evolving.

Builders see the world as problems to solve. 

Consumers see the world as feelings to chase.

Excitement. Story. Entertainment. Status. Belonging.

These aren’t nice-to-haves. 

They’re the economy of human attention.

People don’t want your instruction manual. 

They want to live in a perpetual dream state where:

- their friends are impressed
- their enemies are jelly 
- their kids look perfect
- their life looks curated

You can build the smartest solution.

But if it doesn’t tap into raw human desires?

It will stay weird, corporate, and niche.

Smart doesn’t win.

Feelings do.

People aren't paying enough attention to Chinese AI, and that's a problem for American AI adoption.

America’s AI boom is being built on borrowed money (in the trillions and counting).

What happens if China’s low-cost open models make that infrastructure obsolete?

Chinese open-source AI is engineered differently: lighter models, lower compute needs, faster iteration. This means China’s ecosystem can scale horizontally across industries without the same capital constraints. 

AI firms like Cursor are leveraging Chinese open-source LLMs, and they're far from alone. This shows how US startups are increasingly building on Chinese base models. 

If China floods the market with “good-enough” open models priced near zero, the value proposition of bleeding-edge frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google could collapse. 

Having the latest, most expensive frontier models may not be as critical if "good enough" open-source can do the job at a fraction of the cost -- akin to buying the no-label generic version at the grocery store with basic packaging compared to the pricey name-brand one in fancy packaging.

It’s concerning because if China beats the American AI giants on cost and compute, all the leveraged debt going toward infra spend to pay for expensive closed-source models could trigger a cascading market meltdown. 

Enterprise ROI is barely registering, so that means small biz and taxpayers would fit the bill. One black swan event, and the direction of global AI leadership could flip.

As a result, adoption will probaly take unexpected turns with cause and effect in the real world against the backdrop of uncertainty, fears, and systemic risk. Not to mention employee pushback against top-down AI mandates from companies and billionaires. Such things tend to get louder when the good times aren't exactly rolling.

So, will 2026 be the year of mass AI adoption?

That may be the least of our worries.

The brilliant Maria-Cristina Muntean, author of ROBOTS ATE MY HOMEWORK on Substack, has this awesome ship-captain metaphor:

“If you use AI to ideate, outline, draft, and edit your work... is it still your work? My take: Yes, if you are the captain. If you set the course, navigated the storm, and decided when to dock, the planks don't matter. But most people are letting the ocean steer the ship. Make sure you’re not “most people” :)

It ties in well with my “Raft to Fleet” teaching framework for teams. 

So my response was:

“Yes! AI allows us to travel to realms beyond the known. To get there, we’ll need a whole new kind of ship.”

Be sure to check out Maria-Cristina Muntean’s Substack, ROBOTS ATE MY HOMEWORK. It’s one of the best out there. 

Happy Friday

Building AI workflows & content systems that make you say ‘Yeah, science!’ when everything finally makes sense. Creator of ROBOTS ATE MY HOMEWORK. Co‑founder @ Yahini.

ROBOTS ATE MY HOMEWORK

The mirage of the AI “First Mover” Edge

(or, what companies should be asking themselves right now but are not..)

If AI is the ocean, what does it mean when everyone learns to swim? 

At first, early adopters ride the waves with confidence — cutting costs, using all the shiny new tools, learning the latest techniques, clearing bottlenecks, automating, winning. 🏆 

But then…
the technology becomes a baseline, and the water levels out. AI is no longer unique when everyone has the same paddle. 

- AI, by itself, is not a source of lasting advantage. 

- Widespread tools commoditize, they don’t differentiate.  

- Access to AI quickly becomes abundant and undifferentiated.  

What levers will you pull now?

(and if you’re thinking: “be the more human company” that’s not a good differentiator either because 1. everyone you’re trying to sell to is a also a human. 2. any company can pivot to “become more human”)

AI is like a map that’s suddenly handed out to every player in a game — where at first it’s exciting to discover new paths.

But once the new paths are no longer new…once everyone is playing the same game…what will you do?

How will you change the game? 

Or do you just play by the rules of whoever owns the most territory in the game? Pay their toll?

Curious to know.

“The AI revolution is real. But market psychology is fragile.”

I read that observation on a Linkedin post recently.

It went on to observe:

“Nvidia crushes expectations, stocks rally, then reality set in. By market close, everything reversed”

- S&P 500 down 1.6%
- Nasdaq fell 2.2%
- Nvidia dropped 3.2%

The concern? AI spending might be in a bubble.

Here’s my analysis on what’s happening and how we can better understand it:

When information like Nvidia’s  blockbuster earnings arrives, it’s interpreted through communal stories (“the AI revolution”, “bubble fears”).

The collective mood is unpredictable, like weather on the ocean.

Optimism and fear are a search for safety and meaning together.

What if investors shift their focus from “winning” (predicting price perfectly) to connecting and navigating uncertainty together?

Then market reversals become expected. 

They are communal re-calibrations, not failures.

Resilient organizations and individuals move through disruption by building trust, community, and purpose. 

Embracing swings as part of a shared journey, not just as individual setbacks.

Value no longer rests solely on your technical edge, but in, what I call, the “eternal skills”:
- communication
- coordination
- community
- stories

Making meaning in continual turbulence.

Wild market swings today are not simply economic or data-driven events. 

They are the real-time, collective navigation of uncertainty by human networks seeking meaning and safety in a stormy, interconnected world.

Learning AI tools is not a moat. 

If you haven’t noticed the pattern yet, every time one of the big AI companies drops a new model, the same predictable ritual unfolds. 

Social media feeds fill up with demos, how-tos, and carousels, sucking the air out of the room for everything else.

Everyone races to be first to show “10 insane things Gemini 3 can do.” (and in four weeks Claude will release something mind blowing, then Open AI will release something jaw dropping a few weeks after that…)

It looks like progress. 

It behaves like a drug.

This is how you hook a whole generation of knowledge workers on micro‑hits of shiny AI objects controlled by three AI companies.

When everyone’s head is on a swivel 24/7, it stops being a race to the top. Instead, it becomes a race to the bottom:

• Shallow familiarity with tools and features

• Constant skill anxiety, no durable positioning.

• An inbox full of tricks, and no clear sense of what you are here to do.

• Praying to elite AI Gods, thanking them for dropping you scraps.

If you’re serious about where value is moving, spend less time being in awe about what the latest model can do, and more time asking:

👉 Which people and which problems are worth building an ecosystem around?

Graduate from being a demo consumer obsessed with the latest AI model features… to being an architect of a small, living system — of humans, workflows, and stories.

The age of AI is about courage.

To ask more meaningful questions.

To stand up for what you believe in.

To go against long held beliefs.

To protect what matters.

To wonder what could be.

These apply to both AI optimists and AI critics alike.

It’s why I believe that AI is ultimately connectivity tech.

Connection with self.

Connection with others.

Connection with machines.

Because of that, it’s not always going to be a smooth ride.

But it’s an important one.

We aren’t just exploring past definitions of connectivity.

The term is being expanded, remixed, and reimagined on a daily, all over the world.

Guess what? AI is simultaneously taking jobs along with creating new ones. 

People who are trying to get followers have to stop saying things like “AI is not going to take your job, it’s gonna make you 100x more powerful!” 

These are lies. 

It doesn’t build trust.

And without trust, you don’t get sustainable adoption. 

Understand powerful technology for what it is: disruptive. 

Both good and bad.

Thanks, Anna Bergevin, for the important discussion.

Sr. Manager Data & AI Product Management

Exactly. Stop going gaga over the latest AI model release.

The intelligence isn’t the AI itself. 

It’s the systems you design that are intelligent. 

One is external beyond your control. 

The other is internal that you/your company designs to solve problems in the world. 

Understand the difference.

What do the best stories and AI have in common?

They trespass.

They walk up to whatever a culture has decided is off-limits — identity, work, truth — and start rearranging the furniture.

That’s why people feel both awe and nausea.

Both make it harder to keep believing that our current rules are permanent.

The year is 2050 and everyone has a robot. 

It can perform literally any task you can — with ease, even grace. 

It’s become commonplace for people to outsource previously sacred human tasks, and isn’t weird. Such as:
* read their kids bedtime stories
* light candles on a birthday cake
* brew morning coffee
* calling family to the dinner table 
* etc

If you could only pick ONE ritual to remain 100% human and automate the rest, which one would it be and why? 

The one you choose will say a lot about your deepest purpose.

The ritual you keep is likely the one most tightly tied to your deepest sense of self.

Your ONE preserved ritual points to what you believe must remain scarce at all costs — your compass in life.

It tells you, and tells others: “This is the line I never automate…because it restores, signals, or sustains what I most wish to become in the world.” 

It reflects and orients you, even as the world is “reshuffled” all around you.

For example:

Reading to your kids might reveal a drive for nurturing, learning through intimacy, or shaping memory that cannot be codified.

Lighting candles might say you value rituals that honor ancestry, collective celebration, or the sanctity of intentional beginnings.

Morning coffee might be a desire for self-anchoring — your daily meditation, an affirmation (“I exist”), or a certain pause that you’ll never, ever surrender. 

Give it some thought.

Oh, and remember that every sacred ritual also doubles as a practical task. We might read to our kids to get them to sleep or calm them down (practical), but the second-order effect of the task is where the ritual lives. Same for coffee (wakes you up) and then (ritual).

AI is only as valuable as the trust networks and collaborative ecosystems surrounding it. 

Compute, models, intelligence, enterprise, and agents may grab all the headlines, but it’s what ppl do with all the raw power that matters in the end.

The frontier is no longer software, it’s systems thinking and coordination efforts.

AI will live and die on how we’ll coordinate the infrastructure and activities between small businesses, nonprofits, governments, and communities…

Where they can safely, easily, and reliably plug into and co-create together at low costs and high efficiency.

The vector is now the human API.

Pons Mudivai Arun 
Hwei-Yi Lee 
Sharonda D. 
Marie Roker-Jones 
Aimara Garcia Cabezas 💫nemerie0x.shefi.eth💫 
Tanyette Colon
SoVonna Day-Goins
Nic Payne

Humans → AI — Securing Identity’s New Edge, Systemically.

Bringing Top Strategy Thought To Grassroots Action | M-Shaped Career in Tech, Travel and Government | Global Citizen

MSN, RN | Empowering Frontline Nurses to Lead in AI | Smarter Workflows • Real Adoption • Better Care

Curious & Compassionate AI Futurist | Helping organizations scale with ethical AI strategies & impactful partnerships | Women in AI Lead @ AI2030 | 10+ Years in Innovation & Community Building

Web3 Copywriter | SEO Content + Brand Voice | Narrative Alchemist Making Tech Human

Tech Founder | Business and Sales Development Advisor | Public Speaker | Author | SaaS Sales Scale-Up Expert |

Wall Street Trailblazer & EdTech Entrepreneur | Social Sustainability Pioneer | Blockchain & AI Enthusiast | Non-Profit Leader | Bridging GenX Wisdom with GenZ Drive

Rebel Leader, CSM, CSPO

You know what killed the Blackberry?

Not better tech.

Better desire.

Apple understood something basic:

People don’t want to master your tool.

They want their tool to master their moment.

Now we have “AI literacy” baked up in a lab by AI insiders. 

The thing is, consumers care about the what:

What can I signal?

What can I share?

What makes me feel alive?

None of these desires relies on the nebulous "AI literacy" top-down concept. It is bottom-up, starting with core human desires.

The gap between these two worldviews isn’t an education problem.

It’s a desire problem.

And desire always wins.

Education follows.

Yeah?

taplio

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