Waco, TX – BrainTrust Partners has stepped in as the Founding Title Sponsor of the YOU × AI Summit, the city's first conference dedicated to artificial intelligence. The event is scheduled for Saturday, September 12, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CT at the Performing Arts & Community Center in downtown Waco. This sponsorship underscores a growing recognition among businesses that AI is not a one-size-fits-all solution but a tool that must be tailored to each company's unique data and brand identity.
Tim Hayden, CEO of BrainTrust Partners, will take the main stage at 9:50 a.m. with his talk, "Your Data, Your AI, and Your Future." Hayden's message to Waco business owners is clear: before investing in any AI tools, they need to examine their current operations and identify specific use cases. He emphasizes that many companies are going about AI in a way that is secure, private, and controlled, but only if they start with their own data. "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 improved analytics. Yet, ten years later, he points out that most companies still haven't fully achieved data resolution, unification, structuring, and labeling. This foundational work is critical because it enables AI to work more effectively for a brand. Skipping this step, he warns, will cost significantly more in both budget and accuracy when using any AI system.
Hayden also challenges the common assumption that businesses need to rely on widely known AI models like ChatGPT or Claude for everything. "There's no reason why you have to look at ChatGPT or Claude to run everything," he said. He advocates for open-weight models that can be trained on a company's own data, run privately, and cost a fraction of an enterprise subscription for AI models trained on everyone else's business. This approach not only saves money but also ensures that AI outputs align with the company's specific context and voice.
The summit will open with Bryan Eisenberg, a pioneer in conversion rate optimization and a bestselling author, whose keynote is titled "Before the Algorithm, There Was Your Story. That Hasn't Changed." Eisenberg's session emphasizes that people buy stories they can see themselves in, not just rates. Dr. Hope Koch, who holds the Godfrey Sullivan Endowed Chair of Information Systems and Business Analytics at Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business, will close the day. Her session, "HOPE," stands for Human Opportunity and a Period of Exponential Change, and she aims to show non-technical individuals how to turn their business knowledge into working AI tools.
Between these keynotes, attendees can choose from four concurrent tracks: Build, Get Found, Sound Like You, and AI Safety. The lineup includes sessions such as "AI, Crime & Community: What You Need to Know" by Joseph Scaramucci, "Beating Admission Inflation: How We Built an AI Mentor for Every Student" by Dariia Isyk, and "From the Pen to the Prompt: Making AI Work for You" by Dr. Mito Diaz-Espinoza. Several sessions are hands-on workshops, and participants are encouraged to bring a laptop to leave with a functional tool.
The summit's name, with its multiplication sign, reflects a core theme. Fernando Labastida, co-organizer and founder of the Viral Genius Institute, explains, "Most people think AI is the great equalizer. It's a multiplier, and multipliers widen gaps. 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. Same tools. Bigger gap." This perspective highlights the importance of bringing human insight and a distinct voice to AI applications.
Tickets for the YOU × AI Summit are $99, with a discounted rate of $69 per person for teams of ten or more. Session recordings are available as a $99 add-on. Registration is open at youxai.live. The event is produced by the Viral Genius Institute and Rogue Media Network, with BrainTrust Partners as the presenting sponsor. For more information about BrainTrust Partners, visit braintrustpartners.ai.
