Ep41 Bryan Dennstedt of AIWithBry—2026 Trends: Trust in AI, Healthcare, College, AGI & more

Today in the Sky Lounge, Todd is joined by Bryan Dennstedt for the second year running to review how their 2025 AI predictions played out and forecast what's coming in 2026.They tackle the AI trough of disillusionment head-on—turns out they nailed it, though some people are well up the other side, while others are still stuck at the bottom. The conversation moves from commercial real estate's ongoing struggles to the rise of agentic workflows that are replacing simple chatbots. Bryan explains the shift from ""light bulbs to motors""—companies moving beyond point solutions to build real automation factories.The duo unpacks SaaS pricing compression, the manufacturing renaissance happening through local 3D printing, trust verification, and speed starting companies in the AI era. They close with a lightning round covering college's ROI, world models versus LLMs, healthcare disruption, and whether we'll hit AGI by 2027.Check out Part 2 on Bryan's pod AIWithBry: https://bry.net/aiABOUT OUR GUEST: Bryan Dennstedt is an accomplished Fractional CTO or Fractional CIO with TechCXO in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he has focused his efforts as a hands-on Fractional CTO and Interim CIO with numerous clients. He is an expert in mobile application development, healthcare integrations, and all aspects of telemedicine and has worked on over 40 engagements in a fractional capacity for the firm. His experience includes managing all information technology operations, from fractional CTO product development to Interim CIO large-scale technology migrations. Bryan works to ensure that his clients’ high-level Information Technology roadmaps are well-defined and then digs into the details to ensure that established metrics, accountability, and results are being delivered by the team he leads. Once a client is up and running with his methodologies, the Fractional CIO capacity can be leveraged in an ongoing model, and it can be ramped up to Part-Time CIO as needed throughout a project.CONTACT:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phingers/Website: https://bry.net/aiWhat is THE SKY LOUNGE?Tales from the Sky Lounge takes you on a journey through business, consulting, and venture investing, hearing stories from the entrepreneurs, consultants, and investors shaping these industries.ABOUT OUR HOST:Todd Merrill is an experienced software executive who typically assists clients as a fractional or interim CTO and CiSO as a partner at TechCXO.He has served in a series of companies as a C-Level executive focused on leveraging the Cloud to bring SaaS offerings to market. As an entrepreneur, turn-around expert, technology and product leader, and mentor, Todd has held full corporate P&L and product development responsibilities and directed diverse international teams of Engineering Managers, Mobile Architects, Developers, Dev Ops, QA, and Customer Success professionals.Subscribe and turn on notifications to listen to new episodes as they launch!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfeCS-Varb4gu2uCwyRTXWWEdP676Huh6Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6jz6ubcaUZ20Xh8TXhwzENApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tales-from-the-sky-lounge/id1730134658Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/4ba289a5-0d33-4589-95c7-83416731a864/tales-from-the-sky-loungeFollow Tales From The SkyLounge on Social MediaX/Twitter: https://x.com/TFTSkyLoungeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/tftskylounge/Learn more about TechCXO: https://www.techcxo.com/Production/Design: James LiebmanMusic: Soundstripe/Cody Martin-Sunrise