Inside AI Implementation at a $1B Company | With Chief AI Officer ⁨@Buildops⁩ ​

In this episode of Mala’s Podcast, Mala sits down with Duncan Grazier, a seasoned technology leader who has helped scale companies from early-stage teams to major exits, including ShopKeep’s $550M sale to Lightspeed Commerce and Weedmaps’ public-market journey. Duncan is now Chief AI Officer at BuildOps, a unicorn transforming the commercial contracting industry with software and AI.  This conversation goes deep into what it actually takes to scale engineering teams, build trust in AI, and bring automation into industries that still rely heavily on paper-based workflows. Duncan shares how BuildOps is helping electricians, HVAC technicians, contractors, hospitals, data centers, and large commercial operators move toward smarter, faster, AI-enabled operations.Mala and Duncan also explore the future of the Chief AI Officer role, why every leader will eventually need to become AI-native, how AI can improve billable hours and reduce operational errors, and why small language models and edge AI may be the next major shift.This is a practical, honest conversation for founders, operators, product leaders, CTOs, AI builders, and anyone thinking about how AI will reshape the physical world._______________________________________________Timestamps00:05 Duncan Grazier’s startup journey00:40 Scaling ShopKeep to a $550M exit00:51 Taking Weedmaps public01:27 Becoming Chief AI Officer at BuildOps01:44 What BuildOps does03:00 Internal vs external AI transformation03:18 Getting traditional industries to trust AI04:09 AI product opportunities in commercial contracting05:19 BuildOps as CRM, dispatch, invoicing, logistics, and compliance06:28 Selling AI through outcomes07:25 Proving AI ROI through the bottom line08:39 What breaks when teams scale09:31 Hiring, trust, and growing leaders internally13:04 The future of the Chief AI Officer role17:12 Agents, small language models, and the future of AI at the edge_______________________________________________🔗 Connect with Duncan Grazier → https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsmeduncan/🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan🎧 Subscribe to the podcastYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4ASpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQApple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7Visit our Website: https://malaramakrishnan.com | https://founderscreative.org#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #StartupScaling #Leadership #EngineeringLeadership #BuildInPublic #AITransformation #FutureOfWork #EnterpriseAI #Founders #ProductLeadership #TechLeadership #Automation #Startups #Innovation