Living in the Messy Middle + Hype fatigue + What is an Agent again?

If you’ve been feeling a little gaslit by your AI tools lately—one minute brilliant, the next minute chaos—you’re not alone. In this episode, Megan and Nicole sit down with longtime friend-of-AI-Portland Nicolle Merrill to talk about the real state of AI in late 2025: the mandates, the messiness, the disillusionment, and why everyone secretly wishes AI would just manage their calendar already.Nicolle’s been in the conversational AI world since before generative AI was cool, and she brings the kind of clarity that only comes from talking to hundreds of teams who are all trying to navigate the same fog.Along the way: 🌀 Why “AI-first” mandates are breaking middle managers 🧹 What “AI workplace slop” is—and how to avoid producing it 🔍 The skills people _actually_ need before anyone starts talking about agents 🧩 Why “no-code” tools are still… code 📉 And why disillusionment might be the breath of fresh air we all neededPlus: The agent hype cycle and Nicolle’s case for starting small, asking better questions, and treating AI like the messy coworker it currently is, not the magical productivity elf the marketing pages promise.Related Links:- Boring AI- Nicolle Merrill on LinkedInChapters00:00 – Baby carrots and near-anniversaries 01:16 – Who is Nicolle Merrill? 03:35 – The messy middle of organizational AI 07:41 – Mandates, pressure, and the illusion of expertise 11:49 – Disillusionment as a feature, not a bug 20:49 – Agents: what they are vs. what the marketing says 27:25 – AI literacy, data fluency, and responsible use 36:57 – Social norms, transparency, and the “workplace slop” era 43:43 – The chaos machine and the shiny-object spiral 47:19 – What we’re curious about heading into 2026 51:24 – How small teams can actually get started