Waco will host its first-ever AI conference, the YOU × AI Summit, on Saturday, September 12, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Performing Arts & Community Center. BrainTrust Partners, an Austin-based firm that specializes in AI and data strategy, is the Founding Title Sponsor, underscoring the event’s focus on practical, business-oriented AI adoption.
Tim Hayden, CEO of BrainTrust Partners, will deliver a main-stage talk at 9:50 a.m. titled “Your Data, Your AI, and Your Future.” Hayden says many businesses have untapped data that holds their brand’s essence: “You have intelligence sitting somewhere within the pipes of your business,” he said. “That’s your brand. It is your brand DNA that can shape AI in your brand voice.” He will guide attendees on identifying AI use cases before making further purchases and cautions that many companies are paying for the wrong AI solutions. “There’s no reason why you have to look at ChatGPT or Claude to run everything,” he noted, pointing to open-weight models that can be trained privately on a company’s own data at a fraction of the cost.
The summit opens with Bryan Eisenberg, a Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestselling author who helped coin the term “conversion rate optimization.” His keynote, “Before the Algorithm, There Was Your Story. That Hasn’t Changed,” will argue that storytelling remains central to marketing: “People don’t buy rates. They buy stories they can see themselves in,” his session description reads. Dr. Hope Koch, a Baylor University professor and an appointee to the Texas Artificial Intelligence Council, will close the event with a session titled “HOPE: Human Opportunity and a Period of Exponential Change,” designed for non-technical attendees to turn their business knowledge into practical AI tools.
Tracks and hands-on sessions at YOU × AI Summit
The conference will feature 23 speakers across four tracks: Build, Get Found, Sound Like You, and AI Safety. Sessions include hands-on workshops where attendees can build an AI assistant or learn to train AI on their own data. Other sessions address topics such as AI in law enforcement, using AI for college admissions, and leveraging AI for marketing. Russ Henneberry of theCLICK.ai will present “Build Your AI Marketing Operating System,” and Tommy Landry of Return On Now will discuss “The Signals That Shape What AI Says About You.” Attendees are encouraged to bring laptops for interactive sessions.
Organizers frame the summit around the idea that AI amplifies existing advantages. “Most people think AI is the great equalizer,” said Fernando Labastida, co-organizer and founder of the Viral Genius Institute. “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 aligns with Dr. Koch’s assertion that “AI plus humans is better than AI alone.”
BrainTrust Partners was founded by Tim Hayden in 2016 and helps brands leverage first-party data and AI for growth. Hayden has led transformation projects for companies including Ford Motor Company, Dell Technologies, and Walmart. The summit is produced by the Viral Genius Institute and Rogue Media Network and is presented on the premise that human authenticity is a key asset in the AI age.
Tickets are $99, with discounts for teams of 10 or more. Registration is available at youxai.live.
