In this episode of Just Curious, Stu Willson sits down with Kris Krisco, Co-Founder of Synopsis, to unpack why most middle market AI initiatives fail — and what it actually takes to turn AI into operational leverage. Kris shares how companies waste millions on data lakes and dashboards that never deliver ROI, why master data management (MDM) is the missing link, and how AI-native infrastructure can unify systems in just one week.

From private equity boardrooms to disaster recovery firms scaling from 100 to 5,000 employees overnight, Kris reveals real-world use cases where unified data drives margin expansion, faster decision-making, and measurable bottom-line impact.

Chapters:

00:00 – Intro
01:30 – What Most Leaders Get Wrong About AI
03:45 – The $1M Traditional Data Stack Mistake
06:10 – From 8 Months to 1 Week: The Synopsis Approach
09:30 – Why “Dirty Data” Is a Dangerous Excuse
12:00 – The Missing Step: Master Data Management (MDM)
16:00 – Why the Middle Market Can’t Hire 1M Data Engineers
18:00 – Moving Beyond Dashboards to Workflow Automation
21:00 – Spotting AI Snake Oil & Demo-Driven Vendors
24:20 – Disaster Recovery Case Study: Real-Time Field Cost Control
29:00 – Turning Bank Diligence Into a 1-Hour Task
31:30 – Private Equity Board Meetings With Live AI Answers
35:00 – Why the Rule of 40 Is Dead
37:30 – The Coming AI Margin Divide (Haves vs Have-Nots)

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