BrainTrust Partners has stepped up as the Founding Title Sponsor of the YOU × AI Summit, Waco's inaugural artificial intelligence conference, scheduled for Saturday, September 12, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Performing Arts & Community Center in downtown Waco. This event aims to equip local business owners with practical AI strategies, emphasizing the importance of data readiness and secure implementation.
Tim Hayden, CEO of BrainTrust Partners, will deliver a keynote at 9:50 a.m. titled "Your Data, Your AI, and Your Future." Hayden plans to guide attendees on how to assess their current operations and identify AI use cases before making additional purchases. He will also address the growing concern of AI security, privacy, and control, noting that many companies are adopting AI solutions without fully understanding these aspects. "You have intelligence sitting somewhere within the pipes of your business," Hayden said. "That's your brand. It is your brand DNA that can shape AI in your brand voice."
Hayden founded BrainTrust in 2016 to help companies structure and make sense of their data for personalization and improved analytics. He emphasizes that in 2026, ten years later, most companies still have not fully achieved data resolution, unification, structuring, and labeling—steps he argues are essential for AI to work effectively for a brand. Skipping these steps, he warns, will cost significantly more in both budget and accuracy when using AI. Hayden also criticizes the common approach of relying on external AI models like ChatGPT or Claude for all tasks. "There's no reason why you have to look at ChatGPT or Claude to run everything," he said. He advocates for open-weight models that can be trained on a company's own data, run privately, and cost a fraction of enterprise subscriptions that are trained on others' data.
The summit will feature 23 speakers across four concurrent tracks: Build, Get Found, Sound Like You, and AI Safety. Bryan Eisenberg, a pioneer in conversion rate optimization and bestselling author, will open the day at 8:20 a.m. with a keynote titled "Before the Algorithm, There Was Your Story. That Hasn't Changed." His session emphasizes that people buy stories they can see themselves in, not rates. Dr. Hope Koch, who holds the Godfrey Sullivan Endowed Chair at Baylor University and serves on the Texas Artificial Intelligence Council, will close the day at 4:05 p.m. with a session called HOPE, focusing on Human Opportunity and exponential change, showing non-technical attendees how to apply their business knowledge to AI tools.
Several hands-on workshops will allow attendees to build practical AI tools on-site. For instance, Chrissy McDannell of The AI Implementation Club will lead a session titled "Build an AI Assistant," where participants will create one during the hour. Other sessions include Joseph Scaramucci on AI and crime, Dariia Isyk on AI mentorship for students, and Mike Hamilton, co-organizer, with a humorous take on AI failures.
The summit's name incorporates a multiplication sign to convey a core message: AI is not an equalizer but a multiplier. Fernando Labastida, co-organizer and founder of the Viral Genius Institute, explains, "Most people think AI is the great equalizer. 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 philosophy is echoed in Dr. Koch's assertion that AI plus humans is better than AI alone or two humans alone.
Tickets for the event are priced at $99, with a team rate of $69 per person for groups of 10 or more available through September 10. Session recordings can be purchased as an add-on for $99. Registration is open at youxai.live. BrainTrust Partners, founded in Austin in 2016, has worked with major brands including Ford, Dell, and Walmart, and offers more information at braintrustpartners.ai.
