From AI bots canceling your subscriptions to hedge funds eliminating Excel grunt work, tedious tasks of all kinds are on the chopping block. At the same time, AI is bringing new levels of quality to everything from infrastructure to market analysis.
In this special episode of The Disruption Is Now, recorded live from the HumanX conference in Las Vegas, host Greg Matusky speaks to four innovators, who reveal how generative AI is shifting work from people to machines to make room for higher-value thinking.
- Joshua Browder, Founder and CEO of DoNotPay, uses AI to battle companies for refunds and lower bills.
- Jason Johnson, Founder and CEO of Doma Home, is designing AI-powered smart homes that actually last.
- Gabriel Banks, Founder and CEO of Quill AI, is helping analysts ditch Excel so they can focus on investment insights.
- Stephen Sikes, COO of Public, is giving everyday investors Wall Street-level tools through AI-powered market intelligence.
Together, these leaders show how AI is replacing thankless tasks and bringing a new level of professionalism to various industries.
Watch now:
Key takeaways
AI bots are taking on bureaucracy — and each other — to save consumers money
Joshua Browder’s DoNotPay has grown from a viral parking ticket-fighting tool into a full-service AI consumer advocate that handles everything from canceling subscriptions to disputing $50,000 medical bills.
Browder explains how the company’s AI bots negotiate with companies like Comcast, often against the company’s own AI bots. This “AI vs. AI warfare” has become routine, with DoNotPay’s bots acting more aggressively to get results for users. The AI is also handling voice calls — in one instance, when asked for a name, the bot responded, “You can call me Alex,” cleverly sidestepping the issue while staying truthful.
Browder positions DoNotPay as “insurance against being ripped off” — the average user saves $550 annually.
Smart homes are getting smarter — and more durable — thanks to AI integration
Jason Johnson’s new venture is focused on smart home products that are more akin to electrical or plumbing infrastructure than the more disposable gadgets the category is known for. This infrastructure will use AI to detect patterns, adjust environmental controls, and enhance security.
He’s also moving beyond retail, partnering with major homebuilders to bring this AI-driven system into both new and existing homes, backed by investors from the construction industry. Johnson wants users to have smart devices that feel less like tech toys and more like reliable, long-term assets.
AI is eliminating Excel drudgery so analysts can focus on making decisions
Gabriel Banks is targeting one of finance’s biggest inefficiencies: the endless hours analysts spend copying numbers into Excel, checking for errors, and performing repetitive updates.
His AI platform automates this “Excel monkey work” — up to 70% of a typical hedge fund analyst’s job — freeing them to spend more time talking to management teams and developing investment insights.
So, for example, when a company releases its quarterly earnings, Quill AI extracts the relevant numbers, populates models, and even flags inconsistencies. If revenue suddenly spikes or a number doesn’t align with its label, the AI flags it for human review. Banks emphasizes that everything the AI outputs is traceable — users can click on any number to see its exact source in the original document — and includes multiple checks to ensure accuracy, a necessity in finance.
He notes that hedge funds are ideal early adopters due to shorter decision cycles and fewer compliance hurdles compared to banks. Analysts love the time savings, but banks see an even bigger impact: improved retention of top talent, who no longer need to spend their nights buried in spreadsheets.
Retail investors are getting institutional-grade insights
Stephen Sykes is helping everyday investors make smarter decisions by giving them access to the same type of real-time market analysis that institutions rely on — powered by AI.
Through Public’s new product, Alpha, users get one-click summaries that explain why a specific stock in their portfolio is moving up or down. Instead of reading multiple analyst reports or financial news sites, Alpha consolidates news, earnings reports, price data, and alternative datasets to generate a concise, personalized explanation.
For example, if Tesla drops 15% in a day, Alpha can tell you if it was due to earnings, analyst downgrades, or regulatory news, all in a few sentences. Sykes emphasizes that this tool is for “sophisticated retail investors,” not professionals, but people who take investing seriously and want clarity without the research burden.
Alpha was released as both a feature within Public and a standalone app, competing with Apple’s native Stocks app by offering actionable intelligence instead of just numbers. Public also differentiates itself by offering fixed-income products like bonds and treasuries, areas underserved by competitors like Robinhood.
Sykes underscores that brand trust is central — investors are handing over their money, and AI helps deliver transparency and insight at a scale that was once impossible.
Key Moments in the Conversation
- Canceling subscriptions with bots (2:39)
- AI vs. AI warfare and the consumer power shift (4:03)
- AI costs drop 200x, enabling richer personalization (8:04)
- Legal pushback and AI’s role in access to justice (9:00)
- Targeting medical bills and $50,000 disputes with AI (11:29)
- AI helps users get paid for spam calls — one user made tens of thousands (13:30)
- Jason Johnson on how AI optimizes homes (16:36)
- New smart home devices designed like plumbing or electric systems (19:05)
- Moving beyond retail into partnerships with homebuilders (24:10)
- Gabriel Banks on how AI frees analysts from Excel “monkey work” (26:22)
- What AI does well vs. poorly in investment research (29:58)
- Why hedge funds are ideal early adopters (32:00)
- How Quill AI improves analyst quality of life and retention (32:40)
- Stephen Sikes on why Public created Alpha, an AI-powered market explainer (35:22)
- Investors want to know why their stock moved (37:50)
- Serving smart, educated retail investors (40:46)
- Building trust with consumers through transparency and AI explainability (44:00)
